Product Overview / Features & Benefits / Description
Consolidated Ring Groups
Historically the MiVoice Business Software has supported a variety of call distribution algorithms
described as terminal hunt groups, circular hunt groups, Ring groups, cascading ring groups etc.
Each has subtle variations in behavior related to Queuing, RADs, predictive overflow and
Overflow, as well as group membership eligibility, remote vs. local behavior among other things.
With 7.0 we are consolidating these behaviors into a programmable set described as “Enhanced
Ring Groups”. Within this concept, a group of Members can be defined and the “hunting” or
ringing algorithm can be assigned to the group. The queuing behavior described, the overflow
definition and destination defined, and post call handling can be described within the construct of
a single definition.
Group Membership - Groups can be defined as consisting of any dialable endpoint either local
or remote. This includes MiNET devices, Hot Desk users, SIP endpoints, analog endpoints,
Dynamic extension endpoints, Multidevice users, RDNs, other groups.
Ringing Algorithm - This defines the way an idle party is selected within the group and the
choices are:
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Terminal hunting (start at the beginning)
Circular hunting (start at the last party)
Terminal Cascading (Move to next on no answer)
Circular Cascading (Move to next on no answer)
Ring all
Note : The Circular Cascading function is new to the MiVoice Business functions. Longest idle
remains a function of ACD groups
Call Coverage (Busy/Absent Algorithm) – Capability previously available only within the
context of the Contact Center and Agent licensing is being expanded to other ringing algorithms.
The call coverage capabilities are the behavior the system provides when all parties in the group
are busy (or DND) or absent (absent from group via group presence, Hot Desk logged out or Out
of Service).
These functions are consistent with those currently offered to a path in an ACD call scenario and
include:
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Call re-routing
Call queuing with or without announcements
Initial Announcements, Played when the call is first queued, and a second
announcement that is repeated periodically while the call is queued.
Overflow behavior when calls have been queued beyond a predetermined
threshold
Predictive Overflow, when queue depths are such that the number of available
answer points, and average call hold times will not allow the call to be answered
in an acceptable time window
Enhanced Silent Monitor & Whisper Coach
In support of a renewed emphasis on Contact Centre functionality, we introduce a new coaching
facility primarily aimed at Contact Centre supervisors. At the same time restrictions that existed
on Silent monitor functions are being eliminated.
Silent Monitor Enhancements
Silent Monitor function will allow the supervisor (or any DN with a Class Of
Service set to allow silent monitor) to establish a monitor on a DN in any call
state. This can be done with or without the knowledge of the monitored party.
The monitor can be maintained through call set up, talk state, transfers (monitor
stays with the monitored party), Conferences, Hold, Consultation Hold. At any
point during the monitor session the call can be elevated to a Whisper Coach (on
X86 based platforms - MiVoice Business for Industry Standard Server, Virtual
MiVoice Business and Multi-instance MiVoice Business) or Barge In (on all
platforms).
Whisper Coach
The Whisper Coach function allows the supervisor (or any DN with a Class Of
Service set to allow Whisper Coach) to establish an audio path that is audible to
the monitored DN in any call state, but not audible to any connected
party/parties. This can be done with or without the prior knowledge of the
monitored party. The coaching can be maintained through call set up, talk state,
transfers (monitor stays with the monitored party), Conferences, Hold,
Consultation Hold. At any point during the coach session the call can be elevated
to a Barge in.
This feature is only available on X86 server-based platforms: MiVoice Business
for Industry Standard Server, Virtual MiVoice Business and Multi-instance
MiVoice Business.
Barge In
This allows the supervisor (or any DN with the above coaching Class of Service)
to become audible to all parties as in a normal conference or the monitored party
can be removed from the call and connected directly to the supervisor.
Note, while the Silent Monitor & Barge In enhancements are available across all the MiVoice
Business platforms, Whisper Coach is only available on the three X86 server-based platforms
(MiVoice Business for Industry Standard Server, Virtual MiVoice Business and Multi-instance
MiVoice Business).
DID Enhancements
The enhancements implemented in this release are designed to increase flexibility and reduce
programming complexity associated with assigning incoming DID (DDI) numbers to the
appropriate answer point. This is particularly useful for extended stay hospitality environments
however, the simplification offers value to all deployments with DID/DDI. The essence of the
change is to provide a direct translation of incoming dialed numbers to an internal destination
whether that be a user, or other dialable call terminations such as an enhanced ring group or
ACD path number.
Existing incoming digit translations will continue to be honored. After translation, if the resulting
digit string is an exact match to a digit string in the DID table, it will be translated to the Dialable
string associated with the translated DID number and routed. This replaces a level of indirection
required with the current system speed call translation which remains available. This means the
DID Service is applied to incoming DID calls after trunk service digit modification is completed
and before Speed Calls or DID Ranges for CPN Substitution feature is applied.
Separate from the traditional system speed call translation scheme, now you are no longer limited
to 7 digit translations or by the maximum of 3000 entries per node. In fact, the number of DID/DDI
entries in the Call Recognition Table is practically unlimited (based on available memory).
External Twinning Enhancements
The concept of External Twinning introduced in 6.0 will be expanded to allow any two devices to
be rung simultaneously under a single dynamic extension number (two internal, two external or a
mix). This previously was restricted to one internal and one external representation of a user.
While this enables a broad range of possibilities the primary intention is to allow a full “fixed” and
“mobile” representation of a user and the seamless movement of calls between these
representations.
Conceptually a desk phone, a teleworker phone and a PC based softphone could be envisioned
as “Fixed” representations of a user, while a SIP based client on a mobile phone in a wireless
data network (public GSM or private 802.11), A DECT based wireless phone or a cellular based
mobile phone would be envisioned as “mobile” representations.
With a single dynamic extension license or UCC Entry License a user could HotDesk between
two answer points and use Handoff to move seamlessly between the various “mobile”
representations.
Live Music on Hold over IP
MiVoice Business 7.0 introduces support for live MOH IP sources. Generic SIP based G.711 end
points can now be included as streaming MOH sources. While this new functionality is most
applicable for x86 based platforms due to their lack of a dedicated MOH port, live IP streaming is
available on all MiVoice Buisiness platforms including 3300 ICP platforms.
You can now take advantage of qualified SIP solutions that convert analog MOH sources to be
SIP end points. For more details on various deployment options, please consult the MiVoice
Business Online Help documentation. The flexibility of this new live MOH feature also enables our
Mitel Solution Alliance (MSA) partners to development solutions like a PC based MOH server.
(Note: x86-based platforms include MiVoice Business for ISS, Virtual MiVoice Business and
Multi-Instance MiVoice Business.)
5540 Full name display
The 5540 which is widely deployed in hospitality and as a support console in general business
environments is being updated to display calling party info during the ringing for both internal
guest and external inbound calls. This is designed to improve the information to the Attendant to
allow them to improve customer service. Also, the display will now support 20 character names
(consistent with IP sets) - this is an increase from the previous 15 characters.
SRTP and TLS support
Security is increasingly important to a number of customers both in premise and cloud based
deployments. Following on from the introduction of TLS support for signaling in MCD 6.0 we are
now adding SRTP support for the media stream. TLS and SRTP are the industry standard
encryption key management and encryption algorithms.
Technical Hygiene
A number of changes have been made in MiVoice Business 7.0. These include:
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MSL 10 support (VDT) - A new version of MSL has been included. This is
required to maintain compatibility with the latest generation of industry standard
serves based on Intel XXX architectures. For details refer to server compatibility
docs on MOL
ESM compatibility with IE10 & 11 and Windows 8 is included
Virtualization enhancements
Continuing Mitel's lead in virtualization Mitel has also made a number of updates in line with Release 7.0.
These are designed to both leverage VMware capabilities as well as increase the capacity of our
deployment instances without requiring additional resources. Specifically these include:
VMware vSphere 5.5 Support
MiVoice Business 7 supports VMware vSphere / vCloud Release 5.5 - the latest generally
available major software release from VMware. This covers baseline support ensuring that all
previously supported features and functionality of vSphere/vCloud continue to operate as
expected with MiVoice Business. Support for this latest vSphere/vCloud release allows customers
to upgrade their data centers to the latest hypervisor software with confidence knowing that their
Mitel voice communications software will continue to function as expected.
VMware vSphere 5.5 baseline support was officially released with MiVoice Business 6 Service
Pack 2.
Small Business .OVA Support for 250 Users
MiVoice Business virtual appliance ships with 3 resource settings selectable upon deployment
within vSphere - Small Business, Mid-Market, and Enterprise. This ensures that the resource
requirements are right-sized to the business needs using a simple formula and without unduly
over or under provisioning the virtual resources. With MiVoice Business 7, Mitel introduces
additional capacity under the Small Business .OVA footprint enabling businesses up to 250 users
to be deployed within that footprint (previously only 150 users were supported). This includes
support for MiVoice Business embedded voice mail capabilities up to 250 users and 12 ports.
MiVoice Business qualification to 5000 users
MiVoice Business is qualified to support up to 5000 users/devices within one virtual appliance,
extending top end scale support from the current 2500 users/devices and thus allowing larger
enterprise customers to be supported with a single virtual appliance instance. Support for up to
5000 users/devices will require manual resource configuration changes as this configuration is
not supported through the default .OVA resource profiles.
Consult the MiVoice Business Virtual Engineering Guidelines for additional information regarding
resource settings and deployment procedures.
MiVoice Business Resiliency with VMware Site Recovery Manager
MiVoice Business offers superior real time application layer availability with built-in resiliency. It
also has alternatively supported data center business continuity integration with other business
applications leveraging VMware Site Recovery Manager for holistic DR/BC management.
With MiVoice Business 7, the use of Resiliency and VMware SRM can be combined offering the
utmost in availability solutions. Now, a customer can deploy MiVoice Business 7 in their primary
data center along with a survivable branch office gateway at a remote site, and at the same time
partake in full data center protection based on VMware SRM, with failover to a secondary data
center. (Note that support for VMware HA continues to be supported for single data center
recovery from server/host or VM failure.)
Under a network or local failure impacting only the voice application, MiVoice Business resiliency
will take effect resulting in the local branch office gateway assuming all core voice functions.
When network connectivity or application availability at the primary data center is restored, the
primary MiVoice Business virtual appliance will resume call processing. This capability is as per
existing system behaviors that have been available with the MiVoice Business product for some
time.
With MiVoice Business 7, under a broader disaster scenario that impacts the entire primary data
center, MiVoice Business voice resiliency will immediately kick in with local branch office gateway
assuming immediate voice processing functions and maintaining core communications
capabilities. In parallel, VMware Site Recover Manager business processes are invoked resulting
in a graceful restart of all protected business functions in the secondary (recovery) data center
and this includes the primary MiVoice Business virtual appliance. Once the recovery data center
is up and running, voice services are automatically transferred from the resilient branch office
gateway and restored to the primary MiVoice Business which is now located in the alternate
(recovery) data center. All UC services are now also restored as long as they too have been
protected through SRM.
MiCollab with Voice
MiVoice Business is an integral part of the MiCollab with Voice introduced to market in 2013.
MiCollab with Voice is an integrated all in one software solution with Voice and rich Unified
Communications. MiVoice Business 7 will be released with MiCollab with Voice Release 6 and
will now support up to 500 UCC Users using Enterprise licensing. IP Trunking and Resilient voice
failover will be available as a Technology Preview for select host Service Provider customer
deployment scenarios. Contact Mitel for more information regarding opportunities to participate in
the Technology Preview.
MiVoice Business on Microsoft Hyper-V
MiVoice Business has been available as a virtual appliance on VMware since early 2010 with
thousands of successfully deployed systems in the field.
With the technology improvements in recent Microsoft Hyper-V software releases, Mitel is
pleased to introduce support for MiVoice Business on this virtualization platform in 2014. Support
for Microsoft Hyper-V will provide an additional deployment option for customers that have
standardized on Hyper-V virtualization for their business applications.
If deploying on Microsoft Hyper-V, one must purchase the MiVoice Business Virtual product base
package. Installation requires manual creation of the Virtual Machine
using documented recommended resource reservations, installation of Mitel Standard Linux OS,
and the MiVoice Business application . Operational deployment simplification using virtual
appliance form factor is not currently available. With MiVoice Business 7, basic Hyper-V
management functions are fully tested and supported. As with all VMware based virtual
appliances, online connectivity to Mitel's license server is required. Consult the MiVoice Business
Virtual Engineering Guidelines for more details on the resource requirements and capacity limits
for Hyper-V deployment.
MiVoice Business 7 support for Microsoft Hyper-V is expected to be available as part of MiVoice
Business 7 Service Pack 1.
Enhanced Oria Management Integration for Hosted Service Providers
For Service Providers deploying Mitel's MiCloud solution set, MiVoice Business customer instance
management for MiVoice Business Multi-Instance is enhanced, and is extended to now include MiVoice
Business Virtual customer instance management on VMware vSphere.
This enables Service Providers to automate the creation, tear-down and upgrade of MiVoice Business
software instances across either Mitel's own MiVoice Business Multi-Instance platform or MiVoice
Business Virtual running on VMware vSphere.
MiVoice Business 7 support for Oria Resource Management is expected to be available as part of
MiVoice Business 7 Service Pack 1. Refer to Oria Release 4 product documentation for additional
information.
MiVoice Business Console 7.0
MiVoice Business Release 7.0 is also the first release to support the new console application. Further
details of the application will be issued under a separate Product Brief, please note that this application
no longer requires the Telephony Keypad (TKB) and becomes a software only delivery model. The
console software can be loaded on any compatible machine and requires a MiVoice Business license for
concurrent operation - i.e. the software can be loaded on 10 machines to allow for operator coverage, but
if only two licenses are purchased it can only be used by two operators at any one time. For more
information please consult the MiVoice Business Console product bulletin (PA20140036) available on
MOL.
MiVoice Business R7.0 will continue to support the 5550 IP Console application.