Outbound dialing decision criteria based

• US 20040109557A1
• Filed: 12/04/2002
• Published: 06/10/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Lenard, Rohan
• Granted Patent: US 7,023,980 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/266.07
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42093 Notifying the calling party of information on the called or connected party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42365 Presence services providing information on the willingness to communicate or the ability to communicate in terms of media capability or network connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42374 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5158 in combination with automated outdialling systems devices for signalling identity of wanted subscriber H04M1/26

Abstract

A dialer for managing outgoing contacts is provided that includes a contact filtration agent 144 operable to retrieve presence information associated with a party to be contacted and determine, based on the presence information, whether or not to contact the party and, if so, when and where to contact the party.

Claims

1. A method for use in managing outgoing contacts in a contact center, comprising:

(a) receiving a query for a contact;

(b) retrieving a contact from a contact list, the contact list identifying a plurality of parties to be contacted and first contact information associated therewith;

(c) thereafter retrieving second contact information different from the first contact information and relating to the party associated with the contact; and

(d) determining, based on the second contact information and at least one of at or immediately before the placement of the contact, whether or not to contact the party.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the contact list has previously been scrubbed against a Do Not Call list.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether there is an eligible contact in a to-be-contacted queue.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein, for each of the plurality of parties in the contact list, steps (c) and (d) are performed after steps (a) and (b) are performed and wherein the second contact information comprises presence information.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the presence information comprises contact preferences of the party, second contact information for the party, current contact availability of the party, registration information under the Session Initiation Protocol, information regarding the accessibility of the endpoint device, the endpoint'"'"'s telephone number or address, the recency of use of the endpoint device by the person, and recency of authentication by the person to a network component, and wherein the first and second contact information is different.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

requesting the presence information from a presence server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein in step (d):

when the party is not to be contacted at the present time, performing at least one of the following steps;

removing the contact from a contact list; and

queuing the contact in a to-be-contacted queue to be contacted later.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein step (d) comprises:

when the party is to be contacted at the present time, responding to the query with contact information corresponding to the selected party.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) further comprises:

determining if there is a contact in a to-be-contacted queue that is ready to be contacted.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein steps (c) and (d) are performed when there is no contact in the to-be-contacted queue that is ready to be contacted.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a message indicating that a party identified in the message is not to be contacted; and

removing the party and associated contact information from the contact list.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a message indicating that a party identified in the message is to be contacted later; and

queuing the party and associated contact information in a to-be-contacted list in an appropriate time slot.

13. A dialer for managing outgoing contacts, comprising:

a contact filtration agent operable to retrieve presence information associated with a party to be contacted and determine, based on the presence information, whether or not to contact the party.

14. The dialer of claim 13, further comprising:

a contact list, the contact list identifying a plurality of parties to be contacted and first contact information associated therewith.

15. The dialer of claim 14, further comprising:

a contact processor operable to determine when a contact is to be made, query the contact filtration agent for a next contact, and initiate the next contact.

16. The dialer of claim 15, further comprising:

a contact classifier operable to detect if a person has answered the contact.

17. The dialer of claim 13, wherein the contact list has previously been scrubbed against a Do Not Call list.

18. The dialer of claim 13, wherein the agent is further operable to determine whether there is an eligible contact in a to-be-contacted queue.

19. The dialer of claim 14, wherein, for each of a plurality of parties in the contact list, the contact filtration agent is operable to retrieve, on a call-by-call basis, the presence information relating to the party to be contacted and determine, based on the presence information, whether or not to contact the party.

20. The dialer of claim 13, wherein the presence information comprises contact preferences of the party, second contact information for the party, current contact availability of the party, and registration information under the Session Initiation Protocol, information regarding the accessibility of the endpoint device, the endpoint'"'"'s telephone number or address, the recency of use of the endpoint device by the person, and recency of authentication by the person to a network component, and wherein the first and second contact information is different.

21. The dialer of claim 13, wherein the presence information is obtained from a presence server.

22. The dialer of claim 13, wherein the agent is further operable, when the party is not to be contacted at the present time, to perform at least one of the following steps:

removing the contact from a contact list; and

queuing the contact in a to-be-contacted queue to be contacted later.

23. The dialer of claim 13, wherein the agent is further operable to determine if there is a contact in a to-be-contacted queue that is ready to be contacted.

24. The dialer of claim 14, wherein the agent is further operable to remove the party and associated contact information from the contact list, in response to a message indicating that a party identified in the message is not to be contacted.

25. The dialer of claim 13, wherein the agent is further operable to queue the party and associated contact information in a to-be-contacted list in an appropriate time slot, in response to a message indicating that the party identified in the message is to be contacted later.