Systems and methods for automatic scheduling of a workforce

• US 20080004936A1
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Bourke, Michael R., Peleg, Uri, Fama, Jason, Lawrence, Richard M., Joshi, Sameet Vasant
• Granted Patent: US 7,953,621 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for scheduling a workforce. In one embodiment, the method comprises the steps of: collecting an agent activity of a first class and an agent activity of a second class; and displaying the agent activity of the first class and the agent activity of the second class along the same timeline axis. The agent activities are collected from a contact center data source. The second class is different from the first class. Both activities are associated with the same agent. Each activity is derived from a different virtual data source.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for presenting different queue hopping activities of an agent on a timeline, the method comprising the steps of:

collecting, from a customer center data source, an agent activity of a first class and an agent activity of a second class, both activities associated with the same agent, each activity derived from a separate data source; and

displaying the agent activity of the first class and the agent activity of the second class along the same timeline axis.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first class is different from the second class, and the separate data sources are different virtual data sources.

3. The method of claim 1, the displaying step further comprising:

displaying the agent activity of the first class and the agent activity of the second class along the same timeline axis, the two agent activities being displayed with different visual attributes.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the different visual attributes are different colors.

5. The method of claim 1, the collecting step further comprising:

a first and a second agent event, both events associated with the same agent, the first agent event received from a first virtual data source and the second agent event received from a second, different, virtual data source, both virtual data sources associated with the same physical data source;

mapping the first agent event to the agent activity of the first class; and

mapping the second agent event to the agent activity of the second class.

6. The method of claim 1, the receiving step further comprising:

a first and a second agent event, both events associated with the same agent, the first agent event received from a first virtual data source and the second agent event received from a second, different, virtual data source, both virtual data sources associated with the same physical data source; and

mapping the first agent event to the agent activity of the first class through a first mapping definition associated with the first virtual data source; and

mapping the second agent event to the agent activity of the second class through a second mapping definition associated with the second virtual data source.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second agent events each indicate an occurrence time, the displaying step further comprising:

displaying the timeline axis comprising a plurality of time periods;

displaying the activity of the first class along the axis such that the occurrence time for the activity of the first class is aligned with the corresponding time period of the timeline axis; and

displaying the activity of the second class along the axis such that the occurrence time for the activity of the second class is aligned with the corresponding time period of the timeline axis.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether at least one of the activities of the first and second class complies with a predefined policy; and

displaying an exception if the activity does not comply with the policy.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

planning at least one campaign to implement at least one goal;

scheduling and deploying a workforce in accordance with the campaign to produce a plurality of agent-customer interactions;

measuring performance of an agent on at least a portion of the agent-customer interactions to produce a set of quality metrics for the agent;

analyzing the quality metrics to produce a rating of the measured interactions;

combining at least a portion of quality metrics to produce performance indicators; and

using the performance indicators in the planning step of a second campaign or another iteration of the at least one campaign.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the first class is different from the second class, and the separate data sources are different virtual data sources.

12. The system of claim 1, the viewer further configured to display the agent activity of the first class and the agent activity of the second class along the same timeline axis, the two agent activities being displayed with different visual attributes.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first class is different from the second class, and the separate data sources are different virtual data sources.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, the displaying step further comprising:

displaying the agent activity of the first class and the agent activity of the second class along the same timeline axis, the two agent activities being displayed with different visual attributes.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, the receiving step further comprising:

a first and a second agent event, both events associated with the same agent, the first agent event received from a first virtual data source and the second agent event received from a second, different, virtual data source, both virtual data sources associated with the same physical data source;

mapping the first agent event to the agent activity of the first class; and

mapping the second agent event to the agent activity of the second class.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, the receiving step further comprising:

a first and a second agent event, both events associated with the same agent, the first agent event received from a first virtual data source and the second agent event received from a second, different, virtual data source, both virtual data sources associated with the same physical data source;

mapping the first agent event to the agent activity of the first class through a first mapping definition associated with the first virtual data source; and

mapping the second agent event to the agent activity of the second class through a second mapping definition associated with the second virtual data source.

10. A system for presenting different queue hopping activities of an agent as activities on a timeline, the system comprising:

an activity collector configured to collect, from a contact center data source, an agent activity of a first class and an agent activity of a second class, both activities associated with the same agent, each activity derived from a separate data source; and

an activity tracking viewer configured to display the agent activity of the first class and the agent activity of the second class along the same timeline axis.

13. The system of claim 10, the activity collector further configured to:

receive a first and a second agent event, both events associated with the same agent, the first agent event received from a first virtual data source and the second agent event received from a second, different, virtual data source, both virtual data sources associated with the same physical data source;

map the first agent event to the agent activity of the first class; and

map the second agent event to the agent activity of the second class.

14. The system of claim 10, the activity collector further configured to:

receive a first and a second agent event, both events associated with the same agent, the first agent event received from a first virtual data source and the second agent event received from a second, different, virtual data source, both virtual data sources associated with the same physical data source;

map the first agent event to the agent activity of the first class through a first mapping definition associated with the first virtual data source; and

map the second agent event to the agent activity of the second class through a second mapping definition associated with the second virtual data source.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a workforce manager comprising a scheduler; and

a quality monitor configured to provide, to the scheduler, at least one quality goal for a work period and at least one agent quality score,

wherein the scheduler is configured to produce a workforce schedule comprising agent assignments to work activities, wherein the workforce schedule is based at least in part on the at least one quality goal and the at least one agent quality score.

16. A computer-readable medium having a computer program stored thereon, the computer program comprising computer-executable instructions for performing a computer-executed method of presenting different queue hopping activities of an agent as different activities on a single timeline, the method comprising the steps of:

collecting, from a contact center data source, an agent activity of a first class and an agent activity of a second, different, class, both activities associated with the same agent, each activity derived from a different virtual data source; and

displaying the agent activity of the first class and the agent activity of the second class along the same timeline axis.