Cisco is a globally recognized leader in IT and networking and has built a reputation for manufacturing high-quality equipment that powers connectivity and communication for some of the largest networks in the world.
Cisco's robust telephony platforms like CUCM and Webex Calling produce incredibly detailed call detail records (CDRs) that hold a wealth of data. By tapping into that data, organizations can learn how their (insert storytelling sentence, such as learn how to help employees better collaborate or how to route calls more efficiently and make your customers happier.
Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) and Webex Calling are two different UC platforms offered by Cisco. Cisco UCM is an on-premises solution for voice and video communications, while Cisco Webex Calling is a cloud-based solution that offers a more integrated and collaborative communication experience as part of the Webex platform.
Both CUCM and Webex Calling rely on raw call logs, known as call detail records (CDRs), to output extensive data on the volume and details of communication traffic passing through them. The specific fields and structure of the CDRs may vary between the two platforms due to the different features and services they offer.
Cisco CUCM CDR Data consists of two types of records to get the complete picture, call detail records (CDR) that include details about the call origination, call duration, and end points, and call management records (CMRs) that are helpful for monitoring the quality of the network (jitter, latency, etc) and aid in diagnostics.
Sorting through raw CDR is extremely difficult, but using reporting templates and data visualization tools, CDR is compiled and analyzed in a meaningful way. This analysis tells a story about the way your business uses communication, revealing customer service trends or signaling potential problems to fast track troubleshooting. For example:
Imagine you call into a business and first are routed to their automated recording. You make your selection and your call is put into a queue, causing you to wait a bit more before someone picks up. When you finally reach someone you are told you have the be transferred to another department, thus starting the call relay race all over again. Sound frustrating?
Call legs can help you see what specific events are occurring during a call cycle so you can understand how calls are routed and handled by staff or customer service teams. Several CDR fields assist in identifying call legs:
Have you ever been on a call with a long talker? You just need a simple answer but end up on the phone for fifteen minutes before you can get your answer? Not fun. Call duration analysis can measure call efficiency as well as pinpoint any anomalies, such as long duration calls. But to find that in the sea of Cisco CDR, you have to look at several fields:
Get a complete list of Cisco CUCM CDR fields from Cisco's official documentation.
To make CDR records easier to parse and understand, Cisco has a built-in CDR Analysis and Reporting (CAR) Tool that can be enabled from CUCM. This tool creates simple reports for call volume, gateways, and basic quality of service statistics. Being built-in to the CUCM system or Webex Calling platform makes it easy to access. However, the interface has limited functionality, customization options and reporting templates.
For the Webex platform, calling report data is only comprised of CDR information (no CMR). They include very similar details about call original, duration, etc, as CDR in the CUCM system, but are accessed a little differently. Up to 1000 of these records can be exported into a CSV or PDF format, or users can generate simple reports in the Webex Control Hub.
For basic call reports, “ Webex Calling Analytics” can be accessed through the Webex Control Hub. It will enable users to filter calls by date range, user, and location for the Webex Calling data, as well as Webex Meeting data.
For more detailed access and customizable reports, Webex offers expanded CDR data through APIs such as the Webex Status API, Webex Calling APIs, and Webex Contact Center APIs. These APIs can be accessed by third party analytics solutions to provide data for real-time monitoring, call analytics, and insights into call queue and agent performance.
For Cisco users needing a call center product, Cisco offers Unified Contact Center Express (UCCX). This product has advanced call routing and queueing capabilities, as well as agent management capabilities. However, UCCX does not output CDR, but instead uses IBM Informix for historical reports and Streaming data for their real-time reports. This data is accessed through their Cisco Unified Intelligence Center and Cisco Finesse.
Though similar to CDR, the historical reports from the Unified Intelligence Center include information about agent performance instead of users (including their chat activity, status, login and logout activities, etc) and service queue reports about activity, call distribution and traffic analysis. The historical reports are refreshed every 30 minutes for calls that were completed during the reporting window of time.
The live reports show at-a-glance information of current call center activity at any one time, displaying calls in the IVR, or agent performance, and are set up by agent roles and supervisor roles so the appropriate team members have authorized access to the KPI’s they need and are accessed in both the Unified Intelligence Center reporting and through Cisco Finesse.
Reporting across multiple Cisco platforms like CUCM, Webex Calling, and UCCX can be challenging, as each has its own data structure and reporting tools.
While the built-in Cisco reporting provide basic insights, they have limitations:
An IT administrator could spend hours compiling call reports between the disjointed data. This makes it difficult to track end-to-end call journeys or uncover cross-platform trends and insights.
What if your business uses CUCM for two offices, Webex Calling for another location, and has a customer support department that uses UCCX? How would you see the entire call journey?
If a call leaves the CUCM environment, perhaps it is routed to a UCCX contact service queue to be answered by a skilled agent, the CDR record shows the call leaving CUCM, but does not follow the call flow through to it’s completion. To follow the the entire call journey, the Cisco administrator would need to pull the call journey from the CDR in CUCM, and then match it to the data in UCCX from the Unified Intelligence Center.
By consolidating data sources into a single analytics platform, stakeholders gain actionable insights to optimize call routing, improve customer experience, lower costs, and more, making the case for a third party, all-in one solution.
Purpose-built third-party tools like Metropolis' Expo XT for Cisco integrate directly with CUCM, Webex Calling, and UCCX to import and consolidate calling data.
Expo XT’s advanced analytics and customizable dashboards provide visibility into the entire Cisco Suite from one platform to deliver:
These capabilities go far beyond Cisco's built-in tools and provide complete, consolidated analytics. By leveraging solutions like Expo XT, organizations can unlock the full value of their Cisco voice investments.
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