Softphone

• US 20060222168A1
• Filed: 04/05/2005
• Published: 10/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Foundever Operating Corporation
• Original Assignee: Alpine Access Incorporated (Sitel Group)
• Inventors: Grove, David, Curley, Sean, Liliestedt, Mike, Shugart, Jason
• Granted Patent: US 8,565,413 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/267
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4234 Remote access to features of PBX or home telephone systems-teleworking in a PBX
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5133 Operator terminal details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/54 Arrangements for diverting calls for one subscriber to another predetermined subscriber based on the calling party profile H04M3/42059; based on location H04M3/42348; based on presence H04M3/42365; to voice mail H04M3/53308
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0033 Notification or handling of incoming calls by a computer
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/129 Details of providing call progress tones or announcements

Abstract

A remote agent call center is functional by providing a softphone and agent bridge that allows maintaining an open telephone line to the agent'"'"'s phone with or without an incoming call being connected. Incoming calls are merged into the agent bridge to allow the agent to conference with the incoming call. The softphone provides call control to allow the agent to transfer, terminate, hold, record, or the like the active call.

Claims

1. A system to allow remote agent call centers, the system comprising:

an agent workstation;

a softphone;

a telephony switch;

an IVR server;

an agent telephone; and

an agent bridge, wherein

the agent workstation to connect to the softphone,

the softphone to connect to the telephony switch,

the agent telephone to connect to the agent bridge, and

the agent bridge to connect to the softphone, the telephony switch, and

the agent telephone, such that

the IVR server transfers the agent telephone to the agent bridge, such that when an incoming call is received at the telephony switch, the telephone switch can connect the incoming call to the agent using the agent bridge and when the incoming call is disconnected, the connection to the agent telephone is maintained.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interactive voice response connected to the softphone.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein a workstation and the softphone are connected through a network connection.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the softphone is integrated in the workstation.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a control server.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising back office servers.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the back office server comprises a web portal that allows an agent at the workstation to access client applications.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the back office server comprises a real time monitoring server.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a softphone graphical user interface is displayed at the workstation.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the softphone graphical user interface allows an agent at the workstation to provide call controls.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the call controls include a group of controls consisting of:

answering a call, terminating a call, holding a call, recording a call, and transferring a call.

12. The system of claim 2, further comprising an interactive voice response interface connected between the softphone and the interactive voice response.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the agent phone is connected to the agent bridge through a plain old telephone connection.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the softphone is connected to the telephony switch through an Internet connection.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the agent phone is a voice over internet protocol phone and the connection between the agent phone and the telephony switch comprises a voice over internet protocol gateway.

16. A method of providing remote agents, the method performed in part on a processor comprising the steps of:

maintaining an active voice communication link between an agent bridge and an agent phone;

transferring an incoming call to the telephony switch to connect the agent phone and the incoming call to establish an active call;

controlling the active call;

disconnecting the active call when the active call is disposed such that the active voice communication link between the agent bridge and the agent phone is maintained; and

repeating the transferring, controlling, and disconnecting steps until the active voice communication link is terminated.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of providing call control using a softphone.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of recording the active call.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of transferring the incoming call to another active voice communication link with another agent and maintaining the active voice communication link with the agent.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of indicating an agent state.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the transferring step includes establishing a 3-way voice communication link prior to completing the transfer to another agent.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of establishing the active voice communication link.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of establishing the active voice communication link comprises the steps of:

connecting a workstation of the agent to a softphone;

receiving a phone number to dial and a passcode from the softphone at the workstation;

dialing the phone number to connect to an interactive voice response;

inputting the passcode; and

verifying the passcode, wherein the active voice communication link is established and can be maintained.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the workstation and the softphone are connected by an Internet connection.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising connecting the workstation to applications.

26. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable code embodied therein for controlling an active voice communication link between an agent bridge and an agent phone, the computer usable medium comprising;

a bridge module configured to maintain an active voice communication link to a phone of an agent;

a merging module configured to merge an incoming call to the active voice communication link to establish an active call;

a call control module configured to provide call control for the active call; and

a disconnecting module configure to disconnect the incoming call from the active call and maintaining the active voice communication link.

27. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein the call control module is configured to connect, transfer, record, hold, and terminate the active call.

28. The computer program product of claim 27, wherein the call control module is configured to establish a 3 way call when a transfer is initiated.

29. The computer program product of claim 26, further comprising a agent state module configured to monitor the status of the agent.

30. The computer program product of claim 29, wherein the agent state module is further configured to monitor the status of the active call.

31. The computer program product of claim 26, further comprising:

a logon module configured to provide the agent a dial-in number and passcode; and

a verification module configured to verify the passcode.