Fonolo is compatible with all major call center platform vendors and can connect to your call center through a hybrid SIP connection that includes placing appliances on-premises, within your network.

This guide outlines steps for setting up appliances to act as a connection between your phone system and the Fonolo Cloud. To provide the information needed to set up the Fonolo deployment, fill out the Appliance Setup Form:

In-Queue Offer Message

The Fonolo call-back starts with an offer message played to the caller while they are on hold. Each queue that you will be offering call-backs on must have:

• An offer message that offers the caller a call-back.
• DTMF breakout logic that transfers the call to a Fonolo SIP extension.

The offer message must be added to your existing messaging, using any appropriate logic or wording. Optionally, we are happy to make suggestions on frequency and threshold for activating the offer.

SIP Extension Programming

To connect to Fonolo using a SIP connection, you must configure one SIP extension per queue that will be offering call-backs. For example, if you want to offer call-backs on three queues, you must provide three unique SIP extensions.

You must provide:

• A Queue Name that appears for each queue in the Fonolo Portal.
• A Queue SIP Extension that lets Fonolo dial directly into the queue and bypass the IVR.

We will provide a parallel Fonolo SIP extension for each of your Queue SIP extensions.

Physical Appliance Specifications

The Fonolo appliances are 1U rack-mount Dell servers, running a mix of open-source and custom-built software, that are installed on your premises. They are remotely operated, managed, and monitored by Fonolo as part of the Fonolo license. Fonolo generally supplies appliances in pairs.

Go to the Appliance Hardware Configuration Guide for more information on the appliances.

Network Configurations

Before Fonolo can ship you the appliances, you must provide us with your network configuration settings so that the appliances can be preconfigured:

• The interface configuration: Active/Backup or LACP
• The IP address/subnet for each network interface
• The gateway IP address
• One unique, public IP address per appliance, either with NAT enabled or configured on the local interface
• The private IP address of the phone system

If your network has NAT set up, 1-to-1 NAT is required. Port-Based NAT will not work.

If your appliances are going to be behind a NAT gateway:

• You must provide both the public IP address (for remote connections) and the private IP address to configure the network interfaces.
• NAT timeout rules must be changed to make sure that the connections aren’t dropped. The SIPS connections between the Fonolo Cloud and the appliances often have long periods with no data transferred. We recommend a 4- to 6-hour timeout rule.

Call Routing

The appliances must be added to your phone system (as appropriate, depending on your system) using the addressing provided above.

Fonolo also requires two call route patterns be configured:

• One routing pattern in your dial plan that matches the inbound extension, so that Fonolo can connect to the queue directly.
• One routing pattern in your dial plan to place outbound calls to callers. For example, Fonolo can add a 9 to the call number to route to your carrier trunk. By default, Fonolo adds a 1 as a telephone prefix, formatting outbound numbers with 11 digits.

Firewall Configurations

The appliances must be able to communicate with your phone system, the Fonolo Cloud, and with each other. For Fonolo to connect to the appliances, external firewall rules must be applied to permit the required inbound and outbound traffic:

• Fonolo IP Block 64.190.42.128/25 must be permitted for both inbound and outbound traffic in the firewalls in front of the appliances.
• The ports TCP/5061 (SIPS), TCP/22 (SSH), TCP/443 (HTTPS), UDP/123 (NTP) and TCP&UDP/53 (DNS) must be permitted (inbound and outbound) in the firewalls in front of the appliances.
• If there is an additional firewall between the appliances and your phone system, ports UDP/5060 (SIP) and UDP/10,000-20,000 (RTP traffic) must be opened.
• If your phone systems use a feature called Direct Media or Re-invite, the appliances will need to speak to other media devices, such as media gateways and agent handsets. These media device IPs must be permitted (inbound and outbound) within the firewall.
• The ports TCP/443 (HTTPS) and UDP/10,000-20,000 must be permitted between the appliances, for communication purposes and appliance pair redundancy purposes, respectively.

Media

Fonolo uses the following media settings for a SIP connection:

• g711u (μ-law), with a ptime of 20ms.
• RFC 2833 / RFC 4733 DTMF

Fonolo Portal Setup

The Fonolo Portal is used to manage Fonolo features and view call stats. To set up the Portal, some additional information on your company and phone system must be provided:

• The Hours of Operation for each of your phone queues that will offer call-backs.
• Any Advanced Scheduling for holidays and other times the call center will have reduced hours or be closed.
• The Caller ID and Phone Number that you want callers to see when they get a call-back.
• A list of users who need access to the Portal, as well as their role within it:

Permission	Stats Only User	Standard User	Account Manager
View graphs, call logs, and real-time stats	✓	✓	✓
Edit service settings	×	✓	✓
Set up new queues and profiles	×	✓	✓
Manage other users	×	×	✓

Optional Features and Procedures

While not required, there are other features or procedures that may complement your Fonolo deployment.

IPSec VPN

Fonolo supports connecting to companies via a direct site-to-site IPsec VPN. Go to Connecting via an IPSec VPN for more details.

Custom Audio Prompts and Messaging

The Fonolo service uses audio prompts that we provide in English, French, and Spanish. All prompts—for the caller or agent—are customizable using your own voice talent, letting you keep a consistent voice and terminology as your callers transition to Fonolo.

Go to the Downloads page for a spreadsheet with all the files (and suggested messaging) that Fonolo uses.

To use your own audio or voice talent, you must provide a voice file for each of the audio prompts listed in the spreadsheet that you want to use.

Go to How to Upload Audio Prompts for more information on customizing the Fonolo audio.

Client First Call-back

Fonolo supports a Client First call-back approach where Estimated Wait Time (EWT) is available and can be provided from your phone system. There are 2 methods by which EWT can be provided to Fonolo:

Via a custom SIP header in a pre-agreed format

You will insert the EWT value for the appropriate queue in a custom SIP Header to be included in the opt-in transfer following call-back offer acceptance. This follows the same methodology as a pre-call question using the “SIP Header” input type.

Via an Open or Partner Web API which will allow Fonolo to request the EWT in real-time

You will provide API access to your environment including anticipated response formats for Fonolo to query the EWT value for a given queue.

The EWT you provide will be used to determine when to place a call-back to the client, at which point they will be offered an option to accept or cancel. On call-back acceptance, Fonolo will place a call to a SIP extension that routes to a priority queue to reach the next available agent as soon as possible. This priority queue should have music on hold (MOH) or other messaging configured to account for any discrepancies in agent availability.

Agent Training

It is highly recommended that you educate your call center agents about the Fonolo call-back process. The Agents Guide to Voice Call-Backs talks about handling a call-back and what to expect when agents receive one.