Method of providing assistance to the end-user of a software application

• US 20120166970A1
• Filed: 12/30/2010
• Published: 06/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amadeus (Amadeus Global Travel Distribution S.A.)
• Original Assignee: Amadeus (Amadeus Global Travel Distribution S.A.)
• Inventors: Savornin, Richard, Gastaldi, Christian, Grandemange, Alexis
• Granted Patent: US 9,037,980 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4633 Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/04 for providing a confidential data exchange among entities communicating through data packet networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0838 using one-time-passwords
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5133 Operator terminal details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing

Abstract

A method of providing assistance to a remote end-user of an end-user software application from an agent of an assistance center is described. All the transactions initiated by the end-user of the end-user software application are recorded in a contextual database locally, for applications running exclusively on customer PC, or remotely, for Web applications. Instrumented pages are delivered to the end-user. They include each a help request means. A server of a desktop sharing application is installed in the PC of the agent. When the end-user is requesting assistance all the entries already made by the end-user on a current instrumented page are uploaded. A waiting page and a client side of the desktop sharing application are also downloaded to the PC of the end-user. The end-user to be assisted is assigned to the agent when available. Then, PC of the agent gets a clone of the current instrumented page from the contextual database and a secure communication tunnel between the agent and the end-user is established. The client side of the desktop sharing application is finally activated on the customer PC which lets end-user view desktop of the PC of the agent and allows starting an assistance session between the agent and the end-user. All that being done without any software pre-installation on the client PC.

Claims

1. A method of providing an end-user of an end-user software application with assistance from an agent of an assistance center over a network operating in a client/server mode allowing communication between a data processing device of the agent associated to agent display means and a data processing device of the end-user associated to end-user display means, the end-user software application enabling the end-user to establish an end-user session, characterized it comprises the following steps performed with at least one data processor:

installing a server side of a desktop sharing application in the data processing device of the agent;

storing in data storage means a contextual database that records actions initiated by the end-user, said actions characterizing the end-user session;

obtaining a duplication of said end-user session by running an agent software application based on said actions and providing the display means of the data processing device of the agent with said duplication;

establishing a communication between the data processing device of the agent and the data processing device of the end-user through the network;

activating in the data processing device of the end-user a client side of the desktop sharing application to allow viewing on the end-user display means what is displayed on the agent display means;

starting an assistance session between the agent and the end-user.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein obtaining a duplication of said end-user session includes duplicating all entries already made by the end-user on a page of the end-user session currently displayed on the end-user display means and that have not been processed yet by the end-user software.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein obtaining a duplication of the end-user session requires requesting assistance of the agent from the data processing device of the end-user and wherein requesting assistance includes any one of the following steps:

activating help requesting means embedded in a page of the end-user session that is displayed on the end-user display means,

requesting an executable link, receiving said executable link at the data processing device of the end-user and accessing said executable link.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein the step of establishing a communication comprises configuring a tunnel between the server side of the desktop sharing application and the client side of the desktop sharing application for displaying on the end-user display means what is displayed on the agent display means.

5. The method according to claim 1 where an assistance service application has a client side in the data processing device of the agent and a server side remotely located from the data processing device of the end-user and which communicates through the network with the data processing device of the agent and with the data processing device of the end-user, and where the server side of the assistance service application performs the following steps:

receiving from the data processing device of the end-user a request for assistance,

sending to the client side of the assistance service application a request for assistance assignment,

receiving an acceptance of assignment from the client side of the assistance service application,

establishing a communication between the server side of the desktop sharing application and the client side of the desktop sharing application for displaying on the end-user display means what is displayed on the agent display means.

6. The method according to claim 5 wherein the step of establishing a communication comprises configuring a tunnel between the server side and the client side of the desktop sharing application by performing the following steps:

disposing a tunneling server at the data processing device of the agent,

disposing a tunneling proxy at the server side of the desktop sharing application,

connecting said tunneling server and said tunneling proxy.

7. The method according to claim 5 wherein the server side of the assistance service application performs the following steps:

after receiving the request for assistance and before sending a request for assistance assignment, retrieving all entries performed by the end-user and that has not been yet processed or transmitted to said end-user software application,

after receiving an acceptance of assignment, sending to the client side of the assistance service application all entries performed by the end-user and that has not been yet processed or transmitted to said end-user software application.

8. The method according to claim 5 wherein the server side of the assistance service application is configured to perform the following steps:

after receiving the request for assistance and before sending a request for assistance assignment, attributing a context identifier that uniquely defines the session of the end-user,

after receiving an acceptance of assignment, sending to the client side of the assistance service application the context identifier that uniquely defines the session of the end-user.

9. The method according to claim 5 wherein the server side of the assistance service application is configured to perform the following step:

after receiving from the data processing device of the end-user a request for assistance, sending to the data processing device of the end-user a page with an applet that embeds the client side of the desktop sharing application.

10. The method according to claim 5 wherein the server side of the assistance service application is configured to perform the following step:

after receiving from the data processing device of the end-user a request for assistance, sending to the data processing device of the end-user a password that is associated to the end-user session and that is necessary to connect the data processing device of the agent with the data processing device of the user.

11. The method according to claim 1 where an assistance service application has a client side in the data processing device of the agent and a server side of the assistance service application remotely located from the data processing device of the end-user and which communicates through the network with the data processing device of the agent and with the data processing device of the end-user, the client side of the assistance service application carrying out the following steps:

receiving from the server side of the assistance service application a request for assistance assignment,

providing the data processing device of the agent with means for accepting or rejecting said request for assistance assignment,

if the agent accepts said request for assistance assignment, then establishing a communication between the client side of the desktop sharing application and the server side of the desktop sharing application for displaying on the end-user display means what is displayed on the agent display means.

12. The method according to claim 1 where said end-user software application is run on a software application server remotely located from the data processing device of the end-user.

13. The method according to claim 1 where said end-user software application and said agent software application are the same software application.

14. The method according to claim 12 where said end-user software application is a web-based application running from a web server.

15. The method according to any one of the three preceding claim 12 where the server side of the assistance service application is also run on said software application server.

16. The method according to claim 12 where the server side of the assistance service application and the end-user software application are run on distinct servers.

17. The method according to claim 1 where said end-user software application is run on the data processing device of the end-user and the agent software application is run on the data processing device of the agent.

18. The method according to claim 1 where said end-user software application is run on the data processing device of the end-user, where the data processing device of the end-user comprises storage means for storing the contextual database, and where said end-user software application is linked to the contextual database and is instrumented to record the actions initiated by the end-user in the contextual database.

20. A computer program product stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, comprising computer readable code means causing at least one computer to operate the method of claim 1.

19. A method of providing an end-user of a end-user software application with assistance from an agent of an assistance center over a network operating in a client/server mode allowing communication between a data processing device of the agent associated to agent display means and a data processing device of the end-user associated to end-user display means, the end-user software application enabling the end-user to establish an end-user session, characterized in that it comprises the following steps performed with at least one data processor:

storing in data storage means a contextual database that records actions initiated by the end-user, said actions characterizing the end-user session;

providing the data processing device of the agent with a duplication of the end-user session, said duplication being based on said actions;

establishing a communication between the data processing device of the agent and the data processing device of the end-user through the network;

activating in the data processing device of the end-user a client side of the desktop sharing application to allow viewing on the end-user display means what is displayed on the agent display means;

starting an assistance session between the agent and the end-user.

21. A system for providing an end-user of a end-user software application with assistance from an agent of an assistance center operating in a client/server mode, the end-user software application enabling the end-user to establish an end-user session, comprising a data processing device of the end-user associated to end-user display means, a data processing device of the agent associated to agent display means, a desktop sharing application comprising a server side and a client side and a network configured to allow communication between said end-user software application, the data processing device of the end-user and the data processing device of the agent, characterized in that the server side of the desktop sharing application is installed in the data processing device of the agent, in that the client side of the desktop sharing application is installed in the data processing device of the end-user and in that it comprises:

data storage means comprising a contextual database that is configured to record the actions initiated by the end-user, said actions characterizing the end-user session;

at least one processor configured to run an assistance service application, the assistance service application being arranged for;

obtaining a duplication of said end-user session by running an agent software application based on said actions;

providing the display means of the data processing device of the agent with said duplication;

establishing a communication between the data processing device of the agent and the data processing device of the end-user through the network to allow viewing on the end-user display means what is displayed on the agent display means, starting thereby an assistance session.