What is an Agent State?

An agent is a person who has a phone on his desktop and receives calls, transfers calls, ends calls, and so on. The state of this agent and his phone are represented within the Unified CCX system by agent states and agent state events.

The agent state is what is described by the last received agent state event. Actions performed by the agent and his phone eventually translate into updated agent states. For example, when an agent hangs up his phone after working on a call, his state changes from talking to ready. The change in the state of this agent is communicated with the system through the AGENT_STATE_EVENT message.

The possible agent states are listed in Table 1. The AGENT_STATE_EVENT, the QUERY_AGENT_STATE_CONF, and the SET_AGENT_STATE_REQ messages indicate an agent state by the values listed in Table 1.

CCX maintains all agent states and may change an agent state based on various conditions such as the state of an agent phone.

Unified CCX CTI clients are also allowed to change agent states by a client using the SET_AGENT_STATE_REQ message. When Unified CCX receives this request, it processes the request based on the current state of the system. As a result, the SET_AGENT_STATE_REQ message may or may not actually change the agent state. For example, the client might request that an agent’s state be changed from not ready to ready, but Unified CCX may not be able to change the agent’s state if the agent has not yet logged in.

A Unified CCX CTI client must always monitor the AGENT_STATE_EVENT message or use the QUERY_AGENT_STATE_REQ message to obtain the current agent state.

Agent States and Their Message Values

State name

Description

Value

AGENT_STATE_LOGIN

There is no specific Agent Login state in Unified CCX.

However, this is a request value specified while trying to login an agent.

0

AGENT_STATE_LOGOUT

The agent has logged out of the ACD and cannot accept any additional calls.

1

AGENT_STATE_NOT_READY

The agent is not available to accept a routed call.

2

AGENT_STATE_READY

The agent is available to accept a routed call.

3

AGENT_STATE_TALKING

The agent is currently talking on a call with a customer or another agent (inbound, outbound, or inside).

This state is automatically set for the agent by the ACD.

4

AGENT_STATE_WORK

The agent is completing work from a previous call and is unavailable to receive routed calls.

There are two (mutually exclusive) ways to put an agent into AGENT_STATE_WORK:

  • Automatically, through CSQ configuration settings selected in the Unified CCX Administration web page.
  • Through the SET_AGENT_STATE_REQ message. In this case, when the agent is in the AGENT_STATE_TALKING state, the client can select the work state (by setting the AgentState field to AGENT_STATE_WORK). Then when the call ends, the agent will be moved by the Unified CCX server to the Work state.

5

BUSY_OTHER

This state signifies the agent state for a particular CSQ. This state is notified in the CSQ State field of QUERY_AGENT_STATE_CONF message only. The state of an agent for a CSQ will be BUSY_OTHER if that agent is handling calls from other CSQs.

7

AGENT_STATE_RESERVED

The agent is reserved for a call that will arrive at the ACD shortly.

The agent is temporarily set aside to receive a specific call. The agent’s state is changed to the Talking state when the agent answers the call.

If the agent fails to answer the call within a time limit specified by the system administrator, the ACD places the agent in a Not Ready state.

The Reserved state is automatically set for the agent by the ACD. The agent can be in this state without the phone ringing (if the agent is waiting for it to ring).

8

AGENT_STATE_UNKNOWN

The associated agent state is unknown.

9

Agent's Internal States and Their Message Values

State name

Description

Value

AGENT_STATE_LOGIN

There is no specific Agent Login state in Unified CCX.

However, this is a request value specified while trying to login an agent.

0

AGENT_STATE_LOGOUT

The agent has logged out of the ACD and cannot accept any additional calls.

1

AGENT_STATE_NOT_READY

The agent is not available to accept a routed call.

2

AGENT_STATE_READY

The agent is available to accept a routed call.

3

AGENT_STATE_TALKING

The agent is currently talking on a call with a customer or another agent (inbound, outbound, or inside).

This state is automatically set for the agent by the ACD.

4

AGENT_STATE_WORK

The agent is completing work from a previous call and is unavailable to receive routed calls.

There are two (mutually exclusive) ways to put an agent into AGENT_STATE_WORK:

  • Automatically, through CSQ configuration settings selected in the Unified CCX Administration web page.
  • Through the SET_AGENT_STATE_REQ message. In this case, when the agent is in the AGENT_STATE_TALKING state, the client can select the work state (by setting the AgentState field to AGENT_STATE_WORK). Then when the call ends, the agent will be moved by the Unified CCX server to the Work state.

5

AGENT_STATE_ WORK_ READY

The agent is performing after call work, and will be ready to receive a call when completed.

6

BUSY_OTHER

This state signifies the agent state for a particular CSQ. This state is notified in the CSQ State field of QUERY_AGENT_STATE_CONF message only. The state of an agent for a CSQ will be BUSY_OTHER if that agent is handling calls from other CSQs.

7

AGENT_STATE_ACTIVE

The agent state is currently active.

11

AGENT_STATE_PAUSED

The agent state is currently paused.

12