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View helpful articles, tutorials and FAQs on the set-up and configuration

of the FocalScope omnichannel suite, according to best practice.

The benefits of Jabber chat and how to set it up

FocalScope offers you an additional internal communication channel which is faster than email: Jabber chat. FocalScope's implementation of Jabber chat is done in such a way that it accentuates existing features and workflows in FocalScope. You can share a critical ticket to your superior(s) and get their direct input on how to proceed with the response, or they can even respond to it directly without having to search for the ticket in the system. With Jabber chat, collaboration becomes a convenient and efficient way of dealing with tasks. Once you start working with Jabber chat, you won't know how you ever managed without it!

Advantages of having Jabber chat in FocalScope:

  • Staff don't occupy the office phone to discuss matters with their colleagues (possibly blocking critical calls from customers). They can simply chat with one another in Jabber and still attend to incoming calls
  • Quicker and easier to access than external IM clients
  • Partitioned chat - Jabber chat groups can be company wide or limited to individuals, teams, projects, and departments
  • Discuss ticket - Subject relevant discussions help focus collaboration between staff, which improves problem resolution efficiency
  • Rapid file and document exchange without having to resort to email or external file-sharing tools
  • Status updates - Agents always know who is available to assist them. Managers / supervisors:always know the status of their entire team as well as what activities they are engaged in
  • Active chat logging - All chats are logged for auditing purposes

Benefits of using Jabber chat:

  • Get clearer answers and instructions faster than with emails
  • Reduce the number of internal emails you send / receive each day
  • Don't worry about remembering obscure details of past cases--simply refer to your Jabber chat history to refresh your memory
  • Avoid being interrupted when you are engaged in critical tasks by changing your Jabber status
  • Never again copy and paste the contents of an email into Skype, just to share the information with a colleague
  • Spare yourself the hassle having to re-attach files and documents that got blocked in emails--simply send the files to your colleagues via Jabber chat
Please see the following tutorial to learn how to configure and use Jabber chat:

Tutorial

Enabling and configuring OpenFire synchronization for Jabber users and groups

For Jabber chat to work in FocalScope, user accounts and Jabber shared groups need to be synchronized with the OpenFire (XMPP) server. Synchronizing recreates the users and groups configured in FocalScope, in the OpenFire server, allowing seamless communication using Jabber. Once synchronization with OpenFire has been enabled and properly configured, you can safely create Jabber shared groups and start using the Jabber chat feature.

  1. In the [Main menu], select [Screen > Administration]
  2. Click the [Administration] tab
  3. Navigate to the [Instant messaging > Jabber > OpenFire synchronization] folder
  4. In the right-hand pane, tick the [Enable OpentFire synchronization for all users] flag
  5. Under the [OpenFire administrator access] section, do as follows:
    1. In the [User Name] field, enter the username for your OpenFire account. By default this is admin
    2. In the [Password] field, enter the password for your OpenFire account. By default this is admin
    3. In the [Admin URL] field, specify the URL to your OpenFire server. Please note, if the OpenFire server is installed on the same machine as FocalScope, simply use http://localhost:9090/
  6. Click [Save] to save changes
  7. Continued in next section...



Figure 1 - Enabling OpenFire synchronization



  1. Navigate to the [Instant messaging > Jabber] folder
  2. In the right-hand pane, fill in the host name / address of the OpenFire server in the [Host name/address] field
  3. If your XMPP domain is different from the host name fill in the XMPP domain name in the [XMPP domain] field (required only if Jabber server is not accessible by it's XMPP domain name, in most cases leaving this field empty is the best option)
  4. Click [Save] to save and apply changes
  5. Continued in next section...






    Figure 2 - Configuring global OpenFire sync parameters


    Please noteIf you want to override the global Jabber configuration and connect some of FocalScope users to a different Jabber(XMPP) server then do the following:


    1. Navigate to the [User Access Control > Users] folder
    2. Double-click the account of an agent that will be using Jabber
    3. In the [User Properties] window, click the [Jabber] tab
    4. By default, the settings for each relevant field will already be populated with the information you entered in the previous section. To have FocalScope users connect to different Jabber server(s), you will need to add the server information directly to the user account; this will override the default / existing settings. Please noteyou will need to do this for each agent account that will be using an alternative Jabber server
    5. Click [Ok] to save changes





    Figure 3 - Configuring individual OpenFire sync parameters

    Configuring Jabber shared groups

    Before FocalScope users can use Jabber they need to be part of a Jabber shared group. A Jabber shared group can be company wide or limited to a department, team, or even just two individuals. Jabber shared groups can be visible or invisible to other Jabber shared groups, giving you total control over who can chat with whom in your organization.

    Please noteJabber shared groups only apply to accounts that were automatically created during the OpenFire synchronization process. For agents connected using individual OpenFire sync parameters (show in Figure 3) it is required to create shared groups with the tools provided by the corresponding Jabber server.

    1. In the [Main menu], select [Screen > Administration]
    2. Click the [Administration] tab
    3. Navigate to the [Instant messaging >Jabber > Shared groups] folder
    4. Right-click the right-hand pane and select [New]
    5. Continued in next section...



    Figure 4 - Creating a new Jabber shared group



    1. In the [Jabber Shared Groups] window, in the [Name] field, enter a name for this Jabber shared group
    2. Under the [Users] section, in the left box, select the users that are to be part of the group. You can select multiple agents by holding down Crtl+left-clicking and clicking on their names
    3. Click [Add >] add the agents to the chat group. The agents' names will now be listed in the right box. Please note, your user account must be added to the group for you to later see the Jabber shared group and the agents in it
    4. If you have configured multiple Jabber shared groups they will appear in the left box under the [Visible to Group] section, You can have this new Jabber shared group see and chat with agents in other Jabber shared groups by doing the following:
      1. Under the [Visible to Group] section, select and add Jabber shared groups in the same way as you just selected and added agents to this chat group
    5. Click [Ok] to save the new Jabber shared group



      Figure 5 - Configuring a Jabber shared group



      1. In the [Main menu], click on the [Jabber] button; you will see the newly created group and the agents in it
      2. Agents who are online will have a lit light bulb icon. To chat with an agent, click on their name--this will open the Jabber chat window





      Figure 6 - Configuring a Jabber shared group



      Discussing tickets using Jabber chat

      1. In either your personal folders or shared folders, right-click the message you want to discuss with someone in jabber and select [Discuss]
      2. Continued in next section...



        Figure 7 - Discussing a ticket using Jabber chat


        1. In the [Jabber] window, click on the name of the agent with whom you want to discuss the selected ticket. Please note, you can chat with an agent who is offline; they will simply receive the message later when they log into FocalScope
        2. The agent will receive a link that they can click to view the ticket, in full, on their screen
        3. You can discuss the ticket with them and work towards a resolution. The contacted agent can also respond to the ticket directly from their screen



          Figure 8 - Discussing a ticket using Jabber chat

          Additional Information

          How to install the OpenFire server (only applicable to FocalScope On-Premise Edition)



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