Skip to content

Telia ACE release 30

Updates to empower managers, operators and agents to create even better customer experiences

March 3, 2025

With Telia ACE 30 the agent working in ACE Interact can easily create a two-way video or sharing meeting during a call and invite the other party to join from any device. This way it’s possible to provide a better service, and in the end a better customer experience in many use cases.

Managers working in ACE Coach now get real-time information on queues and users which bring a new level of interactivity to the application. Also in ACE Coach, we have introduced a visual representation of IVR Dialogue flows and more features for everyday IVR management. New access functions allow even more fine-grained control over access to call recordings.

Operators get more help for efficient workflows in multi-directory environments and a new option to sort searched persons based on availability.

Check out these and many more updates in Telia ACE 30 below.

New and updated features

Updates in ACE Interact

Add video and sharing to an ongoing call

Sometimes, conversations over phone can be greatly enhanced by adding video or by sharing screen or file content. Maybe you need to show a live item or situation to explain and get help from a case manager/professional or you need assistance using an application or filling out a form online.

With ACE Interact 30 it is possible to add video or screen/file sharing to an ongoing phone conversation. This way an agent or case manager quickly can get a much better understanding for the issue at hand the customer experience is improved.

Starting and joining
By clicking a button in the ACE Interact GUI for the ongoing contact, a video or sharing session is started and a code and direct link for joining is created. The direct link can be sent as an invitation to the other party by email or sms from ACE Interact, or copied to another channel as needed. Alternatively, the agent can simply read out the code and web address for joining. The web address for joining with code is either hosted by Telia or a page on your website where the field for entering the meeting code and the video widget can be embedded in an iframe. For security reasons the code for joining is only valid for a few minutes and can only be used once.

Left: direct link and code for “manual” joining are created automatically and can be sent from ACE Interact as SMS, email, or communicated by voice in the ongoing call. Right: the form for joining with a code can be hosted by Telia or embedded on any site.

Voice stays in phone call
The voice conversation is kept in the phone call to allow the other party to start video/sharing on their device of choice and to avoid interruptions. As the voice conversation is kept over phone, sound is disabled when starting video or sharing from an ongoing call. Screen or file sharing can be started and used during a video session, but video cannot be started if the session is started as sharing only.
Permissions to take part in video meetings, screen and file sharing sessions are controlled by access functions in ACE.

New sorting feature in Search/Call card makes it easier for operators to find persons that are available

A new option makes it possible to display search results in order of availability. This makes it easier and faster to find an available person within the organization or a department when looking for someone to forward a contact to. The feature is available for users with operator functionality.

Search across different directories

Multi-directory setups are typically used in large organizations with different units. The units can be for example departments, branch offices, daughter companies or units such as healthcare centers or municipalities within a region.
In that type of scenarios it’s important for operators serving many units that it’s easy to narrow down searches to the right catalogue/directory. For incoming IVR calls the feature automatically pre-selects the catalogue/directory depending on the entrance the incoming call is made to. If the operator works for three municipalities A, B and C and the call is made to C, then that catalogue/directory is preselected to search for people.
The feature is available when ACE Interact is used with: Touchpoint Plus, Touchpoint VIP, Touchpoint Experience or ACE Voice.

Additional sound signals for incoming contacts in ACE Interact

In organizations where agents work in different systems in parallel, sound cues can be an effective way to bring attention to events in an application that is not in focus. A new client setting is introduced in ACE Interact 30. It controls whether a sound notification should be played when a new contact enters a waiting list that the agent is working with. This makes it easy to switch over to ACE Interact for accepting the contact and mitigates the risk that the incoming contact isn’t picked up.
Depending on how permissions for adjusting client settings are set up, the new sound setting can be managed together with the previous settings for sound alerts in ACE Interact and in ACE Coach.

With the right permissions, agents can adjust settings in ACE Interact. The new sound notification is selected in the image above.

Combine “record all calls” and “recording on demand”

Sometimes an organization may want to use automatic recording of all calls and at the same time give agents the possibility to start recording on demand for parts of the call, for example specifically recording when a client accepts an agreement. Previously, this has not worked as the necessary access functions for the two types of recording have not been possible to combine.

With the release of ACE 30 this is fixed, and the use case is also handled in the Interactions card in ACE Interact. Agents (with the right access) can now switch between tabs for automatic recordings and manual recordings when looking at the detail view in Interactions.

New access function to allow or disallow downloading of recordings

The Interactions feature in ACE Interact gives access to an archive of historical contacts and their data. For organizations that use ACE Recording G2, Interactions also gives access to call recordings (as configured using the fine-grained access system).
With ACE 30, even greater control over handling of recordings is introduced. A new access function can be used to specifically allow or block downloading of recordings for different user roles as required. If allowed, users can download the recordings they have access to in mp3-format. If blocked, the download option is not available in ACE Interact.

New access function to allow only listening to my own recordings

Also related to the security and privacy controls for handling of recordings made with ACE Recording G2, a new access function is introduced with ACE 30. When applying this new function to a role, the agent is only allowed to listen to recordings where they themselves took part. If desired the agent can still have access to see all other information for the archived interactions of their team, just not being able to listen to recorded calls with their colleagues.
Note that you still need underling permissions to listen to recordings and access interactions in the first place.


Updates in ACE Coach 30

The significant updates to ACE Coach in release 30 are focused on two main areas. Working with IVR Dialogue flows and real-time monitoring when managing queues, waiting lists and workforce.

Chart for visual representation of dialogue flows in ACE Coach

A big boost for the user-friendliness, lowering the threshold for managing IVR dialogue flows in ACE Coach is the introduction of a dynamic and interactive chart view. When selecting a dialogue flow, the chart view gives a graphical representation of the objects in the dialogue flow and how they are interconnected. This makes it easier to navigate, follow and understand the IVR logic when making adjustments. When an object in the chart is selected, a pane is opened to display details and allow editing.

In ACE 30 the following dialogue object types can be managed in ACE Coach:

  • Switch (full support)
  • Menu (partial support)
  • Phrase (partial support)
  • Full managing capabilities for object types, that currently are partial or view-only, will be added in upcoming releases of ACE Coach.

To further help the user, the chart view has a minimap overview to show where in the dialogue flow you are, when zoomed in. Also, it is possible to make changes to more than one object and save all in one go. There are visual cues for unsaved changes.

Select an object in the chart to open the available settings to the right.

New for Coach 30 is also a “History stack navigation” that is available both in list and chart view. It allows the user to easily move back and forth between objects in the dialogue flow or between objects in different dialogue flows without having to search for them. Objects that you work with are added to the top of the stack and you can move up and down as you need.

Another new feature is the possibility to search for dialogue flows by access numbers (or other numbers associated with an access number such as “indirect number” (redirected in PBX or calling party a-number), “fallback number” or “alias number”), which is useful because users often know the number that is used in their organization, but don’t remember names of dialogue flows. It is also possible to see the history of visited dialogue flows from earlier sessions, which is very useful if you’re regularly working with a few in a large pool of dialogue flows.

Enhanced configuration of switch object in dialogue flows

Switch objects are used to create a fork and select one of two possible exits at a given point in a dialogue flow. Exit control logic can be set up in three ways: manual, IVR schedule or Opening hours. For the two latter, further choices need to be made. For example, “Specific entrance” makes the switch object use opening hours for a selected entrance and “Specific menu choice” uses the opening hours for the menu choice that you select.

A zoomed in dialogue flow with a switch object selected. To the right, the settings pane where configuration for the selected object is made. Also note the “Unsaved changes” tag on the selected switch object.

Lookup table configuration for Dialogue flows

Lookup tables are used to build IVR logic. They hold sets of call parameter values that the query objects use to decide next action or adjust a contact at a given point in the dialogue flow.
The query object takes the value of one or more parameters for the call and compares it to the input column(s) in the lookup table. When there is a match, the corresponding output(s) in the lookup table is returned to the IVR that processes the contact further. An example might be; from a supplied zip code number, the IVR can set task type and menu choice for routing based on geography.
With the release of ACE 30 lookup tables can be fully managed in ACE Coach. New tables can be created, lookup parameter pairs and values can be added, edited or deleted as desired.
Permission to view and edit lookup tables is controlled by access functions.

A simple example where the lookup table holds A-numbers and returns desired priority if there is a match.

Real time monitoring of queues

A big step forward for the usability and value proposition of ACE Coach is the addition of real-time features and functionality in version 30.
Get an instant color-coded overview of the load, manning and service level of all that you have access to or select one to dive into current details with live charts.

The real-time columns are:

  • Queue time – Estimated, Longest and Average
  • Service level – Percentage fulfilling levels and color bar
  • Answer rate – Percentage and bar
  • Contacts – In queue, Established, Reestablished, Escalated, Abandoned and Lost
  • Agents – Workforce (number of agents serving the queue), Ready, Paused, In contact and In wrap-up

Pro tip: you can easily save a table preset with only the real-time info. In this view only the real-time columns (indicated by a gauge icon in the column head) are shown together with queue name and type.

Manage the workforce serving queues and waiting lists

The new real-time features are not only for viewing. When a queue or waiting list is selected, you can manage the workforce by removing or adding agents for the queue as needed to optimize your operations. A filter makes it easy to hide or show agents that are logged in to ACE but lacks the skills to qualify for the queue. If you are in a pinch you may want to add unqualified agents to a queue to handle peak loads.
Permission to manage queue workforce is granted by a separate access function in addition the one that allows changing queue settings.

In this example the filtering on the Workforce tab to the right shows all agents. You can add (unless greyed out) and remove from the queue workforce by using the toggle switches.

Real-time user management

Not only queues get real-time features. User management is also updated with real-time functionality in ACE Coach 30. The user accounts overview table now have live columns for current agent status (ready, paused, in contact etc.), work level and number of queues served. This is a great way for the coach to get an overview of what “their” agents are doing at the moment.

Directly from the “All user accounts” overview it is also possible as a coach or administrator to force logout for one or more agents.

Save and recall table view presets in ACE Coach

A lot of data in ACE Coach is displayed in tables and sometimes you may want to customize your view to focus on the information that is relevant for your specific task. This is why it is possible to show, hide and reorder columns in ACE Coach. In this release this functionality has evolved one step further as it is possible to give a name to and save any given configuration of a table. This way you can configure the views you want for different tasks and easily apply them as desired. For example, in the queue overview table mentioned above, you may want one view focused on real time status and another showing queue setup. ACE Coach 30 makes it easy to configure, save and switch between different table views.


Updates to ACE Business Intelligence

Video and sharing statistics in ACE BI

Being able to follow up on usage and KPIs is an important part of any feature. This is why we add a sheet with statistics for the revamped ACE Video and Sharing features to ACE Business Intelligence.

The new ready-made sheet in ACE Business Intelligence contains visualizations on types of meetings (video, file/screen sharing and combinations) per agent, contact types where video or sharing was initiated, data for start times, durations, task type and more.


Updates to ACE Widget Studio

Still limited to release together with ACE Chatbot Powered by GPT, but planned for wider availability, there are updates to our next generation widget management.

One-time install script and Activation options

Install ACE Widgets on your site once and then configure behavior of all your widgets from ACE Widget studio where you specify when and where your widgets start. A new concept Domain is introduced to organize and manage your widgets more effectively.

Enhanced security and control by SRI and optional local self-hosting

For organizations with a strict self-hosting policy (and the resources to support it), the next generation ACE Widget framework allows downloading a zipped distribution to install the entire widget on local (web) servers, instead of embedding from the Telia cloud.

Enabling Sub Resource Integrity adds a layer of security to your widget installation and operations. A unique hash is created and checked at every load. Any attempt to tamper with the installation and compromise its integrity invalidates the hash and any requests are blocked automatically.

Easy, powerful and flexible cookie management

Adapt and tune the cookies (and similar technologies) required by ACE Widgets to suit your needs and policies. Get control to precisely categorize each storage entry employed by ACE Widget distributions. Also, the feature provides APIs to easily integrate ACE Widgets with existing cookie consent solutions.


Improved handling of recording consent for callback calls

Requesting and storing consent to record a call is an important part of privacy and integrity policy compliance.
Telia ACE 30 introduces a new contact data key for recording consent specifically for callback calls.
It can be set, for regular callback and scheduled callback, in the IVR or through Web API when the end user (or an integrated system) requests or schedules a callback online.

Minor updates

API enhancements with continuous export

Continuous export enables working with big data close to real-time. The update applies to the following two ACE interfaces:

Interaction View interface – data exported instantly when interaction ends

Historical data interface – data exports continuously

Interface database with CDC (change data capture) can be customer-hosted or provided as a service by Telia.

Notes on upgrading

Please refer to Release notes for Telia ACE 30 and Release Notes for individual sub products for detailed technical information, requirements and considerations. These documents are available on request from your Telia contact.

Compatibility and version interoperability summary Telia ACE 30:

  • As of ACE 30, ACE Agent will be fully replaced by ACE Interact and not be part of the release. ACE Agent 29 and older will not work with ACE 30.
  • System parameter ctiLostStayLoggedIn is set to 1 by default when installing, or upgrading to, ACE 30
  • To use ACE Admin 30, base URL for ACE EdgeNode must be added in the Windows Registry (using ACE Configuration Utility 30 is recommended)
  • ACE Admin versions 22 or newer are supported. Recommendation though is to use latest version
  • ACE Coach: only version 30 is supported
  • ACE Report versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported (*). Recommendation though is to use latest version
  • ACE Pulse versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported (*). Recommendation though is to use latest version
    • (*) Note that, if single sign-on is used, ACE Pulse 21.0 or newer and ACE Report 21.0 or newer are supported; older versions are thus not supported
  • ACE Interact versions 25.0.3 or newer are supported
  • ACE Monitor versions 24.1.0 or newer are supported
  • When upgrading ACE Database to 30.0.0, all users of ACE Coach, ACE Interact and ACE Monitor will automatically start using the new version at next login after upgrade:
    • ACE Coach: when upgrading, the system parameters governing the primary and secondary version of ACE Coach will automatically be changed to 30.0.0ACE Interact: the system parameter governing the primary version of ACE Interact will automatically be changed to 30.0.1 and the system parameter governing the secondary version of ACE Interact is set to 29.0.0
    • ACE Monitor: when upgrading, the system parameters governing the primary and secondary version of ACE Monitor will automatically be changed to 24.1.1
  • If upgrading from a version older than ACE 29, it is strongly recommended to read release notes for all intermediate versions. For instance, if upgrading from ACE 26 to ACE 30, ACE27ReleaseNotes, ACE28ReleaseNotes and ACE29ReleaseNotes should be read in addition to Release notes for ACE 30

Telia ACE release 29

Updates to let adminstrators, operators and agents create even better customer experience

September 23, 2024

Telia launches ACE 29 with a number of improvements that will help organizations provide even better CX.

In Ace Interact the operator functionality is enhanced with smart search features for smoother and faster workflows. Also, a new agent status overview card is added to make it easy to get the broader picture of what’s going on or locate specific resources.

ACE Coach is updated with new functionality for making life easier for the coaches and administrators in the ACE-powered contact center. The audio library that holds all voice clips for your dialogue flow IVR gets a major update with text to speech. Making consistent audio from text with a large selection of voices and languages makes maintenance easier and boosts the end user experience,

Check out these and many more updates in Telia ACE 29 below.

New and updated features

New features in ACE Interact

New card in ACE Interact “Agent status overview”

For agents and operators working in ACE Interact, a new feature is introduced that lets the user see the current status of colleagues, or groups of colleagues. This is helpful to get an overview of the current workforce and their load, as well as for finding resources for enquiries and for forwarding contacts to. For example, you can quickly filter out available agents with a specific skill in your subarea or see all agents working with contacts for a specific queue.

The Agent status overview card makes it easy to search groups of colleagues and filter on their status. The user can select subsets by selecting in dropdowns for subarea and skill or queue/waiting list. Additional filters can be applied for status to narrow down the results. The result with real time statuses is displayed in a sortable table. To conserve system resources a maximum of 200 rows is displayed.
Using the card does not require any new access function and it is opened in a new choice under Menu > Support functions in ACE Interact.

The new card is opened from the menu and lets you list agents and their current status filtered on subarea, skill or a specific queue or waiting list

Improved functionality for operators working in ACE Interact

The operator typically handles many contacts by answering incoming calls and forwarding them correctly within the organization. The forwarding destination may be a queue, a specific agent working in ACE or maybe a subject matter expert at another department within the organization. In this intense context, every little feature that helps the operator is welcome and improves overall efficiency, quality and user experience.
ACE Interact 29 comes with a number of tweaks for the operator:

Send text message as multiple types in one go
To increase the chance that an important text message reaches an agent, the operator now has the possibility to send the same message as three different types simultaneously (SMS, email and agent message within ACE). Just select a person, click the multi-channel message button and tick the check boxes by the channels that you want to use. If a channel isn’t available for the person in question, it doesn’t have a check box.

Find same
lets the operator find other resources with the same information in a specific search field. For example, another person with the same title or within the same team. You just select a field in details for a selected record and press Find same. Exactly how the function works also depends on the integrated UC system and associated directory.

Phonetic search
you may now get hits on similar spellings, for example Johnson and Jonson when searching directories in TouchPoint family UC systems. For a phonetic search to generate search results complete names must be entered since phonetic search means looking for names that “sound like”. E.g would a phonetic search for “sofi” return Sofi, Sofie and Sophie. The feature is available for the TouchPoint family UC systems and a system parameter controls whether it should be enabled.

Clicking the [æ] button will include similar-sounding spellings in the search results.

Transfer directly to voicemail
This feature lets operators forward an ongoing contact directly to a searched person’s voicemail by selecting “voicemail” in the dropdown for numbers available for that searched person and then do a transfer. If there is no ongoing call it is possible to select voicemail and create call to leave a message with the searched person’s voicemail. (Available for the TouchPoint family UC systems)

Forward other person’s extension
In organizations using the Mitel CMG UC system, there is a new operator feature that lets the operator set forwarding of incoming calls to a colleague’s extension. This may be valuable when users run into an unforeseen change of plans and cannot set the forwarding themselves. Clicking the new forwarding button in the search/call card opens a dialogue box where the operator can select a directory number or enter a number manually and the type of forwarding. Unconditionally (all calls), on busy or on no answer.

ACE Interact gets smoother handling of interruptions in CTI (telephony signaling)

As part of our work with continuously improving the agent experience, we have made an update to how ACE handles temporary disruptions in CTI (telephony signaling for call handling). This signaling enables ACE Interact to place, answer and manage calls on the user’s phone (mobile, desktop or softphone).
Instead of logging out the user, ACE Interact now displays a message about the interruption, letting the user know that they can keep working in text-based contacts like chat and email. When the connection is restored, everything returns to normal operations automatically. This robust self-healing behaviour saves time and makes for a more streamlined experience in the rare case of a CTI signaling malfunction.


New features in ACE Coach

Use text to speech to create and update IVR phrases in ACE Coach

Being able to generate IVR prompts using text to speech (TTS) makes it easy to keep a consistent and professional tone of voice across all menu choices and options in your IVR as it evolves. With text to speech, it’s easy to create and update greetings and menu audio in the IVR using the same voice.

The ACE Coach 29 audio library lets you configure, listen to and save a voice profile. This is then used when creating audio files using text to speech in your audio library. The profile defines how the voice should sound, what language it speaks, if it’s a male or female voice and more. It’s also possible to fine tune parameters like pitch and speed and optimize for different end user scenarios and devices.

Create, test and save voice profiles to use when creating audio files.

Once the profile is created and activated, it is very easy to generate consistent sound files from text manuscripts in an audio item. You may listen to the generated files directly in ACE Coach and easily download them in mp3 format if you would like to share the audio with someone. In dialogue flows, where you setup your IVR, you simply select which audio item with its’ associated sound file that you want to use.

In the audio library, it’s easy to create audio files with the wording you need by just entering text and selecting a voice profile.

For extra fine control of the generated audio, it is also possible to enter the manuscripts as SSML (speech synthesis markup language) for control over things like emphasis, pausing and phrasing. The speech synthesis is based on market leading TTS- engine from Google Cloud that provides voices for a large number of languages. A new access function controls which roles in the ACE-powered contact center that should be allowed to work with TTS in the audio library.

Tables in ACE Coach get several handy usability upgrades

Many of the objects that you manage in ACE Coach are organized and displayed in tables. It can be user accounts, dialogue flows or routing rules. New features in ACE Coach 29 make managing your ACE solution a lot more efficient by adding helpful features and improvements to tables.

Hide/show and rearrange columns
Since it’s not always the same data that you are interested in seeing, ACE Coach 29 brings a usable feature that lets you customize any table to display only the columns you want, in the order you want. A great way to unclutter your view, help you focus on what’s important for you at the moment and keep distractions down. Click the “Table display settings” icon top right in any table and select and arrange the columns as desired.

Select columns to display and move them up or down to adjust the order to your liking.

New filter button layout
To save on precious screen real estate, table filtering has got a new look. Instead of being always visible (taking up space), the new layout keeps individual filters out of sight, behind a Filters button and shown in a floating panel only when you need them. The button always shows the number of active filters and there’s an eraser button for quick reset.

An example of the new user interface for table filters. Image from the Queues and waiting lists administration view with a filter for only displaying callback queues selected.

Flexible table export to Excel or CSV
There are many use cases when it is convenient to save and share the contents of a table in ACE Coach as a separate file. For this purpose, we have upgraded ACE Coach tables with a feature to export to Excel or .csv file format. You simply configure the table as desired (visible columns, sort order and filtering) and hit the “download” icon, next to table settings top right in every table, to download a file in Excel (.xslx) or comma separated text (.csv) format directly from your browser. Select file type for table exports in My settings.

The new export button is located top right in all tables

The content of the file will match the display settings and filtering configured. For example, you can export a list of a subset of users with a specific access role from the user accounts table. The file name will be the name of the table followed by the date for the export.As the number of features and capabilities in ACE Interact grows, access control mechanisms may have to be introduced. Access functions are applied to roles and are used to restrict or allow access to features for users having that role.

Manage settings for Recording G2 in ACE Coach

With ACE 29 it is possible to control recording settings in greater detail for organisations using ACE Recording G2. A new tab named Types of calls to record is introduced under System > Storage rules for interactions.
In this tab it is easy to configure exactly what types of calls to record and save as interactions. The settings you make here work in combination with the settings in the tab General rules for the organization”. For details about support with different PBXs, see “Detailed Service Description Telia ACE”
To do more than view the configuration and be able to actually change the settings you need the required access function in your user role.


New feature in ACE Business Intelligence

In-depth understanding of your contacts with stats for “outcome” in ACE Business Intelligence

ACE Business Intelligence 29 has a new sheet to visualize and analyze contact outcome in relation to several metrics. Outcome is a central concept and allows the agent to provide systematic feedback on the result of contacts that they have handled.

Outcomes are useful for example for statistics when following up trends in your contact center. Outcome, together with the task type, can provide deeper insights and often answer questions such as ‘What was the call about?’ or ‘Why did the customer call us?’. Studied over time it can be a tool to find trends and deviations in your operations.

The new sheet contains:

  • A bar chart showing changes in outcomes over time
  • Total number of managed contacts
  • The number of contacts with outcome
  • The distribution of available outcomes displayed in graphs
  • Three pivot tables showing the number of outcomes focused on three different perspectives, by agent, by task type and by media

Virtual Agent stats in ACE Business Intelligence

With the rapidly growing use of intelligent bots for chat and voice it’s necessary to get numbers and data on how customers use the bots and how they perform. This is why ACE Business Intelligence adds visualizations for ACE Virtual Agent via our chat engine orchestrator ACE Conversational Hub. As a user of ACE Business Intelligence you see this as two new sheets dedicated to Virtual Agent statistics covering both chat and voice bot applications built on ACE Virtual Agent.

The sheets include:

  • A heatmap showing bot activity over the week
  • A pie chart where you can select to show
    o Distribution of exit reasons
    o Dialogue type distribution (i.e chat or voice)
    o Bot service name, (useful if you have several dedicated bots for different tasks)
  • A line chart showing time distribution
  • In the separate sheet Conversational hub details you can build pivot tables and drill into data using different combinations of available dimensions.

New measurements for healthcare availability in ACE Business Intelligence

ACE Business Intelligence 29 comes with new features to help healthcare providers monitor how well they comply with the Swedish healthcare guarantee. Simplified, the guarantee states that the person seeking contact with their primary healthcare provider should be able to get in touch the same day between 08:00 and 17:00. Typically, by having a call answered based on selection in IVR or by having the healthcare provider calling back when they are first in queue or at an appointed time. Roughly, the availability is the percentage of completed contact attempts that were correctly handled during the day.

Now it is possible to visualize and analyze data for major contact types in ACE Business Intelligence with relevant calculations for availability. The contact types that are included and presented in one sheet each are:

  • Callback appointments (typically booked in the IVR when calling in the morning)
  • Incoming IVR calls and callbacks by keeping place in queue

Stats are presented graphically as monthly summaries for attempts and successfully handled calls as a percentage that fulfils the requirements in the care guarantee. Detailed stats are available in table format.

Ask your Telia contact for in depth information how calculations are made for different call scenarios and how to set up your ACE solution.


New features in Conversational Self Service

Images and text formatting in ACE Chatbot powered by GPT

ACE Chatbot powered by GPT understands complex questions and serves quality controlled and AI-compiled content from your ACE Knowledge guides.

It now has support for presenting images and formatting from the source material in ACE Knowledge.

Embedded images and text formatting that improves readability and understandability of bot answers.

Configure look and feel of ACE Widgets to reflect your brand

Our modern widget framework (currently released for ACE Chatbot powered by GPT) now allows for extensive styling tweaks without any requirement for CSS or HTML coding skills.

Change element colors and see how they look in the preview. The Graphics tab lets you upload a logo to use in your chat widget.

Version control in ACE Widget Studio

The latest widget management framework (currently released with ACE Chatbot powered by GPT) now supports widget releases as named versions.
This enables a streamlined updating process as new widget versions are released.

The Deployment section of widget settings makes it easy to update or roll back your widget versions

Extended reach for IVR G2 and Recording G2 produced in Telia sovereign cloud

Danish customers using the Telia Touchpoint Experience UC platform can now get the benefits of IVR G2 and Recording G2 produced in Telia Network Cloud in Sweden.

Network Cloud keeps all data in Telia’s production environment. This is valuable for organizations with exceptional demands for privacy and data integrity, enforcing policies that don’t permit use of hyperscaler cloud services such as AWS.

Minor updates

An adjustment of how recordings with zero-day storage class are handled

Call recordings with the zero-day storage class are not intended to be saved. However, if configured, a recording starts to make it possible for the agent to change storage class as an “override” depending on how the call develops.
If nothing out of the ordinary happens during the call, the recording will be unaccessible and marked for deletion.
A small but important update to Recording G2 in ACE 29 is that recordings with zero-day storage are now actually deleted instantly at hangup.


Accessibility tweaks for agents and end users

Minor tweaks have been made to ACE Interact and to ACE One Widget. Primarily for better compatibility with screen readers.


Security reminder – two factor authentication for ACE Voice

ACE Voice is a telephony solution dedicated for working together with Telia ACE. It comes with a softphone and a web interface.

Since last release of Telia ACE, ACE Voice has been updated with an option to activate two factor authentication. When enabled, the user gets an SMS with a one-time passcode to enter in addition to regular credentials at login. This hardens platform safety by lowering the risk of unauthorized login with stolen or hacked usernames and passwords.

Compatibility

Please refer to Release Notes for Telia ACE 29 and Release Notes for individual sub products for detailed technical information, requirements and considerations. These documents are available on request from your Telia contact.

Compatibility summary Telia ACE 29:

  • ACE 29 does not support ACE ServiceNode G1
  • ACE Admin versions 22 or newer are supported. Recommendation though is to use latest version.
  • ACE Coach: only version 29 is supported.
  • ACE Report versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported (*). Recommendation though is to use latest version.
  • ACE Agent versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported (*). Recommendation though is to use latest version.
  • ACE Pulse versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported (*). Recommendation though is to use latest version.
  • (*) Note that, if single sign-on is used, ACE Agent 21.0 or newer, ACE Pulse 21.0 or newer and ACE Report 21.0 or newer are supported; older versions are thus not supported.
  • ACE Interact versions 25.0.3 or newer are supported.
  • ACE Monitor versions 24.1.0 or newer are supported.
  • When upgrading ACE Database to 29.0.0, all users of ACE Coach, ACE Interact and ACE Monitor will automatically start using the new version at next login after upgrade:
    • ACE Coach: when upgrading, the system parameters governing the primary and secondary version of ACE Coach will automatically be changed to 29.0.0.
    • ACE Interact: the system parameter governing the primary version of ACE Interact will automatically be changed to 29.0.1 and the system parameter governing the secondary version of ACE Interact is set to 28.0.0.
    • ACE Monitor: when upgrading, the system parameters governing the primary and secondary version of ACE Monitor will automatically be changed to 24.1.1.
  • If upgrading from a version older than ACE 27, it is strongly recommended to read release notes for all intermediate versions. For instance, if upgrading from ACE 24.0 to ACE 29.0, ACE25ReleaseNotes, ACE26ReleaseNotes, ACE27ReleaseNotes and ACE28ReleaseNotes should be read in addition ACE29ReleaseNotes.

Telia ACE release 28

New browser based administration features, added recording capabilities and more.

March 04, 2024

Telia launches ACE 28 with a number of improvements for agents, administrators and end users.

As always, ACE Coach is updated with new functionality. This time for viewing and managing dialogue flows for IVRs. This feature will be extended further in coming releases. Also in ACE Coach, it is now possible to import campaign records in bulk from Excel or comma separated text files by simple drag and drop.

In Ace Interact the number for Caller ID is now configurable and selectable for outbound calls. A welcome addition in organisations where central staff handle telephony on behalf of different units and need to show the correct number for the person being called. There is also a new way for the agent to view how many contacts of different types they have handled in the past.

ACE Recording G2 can now record enquiry calls and transferred calls and save in Interaction View. (with some limitations depending on telephony platform and access rights)

Check out these and many more updates in Telia ACE 28 below.

New and updated features

New features in ACE Coach

View Dialogue flows and control everyday settings in ACE Coach

With the launch of ACE Coach 28 it is possible to view and make adjustments to a subset of objects in dialogue flows. A dialogue flow controls IVR configuration and defines how a call is handled by the system depending on a number of factors. For example, time of day, number called, calling number, IVR choices, possible integrations and current queue status.
This limited functionality is a first step towards comprehensive Dialogue flow control in ACE Coach.
On selecting a Dialogue flow, Coach lists all objects it has. The user can search and filter objects, and for a number of object types, available options for frequently used settings are presented. Features include:

  • Edit the Audio item used in a Phrase object, that is, control what sound that is played at a certain point in the IVR.
  • For .wav and .mp3, you can listen to the file
  • Activate and inactivate a Phrase object
  • Edit the phrases in Menu objects
  • Activate and inactivate exits and phrases in the Menu object
  • Manually open/close Switch objects
To the left in this view, all non-hidden dialogue flows are displayed. In the middle, all objects of the selected dialogue flow are listed. To the right, currently supported settings of the selected object are displayed. For object types that are still not possible to manage, you get a coaching message directing you towards ACE Admin.

Manage audio library in ACE Coach

Related to the introduction of Dialogue flow management in Coach, it is now also possible to manage the audio library available for use in dialogue flows.
The library contains all audio items that are used by phrases in your IVRs. The main table is searchable and allows you to filter out items that are in use or not in use in any dialogue flows.
When an item is selected, properties are displayed together with a list of the dialogue flows where the audio item is used (if any). You can download the audio file, and for .wav and .mp3 format you can play back the audio file directly in your browser. You can also upload a new file to update what is played in the IVR for phrase and menu objects using the audio item.

For a selected audio item an administration panel is shown to the right.

You may also create new items in the database and upload audio files for them.

Simplify work in Coach by hiding content and data that you cannot edit

A new way to simplify and speed up administrative work in ACE Coach is the possibility to hide all data and content that you don’t have explicit access to view or edit. For example, if you only have administrative access to one subarea, data from other subareas are hidden from views and tables to create better overview of “your” data. This way it will be easier to navigate and quickly find what you want.
The feature is called Display principle is available as a toggle in My settings and your choice is remembered between sessions.
To simplify for new users, and make it easier find what they really need, the default setting for new users is off (effectively hiding non-editable information).

Create new chat entrance in ACE Coach

A building block for setting up a chat in ACE is the chat entrance. This contains basic configurations for the system to work as intended, for example which ACE Chat Engine to use.
ACE Coach 28 simplifies chat administration by providing a way for an administrator with the required access rights to create new chat entrances by duplicating existing. The user is prompted to enter a name for the new entrance. All other settings will be the same as the original. The new entrance will be set as inactive but can be activated in ACE Coach by selecting it in the table, clicking the Entrance active setting and saving. It is also possible to delete chat entrances (as well as entrances for calls).

The new entrance is available for use from chat widgets in ACE Knowledge Admin, without Telia staff having to do any further configuration.

The new chat entrances feature is added under the Building blocks > Entrances menu option where you may search and filter for the chat entrance that you wish to duplicate.

Affiliate task types with subarea in ACE Coach

Affiliating task types to subareas is one way to restrict and control who gets access to which stored interactions in Interaction view. Task type can be set for an incoming contact based on a number of factors and the resulting stored interaction is consequently associated to a subarea. Then it is possible to allow access to the stored interaction only to staff belonging to that subarea.
In ACE Coach 28 the administrator can now set these affiliations between task type and subarea to easily manage the access to stored interactions. Having task type an subarea affiliated can also be useful in filtering statistics and for making reports.

In Task type management, it is possible to search and filter in the table of task types. When selected, it is possible to manage subarea affiliations for a task type.

Add and duplicate campaign records in ACE Coach

Campaign management was introduced in ACE Coach 27 along with basic management of the actual campaign records. Now this management is extended with powerful record handling.
The campaign manager can add single records to a specified campaign and enter all data like phone numbers and properties like predefined agent manually. If the campaign in question is a dialer campaign allowing or disallowing overdialing is possible.

The dialogue box for adding a campaign record. In this case to a dialer campaign.

It is also possible to duplicate single or several records at a time.

Import campaign records from a file

An efficient way to add records to a campaign, besides using the campaign API, is to import them from a file. Typically, this file is created by a CRM system. As an example, you may filter out all customers whose subscription period is about to end next month and export their details to an Excel file or comma separated text file to use in a renewal campaign.

ACE Coach 28 can import files in Excel (xslx, xls) or CSV file formats. This feature is available in a new tab Import records under Outbound > Campaign records.

Just drag and drop or browse for the file on local storage and select which campaign the records should be added to and default values for task type, status and priority (to use if they are not specified by the import).

When doing the mapping you pair columns in the import files to data fields (contact data keys) configured to the campaign. The result of the selected import file and used mapping template is shown in a preview. When everything looks good, just click the Import button and you’re done.

To ensure a flexible system where different columns in the file always end up in the correct data fields in the campaign records, you employ a mapping template. It determines the mapping between source columns in the import file and the campaign’s target contact data keys.

Mapping templates can be saved, used and reused for importing similarly formatted files by anyone working with campaigns. They can also be edited and renamed to easily make variants to suit your needs. If the import file has a header row (optional), you can toggle a switch and Coach will read the column headers to make mapping even easier.

If there are any errors during the import, such as text where a number is expected, these are accounted for and the user can download a file containing only the problematic rows, complete with problem description for each row. Once these records have been corrected it is possible to import them to complete the job.

Configure contact data in ACE Coach

Contact data keys are central for the functioning of Telia ACE. They hold data about every contact and can be used for many things like routing, access control, campaign control and for following up in statistics and reporting.
A number of standard keys, like task type and outcome, are always present in ACE but organizations also have the freedom to add their own custom keys to suit specific needs in their operations. Keys can either have a fixed set of predefined values to choose from or be of free text type. Some key values are set automatically by the ACE system while others can be made available to agents to enter during a contact depending on the nature or result of a conversation.
In the overview table, you can filter and search to find the keys you want. It is also possible to create new contact data keys and add predefined values as needed.
Adding the possibility to manage contact data keys in ACE Coach is a great step towards making it a comprehensive tool for everyday administration.
For most contact data keys, you can see and edit:

  • Id and Name
  • Predefined values (if any)
  • For which contact types the key is available
  • Whether value can be set by agent
  • Whether the key value is saved in statistics

Some keys are locked for system use or have special applications that are managed in other, separate views.
For contact data keys with predefined values it is also possible to manage for which task type(s) that the value should be available and if the value should be available by default for future task types or not.
Please note that this new feature replaces the separate administration of outcome values that was introduced with ACE Coach 25. Outcome is now managed as any other data key.

Sort, search and filter available contact data keys to the left and edit properties of the selected key to the right. For keys with predefined values, these are managed in a separate tab.

Copy and clone exception days for callback appointment schedules

ACE Coach 28 makes it easy to create single exception days or periods of consecutive days with non-regular times or capacity for Callback appointment schedules. Simply make or select an existing exception day with differing information and “paste” it to as many dates as required, for example when running operations with shorter hours or less staffing during holiday times.

A small feature that may save a lot of time for organizations working extensively with callback appointments and many schedules, typically in healthcare.


New features in ACE Interact

Change presented Caller ID number in ACE Interact

Sometimes it is useful to control what number to present as caller ID when making outbound calls. A typical scenario would be an agent at a central contact center making calls on behalf of different units within a large company, municipality or region. It may be important that the person being called recognizes the number to pick up or that they reach the right destination if calling back after a missed call. An example might be in a healthcare scenario where nurses working with callback may serve many local healthcare centers.

In ACE 28 it is possible via a system parameter to activate a feature that provides a dropdown menu in the ACE Interact status bar with selectable caller ID numbers. This is available for Telia ACE with IVR G2 in combination with Telia Touchpoint plus and ACE Voice. This way the agent can select what caller ID number to present when making outbound external calls where appropriate. For callback queues, you configure Caller ID number in ACE Coach.

NOTE: Not all parts of this is an out-of-the-box offering. Caller ID for outgoing Callback queues is only available in combination with ACE Voice and is ordered as a customer unique configuration.

The drop down menu for selecting Caller ID is available in the main status bar. The options above the horizontal divider are always available, and the ones below are configurable and also depends on what queues the agent serves. There is a separate system parameter controlling whether “Hidden number” should be an option in the drop down menu.
What caller ID that should be used for callback queues are managed in ACE Coach where available numbers are fetched from the ACE Voice telephony platform.

New access function to restrict or allow creating callbacks in ACE Interact

As the number of features and capabilities in ACE Interact grows, access control mechanisms may have to be introduced. Access functions are applied to roles and are used to restrict or allow access to features for users having that role.
In ACE 28 a new access function is added to allow or restrict permission to create callbacks in ACE Interact. For agents that are not granted access to this functionality, the menu option Create callback will be hidden.

When allowed, the agent has an option in the menu to easily create a callback.

Show personal historic statistics in ACE Interact

Having access to check your own personal historic statistics and performance is a valuable feature for agents. It may serve as a motivation and will provide useful insights and facts when following up development and when setting goals.
In ACE Interact 28 a new feature is introduced allowing just that. In a new tab in the card previously called Statistics today, the agent may specify a time interval and get a presentation of all contacts handled during the period .
Display of historic statistics is controlled by an access function “View my statistics” and may be blocked or allowed as desired. The default setting at upgrade to ACE 28 is that the feature is blocked,

Stats are grouped on contact type and can be summarized and displayed for day, week or month.

New feature in ACE To Go

Automatic reactivation will mitigate the risk of ACE To Go users being unintentionally paused if a call is missed. This will bring peace of mind by not having to check your phone for fear of having been logged out, for example in an on call scenario.

Previously, missing an ACE call when logged in to ACE To Go changed your status to paused with a notification. The user could then manually set their status back to active when it was appropriate. This was by design, as a safety measure to not keep routing calls to someone who was unable to pick up.
With an upgrade to ACE 28, this behaviour is changed. Instead of being set to paused indefinitely, and having to manually set back to active, you are now able to configure automatic reactivation even if a call is missed or if you are momentarily unreachable.

This is controlled by the system parameters mobileNoAnswerTimer and mobileFailedTimer. The person logged in with ACE To Go is automatically set back to active state after being paused for the specified time in seconds (minimum time is 10s). This is more in line with “light mode” that allows agents to work from any phone without CTI.

The app notification that is sent to the user in case of a missed call is also updated to reflect that you may be automatically reactivated.
 


New features in ACE Recording G2

Extended capabilities for ACE Recording G2 – transferred calls and enquiry calls

ACE Recording G2 is updated with new functionality in this release to significantly extend what is possible to record in the ACE-powered contact center.

Enquiry calls

As of Telia ACE 28, you may record enquiry calls that are made by an agent to another agent or to an external number without any end-customer being part of the call. Typically, these calls are made by the agent to get help solving an issue while the end-customer is on hold. You may want to record them for following up or for quality assurance initiatives.

Transfer calls

Sometimes an enquiry call ends up being transferred to the enquired party.

With ACE Recording G2 28 you may also record transferred calls. Recordings before and after the transfer (given that first part is also configured to be recorded) will end up in separate recordings. It is possible to configure access to the stored interaction so that each participating agent only can go back and listen to “their own” part of the call.

Please note:

  1. The above functionality for enquiry calls and transferred calls is available for telephony setups based on Dstny D4SP, that is Touchpoint Plus, Touchpoint Experience, Touchpoint VIP and ACE Voice.
  2. Recording of enquiry and transfer calls are not supported when the agent has recording rights set to “Recording on demand”.

Another possibility, other than transferring the call to another agent or number, is to place the call back to an IVR queue. The call will then be rerouted to a new agent and recorded again if the agent has the right to be recorded. This works for all telephony environments where ACE Recording G2 works.

Easily and securely export files to any destination using SFTP in ACE Recording G2

To extend the usability of ACE Recording G2 a flexible and secure new feature for exporting recorded files is added in release 28. Customers may now transfer their recordings using the encrypted standard protocol SFTP. This makes it easy to move files securely to any destination the customer may want for long term storage or processing/analytics.

This new feature is available for both Recording G2 production environments, based on public cloud infrastructure or Telia hosted sovereign cloud.


Updates to ACE computer telephony integration

Full CTI functionality in ACE Interact for mobile extension in MX-ONE

Mitel MX-ONE is a communication platform used by many large organizations for telephony in combination with Telia ACE. In ACE 28 there is full CTI support when using ACE with Mobile extensions in MX-ONE. This enables greater flexibility and full telephony functionality for agents handling calls on mobile phones with ACE Interact in these organizations.


Updates to ACE One Widget

Support for Google Dialogflow and Boost.ai

A robust solution for building conversational bots with ACE Web SDK. ACE Conversational Hub Widget in v5 is a new feature designed to make streamlined integrations with conversational agents like Google Dialogflow and Boost.ai easy.

Accessibility improvements

Updates to ensure that ACE online widgets are easy to use and interact with for end-users with functional variations, in compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA.

For example, confirm that screen readers work as intended with content and interface for visually impaired users.

Minor updates

A minor update in ACE Admin

A new information message when managing affiliations between task type and subarea to mitigate the risk of inadvertedly making interactions in Interaction View more accessible than intended.

The warning is displayed if:

  • Last affiliated subarea is removed from a task type configuration
  • A task type with affiliated subareas is removed.

Once the warning is displayed the user can either ignore the warning and execute the changes or cancel the operation.


A new callback availability measurement in ACE Report

To give Swedish healthcare providers a tool for measuring how well they comply to regulations for availability, there are new measurements available in ACE Report.

The measurements make it possible for healthcare centers to calculate and follow up on phone availability by callback appointments in a standardized manner.

Compatibility

Please refer to Release Notes for Telia ACE 28 and Release Notes for individual sub products for detailed technical information, requirements and considerations. These documents are available on request from your Telia contact.

Compatibility summary Telia ACE 28:

  • Required Graph API version for the Facebook app is v16.0.
  • ACE Admin versions 22 or newer are supported. Recommendation though is to use latest version.
  • ACE Coach: only version 28 is supported.
  • ACE Report versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported (*). Recommendation though is to use latest version.
  • ACE Agent versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported (*). Recommendation though is to use latest version.
  • ACE Pulse versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported (*). Recommendation though is to use latest version.
  • (*) Note that, if single sign-on is used, ACE Agent 21.0 or newer, ACE Pulse 21.0 or newer and ACE Report 21.0 or newer are supported; older versions are thus not supported.
  • ACE Interact versions 25.0.3 or newer are supported.
  • ACE Monitor versions 24.1.0 or newer are supported.
  • When upgrading ACE Database to 28.0.0, all users of ACE Coach, ACE Interact and ACE Monitor will automatically start using the new version at next login after upgrade:
    • ACE Coach: when upgrading, the system parameters governing the primary and secondary version of ACE Coach will automatically be changed to 28.0.0.
    • ACE Interact: the system parameter governing the primary version of ACE Interact will automatically be changed to 28.0.0 and the system parameter governing the secondary version of ACE Interact is set to 27.0.3.
    • ACE Monitor: when upgrading, the system parameters governing the primary and secondary version of ACE Monitor will automatically be changed to 24.1.0.
  • If upgrading from a version older than ACE 27, it is strongly recommended to read release notes for all intermediate versions. For instance, if upgrading from ACE 23.0 to ACE 28.0, ACE24ReleaseNotes, ACE25ReleaseNotes, ACE26ReleaseNotes and ACE27ReleaseNotes should be read in addition ACE28ReleaseNotes.

ACE Release 27.0.2

Operator functionality in ACE Interact

November 10, 2023

New and updated features

Operators are a user group that need fast functionality for their main work task, that is finding persons and queues in the organization and transferring calls.
ACE Interact 27.0.2 adds a special operator mode of the search/call card in ACE Interact, specifically tailored for operators and their workflow. The operator instantly gets all the information they need in one card and much of the functionality can be managed using fast keyboard shortcuts.
Features of the extended Search/Call card for operators include:

  • Details of selected person always visible
  • Presence for selected person always visible
  • Today’s activities for selected person always visible
  • Information boxes with call information on Primary and Secondary ongoing (or about to be placed) call. Info can be presented on both caller and called party (via automatic search)
  • Free text notes, “Operator information” on people and queues, allows for easy saving and retrieval of “good to know” info
  • Focus placed in Search field directly when answering an incoming call to be ready for searching
  • Special numpad keyboard commands for the operator

New operator specific numpad keyboard commands improves ergonomics and creates smooth workflows.

Using ACE Interact in operator mode requires a license and the required access function applied to the role of your user account.

ACE Release 27

Handy video features, browser-based campaign management and more

October 03, 2023

Telia launches ACE 27 with many updates to online widgets, browser-based tools for administration, contact management and statistics reporting. ACE Coach gets a major new feature set, making it easy to set up and manage campaigns, including searching, viewing and editing campaign records in bulk or individually.

Our agent tool puts new features in the hands of the right people. ACE Interact 27 lets users (with the required permissions) create, edit and update address books. It’s also possible to search and edit callback records in a new card in the work area.

Our recently revamped platform for video chat gets several updates. Share files, save snapshots, view and draw on files together. Also, background blurring is introduced and enabled by default. All useful features for providing a good customer experience.

Our fully integrated recording solution, Recording G2, now supports recording of outbound external calls and file export of recordings from both AWS and Telia sovereign cloud production environments.

Check out these and many more updates in Telia ACE 27 below.

New and updated features

New features in ACE Video

File sharing and file viewing in video chat

When providing technical support, managing an issue, or helping a caretaker, it can greatly facilitate and bring value to the conversation if files can be exchanged in both directions. The file may be an instruction, an image, a contract, an exercise program or something entirely else.

Therefore, file sharing is added to ACE Video 27. Both the agent and the person at the other end can upload a file to share in the conversation. Files are available in a common area where they can be opened, viewed and browsed (for multipage files) together in the conversation. Shared files can also be downloaded by either party. Uploaded files are virus scanned before they are displayed. When the session ends, files are deleted. The file area is hosted in Telia’s sovereign cloud together with the rest of the ACE Video production environment.

For security reasons, the file types that are possible to upload are limited to: Word documents, pdf files, Excel, PowerPoint presentations and common image file formats like .png and .jpg.

Snapshot of video

A related feature launched with ACE Video 27 is the possibility for agents to take a snapshot image of the video or screen sharing. A typical scenario would be an insurance case manager taking a snapshot of a dented car that the customer shows with his mobile phone camera. The snapshot is saved in the session file sharing area where it can be downloaded and kept for documentation.

Draw on files and snapshots

To further enhance the usability of the file sharing and snapshot features (above), it is also possible for both parties in the conversation to draw on images or files. For example, the agent may circle a specific input field in a screenshot of a web form or highlight a button or port on a technical device. Another use may be a patient indicating exactly where the knee hurts in a video consultancy call with their physiotherapist.

Some drawing examples viewed in the customer widget. Help connecting a TV set top box. Highlight a field in an online form. Show where on pdf invoice an id can be found.

Background blurring in ACE Video

Background blurring is an established feature in video conferencing, and it helps to minimize distractions and keep conversations focused. Background blurring is introduced in ACE 27 and switched on by default for both parties. If needed, it is easy to switch off in video controls.


Updates to ACE Coach – user friendly administration in your browser

ACE Coach 27 is launched with a number of new features for the administrator and for the team coach. Features that bring it even further towards being the complete browser-based tool for day-to-day management of the Telia ACE-powered contact center.

Manage campaigns in ACE Coach

A campaign lets your agents make any number of outgoing calls and log them in a structured manner. Typically, it can be used for sales offers to new and existing customers or for doing interview surveys.
Campaigns can either run by letting agents receive campaign records from a queue, select records from a waiting list (called preview in ACE) or use a dialer. A dialer serves to save time and improve efficiency by calling numbers from campaign records automatically “in advance” and routing them to an agent only when the call is picked up. ACE Coach 27 lets the administrator start, stop and pause campaigns as well as fine tune many aspects of campaign behaviour and logic.

Given the appropriate access rights a user can:

  • View, filter and search existing campaigns in a customizable table
  • Create new campaigns
  • Start, stop, archive and limit (only call personal records) campaigns
  • Delete campaigns
  • Edit campaign settings (schedules, dialer settings, agent requirements, how to treat personal records and more)
  • Edit feedback outcomes (used for automatic or agent-controlled detailed logging)
  • Edit feedback rules (for determining automatic next actions for records based on feedback)

All this makes it possible to set up, manage and execute your campaigns efficiently and systematically.

Search and edit campaign records, one by one or in bulk

As a compliment to managing entire campaigns (above), it is also possible to work with the actual records in ACE Coach 27. There is a powerful search and filter function to let you fetch records from a specific campaign or across different campaigns that meet the criteria you specify. The criteria are highly configurable to get exactly the records you need.

Once fetched, the records can be viewed and edited, one by one or in bulk. When editing in bulk, existing values from the selected records are presented as a drop down, or you can add something new. This way you can ensure consistent data in your records.

Manage schedules and exceptions for dialogue flows

To further develop ACE Coach into the primary everyday administration tool for ACE, and lower dependency on installed clients for regular tasks, it is now possible to manage IVR schedules, including template days and exceptions. This allows the Coach user with the correct access rights to control all timing aspects of dialogue flows.

The user can:

  • Search and filter among existing schedules
  • Create new schedules and delete existing
  • Choose to work specifically with global (without area affiliation) schedules or set area affiliation
  • Edit regular hours
  • Manage exception days based on template days
  • Create and manage template days and view their usage
  • Import public holidays and set different hours for those days (the system provides holidays for Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and lets the user choose)
  • View dialogue flow usage

Manage custom work levels

Work levels are a way to package contact types, queues/waiting lists and distribution into ready-made “contact combinations” that agents can choose to work with in ACE Interact. The selected work level controls which contacts that will be routed to the agent. Time spent in custom work levels is also visible in statistics and can be used in reports.
In ACE Coach 27 the administrator or coach can create and edit custom work levels to meet the needs of the operations.

When building custom work levels based on queues, a summary of your selections can be show on the right-hand side by flicking the “Show summary” switch.

Assign team membership to users

In Telia ACE 27, a new concept of Team is introduced. Team membership can be used in statistics and for controlling access to stored interactions like recordings. In ACE Coach 27 coaches and administrators working with user management can assign team membership together with subareas when creating or editing user accounts.

Set default service level thresholds

Service levels are used to follow up, in real time or in reports, that incoming contacts are answered as fast as you want them to be. Telia ACE uses two service levels for good and acceptable answer times, indicated by green and yellow in status views. Anything longer than the second threshold is out of service level, indicated by red.

In ACE Coach 27 target service levels can be set individually per queue or waiting list when editing them. Also new is that you can set system defaults for different contact types. These defaults apply for contacts in queues and waiting lists without specifically configured service levels.

New screen for managing system default service levels for different contact types.

Manage storage times for interactions

The time that an interaction and its’ associated media are stored in the Interaction view database is dictated by storage rules. Rules are applied by storage class (set by the system at creation of the contact, or by the agent during the interaction), by task type or by contact type in the organization defaults. These three rule types can now be easily set and edited in ACE Coach 27.

Upload call flow audio phrases in .wav and .mp3 format

A small but useful update, greatly simplifying administration of phrases in call flows is that it is now possible to upload audio files in user friendly wav and mp3 format. These formats also open for higher quality audio in your call flow menus and applications.

Note that using the new file formats requires that your organization are using IVR G2.

UX enhancements in ACE Coach

ACE Coach is designed from the ground up to be easy to use and work with. Version 27 has an updated design for tabs that make them more clearly visible, with a more distinct indication of which tab is active. This version also introduces a new UX-feature, the “adjustable content divider”. This lets the user drag a divider to adjust the relative width of two main areas on the screen, for example a table on the left and settings for the selected item on the right. This feature is first introduced in the new campaign administration screen. It can be controlled both using mouse and by using keyboard.


ACE Interact – handle contacts and manage everyday tasks in your browser

Manage callback records in ACE Interact

Calling a customer, or maybe a caretaker, back at a booked, selected or suggested time is an established and useful way of providing a good end user experience. To maintain quality and service it may at times be necessary to inspect and adjust callback records. A new feature in ACE Interact 27 lets an agent or coach with the proper access rights do just that.

For example, if you already talked to the customer, ahead of a scheduled callback, you may want to add that to the comment field, or cancel the callback altogether if the issue was handled.

The new Callback records card in the work area lets you filter and search in the database of callback records (open, closed, paused and active records). Search can combine time interval and up to three additional criteria. From the list of search hits, it is then possible to select and edit a record to adjust status, time, number to call, add or edit comment and more.

Manage address books in ACE Interact

In ACE Interact 27 it is possible for users (with the required access function in their role) to search, add, edit and remove entries in address books in Telia ACE. A user always has access to their personal address book. Adding this feature eliminates the need for a special application for this common task and puts it in the hands of the staff that use it the most, creating efficient workflows.

In the new card Administrate address book, address books and child folders are presented in a tree view in the left pane. Actual entries are presented in a table that can be sorted by clicking column headers. Double clicking an entry will open the edit view.

A user can also create new address books and add folders and entries to them. Creating new address books outside of personal scope requires access function for this purpose.

New layout for the Search/Call card

In the constant effort to make ACE Interact the most user friendly and efficient agent tool, the Search/Call card is tweaked in ACE Interact 27. Now, instead of presenting search results as expandable snippets, available actions (place call, send sms or email etc) for a highlighted search hit are directly available at the bottom of the search/call card. This makes for a smoother workflow either when using keyboard or mouse. It is also part of the preparations for upcoming operator functionality in ACE Interact.
Links in search results are now clickable.

Control access in Interaction view on team level

Telia ACE 27 introduces a new concept, Team. Team membership can be used to control access to stored interactions in Interaction view in ACE Interact. When set up, an agent can search, view and access media like call recordings or email content for interactions only tagged with their team.


News in ACE Business Intelligence 27

ACE Business Intelligence is the statistics and analytics tool for Telia ACE. Dig into data all the way from the big picture and trends down to individual interactions. Use one of the many built-in sheets with dashboards and views or create your own.

System wide statistics

With ACE Business Intelligence 27 you get the possibility to view aggregated statistics for the system as a whole. This allows for better overview of total volumes across all entrances and queues. It also makes it possible to view and assess contact volumes outside of opening hours. This could for example be very useful in a scenario where an organization considers adjusting their opening hours.

The data is made available in six new sheets to cover system wide statistics for different contact types.

An example of looking at volumes of incoming IVR calls to the system and what the distribution between how they end up being handled (or lost) looks like.

Agent statistics by service

Services in ACE are defined as a contact type (for example chat or call), a direction (in- or outbound) and distribution form (queue, waiting list, inquiry or dialer). To provide both overview and details about the work in an ACE-powered contact center ACE Business Intelligence 27 lets you analyze data based on service. For example, you can see total agent time spent logged in to different services for all agents, agents of a team or for individual agents.
The data is available in a new view, Agent statistics service, in the Agent details sheet.

Stats by team

The new Team concept in Telia ACE 27 also opens up for statistics and data presentation on the team level. Team can be used both for controlling access to data, for filtering out data that relates to a team and for comparing team performance or workload.


News in ACE Recording G2

ACE Recording G2 is the next generation recording solution developed as a fully integrated component in Telia ACE. Stored recordings are available together with all other interactions in the Interaction View database and access is controlled in detail.

Record outgoing external calls

New with the release of ACE 27 is that it is possible to record outbound external calls, for example when an agent calls a client to follow up on a previous contact (without it being a scheduled callback as those are already possible to record).

As these calls don’t get a task type assigned like IVR calls or callbacks, there is a new concept, Team, and corresponding access function to limit access to these recordings. This should be implemented before activating recording of taskless outbound external calls. See more below.

A new access function to control who can listen to recordings

ACE 27 provides a new level of access control with the introduction of Team. The primary use case for this feature is to enable flexible access control to stored interactions, including listening to recorded calls.

Contacts handled by a member of a team will get a corresponding team tag when stored as interactions in the Interaction View database. This team tag can then be used to limit access to that specific interaction (including listening to any recordings) only to team members.

Agents can only be member of one team at a time. Team assignment needs to be done per agent after upgrading to ACE 27 if you plan to use the feature for access control. It is possible to let for example coaches for many teams have access to interactions from all “their” teams by assigning multiple access areas.

Team membership can be assigned when creating or editing user accounts in ACE Coach.

Export of recordings from AWS and Network Cloud

With ACE 27 it is possible to export recordings and associated metadata, both from the AWS and from the Telia Network Cloud (sovereign cloud) production environments. The primary destination for exports are a customer specified S3 bucket in AWS or Telia’s dedicated export buckets in AWS or in Telia Network Cloud. From there it is possible to access the files for further processing or long-term storage.

For organizations using Nexidia Interaction Analytics provided by Telia, there are integrations in place to ingest recordings from both AWS and Telia Network Cloud S3 buckets.


Updates to ACE telephony

Support for phrases in .mp3 and .wav file format in ACE IVRs

For added user friendliness and flexibility it is now possible to upload phrase files in the commonly used .wav and .mp3 file formats. Upload to dialogue flows using ACE Admin 27 or to call flows using ACE Coach 27. These file formats are easy to work with in readily available software and provide high quality audio.

To take advantage of this update, your organization must run ACE om Service Node G2 and IVR G2.

Personal greeting phrase with IVR G2

With ACE 27 it is possible to configure personal greeting phrases for each agent. These are played automatically when the call is routed to an agent to save time for the agent and ensure a consistent tone of voice and positive customer experience at each contact.

Minor updates

As with all releases of Telia ACE, there are a number of small updates and fine tuning made available in ACE 27. Some, but not all are presented below. As usual please refer to sub-product release notes for complete lists of updates.

Accessing emails in Interaction View logged to audit trail

The ACE audit trail is a security feature that stores information on activities in and changes to the system. The events logged to the ACE audit trail is now extended to include access to emails stored in the interaction view database.

Web SDK (chat) running when 3rd party cookies are blocked

For privacy reasons, users or organization may want to limit the use of cookies on websites or in web applications. ACE Web SDK 27 takes this into account and is updated so that chat works, even when third party cookies are disabled (with reduction of some advanced functionality like session persisting if navigating between different domains).
This may also be considered futureproofing as we are moving towards a cookie-free web in 2024.

Additional data points sent from Telia ACE to Calabrio WFM

For organizations that use Calabrio Workforce Management integrated with Telia ACE, the exchange of data is extended with ACE 27. More detailed contact data is sent and mapped to Calabrio WFM concepts to provide even more accurate and powerful workforce management.

Extended PII anonymization for Nordic countries in ACE conversational solutions

To comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations, potential PII (Personal Identifiable Information) data that is entered into ACE conversational platforms like chatbots may need to be anonymized. Typically, it can be names, vehicle license plates, phone number, email addresses and so on. Before release of ACE 27 the algorithms that are used for this were enhanced to better match the Telia geographic footprint in the Nordics. More matching criteria for what data to hide were added and rules were made language-agnostic.

Category descriptions for contact method selector in ACE One Widget

This feature gives organizations more control over how their contact methods are presented and makes it easier for their users to choose the right one. There are teo new input fields in the Knowledge Admin interface when editing categories for contact methods. One is for the publically visible description and one internal.

Compatibility

Please refer to Release Notes for Telia ACE 27 and Release Notes for individual sub products for detailed technical information, requirements and considerations. These documents are available on request from your Telia contact.

Compatibility Telia ACE 27

  • ACE Admin versions 22 or newer are supported.
  • ACE Coach: only version 27 is supported.
  • ACE Report versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported (). • ACE Agent versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported ().
  • ACE Pulse versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported (). • () Note that, if single sign-on is used, ACE Agent 21.0 or newer, ACE Pulse 21.0 or newer and ACE Report 21.0 or newer are supported; older versions are thus not supported.
  • ACE Interact versions 20.0.0 or newer are supported.
  • ACE Monitor versions 21.0.0 or newer are supported.
  • When upgrading ACE Database to 27.0.0, all users of ACE Coach, ACE Interact and ACE Monitor will automatically start using the new version at next login after upgrade:
    • ACE Coach: when upgrading, the system parameters governing the primary version of ACE Coach will automatically be changed to 27.0.0. o ACE Interact: the system parameter governing the primary version of ACE Interact will automatically be changed to 27.0.0.
    • ACE Monitor: when upgrading from a version older than 24, the system parameter governing the primary version of ACE Monitor will automatically be changed to 24.0.0.
    • System parameters governing the secondary version for the different clients may also be updated; check configuration for details if needed.
  • If upgrading from a version older than ACE 26, it is strongly recommended to read release notes for all intermediate versions. For instance, if upgrading from ACE 22.0 to ACE 27.0, ACE23ReleaseNotes, ACE24ReleaseNotes, ACE25ReleaseNotes and ACE26ReleaseNotes should be read in addition to latest Release Notes.

ACE Release 26.1

Despite being a minor release, Telia ACE 26.1 contains some pretty significant updates. It adds call monitoring, a new video platform and sovereign cloud versions of our next generation IVR and call recording services. Read below for details.

New video platform in Telia ACE

Video chat has many applications that add value to the customer conversation. It has long been a part of Telia ACE, but now, the video platform gets a complete overhaul. The release of ACE 26.1 introduces more features and improvements for your organization, for the agent and for the person contacting you.

For the agent, a new feature is the ability to “pop out” the video to a separate card, making it easier to organize and navigate the ACE Interact workarea. On the end user side, video chat is a part of ACE One Widget published on your website and configurable to suit the needs of your organization. Video chats use the WebRTC standard protocol which means the call works for the end user in any web browser, regardless of device or operating system. Several useful controls are available for the end user, like toggling which camera to use, typically for switching between front and back cameras on a mobile phone.

Left: agent view in ACE Interact with video popped out to a separate card. Right: end user view with controls for camera, microphone and more.

All parts of the video service are now produced on a modern, scalable and secure platform hosted by Telia, in our own Nordic datacenters. This ensures high performance, good reliability and compliance with strict rules and policies for privacy.

The initial release is to be considered a beta for testing and demo purposes during a time period. A stable production version will follow shortly. Also
More features, like taking snapshots, sending files between participants and a pen-tool for drawing and highlighting on the shared screen, will be added as the new video service is further developed.


Call monitoring in ACE Coach

Listening in on live calls can be a powerful tool for training and education and serves as a complement to metrics and statistics. Get a deeper insight into conversations, catch nuances and find out what works and what doesn’t. Then use this knowledge for coaching your agents or entire teams.

ACE Coach 26 introduced the possibility to do just that for incoming IVR-calls, and the feature is now live with the release of Telia ACE 26.1. The audio of any agent conversation can be mirrored to any phone number. When the customer call is routed to the agent, the monitoring number is called simultaneously and is added as a listen-only party.

It is easy for the coach (with the proper access rights) to select an agent in the user overview in ACE Coach and activate call monitoring. Either for a time interval, a set number of calls or until manually terminated.

The coach selects an agent in the accounts table to listen in on and sets the desired number of calls and duration (whichever happens first terminates the session unless manually terminated). As an extra safeguard against unauthorized or accidental use, the monitoring phone number must match the one entered by the administrator.

The feature comes with added settings for security and privacy in ACE Coach. Only persons or roles with the correct access rights in ACE are allowed to monitor others, and the monitoring number needs to be added twice. Once in advance by the administrator, and then by coaches themselves when activating a call monitoring session.

A new access function for call monitoring is added. Administrators that assign call monitoring permission need the “own” level and coaches that will use the feature need the “execute” level.

Note: Call monitoring requires your organization to use ACE IVR G2. Combining with ACE Recording G2 works fine.


IVR G2 and Recording G2 produced in Telia sovereign cloud

Privacy and data residency concerns are getting increasingly important topics for many organizations, both in public and private sector. To deliver on this market trend, standard versions of our next generation IVR and recording services, ACE IVR G2 and ACE Recording G2 are typically produced on regionally controlled AWS in Stockholm.

As an option for customers with extra high demands and strict policies concerning use of global cloud platforms, Telia can now provide a complete “in-house” production environment for these ACE services.

This means that the complete services, and all data that passes through it are located within Telia-controlled environments in our Nordic datacenters. All while keeping the benefits of being on a scalable and flexible cloud platform.

Now, these variants of the services can be delivered together with telephony platforms Touchpoint Plus and ACE Voice. ACE IVR G2 produced in the Telia sovereign cloud environment is already available together with Cisco HCS, Mitel MX-One and Siemens/Unify Openscape telephony platforms.

ACE Release 26

Telia ACE has released version 26 with many updates for evolving customer and agent experiences.

Specifically, ACE 26 adds a completely reworked mobile agent experience in the app ACE To Go, available for Apple and Android smartphones. It gives access to main functions for handling calls in the Telia ACE-powered contact center. It lets you serve queues and waiting lists to answer incoming calls and make scheduled or pending callback calls. The apps will be available for download shortly in Apple App store and Google Play store.

Our web-based administration tool ACE Coach continues to get new and useful features for everyday contact center administration. Coach 26 adds callback schedule management, a more granular access control for opening hours and more.

For the agent working in ACE Interact there are many updates, including a new card for keeping track of your personal campaign records, alerts on action in “VIP queues”, new keyboard shortcuts and filtering contacts in waiting lists. All changes for a smoother and more efficient workday.

New and updated features

ACE To Go – A new mobile app for call handling on Android and iPhone

With ACE To Go installed on your smartphone you have mana. For incoming calls, there is an assistance function to let you forward a contact to another queue, person in the ACE address book or to any number. For callback calls, you can leave feedback on the outcome, just like in the full web client ACE Interact.

These basic but powerful functions open for new smart ways of working and evolving the contact center in organizations that use Telia ACE. For example, it will be easy to let experts and back-office staff add competence to the contact center in a structured manner. Or create a second line queue served by colleagues on-call for those complex issues. A smartphone app won’t tie them to a desk, and notifications will make it clear whether it’s an incoming ACE contact when the phone rings.

Main app features include:

  • Sign in with ACE credentials or use single sign on via Microsoft IdP (Azure AD)
  • Set your status to ready or paused
  • See real time load and capacity of queues and waiting lists (available agents, contacts queued, current wait time, service level fulfillment)
  • Select queues to serve
  • Unclutter your queue view by showing only the queues you serve
  • Answer incoming IVR calls
  • Make scheduled or pending callback calls from waiting lists
  • View selected business metadata for calls and callbacks
  • For incoming IVR calls it is possible to use assistance with favorite, search and filter functions to forward calls to queue, person or any number (direct calls will be returned to your personal queue if no answer).
  • Provide feedback from drop-down on outcome of callbacks for statistics and follow-up
  • See your contact history and call directly from records in the list
  • Get push notifications for important events like incoming ACE contact when the app is in the background, or if you missed a call and was set to paused status
  • Select language

Updates to ACE Coach – our web based administration tool

Manage weekly schedules for callback appointments

Callback appointment schedules are used to manage bookable time slots and blocks for callbacks during the week. There are many use cases, one of the most common is in a health care center where caretakers book a time in the IVR or online to be called back by a professional for consultation, advice or a live meeting. In ACE 25 the ability to work with the current day was introduced in ACE Interact.

ACE Coach 26 gives the administrator tools to add, edit and delete weekly callback appointment schedules. The main screen shows a week overview of the selected schedule with all blocks represented with a summary of simultaneous callbacks, estimated callback length, number of slots, total possible callbacks in block and trailing minutes, if any. (Trailing minutes if block duration cannot be evenly divided by estimated callback duration). Also visible is booking horizon, that is the number of days in advance it is possible to book a callback for the block.
Several blocks can be added for any day of the week and all parameters are configurable in ACE Coach.

In addition to the above, you may also:

  • stop and activate (now or at a future date) the schedule
  • set task type for callbacks booked in the schedule
  • adjust settings for re-scheduling and cancellation
  • control identification requirements
  • set organisation area and subarea affiliation for the schedule
  • control whether time slots should be released and made available for new booking if the callback is completed ahead of schedule
  • handle exception dates for a schedule (including import of public holidays) in a separate tab

Easily add public holidays for Opening hours

ACE Coach 26 offers the possibility to easily add exception days for public holidays for Opening hours. The system provides all dates for national holidays, so there is no need for the administrator to look them up separately. Just choose your country and year(s) ahead to add national holidays to your list of exception days. Imported days are set to closed all day. They can be edited later as desired. Holidays are available for Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.

More granular access control for opening hours

The subarea affiliation concept for access control is extended to include opening hours in ACE Coach 26. This makes it possible for an administrator to delegate configuration of opening hours to users with only subarea access, so that coaches can configure opening hours for certain entrances and menu choices by themselves. This allows for more granular control (and is not available in ACE Admin, were access to the entire organization area is required to manage opening hours).

The updates include new filtering options in the opening hours table (per subarea, “Only view” and “Edit”) and a new tab, “Settings”, where settings for subarea affiliation are controlled for the selected item.


Useful updates for the agent tool ACE Interact

View and keep track of your personal campaign records

ACE Interact 26 introduces a new card in the work area. It lists personal campaign records and improves the usability when working with campaigns. Personal campaign records are creates when you have had an initial conversation with a lead but agreed to call back at a later time.

The card displays a table of records with scheduled start time, the campaign it belongs to and a comment. Each individual record may also be expanded to show the complete content and gives the possibility to edit, for example adding notes to the comment section.

Color cues in the table makes it easy to see which records are fetched to the ACE Server for dialing out and whether the start time has passed.

Enhanced keyboard control and navigation

ACE Interact 26 have updated keyboard shortcuts for many tasks. This will create faster and easier workflows for the agent by not having to use the mouse for common operations.

Shortcuts are divided into three main categories (Contact handling, Go To and Create) and each command has a letter. Depending on cursor location (input field or not) you invoke the Go To and Create commands by pressing G or C and the letter key or press Alt+Shift+G/C and Letter (when the cursor is in an input field). Contact handling shortcuts are always a single letter.

An example: if you’re not in an input field and want to create a new SMS, simply hit C (for create) followed by S to bring up the right card and start typing your text.

The list of keyboard commands can be easily displayed in a separate card in the work area for reference.

Focus your work by filtering contacts in waiting lists

Sometimes there is a need to unclutter your work view to focus on something. This is why ACE Interact 26 brings a filter feature to the waiting lists card. Filtering on type of list (e.g email, chat, workitem etc.) and actual list allows the agent to focus on picking one desired type of contacts without getting distracted.

Filters are presented as buttons with a preview for the number of contacts applying the filter results in, creating a quick overview of the current load on different waiting lists.

Enhanced agent experience for outbound calls with Microsoft Teams

The integration between ACE Interact and Microsoft Teams is further enhanced in ACE 26. Once the set up on the agent computer, there is no need for the agent to switch over to the Teams application to place an outgoing Teams call as in previous version of the integration. The call can be placed from within ACE Interact, as with other telephony, for a faster and more seamless experience.

Notifications on incoming ”VIP contacts”

Many organizations have queues and waiting lists for contacts that are of critical importance and should be handled as soon as possible. It may be for emergency situations in healthcare or maybe for highly valued customers.

For this purpose, it is possible to configure selected queues and waiting lists as “Priority 1 with announcement” in ACE Admin or ACE Coach. The announcement itself can be one of two types, Flash or Dialogue.

In ACE Interact 26, agents serving such high priority queues or waiting lists will be notified of incoming contacts to such high priority queues. The actual notification is made according to one of the two possible types, ”flash” and ”dialogue”.

Flash displays the queue or waiting list in flashing colour in the queue status card (see image below). The card itself is opened and promoted to foreground if it is closed, minimized or blocked by other cards.

Dialogue notification type is even more evident. It brings up a dialogue box on screen where the agent may handle the incoming high priority contact right away. If there is an ongoing contact, you get an option to park it directly from the dialogue.


Even more data in ACE Business Intelligence – statistics in your browser

ACE Business Intelligence brings detailed contact center statistics and reporting to your browser. Ready-made sheets and dashboards provide insight into resource utilization, tasks and contact flow in all channels. Powerful editing lets you create, save and share your own sheets for custom reports and analytics tailored to your needs. ACE business Intelligence, with the release of ACE 26

  • What paths through your IVR do callers really use? Measuring points in the IVR tree with Sankey diagram graphical representation of user flows and behaviour from entrance to queue in a new sheet. This can be a powerful tool for tuning and evolving your IVR. A bar chart shows total executions of the different measuring points with customer drops at each point. Measuring points are configured in ACE Admin for certain dialogue objects such as start-objects, input-objects, menu-objects etc.
  • A dashboard sheet with useful overview, including a pie chart with the “time in contact” per task type. Makes it easy to identify which task types that consumes most time. Average waiting time also shows information on number of answered contacts. Average contact time and Average wrapup time also show number of handled contacts.
  • Extended statistics in the callback sheet. A new dimension “Feedback for callback appointments” makes it easy to filter out callbacks that were scheduled as appointments.
    In the tables “callback feedback -Task” and “Callback feedback – Agent”, there is a new dimension to look into feedback statistics specifically for callbacks that were made ahead of schedule
  • A new visualization in the task type sheet shows the share of contacts that are handled the same day
  • ACE Errand Log is an addon to the ACE-powered contact center that lets agents log complex customer cases step by step, in a structured manner. A new REST based connection to Errand Log and a new standard sheet in ACE Business Intelligence makes it possible for organizations to visualize, drill down into and gain insights from Errand Log data.
  • The ACE Business Intelligence user interface gets an updated color scheme and new icons for Telia ACE suite consistency. A more consistent sheet naming is introduced and will be available for all customers using ACE Business Intelligence version 23 or later. Table rows are highlighted on mouseover, improving readability when browsing large amounts of data. Also in tables, cells with null-values are simply white, resulting in a less cluttered look and better readability.
  • A new way to add data from other arbitrary sources is now available. ACE Business Intelligence ships with a “custom handle” file dedicated for reading data from other systems related to the customer’s ACE setup. Scripts in the custom handle file will make data accessible in ACE Business Intelligence for building customer-specific reports and dashboards together with ACE-data. Instructions for use and formatting are available in the file itself..
  • Task type and outcome statistics are added to task table sheets. Outcome values allow the agent to provide standardized input on the result of contacts that they have handled from a drop-down list the agent application before ending a contact. Outcomes are useful for statistics.

Recording on demand and extended interoperability for ACE Recording G2

On demand Recording in ACE Recording G2

Recording on demand is a useful feature with many use cases. One common scenario is to document a contract agreement in case of a successful sales call.

Recording on demand is now available in ACE Interact for organizations using ACE Recording G2. It lets agents (with the correct permissions) easily start and stop recording as desired during a conversation. Recordings are accessed in the Interactions part of ACE Interact as usual.

Recording on demand cannot be combined with automatic recording of entire calls. This is because agents that use recording on demand need an exclusive access right for being recorded by this feature in their access role.

Granular access control for listening to recordings

As a privacy strengthening measure, ACE 26 receives a new access function specifically for listening to calls recorded with Recording G2 in the Interactions archive. This way it is easy for the organization to allow only those who really need to listen and block others. Contact data (timestamps, duration, users etc,) may still be configured to be accessible in Interactions.

When updating to ACE 26, users with any of the previous permissions for accessing interactions will also get this new access function. Going from there, the organization will be able to restrict listening as desired following the update.

Extended interoperability compatibility for ACE Recording G2

Our modern call recording solution ACE Recording G2 is continuously enhanced to work in wider variety of technical scenarios and setups. With the release of ACE 26, Recording G2 has the added capability to record incoming IVR calls in organizations using the Siemens/Unify OpenScape telephony platform.

ACE 26 also adds the following capabilities to Recording G2:

  • Record outbound calls of type callback and preview campaign call for ACE with Cisco HCS communications platform
  • Record outbound calls of type callback and preview campaign call for ACE with Mitel MX-One communications platform
  • Record incoming IVR calls in organizations using the Siemens/Unify OpenScape communications platform

More Nordic endpoints for digital authentication in ACE Identity Hub

ACE Identity Hub is an addon that enables organizations using ACE to digitally authenticate end users across a number of channels. Channels include phone calls (in the IVR or initiated by the agent), online for accessing web self service or from any customer application through a REST API.

Now Danish MitID and Norwegian BankID are added to the list of digital authentication methods that are supported by ACE Identity Hub. Already present on the list are Swedish BankID (mobile, file or smart card), Nordea eID, Freja eID Plus (Sweden) and Freja eID Extended (Denmark, Norway, Finland).

Minor updates

Minor updates

A new procedure in ACE Campaign API

A new procedure is added to the ACE Campaign interface “OutboundCampaignChangeStatus”. This allows an external application to make a call to the interface to activate or pause a campaign, which opens up for even more powerful and flexible integrations. Status for a campaign can be set to started, limited, stopped or terminated and a number of return codes confirm the change or tells the integrated system if a problem occurs. These are explained in the updated interface specification.

A campaign status change done using this feature is logged in the ACE change log as user “ACE Internal”.

Security and privacy related updates

Audit trail entries for when chat and call recording are accessed in Interactions

The ACE audit trail is a security feature that stores information on activities in and changes to the system. It is only available to administrators with special authorization. In ACE 26 additions are made to what events are stored in the audit trail.

If anyone opens and listens to a recording in ACE Interaction View, this is now logged in the audit trail. The same goes for access to stored chat conversations.


In-house management of encryption keys for enhanced privacy

ACE has transitioned from Service managed keys to Customer managed encryptions keys for Microsoft Azure based services.

Encryption keys are now managed by Telia instead of Microsoft Azure. Keys are created in our on-premises KMS (key management system) and then uploaded to Microsoft Azure.
The solution applies to ACE Knowledge (automatically applied to existing and future apps),
ACE Virtual Agent and ACE Conversational Hub (available as an option and applied on request) .

The update addresses the concern many organizations, primarily in the public sector, have regarding services produced in Azure cloud and the CLOUD Act.


Flexible editing of dialogue flows in ACE Admin

ACE Admin 26 introduces a more flexible way of editing dialogue flows that control IVR behaviour. This will simplify processes where Telia’s technical staff makes adjustments, and may shorten delivery time for requested minor changes.


Music while waiting in queue in IVR G2

ACE 26 brings an anticipated feature to our next generation IVR. It will be possible for organizations using ACE IVR G2 to play music to persons calling in while they are placed in queue. Even though the entertainment value can be debated, music may serve as a useful indicator that the call is live and hasn’t been dropped, effectively improving the end user experience.

Compatibility

Please refer to Release Notes for Telia ACE 26 and Release Notes for individual sub products for detailed technical information, requirements and considerations. These documents are available on request from your Telia contact.

Compatibility Telia ACE 26:

  • ACE Admin versions 22 or newer are supported
  • ACE Coach must be upgraded, only version 26
  • ACE Report versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported (*)
  • ACE Agent versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported (*)
  • ACE Pulse versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported (*)
  • (*) Note that, if single sign-on is used, ACE Agent 21.0 or newer, ACE Pulse 21.0 or newer and ACE Report 21.0 or newer are supported; older versions are thus not supported.
  • ACE Interact versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported
  • ACE Monitor versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported
  • When upgrading ACE Database to 26.0.0, all users of ACE Coach, ACE Interact and ACE Monitor will automatically start using the new version at next login after upgrade:
    • ACE Coach: the system parameters governing the primary version and the secondary version of ACE Coach will automatically be changed to 26.0.0.
    • ACE Interact: the system parameter governing the primary version of ACE Interact will automatically be changed to 26.0.0. If upgrading from ACE 25, the system parameter governing the secondary version of ACE Interact will automatically be changed to the primary version used before the upgrade. If upgrading from an older version than ACE 25, the system parameter governing the secondary version of ACE Interact will automatically be changed to 25.0.0.
    • ACE Monitor: when upgrading from a version older than 24, the system parameter governing the primary version of ACE Monitor will automatically be changed to 24.0.0. If upgrading from ACE 23, the system parameter governing the secondary version of ACE Monitor will automatically be changed to the primary version used before the upgrade. If upgrading from an older version than ACE 23, the system parameter governing the secondary version of ACE Monitor will automatically be changed to 23.0.0.
  • If upgrading from a version older than ACE 25, it is strongly recommended to read release notes for all intermediate versions. For instance, if upgrading from ACE 21.0 to ACE 26.0, ACE22ReleaseNotes, ACE23ReleaseNotes, ACE24ReleaseNotes and ACE25ReleaseNotes should be read in addition to current Release Notes.

Release 25

September 30, 2022, marks the release of Telia ACE version 25. As always, there are many useful updates. Many of them are in our browser-based administration tool ACE Coach that takes a big step forward. It now includes routing rule management and very powerful functionality for building, maintaining and fine-tuning IVR call flows.

Our agent tool ACE Interact gets functionality for, among other things, viewing and editing current day schedule for callback appointments. A feature that typically will benefit health care centers or other operations with extensive use of scheduled callbacks.

Organizations running Telia ACE together with Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics CRM systems will be happy to see our updated adapters that provide much of the ACE Interact functionality as integrated widgets.

New and updated features

Tons of new features in ACE Coach

ACE Coach gets a healthy dose of new features bringing it another big step closer to being the perfect web based tool for everyday contact center administration.

Canned responses in ACE Coach

Canned responses are ready-made texts that are available for the agent to quickly insert in text communication, like chat, email and SMS. Typically, they are greetings, common answers, “standard” expressions or any other phrase that you know is commonly used.

This speeds up agent work, ensures a consistent tone of voice and lowers the risk of errors in written communication.

Canned responses may also contain “macros” that are variables that inserts specific words or numbers dynamically into the text. For example, agent name, current date or a specific contact data key value.

In ACE Coach 25 it is possible for the administrator to add, copy, edit and delete the canned responses and macros that should be available to the agents. Canned responses may be available to the entire organization or be affiliated to one or more subareas. All available responses are presented in a table that can be sorted, searched and filtered for easy navigation. A selected response may (given that you have the right permission) be easily edited or copied for making changes or add a new response.

Permission to manage canned responses is controlled by an access function.


Routing rules in ACE Coach

ACE Coach 25 allows an administrator (with adequate permissions) to fully manage routing rules for calls, callbacks, chats and emails. This is a part of controlling the whole path of a contact, from access number, through a call flow, then routing to queues, and finally to an agent.
Routing rules are essential for making contacts reach the best possible destination in your organization. They control how contacts are escalated between destinations (queues/waiting lists, person/number or escalation point). If a contact isn’t handled at the first destination, it is moved to the next according to the “constraint” set for each step of the escalation chain. Which rule that should be applied is set by rule criteria that is a combination of media type and contact data. These contact data may for example be set in the IVR, by (automatic) queries to integrated platforms such as a CRM system or from identified keywords in text or speech.
The end result is fine grained control over how contacts progress through the contact center to ensure high level of service and high accuracy in reaching a desired destination.


View change log in ACE Coach

A welcome feature for security administration and troubleshooting in ACE Coach 25 is the ability to view a log of system changes. The Change log feature is available under the “System” main menu choice. Log of events are displayed as a table after the user selects a date range. The user can sort, filter (type of event, type of object and area affiliation) and free text search to quickly find the desired information.


Increased flexibility for controlling opening hours in ACE Coach call flows

Sometimes you may want to adjust the behavior of a menu choice in a more flexible way than just open or closed. For example, you may want to stop offering callback 30 minutes before a specific branch of manned customer service closes. Another might be that you want to offer an SMS service for a specific menu choice from closing time but no later than nine in the evening. Any call flow function (added in ACE Coach 24) can be controlled in this way.

Such setups that use a combination of schedule checks in specific scenarios are now possible to configure in ACE Coach 25 call flows. The result is an extra level of fine-grained control on top of the regular open/closed for menu choices.


Call flow with Virtual menus in ACE Coach

Virtual menus in call flows opens up for greater flexibility and accuracy when determining caller intent in the IVR.
Virtual menus are an addition to DTMF menus that make it possible to add functionality and precision to the call flow using external services (virtual agent/free speech/external DTMF/other services). Theses external services will collect input from the caller and set values for specific return parameters. These values can then be mapped to menu exits in the virtual menu. The external service might also set other parameters/contact data that are not used in the call flow configuration, but it could be used in other parts of ACE, such as routing or for screen pop when the contact eventually reaches an agent.

Starting in ACE Coach 25 you can

  • add virtual menus to your call flows, by creating new ones or re-using virtual menus that are already defined in the call flow
  • add free text description
  • set parameter(s) for the external service if required
  • set fallback actions for undefined return values or errors
  • map return values to menu exits
  • set task type depending on return value
  • set contact data (keys and values) depending on return values
  • control opening hours for exits
  • manage phrases for virtual menu exits

Wrapup in ACE Coach

Wrapup is a time slot at the end of a contact to allow an agent to complete tasks related to the contact. E.g., make updates in a support system after a call or chat conversation has ended. In ACE Coach 25 the administrator can manage wrapup settings for the agents. Both the default settings as well as custom settings for specific task types, as required by the organization.
The administrator can define no wrapup, limited wrapup or unlimited wrapup (that the agent must interrupt manually to end the contact and return to ready state). For limited wrapup you specify a duration and whether the agent should be able to extend wrapup, and if so, for how long and how many times.
The resulting wrapup time for a given contact is also defined by the agent’s wrapup factor that is set in the user account. A beginner may have a 200% factor that doubles the wrapup time defined here.


Manage value sets for outcomes in ACE Coach

Outcome values are central for working with contacts in ACE. They allow the agent to provide systematic feedback on the result of contacts that they have handled and are presented as a drop down before ending a contact in ACE Interact. Outcomes are valuable, for example for statistics and when following up campaigns.
This is why it is a great addition to ACE Coach 25 that the administrator can manage which outcome values should be available to choose at any given contact.
It is possible to add, edit delete outcome values and for which current and future task types they should be available for. A search function makes it easy to navigate existing outcome values.


Copy Call flow to other entrance in ACE Coach

A new feature, “copy call flow to other entrance”, makes it even easier to manage call flows in ACE Coach 25.
This is for example very useful as a safety measure before making changes to complex call flows that may be very time-consuming rebuilding from scratch. You can copy the live call flow to a temporary entrance, make changes and test them carefully. If everything works out it is easy to copy it back to the production entrance.
In a delivery scenario it also greatly speeds up the process of setting up many similar call flows.

Updates to ACE Interact

Choose between multiple SMS sender names in ACE Interact

In ACE Interact 25 it is possible to let the agent select from different preconfigured alphanumeric sender names when composing an SMS. On first time use, a default is selected, but if the agent selects another, this is remembered next time.
This feature is handy for large organizations that want to differentiate communication from different branches, or for contact centers serving different units, brands or companies.

Note: Administration of sender names requires placing a ticket with Telia ACE support.


Current day view and administration of callback appointment schedules in ACE Interact

For staff working regularly with callback appointments it is valuable to get an overview and be able to view and manage the current workday schedule. This is possible in a new feature in ACE Interact 25. A typical use-case might be a nurse at a health center working with callbacks for patient advice and bookings. The feature gives both a quick overview of today’s blocks with booked and free slots as well as the possibility to check and edit individual slots.

Given the correct permissions, the user can:

  • View the schedule overview for current day with booked times, free time slots and any orphan bookings (outside of defined blocks)
  • See status at a glance with help of color-coded visual cues and “progress bars” to show block occupancy rate
  • Open schedule blocks to view individual free and booked time slots
  • Edit blocks and slots in the current schedule to adapt to changing requirements and circumstances such as last-minute changes in staffing for the day
  • See and edit capacity (concurrent appointments) for blocks
  • Close a schedule for further bookings
  • Show any orphan bookings outside of schedule blocks

Use data from ongoing contact when booking a scheduled appointment

If an agent, or nurse in the health care scenario, selects “book appointment” while having an active contact, the phone number from the ongoing call, along with CID and comment if any, will be pre-entered in the correct fields for the booking. A time-saving feature that also lowers the risk of errors compared to manually entering the data.


ACE Interact – view only my interactions

The “Interactions” tool is an integral part of ACE Interact to search and review historic contacts, during their set storage time. ACE user accounts can now be configured to allow access only to their own personal interactions. Search and filtering options are of course still available to make it easy to locate any desired information.

This setting filters out everything but the interactions where you yourself was a part. This may be a regulatory requirement or a requirement to comply to strict privacy policies in some organizations. Not the least when using ACE Recording G2 where stored call recordings are accessed and played back using the Interactions tool in ACE Interact.

ACE Recording G2 and threat calls

Managing “retroactive” recording of threat calls

Sometimes an agent may want to record a call unexpectedly as the conversation develops. A typical scenario would be if a call turns out to be a threat, or otherwise might be valuable as evidence. The obvious challenge here is that the crucial part of the conversation may have already passed before the agent could hit the record button.

To tackle this challenge, it is possible to configure ACE Recording G2 to start recording all calls “just in case”. And if there is no need to save the recording it is hidden and then deleted. If, on the other hand, the agent decides that the recording needs to be saved for later access, then they may use a defined outcome value such as “threat” or other suitable text string and the recording will be saved.

ACE Salesforce and Dynamics adapters

Updates to the ACE Salesforce adapter

The popular ACE Salesforce Adapter is a softphone widget that is opened as an app in Salesforce. It offers a subset of the functionality found in ACE Interact, and selected unique features related to Salesforce. This includes most aspects of call and status handling. The adapter provides a boost in efficiency for organizations combining Salesforce and Telia ACE.

In this release, there are new features related both to ACE and to Salesforce

Features related to ACE:

  • The user can change ACE Work level directly from the adapter. Saves time as there is no need to switch over to ACE Interact for this common operation
  • Wrapup time can be extended directly in the adapter with a simple click, (as long as it is configured in ACE)
  • The Salesforce Adapter can be configured to show ACE contact data for a contact in progress. For example, entrance, menu choice or any customer unique keys that help the agent know more and manage the contact efficiently
  • Widget for queue status of ACE queues
  • For customers with NICE-based ACE Recording G1 it is now possible to invoke recording on demand from within the Salesforce Adapter

Features related to Salesforce:

  • Possible to configure automatic creation of Salesforce “Case” for calls. On accepting incoming, making outbound or accepting a callback.
  • It is possible to use the “Click to call” feature of Salesforce when doing an Enquiry in ACE Salesforce adapter. Useful because typically, for a company using Salesforce, all contacts are already listed in Salesforce, and it may not be relevant to have a separate ACE address book.

Release of ACE Dynamics adapter 1.0

ACE Dynamics Adapter is a softphone widget that is configured in a multi-session app in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM platform. The multi-session apps are Customer Service workspace or Omnichannel for Customer Service in Dynamics.

The widget offers a subset of the functionality found in ACE Interact along with Dynamics specific features. Much in a similar way as the Salesforce adapter.

ACE functionality:

  • Change status, active/pause (to receive contacts)
  • Handle incoming calls, outgoing external calls, callback Calls
  • Make call, Mute/unmute, park call
  • Enquiry/Transfer to a queue or to a phone number
  • Conference
  • Change ACE Work level
  • Wrapup time can be extended, if configured in ACE
  • ACE contact data can be configured to be shown in the adapter
  • Set Storage class, to use with ACE Recording G2
  • Recording on demand for NICE-based ACE Recording G1

Dynamics specific features:

  • Support for using “Click-to-Act” feature in Dynamics at Make Call and at Enquiry
  • Search and open record in Dynamics for calls
  • Create activity in Dynamics for calls

Supported Languages: Swedish, English, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish and German

A boost for Telia ACE in Denmark

ACE IVR G2 integration to Telia Touchpoint Experience in Denmark

In our ongoing project to establish ACE, including IVR G2, for our entire Nordic and Baltic footprint we have reached another milestone. As an extension of our ongoing Nordic roll-out, it is now possible to set up ACE with IVR G2 (produced using AWS) for customers using the Telia Touchpoint Experience telephony platform in Denmark.

This will make Telia ACE an even more compelling offer on the Danish market.

Minor updates

Work level and presence statistics in ACE Business Intelligence

In this release of our statistics and reporting tool the calculation and presentation of Activity and Presence is greatly enhanced, making it possible to follow up on additional KPIs.

In ACE BI work level, status and presence information is merged, so it is possible for the ACE BI user to see what activities agents use during the time they are logged in to ACE.

Two new default visualizations:

  • Agent status and activity – Shows the duration of the activity for each work level and status
  • Agent activity statistics – Shows the duration of the Activity

One more default measure:

  • Agent presence – Shows the duration in seconds

Enhanced statistics export from ACE Knowledge to Excel

The latest release of ACE Knowledge includes the following new functionality and applies to the “Interface overview” and “Guide overview” views on the statistics page.

  • When clicking the export button there is a new option to select which of your interfaces to export statistics for.
  • In the exported Excel file, in addition to the previous Summary sheet, you will also get an individual sheet for each selected interface. The statistics in the tabs for each interface will be displayed as day-by-day statistics for each day in the selected interval. Please note that the maximum interval for export is set to 31 days.
  • To improve user experience, the interval for displaying statistics in the admin interface is capped at 185 days to prevent excessive loading times.

An update for the operator in ACE Agent

Set and change diversion number in Mitel CMG with Cisco

Allows the operator using the ACE Agent application to enter a number to (temporarily) forward calls on behalf of a colleague in organizations combining Telia ACE with Mitel CMG + Cisco UC/Telephony-platform. The setting applies to all incoming calls.

This flexibility can help maintain a good service level and end user experience (actually reaching the desired person) with little effort, for example, if the colleague’s regular phone is out of order or left at home by mistake.

Compatibility

Important notes for Telia ACE 25

  • SQL Server 2012 is not supported from ACE 25.
  • ACE Admin versions 22 or newer are supported.
  • ACE Coach must be upgraded, only version 25 is supported.
  • ACE Report versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported (*).
  • ACE Agent versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported (*).
  • ACE Pulse versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported (*).
  • (*) Note that, if single sign-on is used, ACE Agent 21.0 or newer, ACE Pulse 21.0 or newer and ACE Report 21.0 or newer are supported; older versions are thus not supported.
  • ACE Interact versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported.
  • ACE Monitor versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported.
  • Changing system parameter ssoAuthIdConcept requires system restart.
  • Special limitations when using ACE IVR G2: It can take up to 5 minutes until new emergency fallback configurations are activated.
  • ACE Business Intelligence:
    • Measuring point statistics is not available.
    • Max duration of an activity is 62 days.
  • When upgrading ACE Database to 25.0.0, all users of ACE Coach, ACE Interact and ACE Monitor will automatically start using the new version at next login after upgrade:
    • the system parameters governing the primary version and the secondary version of ACE Coach will automatically be changed to 25.0.0.
    • the system parameter governing the primary version of ACE Interact will automatically be changed to 25.0.0 and the system parameter governing the secondary version of ACE Interact will automatically be changed to the primary version used before the upgrade.
    • when upgrading from a version older than 24, the system parameter governing the primary version of ACE Monitor will automatically be changed to 24.0.0 and the system parameter governing the secondary version of ACE Monitor will automatically be changed to the primary version used before the upgrade.
  • If upgrading from a version older than ACE 24, it is strongly recommended to read release notes for all intermediate versions. For instance, if upgrading from ACE 20.0 to ACE 25.0, ACE21ReleaseNotes, ACE22ReleaseNotes, ACE23ReleaseNotes and ACE24ReleaseNotes should be read in addition to current release notes.

Release 24

Telia ACE 24 is here. It includes a number of big and small updates for increased usability, compatibility, and performance.

For the growing Finnish market, it is good news that Telia ACE 24 works for organizations with the Cisco-based communications platform Telia TOP Max.

Agents get new ways to organize and navigate their workspace with a “sidebar” in ACE Interact. It makes it easy to switch between cards and even get notified of new events in cards when they are out of view. For organizations with Teams integrated with their PBX, it is now possible to answer incoming Teams calls directly in ACE Interact.

Our web-based administration tool ACE Coach gets several important updates. In Call flows, you can add Functions, a powerful and flexible way to add features such as e-ID authorization or self-service logic to your IVR. Also new in Call flows is time controlled status for phrases and functions for temporary and/or planned changes to normal IVR operations.

New and updated features

New features in ACE Coach

Insert, view and configure call flow functions in ACE Coach

The introduction of functions in the call flow configuration in ACE Coach allows for easy, yet flexible and very powerful management of self-service logic or integration to other systems like CRMs in your call flows.

A typical example would be adding a step for identifying the caller using an eID service as part of your IVR.

Functions introduce a modular approach to the IVR and allows for reuse of logic and functionality at different points in your IVR trees.

From this version of ACE Coach, it is possible to choose which function to insert at a desired point in your call flow and configure any associated parameters to get the correct behavior. Functions are defined in ACE Admin and their potentially complex inner workings may be represented in a simplified way in the ACE Coach call flow interface.


Status with Start/Stop time for Functions and Phrases

This new feature lets you configure intervals for active status, start and stop times for phrases and functions in your IVR call flow. It’s possible to set a future start or stop time as well as define an interval for activation or inactivation of a phrase or function. Permission to use the feature is part of the ACE access control system.

The actual function or phrase is not affected by these active/inactive settings in the call flow, meaning that if the function is used in another part of the call flow it can have its own active/inactive settings at that point.

The feature might for example be used when setting up a time limited campaign or setting other temporary announcements to your IVR.

Selectable statuses are: always active, inactive, active from, active until, active during and active except.


View routing of contacts in ACE Coach

A logical step towards making ACE Coach a full-fledged, web-based administration tool for the contact center is the added possibility to work with contact routing. In this release it is possible to view and inspect routing rules configured in ACE.

Routing rules control how contacts are dynamically routed to queues and waiting lists based on complex input like contact metadata, IVR choices, agent availability, schedules, integrations with other systems and more.


Manage queues & Waiting lists in ACE Coach

An important part of contact routing management is the possibility to get a comprehensive view of available queues and waiting lists in the organization. In ACE Coach 24 it is possible to get that overview in a searchable table. Given the right access rights the administrator may also create new items and edit current queues and waiting lists for calls, callbacks, chat and email.


ACE Coach user interface in Norwegian

Localization of interfaces is an important part of expanding within our current footprint in the Nordic and Baltic countries. This is why we now introduce ACE Coach in Norwegian. It’s available as a choice at login, starting with ACE Coach version 24.1.


New features in ACE Interact

Added in ACE Interact 24.1 – Set and view activity for TCM

An operator using ACE Interact 24.1 can view and set current and future activity/attendant messages for other users in the organization when searching in the TCM catalog.
This allows the operator to give relevant information to a person calling in, and also keep the information about colleagues whereabouts up to date.


Answer incoming Teams calls from ACE Interact

Microsoft Teams has quickly become an established tool for collaboration, effectively blurring the lines between computer communication and telephony. It allows for remote work and easy communication across entire organizations, not just in the contact center.

It is in that context that we further enhance integration and interoperability between Telia ACE and MS Teams.

In ACE Interact 24 it is possible to answer incoming Teams calls, directly from the ACE Interact workspace without having to switch to Teams. The feature uses a plugin, installed on the agent desktop and MS Teams telephony in Telia ACE relies on Teams-PBX integration.


Sidebar in ACE Interact

As contact center functionality grows, channels are added and the agent takes on more tasks and more complex tasks, the need to get an overview and easily navigate the work area grows. This is why we introduce a new sidebar in ACE Interact 24.

The sidebar shows open cards and makes it easy to navigate between them, also using keyboard. The sidebar also displays activity notifications for cards that are out of view, minimized or covered by others. For example, an incoming contact, new chat or upcoming callback time.

The sidebar has a dynamic sort order, depending on last use. It can switch between compact mode, showing just icons, and expanded view with text labels for each object. Cards can now also be minimized, either from the sidebar or from the card itself. Minimized cards are shown in grey and can be restored from the sidebar.


Updates for organizations using the Mitel CMG catalog/directory service

Mitel CMG UC platform is a popular choice for catalog and directory services and ACE Interact contains many integrations for smooth workflows in organizations combining CMG and Telia ACE.

  • On incoming internal calls, ACE Interact makes a CMG catalog search and presents the name of the caller as a subheading on the card. This makes it easier for the agent or operator to manage the incoming call correctly.
  • An operator using ACE Interact can view and set current and future activity/attendant messages for other users in the organization when searching in the CMG catalog. This is an access function that needs to be granted to be used. Available activities to set are controlled in ACE Admin.

Many usability improvements in ACE Interact

ACE Interact constantly gets improvements to make everyday life a bit easier for the agent. Taken together they save both time and effort.

Additions to Interact 24 include:

  • Email address field auto completion suggesting previously used addresses
  • Place call directly from search field using a keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+Enter. (more keyboard shortcuts will follow as it speeds up work for experienced users)
  • Send DTMF-tones using keyboard during ongoing call. Handy and better ergonomics if the agent needs to navigate an IVR menu
  • To create a more consistent agent experience, it is now possible to place outgoing call and send SMS for interactions without task type. Applies to internal and external in- and outgoing calls
  • To minimize clutter and distractions in the agent work area it is now always possible to filter the queue and waiting lists to show only the ones that the agent is logged in to and currently serving
  • Automatic search in configured address book, also on incoming internal calls presents name of the colleague calling

Agent Interface JSAPI improvements

A number of extensions to the JSAPI Agent interface for ACE Interact makes it possible to build even more powerful and feature rich integrations for efficient agent workflows across applications.

  • Change Work level from the integrated application, such as SalesForce, without having to switch to the Interact tab
  • Extend wrapup time from any integrated third-party application without the stress of having to switch to another browser tab
  • Writing to chat, allowing a chat bot/agent assistant to take part in the conversation and suggest answers in an ongoing chat, making agent work easier
  • Support for fetching current queue status to the integrated application by asking the JSAPI interface for a “subscription”
  • JSAPI may fetch info about number of agents serving a queue, place in queue and expected queue time which are useful deciding factors before transferring an ongoing contact to another queue
  • Fetch information about the logged in agent to the integrated application. Including full name, extension, ACE Interact version, organization and a selection of settings
  • Get available feedback types and corresponding descriptions for callback and campaign allows for greater campaign control from integrated applications
  • Subscribe to event when contact data keys are changed
  • JSAPI may close custom content cards when not needed to keep the agent workspace focused, removing distractions and lowering risk of confusion
  • It is now also possible to add (and remove) custom content cards to the menu via JSAPI, giving the agent easy access to custom cards from a tailored menu

Single sign on for multi organizational users

Single sign on is a very convenient feature for ACE Interact users in organizations with Microsoft Active Directory. Once logged into your desktop, you just have to open ACE Interact and start working.

In Telia ACE 24 SSO functionality is extended to work also for users belonging to more than one organization area in Telia ACE. That is, one AD user account can be used for multiple ACE user accounts. This is useful in very large organizations divided into units that are managed in separate organization areas in Telia ACE. A multihomed user is prompted to choose organization area at login, instead of having to keep track of different user credentials. The update will not affect users with only one organization area, they will experience the normal login flow.

Ultimately it saves time and effort for employees that work in different organizational departments depending on work-force schedule .


Show or conceal hidden fields from TCM

When performing searches in the TCM catalog, it is now possible to control if “hidden fields” should be displayed or not according to your access rights. Entire catalog records or just specific fields may be marked as hidden in TCM, meaning that only agents with operator access rights are allowed to see them.

In the case of an aggregated search hit (with data both from ACE and TCM), only the allowed part of the aggregated information is displayed. If there is a search hit only in a hidden field and the agent doesn’t have access to hidden fields, the record isn’t shown at all in the search results.


Updates to ACE Book Me

ACE Book Me has extended functionality for the personal online meeting, including a choice of two different platforms for video calls and screen sharing.

Administrators can choose to set up bookable meeting type “Online Meeting” with a choice of using Microsoft Teams or the platform Telia Chat Plus for video and screen sharing.

When the end user then books an appointment using ACE Book Me web widget, the system creates meeting links both for the agent/advisor and the end user and reserves the calendar slot.

To further enhance ease of use for the end user when booking an appointment in a logged in context (typically a “My Pages” scenario), the booking widget can pre-populate fields for name and contact details. This way the end user only needs to choose a suitable date and time from the calendar and click “book”.


Operator Statistics and more in ACE Business Intelligence

To make it easier to follow up operator related statistics a number of features have been added to ACE Business Intelligence. Operators are identified by their access rights to perform certain functions and it is now possible to follow up their work specifically using pre-defined sheets in ACE Business Intelligence, “Operator agent” and “Operator task”. They cover data like answered IVR calls, recalls, forwarded calls, calls placed in queue, enquiries and more. As a part of this, it is also possible to view and follow up on the destination for connected calls. That lets you for example see which extensions that often result in recalls to the operator.

By popular demand, ACE Business Intelligence user interface is now available in Norwegian.

There is also an added feature that makes it possible to monitor and follow up stats for contacts that are routed to an agent but not accepted, per media type and per agent.


Continued development of ACE IVR G2

We continue to add features and compatibility improvements to our next generation cloud based IVR platform ACE IVR G2.

  • Call in to the IVR to record and update voice phrases
  • Personal greeting phrases allows the IVR to play an agent-specific greeting when the caller has navigated through the IVR menu and reaches an agent. This adds a personal touch, improving customer experience, and saves time for the agent at each contact
  • Extended compatibility. Tested and verified support for using ACE IVR G2 with the Siemens/Unify OpenScape communications platform

Telia ACE with Telia TOP Max for the Finnish market

ACE 24 brings a compatibility and network upgrade that is significant for the Finnish market where Telia ACE has a growing user base. It is now possible to run Telia ACE, including ACE IVR G2, together with the Cisco based Telia TOP Max communications platform.

This strengthens Telia’s offering in Finland to large organizations with high demands on performance, reliability and configurability.


Teams presence in ACE Interact 24.1 with TCM

An update in ACE Presence Adapter G2 makes it possible for customers running Telia Communication Manager (TCM) and ACE Interact 24.1 to use Microsoft Teams and Office365 as presence source for external contacts (entire organization, also outside of ACE).
Calendar data from Office365 will be shown as future presence and Microsoft Teams presence will be used as active/current presence when searching the TCM catalog.

Microsoft Teams and Office365 presence data cannot be set or modified from ACE.

Minor updates

Minor updates to ACE Interact

Accessibility improvements ACE Interact

We strive for WCAG 2.1 compliance and constantly make accessibility improvements to ACE Interact. In this release many small improvements have been made for this purpose, e.g. new menu option, adapted for keyboard navigation, for changing password.


Support for inactivity logout in ACE Interact

ACE Interact now takes central settings and timer for inactivity logout into account. This is expected behavior from an administration standpoint. When inactivity logout is triggered, a message is displayed for the agent with the option to initiate a new logon.

Enhanced change log for ACE Admin

If an access role is edited with added or removed access functions, the change is now added to the change log in ACE Admin. Assigning roles to users is also logged.


Performance improvements

Most new releases have optimizations and performance improvements. In ACE 24 they include:

  • Significant improvements in performance regarding timebooked callbacks for customers with high loads during short time intervals. Particularly useful for all our customers in the health care sector
  • Backend is upgraded to Erlang 24 that promises significant performance boost and will increase server efficiency. That means that they will use less energy and that is also good for the planet
  • Performance enhancements for Interaction View searches

Internal compatibility improvements

ACE 24 brings support for SQL Server 2019. This paves the way for phasing out support for SQL Server 2012 in the upcoming release, ACE 25.

Compatibility

Version requirements for the individual clients

To use the new functionality in Telia ACE 24.0 you need latest version of each respective sub product.

The following versions of ACE clients are compatible with ACE 24.0:

  • ACE Admin versions 22 or newer are supported
  • ACE Coach must be upgraded, only version 24 is supported
  • CallGuide Report / ACE Report versions 11.0.0 or newer are supported (*)
  • CallGuide Agent / ACE Agent versions 9.0.0 or newer are supported (*)
  • CallGuide Pulse / ACE Pulse versions 9.0.0 or newer are supported (*)
  •  (*) Note that, if single sign-on is used, ACE Agent 21.0 or newer, ACE Pulse 21.0 or newer and ACE Report or newer are supported; older versions are thus not supported.
  • ACE Interact versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported
  • ACE Monitor versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported
  • When upgrading ACE Database to 24.0.0, all users of ACE Coach, ACE Interact and ACE Monitor will automatically start using the new version at next login after upgrade:
    • the system parameters governing the primary version and the secondary version of ACE Coach will automatically be changed to 24.0.0
    • the system parameter governing the primary version of ACE Interact will automatically be changed to 24.0.0 and the system parameter governing the secondary version of ACE Interact will automatically be changed to the primary version used before the upgrade
    • the system parameter governing the primary version of ACE Monitor will automatically be changed to 24.0.0 and the system parameter governing the secondary version of ACE Monitor will automatically be changed to the primary version used before the upgrade
  • If upgrading from a version older than ACE 23, it is strongly recommended to read release notes for all intermediate versions. For instance, if upgrading from ACE 19.0 to ACE 24.0, ACE20ReleaseNotes, ACE21ReleaseNotes, ACE22ReleaseNotes and  ACE23 ReleaseNotes should be read in addition to the current release notes
  • Also note that SQL Server 2012 will not be supported from ACE 25

Release 23

Telia now launches ACE version 23 with several new features and improvements. Our web-based administration tool ACE Coach is gets much more useful with powerful management of IVR menus and several minor updates that facilitate and streamline day-to-day administration in the contact center.

As part of ACE 23, we also present ACE Business Intelligence, our next generation web-based statistics and reporting tool. It comes with multiple standard sheets and dashboards that can be used out of the box or easily adapted to the specific needs of different organizations.

Even our most advanced bot, ACE Virtual Agent Premium, gets an upgrade thanks to Google’s latest features for better speech understanding and natural conversations in text and speech.

New and updated features

Many new features in ACE Coach

Extended call flow configuration

Call flow management is more powerful with additions made in ACE Coach 23. It makes it easy to configure the IVR menus, their phrases and what action is taken at each menu exit, depending on schedule for opening hours as desired.

The user-friendly graphical interface gives full control over the call flow and end user experience. It lets you collapse or extend items to easily switch between call flow overview and drilling into details such as assigning task types or managing phrases for individual menu choices and exits. Contact data keys can also be set at the desired points in the call flow to be used for statistics follow up, for routing and for screen pop. For menus it is also possible to configure the desired behavior if the end user makes an incorrect input or fails to make any input at all.

Client settings for ACE Interact

Now it is possible in ACE Coach to manage, fine tune and push out default settings for the agent tool ACE Interact. Settings are organized in 12 different sections and for each section it is possible to choose whether to apply for all users in the organisation, overriding any current personal settings.

Manage subareas in ACE Coach

By introducing subarea management (view, search, create, delete), ACE Coach lets an administrator with the right permissions manage subareas. This can be used to make statistics more granular or to fine-tune access rights for co-workers.

Subareas are a tool to configure and set up ACE to match operational requirements by dividing organization areas into smaller bits. Subareas can be used to limit or grant access to functionality or for controlling statistics. User accounts, queues and many other objects in ACE can be affiliated to one or many subareas.

Manage skills in ACE Coach

For an administrator with the right permissions, it is now possible in ACE Coach to view, search, add, edit and remove skills used in an organization area. This is an important step on the path to make ACE Coach the main tool for daily contact [MP1] center management. Skills are applied to user accounts to control which queues and waiting lists a user can serve in ACE.

ACE Interact – Co-browsing for calls

Now the agent can initiate co-browsing not only for chats but also for all types of phone calls. The customer is instructed by the agent to browse to the company website, open the co-browsing tab and enter a code provided by the agent. This way, the agent will be able to talk to the customer on the phone and help them navigate the company’s web site at the same time.

A new button for starting co-browsing is available in the “Call” card,

National holidays for opening hours in ACE Admin

ACE Admin now offers the same possibility to add national holiday exceptions for Opening hours that previously has been released for Schedules and Callback appointment schedules. The system provides all dates for national holidays, so there is no need for the administrator to look them up separately. Just choose your country and year(s) ahead to add national holidays to your list of exception days. Then it is an easy task to choose whether the entrance or menu choice should be closed all day or just have non-regular opening hours. Holidays are available for Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.

New admin languages and manage stop words in ACE Knowledge

Manage stop words for improved search

Stop Words are words that occur frequently in everyday speech and writing. ACE Knowledge excludes stop words from search phrases so that the significant words get increased weight. Now it is possible to manage your list of stop words in the admin interface for better search accuracy.

Stop words are presented in a searchable list.

Norwegian and Danish in ACE Knowledge Admin

The administration interface for ACE Knowledge has previously been offered in Swedish and English. We are now expanding the language accessibility of the administration interface with Norwegian and Danish. As before, the interface language is controlled by the browser’s language setting. English is used for settings other than Swedish, Norwegian and Danish.

Enhancements to ACE Chat

Send chat messages while in queue

This feature lets an end user write chat messages while waiting in queue for their chat to be handled by an agent. This saves time as the user may use the queue time to elaborate on their issue. It may also make it easier for the agent to quickly provide the correct service as more information can be available when answering the chat.

The end user has written a chat message, typically to add detail to their issue, while waiting in queue.

Reduce number of queue messages to the end user

The ACE main server sends out a queue notification every 30 seconds as long a chat is placed in queue. To avoid overwhelming the end user with these messages it is now possible to configure how often they should be displayed. For example, you may pass on one in four to display a new queue message every second minute or only display one single queue notification (the first notification is always displayed).
This factor is also available for developers when building applications using the ACE Conversational API.

Virtual Agent Premium – Deep voice integration

New telephony integration with Google Dialogflow CX Edition, powered by ACE Conversational Hub and Google Contact Center AI.

The new integration, based on state-of-the-art technology, enables building advanced Conversational IVR solutions and telephony based self-service applications using Dialogflow CX Edition. Fully integrated with Telia ACE for routing calls to live agents when necessary.

The updated Virtual Agent Premium offers advanced functionality like:

  • Control of barge in and DTMF settings in the same GUI as building your virtual agent
  • Automatic speech adaptation, improving speech recognition accuracy by automatically using context and training data for bias (but not limit) towards likely phrases
  • Partial response streaming that lets the voice bot provide a partial answer while working in the background to retrieve information to complete the request. It shortens silent periods and effectively improves the end user experience

Next level contact center statistics with ACE Business Intelligence

ACE Business Intelligence is the next generation analysis and reporting tool for the modern contact center. It is based on market leading cloud based technology from Qlik and makes data and insights driven work easy.

  • ACE Business Intelligence comes with a number of turnkey sheets and dashboards to get you started. Create and customize in minutes to suit the exact needs of your organisation
  • Combine data sources like surveys, IVR data, WFM data and more to create insights and find root causes
  • Drill down into ACE raw data, all the way to individual interactions
  • Export reports and dashboards to all popular formats (PDF, Excel etc.)
  • 15-minute interval for high resolution when analyzing the workweek
  • Your own sheets and dashboards can be created for personal use or for sharing with colleagues
  • Support for single sign-on for Microsoft Azure AD
Minor updates

Custom direct link to specific ACE Monitor wallboard

This feature makes it possible to display a specific wallboard screen from ACE Monitor by calling a custom link from any browser. Following the link performs a direct-login based on the ACE single sign on-framework and then fetches the desired wallboard.
It’s useful for displaying wallboards on big screens for digital signage without having to make a manual login. It makes it easier to set up realtime monitoring for all staff in the contact center, including scenarios when cycling through screens from several different systems.

Agent Interface JSAPI improvements

The ACE Agent Interface JSAPI makes it easy to integrate web-based supporting systems with our client tool ACE Interact. In this release a number of features have been added to the interface to extend functionality even further. For example, possibility to refuse a callback call, terminate wrapup and get the value of a specific contact data key.

In addition, there are several robustness and performance tweaks in this release.

Refined encryption key management for ACE Recording G2

To meet high requirements for security, integrity and compliance, encryption key management for AWS based services has been updated. Clients get their own unique encryption key in AWS. Telia stores this key via AWS Key Management Service “KMS”.

Extension of ACE Web API for server applications

This REST based API replaces available custom functionality (CGRI) and simplifies integrations between online-related server applications and ACE Core. It makes it possible to fetch information like detailed real time status or opening hours for specific queues and entrances, or create callbacks with detailed control. The interface is protected against misuse by several mechanisms. The Web API for clients, providing less detail and control, is still available in parallel with the extension for server applications.

Interface for export of ACE audit trail

The ACE Audit trail and Change log keep track of events and changes in the system, when they are made and by whom. This information is stored across a number of tables in the ACE database.

To meet ever increasing demands for security and compliance we now launch an open interface for exporting this data. This feature is part of the existing “Web API for server applications” and enables IT/Security managers to export the information to other systems for further analysis and/or long-term storage.

Compatibility

Version requirements for the individual clients

To use the new functionality in Telia ACE 23.0 you need latest version of each respective sub product.

The following versions of ACE clients are compatible with ACE 23.0:

  • ACE Admin versions 22 or newer are supported
  • ACE Coach must be upgraded, only version 23 is supported
  • CallGuide Report / ACE Report versions 11.0.0 or newer are supported
  • CallGuide Agent / ACE Agent versions 9.0.0 or newer are supported
  • CallGuide Pulse / ACE Pulse versions 9.0.0 or newer are supported
  • ACE Interact versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported
  • ACE Monitor versions 12.0.0 or newer are supported
  • ACE Chat Engine 23 requires ACE Main Server 23 or newer
  • ACE Reference Chat Client 23 requires ACE Web SDK 23 or newer
  • When upgrading ACE Database to 23.0.0, all users of ACE Coach, ACE Interact and ACE Monitor will automatically start using the new version at next login after upgrade:
    • the system parameters governing the primary version and the secondary version of ACE Coach will automatically be changed to 23.0.0
    • the system parameter governing the primary version of ACE Interact will automatically be changed to 23.0.0 and the system parameter governing the secondary version of ACE Interact will automatically be changed to the primary version used before the upgrade
    • the system parameter governing the primary version of ACE Monitor will automatically be changed to 23.0.0 and the system parameter governing the secondary version of ACE Monitor will automatically be changed to the primary version used before the upgrade
  • ACE Core must be upgraded to version 23.0 immediately when ServiceNode Tenant G2 has been upgraded to version 23.0