What's new in the 8x8 Contact Center integration for Microsoft Dynamics?

In this release, we have introduced the ability to pull emails from your external CRM directly from My assigned queues. This feature allows you to browse pending emails, view the sender and subject, and accept the email that requires immediate attention. You can pull emails from your assigned queues at any time, even if they are not enabled, within the limit set by the admin for handling blended interactions.

To pull emails from a queue:

Note: This feature is only available if enabled by the admin.

  1. Log into the 8x8 Contact Center integration.
  2. Set your status to Work Offline.
    If your status is Available or Busy, the 8x8 Contact Center integration may offer you a new interaction before you can complete pulling email interactions from an email queue, depending on your admin settings.
  3. Click My assigned queues.
    -OR-
    Click Show menu and select My assigned queues.
  4. Hover over a queue and click to retrieve an email from that specific queue. The icon displays the number of queued emails.

    5. Note: Clicking Pull email next to the header name for the email queues allows you to pull emails from all queues.

  5. In the Queued emails window that displays, search for the relevant email. You can use the search bar to locate an email or click the arrow > icon in front of the wait time to preview the content of the email.
  6. Select an email and click Accept interaction. The email opens in the 8x8 Contact Center app. If the email is from an existing customer, the customer info displays in the CRM.

    7. Note: Only one email can be pulled at a time. You can pull emails up to the limit set by the admin for handling blended interactions.

  7. Click Reply to respond to the email from the 8x8 Contact Center app.

The Queued emails window includes the following information that you can use to determine which email to pull from queue:

  • Wait time: Displays how long the email has been in the queue.
  • Case/Follow-up: Displays the case or follow-up number for the email. New emails are identified using an integer number (e.g. 406). Follow-up emails are identified using a decimal number (e.g. 406.1).
  • Queue: Displays the name of the queue the email came from.
  • From: Displays the email address of the sender.
  • Name: Displays the name of the person that sent the email.
  • Subject: Displays the subject of the email.

You can use the search bar to search queued emails by queue name, email address, contact name, or subject.

For more information, see how to handle emails.

Previous releases of 8x8 Contact Center integration for Microsoft Dynamics

In previous releases, we introduced the following enhancements for the 8x8 integration for Microsoft Dynamics:

Support for SMS channels

The 8x8 Contact Center app now supports SMS channels. With this new feature, agents can send and receive SMS messages to/from customers using the chat interface in the 8x8 Contact Center app.

Note: The cost of sending messages to different countries varies based on the country, with the US and Canada being the least expensive.

Limitations

  • We don't currently support SMS messaging to short code numbers. We support messaging to toll-free and regular phone numbers.
  • We don't support MMS.
  • Agents cannot send images or emojis via SMS. It is plain text only.
  • Customer responses to agent initiated messages are not directed to the agent unless a dedicated SMS queue is set up for the agent.
  • Group messaging is currently not supported for outbound SMS.
  • For outbound SMS, an SMS channel must be set up with a number for that region.
  • To send a message while on a call, there must be a disposition code set up.
  • Alphanumeric sender ID’s are not available.

To learn more, see how to handle SMS interactions in the 8x8 Contact Center app.

Support for WhatsApp channels

The 8x8 Contact Center app now supports WhatsApp channels. With this new feature, agents can receive WhatsApp interactions via the social channel chat queues they are serving.

Limitations

  • Agents cannot initiate outbound WhatsApp messages.
  • Agents cannot send images to customers; they can only receive images. The images sent by the agent will not be received by the customer.

To learn more, see how to handle WhatsApp interactions in the 8x8 Contact Center app.

Extended region support

To make the 8x8 integration for Microsoft Dynamics more inclusive, we are including France to our supported regions. In addition to France, 8x8 integration for Microsoft Dynamics is available in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Belgium, Austria, Netherlands, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Enhanced 8x8 Contact Center app

We are introducing an upgraded 8x8 Contact Center app for Microsoft Dynamics. The 8x8 Contact Center app (version 2.0) is a highly intuitive interface that streamlines customer interactions while delivering a simpler, more efficient, and more engaging way for agents to keep productivity high and customer experiences positive.

This clean new interface allows agents to:

  • Process interactions and manage their routine tasks with ease.
  • See the system searching the CRM for matching records from the moment the interaction is offered to an agent.
  • View a screen pop for single match records (if configured by the admin).
  • Match the interaction to the desired contact when multiple match records are found.
  • Search the CRM and match the interaction to the desired contact.
  • Add disposition codes before wrap up (if configured by the admin).

To learn more about the 8x8 Contact Center app for Microsoft Dynamics, refer to the Get started topic of this guide.

Support for Microsoft Dynamics Customer Service

In this release, we are introducing support for Microsoft Dynamics Customer Service. In addition to the support for the same functionalities available for Microsoft Dynamics Sales, the 8x8 Contact Center integration for Customer Service also supports searching for the Case object.

Enabling search for the Case object

8x8 Contact Center for Microsoft Dynamics Customer Service supports searching for the Case object. When the Case object is enabled in the 8x8 Contact Center app, upon receiving an interaction, the app searches the CRM for a matching case record. By default, the Case option is turned off. Agents can enable/disable CRM search for the Case object from the 8x8 Contact Center app.

To enable/disable the search for the Case object:

  1. Log in to your Microsoft Dynamics account.
  2. If required, select the Customer Service app.

    3. Note: This step is only required when you first log in to your account, or after clearing your browser’s cache.

  3. Click the icon located at the top left corner of your home screen. The 8x8 Contact Center app opens in a floating window.

    4. Note: Ensure that your browser allows pop-ups from 8x8.



  4. At the prompt, enter your credentials.
  5. Click the settings icon from the top right side of the 8x8 Contact Center app.
  6. Select Integrations > MS Dynamics.
  7. From the Search types section, select the check box for Case.
  8. Select the Agent tab and set your status to Ready to work or Work Offline.

When an interaction is offered, the system searches for an existing case record and displays it in the Search tab of the 8x8 Contact Center app.

Support for email routing

Note: Email in external CRM for Microsoft Dynamics is only available on request. To have this feature enabled, contact 8x8 Support.

Note: Email routing is only supported via 8x8 Contact Center app version 2.0.

The 8x8 Contact Center integration for Microsoft Dynamics now supports email routing via the 8x8 Contact Center app. Once this feature is enabled in your integration by your administrator, you can accept and reply to emails directly from the 8x8 Contact Center app. When an email is offered, the 8x8 Contact Center app searches for the customer info in your Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and, if available in the system, screen pops the customer info in a new browser tab. For more information about handling emails, click here.

8x8 integration support for Microsoft Dynamics Unified Interface

The updated 8x8 integration for Microsoft Dynamics supports the existing functionality in the Unified Interface. To use the 8x8 Contact Center app with the new Microsoft Dynamics Unified Interface, the admin must download the latest integration package for Microsoft Dynamics (version 0.3.6).

To confirm that you are using the Unified Interface:

  • Look at the label listed on the apps:
    • UNIFIED INTERFACE: Displays for Unified Interface applications.
    • WEB: Displays for the Web Client Interface applications.

  • Open an app and look for “appid=” in the URL. Only the Unified Interface displays the app ID in the URL.
    Example:
    https://8x8inc.crm.dynamics.com/main.aspx?appid=812e345f-67c0-ec12-345e-000d1a2cd345&pagetype=entitylist&etn=account&viewid=00000000-0000-0000-00aa-000010001001&viewType=1309