System and method for automatic task prioritization

• US 20060080267A1
• Filed: 10/28/2005
• Published: 04/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Nelken, Yoram
• Granted Patent: US 7,849,044 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/12
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5238 with waiting time or load prediction arrangements

Abstract

A system and method for automatic task prioritization comprises one or more task queues, a monitoring module, and a decision engine. The decision engine receives tasks and assigns a priority code to each task. Each task is inserted into one of the task queues according to its priority code and the priority codes of other tasks which may be present in the task queues. Agents select tasks to perform from the task queue according to priority guidelines established by a system user. The monitoring module may monitor the order of the tasks selected by the agents and each task'"'"'s priority code. The monitoring module feeds this information back to the decision module. In one embodiment, the decision module is a learning system that updates stored data using feedback from the monitoring module to determine priority of each task.

Claims

1. A system for automatically prioritizing communications, comprising:

a contact center configured to receive the communications;

a decision engine configured to determine a priority code for each of the received communications; and

at least one queue configured to store the prioritized communications in order of priority code.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the decision engine comprises a parser configured to analyze content of the received communications.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications comprise text communications and the decision engine comprises a parser configured to parse text of the text communications.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications are received by the contact center via a text-based communication channel.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications are voice communications and the decision engine comprises a parser configured to analyze content of the voice communications.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein an agent having a judgment of priority selects prioritized communications from the queue according to the judgment of priority.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the decision engine comprises a parser configured to parse the received communications and a priority module configured to receive parsed communications from the parser and determine the priority code for each of the parsed communications.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the priority code is determined in accordance with priority guidelines established by a user of the system.

9. A system for automatically prioritizing tasks, comprising:

a contact center configured to receive the tasks;

a decision engine configured to determine a priority code for each of the tasks; and

at least one queue configured to store the tasks in order of priority code.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the decision engine comprises a parser configured to analyze content of the tasks.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the decision engine comprises a parser configured to parse text of the tasks.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the tasks are received by the contact center via a text-based communication channel.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the tasks are voice tasks and the decision engine comprises a parser configured to analyze content of the voice tasks.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein an agent having a judgment of priority selects tasks from the queue according to the judgment of priority.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the decision engine comprises a parser configured to parse the tasks and a priority module configured to receive parsed tasks from the parser and determine the priority code for each of the tasks.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the priority code is determined in accordance with priority guidelines established by a user of the system.

17. A method for automatically prioritizing communications, comprising:

receiving the communications;

determining a priority code for each of the received communications; and

storing the prioritized communications in at least one queue according to priority code.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of determining a priority code comprises analyzing content of the received communications.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of determining a priority code comprises parsing text of the received communications.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the communications are received via a text-based communication channel.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the communications comprise voice communications and the step of determining a priority code comprises analyzing content of the voice communications.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein an agent having a judgment of priority selects communications from the queue according to the judgment of priority.