Nuance IVR and Gatekeeper plus Dynamics 365 digital messaging

  • Article

This architecture is intended for contact centers with sophisticated needs in the voice channel that are best served by Nuance interactive voice response (IVR). Nuance Gatekeeper can supply biometric authentication. In this architecture, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service adds digital messaging channels. Self-service activities in the voice channel are supported by Nuance IVR. Self-service activities in the messaging channels are handled by Microsoft Copilot Studio. The architecture shows a complete end-to-end experience for agents and supervisors in Dynamics 365 Customer Service and the ability to engage other employees using Microsoft Teams. 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.

Architecture with Nuance for self-service and Dynamics 365 for supervision.

Dataflow

  1. Customers engage through the digital messaging channel of their choice, including potentially using Microsoft Teams as a channel for internally facing contact centers (such as employee helpdesks).

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

  3. Azure Communications Services (ACS) provides communication connectivity, but actual Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) services are provided through a third-party carrier/operator and connected through ACS Direct Routing. ACS Direct Routing also provides contextual call transfer between the Nuance IVR and Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

  4. Copilot Studio provides self-service automation in the form of messaging chat bots.

  5. Work is routed to agents, who use the customer service workspace within Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

  6. Both the agent experience and the supervisor experience are built upon and integrated with the Power Platform. Dataverse stores all core data and events to for the customer data platform.

  7. Supervisors interact with the built-in capabilities of Dynamics 365 Customer Service, including insights, forecasting, and scheduling.

  8. Context IQ supports Teams collaboration between Dynamics 365 users and Teams users, including the ability to collaborate one-on-one or through swarms. Users can also consult or transfer calls to Teams users.

Components

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.