Integrated Communication Interface 

Purpose

The Integrated Communication Interface (ICI) supports the integration of non-SAP communication products with SAP components that use communication services. The ICI is intended in particular for scenarios involving multiple communication channels, such as telephony, e-mail, and chat, but it can also be used in single-channel scenarios. It enables activities such as an agent accepting an inbound phone call, an agent deflecting an inbound chat request, or a supervisor monitoring queues. The ICI is only one of several components required to implement communication scenarios of this kind.

An example scenario is the integration of multichannel management systems (contact centers) with the Interaction Center (IC), more specifically the IC WebClient and the IC manager dashboard, provided by mySAP Customer Relationship Management (mySAP CRM). This example will be used for illustration purposes throughout this documentation.

The graphic below represents a simplified view of such an example scenario without detailing the interfaces. The scenario is made up of functionality from three distinct sources – the application component, the technology component, and the external (non-SAP) component.

Implementation Considerations

It is possible to connect multiple communication products in parallel to SAP using the ICI.

Multichannel management, that is, the synchronization and serialization of incoming communications, is not part of this SAP functionality.

Technology

This communication scenario runs partly on a Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) server. For more information, see the J2EE Engine documentation within the SAP Web Application Server documentation.

The ICI is based on Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Extensible Markup Language (XML), which is non-proprietary, Web-oriented, open interface technology. HTTP is used on the transport level.

Testing

For test purposes, it is possible to simulate an external contact center using the Contact Center Simulator (CCS), which is delivered with the ICI functionality. The CCS has its own user interface to simplify the simulation. See the test system architecture below.

Certification

A certification process is implemented to verify the connectivity of external communication products with SAP using the ICI. An external product does not have to support the ICI in full. Partial certification is possible to enable the connection of single-channel communication products, such as telephony products.

 

Integration

The system architecture required to connect the Interaction Center with an external contact center using the ICI is made up of several components.

The system architecture of the Interaction Center example scenario in a live environment is depicted below:

Live System Architecture

System Architecture Legend

ICI	Integrated Communication Interface
BCB	Business Communication Broker
BSPs	Business Server Pages
JCo	Java Connector
JNDI	Java Naming and Directory Interface (Bean LookUp)
JMS	Java Message Service

ICI-Specific Components

The BCB, BCB API, and SOAP dispatcher components enable the ICI. The messages passed between the application component and the external component are passed via the ICI. The BCB administration component provides a user interface to facilitate customizing.

Application-Specific Components

The application-specific components are linked to the ICI-specific components via the Business Communication Broker Application Programming Interface (BCB API). This is the API for application customizing.

In the Interaction Center example scenario, the application consists of the IC WebClient, which provides a user interface for contact center agents using CRM ABAP and J2EE technologies, and the IC manager dashboard, which provides a user interface for supervisors using J2EE technology. For more information, see the IC WebClient documentation and the IC Manager Dashboard documentation.

The IC server sends actions to the contact center via the ICI-specific components and receives events back from the contact center also via the ICI-specific components. The actions might include agent logon, initiate outbound phone call, or remove chat line from chat session. The events might include new inbound phone call, or new posting in chat session.

External Components

These are non-SAP communication systems. In this scenario, the external product is a contact center, which is a multichannel communication product. This is responsible for merging requests from different media, routing requests to specific agents or agent groups, queuing requests, signaling inbound requests to the IC, and so on. The external products communicate with SAP via the ICI using SOAP and XML.

Test System Architecture

You can test the functionality without connecting to a live contact center by using the Contact Center Simulator (CCS). This is provided with the ICI functionality and runs on the J2EE server. The CCS has its own user interface (CCS UI) to facilitate the simulation of a contact center. Otherwise, the test system architecture is identical to the live system architecture.

The system architecture of the Interaction Center example scenario in a test environment is depicted below:

Features

Many application components use external communication services. Integrating an external communication product with an application component using the ICI can provide:

·        Integration of multiple communication channels, such as phone, e-mail, fax, pager, or chat

·        Active reporting of new, changed, or completed phone calls, e-mails, or chat sessions (known generically as items)

·        Monitoring and statistics

 

Constraints

Multichannel management, that is, the synchronization and serialization of incoming communications, is not part of this SAP functionality.

The ICI is a server-to-server interface. It does not support direct communication between the SAP client and the external communication product.

 

Activities

Installation

The ICI is delivered and installed as integral part of the J2EE Engine. This means, once you have installed the J2EE Engine, there are no further steps necessary to install the ICI.

For more information, see Installing the ICI.

Customizing

Customizing is done using the BCB administration user interface. You start BCB administration by accessing http://<hostname>:<port>/bcb. This gives you access to all functions including the Contact Center Simulator user interface.

Once you have made the customizing settings, the implementation is complete. No further action is required.

The ICI supports Monitoring and GRMG Heartbeat.

For more information about customizing, see Customizing the ICI.

Testing/Troubleshooting

You can test the ICI without connecting to a live contact center by using the Contact Center Simulator (CCS).

You can activate ICI traces in the Visual Administrator of the J2EE Engine.

For more information, see Demonstrating, Testing, and Troubleshooting the ICI.