Method and apparatus for automatic advance calling to contacts

• US 20070064908A1
• Filed: 09/15/2005
• Published: 03/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Unify Inc. (Atos SE)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Communications Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Maskell, Jay, Sharland, Michael, Levy, Jacqueline
• Granted Patent: US 7,831,030 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/211.30
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/46 Arrangements for calling a number of substations in a predetermined sequence until an answer is obtained

Abstract

A telecommunications device includes a telephony controller; a contacts controller, said contacts controller configured to maintain a plurality of contact telephone numbers for individual contacts; and an automatic advance calling controller operably coupled to said contacts controller and said telephony controller, the automatic advance calling controller configured to cause the telephony controller to automatically call ones of the plurality of contact telephone numbers for the particular contact in a predetermined order until the call is successfully completed to one of the plurality of telephone numbers or the list of telephone numbers is exhausted.

Claims

1. A telecommunications device, comprising:

a telephony controller;

a contacts controller, said contacts controller configured to maintain a plurality of contact telephone numbers for individual contacts; and

an automatic advance calling controller operably coupled to said contacts controller and said telephony controller, the automatic advance calling controller configured to cause the telephony controller to automatically call ones of the plurality of contact telephone numbers for the particular contact in a predetermined order until the call is successfully completed to one of the plurality of telephone numbers or the list of telephone numbers is exhausted.

2. A telecommunications device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the predetermined order is user selectable.

3. A telecommunications device in accordance with claim 2, wherein said automatic advance calling controller is configured to advance to a next one of the plurality of telephone numbers when a call to a current one has failed to be successfully completed after a predetermined “

no answer”

period.

4. A telecommunications device in accordance with claim 3, wherein the predetermined “

no answer”

period is user selectable.

5. A telecommunications device in accordance with claim 4, wherein the predetermined “

no answer”

period is variable for each telephone number.

6. A telecommunications device in accordance with claim 2, wherein the predetermined order is selectable using a web portal.

7. A telecommunications device in accordance with claim 4, wherein the predetermined “

no answer”

period is user selectable using a web portal.

8. A telecommunications device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the automatic advance calling controller is responsive to a web portal.

9. A telecommunications device, comprising:

a telephony controller;

a contacts controller, said contacts controller configured to maintain a plurality of contact telephone numbers for individual contacts; and

an automatic advance calling controller operably coupled to said contacts controller and said telephony controller, the automatic advance calling controller configured to cause the telephony controller to call a particular first one of the plurality of contact telephone numbers for a particular contact and, if the particular first one is not available, then automatically call a second of the plurality of contact telephone numbers for the particular contact and if the second is not available, then automatically call a third of the plurality of contact telephone numbers;

wherein an order of the first, second and third contact telephone numbers is configurable by a user.

10. A telecommunications device in accordance with claim 9, wherein a period for determining if one of the contract telephone number sis (is) not available is configurable by the user.

11. A telecommunications device in accordance with claim 10, wherein said order and said period are configurable using a browser-type interface.

12. A telecommunications method, comprising:

specifying a plurality of telephone numbers for a contact;

specifying an order of calling a contact at the plurality of telephone numbers;

selecting a contact for calling;

calling the contact at a first telephone number specified first in the order and, if the contact does not answer at the first telephone number, calling the contact at a second number in the order.

13. A method in accordance with claim 12, further comprising calling the contact at a third number in the order if the contact does not answer at the second number.

14. A method in accordance with claim 12, wherein said specifying an order comprises specifying via a web browser portal.

15. A method in accordance with claim 12, further comprising specifying a ring no answer period, expiration of which defines a failure by the contact to answer.

16. A method in accordance with claim 15, further comprising specifying a ring no answer period for each of the telephone numbers in the ordered list.

17. A telecommunications method, comprising:

specifying a plurality of telephone numbers for a contact;

specifying an order of calling a contact at the plurality of telephone numbers;

selecting a contact for calling;

sequentially calling the contact at numbers in the list in the order specified until the contact answers or the list is exhausted.

18. A method in accordance with claim 17, wherein said specifying an order comprises specifying via a web browser portal.

19. A method in accordance with claim 17, further comprising specifying a ring no answer period, expiration of which defines a failure by the contact to answer at a particular number.

20. A method in accordance with claim 19, further comprising specifying a ring no answer period for each of the telephone numbers in the ordered list.

21. A method in accordance with claim 17, wherein said sequentially calling comprises selecting a contact for calling using a web browser interface.