Nuance plus third-party CCaaS provider

In this architecture, a third-party Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) provider supplies the core contact center functionality. They integrate with Nuance for the voice channel and provide their own support for digital messaging channels. This architecture is intended for contact centers with sophisticated needs in the voice channel that Nuance Interactive Voice Response (IVR) delivers. The architecture also includes Nuance Gatekeeper for biometric authentication. Nuance IVR and Gatekeeper support self-service activities in the voice channel. Self-service activities in the messaging channels are managed by the third-party CCaaS provider.

The third-party CCaaS provider provides the overall agent experience. Integration with Dynamics 365 Customer Service is primarily for core customer and case management data. Data is stored in Microsoft Dataverse. Supervisors use Dynamics 365 Customer Service and any supervisor functions provided by the third-party CCaaS provider. Engaging other employees using Microsoft Teams can be optionally accomplished using features provided by the third-party CCaaS provider.

Potential use cases include the following examples:

• Retailers providing online sales and support

• Healthcare providers offering support for patient questions

• Financial Services companies providing help and advice for banking, investments, mortgages, and so on

• Internally facing help desks for employees

• Customers with especially sophisticated IVR needs

• Customers with concerns about fraud prevention

Architecture

The following diagram illustrates the architecture. Choose the magnifier icon for a more detailed view.

Dataflow

1. Customers engage through the digital messaging channel of their choice. Support for Microsoft Teams as a channel for internally facing contact centers, such as employee help desks, depends on the third-party CCaaS provider's capabilities.

2. Customers engaging through the voice channel will interact with a Nuance IVR, potentially with biometric authentication through Nuance Gatekeeper.

3. Integration between Nuance IVR and Gatekeeper and the third-party CCaaS provider will vary based on the individual provider's implementation/configuration.

4. The third-party CCaaS provider provides all self-service activities for customers in non-voice channels.

5. The overall agent experience is from the third-party CCaaS Provider.

6. Case management data is integrated by the third-party CCaaS provider into whatever agent experience they provide.

7. Supervisors interact with the built-in capabilities of Dynamics 365 Customer Service, likely limited to only selected insights. Most supervisor and admin tools provided by the third-party CCaaS provider will also be used.

8. The Dynamics 365 components are built upon and integrated with Power Platform. Dataverse stores all core data and events to for the customer data platform. However, other data is likely to reside in the data stores that the third-party CCaaS provider uses.

9. Microsoft Teams integration (if available) is enabled by the third-party CCaaS provider.

Components

• Dynamics 365 Customer Service documentation

  • Customer Service Insights

• Conversational IVR | Interactive Voice Response | Nuance

• Nuance Gatekeeper | Biometric Security Solution | Nuance

• Microsoft Power Platform documentation

• What is Microsoft Dataverse?

• Teams Contact Center - Microsoft Teams

Related resources

• Digital Contact Center Platform guidance overview

Assumptions

In all Digital Contact Center Platform architectures, wherever possible, we assume that all or most solution components use the core capabilities of Microsoft Azure, including, but not limited to, compute, storage, identity, security, management, and compliance.