8x8 Contact Center X Series Upgrade Details

8x8 Contact Center X Series Upgrade Details

Overview

This article provides details on the changes that 8x8 Contact Center Administrators and Agents experienced with their scheduled X Series upgrade. 

Among other important points, the following major topics are covered:

  • Password Recovery: A unique, valid, and working email address for each agent is required for password recovery. (Administrators will be unable to directly change agent passwords.) 
  • Downtime: This upgrade will include brief system downtime, during which any logged in agents will be impacted.
  • Notifications: Guidelines for ensuring critical people in your contact center are notified leading up to and during the upgrade process.
  • Changes for Agents: Guidelines for before, during, and after the upgrade. Be sure everyone logs out when prompted ahead of the upgrade.
  • Changes for Admins: Guidelines for before, during, and after the upgrade.

Note: For further details on the X Series upgrade process, see X Series Upgrade Impact.

Prior to Scheduled Upgrade

Confirm Agents' Email Addresses

  • Agents will no longer have the ability to edit their own workplace email from the Agent Workspace after the upgrade.
  • Administrators should confirm that all Agents have a valid email address prior to the scheduled upgrade, as this will be required for Agent password resets after the upgrade.
  • Administrators can confirm their Agent's email addresses by navigating to the Users tab in 8x8 Configuration Manager for Contact Center and adding the Email column. To add the Email column:
    1. Right-click on the existing column names.
    2. Select Columns.
    3. Select Emails from the list. Once selected, the Agent's emails will display.
    4. Select the pencil icon to the right will route to a page where the Agent's information can be edited.

Additional Agent Channels

  • One week prior to the scheduled upgrade, Administrators will see extra enabled Agent Channels in the Channel List of the 8x8 Configuration Manager for Contact Center. This will not cause any change or impact to your existing configuration. 

Ensure Your Contact Center Leaders are Informed

8x8 will be delivering important email notifications leading up to, during, and at the conclusion of your upgrade. Especially on the day of upgrade, it will be important to ensure your on-duty administrators and supervisors are informed in a timely manner of status and progress.

It is highly recommended that you review and update the email addresses in your Maintenance email distribution list in VCC Configuration Manager to include your contact center leadership team. See Add or Remove Email Recipients for 8x8 Service Notifications.

Downtime During the Upgrade

A period of downtime is expected to occur during the scheduled maintenance window.

We cannot guarantee or schedule an exact time that your upgrade will take place. The maintenance window for the complete scheduled upgrade is 2-hours, but there is an anticipated downtime for your account of up to 15-minutes in that window. There will be no interruption to active calls that are in progress during the upgrade, however, any new inbound calls during the downtime will not be passed to your Agents. 

Agent Updates

Suggested Agent Email Notification

In order to prepare your agents for this maintenance window, an email template has been created for your convenience:

Hi [Name],

Our 8x8 account is being upgraded to X Series, 8x8’s newest and most advanced communications platform. X Series brings better performance, new features, security enhancements, cross-PBX dialing, and more. Our upgrade will be starting on:

[insert date here]

Agent Enhancements

  • The Directory tab in the Agent Workspace will list all Agents, their extensions, and presence status.
  • Call/chat Agent-to-Agent from the directory (unless Agent-to-Agent chat is disabled).
  • Call other Agents from the dial pad by dialing the Agent Extension. 
  • Email updates will be limited to administrators. 
  • Agent-to-Agent chat history will no longer be visible in the Agent Workspace.

Downtime

Contact Center will experience a brief system downtime (~15 minutes) during which any logged-in agents will be impacted.

  • Downtime Window: [insert date/time window here]
  • Impact: New inbound calls will not pass to Agents during downtime (no interruption to calls in progress)

Upgrade Experience

Before Upgrade:

  • 15 minutes prior, a pop-up notification will display instructing agents to log out.
  • Please remain logged out for the duration to avoid functionality loss.
  • The notification also provides instructions on how to log in post-upgrade.

After Upgrade:

You’ll access the Agent Workspace from the 8x8 Application Panel.

  1. Login to the 8x8 Application Panel.
    • The old link will redirect Agents to the new link
    • Bookmark the new page for convenience
  2. New Username (YourExistingUsername@TenantName)
    • Tenant name located on your My Profile from your Agent Workspace. 
    • No changes to your password.

Quick Video: Check out the New Agent Login Experience.

Before Upgrade

  • About 15 minutes before the upgrade begins, a pop-up notification will display in the Agent’s window letting them know that they need to log out due to the upgrade taking place.
  • Agents that fail to log out of the Agent Workspace and remain logged in during the upgrade risk losing some functionality such as the ability to end calls, change status, etc.
  • To this extent ensure your agents are logged out prior to the upgrade and remain logged out for the duration.

After Upgrade 

After the upgrade, Agents will have:

  1. A new username to access 8x8 Agent Workspace (Your_Username@TenantName). 
    • Details on how an Agent can locate their Tenant Name can be found further down this article, in the Agent Updates section.
    • The old direct link to the 8x8 Agent Workspace will automatically redirect Agents to the 8x8 Application Panel.

Please find more details in the Agent Updates section further down this article.

Admin Updates

Before Upgrade

  • Before the scheduled upgrade takes place, Administrators logged into either the 8x8 Configuration Manager for Contact Center or the Account Manager portal will be automatically logged out before the upgrade begins. 
  • After being logged out, administrators need to remain logged out of all 8x8 administrative portals during the scheduled maintenance window, as logging in may cause a delay in your upgrade. 
  • An email will be sent to the account Administrator(s) as soon as the upgrade is complete, and Administrators can log in again. 

After Upgrade

  • After the upgrade, Administrators will have: 
    1. A new URL to access all 8x8 administrative portals 
    2. A new username for Primary & Secondary Administrators
    3. A new display name for the Primary Administrator

An email will be sent to the account Administrator(s) as soon as the upgrade is complete, and Administrators can login again.

Please find details in the Administrator Impacts section below.

Post Upgrade Supervisor / Administrator Updates

New Access Link to Administrative Portals

  • After the upgrade, 8x8 Contact Center Administrators will access all administrative portals in one location, the 8x8 Application Panel. The direct links to these administrative applications will no longer work after the upgrade completes.
    • If the Administrators direct link includes the tenant name at the end of the URL, then they should be automatically redirected to the 8x8 Application Panel login page, and a banner will display across the top of the 8x8 Application Panel login page confirming the page has been redirected.
  • The direct links to these administrative applications, such as 8x8 Configuration Manager for Contact Center, 8x8 Analytics for CC, and Speech Analytics & QM, will no longer work after the scheduled upgrade. Administrators will be able to access them only from the 8x8 Application Panel.

 

Username & Display Name Change - Primary Admin

  • The username, first name, and last name of the Primary Administrator will change after the upgrade. 
    • After the upgrade, the Primary Administrator's username will change from the format of "TenantName" to "TenantName@TenantName". 
    • The Primary Administrators first and last name will also change, and both fields will display as “TenantName” 
    • The new username for the Primary Administrator will have one email address set. This email will be selected from the existing list of emails already tied to the Primary Administrator.  
  • For the Primary Administrator to log in to the 8x8 Application Panel after the upgrade, they will need to use the format of “tenantname@tenantname” as their username. 
  • Administrators can confirm their Tenant Name by:
    • Logging in to the 8x8 Configuration Manager for Contact Center
    • Select Home in the menu on the left side of the page
    • Select the Profile tab, Tenant Name will be listed in this section 

Username Change - Secondary Admin

  • After the upgrade, Secondary Administrators will need to log in to the 8x8 Application Panel with their username in the format of:  "Username@TenantName"
  • Administrators can confirm their Tenant Name by (see screenshot in the above section):
    • Logging into the 8x8 Configuration Manager for Contact Center
    • Select Home in the menu on the left side of the page
    • Select the Profile tab, Tenant Name will be listed in this section 

 8x8 Contact Center Administrator Permissions

  • Administrators assigned granular admin access prior to the upgrade will have full agent/user administrative privileges after the upgrade, such as create, edit, view, and delete agent/user. Permissions can be removed after your account is upgraded.
    • Further details on the default out-of-the-box 8x8 Admin Console roles can be found here.
  • After your account upgrade, if newly created 8x8 Contact Center Administrators do not have the Virtual Contact Center Config Mgr icon in the 8x8 Application Panel there are two options to resolve: 
  1. Assign the VCC Admin (default) and Company Admin (default) roles to the newly created user 

- OR -

  1. Assign a VCC or VO license and the VCC Admin (default) role to the newly created user 
  • Further admin permission details:
    • Admins that have access to Virtual & Toll-Free Numbers and Number Transfer Requests in Account Manager will be given access to Virtual Contact Center Channels after the upgrade.
    • Admins that have access to Channel Rerouting in Account Manager will be given access to VCC Routing Plans after the upgrade. 
    • Admins that have access to Contact Center Calling Plans in Account Manager will not be given any certain admin access to VCC.

Administrators Can No Longer Set Agent Passwords

  • After the upgrade, 8x8 Contact Center Administrators will no longer have the ability to directly set the password for an Agent. 
  • Administrators will be able to initiate the password reset via email for the Agent in the 8x8 Admin Console. 

Wallboard Runner At Login

  • Wallboard access will no longer be available from the login page of the 8x8 Configuration Manager for Contact Center. Wallboards will still be available as an option from within the 8x8 Configuration Manager for Contact Center. 
  • To access Wallboards after the upgrade, Administrators will need to login to the  8x8 Application Panel to access the 8x8 Configuration Manager for Contact Center and navigate to the menu on the left side of the page.
  • VCC Administrators will see the 8x8 Analytics for CC icon in the 8x8 Application Panel more information on how to use the Analytics for CC to create dashboards (wallboards) and reports can be found here.

New Agent Workspace Username & Access Link

  • After the upgrade, 8x8 Contact Center Agents will access the Agent Workspace from the 8x8 Application Panel rather than the direct link, using their usual login credentials. 
    • There are two scenarios: 
  1. If the Agent's direct link includes the tenant name at the end of the URL and the Agent tries to login, then the Agent should be automatically redirected to the 8x8 Application Panel login page.
  2.  If an Agent is not automatically redirected to the new login page from the URL, then the Agent will need to enter their full username including “@TenantName” at the end (in the username field), to initiate the redirect to the 8x8 Application Panel. A password is not needed for the redirect to happen.
  • For both scenarios, once the redirect has taken place the Agent will see a banner across the top of the 8x8 Application Panel login page letting them know they need to bookmark this new page. 
    • In addition, the Agent’s username will be partially auto-filled with “Your_username@tenant”. The “@tenant” will auto fill correctly, but the Agent will need to replace “Your_username” with their actual username in order to login.
      • Agents can confirm their Tenant Name by:
        • Logging into Agent Workspace
        • Select "My Profile", Tenant Name will be listed in this section

Agent Video Guide - Logging Into The Application Panel Post Upgrade

 

 

Agents Unable to Change Email from Agent Workspace 

  • After the upgrade, Agents will no longer have the ability to edit their workplace email from the Agent Workspace. 
  • Agent email updates will need to be changed from the Admin Console. 

Agent-to-Agent Chat History No Longer Available 

  • After the upgrade, Agent-to-Agent chat history will no longer be visible to agents in the Agent Workspace.
  • To retrieve previous Agent-to-Agent chat history you may contact 8x8 Support for assistance. This history will be available for download for six months from the date of your upgrade. Be aware that this file will be a .JSON file. 

Agent Workspace Directory

  • After the upgrade, Agents will see the "Directory" tab in the Agent Workspace with the list of all Agents, their extension number and their presence status.
  • Agents can perform Agent-to-Agent calls/chat from the directory. If Agent-to-Agent chat is disabled for the Agent it will also be disabled from the “Directory”. 

Extension Dialing

  • After the upgrade, Agents will have the ability to call each other from the dial pad by Agent Extension. 

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