Dynamic load balancing between multiple locations with different telephony system

• US 20070165830A1
• Filed: 02/12/2007
• Published: 07/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Inventors: Sams, Bobby, Paden, Jonathan, Harris, Jon
• Granted Patent: US 8,102,992 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/265.10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5234 Uniform load distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5237 Interconnection arrangements between ACD systems

Abstract

A system and method for dynamic load balancing between telephony systems are provided. The system includes an input to receive a call from a primary interactive voice response (IVR) system. The system also includes an IVR unit responsive to the call to receive input from a caller. The system also includes logic to select a telephony system from among a plurality of telephony systems based on the input from the caller and based on agent availability data of the plurality of telephony systems. The system further includes at least one output to send the received call for allocation to a call center site of the selected telephony system based on a routing protocol associated with the selected telephony system.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an input to receive a call from a primary interactive voice response (IVR) system;

an IVR unit responsive to the call to receive input from a caller;

logic to select a telephony system from among a plurality of telephony systems based on the input from the caller and based on agent availability data of the plurality of telephony systems; and

at least one output to send the received call for allocation to a call center site of the selected telephony system based on a routing protocol associated with the selected telephony system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the input receives an adjustable percentage of calls received by the primary IVR.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic selects the telephony system with a highest overall agent availability from among the plurality of telephony systems.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic plays a message to the caller while selecting the telephony system.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the output performs a dual tone multiple frequency (DTMF) release transfer to send the received call for allocation.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one traffic management interface to receive agent availability data from at least one of the plurality of telephony systems.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one traffic management interface comprises a web-interface to access the agent availability data via a web-accessible application program interface of the at least one of the plurality of telephony systems.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one traffic management interface to receive call distribution statistics from at least one of the plurality of telephony systems, wherein the logic selects the telephony system based at least partially on the call distribution statistics.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein an adjustable percentage of calls received by the primary IVR are routed to the input, and wherein the logic recommends the adjustable percentage based on a sample of calls received.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the input comprises a voice path input.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a user interface to receive user-specified routing criteria, wherein the logic selects the telephony system based at least partially on the user-specified routing criteria.

12. A method comprising:

receiving, at a load-balancing interactive voice response (IVR) system, a call from a primary IVR system;

receiving input from a caller;

selecting a telephony system from among a plurality of telephony systems based on the input from the caller and agent availability data associated with call center sites of the selected telephony system; and

sending the call to a routing protocol component of the selected telephony system, wherein the routing protocol component routes the call to a call center of the selected telephony system.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein selecting the telephony system comprises determining which of the plurality of telephony systems has a highest overall agent availability, and selecting the telephony system having the highest overall agent availability.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein sending the call to a routing protocol component of the selected telephony system comprises performing a dual tone multiple frequency (DTMF) release transfer using a routing configuration of the telephony system.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein receiving the call from the primary IVR comprises receiving a voice call without transfer of other data.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving user-specified routing criteria, wherein the telephony system is selected based at least partially on the user-specified routing criteria.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining a recommended percentage of calls received by the primary IVR system to be sent to the load-balancing IVR system.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving the agent availability data from at least one call center site via a web-accessible application program interface.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising generating an alert signal based on a trend or a surge defined by the agent availability data.

20. A method comprising:

receiving from a primary interactive voice response (IVR) system a portion of calls directed to the primary IVR system, wherein the portion of the calls directed to the primary IVR system received is based at least partially on routing criteria;

receiving agent availability data associated with a plurality of telephony systems; and

dynamically routing the received calls among the plurality of telephony systems based at least partially on the agent availability data and input received from each caller.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein dynamically routing the received calls comprises sending at least one call to a routing protocol component of at least one telephony system, wherein the routing protocol component allocates the at least one call to a call center site of the at least one telephony system.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising setting the routing criteria based on the agent availability data.