Release 3.17 features external directories with Microsoft Azure / Teams integration, an improved phonebook experience, Outbound Preview dialling and more.

This release comes with several important visual changes and as such, we recommend you understand and share these changes where necessary. 

1.1 External Directories, Improved Phonebook and Dialpad  

(Desktop) The new directory and dialpad experience (the animation may take a few seconds to load)

(Softphone) The new directory and dialpad experience (the animation may take a few seconds to load)

1.1.1 Improved Directory (phone book)

We’ve improved the directory in NEONNOW. Some of the key changes are:       

• (Desktop) directory is now a fixed drawer at the side of the screen and can no longer be moved. It’s now larger so you’ll be able to see more contacts at a time
  
  
• Directory icon - it’s now a phonebook instead of two people
                          
• Contacts no longer have a Company field. We’ve added job title and more generic notes instead. Any contact that had a company will now have their notes set to the company specified
                          
• Agents have moved to their own tab within directory
                          
• We've renamed Company to Organisation. This is where you’ll find all admin-created and external directory contacts
                          
• A new popup menu for contacts, that allows you to view all their information from the list. This is opened by clicking on the coloured contact circle
                          
• Contacts are no longer called using the phone icon. Instead, you can simply click the phone number on the contact entry to call them
                                                    
• Contacts are no longer edited by clicking the pencil icon. Now, click the 3-dot action menu next to the contact and click Edit
                          
• An improved add/edit experience for personal and organisation contacts
                          
• Dialpad has been removedfrom directory. You’ll find it in its own section by:
  • (Desktop) Clicking the new dialpad icon in the NEONNOW header
  • (Softphone) Clicking the new dialpad icon in the NEONNOW sidebar
    
    See visual changes below and additional dialpad changes section

Visual Changes

A before and after of some of the changes.

(Softphone) NEONNOW sidebar (Before, one directory icon)

(Softphone) NEONNOW sidebar (After, separate dialpad and directory icons)

Before

After

Create a Contact (Before)

Create a Contact (After)

Contact (before)

Contact (after)

1.1.2 Dialpad

The dialpad has been moved out of directory and in to its own drawer (desktop) and page (softphone). It’s got more space, so on smaller screens you won’t have to scroll to hit the dial button. You can no longer leave it open or move it around, similar to directory.

Use the new Dialpad icon in the header (desktop) or sidebar (softphone) to open it. On desktop you can also quickly switch between the dialpad and directory using the appropriate icon in the top right of the directory/dialpad drawers.

We’ve also added support for dialling emergency numbers in U.S Amazon Connect instances.    
               

Before

After

1.1.3 External directory integration             

Integrate with third-party directories using SCIM, such as Microsoft Azure or Okta.

Microsoft Teams presence can be enabled for Azure AD, giving agents the ability to see external contact presence.

Admin configuration of External Directories

1.2 Preferences

Preferences follow the same pattern as the directory and dialpad, and now open in a fixed drawer on the right side of the screen (desktop). Preferences have not changed on softphone.

1.3 Outbound Preview

Preview dialling has come to NEONNOW! After outbound previews have been configured, Agents will be able to receive specific preview tasks, before triggering a call to the destination phone number. We’ll automatically carry over information about your campaign to your outbound call.

Reach out to us on how we can help with your preview dialling solution, as well as integrating with our Insights reporting for campaigns.

1.4 Interaction History

We've made some visual changes and some small quality-of-life improvements which bring the desktop version of interaction history more in line with softphone:

• (Desktop) Similar to most places in NEONNOW, calling a number in your history is now done by clicking the phone number and not a phone icon
  
  
• (Desktop) We've replaced First Name/Last Name with Talked To. Talked To is based on a matching contact in your directory at the end of an interaction. If there is no contact match, we'll show the word Customer instead
  
  
• (Desktop) We've reordered the columns and some columns have changed names:
  
  
  • Timestamp -> When
  • Source -> Phone Number & Type
  • Type -> Direction
    
    
• (Softphone) History without a matching contact will now display Customer rather than Unknown
  
  
• Interaction History is now My Interaction History
  
  
• Modifying or deleting a contact will no longer change the first/last name displayed in historical interactions. The Talked To column will now always remain the same

Before: Interaction History on desktop

After: Interaction History on desktop

1.5 Admin App Improvements

We’ve updated some text and added clearer help on the templated responses page.                   

• We’ve changed the permission text for “Agent’s can’t skip” under interaction outcomes to “Interaction outcomes are required”
                          
• There’s a new permission for interaction outcomes, “Notes are required when there are no wrap codes” which allows you to further customize and decide what’s required from your agents in ACW
                          
• We’ve added additional help information and tweaked the list page for templated responses

1.6 General NEONNOW Changes

1.6.1 Interaction Outcomes

Based on the above Admin changes, we’ve slightly tweaked interaction outcomes for agents:

• Agents will no longer see “Required” or “Optional” against wrap codes and notes during interactions (these remain on the ACW page)
  
  
• Agents may receive different behaviour for required/optional fields
   depending on how interaction outcomes have been configured in Admin
  
  

1.6.2 Attached Data Badges

If attached data has been configured to display badges, Agents will now see new visualisations for attached data.

1.7 Bug Fixes

• The Admin app avatar now displays correctly
  
  
• The loading icon in the templated responses window now displays correctly
  
  
• Turning off agent task creation in Amazon Connect now correctly hides all add task buttons
  
  
• (Desktop) Connected calls and conferences will now properly scroll in 2 column layouts

In this release, there will be new features added to the Agent and Admin applications to enhance the capabilities of the NEONNOW application for the end user.  One of the changes is the introduction of Call Recording Controls in the NEONNOW agent application.  This new feature will allow agents to pause, and stop active call recordings directly within the NEONNOW UI.

The other enhancement is Enhanced Logging which will allow the end user of NEONNOW to capture and download logs of application usage for the CloudWave support team to debug if any issue arises.

Another change is to the NEONNOW Admin application where users of the Enterprise version of NEONNOW will have direct controls to toggle additional features such as Insights, Conversations and Workforce Management.

Finally, there are some changes to the AWS Marketplace billing for AWS Marketplace customers.

1.   Call Recording Controls

1.1 Ability to enable/disable call recording controls from the NEONNOW Admin application 

-  The client can now enable and disable  the call recording feature capability within NEONNOW

1.2 Ability to record a call or conference task

 -  An agent can now pause and stop active call recordings via the NEONNOW agent application once enabled in the NEONNOW admin application. 

1.2 Ability to pause and resume a call recording
  
-  The agent can pause and resume an active call recording.

1.3  Ability to stop a paused or active call recording

-  The agent can stop both a paused and active call recording from the NEONNOW UI.

2.   Enhanced Logging

-  The NEONNOW application UI will allow agents to log all application events for CloudWave support to look at if any issue arises.  This can be triggered via the Preference functionality within NEONNOW.

3.   UI changes to Enterprise Features

- The NEONOW admin application will allow administrative users direct control over the enterprise licence features of NEONNOW such as Insights, Conversations and Workforce Management.

In this release, there will be some important changes both to the NEONNOW Agent and Admin applications which will allow for greater flexibility and customisation to the end user.  One of the changes is that NEONNOW will have the capability to customise the way in which a client wishes to fit the look and brand of their contact centre.  By utilising the NEONOW Admin application, the client can choose their logo, Favicon, primary and secondary colours as well as their product name.

The other major enhancement allows for agents of a contact centre to send outbound SMS messages to their respective customers.

Finally, the Chat, Email & SMS Templates will provide the agents of a contact centre to send consistent responses to customers across multiple channels via predesigned templates.

1. Customisable NEONNOW Branding

1.1 Adding a custom brand logo support:
 

-  The client can now add their own logo to the NEONNOW Agent application via the NEONNOW Admin application.

1.2 Ability to select custom Favicons:

- The user can now customise their own Favicon via the NEONNOW admin application.

1.3 Customisable Product Name & Help Docs:

2. Ad-hoc Outbound SMS

-  The agents will now have the ability to send an outbound SMS text message through the NEONNOW Agent application once an API endpoint is configured in the NEONNOW Admin application.

3. Templated Responses

-   The predesigned Chat, Email & SMS Templates from the NEONNOW Admin application will provide the agents of a contact centre to send consistent responses via the NEONNOW Agent applications across multiple channels.

In this release, there will be some important changes to the NEON Admin application which will allow greater flexibility to the end user.  One of the changes is that the application will allow contact centres to parameterise and store configurations of complex flows in Amazon Connect.

The other major change is a newly built interface for the NEON Admin application that will allow contact centres to define custom date schedules, for instance for public holiday closing dates for your business.  This would include multiple schedules and will cater for different time zones.

There are also a few fixes to the NEONNOW application to better enhance the end-user experience.  We are also removing the legacy wallboard page.

If you would like to talk about how you could include these features, please reach out to sales@cloudwave.com.au.

Overview 

The goal of operational parameters for NEON release 3.14 is to provide implementers such as architects and engineers to design data-driven contact flows.  By using a new NEON Admin UI, implementers and call centre managers can use parameterisation through toggles within the application to configure the contact flows

There will also be the removal of legacy wallboard page.

1. Operational Parameters

1.1 Adding a New Parameter 

-  The parameters that are set within the NEON Admin application will allow Amazon Connect to query the values for the parameters that have been set up.  The user can add a new parameter or edit an existing one.

1.2 Delete a parameter

- A user can delete a parameter within the NEON Admin application.

Custom Schedules will allow NEON Admin users to define custom ‘schedules’. A schedule has a name and a time zone.  Multiple ‘schedule dates' can be added as required against this ‘schedule’  These can form part of holiday operational hours.

2. Custom Schedules

 2.1 Add a new schedule

- The user of NEON Admin application can create a custom schedule by selecting date ranges and has the ability to create multiple custom schedules.

2.2 Delete a schedule

- The user can delete an existing schedule.

3. Fixes and Enhancements

- Enhancements to onboarding flow for new customers

- Fix for some US phone numbers when setting up an organisation in the CCaSS onboarding process

- Removal of legacy wallboard page

- Visual fix for sub menus in the navigation side bar

This release of NEON will roll out new enhancements to After Contact Work, the NEON Softphone, a clearer UI and several fixes!🎉

After Contact Work - The interaction outcome area can now be hidden if you don’t want to use wrap codes or notes. If you’d like this to be hidden, please reach out to your account manager.

Transcript - When Concierge is integrated, the transcripts will now be automatically expanded.

Softphone Landing Page - When there are no active tasks, agents will now always have access to the “No Active Tasks” page.

Admin App - new customer sign-up improvements!

🐞Fixes:

- Agent status: a scroll bar is now shown on the status dropdown.

- Attached Data: Attached data are now correctly scrollable on small screens.

- Columns: All columns in the agent workspace will now scroll as expected.  Previously on screens with smaller resolutions, some of the controls were hard to navigate.

3.11.0 comes with an enhanced After Contact Work (ACW) and various security updates and enhancements!

ACW – ACW boosts agents’ productivity by allowing them to fill out wrap-up codes and interaction notes during and after each call, chat, and agent task.

Admin ACW - admins can easily customise wrap-up codes to fit the specific needs of their contact centre, by assigning codes to different queues.

Admin App - We've made several improvements to the admin system, including refactoring and fixing bugs that have been identified.

Security Enhancements – as part of our ongoing service improvement, we have made additional security improvements.

If you would like to learn more about our new ACW feature, you can visit our help docs at https://help.cw-neon.com/help/category/neon-admin/after-contact-work/

We’ve now added some shortcuts to the NEON softphone that’ll give you quick access to these NEON pages. 🎉

When you click the shortcut, we’ll open a new full-screen tab to the desktop version of the page.

Note: You won’t be able to refresh or bookmark these opened shortcuts; you’ll need to open them from the softphone each time you want to view them.

If you have any feedback, please let us know what you think using the feedback option!

Task Banner: Fix a minor UI issue with tasks in the header.

Dialpad Button:  When the dial pad is small enough, a scrollbar will become visible, improving clarity.

Agent Workspace: Fix UI issues around the inspiration text/options on the empty agent workspace view.

In call control: Fix an issue where the call timer would reset back to 0 when putting the call on hold.

In Conference: Agents are now able to see the correct tooltip for the swap icon in a conference.

Creating Agent tasks in Softphone: Fix a minor UI issue with cut-off date/time fields in Softphone.

Sign out: the option to sign out is now disabled when there are active tasks. Previously, signing out with active tasks would not actually sign you out. We always recommend you sign out of NEON at the end of the day.

Dialpad: you can now immediately type a number when the dialpad is opened without having to click in the phone number field.