Understanding Mitel (ShoreTel) Data Instances

Required Subscription: Mitel MiVC

Required Permission Level: Reports and Dashboard Creator

When working with reports and dashboards in Brightmetrics, it is important to understand the different types of data Mitel (ShoreTel) is logging to their database. The data that Mitel (ShoreTel) logs are the foundation of what Brightmetrics has the capability to build our reports and dashboards from. This article is designed to give you definitions of the various data instances you will encounter, how/when to use them and which Brightmetrics standard template reports are built around them.

On the Mitel MIVOICE Connect (MVC) (ShoreTel UC Core), we break Data Instances down to 5 main groups: System, Workgroups, Users, Professional Services and Configuration. Let's look at these one-by-one:

System

Definition: System information is designed to give you insight into overall call volumes and technical components in your Mitel (ShoreTel) data. It breaks down into three main data instances:

Mitel (ShoreTel) Call Data

Definition: This data source represents each call in the Mitel (ShoreTel) system, along with data about that call.  Each call in the system is represented once, with call-level information such as the number that was dialed, the caller id, the total length of the call, and which internal party is responsible for the call.  It is important to note that for outbound or extension to extension calls the responsible party is the person placing the call.  For inbound calls, the responsible party is the last party added to the call.  For example, if a call comes into a reception desk and is transferred to an individual, it is that last individual that is reported as the internal party associated with the call.  Since each call is represented only once, this is a good data source to use for measuring total call volumes system-wide, seeing how many calls a particular inbound number gets, finding all the times a certain number called in, etc.  For a view into all call activity by specific parties, see "Call Party Activity" further down.

Standard Reports:

  • Call Summary Report
    Summary of calls by call type and the party making or finally receiving them.
  • Call Detail Report
    Detailed listing of calls grouped by the party making or finally receiving them.
  • Search by Caller ID
    Detailed listing of calls, searched by the number the call came from.
  • Search by Dialed Number
    Detailed listing of calls, searched by the dialed number.
  • Account Code Summary
    Summary of call activity by Account Code (account codes are generally used in bill-back).
  • Account Code Detail
    Detailed listing of calls, grouped by Account Code

Media Stream

Definition: Media stream captures information around network audio stream statistics such as packet loss, jitter, the type of audio codec used, and the sites and devices at each end of the media stream.  This is mostly of use to IT, Telecom engineering, and/or systems administrators who want to monitor call quality.  It should be noted, however, that Mitel (ShoreTel) devices do not reliably report accurate information, in particular for packet loss.  Occasionally devices will report lost packets vastly exceeding the number of sent packets, skewing the packet loss rate very high.  As such we recommend establishing a baseline and watching for changes from that baseline, not using the numbers directly as an accurate measurement of call quality.  Additionally, call legs involving SIP devices, such as SIP trunks or SIP phones, including the newer IP400-series phones, will not be represented in the media stream table.

Standard Reports:

  • Media Stream Summary
    Summary of call leg statistics by the sites at each end of the media stream.
  • Media Stream Detail
    Detailed call leg statistics, grouped by site and remote site.

Trunk Activity

Definition: This data set tracks the usage of trunks -- the minimum and maximum number of trunks in use in a trunk group during the time period, how many uses (calls more or less) of each trunk, and the number of minutes of trunk usage.  Note that trunk data can vary from call data since a trunk may only be involved in part of a call (e.g. transfer) or more than one trunk may be involved in a call (e.g. conference or forward to external number).

Standard Reports:

  • Trunk Activity Summary
    Summary of call volume by trunk group and direction (Inbound, Outbound).
  • Trunk Activity Detail
    Detailed listing of trunk call legs, grouped by trunk group.
  • Trunk Utilization
    The maximum number of trunks active in each trunk group, by day.

 

Workgroups

Definition: Workgroup information can cover some of the same territories as call party activity, but it has details specific to the context of workgroups and workgroup agents.

Mitel (ShoreTel) Queue Data

Definition: Queue data provides information around workgroup queues.  The Mitel (ShoreTel) workgroup service provides additional workgroup specific information for calls passing through a workgroup queue, such as how it left the queue and the type of destination it was routed to.

Standard Reports:

  • Workgroup Queue Summary
    Summary of calls handled, answered, abandoned, etc., by workgroup.
  • Workgroup Service-Level Summary
    Summary of call dispositions for each workgroup, broken out by wait time, and grouped by day.
  • Exceptional Calls
    Detailed listing of calls that were not either answered by an agent or immediately forwarded due to off-hours call handling.  These are abandoned calls, calls rerouted because no agents were logged in or were all busy, etc.

Agent Activity

Definition: Agent activity tracks some of the same information as user activity, but includes information specific to workgroup agents, such as login time and wrap time, a distinction between workgroup and non-workgroup calls, and how many workgroup calls were presented (i.e. how many opportunities the agent had to answer a workgroup call) vs how many workgroup calls were answered.

Standard Reports:

  • Agent Activity Summary – All
    Summary of each agent's activity, per day, and by workgroup.
  • Agent Activity Summary - External
    Same as above but only external calls included.
  • Agent Activity Detail
    Detailed listing of agent activity by day, including logins and logouts, calls made and received, and workgroup calls offered.
  • Agent Login/ Logout Detail
    Detailed listing of login and logout time, including how long each login lasted and, for subsequent logins on the same day, how long the agent was logged out.  Useful as a time card for agents.

Users and Hunt Groups

Definition: The underlying Call Party Activity data set can be used to create many versatile reports on any endpoint in the system, why calls got there from where, why they left and to where, etc.  The standard reports provided are around users and hunt groups, but reports around other types of endpoints like route points, workgroups, and the voicemail / auto-attendant system can be created as well (although note that Mitel (ShoreTel) does not record information about individual menus or mailboxes at this level, only that the call was connected to the VM/AA system).

Call Party Activity

Definition: This data source represents all call activity by each party in the Mitel (ShoreTel) system, including users (as "Stations", "WorkgroupAgents" when they handle a workgroup call, or "Virtual" users when they are externally assigned), hunt groups, route points, workgroups, and others.  Each party's involvement in a call is represented once, so you would not use this to measure overall call volume as you would the call data set described earlier, since one call might be represented under multiple parties, unless you restricted it to a particular endpoint or mutually exclusive set of endpoints.  But you would use it to measure how many calls a particular endpoint handles, how they got there, where they went next, etc.

Standard Reports:

  • User Activity Summary
    Brief listing of call counts by user, and by call type.
  • User Activity Detail
    Detailed listing of calls for each user, grouped by user, and including the type of the call and the reason the call came to them (Called directly, Transferred, Originated by the user, Conferenced).
  • Hunt Group Call Disposition
    Summary statistics based on how calls left each hunt group and where they went.  E.g. transferred to a hunt group member, abandoned, forwarded to another destination to no answer, etc.
  • Hunt Group Overview
    Total number of calls in each hunt group that were answered, abandoned, forwarded on, etc.

 

Professional Services and Configuration

Definition: These reports provide information on how the system is configured.  While activity reports come from the CDR database, these come from the configuration database.

 

Mitel (ShoreTel) User Config Data

Definition: Configuration data around users.  Their license type, user group, current and home locations, etc.

Standard Reports:

  • User Detail Report

 

License Requirements
Definition: How many of each license type is being used and by what resources.

Standard Reports:

  • License Usage Summary
  • Licenses by User
  • Users by License

 

Switch Config Data

Definition: This data source reports on the configuration of each switch in the system: IP address, serial number, site, etc.

Standard Reports:

  • Switch Detail Report

 

User Groups

Definition: Analogous to the user groups page in Director, this provides information on the user groups and their class-of-service (CoS) settings.

Standard Reports:

  • User Groups

 

Individual IP Phones

Definition: Configuration data around IP Phones.  Similar to information from the IP Phones section of Mitel MVCCC (ShoreTel ECC) Reports Director.

Standard Reports:

  • Individual IP Phones

 

Extension Lists

Definition: Shows information on the configured Extension Lists in Director, which are used for things like limiting the scope of a dial-by-name directory.

Standard Reports:

  • Extension Lists

 

DID/ DNIS Allocation

Definition: This is a detail-only data source that provides information regarding DID/DNIS allocation and routing.

Standard Reports:

  • DID/DNIS Allocation
  • DID/DNIS by Destination

 

System Directory

Definition: This detail-only data source can be used to query the extensions defined in the Mitel (ShoreTel) database.  It is the same data as the 'System Directory' page in Mitel MVCCC (ShoreTel ECC) Reports Director would report.

Standard Reports:

  • System Directory

 

User Call Handling Modes

Definition: Configuration data around user call handling modes.

Standard Reports:

  • Call Handling Modes

 

We know that making the right call on which Data Source Instance to use can be tricky, so if you ever are wondering which one would be best to use after reviewing the differences here and/or considering what dimensions and values are available under these data sources in our Data Definitions Page then don't hesitate to drop us a note with the details of what perspective you're trying to build to support@brightmetrics.com.

 

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