Dynamic load balancing between multiple locations with different telephony system

• US 20060072737A1
• Filed: 10/05/2004
• Published: 04/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sams, Bobby, Paden, Jonathan, Harris, Jon
• Granted Patent: US 7,197,130 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/221.10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5234 Uniform load distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5237 Interconnection arrangements between ACD systems

Abstract

An allocation component allocates its received calls among a plurality of telephony systems including a first telephony system and a second telephony system. A first routing protocol (RP) component distributes those of the calls allocated to the first telephony system among a first plurality of call center sites. A second RP component distributes those of the calls allocated to the second telephony system among a second plurality of call center sites. A load-balancing Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system dynamically distributes its received calls between the plurality of telephony systems based on agent availability data associated with the first and second plurality of call center sites and the second plurality of call center sites. A primary IVR receives a plurality of calls and routes a first percentage thereof to the allocation component and a second percentage thereof to the load-balancing IVR system.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

routing logic which comprises an allocation component to allocate its received calls among a plurality of telephony systems including a first telephony system and a second telephony system, the routing logic comprising a first routing protocol (RP) component to distribute those of the calls allocated to the first telephony system among a first plurality of call center sites of the first telephony system, the routing logic further comprising a second RP component to distribute those of the calls allocated to the second telephony system among a second plurality of call center sites of the second telephony system;

a load-balancing Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system which dynamically distributes its received calls between the plurality of telephony systems based on agent availability data associated with the first plurality of call center sites and the second plurality of call center sites; and

a primary IVR system to receive a plurality of calls and to route a first percentage thereof to the routing logic and a second percentage thereof to the load-balancing IVR system.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the load-balancing IVR system is responsive to a received call to determine which of the telephony systems has a highest overall agent availability, and to route the received call to the telephony system having the highest overall agent availability.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the load-balancing IVR system is responsive to the received call to play a message to the received call while determining which of the telephony systems has the highest overall agent availability.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the load-balancing IVR system is responsive to the received call to perform a DTMF release transfer using a routing configuration of the telephony system having the highest overall agent availability.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a first traffic management component to determine first agent availability data for the first plurality of call center sites of the first telephony system, and to provide the first agent availability data to the load-balancing IVR system; and

a second traffic management component to determine second agent availability data for the second plurality of call center sites of the second telephony system, and to provide the second agent availability data to the load-balancing IVR system.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the first traffic management component comprises a first Web-accessible application program interface to provide remote visibility of the first agent availability data to the load-balancing IVR system, and wherein the second traffic management component comprises a second Web-accessible application program interface to provide remote visibility of the second agent availability data to the load-balancing IVR system.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the second percentage is based on a maximum shift in allocation percentages between first telephony system and the second telephony system.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the first percentage is about 85% and the second percentage is about 15%.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the load-balancing IVR system is to generate an alert signal based on a trend or a surge defined by the agent availability data.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising a user interface to receive user-specified routing criteria, wherein the load-balancing IVR system is to process its received calls based on the user-specified routing criteria.

11. A method comprising:

distributing a first percentage of calls received by a primary Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system to a routing logic component and a second percentage of the calls to a load-balancing IVR system;

allocating the calls received by the routing logic component among a plurality of telephony systems including a first telephony system and a second telephony system, the first telephony system having a first plurality of call center sites, the second telephony system having a second plurality of call center sites;

dynamically distributing the calls received by the load-balancing IVR system between the plurality of telephony systems based on agent availability data associated with the first plurality of call center sites and the second plurality of call center sites;

distributing those of the calls allocated to the first telephony system among a first plurality of call center sites of the first telephony system by a first routing protocol (RP) component; and

distributing those of the calls allocated to the second telephony system among a second plurality of call center sites of the second telephony system by a second RP component.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said dynamically distributing the calls received by the load-balancing IVR system comprises determining which of the telephony systems has a highest overall agent availability for a received call, and routing the received call to the telephony system having the highest overall agent availability.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising playing a message to a caller of the received call while determining which of the telephony systems has the highest overall agent availability.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein said dynamically distributing the calls received by the load-balancing IVR system comprises performing a DTMF release transfer using a routing configuration of the telephony system having the highest overall agent availability.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

determining first agent availability data for the first plurality of call center sites of the first telephony system and to providing the first agent availability data to the load-balancing IVR system by a first traffic management component; and

determining second agent availability data for the second plurality of call center sites of the second telephony system and providing the second agent availability data to the load-balancing IVR system by a second traffic management component.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the first traffic management component comprises a first Web-accessible application program interface to provide remote visibility of the first agent availability data to the load-balancing IVR system, and wherein the second traffic management component comprises a second Web-accessible application program interface to provide remote visibility of the second agent availability data to the load-balancing IVR system.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein the second percentage is based on a maximum shift in allocation percentages between the first telephony system and the second telephony system.

18. The method of claim 11 wherein the first percentage is about 85% and the second percentage is about 15%.

19. The method of claim 11 further comprising generating an alert signal, by the load-balancing IVR system, based on a trend or a surge defined by the agent availability data.

20. The method of claim 11 further comprising receiving user-specified routing criteria via a user interface, wherein the load-balancing IVR system is to process its received calls based on the user-specified routing criteria.