CMAPI and Call Recording Questions 1

[telcomwork]

1. Do I understand correctly when I think that CMAPI reside on an application server and not Coummunication Manger side?

2. How is CMAPI typically administerd (Tserver, AES, ..)

3. Do you have to have a green feature turned on in CM to provide this communication or just configure a CLAN with DLG / CTI link on Communication Manager (specifically 2.0)

Thank you for your time and help!

 

[nohuhu]

telcomwork,

1. partly correct. cm api itself is a signaling api, it can reside either on a standalone linux server (with cm2) or co-reside on aes server (with cm3). voice path, however, can be configured to either bypass cmapi server (preferred way) or go through it, in this case cmapi server works like proxy.

2. cm api is configured both on communication manager, cmapi or aes server and on application server that uses cm api. on communication manager you create ip softphone extensions, on cmapi server you configure some parameters. cm api does not have any relation to an "ordinary" cti, it doesn't use tsapi nor any other cti protocol.

3. you don't need any green feature, cm2 support cm api officially. however, you may need (or may not, depends on application -- witness don't use it, for example) cmapi server software and it was already removed from downloads. however, i think avaya can provide it to you. if not, contact me, i'll think up something.

 

[telcomwork]

As alaways dwalin thank you!!

Where do you vonfigure the vocie path, on the app server or in CM?

 

[nohuhu]

telcomwork,

it depends on the cm/cmapi server version and application. for example, witness doesn't require any specific settings, you just create several extensions on cm side, assign DAPI service on ip-services form (in cm2) and point witness server to c-lan board ip address, is all. in cm3 you set up an aes server, connect it to cm via aes service links and point witness server to aes instead of c-lan board. cm and witness do the rest of the work, determining medpro/crossfire board usage depending on ip network region settings.
with nice the picture is a bit different, you need to setup a voip logger software on one server and cls software (including cmapi integration) on another server, connect them to each other and then to both cm and aes. didn't do it with cm2/cmapi server but the picture must be the same.
in short, you must follow the software documentation. )

 

[telcomwork]

Thanks again for the lesson! I really appreciate it.

Going ot make a donation on your behalf!

 

[nohuhu]

telcomwork,

if you need advice choosing recording system, explain your setup in more detail: what do you have already and what do you need. these systems are a different world on their own and can be very tricky if you don't smoke 'em right.

 

[telcomwork]

Thanks dwalin! Right now I have Verint installed using MAPD and CTI with station side recording. I have three locations, and a total of about 2000 recorded lines. The Verint version I'm running is 8 and the equipment is old. I want to forklift the whole archetecture and put in either a newer verison of Verint since they are the incumbent and my BP's love them or NICE. We had 4 players in the mix (Mercom, NICE, Verint and Witness) and out of the four the BPs and I agreed on NICE adn Verint from a reporting and technical standpoint.

I support this location remotly and ideally want to removee any wiring if at all possible. This fits into out business and support model of centralized administration and support from our Corp office. I'm really leaning towards CMAPI from which I understand removes all wiring other than what's native to a phones normal functionality. Is this correct?

Please let me know your thoughts or I could speak to you off line.

Thank you!

 

[nohuhu]

telcomwork,

well i can say nothing about verint solutions, never seen one. they're not popular in this part of the world, afaik. nice cmapi works fine once properly installed and configured, however its configuration may depend on application. the one i tried, is all calls recording via service observing. it's practically rock solid provided that you have your pbx and server equipment running off clean power. selective recording may be a bit tricky, however. with selective, there are two methods of recording: via service observing and via single step conferencing. both should work fine, according to nice but i haven't tried them out yet. if you want specific results, wait a week or two, i have two installations coming up, both with selective recording.
and yes, cmapi solutions are software only and don't need any wiring except than ordinary ethernet connectivity for servers. cm api, in its essence, is just a way for an independent software vendors to create their own softphone implementations. softphone doesn't require any wires, as you may see, it can even be completely wireless. )

p.s. talking specifically about nice cmapi recording, be aware that it requires cti integration (tsapi licenses). not the logger itself but cls server, it uses cti link for monitoring device events on recorded phones. the map-d + avaya ct package that you have should be enough for that.

 

[telcomwork]

NICE is making me very nervous based on thier comments in my techincal vendor meeting about using CMAPI. They mentioned if CMAPI failing (what are the chances) and it's a resource hog that I would have to monitor CPUs and reliability it's not as stable as Station side. I'm using station side now and between points of failure in wiring I wonder what is the liklehood of CMAPI app stopping?

Is anyone using CMAPI in a large (1500 recorded calls) environment. Can you give me your experiances and feedback?

 

[nohuhu]

telcomwork,

well, by design cmapi solution is less stable than station side recording. if you mean 1500 calls recorded simultaneously, then i have nothing to say because the largest nice cmapi installation i've did was for a hundred agents. it works, however there are some minor quirks and problems, as usual.
there always are pros and cons, you should decide for yourself. if you need total recording for security or compliance purposes, then cmapi is not for you, only station side will give you the needed level of reliability. if your main purpose is quality assurance, then i guess it's not too heavy a problem to lose some calls. if you want to move part (or all) of your agents to ip phones, then you just can't do without voip logger, because there's no wire to listen to in this case. talking about voip loggers, i think cmapi is best solution with avaya, ordinary ip sniffing logger will not give you any advantage, only configuration and maintenance headache.
anyway, one nice cls server can support several loggers, both station or trunk side (traditional) and ip/cmapi/whatever. i mean, nobody's saying you can't record critical agents via station side recording and rest of them via cmapi. and you'll have it all in one database.