Systems and Methods for Handling a Plurality of Communications For Different Companies

• US 20110213860A1
• Filed: 05/06/2011
• Published: 09/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ali Aljane, Edwin Kenneth Margulies, Eli B. Borodow, Imed Yahmadi, Pablo M. Rodriguez, Pierre St-Cyr, Ran Ezerzer
• Original Assignee: Ali Aljane, Edwin Kenneth Margulies, Eli B. Borodow, Imed Yahmadi, Pablo M. Rodriguez, Pierre St-Cyr, Ran Ezerzer
• Inventors: Margulies, Edwin Kenneth, Yahmadi, Imed, St-Cyr, Pierre, Ezerzer, Ran, Rodriguez, Pablo M., Borodow, Eli B., Aljane, Ali
• Granted Patent: US 8,549,107 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/218
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4234 Remote access to features of PBX or home telephone systems-teleworking in a PBX
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5125 with remote located operators
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/12 for working between exchanges having different types of switching equipment, e.g. power-driven and step by step or decimal and non-decimal

Abstract

A distributed communication center configured to handle a plurality of communications includes a user zone, a web zone, and a network zone. The user zone includes a plurality of remote terminals that enable communication center personnel and end users to remotely interface with the distributed communication center through the web zone. The web zone includes one or more web servers configured and one or more mail servers to interface the remote terminals in the user zone with the network zone. The network zone includes one or more telephony servers and one or more application servers.

Claims

1. A communication center configured to host a plurality of companies, the communication center comprising a web server, the web server comprising a plurality of first applications configured to transmit and receive information between a remote terminal and a network zone, wherein the network zone comprises a plurality of second applications and at least some of the plurality of the second applications are dedicated to certain companies.

2. The communication center of claim 1, wherein the plurality of first applications includes a user session manager configured to authenticate attempts to remotely access communication center resources using the remote terminal.

3. The communication center of claim 2, wherein authenticating remote access attempts comprises receiving a remote login message initiating a user session in response to the received remote login message.

4. The communication center of claim 3, wherein authenticating remote access attempts further comprises extracting login information from the received remote login message and storing the extracted login information.

5. The communication center of claim 4, wherein authenticating remote access attempts further comprises tracking information related to the initiated user session.

6. The communication center of claim 3, wherein the user session manager is further configured to receive a logout message and end the initiated user session in response to the received logout message.

7. The communication center of claim 1, wherein the plurality of first applications includes a real-time user state transmission application configured to relay status information related to the remote terminal to the network zone.

8. The communication center of claim 7, wherein relaying status information comprises receiving an action request from the remote terminal and forwarding the action request to the network zone.

9. The communication center of claim 8, wherein the real-time user state transmission application is further configured to extract action request information from the received action request and storing the extracted information in a queue.

10. The communication center of claim 9, wherein forwarding the action request comprises retrieving the action request information form the queue and forwarding it to the network zone.

11. The communication center of claim 1, wherein the plurality of first applications includes a real-time user state reception application configured to relay status information related to the network zone to the remote terminal.

12. The communication center of claim 11, wherein relaying status information comprises receiving a message from the network zone generated in response to an action request from the remote terminal and transmitting the received message to the remote terminal.

13. The communication center of claim 12, wherein the real-time user state reception application is further configured to receive a query from the remote terminal and to transmit the received message to the remote terminal in response to the received query.

14. The communication center of claim 13, wherein the real-time user state reception application is further configured to:

receive the query from the remote terminal;

in response to the received query, determine if there are any messages to be transmitted to the remote terminal;

if there are no messages to be transmitted, then waiting for a configurable period to receive any messages from the network zone to be transmitted to the remote terminal; and

transmitting any received messages when they are received.

15. The communication center of claim 1, wherein the plurality of first applications includes a non-real-time system state transmission/reception application configured to relay status for non-real-time communications between the remote terminal and the network zone.

16. The communication center of claim 1, wherein the plurality of first applications includes a database interface application configured to interface the remote terminal with a database.

17. The communication center of claim 1, wherein the plurality of first applications includes a FTP interface application configured to interface the remote terminal with a file server.

18. The communication center of claim 1, wherein the plurality of first applications includes a remote database/file handler application configured to handle database and file requests from the remote terminal.

19. The communication center of claim 1, wherein the plurality of first applications includes a bus server application configured to manage the communication between the web server and the network zone.

20-128. -128. (canceled)