Press Next
(or 
on some sets).
Silent Monitor is commonly used by ACD supervisors to listen to agent calls. It can also be used to monitor non-ACD sets, including ONS, SIP, and external hot desk user sets. The agent and caller do not hear the supervisor; however, the agent's telephone display can indicate that the call is being monitored if their Class of Service permits it.
Monitoring can be initiated by a supervisor invoking the feature on a particular agent or group of agents, or by an agent requesting help from a particular supervisor. With agent groups, monitoring is set up by calling the Skill Group ID Number. Softkeys on the supervisor's telephone are used to cycle through the group members and monitor each in turn. The same mechanism is available for monitoring ACD Express groups and hunt groups.
Any line appearance (Key System, Multicall Group, or Phantom Line) on the monitored set can be monitored. Whichever line the user of the monitored set is on is the line that is monitored. (The ability to monitor non-prime lines is controlled by Class of Service.)
A supervisor can start monitoring once the agent goes off-hook to originate or answer a call. The monitor is maintained for as long as the agent remains busy off-hook (or in handsfree mode) and while they invoke features such as hold, transfer and conference. If the agent moves to a call on another line appearance and has "ACD Silent Monitor Accept Monitoring Non-Prime Lines" enabled in his COS, the monitor momentarily ends and then resumes on the other line appearance. A double burst of paging tone signals to the supervisor that the agent has switched lines. If the agent is not in a monitorable call state, the supervisor enters waiting mode until the monitor can begin.
Up to six different supervisors can monitor the same agent through all the agent’s call states and hear most tones that the agent hears including dial tone when they go off-hook, DTMF tones as they dial, and ringback tone as they wait for the called party to answer. (Non-repeating tones such as camp-on, conference, paging, and override tone are NOT heard by the supervisor). If the agent calls their voice mail, the supervisor(s) will hear the agent’s DTMF tones as they enter their PIN and interact with the voice mail system. No explicit audible or visual indication is provided to signal to supervisors that other supervisors are monitoring the same agent. (Supervisors can infer the presence of other supervisors by the state of the “Coach On” soft key on their telephone and by hearing a supervisor coaching the agent. See Whisper Coach below.) The seventh supervisor who tries to monitor the same agent will see the message, "ALREADY MONITORED" on their display indicating that the six-monitor limit has been reached.
Agents receive no indication that multiple supervisors are monitoring their calls. Only the identity of the longest monitoring supervisor is displayed on the agent's phone if its Class of Service allows silent monitoring notification.
The agent can be involved in their own conference with up to seven parties while they are monitored by up to six supervisors. All supervisors hear all parties in the conference.
When an agent needs assistance, the supervisor can immediately switch from simple monitoring to Whisper Coach and converse with the agent without the caller hearing. Two-way audio between the agent and the caller is maintained. Only one supervisor can Whisper Coach an agent at a time. If multiple supervisors are monitoring the same agent, they all hear the coaching audio.
If the supervisor decides that he needs to talk directly to the agent and the caller, he can immediately invoke an ACD Barge by converting the monitor to a conference and converse with both parties. (The ability of the supervisor to release the agent from the call and take over is not supported.)
Supervisors can silent monitor/coach other supervisors (i.e., Coach the Coach). In this scenario supervisor "B" can silent monitor and coach supervisor "A" while supervisor "A" is silent monitoring and coaching an agent on a call. Both supervisors are able to hear the agent and the caller. When supervisor "A" activates their coach function, the agent and supervisor "B" can hear the coaching. But when supervisor "B" activates their coach function, only supervisor "A" can hear the coaching.
If an agent places a call on an Hard Hold, the Silent Monitor or Whisper Coach session is disconnected.
The Silent Monitor feature may violate provincial, state, or federal statutes including, and without limitation, criminal or privacy legislation. VARs, and customers are hereby warned to check local laws to ensure that use of this feature does not contravene any such statutes.
Whisper Coach is supported on MiVoice Business for Industry Standard Server, MiVoice Business on EX Platform, and MiVoice Business Virtual only.
The target DN of a Silent Monitor must be the prime line on a device that is capable of being monitored (see Feature Availability) and the device must have the required option enabled in their Class of Service (see Programming). If the DN is a hunt group group, at least one member must have a supported device type and at least one member must have the required COS option. If the DN is an agent group or an ACD Express group, at least one member must be logged in and have the required COS option.
A Group Monitor cannot monitor the non-prime line of a group member unless the member has "ACD Silent Monitor Accept Monitoring Non-Prime Lines" enabled in their COS. (The member's prime line must also belong to the group to be monitored on any line.) If the agent changes lines, the monitor ends and system attempts to find another group member to monitor. If the agent is the only one in the group on a call, then the group monitor will start a monitor on the agent's newly selected line appearance.
If Silent Monitor is activated for an agent skill group and an agent in the group also appears in other groups, the supervisor hears all calls the agent answers. The supervisor's telephone does not indicate whether the agent has answered a call for another group.
The monitored and monitoring devices must be on the same MiVoice Business system.
The identity of the monitored set is unavailable while engaged in a call on a Direct Trunk Select key.
Each Silent Monitoring session consumes one three-party conference resource. Each additional supervisor monitoring the same agent consumes one additional conferee. For example, three supervisors monitoring the same agent consumes one five-party conference worth of resources.
An individual supervisor can monitor one agent at a time. (Simultaneous monitoring of multiple agents is not supported.)
An individual agent can be coached by one supervisor at a time. (Simultaneous coaching by multiple supervisors is not supported.)
The supervisor cannot initiate a silent monitor with a call on soft hold. Initiating a monitor with a party on hard hold is supported; however, if the supervisor selects the line with the held call, the silent monitor is cleared.
A monitoring station cannot conference a third party into a monitoring session. For multiple station users to monitor the same party, each user must set up his or their own monitor.
Supervisors responsible for monitoring more than one Agent Group must exit the Silent Monitor feature for the Group they are currently monitoring and then re-establish it for the next Group.
A supervisor on an External Host Desk Agent set can initiate a Silent Monitor.
Silent monitor is not resilient. If a supervisor’s host system fails while monitoring a party, the monitor is dropped. If a resilient agent is being monitored when the host system fails, the agent’s call will fail and does not enter resilient talk state.
Personal Ring Groups (PRGs) and Multi-device User Groups (MdUGs):
Silent Monitor of a PRG/MdUG pilot is on the prime device of the group, and NOT the group.
When monitoring a PRG member, the monitoring set always displays the identity of PRG pilot rather than that of the actual member being monitored.
A silent monitor cannot be set up on a non-prime MdUG member. When a MdUG member invokes silent monitor, the member is consuming the group’s license.
If a member of PRG or MdUG being silent monitored hands off their call to another device, the monitor remains with the original device. Another Silent Monitor session may be initiated against the device receiving the handoff once the handoff is complete
A supervisor can only silent monitor/whisper coach local agents. (Silent monitoring/whisper coaching of remote agents is not supported.) Likewise with hunt groups, ACD groups and other monitorable call groups: only group members local to the supervisor can be monitored.
ACD Barge is disallowed when:
The agent is not in a call, dialing, listening to busy, ringback, or reorder tone.
The agent has a party on soft hold or the party has a call on soft hold.
The agent’s existing conference is full.
The agent is on soft or hard hold.
The agent is paging or interacting with a RAD.
The supervisor is interconnect restricted from the agent.
All scenarios (excluding the Override Security check) in which Executive Busy Override would fail to create or join a conference.
Silent monitoring (and coaching) a party while they are using Record-A-Call is supported.
Bandwidth management call admission control is not applied to silent monitors.
Silent monitoring of data and fax calls corrupts the data and should be avoided.
SIP behaviors:
A supervisor monitoring a SIP device configured with a Multi-call appearance of itself (the typical configuration) loses the monitor when the user of the SIP device selects its second line. The supervisor will continue seeing "MONITORING" displayed on their set but hears nothing coming from the SIP device. This will occur whether or not the COS option to control monitoring non-prime line appearances is enabled. The same behavior applies when the SIP device user places the call on hold: the supervisor continues to see "MONITORING" displayed and hears nothing from the SIP device.
A supervisor on multi-line SIP phone who has a silent monitor in progress loses the monitor when they move to another line appearance.
Station Message Detail Recording (SMDR) and ACD Real Time Events do not specifically identify Silent Monitor/Whisper Coach and ACD Help.
Call History does not indicate that calls have been monitored.
The system limits the cascading of silent monitors to two whereby a party is prevented from setting up a monitor if they are being monitored by another party who in turn is being monitored.
Examples:
Supervisor A can monitor Supervisor B and Supervisor B can monitor Agent C. However, the system disallows Agent C from monitoring another party while Supervisors A and B have cascaded silent monitors on Agent C. If Supervisor A terminates their silent monitor on Supervisor B, the system would allow Agent C to set up a monitor on another party.
Party A sets up a monitor on Party B. Party C sets up a monitor on Party D. Party B attempts to monitor Party C and is disallowed.
While Party A is silent monitoring Party B, the system disallows Party B from monitoring Party A.
When a party attempting a silent monitor is disallowed because of these restrictions they hear reorder tone and see the message "Already Monitored" on their telephone display.
Program a key on the device as ACD.
ACD Silent Monitor Accept - enable in agent COS to allow the agent to be silent monitored and whisper coached.
NOTE: Enabling this option in the COS of at least one member of a hunt group, ACD Agent Group or ACD Express Group, provides monitoring of the entire group. The member chosen must have a device capable of being monitored.
ACD Silent Monitor Accept Monitoring Non-Prime Line - enable in agent COS to allow non-prime lines on the agent's phone to be silent monitored.
ACD Silent Monitor Allowed - enable in supervisor COS to allowed user to invoke the Silent Monitor/Whisper Coach features.
ACD Silent Monitor Notification - enable in agent COS so that they receive a visual indication of the monitor on a MiNET display phone during talk state.
Enable HCI/CTI/TAPI Call Control Allowed and HCI/CTI/TAPI Monitor Allowed options as required. The first option controls whether the system is allowed to set up a MiTAI call monitor on the user’s telephone. The second option controls whether the user’s telephone can be controlled by a host computer using a MiTAI client application. A supervisor telephone needs both options enabled to use the Whisper Coach feature.
Feature
Access Codes form
Enter an ACD Silent Monitor feature access to code.
|
Supported Devices |
Invocation Method |
Notes |
|
Devices able to invoke Silent Monitor |
MiNET multiline and single-line IP telephones. |
Yes |
Yes |
|
ONS |
Yes |
No |
|
|
Yes |
Yes |
No mid-call FAC support. FAC + <agent DN> is the destination address. Otherwise, EHDA/EHDU calls the EHDU access point. |
||
Devices able to be Silent Monitored |
MiNET multiline and single-line IP telephones. |
Yes |
Yes |
|
ONS |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Hot Desk users, SIP users, EHDA and EHDU. |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Devices able to invoke Whisper Coach |
69xx, 5320, 5324, 5330, 5340, 5360, 5224, 5220, 5240, 5140, 5020, Hot Desk users logged into the above telephones. |
No |
Yes |
Supported telephones are limited to IP display telephones with soft keys because because they are the only telephone types supported on the MiVoice Business for Industry Standard Server, and MiVoice Business Virtual platforms. |
Hot Desk users logged into IP telephones, SIP users, EHDA and EHDU. |
No |
Yes |
|
|
Devices able to invoke ACD Help |
MiNET multiline IP telephones that support Superkey session, provided they are provisioned as ACD enabled devices. See Requesting Help for a list of devices. |
Yes |
Yes |
|
ACD enabled Hot desk users logged into MiNET registration telephones that support Superkey. |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
EHDA |
No |
Yes |
|
|
SIP user, EHDU |
No |
No |
Not ACD enabled. |
|
To use silent monitor on an individual ACD agent or non-ACD set:
Lift the handset.
Dial the Silent Monitor feature access code followed by agent's ID or the directory number of the non-ACD set.
If no conversation is taking place, you hear silence, and the display shows the extension number followed by WAITING.
If a conversation is in progress, or begins, you hear paging tone prior to the conversation, and the display shows:
On top line: <DN> :MONITORING
On 2nd line: <Name>
On single-line displays the name is omitted.
When the conversation ends you receive paging tone followed by silence until the next conversation begins.
To use silent monitor on an individual agent:
Press ACD.
Press Monitor.
Dial the agent's directory number or the directory number of the non-ACD set.
Press Enter.
If no conversation is taking place, you hear silence and the display shows the extension number followed by WAITING.
If a conversation is in progress, or begins, you hear paging tone prior to the conversation, and the display shows the extension number and the agent’s name.
When the conversation ends you hear paging tone followed by silence until the next conversation begins.
To use silent monitor on an agent skill group:
Lift the handset.
Dial the Silent Monitor feature access code followed by the group directory number.
If no conversation is taking place, you hear silence, and the display shows the group pilot number followed by WAITING and the group name.
If a conversation is in progress, or begins, you hear paging tone prior to the conversation, and the display shows the extension number and the agent’s name.
When the conversation ends you hear paging tone followed by silence until the next conversation begins.
If the active agent switches lines, then the monitor will go to the next available agent.
To use silent monitor on the next agent busy on a call:
Press Next
(or
on some sets).
To use silent monitor on an agent skill group:
Press ACD.
Press Monitor.
Dial the group directory number.
Press Enter.
If no conversation is taking place, you hear silence, and the display shows the group pilot number followed by WAITING and the group name.
If a conversation is in progress, or begins, you hear paging tone prior to the conversation, and the display shows the extension number and the agent’s name.
When the conversation ends you hear paging tone followed by silence until the next conversation begins.
To monitor the next agent busy on a call:
Press ? or Next Agent.
To invoke Whisper Coach while waiting for a silent monitor on a specific agent or actively monitoring an agent:
Press the Coach On softkey.
The Whisper Coach request is saved and activated (if applicable) and the Coach On softkey is replaced with a Coach Off softkey.
Consult with the agent.
To stop coaching, press the Coach Off softkey.
NOTES
The Whisper Coach feature is not automatically disabled when the agent clears their call or switches to a different line appearance. Instead, the state of the feature is retained and automatically reactivated the next time the agent originates or answers a call (unless the supervisor disables the feature first).
Whisper Coach state is not retained for group monitors. When an agent who is the subject of a group monitor clears down or selects a different line appearance the monitor on that agent is canceled and moved to a different agent. If the same agent is the only agent available for monitoring, then the group monitor sets up a new monitor on the agent. Regardless of which agent is selected next, the coach feature is canceled and must be re-invoked, if required.
To join into a conversation that is being monitored:
Press the Trans/Conf,
, or Join
softkey to join the conversation.
Silent monitoring ends when the conference begins. If the agent's call is not in a state that allows the conference to be set up, the supervisor's display will momentarily display "NOT ALLOWED".
To exit the Conference, hang
up your telephone or press Cancel,
or 
. To resume
monitoring, you must start over and re-establish Silent Monitoring.