MONITORING SYSTEM FOR TELEPHONY RESOURCES IN A CALL CENTER

• US 20010012356A1
• Filed: 09/30/1997
• Published: 08/09/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MCI Communications Corporation (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: RAVENSCROFT, DONALD L., SHANKAR, GOPI, MCDUFF, RICHARD, KALEY, CRAIG, BAXTER, CRAIG ALAN, ATKINSON, WESLEY JON
• Granted Patent: US 6,490,350 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/265.02
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42323 PBX's with CTI arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/51 Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention , e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements

Abstract

An automated monitoring system monitors telephone resources in a call center. The call center may include agent stations at which agents are stationed to handle calls. A monitoring server monitors calling activity by the agents to maintain state information about the agents and to gather statistics about the calling activity of the agents. These statistics are forwarded to a client program run on a workstation or other type of computer system. The client program provides a graphical user interface and depicts the state information about the agents as part of the interface. The graphical user interface may also display statistics regarding the calling activity of agents, agent supervisors, business clients of the call center, and the call center in aggregate.

Claims

1. A call center for handling calls, comprising:

agent stations for agents, each agent station including telephony resources through which agents handle calls;

a monitor for monitoring calling activity of the agents and producing statistics regarding the calling activity of the agent;

a computer system having a display device and running a program for receiving the statistics from the monitor and displaying the statistics on the display device.

2. The call center of

claim 1

, further comprising an event source for generating events regarding calls handled by the call center for forwarding the events to the monitor that uses the events in producing the statistics.

3. The call center of

claim 1

, further comprising a database for storing information regarding the agents.

4. The call center of

claim 1

wherein the computer system produces a graphical user interface and the statistics are displayed as part of the graphical user interface.

5. The call center of

claim 1

wherein the monitor is a server process and the program run on the client is a server process.

6. The call center of

claim 1

wherein the monitor includes an agent module for producing statistics regarding calling activity of the agents.

7. The call center of

claim 1

wherein the monitor includes a call center module for producing statistics regarding calling activity of all the agents in the call center.

8. The call center of

claim 1

wherein the call has business clients that use the call center to handle calls on their behalf and wherein the monitor includes a business client module for generating statistics regarding calling activity on behalf of the business client.

9. In a call center having agents who handle the calls and a computer system having a display device and a method comprising the computer implemented steps of:

providing a monitor for monitoring calling activity by the agents and gathering statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents;

with the monitor, gathering statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents;

passing the statistics to the application program running on the computer system; and

with the application program, displaying the statistics on the display device.

10. The method of

claim 9

wherein the statistics are displayed as part of a graphical user interface produced by the application program.

11. The method of

claim 10

wherein the call center has a physical layout and wherein the graphical user interface depicts the physical layout of at least a portion of the call center.

12. The method of

claim 11

wherein the graphical user interface depicts the layout of all of the call center.

13. The method of

claim 9

wherein the monitor also maintains state information about the agents in the call center.

14. The method of

claim 13

, further comprising the steps of:

passing the state information about the agents from the monitor to the application program;

displaying a visual cue about a state of at least one of the agents on the display device based on the state information passed from the monitor.

15. The method of

claim 9

wherein the monitor is a server process and the application program is a client process.

16. The method of

claim 9

wherein the call center further includes an event source for generating events regarding calls handled by the call center and for forwarding the events to the monitor to facilitate the monitor generating the statistics.

17. The method of

claim 9

wherein the statistics include statistics regarding calling activity of each of the agents.

18. The method of

claim 9

wherein the statistics include aggregate statistics regarding the calling activity of all of the agents in the call center.

19. A telecommunications system, comprising:

agent stations where agents are stationed to handle calls, each agent station including telephony resources for handling calls;

a switching mechanism for routing calls for the telecommunications system and generating raw data regarding calls;

a computer/telephony integration server for receiving the raw data from the switching mechanism and generating events about calling activity in the telecommunications system based on the raw data;

a monitoring server for receiving the events from the computer/telephony interface server and generating statistics regarding calling activity of the agents; and

a workstation running a program for receiving the statistics from the monitoring server and generating output that includes at least some of the statistics.

20. The telecommunications system of

claim 19

wherein the system includes a display device and the program running on the workstation displays at least some of the statistics on the display device.

21. The telecommunications system of

claim 20

wherein the program produces a graphical user interface on the display device and the displayed statistics are displayed as part of the graphical user interface.

22. The telecommunications system of

claim 19

wherein the program includes a polling mechanism for periodically polling the monitoring server for updated statistics regarding calling activity of the agents.

23. In a call center having agents who handle the calls and a computer system having a display device and a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising the computer implemented steps of:

providing a monitor for monitoring calling activity by the agents and gathering statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents;

with the monitor, gathering statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents;

passing the statistics to the application program running on the computer system; and

with the application program, displaying the statistics on the display device.

24. The computer-readable medium of

claim 23

wherein the statistics are displayed as part of a graphical user interface produced by the application program.

25. The computer-readable medium of

claim 24

wherein the call center has a physical layout and wherein the graphical user interface depicts the physical layout of at least a portion of the call center.

26. The computer-readable medium of

claim 25

wherein the monitor also maintains state information about the agents in the call center.

27. The computer-readable medium of

claim 23

wherein the monitor also maintains state information about the agents in the call center.

28. The computer-readable medium of

claim 27

wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

passing the state information about the agents from the monitor to the application program;

displaying a visual cue about a state of at least one of the agents on the display device based on the state information passed from the monitor.

29. The computer-readable medium of

claim 27

wherein the statistics include statistics regarding calling activity of each of the agents.

30. The computer-readable medium of

claim 23

wherein the statistics include aggregate statistics regarding the calling activity of all of the agents in the call center.