--- name: watson-assistant-deploy-phone-cxone title: Integrating with phone and NICE CXone contact center ![Plus or higher plans only](images/plus.png) description: Connect your assistant to a NICE CXone contact center with live agents. last-updated: 2024-10-02 --- > ## Documentation Index > The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?format=markdown > The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt > Use these files to discover more information as needed. # Integrating with phone and NICE CXone contact center ![Plus or higher plans only](images/plus.png) {: #deploy-phone-nicecxone} [IBM Cloud]{: tag-ibm-cloud} Connect your assistant to a NICE CXone contact center with live agents. {: shortdesc} Transfer customers from a chat with your assistant to live agents who can help them by phone. If customers ask to speak to someone, your assistant can forward them directly to customer support with the conversation history. This integration creates a connection between your assistant and a contact center with NICE CXone. You need a Plus or Enterprise Plan to use this feature. ## Before you begin {: #deploy-phone-cxone-account} You must have a NICE CXone account and phone numbers that are allocated for this integration. 1. Go to the [NICE website](https://www.nice.com/){: external}. 2. Create an account. 3. Follow the instructions to get phone numbers or select existing phone numbers. ## Generate NICE CXone access keys {: #deploy-phone-cxone-accesskeys} Access keys are used for authentication and consist of two parts: an access key ID and a secret access key. To generate NICE CXone access keys to use with your assistant: 1. Log in to the NICE CXone console. 1. Click the app selector ![](https://help.nice-incontact.com/content/resources/images/icons/appselectoricon.png) and select **Admin**. 1. Click **Users**, and then locate and click the user account that you want to use for the integration. 1. Click the **Access Keys** tab. 1. Click **Generate New Access Key**. 1. Click **Show Secret Key**, and copy the secret key to a secure location. You cannot retrieve the secret key again after you complete the next step and **Save**. You must generate a new key if the current one is lost or forgotten. 1. Click **Save**. ## Set up the integration {: #deploy-phone-cxone-setup} To complete setup, you must have an assistant ready to deploy, your NICE CXone access keys, and phone numbers allocated for this integration. To integrate your assistant with NICE CXone: 1. In the **Integrations** section on the main page for your assistant under **Essential Channels**, you see a tile for **Phone**. 1. On the **Phone** tile, click **Add**. 1. On the pop-up window, click **Add** again. 1. Select **NICE CXone** on the **Select contact center** page. Click **Next**. 1. On the **Connect to contact center** page, specify the following values: - the **Access key ID** - the **Access key secret**. Click **Test connection** to verify the credentials. Click **Next**. 1. On the **Phone number** page, enter a phone number that you allocated for the NICE CXone integration. You can add more phone numbers later. Click **Next**. 1. On the **Speech to Text** page, select the instance of the Speech to Text service that you want to use. - If you have existing Speech to Text instances, select the instance from the list. - If you do not have any existing Speech to Text instances, click **Create new instance** to create a new Plus or Enterprise instance. 1. In the **Choose your Speech to Text language model** field, select the language that you want to use. The list of language models is automatically filtered to use the same language as your assistant. To see all language models, toggle the **Filter models based on assistant language** switch to **Off**. If you created specialized custom models that you want your assistant to use, choose the Speech to Text service instance that hosts the custom models now, and you can configure your assistant to use them later. The Speech to Text service instance must be hosted in the same location as your watsonx Assistant service instance. For more information, see [Using a custom language model](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-phone-actions&format=markdown#phone-actions-custom-language). {: note} For more information about language models, see [Languages and models](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/speech-to-text?topic=speech-to-text-models&format=markdown){: external} in the Speech to Text documentation. Click **Next**. 1. On the **Text to Speech** page, select the instance of the Text to Speech service that you want to use. - If you have existing Text to Speech instances, select the instance from the list. - If you do not have any existing Text to Speech instances, click **Create new instance** to create a new Standard instance. Click **Next**. 1. On the **Contact center integrations** page, click **Test connection** near the setup information you entered. - If **Invalid**, check your credentials and enter each again. - If the credentials are correct, the **Save and exit** button becomes clickable. Click **Save and exit**. The connection between your assistant and NICE CXone is complete. For security reasons, the authentication fields are removed from view after initial setup. If a field required for authentication is changed, then all entries in related fields must be filled and validated again. {: note} ### Configuring the NICE CXone script NICE CXone provides a scripting tool that allows workflow developers to define routing flows for their contact centers in CXone. The following actions and settings in the workflow are necessary for integration to work properly. #### Connecting a caller to your assistant Use the [Sipputheader](https://help.nice-incontact.com/content/studio/actions/sipputheader/sipputheader.htm) action. In the **headerName** property, enter the name of the SIP header field that contains the Contact ID. This header field is included in outgoing SIP INVITE messages to watsonx Assistant. - **headerName** X-ContactID - **headerValue** {ContactId} #### Transferring a caller to a live agent You can configure your assistant to transfer a customer to a NICE CXone live agent. The phone integration uses the [signal](https://developer.niceincontact.com/API/AdminAPI#/Contacts/Signal%20a%20Contact) REST API. The **p1** attribute is preserved for the session history key. The key can be used to fetch the conversation history and present it to a live agent. 1. Use [Onsignal](https://help.nice-incontact.com/content/studio/actions/onsignal/onsignal.htm) to process the signal event. 1. Save the value of the **p1** attribute: ``` sessionKey = "{p1}" ``` For example, you can use the [Snippet](https://help.nice-incontact.com/content/studio/actions/snippet/snippet.htm) action: ``` ASSIGN sessionKey = "{p1}" ``` Use [Reqagent](https://help.nice-incontact.com/content/studio/actions/reqagent/reqagent.htm){: external} to transfer a call to a live agent. ![Image of call transfer to a live agent](images/cxone-live-agent.png) #### Displaying conversation history to a live agent Configure your script to provide a transcript of the assistant conversation to a live agent in a pop-out window, so the agent can better understand and address a customer's needs. 1. Add an [Onanswer](https://help.nice-incontact.com/content/studio/actions/onanswer/onanswer.htm) event to your script. The **Onanswer** event is triggered when an agent answers the call. 1. Use [Assign](https://help.nice-incontact.com/content/studio/actions/assign/assign.htm) to store the link to the conversation history into a variable. **Variable** watson_url **Value** https://web-chat.global.assistant.watson.appdomain.cloud/loadAgentAppFrame.html?session_history_key={sessionKey} 1. Use the [PopURL](https://help.nice-incontact.com/content/studio/actions/popurl/popurl.htm) action to display the conversation transcript to a live agent. **URL** {watson_url} ![Image of the conversation history window](images/cxone-pop-url.png) #### Disconnecting a call The phone integration uses the same [signal](https://developer.niceincontact.com/API/AdminAPI#/Contacts/Signal%20a%20Contact) REST API for disconnecting a call. The **p1** attribute is set to `hangup`. You need to design your script so it can distinguish between transferring a call to a live agent and disconnecting a call. If **p1** is set to `hangup` when an **Onsignal** event is triggered, use [Hangup](https://help.nice-incontact.com/content/studio/actions/hangup/hangup.htm) to terminate a script. ![Image of call hangup](images/cxone-hangup.png) #### Transferring to a live agent when an error occurs If an error occurs during a conversation, the phone integration disconnects the call by sending a `SIP BYE` request. Use [Onrelease](https://help.nice-incontact.com/content/studio/actions/onrelease/onrelease.htm) to process the BYE request and transfer a call to a live agent. In this example, when **Onrelease** is triggered, the script verifies whether the call was already transferred. If not, it calls the **Signal** action and sets an indication that the call is being transferred to a live agent. The indication is set using the **Assign** action. - **Variable** transferred - **Value** true ![Image of call disconnect on failure](images/cxone-disconnect-on-failure.png) If the **Hangup** action is executed and an [**Onrelease**](https://help.nice-incontact.com/content/studio/actions/onrelease/onrelease.htm){: external} event action is present, CXone hangs up on the caller, and the script jumps to the **OnRelease** action. Design your script so it can distinguish whether the **OnRelease** event is triggered due to a transfer or hangup. ## Adding transfer support to your assistant {: #deploy-phone-cxone-transfer} Use the *Connect To Agent* response_type to configure your assistant to transfer calls to an agent. For instructions, see [Transferring a call to a live agent](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-phone-actions&format=markdown#phone-actions-transfer). Use the following format: ```json { "generic": [ { "response_type": "connect_to_agent", "transfer_info": { "target": { "nice_cxone": { "custom_data": { "p2": "test" } } } }, "agent_available": { "message": "Ok, I'm transferring you to an agent." }, "agent_unavailable": { "message": "Agent is unavailable." } } ] } ``` {: codeblock} Parameters listed in the `custom_data` object are transferred to the [signal](https://developer.niceincontact.com/API/AdminAPI#/Contacts/Signal%20a%20Contact) REST API. Supported parameters are `p2`, `p3`, ... `p9`. `p1` is preserved and used by the phone integration for passing the session history key into the NICE CXone script.