Update 21C

Revision History

This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:

Overview

This guide outlines the information you need to know about new or improved functionality in this update.

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B2C Service

Agent Console

Administration Experience

Agent Browser UI administrators have easy access to administrative functions in a single location.

Chat Browser UI: Redwood Theme Icon Updates

Agents handling chats in the Browser User Interface, who choose the Redwood Theme, will now see updated icons for the chat login, chat logout, chat agent status, pull chat and the chat sound buttons.

Chat Preference Center and Max Chats

Agents can now set their Max Chats number within the new Chat Preferences section within the Agent Browser UI.  After selecting Preferences from the Avatar Menu, the agent can adjust the total number of active chats.

Minor SSO Enhancements

A couple of minor customer-driven enhancements to the Single Sign-On framework are now available in B2C Service

Offer Advisor Feature Removal

Offer Advisor, deprecated in August 2017, has been removed from B2C Service.

Support for Emojis

Emojis are an important part of the Chat component, and it is desired to be saved as part of Chat logs. 

Currently, the CX database does not support Emojis and this feature implements the CX database changes to support the Emojis.

Contact Center

Oracle Service Cloud Cross Channel Customer Service empowers organizations to provide quick, consistent, proactive and reactive assisted service across multiple channels. Oracle Service Cloud Cross Channel Contact Center helps organizations increase efficiency and reduce operational costs by enabling customers to resolve simple issues using self-service, while directing the more complex issues to contact center agents.

Extension Manager

Develop, deploy, configure and troublshoot extensions using extension manager.

Digital Customer Service

A reputation for excellent customer service can differentiate the brand and drive revenue. Oracle Digital Customer Service helps organizations earn that reputation by transforming online web service into a highly interactive customer experience.

Agent Desktop & Application Sharing

Agent Desktop and Application Sharing is a new Co-browse feature that will enable agents to switch the Co-browse sharing mode from the end-user page or desktop view to the agent's own desktop view or to a specific application running on the agent's desktop. At any time, the agent can also transition the view back to an end-user page or desktop view.

Chat Browser UI: Auto Scroll

Agents handling chats within the Chat Browser UI can now easily read the latest customer posts by clicking the new auto-scroll feature.

Chat Security: Convert to Allow Lists

The Chat Service utilizes Allow Lists instead of Deny Lists, in order to control which tags, attributes and protocols are allowed within live chat.

Off-Hours Message Processing

Oracle Messaging can now process and handle messages sent through configured messaging channels during periods where service agents may not be available. These include:

• Normal operating hours for Contact Centers, but no agents are available to respond to the customer message
• Non-operating hours for Contact Centers (including Public Holidays)

Messages received during these periods can be responded to asynchronously by service agents. This feature is disabled by default and will need to be enabled on a per-channel basis by the administrator.

Screen Masking for Mobile Co-Browsing

Screen Masking for Mobile Co-browsing focuses on enhancements for the Mobile Co-browsing SDK (iOS & Android) to support the ability to pause screen sharing of confidential screens during mobile co-browsing with end users and resume sharing when the customers navigate away from confidential screens to generic mobile screens. Third-party native applications can integrate with the Mobile Co-browse SDK and leverage these enhancements to be able to flexibly enforce screen masking for confidential screens.  

Support for Message Tags to Enable Asynchronous Replies Beyond 24 Hours in Facebook Messenger

Oracle Messaging is now integrated with the "HUMAN AGENT" Message Tag to support Asynchronous Replies beyond 24 Hours in Facebook Messenger. Message Tags enable sending important and personally relevant one-to-one updates from businesses to users outside the standard messaging window, which is currently defined by Facebook to be 24 Hours.

With support for Message Tags, in particular the "HUMAN AGENT" message tag, agents can now respond to customer queries sent via Facebook Messenger within 7 days after the query has been received. This allows for agents to effectively respond to queries received just before a contact center closes for an extended period of time (e.g. weekends).

This feature is enabled by default whenever a Facebook Messenger channel is configured. No other configuration is required.

Intelligent Advisor

Configure First Day of Week for Calendar Controls

Interview designers can now choose the start day of the week for calendar controls.

Debug Logs for Deployments

Debug logging can now be enabled by a Manager in Intelligent Advisor Hub to provide detailed information about what is happening when data is run through an interview. This can help identify where unexpected behavior occurs in interviews.

Refresh API Access Token

An API client can now request a refresh token to use so that they can continue to access the Intelligent Advisor REST services without the need to re-supply user credentials.

Statistics REST API

System integrators can now access Intelligent Advisor statistics through a REST API.

Test Decision Service Rules in a Browser

While writing decision service rules, authors can now instantly switch to a Live view to add data objects and input values and see how these flow through the rule logic.

Optional Decision Service Inputs

Decision service authors can now mark input contract fields as not being required so they can either be omitted or passed as null.

Oracle Analytics Publisher

Interview authors can now use Oracle Analytics Publisher Desktop 5.5.0 (previously known as BI Publisher), for form creation and editing.

Knowledge Management

Oracle Service Cloud Knowledge Management provides a fully integrated knowledge management solution that delivers a seamless, consistent experience across all channels, from self-service and contact centers to communities and social sites.Knowledge Management is essential for delivering exceptional customer experiences and increasing customer loyalty. In the contact center, empowered, efficient agents must have access to timely information when they need it. Customers expect to find answers to their questions quickly and easily, when and where they ask them. 

Automatically Update Search Indexes

We have updated the functionality that the application uses for search in the authoring application and in some agent browser and customer portal features. When you upgrade to the current release, the indexes that store your organization’s search data need to be updated for compatibility.

The upgrade process will automatically update and rebuild the search indexes. This process may take more than an hour to complete, depending on the amount of data. During the upgrade, the application will process the content and create the indexes incrementally.

The affected product features include Find (find content) and Global Find and Replace in authoring, and suggested searches in customer portal and agent browser. If you use these features before the indexing process completes, the results will be based on incomplete indexes, and will be inconsistent. When the indexing process is complete, these product functions will be fully upgraded and compatible with the updated search functionality.

Check Spelling in Articles Using Browser Spellchecking

Authors can use their preferred browsers’ spellcheck functionality when they create or edit articles using the authoring console. Browser-based spellcheck is enabled in Knowledge Advanced by default. Most popular browsers provide spellchecking, however, authors may need to configure their browsers to use it. Browser-based spellcheck enables authors to use spelling correction while they type, which improves the user experience and increases quality and productivity.

Improve Search Accuracy by Using the Search Dictionary

The knowledge search dictionary is updated to improve performance and accuracy. These improvements involve disabling concepts that research and testing have shown to be ineffective in improving search results in most applications. The updated search dictionaries improve search accuracy while using fewer concepts, which results in better search results for customers and may also reduce the need for dictionary tuning.

Platform

The Oracle Service Cloud Platform includes App Builder products, the Experience Platform and the Virtual Configuration Interface Object (CIO) Cloud Service.

Business Rules Enhancements: Newly supported Actions and Rule Usage Stats

Support for new math and string operations has now been added to the Enhanced Business Rules framework.  These new features help in defining more complex business logic from within rules and also reduces the need for custom code. The supported math operations are Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, and Modulo.  The supported String operation is the Field Concatenation. In addition, the rule usage statistics are now made available in the Rules framework that provides insights into the rule runtime/usage statistics to pro-actively clean/revise unused rules periodically and helps in better understanding the rules usage.

Support Assets & Account Rule Element & Enhancements

The Element Manager enhancements include:

• Support for Accounts and Assets rules
• Filtering of elements by updated datetime
• Option to disable export of dependent elements
• Enhance the upper limit of elements in a package

Workspaces

Display Workspace Field Data Without Border

Workspace field data can be configured to display without a border to create a cleaner visual experience.

Answer Insert Hotkeys

Users can insert answers into incident threads using F9 for answer content and F10 for answer links.

Incident Forward Configuration Option: Add Replies to Thread

Administrators can control whether replies to forwarded incidents should be added to the incident thread as a private note and whether agents should be allowed to disable this option when forwarding an incident.

Standard Workspaces for Browser UI

A set of Agent Browser UI workspaces is available in a new folder on the Workspace Designer.

Engagement Panel JavaScript API: Enhancements to Chat Toolbar, Toast & Response Customization Options

In 21C, new APIs have been added to the Engagement Panel JavaScript API that was released in 20D.

Chat Browser UI: Desktop Notifications

Agents handling chats within the Chat Browser UI now have a desktop notification that alerts them when new chats, transfer invites and conference invites require their attention.

Show/Hide Thread Formatting Toolbar

The Thread Formatting Toolbar can be hidden by users using a new button on the thread toolbar.

Standard Text Recent Items

The Standard Text sidebar now includes a list of recently used Standard Text at the top of the search menu.