Systems and Methods for Storing and Searching Data in a Customer Center Environment

• US 20080082502A1
• Filed: 03/30/2007
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Witness Systems Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Gupta, Rajan
• Granted Patent: US 7,930,314 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/242 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

Systems and methods for storing and searching a customer center environment. In this regard, a representative method comprises: generating data from workforce applications, at least one of the workforce applications including at least one of forecasting, scheduling, recording, and monitoring functionalities; storing the data in unstructured databases, at least one of the unstructured databases being operative to communicate with one of the workforce applications, the at least one of the unstructured databases including unstructured data that does not have a data structure; receiving search parameters that are used to search the data in the at least one of the plurality of unstructured databases; searching the at least one of the plurality of unstructured databases according to the search parameters; and displaying search results on a displaying device.

Claims

1. A method for storing and searching in a customer center system, comprising:

generating data from workforce applications, at least one of the workforce applications including at least one of forecasting, scheduling, recording, and monitoring functionalities;

storing the data in at least one of a plurality of unstructured databases, the unstructured databases being operative to communicate with at least one of the workforce applications;

receiving search parameters that are used to search the data in the at least one of the plurality of unstructured databases;

searching the at least one of the plurality of unstructured databases according to the search parameters; and

displaying search results on a display device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising searching at least one structured database according to the search parameters, the at least one structured database including data that has been categorized, wherein the plurality of unstructured databases includes unstructured data that does not exhibit a data structure.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining whether the search results are from the at least one structured database or the at least one unstructured database.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising responsive to the search results being from the at least one structured database, converting data corresponding to the search results to a text format.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising converting the generated data into a text format.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising indexing the converted data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the indexed data is in a hash table.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein searching the at least one unstructured database according to the search parameters comprises using a concept-based search.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein searching the at least one unstructured database according to the search parameters comprises using a natural-language query.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

planning at least one campaign to implement goals;

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 the 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. A system for storing and searching in a customer center system, comprising:

a plurality of workforce applications, the workforce applications including at least one of forecasting, scheduling, recording, and monitoring functionalities, at least one of the plurality of workforce applications being operative to generate data related to customer center functionalities;

a plurality of unstructured databases being operative to store the generated data, at least one of the plurality of unstructured databases being operative to communicate with the at least one of the plurality of workforce applications, the at least one of the plurality of unstructured databases including a plurality of unstructured data; and

a search engine operative to;

receive search parameters that are used to search the data in the plurality of unstructured databases,

search the plurality of unstructured databases according to the search parameters, and

display search results on a display device.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a plurality of structured databases, at least one of the plurality of structured databases including data that has been categorized, the search engine being operative to search the at least one of the plurality of structured databases according to the search parameters.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the search engine is operative to determine whether the search results are from the plurality of structured database or the plurality of unstructured database.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein responsive to the search results being from the plurality of structured database, the search engine converts data corresponding to the search results to a text format.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one of the plurality of workforce applications converts the generated data into a text format.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the search engine indexes the data associated with the search results.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the indexed data is in a hash table.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the search engine searches the plurality of unstructured databases according to the search parameters using concept-based searches.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the search engine searches the plurality of unstructured databases according to the search parameters comprises using natural-language queries.

20. A system for storing and searching in a customer center system, comprising:

a plurality of workforce applications, the workforce applications including at least one of forecasting, scheduling, recording, and monitoring functionalities, at least one of the plurality of workforce applications being operative to generate data related to customer center functionalities;

a plurality of unstructured databases being operative to store the generated data, at least one of the plurality of unstructured databases being operative to communicate with the at least one of the plurality of workforce applications;

a search engine operative to;

receive search parameters that are used to search the data in the plurality of unstructured databases,

search the plurality of unstructured databases according to the search parameters, and

display search results on a display device;

a plurality of structured databases, at least one of the plurality of structured databases including data that has been categorized,

wherein the search engine being operative to search the at least one of the plurality of structured databases according to the search parameters and determine whether the search results are from the plurality of structured database or the plurality of unstructured database.