Telemanagement system with single point of entry

• US 20020054669A1
• Filed: 09/24/2001
• Published: 05/09/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation of America (NEC Corporation)
• Original Assignee: North Coast Logic, Inc.
• Inventors: Rojas, Michael J.
• Granted Patent: US 6,504,924 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/67.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/43 Billing software details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/80 Rating or billing plans; Tariff determination aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0152 General billing plans, rate plans, e.g. charge rates, numbering plans, rate centers, customer accounts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/22 Arrangements for supervision, monitoring or testing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42314 in private branch exchanges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 Voice mail systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13103 Memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/1322 PBX
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13349 Network management
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13377 Recorded announcement

Abstract

A telecommunications management system that deploys a unique Single-Point-of-Entry and Synchronous Data Base system. The system of the present invention is an integrated suite of system control and application software modules used to manage one or more telephone systems. In addition to controlling commonly used PBX systems, the invention controls adjunct systems such as voice mail and 911 emergency systems. The system of the invention ties its application modules and system control modules through a single point of entry and a synchronized database. The invention comprises computer readable program code for creating and managing a master database for maintaining a copy of information contained in each PBX and adjunct system database; code for providing a single user interface for entering data into the master database and the at least one PBX and adjunct system databases; code configuring a plurality of data properties for each of said at least one PBX and adjunct system; code for managing one or more functions of said at least one PBX and adjunct system based on the configured data properties; code for processing communications between the master database and the at least one PBX and adjunct system function managing means through the single user interface; and code for synchronizing the entry of the same data into each of the master database and the at least one PBX and adjunct system databases through the single user interface.

Claims

1. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for managing at least one telephone system comprising a PBX switch and database and at least one adjunct system and database, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code means for creating and managing a master database for maintaining a copy of information contained in each PBX and adjunct system database;

computer readable program code means for providing a single user interface for entering data into the master database and the at least one PBX and adjunct system databases;

computer readable program code means for configuring a plurality of data properties for each of said at least one PBX and adjunct system;

computer readable program code means for managing one or more functions of said at least one PBX and adjunct system based on the configured data properties;

computer readable program code means for processing communications between the master database and the at least one PBX and adjunct system function managing means through the single user interface; and

computer readable program code means for synchronizing the entry of the same data into each of the master database and the at least one PBX and adjunct system databases through the single user interface.

2. The article of manufacture of claim 1 wherein the computer readable program code means further includes means for managing PBX switch Maintenance and Administration Terminal (MAT) functions for at least one PBX system from the single user interface.

3. The article of manufacture of claim 1 wherein the computer readable program code means further includes means for managing voice mail system functions for at least one adjunct voice mail system from the single user interface.

4. The article of manufacture of claim 1 wherein the computer readable program code means further includes means for managing emergency 911 directory functions for an adjunct emergency 911 directory system from the single user interface.

5. The article of manufacture of claim 1 wherein the means for synchronizing includes means for entering data from the at least one PBX and adjunct system database into the master database for a single data record.

6. The article of manufacture of claim 1 wherein the means for synchronizing includes means for selectively entering data in one of both directions between the master database and the at least one PBX and adjunct system database for a plurality of data records.

7. The article of manufacture of claim 1 wherein the means for managing functions of said at least one PBX and adjunct system includes encoding/decoding means that translates between human-readable data and data structures specific to each of said at least one PBX and adjunct system.

8. The article of manufacture of claim 7 wherein the means for managing functions of said at least PBX and adjunct system further includes generic translation logic means running the program transparently on a user operating system.

9. The article of manufacture of claim 8 wherein the means for managing said at least one PBX and adjunct system further includes means for managing messaging traffic asynchronously.

10. The article of manufacture of claim 1 wherein the computer readable program code further comprises computer readable program code means for creating a program code means for managing said at least one PBX and adjunct system.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 10 wherein the means for creating a program code means for managing said at least one PBX and adjunct system includes:

an application object for starting, stopping, installing and removing said managing program;

a synchronization object for providing mutual exclusion for globally accessed objects;

a startup logic control for detecting which operating system is being run and which operating mode the application is running;

an icon animation object for controlling icon animation during messaging activity;

a user-interface object for providing standard user-interface controls;

a user-interface object for providing user-interface controls for specific PBX and adjunct systems;

a base class user-interface dialog for deriving specific dialogs for each PBX and adjunct system managing means; and

a messaging object for providing asynchronous communication to the single user interface

12. The article of manufacture of claim 11 wherein the application object includes means for creating a user-interface thread, a status icon thread and a worker thread.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 12 wherein the user-interface thread includes means for creating the user-interface dialog controller, the status icon thread includes means for creating the icon animation object and the worker thread includes means for creating a worker object for creating the asynchronous messaging object.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 2 wherein the computer readable program code for managing PBX switch MAT functions comprises:

means for controlling access to at least one MAT engine means;

a MAT engine means for each PBX switch, each MAT engine means having command logic for MAT functions common to various PBX switches; and

a plurality of command logic module means, each for controlling MAT functions for specific PBX switches.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 14 wherein the computer readable program code for managing PBX switch MAT functions further comprises:

MAT interface means having link logic common to various PBX switches; and

a plurality of link logic module means, each for communicating with specific PBX switches.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 1 wherein the computer readable program code for processing communications includes means for subscribing and unsubscribing to messages for routing messages to a particular PBX or adjunct system.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 16 wherein said means for subscribing and unsubscribing includes means for group processing of plural messages for the same PBX or adjunct system.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 1 wherein the computer readable program code means for processing communications comprises message handling means and a messaging library.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 18 wherein the message handling means includes a table of application handles, a table of associations between message types and message handles hashed by message types, a table of associations between message types and message handles hashed by application handle, and message packets.

20. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for processing communications between a client application single user interface, a master database, and at least one PBX and adjunct system having a database, said method steps comprising:

connecting to the client application single user interface through a first communication channel;

registering a client application;

adding a second communication channel;

subscribing to one or more message events from a sender;

reading and posting the subscribed one or more message events; and

disconnecting from the client application single user interface.

21. The program storage device of claim 20 wherein the step of reading and posting a message event comprises:

retrieving a message packet from a message queue;

checking the message packet for a specific destination;

if there is no specific destination, looking up all attached application handles for the type of message in the packet and for each attached handle, forwarding the message;

if there is a specific destination, finding the specific destination application handle entry, forwarding the message to the specified destination, and sending an acknowledgment packet back to the sender.

22. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for converting a record of a phone call collected from a PBX switch to 10 digits, said method steps comprising:

(a) detecting and stripping access codes;

(b) detecting and tagging x11 calls;

(c) detecting and stripping common carrier codes;

(d) detecting and tagging international calls;

(e) detecting and tagging operator calls;

(f) detecting long distance calls and converting the calls to 10 digits; and

(g) detecting local calls and converting the calls to 10 digits.

23. The program storage device of claim 22 wherein if after steps (a) and (b) there are more than 11 digits remaining, further including the steps of stripping the first 7 digits if the first 3 digits are 101 or if the first 3 digits are not 101, then stripping the first 5 digits.

24. The program storage device of claim 22 wherein step (e) includes the steps:

if there are 11 digits, stripping the 0; and

if there are 8 digits, stripping 0 and prefixing the local area code.

25. The program storage device of claim 22 wherein step (f) includes the steps of:

if there are 11 digits, stripping the 1; and

if there are 8 digits, stripping the 1 and prefixing the local area code.

26. The program storage device of claim 22 wherein step (g) includes the step of if there are 7 digits, prefixing the local area code.

27. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for configuring a Service Provider telemanagement program module by a client application, where the Service Provider supports multiple systems, said method steps comprising:

sending a request for Service Provider version information from the client application to a Service Provider;

sending version information back to the client application from the Service Provider indicating a multiple system support;

sending a request to identify system support from the client application to the Service Provider;

sending a list of all supported systems back to the client application from the Service Provider;

selecting a system for configuration;

sending a request for selected system version information from the client application to the selected Service Provider;

sending back system version information from the selected Service Provider to the client application;

sending a request for all supported properties for the selected system from the client application to the Service Provider;

sending back a list of all supported properties for the selected system from the Service Provider to the client application; and

selecting one or more supported properties for management by the Service Provider.

28. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for synchronizing the entry of data for a user from a telephone system or adjunct system database into as master database for a single data record, said method steps comprising:

selecting a user;

selecting a Service Provider for a selected telephone or adjunct system;

indicating the desire to create an entry on the selected system;

deriving a key for the selected Service Provider;

requesting a data packet of all data for the user from the selected system;

checking if the selected system is available;

if available, checking if the user exists on the selected system;

if the user exists, receiving the data packet from the selected system database;

parsing the data packet into field-value-pairs;

locating the correct property for each received field; and

updating the master database with the value for each property for each field.