HIGH PERFORMANCE QUEUELESS CONTACT CENTER

• US 20110255682A1
• Filed: 09/15/2010
• Published: 10/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Flockhart, Andrew D., Steiner, Robert C.
• Application Number:
  US12/882,977
• Publication Number:
  US 20110255682A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/265.03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/18 Comparators
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5232 Call distribution algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5235 Dependent on call type or called number [DNIS]

Abstract

A queueless contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, achieve true one-to-one matching. Solutions are also provided for managing data structures utilized by the queueless contact center. Furthermore, mechanisms for generating traditional queue-based performance views and metrics for the queueless contact center are proposed to help facilitate a smooth transition from traditional queue-based contact centers to the next generation contact centers described herein.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining that a work item in a contact center has become available for assignment to a resource;

determining an attribute combination associated with processing requirements of the work item;

generating a resource data structure that indicates whether each resource in the contact center comprises the ability to fulfill the attribute combination associated with processing requirements of the work item;

scanning the resource data structure; and

based on the scanning, determining a set of qualified resources which are eligible to be assigned to the work item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource data structure comprises a resource bitmap.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the resource bitmap is associated with a resource pool and each bit in the resource bitmap corresponds to a single resource in the resource pool.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein a value of each bit in the resource bitmap is assigned either a 1 or 0 depending upon whether the resource is qualified to be assigned to the work item.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein every resource in the contact center is represented in the resource pool and resource bitmap.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the resource bitmap comprises mostly values of 0.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the bitmap is continuous in memory and wherein multiple bits of the bitmap are evaluated simultaneously during the scanning of the bitmap.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a Boolean value is computed for the multiple bits such that the multiple bits can be evaluated via the Boolean value.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing an eligibility of resources in the set of qualified resources;

based on the analysis of the eligibility of resources in the set of qualified resources, determining a selected resource from the set of qualified resources; and

assigning the work item to the selected resource, wherein the selected resource is an optimal resource for the work item at the time the resource data structure is generated.

10. A queueless contact center, comprising:

a work assignment engine; and

a plurality of bitmaps, the plurality of bitmaps including a work item bitmap and a resource bitmap, wherein the work item bitmap correlates work items to an attribute combination identifier associated with processing requirements of the work item, wherein the resource bitmap correlates resources to an attribute combination identifier associated with processing capabilities of the resource, wherein work item-resource-assignment decisions are made by the work assignment engine scanning one or both of the work item bitmap and resource bitmap.

11. The queueless contact center of claim 10, wherein the resource bitmap is associated with a resource pool and each bit in the resource bitmap corresponds to a single resource in the resource pool, wherein the work item bitmap is associated with a work pool and each bit in the work item bitmap corresponds to a single work item in the work pool.

12. The queueless contact center of claim 11, wherein a value of each bit in the resource bitmap is assigned either a 1 or 0 depending upon whether the resource is qualified to be assigned to a particular work item and wherein every resource in the contact center is represented in the resource pool and resource bitmap.

13. The queueless contact center of claim 12, wherein the value assigned to a bit in the resource bitmap depends upon attribute combinations of the associated resource and whether the resource has an attribute combination equal to an attribute combination of the work item.

14. The queueless contact center of claim 11, wherein the bitmap is continuous in memory.

15. The queueless contact center of claim 11, wherein multiple bits of a bitmap are evaluated simultaneously during the scanning of the bitmap.

16. The queueless contact center of claim 15, wherein a Boolean value is computed for the multiple bits such that the multiple bits can be evaluated via the Boolean value.

17. A method, comprising:

determining that a resource in a contact center has become available for assignment to a work item;

determining an attribute combination associated with processing capabilities of the resource;

generating a work item data structure that indicates whether each work item in the contact center can be processed by the resource based on an attribute combination of each work item and the attribute combination associated with processing capabilities of the resource;

scanning the work item data structure; and

based on the scanning, determining a set of qualified work items which are eligible to be assigned to the resource.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the work item data structure comprises a work item bitmap, wherein the work item bitmap is associated with a work pool and each bit in the work item bitmap corresponds to a single work item in the work pool, wherein a value of each bit in the work item bitmap is assigned either a 1 or 0 depending upon whether the work item is qualified to be assigned to the resource, and wherein the resource bitmap comprises mostly values of 0.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the bitmap is continuous in memory and wherein multiple bits of the bitmap are evaluated simultaneously during the scanning of the bitmap by computing a Boolean value for the multiple bits such that the multiple bits can be evaluated via the Boolean value.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

analyzing an eligibility of the qualified work items;

based on the analysis of the eligibility of the qualified work items, determining a selected work item from the qualified work items; and

assigning the selected work item to the resource.