Streaming Cisco Hold Music Solution Approved

“Streaming Cisco Hold Music: the end of managing audio files in on-prem Cisco solutions.”

As reported in Marketing Technology Insights: Easy On Hold’s Streaming Queue Music^™ solution for Cisco on-prem platforms UCCE, PCCE, UCCX, and CUCM 12.5 was rigorously tested and approved as Cisco Compatible.

For telecom technicians, marketers, and call center managers tired of loading audio files in Cisco on-premise call center queues and agent hold, there’s now an easier way: Streaming Queue Music^™ from Easy On Hold^Ⓡ, which has recently earned Cisco Compatible status.

“The solution alleviates the inconveniences and limitations associated with static audio-file-based content while producing an enhanced caller experience.”

Julie Brown, CEO, Easy On Hold^®

Streaming Cisco hold music offers conveniences

“The Streaming Queue Music^™ solution was developed to satisfy the demand for flexible queue and hold content that can be managed from the Easy On HoldⓇ customer portal,” says Julie Brown, Easy On Hold^® CEO. “The solution alleviates the inconveniences and limitations associated with static audio-file-based content while producing an enhanced caller experience.”

The Streaming Queue Music^™ solution brings a long-desired package of benefits for contact centers, including real-time control and management of content that achieves a superior customer experience. Voiced information (messages) have start/stop dates, pause/play options, playback randomization, message priority playback, and greetings based on time of day and day of the week.

Where streaming Cisco hold music can be used

In UCCE/PCCE deployments using Cisco VVB 12.5+, a single instance of Streaming Queue Music provides up to ten unique content streams while simultaneously providing synchronized (or independent) audio streams for “agent hold” in CUCM. This means that callers will hear a “seamless caller experience, not detecting that they’ve been placed back on hold by an agent, which is part of the frustration of callers. This was a common problem that we heard over the years, so we were committed to solving it,” Brown says.

Streaming Cisco hold music can be your favorite tunes

Streaming Queue Music^™ allows call centers to legally stream ‘hit’ licensed music by major artists into their queue and hold experiences instead of traditional hold music. Tight regulations in the recording industry make using copyrighted music on phone platforms illegal without complicated music rights clearances. Easy On Hold^® has obtained the rights to stream popular music into phone platforms, “a welcomed update, compared to traditional music on hold alternatives,” Brown says.

Stop loading files!

“Streaming Queue Music^™ is a major development for the Cisco environment,” says Easy On HoldⓇ Business Development Leader Amy O’Boyle. “No more tedious loading of audio files that start from the beginning. And now, marketing and call center managers can directly control what callers hear at any moment. Callers are deciding to stay on the line or hang up, and with a modern caller experience, they’ll wait because the music is good and the messages are timely.”

A cloud based or on-prem solution

Tim Brown, Easy On Hold^® founder and CTO, said the solution was developed as both a cloud-based and on-premise service. “The cloud-based service provides streams carried on unique URLs that connect to hundreds of concurrent calls. Larger enterprises will use the SQM appliance on a virtual machine,” he says. A local management portal provides tools and insights to platform integrators and managers.

The Cisco third-party test evaluated installation, configuration, security requirements, and detailed performance testing, using UCCE 12.6 with a Cisco 3900 CUBE and Cisco 3845 Gateway.