Multimedia Interactions

About Multimedia Interactions

In this document, multimedia interactions refers to all interactions for which the data source for Genesys Info Mart is Interaction Server. Multimedia interactions include Genesys eServices/Multimedia e-mail and chat interactions, as well as 3rd Party Media interactions (formerly referred to as Open Media). For a more detailed definition of the term, see Multimedia Interactions.

The most important difference between voice and multimedia interactions is that voice interactions are short-lived and multimedia interactions can be long-lived. Therefore, multimedia interactions might be transformed while they are still active.

Genesys Info Mart processes data that is related to all multimedia interactions in a similar manner. However, from the point of view of internal processing, 3rd Party Media interactions require separate handling. This page describes special considerations for 3rd Party Media interactions, as well as other considerations for configuring your Genesys Info Mart deployment to process multimedia interactions.

Media Types

Genesys Info Mart can support any media type that is properly configured as a Media Type Business Attribute in the Configuration Layer.

Genesys Info Mart stores the media types that are available to describe interaction facts in the MEDIA_TYPE dimension table in the Info Mart database. By default, the MEDIA_TYPE table includes the Genesys eServices/Multimedia e-mail and chat media types. It can be extended to include any number of deployment-specific 3rd Party Media media types.

Dynamic Addition of Unknown Media Types

When Genesys Info Mart is transforming agent activity data or any interaction data — including 3rd Party Media interaction data — and a media type arrives that is new to Genesys Info Mart, the transformation job automatically adds the new media type to the MEDIA_TYPE dimension table and includes it when transforming data. Genesys Info Mart generates a log event to alert you about the addition.

Important

The new media type must have been configured already in the Configuration Layer. If not, Interaction Server rejects the media type before it reaches Genesys Info Mart.

Online and Offline Interactions

Genesys Info Mart distinguishes between two types of interactions:

• Online — The interaction involves an online session with a customer in real time (for example, chat).
• Offline — The interaction does not involve an online session with a customer in real time (for example, email).

Genesys Info Mart uses the IS_ONLINE column in the MEDIA_TYPE table to indicate whether a particular media type is associated with online interactions (IS_ONLINE=1) or with offline interactions (IS_ONLINE=0).

Downstream reporting applications can use the IS_ONLINE flag to produce reports that distinguish between online and offline interactions.

For internal processing, Genesys Info Mart uses the IS_ONLINE flag to determine whether to process the interaction as online or offline. The distinction affects:

• Detection of when an interaction is abandoned — An offline interaction cannot be abandoned by the customer.
• Detection of when an interaction is serviced — An online interaction is serviced by an agent when the agent joins the interaction (and the session). An offline interaction has some level of service when an agent accepts and begins to work on the interaction, but it is not fully serviced until the agent sends a reply back to the customer.
• The setting of the Technical Descriptor for transfers to a queue.
• Determination of ONLINE_DURATION.

Configuration Considerations for 3rd Party Media

When Genesys Info Mart dynamically adds an unknown media type to the MEDIA_TYPE table (see Dynamic Addition of Unknown Media Types), the new media type is added as an offline media type (IS_ONLINE=0). If you want Genesys Info Mart to identify interactions that are associated with this media type as online interactions, you must manually change the setting of the IS_ONLINE flag in the MEDIA_TYPE table. You can change the setting at any time. The change takes effect as soon as it is committed in the database, but it does not apply to data that has already been processed.

Genesys recommends that you set an alarm on the log event that Genesys Info Mart generates when the media type is added (message number 55-20150), to prompt you to verify this flag and, if required, change the setting to suit your deployment and reporting requirements.

To ensure that online interactions that are associated with 3rd Party Media are processed consistently, Genesys recommends that you manually add the online media types to the MEDIA_TYPE table before Genesys Info Mart starts processing, so that you can set IS_ONLINE=1 from the start.

For more information about manually adding online media types or changing the IS_ONLINE flag, see Setting up media types for online interactions.

Interaction Types and Subtypes

Genesys Info Mart can support any multimedia interaction subtype that is properly configured in the Configuration Layer.

When a multimedia interaction subtype arrives that is new to Genesys Info Mart, the transformation job adds the new interaction subtype automatically to the INTERACTION_TYPE dimension table and includes it when transforming data. Genesys Info Mart generates a log event to alert you about the addition.

Important

The new interaction subtype must have been configured already in the Configuration Layer. If not, Interaction Server rejects the interaction type before it reaches Genesys Info Mart.

Genesys Info Mart uses the IGNORE column in the INTERACTION_TYPE table to determine whether to include interactions of a particular subtype in transformation processing:

• 0 (false) — Genesys Info Mart transforms all interactions with this interaction type.
• 1 (true) — Genesys Info Mart does not transform any interactions with this interaction type. No records are generated in fact tables for interactions of this type.

By default, all newly added multimedia interaction subtypes are set to be transformed. You can disable transformation of multimedia interactions of a specified subtype by setting a value of 1 (true) for the IGNORE field in the INTERACTION_TYPE table.

Important

If you disable a subtype, both the parent interactions of that subtype and any child interactions of such parent interactions are disabled, even if the child interactions themselves are of a different subtype, one that is configured to be transformed.

Genesys recommends that you set an alarm on the log event that Genesys Info Mart generates when the interaction subtype is added (message number 55-20151), to prompt you to verify the IGNORE flag and, if required, change the setting to suit your deployment and reporting requirements.

You can change the setting at any time. The change takes effect as soon as it is committed in the database, but it does not apply to data that has already been processed.

Multi-Tenant Considerations

The IGNORE setting for an interaction type or subtype and the IS_ONLINE setting for a media type apply across the deployment, without regard to tenant. In other words, Genesys Info Mart does not support ignoring a particular interaction type for one tenant, but processing it for another. Similarly, Genesys Info Mart does not support transforming interactions that are associated with a particular media type as online for one tenant and offline for another.

Archive and Stop-Interaction (Stop-Ixn) Queues

Your multimedia deployment might include business processes that archive completed interactions in queues before eventually terminating the interactions in Interaction Server. For example, the Genesys intelligent Workload Distribution (iWD) solution employs this approach. Alternatively, when an agent wants to stop an interaction, your business processes might require the agent to place the interaction in a stop-ixn queue, after which a strategy stops the interaction and performs common post-processing.

Archive and stop-ixn queues create data-quality issues in regular reporting. Without special handling, placement of an interaction in an archive or stop-ixn queue is treated like a transfer to any other queue. This results in misleading queue- and interaction-duration metrics. For archive queues, there are also significant performance penalties in transformation and, if applicable, aggregation when extremely long-living interactions are eventually removed from the archive queue or terminated in Genesys Info Mart in accordance with the days-to-keep-active-facts configuration option.

Configuring Genesys Info Mart for iWD and Special Queues

Genesys Info Mart enables you to specify which Script objects of type Interaction Queue are archive or stop-ixn queues that require special handling. Genesys Info Mart considers interactions that are placed into these queues to be completed and terminates the interactions, with appropriate technical descriptors in the INTERACTION_RESOURCE_FACT (IRF) record of the handling resource that placed the interaction in the queue.

• Archive queues — By default, Genesys Info Mart identifies the queues named iWD_Completed and iWD_Canceled as archive queues for completed and canceled interactions, respectively. If you want to identify additional or alternative queues as archive queues for special handling, adjust the settings of the completed-queues or canceled-queues options, respectively, as applicable.
• Stop-ixn queues — Genesys Info Mart does not identify any queues as stop-ixn queues by default. If you want to identify any queues as stop-ixn queues for special handling, set the value of the stop-ixn-queues option, as applicable.

Limitation

Genesys Info Mart permanently terminates an interaction that is placed in one of the archive or stop-ixn queues identified for special handling. If an agent or other strategy subsequently restarts the interaction from the queue or updates the interaction in the queue (for example, by adding or updating user data), Genesys Info Mart ignores the new activity.