Handling calls in Nimbus works identical to how you handle calls within the MS Teams client, using existing call features in both incoming and outgoing direction. The main difference is that Nimbus is establishing a conference between (active / available) MS Teams team members (called Nimbus "users") and the incoming caller. Teams conferences are also used to track Reporting metrics in the background. This is done by a bot via delegated permissions.
Lean design philosophy
To keep the daily user experience as simple as possible, the main "daily-driver" views of Nimbus – e.g. the Personal My Overview or Team-focused Dashboard are designed to be unobtrusive.
As a service user you can focus on your personal call experience, steer your service team availability and access personal reporting call history features as explained further below in this chapter. Users in a service must be set to active, either by themselves or via their supervisor to be considered as "available" by Nimbus. 
As a service owner you want to primarily focus on Configuration and Service Settings to steer the call handling within your service.
Learn more about this…
Call distribution is set up via workflow "queue" step parameters and must be configured by any service owner with the workflow currently assigned in the Modality Service Settings.
Nimbus also considers user presence status (as set in MS Teams) prior to distributing calls. This allows to even include users that are - for example - set to "Away" or "Busy". This can be configured in the Distribution Service Settings.
Handling Incoming calls
Nimbus is designed to not obstruct your daily call handling operation with Microsoft Teams. All interactions will rely on basic Teams functionality wherever possible, while extending calls or other means of communication with rich context and call-related work. We explain a typical Nimbus call interaction in the following chapters.
Call Location
- The customer locates and calls the service (discoverable either via Teams search, configured PSTN Number or known SIP Address as configured in Service Settings.
- Nimbus handles the call according to your Workflows configuration. The call is added to a queue and distributed according to the workflow step's "Queue" settings.
You can learn more on this by checking on the Distribution Types available in Nimbus.
💡 In this example we continue with a "Pickup" type distribution. - Nimbus now will show the call in its own UI
The call will be shown in the Tasks Widget in the Dashboard.
GOOD TO KNOW
- Even while being set "Active" for the respective Nimbus team, users might still see inactive "Pickup" controls. This is determined by Service Settings > "Conversations Distribution", defining if users in "Away" or "Busy" state are considered for call distribution.
- When Adaptive Cards are enabled in your "Queue" Workflow activity, a message to your team's channel will also be sent, mentioning all current "Active" Nimbus users individually.
💡 In this example below we continue with "Adaptive Cards" being enabled.
Call Establish
- A user in your team chooses to accept the call by clicking "Pickup" 🔍 This can be done either in the Dashboard, or the "My Overview" area in the Nimbus Personal App. The Adaptive Card also offers "Pickup" controls.
- Once "Pickup" is clicked Nimbus will establish a session between Caller and Agent and remain in session for gathering Reporting KPI metrics.
- Eventually, Agent and Caller decide to end the call → The Nimbus bot remains in session until both parties have left the call, then concludes the MS Teams-session.
Call Conclusion
At the end, the call information will be gathered and displayed on the Reporting.
The Dashboard will also be updated with the newest status updates (e.g. a team user becoming "available" again)
The Adaptive Cards in your team's chat channel will also update with information about who / when / and if the call was handled.
Duty Profiles
Contact Center - Duty States are the Nimbus way to signal if you are on- or off duty. As part of Responsibility Profiles, they add an extra layer of conditional availability.
🔍 By using Assistant all Contact Center users can switch their Duty State – and underlying responsibility – at any time. This can be done to adapt to various situations such as:
- A requirement for certain Skills and Responsibilities → e.g. when more experts are needed to bolster the usual service ranks after a large technical change or product rollout.
- Based on workload → Switching to a "highly-available" profile to take more calls from multiple services.
- Based on offdays → e.g. Switching to a low-responsible mode, during absence or when abroad.
Contact Center Service Type feature. → Enabling this feature will show Assistant with a main menu with a Duty State / Responsibility Profile selector. These profiles are defined by your service administrator.
PREREQUISITES
Contact Center - Users of this feature must be part of a Contact Center service and also Contact Center licensed themselves. → The Contact Center Assistant icon becomes visible in your main menu after getting licensed.
OPTIONALLY, any Admin can then do the following:
- Create and assign one or serveral Responsibility Profiles to your user. → These will be visible as additional entries in both Assistant standalone App and Nimbus UI.
- Any admin can also define Skills and Responsibilities on your user account and define them per profile. 💡 You will not see the skills behind a
- Add your user as an Agent or Owner via the Service Permissions UI.
💡 Note: Regardless of Contact Center Duty State, you can remain fully "Available" to handle calls from other (non-Contact Center) services. Read more on this on the chapter below.
Switching Duty States
- Login to the Nimbus Frontend portal.
- Note the new main menu item named "Contact Center Assistant" in the main menu.
- Click on it to change your duty status (and thus the related Responsibility Profile) at any given time.
- Note the Duty State effects on Service availability → Toggling your Duty State affects a small colored indicator icon next to the menu entry.
The icon colors indicate your availability as follows:
| Icon color | Service availability condition | Related Responsibility Profile & Duty status notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gray Icon |
Shown when you put yourself off duty via the Contact Center Assistant menu:
|
Off Duty 💡 Note that your "Off Duty" Responsibility Profile can appear under a different name as administrators can change it. |
| Green Icon |
Shown when you put yourself on duty via the Contact Center Assistant menu. You will be selected for tasks when:
|
On Duty (Available) 💡 Note that multiple Responsibility Profiles can be of type "On Duty", but call distribution to you varies by Skills and Responsibilities behind each profile. 🔍 Also see "Status Dependency" infos below. |
| Red Icon |
Shown when you put yourself on duty via the Contact Center Assistant menu, but:
|
On duty (but not Available) - 🔍 More infos on this below. 🔍 Also see "Status Dependency" infos below. |
ABOUT PROILE / DUTY PERSISTENCE
- Note that naming and amount of Duty states entries may change at any time, as managed by any Nimbus administrator.
- Your duty status 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 (default) setting on your user.
STATUS DEPENDENCIES
Switching your Duty Profile will not affect your MS Teams presence status and vice-versa. As a result you can still remain Available (green) in MS Teams – e.g. to take internal calls – but appear Not Available (Red) for Nimbus as defined per your duty profile, effectively blocking Contact Center related tasks.
Related Concepts to learn about:
🔎 Switching between Duty States also affects the Responsibility Profiles under each state. Call distribution is then based on Skills and Responsibilities defined for each Responsibility Profile. You can learn more about how this algorithm works on the Distribution Order page.
💡 If you are part of other (non-skill-based) services you may continue to use the "Active" on/off toggle e.g. in My Services at any time. Note that this toggle is not present on skill-based services.
Q&A and Troubleshooting
🤔 Why is service participation reflected differently in the UI?
- For MS-Teams based services, Nimbus distributes calls evenly among "Active" users, usually to the user "Longest Available" in MS Teams.
- In a Contact Center scenario, Responsibility Profiles allow for much finer control over availabilty. Your duty status changes reflect on all Contact Center services simultaneously, e.g. by making you a first or second-level responder based on your profile and skillset.
- In both scenarios your status doesn't just reflect MS Teams presence, but various other User States.
🤔 Why are my "Active On/Off" toggle controls disabled?
Note that each service owner can opt out of this feature via User Service Settings by unchecking "Team member can change active state". This can be done individually per service.
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🤔 Are wrong calls getting distributed to you? Talk to your service administrator to have a look at your user skills via the Agent Service Settings . Also check if the Distribution Policy of that service matches Skills and Responsibilities set on your user account.
🤔 Is your status "Red" altough you are ready for new tasks? Check if your User State is considered "selectable" as per Distribution Service Settings (e.g. Available when Busy / Away) and other flags such as RONA aren't blocking you from getting new tasks.
💡 Rule of thumb: Nimbus will distribute calls only when all "selectable" criteria are met: MS Teams Presence > Not blocked by calls > In a Duty Profile > Not status-flagged by ACW or RONA
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User States
For its Reporting Model Nimbus distinguishes sessions by various user state factors (Teams Presence, Duty State, Task Selectability, Task status). A change in either factor has influence on the others, either being a requirement or dependency.
| User Factor | Conditions | Nimbus-Tracked User State | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Presence in MS Teams |
✅ Online – including status "Busy" or "Away" (individually defined per Distribution Service Settings) |
Online MS-Teams based services will distribute when "Active". |
Online and set "Active" MS-Teams based services will distribute. |
Online and "Active" but Busy/Away Can either be selectable or not ↓ (determined per each Service's Distribution Service Settings) |
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✅User is online and has any "On Duty" responsibility profile selected. |
OffDuty An "OffDuty" profile prevents any Contact Center participation. |
On Duty Any "Duty" type responsibility profile allows Contact Center participation. Skills and Responsibilities in that profile must match the service to be "Selectable". This is determined by the individual Distribution Policies assigned to the respective services. |
||||||
| Task selectable |
“In Time available” to perform tasks in Nimbus: ✅Online in MS Teams. |
"Selectable" This includes Busy/Selectable and Away/Selectable |
"Non-Selectable" state, either because: … User is not available either due to the MS Teams Presence ↑ OR … … set "inactive" for all Nimbus teams OR … ... any existing or previous Call Status ↓ marks the user as “Not Selectable” |
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| Task status |
✅ Currently reserved and blocked for a Nimbus task.
|
Not Available Reason Requested as user changes MS Teams presence (back from idle). |
RONA User flag after not responding to a task, blocked for the next tasks. |
Ringing User reserved for new task, but has not accepted yet |
Connected User accepted task, is blocked by |
ACW User extensible timespan to complete work after a call. |
||
USER STATE DEPENDENCIES
💡 It is important to note that these user state factors depend on each other. Reading the table vertically from “top to bottom”. Here is an example:
Layer 1: MS Teams Presence
- The MS Teams Presence must meet the criteria of the Distribution Service Settings. This can be individually configured per Service.
- Offline users are not considered to be in any duty state. Nimbus will not distribute tasks.
-
Online users are considered for Nimbus Tasks depending on:
- … the Nimbus features (license) applied to the user and …
- … the services they are part of.
Layer 2: Nimbus Duty State / Task Selectability
Selectability for Nimbus tasks is steered based depending on the Service Types and their varying
| Advanced Routing and Enterprise Routing | Contact Center |
|---|---|
| Scenario: MS-Teams “Team” based services | Scenario: Standalone Services with a varied user base |
| Advanced Routing and Enterprise Routing consider Users selectable once they are to “Active” in the Nimbus UI. |
Contact Center services apply the Duty State as a “selectable check” – on top of MS Teams presence. Nimbus evaluates the users's responsibility profile and distributes calls conditionally based on the Skills and Responsibilities behind that profile. The criteria are defined in the service's Distribution Policy. |
LAYER 3: TASK STATUS
These are shared criteria among services
- While "online", "active" and "on duty" a user is “selectable” for tasks by either service, in any modality.
- While being in any blocking call status (e.g being Not Available, already busy when connected or in a task, in ACW or flagged by RONA) will consider the user as "Not selectable" for any service.
Nimbus Reporting and User State Data privacy
🔍 Learning: Users have one deterministic state at a time. Combined user states listed above – and their changes over time – form a "User Session" which is tracked as part of the Nimbus Reporting Model.
GDPR Data privacy setting: Detailed user states can be tracked with timestamps for later evaluation analysis, e.g. in Power BI. This is enabled via Tenant Administration > Data Privacy, and included in historic reporting.
🔍 You can also check and remove pending call status flags (RONA / ACW) in Assistant - both in Nimbus UI or the standalone App.
BY DESIGN:
Nimbus cannot distribute multiple simultaneous tasks to the same user. This means that when a user is already in a call (connected or incoming invitation) they are generally considered “Not Available" meaning that:
- ... no further invitation will be generated for new "Direct" and "Broadcast" calls in any team. The type is configured in Workflows > "Queue" step.
- ... the "Pickup" button will be disabled in all other Nimbus UI views, preventing the user to pick up an additional call.
- ... If Adaptive Cards are configured as option for "Pickup" type calls a user may press "Pick up Call" in the card, but no invitation will be generated. → A toast will appear, explaining why the call invitation won't follow up.