Attendant Console is an optional application to Nimbus that allows you to handle incoming calls like a front desk operator. The main goal is to attend to Nimbus caller needs more directly and personally, e.g. in a Call Transfer scenario, forwarding them to a target of your choice. 

Overview

On first start, Attendant Console will not show a lot of content to you, so we'll demonstrate some features on this example screenshot. Refer to the chapters below for further information.

Call Queue & Service Selection

The queue lists incoming customer calls for all your services. You can directly impact your queue via the "On/Off" active toggle for the respective service.

• The service toggle functionality has the same effect as toggling the status in the "My Overview" or "My Services" Nimbus tabs respectively. Your team owners can also set this toggle for you, with immediate effect.
• Note that you can only take calls when your Attendant State (see below) widget is shown as "Active" (green). 
• When being part of - and active (green) for - multiple services, the queue items are accumulated or removed in real-time, always sorted by longest waiting callers. 

Caller Context

The queue has a call context feature that ties into the Microsoft Power Automate Connector of Nimbus to retrieve additional caller information. The amount and content of fields shown varies depending on which data (e.g. from a CRM System or Active Directory) is available to Nimbus.

Information Widgets

The top row of Attendant Console consists of a set of status widgets to help inform you about the most important metrics on your current call.

Conversation Hub

The conversation hub is the central area to handle your calls. The hub is split into 3 sections to display your current incoming caller state: 

• Incoming - signals any incoming tasks distributed to you (automatically) by Nimbus Workflows. 
  💡 Incoming calls will ring alongside in your MS Teams Client.
• Active - your current task or conversation. You can use the call controls to handle your active callers.
• Park - an area to park calls. In most scenarios, it is used to park a calling customer while you consult someone from the contact search. You can use the call controls to handle your parked callers.

Task control elements

Each area in the hub has individual, context-sensitive controls which show depending on your currently handled task and relevant modality situation:

Control	Applies to modality	Description
Swap	Audio / Video	Switches the caller's position between "Active" to the "On Hold" area.
Merge	Audio / Video	Merges the call into a conference between all participants.
Terminate	Audio / Video Instant Messaging	Ends an active task from other supported modalities:   Audio/Video: Ends the call session or disconnects you from a Consultation Call conference. Instant Messaging: Ends the chat session with the customer.
Park / Unpark	Audio / Video	Puts the calling customer from the "Active" to the "Park" area and vice-versa.
Accept/Decline	Audio / Video External Task Instant Messaging	Audio/Video: Accepts / Declines an incoming call. External Task / Instant Messaging: Accepts / Declines an incoming task.

Contact Search

The contact search lists and stores your call targets during ongoing conversations. By default, the contact search and list is empty and shows entries as you start typing.

The search feature has the following UI elements:

Element	Description
Contacts (Live Search)	Searching for users By default, you can search for users by Name and Job Title as displayed in the result columns below the search field. The list of entries narrows down as you type.
	Applying fields to filter search results You can also apply filters to narrow down huge lists by clicking "Select Fields" .  🔍 Also see  the Source column description in the table below to see which fields are supported. ☝ Note that you need to apply filters at the end of your search.  Example: “John Doe JobTitle:(Scientist)”.
	Searching for PSTN Numbers You can also use the search field to call unknown numbers by entering a valid SIP-address. However, in such cases the call actions may be limited.
	Searching for Services You can search for Nimbus services and list up to 8 available team members of that service. Works for both MS Teams-based and skill-based services. ✅ Precondition: Services only show team members when the Team Visibility in Attendant Console in the Tenant Administration is set accordingly. Otherwise you may not see any team details or only those of your own services.  Up to 8 available team members are listed on top, sorted alphabetically.    Click Show All to get a full list with a filter applied to the Contact Search.
Settings	Attendant can be customized according to your needs by accessing the settings next to the search field. 🔍 Visit Attendant Settings to learn more about each option.   💡 Note that these Settings are stored for your currently logged-in user and will not affect other Attendant Console users.

Search Result Columns

The contact search lists the following table columns:

Column	Description
Source	Displays the source directory/team/service behind the corresponding contact in form of an icon: Azure / Office 365 Accounts Outlook/Exchange (for standalone mailbox entries) Any Luware solution (e.g. Stratus Team/Agent, Nimbus) Configured Address Books if made available within your Organization Unit.  💡 Note that these address books can have custom icons which appear in the Source column. Depending on which sources are providing results for your search terms, duplicate entries of the same contact may appear. Your Tenant administrator can pre-filter available search results by following the steps in Use Case - Filtering Attendant contact search via MS Graph.    Address Books added via the Nimbus configuration are also managed by your service administrator. However, you can manage address books as Excel files in your team and sync them automatically. Refer to our Use Case - Adding external Address Books via Power Automate.   ☝ Note that not all search fields are supported by each source. Show fields supported by Nimbus user search INC Supported User Search Fields Required Permissions ☝ User.Read.All permissions must be granted to use this feature. As a Tenant Admin, head to the Nimbus Portal > User Preferences > Permissions "Tab" > Advanced Search and manage consent for your entire tenant. Read Required User Permissions for more details.   Legend ✅ Fields are supported by search. 🔍 Fields additionally support "CONTAINS" as search operator. Example: Searching for 'cha' will not only find 'Chadwick' but also 'Michael'  ➕ These fields support Filter capabilities which can be used to narrow down a contact search in Attendant Console. ☝ KNOWN LIMITATION: The search covers the predefined Nimbus Address Books fields, but no custom-fields can currently be searched. We are working to gradually alleviate this situation and make the search experience more consistent.   Searchable Field Nimbus    Address Books O365    Tenant Directory Exchange    (User Address Book) Notes Id       Nimbus internal entity ID External.Id       ID the system where the entry was imported from. Display Name ✅ 🔍 ✅  ✅ 🔍 Firstname / Lastname combination Given Name   ✅    First name First Name ✅ 🔍     First name Last Name ✅ 🔍     Last / Family name Initials ✅ 🔍     Initials (e.g. "JK") Surname   ✅    Surname Mail ✅ 🔍 ✅  ✅ Email Address User Principal Name ✅ 🔍 ✅    Consists of: user name (logon name), separator (the @ symbol) and domain name (UPN suffix) Job Title ✅ 🔍 ➕  ✅ ➕ ☝ ✅ 🔍 ➕ ☝ Job Title Business Phones ✅ 🔍     Business Phone Home Phones ✅ 🔍      Home Phone Mobile Phones ✅ 🔍     Mobile Phone IM Address ✅ 🔍     IM SIP Address Street ✅ 🔍     Streed Address City ✅ 🔍 ✅ ✅ ➕ ☝   Code and City Company ✅ 🔍 ✅   ✅ ➕ ☝ Company  Country ✅ 🔍 ➕ ✅ ➕ ☝   Country of Origin Department ✅ 🔍 ➕ ✅ ➕ ☝ ✅ ➕ ☝ Department State ✅ 🔍 ➕ ✅ ➕ ☝   State Postal Code ✅ 🔍     Postal Code Picture, binary       User Picture External.CustomField1-10       Custom Field
Name     (and Presence State Icon)	💡 For single contacts: You can hover over a contact avatar to get more information. Clicking on the avatar shows the organizational structure with manager and peers.   Notes: The search view lists users alphabetically (A-Z) by default. When displaying an organizational structure, entries are arranged by availability first, then by display name alphabetically (A-Z).     💡 For Services: Hover over a service to get the information. Click on the service avatar to see service team members and their status. For Nimbus service teams, the presence state color reflects overall team availability.   Green = Available. Users in this service are online and able to immediately receive calls. Yellow = No One Available. Users in this service are online, but set to away and unable to receive calls. Red = In Time Available. Users in this service are online, but currently everyone involved is busy with other calls and tasks. Grey = Offline. All users in this service are offline. Available team members (non-grey status) are listed on top, then alphabetically (A-Z)   🤔 No state / availability shown at all? When the presence state cannot be resolved - or does not apply for that type of source - no icon will be shown. For external contacts, this may be blocked by IT policies or firewalls. For internal contacts, this can be caused by users (or your Tenant Administrator) not having granted Required User Permissions to Nimbus.
Name	Resolved clear user or service name for the identified contact.
Context	Displays additional fields such as Email, IM, Department if provided via the user directory.
Job Title	Provides a job title field, if provided via your tenant user directory.
Note	Allows you to take notes. See section Contact Notes below.
Most popular transfer targets	Not always shown. Changes automatically based on incoming calls in the conversation hub.  💡 If no targets are shown, the caller hasn't been registered before

Contact Actions

Actions relate in context of your currently active call in the conversation hub, e.g. an action transfers the current caller to the selected contact in your search or sends a message with call details.

💡 If an action cannot be used by the corresponding contact - or is not applicable for the current call situation - controls are disabled for that entry.

	Safe Transfer to this contact.     Your current caller will remain in the call with you until connected.	🤔 Why are certain Contact Actions disabled?    If no "Business phone" or "Mobile phone" numbers are registered for the contact in Azure AD, the transfer to phone actions are disabled. Nimbus can only detect numbers registered via Azure AD, not Teams-internally assigned Line URIs. ☝ This is the default state for Teams Auto Attendants and Call Queues. If you require these to be reachable via Blind Transfer, then you will need to add at least one number to their Azure AD account. Also refer to the known limitations below on this page. ☝ To avoid lost calls in any transfer scenario, please carefully consider known limitations as well.
	Blind Transfer to this contact.     Your current caller will be directly transferred. The contact is removed from your conversation hub and you're free to take the next call. ☝ A blind transfer may be lost and not returned to you. This is also the case if the contact is not responding or taking the call to voicemail.
	Consultation Call to this contact. You can swap between clients and merge the conference session.     In the meantime, your original caller is put into Park position, listening to waiting music.
	Call To this contact. Unlike a Consultation Call, this does not create a conference.     You can only speak to either the caller (customer) or your contact from the search.
	Send IM / Connect via MS Teams. Opens a separate Teams chat window. During a call, a language template can be selected.	💡 The template selection (during a call) determines what language will be used to prefill an Email  or Instant Message for your contact.
	Send  Email to the contact. Opens your default mail client and a new (blank) email During a call a language template can be selected.
	Calendar of the contact to inspect.	Only shown when an exchange calendar was found.   If the contact does not have an Exchange license, the calendar functionality is disabled. ✅ See -→ Exchange Requirements on top of this page.
	Add to Favorite Contacts. Contact entries of your choice are pinned in the "Favorites" group for future calls.	🔍 Good to Know: You can also use the Attendant Settings to define further contact groups to sort and display users in.

Contact Notes

Within the Contact Search, you are able to add notes on individual contacts.

Functionality:

• You are able to pick between 3 different types of Notes: Standard, Info and  Warning.  💡This icon choice is cosmetic and merely impacts the look and feel of the note when being clicked.
• The note's title field will be shown in the Note column first. When title is not defined, the contents are shown instead.
• Clicking on any existing note allows you inspect detail contents and edit/delete the note.   

💡Tip: You can also search for note contents by selecting the “Note” field / filter in the Contact Search:    

Known Limitations

INC Transfer to PSTN Limitation

TRANSFER TO PSTN LIMITATION

Out of the box, Nimbus and related addons can only perform PSTN transfers according to Microsoft's licensing and constraints.

Which PSTN license do I need to acquire?

As of 2023, "Microsoft Teams Phone Standard" licenses are no longer supported by Microsoft. Previously, those licenses were viable for Nimbus. Regardless if you are using Direct Routing, Calling Plans, Operator Connect, the "Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account" license is now always required. 

Your Setup	Required License
Direct Routing	"Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account"
Calling Plan	"Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account" + "Microsoft Teams Domestic Calling Plan" or "Microsoft Teams Domestic and International Calling Plan" or "Microsoft Teams Calling Plan pay-as-you-go" + "Communication Credits" (if these aren't already included as part of your plan)
Operator Connect	"Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account"

☝Please note that Luware staff cannot give recommendations on which license plan is best suited for your needs. Depending on your scenario, additional Teams App licenses may be required. Exact details are to be discussed with your Microsoft contacts.

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^{Also see: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-add-on-licensing/virtual-user}

 

 

How does PSTN licensing affect service and call transfers?

Assuming that Service A has a PSTN license assigned - but further Services don't - the following scenario may unfold:

Scenario A - Service A workflow is configured to transfer the caller to Service B. The license of Service A is used, the PSTN transfer occurs. The PSTN license is re-used throughout further transfers to Services C...D…x…and so on.

Scenario B - Service B is called directly instead. Now the workflow of Service B attempts a redirect to either service A or transfer to C. The PSTN transfer fails due to a missing license on Service B.

🌟Learnings:

• For one first-level-response service: If you handle first-response calls always via the same service, you need a PSTN license for that particular first-level service.
• For multiple first-level-response services: If you handle first-response calls always via multiple services, you need a PSTN license for all those first-level services .
• Nimbus will attempt to use the PSTN license of the first service that responded to a call, regardless of how many further internal service transfers are performed thereafter.
• If no PSTN license is found on a service that requires it for a transfer, the transfer task will be considered as failed and treated accordingly by the system (e.g. workflow exit announcement, reporting "transfer failed" outcome).

 

 

☝Note that handling and tracking of running cost for PSTN licenses is outside of the Luware support scope. If you require assistance in extending and/or configuring your Nimbus services for PSTN, our support will gladly assist you:

Luware Support Address

Luware Website	https://luware.com/support/
Luware Helpdesk	https://helpdesk.luware.cloud
Cloud Service Status	https://status.luware.cloud/