Responsibility Profiles allow users to switch between their On / Off Duty States as well as Skills and Responsibilities. For each Responsibility Profile Administrators can assign skill levels can be assigned to pool users for Nimbus task distribution. Immediately with the the next incoming task, Services only select those users that are using Responsibility Profiles with sufficient skill and levels defined to take an incoming task.
💡Good examples for the use of Responsibility Profiles are:
- 1st and 2nd level support: Where users with current “1st level” responsibility get the task priority.
- Distinguishing between written and verbal communication: users working timeboxed on written communication could have a Responsiblity Profile called "Text Only” where language skills for call-specific modalities are deactivated.
- Switching Profiles depending on the physical location of a person: Someone working in a department store could have a profile like “On the Ground Floor” or “In Store” where almost all of the skills are deactivated, so the user only gets very urgent explicitly intended to them.
- Switching On/Off Duty, based on situation: Someone on a business trip or working while commuting could switch to an off-duty profile and therefore be excluded from skill-based routing.
✅ Preconditions
Contact Center Responsibility Profiles, and related responsibility-based Distribution Policies are Nimbus Features that require a Contact Center license. The license needs to be applied
- To the individual users (enabling Skills and Responsibilities) Skills user Settings
- To Services (enabling Distribution Policies to be used within
🔎 Related Concepts
Distribution Policies unify a lot of different Nimbus concepts in one package. To understand these concepts, a few terms need to be defined:
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| (On / Off) Duty |
Part of Responsibility Profiles. There are two default profiles Nimbus, named On Duty and Off Duty accordingly. Further profiles can be defined as needed, each being of type:
🔍See Duty States. |
| Distribution Policy |
Assigned to a Service - acts like a gate for task distribution and escalation. The policy specifically defines which skills (assigned on Responsibility Profiles) are required for an incoming task, and which users are most suited to receive it. 🔍See Distribution Policies and Distribution Order. |
| Responsibility |
Enabled and tied to a skill category, e.g. knowledge about a product X or a certain language Y. 🔍 See Skills and Responsibilities. |
| Skill / Responsibility Level |
Optionally defined within Skill Categories. Allows to escalate criteria during an incoming call, based on levels defined in the Distribution Policy assigned to the service. 💡Example: For Product X we first let users in Profile "First Call Responder" answer, then escalate to "Tech Experts" and "Product Leads". 🔍 See Skills and Responsibilities. |
| Responsibility Profile |
The combination of duty, skill and responsibility. Multiple profiles can be assigned to users, allowing them to switch between various stages of responsibility. 💡Example: Our support team has 3 Responsibility Profiles assigned, each with different skill and responsibility levels. During travel, they switch to the "Abroad" profile, which sets them “On duty”, but only with a low level of responsibility. |
Creating Responsibility Profiles
Responsibility profiles are part of the Admin-side Configuration. Once created, a Responsibility Profile …
- … only exists by its name and has no function until assigned to at least one user.
💡Think of it as a named placeholder for your users. - … is of a defined type of Duty State (on duty / off duty).
💡Custom off-duty profiles are treated the same as the system's default profiles. - … acts as optional “container” for future Skills and Responsibilities.
💡Example: A “High Responsible” profile can be re-used for two users, but has different levels and resulting responsibility for each.
🧠 CONSIDERATIONS
- Note that Responsibility Profiles follow the Organization Units (OU) rules. They can be either service-specific or put on the highest OU level to be available for company-wide use.
-
Clearly name and reuse Responsibility Profiles when possible.
- Once defined, a profile can be individualized with assigned Skills and Responsibilities per Skills user Settings.
- Fewer profiles reduce configuration effort and minimize misunderstandings in daily use and Nimbus Reporting.
- Think about your Task Queue and Distribution needs. How many call escalation scenarios happen in your services? How large is your Nimbus user base? Are your users experts with very detailed skillsets, or is a simpler profile approach more intuitive and sufficient?
Applying and Using Responsibility Profiles
✅ Once your Responsibility Profiles were created it's time to put them to use. In the following we explain which steps are required for setup and how it affects your Contact Center users.
Assign the profile to a user
- General user Settings - Ensure that the user is Contact Center licensed so the "Profiles" and "Skills" tabs are shown.
- Head to the "Profiles" tab and add your (new) Responsibility Profiles.
- Optionally define the "Default" profile and an "Active" one.1
1🔎 Notes
✅ Recommended: Keeping Off Duty as Default for new Nimbus users: users who never signed in to MS Teams will have the presence “Unknown” set until their first sign-in. To avoid erroneous call distribution in Nimbus we suggest for Administrators assign an "Off Duty" Responsibility Profiles profile as the initial default.
💡Also note:
- The “Duty” State of a Profile will always apply as first layer of Task distribution in Nimbus. Any “Off Duty” profile will prevent task distribution. More about this can be found on the Duty States page.
- The "Default" Profile applies only as first profile for new users. It's also a fallback when any Administrator removes an "Active" profile currently still applied on a user.
- The "Active" Profile changes dynamically as the user switches to a different one in the Nimbus.
SAFETY AGAINST CHANGES IN REPORTING
☝ Once a Responsibility Profile is assigned to a user, certain details on it are fixed or protected against deletion, as this could create mismatches in the Nimbus Reporting Model.
Learn more…
☝Once created, it is not possible to change the duty profile (on or off duty) of a responsibility profile.
🤔Why is this the case?
For Nimbus Session Reporting and correct tracking of User States, Duty state records of users are tracked as a immutable entry. Changing the Duty Status in an existing Responsibility Profile could create mismatching data under a (potentially identical) name in the OData Feed.
🤔How to delete a profile?
→ If you want to delete a responsibility profile, you need to manually remove it from all users first. A tooltip on the delete icon will inform about the assignments to be removed.
💡Good to know: Deleting profiles will not alter any existing Nimbus Reporting data. When changing the naming on a profile – while keeping its intention – it might be advisable to inform your BI data experts of this change.
Optional: Define skills and responsibility levels
✅ Once assigned, Responsibility Profiles already work with their Duty State. If you (optionally) want to make use of detailed Skills and Responsibilities, you need to perform the following steps:
-
Head over to the "Skills" Tab.
⮑ You will notice that each Responsibility Profile is now represented as an extra column
⮑ Each new Responsibility Profile will add a new column for skills to configure. -
Add one or several Skills and /or Responsibilities that user.
⮑ Each will add a new row to the existing profiles. -
For each Responsibility Profile (column) you can now define the skill level and responsibility.
☝Please note:- Skills must be defined. The lowest skill level is selected by default.
-
Responsibility levels are optional.
💡 Disabling responsibility via the checkbox will exclude the user from any Distribution Policy where responsibilities are a requirement.
-
Save your changes.
⮑ The user you just edited will immediately be able to select these new profiles.
Using Responsibility Profiles in Nimbus Portal
- Login to the Nimbus Frontend portal.
-
Open either:
- "Contact Center Assistant" in the Nimbus main menu.
- Your standalone Nimbus Assistant App.
-
Click the pulldown to change Responsibility Profiles and underlying duty status at any given time.
💡 Duty, availability and readiness: Regardless of Duty State, you can remain fully "Available" in MS Teams to handle calls from other services and non-Nimbus calls. → More on this on status dependencies below.
💡 Status persistence: Your duty status and responsibility profile persists even when restarting your MS Teams client or logging out and back into Nimbus. You keep the last selected status until you either switch to a different one – or until an Admin changes the setting on your user.
✅Related: Distribution Policy Setup
Per default, assigning and switching between your Responsibility Profiles has no service-specific effect outside of the Duty State consideration. For more detailed distribution you want to make use of Distribution Policies:
- Admin > Configuration: Include the required skills and responsibility levels in your Distribution Policies. They define the call escalation levels on your available user pool.
-
Service Settings > Distribution Tab: Assign the updated Distribution Policy to the corresponding Contact Center Service.
☝Note that this only works on Contact Center Services where the user assignment type is "Skill-based".
For the Responsibility Profiles to take effect, a Distribution Policy which considers the new Skills and Responsibilities must be assigned to the Service(s). -
💡 Good to know:
- For Service Owners: Within the Agent Service Settings you can adjust current “Active” Responsibility Profiles and related Skill Levels individually for each user within your service. This can be done for each profile, so settings should be reviewed on a regular basis.
- For Nimbus Admins: Whenever you make Responsibility Profile or Skill-related changes within the Configuration or User Administration, keep Service Owners informed, so they can adjust their Agent Settings accordingly.