Interaction Plans Manager

Interaction Plans Manager is a component of Vonage Contact Center (VCC), essential in managing destinations and interaction plans, and mappings between them. Users with an admin license use Interaction Plans Manager alongside Interaction Plans Architect to configure the routes inbound interactions take to reach the most appropriate agent or service for their needs.

Previously, interaction plans in Interaction Plans Architect were associated with a single destination. To use an interaction plan with different destinations, the admin user needed to copy the interaction plan, once for each additional destination. Any time the plan needed to change, the admin user needed to change multiple copies of the plan. In Interaction Plans Manager, the destination and interaction plan are separate entities; an admin user can map many destinations to one interaction plan.

In Interaction Plans Manager, an admin user can perform the following tasks:

• Map any number of destinations to a single interaction plan for real interactions
• Map any number of destinations to a single test interaction plan for test interactions from one or more specified sources
• Use data sources at the destination, mapping or interaction plan level to influence what happens to interactions in the interaction plan
• View where traffic is routed for both production and testing purposes
• Understand which interaction plans are being used through their Mapped or Unmapped status

Destinations

Destinations are used by customers to contact agents in a VCC account. A VCC account can have many destinations for different purposes: for customers in different locations, for different types of customers, and so on.

Interaction Plans Manager contains two types of destinations: PSTN destinations and API destinations. Previously, these destinations were referred to as lines and named routes respectively.

PSTN destinations are phone numbers. A customer dials a PSTN destination to initiate an inbound call which arrives at the associated VCC account.
Non-call interactions such as emails, live chats, and so on use API destinations to contact agents in the associated VCC account.

Using Interaction Plans Manager, admin users can create, edit, and delete API destinations. Admin users can only edit PSTN destinations; only Vonage can create and delete PSTN destinations.

For information about configuring destinations, see Using Interaction Plans Manager.

Interaction plans

An interaction plan is a series of applets that route interactions—calls, emails, live chats, and so on—from customers to agents. High-level settings for an interaction plan appear in Interaction Plans Manager, and the plan's configuration of applets is located in Interaction Plans Architect.

Using Interaction Plans Manager, admin users can create, edit, clone, and delete interaction plans. When an admin user creates an interaction plan in Interaction Plans Manager, the plan appears also in Interaction Plans Architect. The user can then configure the interaction plan’s applets.

For information about configuring interaction plans in Interaction Plans Manager, see Using Interaction Plans Manager.

Mappings

A mapping connects an address to an interaction plan. When an interaction arrives at a VCC account using a specific address, the mapping determines which interaction plan the interaction is routed to.

Many addresses can be mapped to a single interaction plan, enabling the interaction plan to be reused.

Mappings are ranked. If multiple mappings exist for a single address, the mapping with the highest rank (where rank 1 is highest) is used. Rank is determined by the mappings' priority values (where priority 1 is lowest, and 10,000 is highest). If two or more mappings have the same priority, the most recently modified mapping has the highest rank.

Using Interaction Plans Manager, admin users can create, edit, and delete mappings.

For information about configuring mappings, see Using Interaction Plans Manager.

Data sources

Data sources contain values associated with interactions; data sources have a name (also known as a 'key') and a value and are sometimes described as a 'key-value pair'. Vonage Contact Center can use the values in data sources for routing interactions.

In Interaction Plans Manager, destinations, interaction plans, and mappings can each have up to 20 data sources. The values of the data sources are set on associated interactions before being routed through an interaction plan. Interaction plans can be configured in Interaction Plans Architect to behave differently depending on the values.

For example, two destinations mapped to the same interaction plan may have different data source values. The interaction plan’s behavior may be determined by the data source’s value and therefore the destination through which an interaction arrives at the VCC account.

For information about configuration data sources in destinations, interaction plans, and mappings, see Using Interaction Plans Manager.

Data source hierarchy

If a single data source is set to different values by a destination and either the mapping, the interaction plan, or both, the value set by the destination takes precedence. If the data source is set to different values by the mapping and interaction plan, the mapping’s value takes precedence.

For example, if the destination's Language data source value is en-gb, the mapping’s Language data source is es-es, and the interaction plan’s Language data source is pl-pl, the Language data source on an interaction is set to en-gb.

Service names

In Dashboards, Insights Stats API, Advanced Reporting, and Analytics, you can report on interactions' service names.

Before Q4 '22, service name contained the reporting group, a value given to a group of interaction plans. This was great for reporting on interactions routed through multiple related interaction plans, but not those arriving at VCC using different destinations or individual interaction plans.

You can now set up service name to contain different values which means you can report on interactions based on their:

• Destination name
• Interaction plan name
• Reporting group

The default value for the service name is the target interaction plan's reporting group. This applies to interaction plans and their destinations migrated from Interaction Plans Architect. 

For information about setting the service name, see Using Interaction Plans Manager.

Example destination, mapping, interaction plans

Production interaction plan

Using the following example:

1. Customer uses Destination A (0123456789) to contact a VCC account. The initiated interaction uses a PSTN address and is therefore a call.
   Destination A has data sources DS1 and DSA, and sets DS1 on the interaction to 1 and DSA to z.

2. Destination A is included in Mapping A. Mapping A has data sources DS1 and DSM and sets DSM on the interaction to y. Destination A has already set DS1 on the interaction, so Mapping A does not set DS1.

3. Mapping A maps Destination A to Interaction Plan A for real (non-test) interactions.
   Interaction Plan A has data sources DS1 and DSP, and sets DSP on the interaction to x. Address A has already set DS1 on the interaction, so Interaction Plan A does not set DS1.

VCC now routes the interaction with four data sources—DS1, DSA, DSM and DSP—through Interaction Plan A’s applets as configured in Interaction Plans Architect.

Testing interaction plan

In this example, the source of the initiated interaction is +449876543210. Interactions from this source are identified as test interactions and therefore go to the testing plan: Interaction Plan B. Interaction Plan B has data sources DS1 and DSP, and sets DSP on the interaction to w.

Migrated interaction plans

If you previously configured interaction plans along with their destinations in Interaction Plans Architect, some of the data from your interaction plans will have been migrated into Interaction Plan Manager. Migration removes destinations from their interaction plans and stores them as separate destination and interaction plan entities. Default mappings are created to reconnect destinations and interaction plans. One interaction plan in Interaction Plans Architect results in one interaction plan, one destination and one mapping in Interaction Plans Manager.

Use the following information to identify your migrated interaction plans and destinations. You can still find your interaction plans in Interaction Plans Architect, however, addresses and service names no longer appear.