• Allow outdial call in all Multimedia Profiles

This feature enables agents to multitask between handling digital contacts and making manual outbound calls simultaneously. When agents communicate through a digital channel, they should still have the ability to manually dial out to a phone number if needed. This capability is essential for situations where an agent needs to contact a colleague, or reach out to a customer by phone while still managing digital interactions.

For more information, see Manage Multimedia Profiles.

• Regional media support expanded to United Arab Emirates (UAE) region

Webex Contact Center has expanded the Regional Media support to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This allows administrators to select the UAE as the geographic region for voice media processing. By localising media processing, Webex Contact Center aims to significantly improve audio quality for both customers and agents by reducing latency.

The expansion to the UAE increases the number of regions that Webex provides local media support. For more information on the list of regions and the support extended, refer to the table in this article.

• Skill relaxation input removed from Advanced Queue Information activity

The Skill Relaxation input section in the Advanced Queue Information activity is removed because it was not serving any purpose as it was not considered in the activity. Please note that this change doesn't impact any of the existing flows where the Skill Relaxation input parameter is already configured.

For more information, see Advanced Queue Information.

• Introducing dedicated Flow Designer documentation on Webex Help Center

Flow Designer documentation is now available in a dedicated section on Webex Help Center. This new structure provides administrators and developers easy access to comprehensive and focused information about the Webex Contact Center Flow Designer platform. By migrating the documentation from the broader Setup and Administration Guide to a standalone article, we are enhancing searchability in locating specific information. Key updates include revised links in the Control Hub and Flow Designer help icons, ensuring seamless navigation to the new documentation location.

For more information, see Flow Designer guide.

• Introducing Flow Templates for Webex Contact Center Flow Designer

Webex Contact Center Flow Designer introduces Flow Templates, designed to streamline the flow creation process by providing out-of-the-box flows for common use cases. With Flow Templates, developers can now select from a curated collection of Cisco flows, each tailored to various use cases and complexities. With this new experience, developers can also choose a template, make a few configurations, and move straight to testing and deployment. Flow Templates reduce the learning curve, decrease design time, and help developers implement best practices by offering a rapid, reliable path from design to execution.

For more information, see the Flow Templates section in the Flow Designer guide.

• Incorporate version labels for enhanced logic in Flow Designer

Flow developers now have the ability to modify flow logic dynamically by accessing Version Labels within the flow using the NewPhoneContact activity. The activity is enhanced with a property that displays the Flow Version Labels currently in execution: whether 'Dev', 'Test', 'Live', or 'Latest'. This enhancement enables crafting custom logic tailored to the flow's Version Label. This significantly boosts the testing and design flexibility, supporting the use of a consistent flow across various stages-Development, Testing, and Live-depending on the context of execution.

For more information, see StartFlow activity and Apply version labels to a Flow sections in the Flow Designer Guide.

• Agent Email Id output variable for Events

Webex Contact Center Flow Developers and Administrators can now utilise agent's Login ID in the form of a unique Email address within Event Flows. This new feature introduces an output variable AgentEmailID, which captures the selected Agent's Logged in Email Address for various events such as AgentOffered, AgentAnswered, AgentDisconnected, and PhoneContactEnded. This enhancement enables additional integrations with external systems like Customer Relationship Management (CRMs) and Ticketing systems for agent specific data, ensuring improved consistency and tracking capabilities. This feature unlocks advanced integration-specific event flows and enhances overall workflow efficiency, by allowing flow developers to accurately tag contact data to the agent's user record on external systems.

For more information, see Event output variables section in Flow Designer Guide.

• Cisco AI Assistant for Contact Center

Cisco AI Assistant for Contact Center is designed to optimise the work of agents and improve the customer experience. AI Assistant provides AI-generated call summaries at various touchpoints throughout the customer interaction - before, during and after. The first set of capabilities available in beta portal include auto summaries for dropped calls and virtual agent transfer summaries.

• Auto summaries for dropped calls

With this capability, customers and agents alike do not have to worry about repeat conversations in those frustrating cases where their call gets accidentally dropped before resolution: When the customer calls back, CIsco AI Assistant for Contact Center will generate a summary of that customer's call before the call dropped, and will display this summary to the next agent picking up the customer's callback. This way, agents can pick up right where the previous agent left off with the customer, saving the customer from having to repeat themselves, while also drastically shortening average handle times.

• Virtual Agent Transfer Summaries

With this capability, agents receive an auto-generated summary of the customer's interaction with the virtual agent, ensuring quick context building, less repetition from the customer, and faster resolution times.

You need to sign up on the Webex Beta Portal and fill in the participation survey to express your interest in these beta features.

• Introducing Web chat asset management on Control Hub

This feature empowers administrators to manage their web chat assets seamlessly. From creating bespoke chat widgets tailored to your brand's identity to efficiently handling IP block lists, Control Hub ensures unparalleled control and customisation for your online engagement strategies.

• Post call IVR surveys now available globally

Post-call Interactive Voice Response (PCR IVR) surveys give customers the ability to collect customer feedback at the end of a call concerning an end user’s interaction with their Contact Center. It allows them to track and measure customer satisfaction using anchor metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Effort Score (CES), and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT).

PCS IVR surveys are seamlessly integrated into Webex Contact Center through the Survey Builder in Control Hub where administrators can build surveys and download survey responses. After creating a survey, it gets integrated into the interaction flow via the Flow Builder.

This feature is now available globally to all Webex Contact Center customers as long as they have migrated to the Next Generation Media platform.

For more information, see the Help article Experience Management – IVR Surveys for Webex Contact Center.

• Regional media support expanded to South Africa region

Webex Contact Center has expanded the Regional Media support to the South Africa. This allows administrators to select South Africa as the geographic region for voice media processing. By localising media processing, Webex Contact Center aims to significantly improve audio quality for both customers and agents by reducing latency.

The expansion to South Africa increases the number of regions that Webex provides local media support. For more information on the list of regions and the support extended, refer to the table in this article.

• Desktop telephony option now supported on Microsoft Edge and Firefox

Webex Contact Center agents can now use Desktop (WebRTC) to handle voice interaction directly in Edge and Firefox browsers.

• Enhanced user sync for Webex Contact Center and Webex Connect

Cisco is announcing an enhancement to our auto-sync feature between Webex Contact Center and Webex Connect! Previously, this feature allowed only all partner and first customer administrators to go to Webex Connect and start configuring immediately without needing to create a separate user sign-in.

Cisco extended this functionality now to include all customer administrators. This means that all customer administrators, not just the first customer administrator, can now sign in to Control Hub and Webex Connect with the same user login.

For detailed information, refer to the Provisioning digital section in Set up digital channels article.

• Add multiple subscriptions to the same tenant

Customers can now have multiple subscriptions on the same Webex Contact Center and Hybrid tenant in the Control Hub. This enables customers to have multiple departments with different billing terms. Customers now also have the flexibility to put agents, CCAI, and WFO on separate subscriptions with different billing terms.

Existing provisioning administrators will automatically transition from their current privileges to read-only access, they can contact their customer administrator to get full administrator access.

For more information, see multiple subscriptions article.

• WebRTC support for Supervisor Desktop

With WebRTC support for Supervisor Desktop, using the Next Generation Media Platform, you can facilitate your calls directly from your browser with the help of a headset. No more need for external phones or extension numbers. This feature offers all the current voice functionalities like hold, retrieve, transfer, and conference. Plus, features like mute, auto-answer, and dial pad ensure seamless browser-only use. Not only this, a new WebRTC status indicator shows you the current status of the voice service.

For more information, see Manage Desktop Profiles, Change your dial number or extension, Edit your profile in Supervisor Desktop, Sign in to Supervisor Desktop, and Supervise your agents and teams.

• Queue-based reports

Queue-based reports (QBR) introduce three new stock reports in Analyzer. These reports deliver comprehensive insights and metrics at the queue level, covering call flows and interactions as they are presented, handled, transferred, and consulted across queues. Additionally, a new repository called as Queue Record is available.

For more information, see the sections Queue-based Reports and Standard Queue Record Fields and Measures in the Webex Contact Center Analyzer User Guide.

• Support for shared mailboxes to send emails using SMTP

You can now configure shared mailboxes to send and receive emails. Since shared mailboxes do not have their credentials for authentication, most email service providers allow you to set them up using authorisation through a service account. You can now use these service accounts to authenticate your mailbox with Webex Connect while setting up your Email asset.

• Introducing Web chat asset management on Control Hub

This feature empowers administrators to manage their web chat assets seamlessly. From creating bespoke chat widgets tailored to your brand's identity to efficiently handling IP block lists, Control Hub ensures unparalleled control and customisation for your online engagement strategies.

• Invoke Webex Contact Center APIs from Flow Designer

Webex Contact Center public APIs available as a part of the Developer portal can be invoked from the Flow Designer. This feature enables you to orchestrate use cases that can increase operational efficiency and allows you to use your creativity to solve unique business problems.

For more information, see Create Webex Contact Center HTTP connector.

• Secure Global Variables

Customer data protection and privacy are critical components for any business because they help to safeguard sensitive and confidential information from unauthorised access, disclosure, and modification. Security remains the topmost priority for Cisco products and hence this feature introduces tighter control in handling sensitive PII, PCI, and PHI data within the solution.

To ensure the continued confidentiality of your sensitive data, you must create Campaign Variables as Global Variables. To know more, see Secure Global Variables.

This feature includes a new toggle Mark Sensitive Information within the Global variables which will restrict the Global variables to be made available in any logs, Analyzer reports, and Desktop logs. These variables will only be decrypted at the Agent Desktop for agent viewing. This feature provides the control to administrators to handle the sensitive data for voice interactions.

Click here for the Vidcast.

• PII masking capabilities for improved security and privacy in customer communications

Cisco introduces robust Personal Identifiable Information (PII) masking capabilities within your security configurations. Enhanced privacy measures now ensure that customer personal information remains confidential during every agent interaction across voice and digital channels, reinforcing your commitment to security and trust. To know how to configure secuity at Control Hub, refer to the Set up security for Webex Contact Center article.

For detailed information on how this masking works for Agents, refer to the relevant articles in the Handle Incoming Calls and Handle Digital Channel Conversations sections of Contact Center Help Center.

• Make outdial voice calls to experts within your Microsoft Teams organisation with Presence lookup

Empower your agents with the right expertise. With Presence lookup, your agents will be able to easily make outdial calls to experts within your Microsoft Teams organisation. They can search their Microsoft Teams directories and view real-time availability to find the perfect person to assist them. It's an easy way to get the help they need within your organisation.

For more information, see 'Create a desktop profile' section of Manage desktop profiles, and search for 'Display user settings’ toggle in 'Synchronize Microsoft Teams states with Webex Contact Center idle codes' section of Integrate Webex Contact Center with Microsoft Teams.

For information on how this feature works for agents, see 'Place an outdial call' section of Make an outdial call.

• Make outdial voice calls to experts within your Webex organisation with Presence lookup

Empower your agents with the right expertise. With Presence lookup, your agents will be able to easily make outdial calls to experts within your Webex organisation. They can search their Webex directories and view real-time availability to find the perfect person to assist them. It's an easy way to get the help they need within your organisation.

For more information, see 'Manage Webex App' section of Desktop settings for Webex Contact Center, and 'Create a desktop profile' section of Manage desktop profiles.

For information on how this feature works for agents, see 'Place an outdial call' section of Make an outdial call.

• Consult, conference or transfer voice calls to experts within your Webex organisation with Presence lookup

Empower your agents with the right expertise. Presence lookup will make it easy for your agents to find and connect with experts within your Webex organisation. With a simple search by name and real-time availability, they'll be able to find the perfect experts to assist customers, ensuring a high-quality customer experience.

For more information, see 'Manage Webex App' section of Desktop settings for Webex Contact Center, and 'Create a desktop profile' section of Manage desktop profiles.

For information on how this feature works for Agents, see 'Initiate a consult' and 'Transfer a call' sections of Manage your calls in Agent Desktop.

• Enhanced recording playback

Currently, supervisors face challenges with fragmented session recordings, making it difficult to identify key moments for efficiency review. The upgraded playback experience addresses this issue by offering an intuitive layout with improved interaction details. The new player enables supervisors to effortlessly navigate through various segments of the call, including chapters that summarise important moments and rich metadata for voice interactions. This ensures that supervisors can focus on the most crucial parts of the conversation.

For more information, see the Supervise your agents and teams article.

• Flow Analytics for Webex Contact Center Flow Designer

Flow Analytics offers a visual representation of contact traversals through activities and flow paths. It provides current and historical views for in-depth analysis. With visualisations of flow paths, summary statistics, and insights into error paths, Flow Analytics will help Administrators and flow developers identify and resolve potential issues that can affect the customer experience. Users will also be able to drill down into individual interactions per activity for better insights. This feature is designed to help optimise flows, improve containment rates, and enhance the overall customer experience in the contact center.

For more information, see Flow analytics.

• Webex Contact Center Cloud Connected PSTN Service

The deployment model for Cisco Contact Center PSTN plan will soon be changing to a Cloud Connected PSTN service. This change allows the calling plan to be deployed with Common Edge Services. A Contact Center administrator will simply add Contact Center PSTN as a Cloud Connected PSTN service to a location in Webex Control Hub.

Common Edge services provide many advantages over legacy telephony integrations. These include self-provisioning of SIP trunks, cloud connected PSTN, Cisco calling plan integration and supports mixing of multiple PSTN connection types.

For more information, see Set up voice channels for Webex Contact Center.

• Update in onboarding to support Common Edge platform

Cisco is announcing an update to the onboarding process to make Common Edge the default telephony integration for Webex Contact Center.

Key update:

• End of legacy VPOP provisioning: The provisioning system is now updated to discontinue legacy VPOP onboarding.

• The user experience is now simplified and provides streamlined steps for trials and subscriptions.

• Contact Center PSTN can now be provisioned as a cloud connected PSTN service rather than a telephony integration.

Advantages of Common Edge:

• Self-Provisioning of SIP Trunks: Empowers you with more control over your telephony setup.

• Cloud connected PSTN: Enhances connectivity providing access to many global service providers for PSTN connectivity.

• Support for multiple PSTN services: Flexibility to mix various telephony connection types (local gateway and cloud services).

• Support for external telephony platforms such as Cisco Unified Communication Manager & Microsoft Teams.

See the Get started with Webex Contact Center article for updated provisioning journey.

• Enhanced tracking and sorting capabilities in Webex Contact Center

• Last edited by in flows and sub-flows: A new Last edited By column has been added, allowing admins to identify who made the most recent changes. The column supports sorting by user for enhanced update tracking.

• Collection views sorting: Users can now sort the Last modified row for configuration entities, making it easier to identify the most and least recently modified objects, with an option to reset to the default sort.

• Global Variables now available in Control Hub

Webex Contact Center has streamlined its administrative configurations by integrating Global Variables into Control Hub. You can now conveniently access and manage global variable settings through the Flow tab in Control Hub.

For further details, refer to the Manage global variables article.