UNIVERSAL CALL MANAGEMENT PLATFORM

• US 20110130168A1
• Filed: 12/01/2010
• Published: 06/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RingCentral Incorporated
• Original Assignee: RingCentral Incorporated
• Inventors: Shmunis, Vladimir, Chau, Vi, Shah, Praful, Vendrow, Vlad
• Granted Patent: US 9,350,845 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/556.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/57 Arrangements for indicating or recording the number of the calling subscriber at the called subscriber's set at the operator set in a manual exchange H04M5/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/64 Automatic arrangements for answering calls; Automatic arrangements for recording messages for absent subscribers; Arrangements for recording conversations centralised dictation systems H04M11/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/663 Preventing unauthorised calls to a telephone set
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72448 with means for adapting the functionality of the device according to specific conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4536 Voicemail combined with text-based messaging
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42008 Systems for anonymous communication between parties, e.g. by use of disposal contact identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42314 in private branch exchanges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5141 Details of processing calls and other types of contacts in an unified manner unified messaging in packet-switching networks H04L51/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

Systems, methods and computer program products for enabling integration between various internet- or non-internet based communication services (e.g., as provided by different communications platforms and service providers) using a universal platform are described. In some implementations, a service manager is provided that can integrate call management capabilities with multiple communications platforms using the universal platform to enable seamless communication between the various platforms. For example, interactions between individual users on one or more platforms can be tracked in a single conversation history as a threaded interface. The universal platform can integrate with various platforms and third party protocols and services to provide call features that include, for example, call forwarding, call handling, multiple greeting prompts, call screening rules, ring-out rules, international calling, caller ID rules, after hours, and announcement prompts.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a user communication intended for a recipient from a mobile device, the mobile device provisioned with one or more device management rules for managing communications originated from or destined to the mobile device using one or more communications portals;

retrieving a device management rule associated with managing delivery of the user communication, the device management rule defining a delivery process by which the user communication is to be delivered to the recipient;

identifying a source communication portal from which the user communication is received from the mobile device;

identifying a source format associated with the received user communication based on the source communication portal; and

delivering the received user communication to the recipient in accordance with the delivery process including processing the received communication based on the source format prior to delivery.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the delivery process requires accessing an external communication portal for completing the delivery of the received user communication; and

accessing the external communication portal after determining that the delivery process requires the external communication portal.

3. The method of claim 2, where delivering the received user communication includes delivering the received user communication using the external communication portal.

4. The method of claim 2, where accessing the external communication portal includes accessing the external communication portal using user authentication parameters received from the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1, where retrieving the device management rule includes identifying a destination format in which the user communication is to be delivered to and received by the recipient.

6. The method of claim 5, where processing the received communication includes converting the source format of the received communication to the destination format suitable for delivery to the recipient.

7. The method of claim 6, where converting the source format includes modifying the source format into the destination format without altering content of the received user communication.

8. The method of claim 6, where identifying the source communication portal includes identifying the source communication portal as one of a voice communication portal or instant message communication portal;

and

where identifying the source format includes identifying the source format as one of a voice message or instant message.

9. The method of claim 8, where processing the received communication includes converting the voice message or instant message into a format defined by the delivery process prior to delivery.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a threaded interface on the mobile device, the thread interface tracking communications sent to and received from the recipient in a single conversation history.

11. The method of claim 10, where tracking the communications includes presenting communications previously sent to and received from the recipient through various communication portals in the threaded interface.

12. The method of claim 10, where tracking the communications includes presenting messages selected from a group comprising social network messages, voice messages, instant messages, email messages previously sent to and received from the recipient in the threaded interface.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving communication log data from a plurality of communications portals; and

displaying the received communication log data as a single thread in a log interface on the mobile device, the received communication log data containing call information associated with calls made from and to the mobile device.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising updating the log in real time as outgoing or incoming communications are sent to or received from the mobile device through the plurality of communications portals.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving contact information associated with a plurality of contacts having sent to or received from the mobile device one or more communications through one or more communication portals;

identifying, from the contact information, one or more contacts who have previously sent or received one or more messages to or from the mobile device using more than one communication portal;

aggregating the one or more messages sent to or received from the mobile using more than one communication portal into a single entry; and

displaying the single entry on the mobile device.

16. A method comprising:

receiving a user request from a mobile device to configure a mobile user account pre-provisioned with one or more virtual private branch exchange (PBX) services including receiving user configuration data for configuring the one or more virtual PBX services;

configuring the one or more virtual PBX services based on the received user configuration data including configuring one or more conversion rules for converting communications originated from or destined to the mobile device into different formats;

receiving a communication in a first format intended for a recipient from the mobile device;

processing the communication including converting the communication from the first format to a second format different from the first format based on the one or more conversion rules; and

delivering the converted communication in the second format to the recipient.

17. The method of claim 16, where configuring the one or more conversion rules includes specifying one or more delivery rules for delivering the one or more communications to corresponding recipients.

18. The method of claim 17, where converting the communication from the first format to the second format is performed based on a delivery rule associated with the received communication.

19. The method of claim 17, where specifying the one or more delivery rules includes specifying how communications received in the first format are to be delivered to the corresponding recipients in the second format.

20. The method of claim 16, where configuring the one or more conversion rules includes specifying one or more receiving rules for converting one or more communications from the recipient to a predetermined format before delivering the one or more communications from the recipient to the mobile device.

21. The method of claim 16, where receiving the communication includes receiving the communication in response to a recipient communication from the recipient delivered to the mobile device.

22. The method of claim 16, where receiving the communication in the first format includes receiving an instant message from the mobile device;

and

where converting the communication includes converting the instant message to a voice message.

23. A system comprising:

a data processing apparatus; and

a memory in data communication with the data processing apparatus and storing instructions executable by the data processing apparatus and upon such execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising;

receiving a user communication intended for a recipient from a mobile device associated with a user account provisioned with one or more device management rules for managing communications sent to or received from the mobile device using one or more communications portals;

retrieving a device management rule associated with managing delivery of the user communication, the device management rule defining a delivery process by which the user communication is to be delivered to the recipient;

identifying a source communication portal from which the user communication is received from the mobile device;

identifying a source format associated with the received user communication based on the source communication portal; and

delivering the received user communication to the recipient in accordance with the delivery process including processing the received communication based on the source format prior to delivery.

24. A system comprising:

a data processing apparatus; and

a memory in data communication with the data processing apparatus and storing instructions executable by the data processing apparatus and upon such execution cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising;

receiving a user request from a mobile device to configure a mobile user account pre-provisioned with one or more virtual private branch exchange (PBX) services including receiving user configuration data for configuring the one or more virtual PBX services;

configuring the one or more virtual PBX services based on the received user configuration data including configuring one or more conversion rules for converting communications to different formats;

receiving a communication in a first format intended for a recipient from the mobile device;

processing the communication including converting the communication from the first format to a second format different from the first format based on the one or more conversion rules; and

delivering the converted communication in the second format to the recipient.