Initial Routing of Internet-Protocol Network Telephone Calls

• US 20070071224A1
• Filed: 09/05/2006
• Published: 03/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Incorporated (Genesys Cloud Services Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Incorporated (Genesys Cloud Services Incorporated)
• Inventors: Bondarenko, Oleg, Miloslavsky, Alec, Gisby, Douglas, Cronin, Paul, Shtivelman, Yuri, Nevman, Igor
• Granted Patent: US 7,558,383 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/265.20
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5237 Interconnection arrangements between ACD systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0027 Collaboration services where a computer is used for data transfer and the telephone is used for telephonic communication

Abstract

A computerized telephony call center for serving a customer base has a central switch connected to a plurality of telephones at operator workstations and adapted to route calls to individual ones of the telephones, and also connected to a public switched telephone network, and a first processor connected to the central switch by a high-speed data link and to the telephone network by a digital network connection. The first processor is adapted to monitor transactional activity of the central switch, to process the activity information according to selected routines in the processor, and to communicate processed information to a second processor over the digital network connection. The digital network connection may be a TCP\P connection. In a preferred embodiment the first processor is connected by a local area network (LAN) to network interfaces including a video display unit (VDU) and input apparatus proximate individual ones of the plurality of telephones connected to the central switch. In some embodiments the LAN is also connected to a data server running an instance of a database. In other embodiments the call center, and other similar call centers are all part of a call routing system wherein calls are routed from Service Control Points to call centers over telephone lines, and data is routed to the call centers over a separate digital network connection between processors coupled to the Service Control Points and to the call center central switches. In various embodiments aspects of the invention apply to Internet protocol network telephony (IPNT) calls as well as to conventional telephony calls.

Claims

1. (canceled)

2. A network-centric call-processing system receiving IPNT calls from customers in a network, including a processor routing the received IPNT calls to addresses selected by the processor based on information about status, activity or skill received from persons or equipment at the addresses.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the persons at individual ones of the addresses are agents of a single enterprise operating in a call center.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the persons at individual ones of the addresses are agents of a single enterprise distributed over two or more call centers.

5. The system of claim 2 wherein the persons at individual ones of the addresses are agents of a single enterprise operating individually as remote agents separately connected to the network.

6. The system of claim 2 wherein status includes one or more of logged-in, telephone on-hook, or available for taking calls according to an automatic monitor.

7. The system of claim 2 wherein activity includes one or more of call loading, number of calls in queue, engaged in other business, or presence of specific hardware or software capability.

8. The system of claim 2 wherein skills include one or more of familiarity with certain software, competence in a specific language, general knowledge in a particular area, or specific authorization to handle certain calls.

9. The system of claim 2 wherein a requirement for status, activity or skill level is provided by a caller associated with a specific received IPNT call.

10. The system of claim 2 further comprising a facility at the call processing system in the network for taking back and re-routing previously-routed calls.

11. A method for routing IPNT calls in a network, comprising steps of:

(a) establishing a network-centric call-processing system receiving IPNT calls from customers in the network; and

(b) routing the received IPNT calls to addresses selected by the processor based on status, activity or skill received from persons or equipment at the addresses.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the persons at the addresses are agents of a single enterprise operating in a call center.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the persons at the addresses are agents of a single enterprise distributed over two or more call centers.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the persons at the addresses are agents of a single enterprise operating individually as remote agents separately connected to the network.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein status includes one or more of logged-in, telephone on-hook, or available for talking calls according to an automatic monitor.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein activity includes one or more of call loading, number of calls in queue, engaged in other business, or presence of specific hardware or software capability.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein skills include one or more of familiarity with certain software, competence in a specific language, general knowledge in a particular area, or specific authorization to handle certain calls.

18. The method of claim 11 wherein a requirement for status, activity or skill level to route a call is provided by a caller associated with a specific received IPNT call.

19. The method of claim 11 further comprising a facility at the call processing system in the network for taking back and re-routing once-routed calls.