Automatic call distribution system with emergency conferencing and method
First Claim
1. In an automatic call distribution system with an automatic call distributor having a multiport switch controlled by a central processing unit for selectively interconnecting calls from external telephonic units of an external telephonic network with internal telephonic units including agent telephonic units of the call distribution system, the improvement being an emergency conference calling system, comprising:
- means associated with an agent telephonic unit, having a first existing voice path connection with one of the external units, for enabling an agent to request a second voice path connection to be joined between the agent telephonic unit and a first internal telephonic unit;
a gate associated with a pool of internal telephonic units including the first internal telephonic unit and other internal telephonic units;
means for automatically selecting the first internal telephonic unit from the pool of internal telephonic units associated with the gate; and
means responsive to the request enabling means for causing the automatic call distributor to join the first internal telephonic unit into the first existing voice path connection between the requesting agent telephonic unit and the one external telephonic unit including means for connecting the second voice path between the first internal telephonic unit at the gate and the agent telephonic unit requesting the second voice path connection while uninterruptedly maintaining the first existing voice path connection to create a conference call between the agent telephonic unit, the external telephonic unit and the first internal telephonic unit.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An automatic call distributor (10A) with a multiport switch (12) which selectively interconnects agent telephonic units (18) of an internal telephonic network with an external telephonic unit (22) of an external telephonic network (24) and having at least one conference telephonic unit 20 interconnected with a port of the switch, an emergency key (40) on the agent unit (18) for requesting the ACD (10A) to automatically outdial and establish a two way voice path connection between another internal telephonic unit (20) and the requesting agent unit (18) to create a conference call. A memory (14) automatically stores information concerning conference calls.
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Citations
37 Claims
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1. In an automatic call distribution system with an automatic call distributor having a multiport switch controlled by a central processing unit for selectively interconnecting calls from external telephonic units of an external telephonic network with internal telephonic units including agent telephonic units of the call distribution system, the improvement being an emergency conference calling system, comprising:
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means associated with an agent telephonic unit, having a first existing voice path connection with one of the external units, for enabling an agent to request a second voice path connection to be joined between the agent telephonic unit and a first internal telephonic unit; a gate associated with a pool of internal telephonic units including the first internal telephonic unit and other internal telephonic units; means for automatically selecting the first internal telephonic unit from the pool of internal telephonic units associated with the gate; and means responsive to the request enabling means for causing the automatic call distributor to join the first internal telephonic unit into the first existing voice path connection between the requesting agent telephonic unit and the one external telephonic unit including means for connecting the second voice path between the first internal telephonic unit at the gate and the agent telephonic unit requesting the second voice path connection while uninterruptedly maintaining the first existing voice path connection to create a conference call between the agent telephonic unit, the external telephonic unit and the first internal telephonic unit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. In an automatic call distribution system with an automatic call distributor having a multiport switch for selectively interconnecting calls from a plurality of external telephonic units of an external telephonic network with a plurality of internal telephonic units including a plurality of agent telephonic units of the call distribution system, the improvement being an emergency conference call system, comprising:
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a plurality of conferencing telephonic units for receipt of a voice connection through the multiport switch to an existing call between one of the plurality of external telephonic units and one of the plurality of agent telephonic units; means associated with the automatic call distributor for selectively interconnecting available ones of the plurality of conferencing telephonic units, when the conferencing telephonic units are not in use, upon request from an agent at the one agent telephonic unit to create a conference call between the one agent telephonic unit, the one external telephonic unit and the conferencing telephonic unit; and means for storing information concerning the conference call including information of at least one of (a) a time when the conference call was requested, (b) a telephone number of the requesting agent telephonic unit, (c) a port identification number of the agent telephonic unit requesting the conference call or (d) a conferencing telephonic unit port identification number of the conferencing telephonic unit selectively interconnected with the one agent telephonic unit in response to the conference call request by the one agent telephonic unit. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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21. In an automatic call distribution system with an automatic call distributor having a multiport switch controlled by a central processing unit for selectively interconnecting calls from external telephonic units of an external telephonic network with internal telephonic units including agent telephonic units of the call distribution system, the improvement being a method of establishing a conference call, comprising the steps of:
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requesting at one of the agent telephonic units joinder of a first internal telephonic unit into a first existing voice path between the requesting agent telephonic unit and one of the external telephonic units to create a second voice path between the agent telephonic unit and the first internal telephonic unit; associating a gate with a pool of internal telephonic units including the first internal telephonic unit and other internal telephonic units; automatically selecting the first internal telephonic unit from the pool of internal telephonic units associated with the gate; and causing the automatic call distributor to join the first internal telephonic unit with the first voice path between the requesting agent telephonic unit and the one external telephonic unit including establishing the second voice path with the gate associated with the pool of other internal telephonic units including the first internal telephonic unit while uninterruptedly maintaining the first voice path with the one external telephonic unit to create a conference call between the agent telephonic unit, the one external telephonic unit and the first internal telephonic unit. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. In an automatic call distribution system with an automatic call distributor having a multiport switch for selectively interconnecting calls from external telephonic units of an external telephonic network with internal telephonic units including agent telephonic units of the call distribution system, the improvement being a method of establishing a conference call, comprising the steps of:
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initiating the automatic call distributor to selectively interconnect a voice path between one of the plurality of agent telephonic units and a first internal telephonic unit to create a conference call between the one agent telephonic unit, one of the plurality of the external telephonic units and the first internal telephonic unit; and storing information concerning the conference call including information about at least one of (a) a time when the conference call was requested, (b) a telephone number of the agent telephonic unit, (c) a port identification number of the agent telephonic unit or (d) an internal telephonic unit port identification number of the first internal telephonic unit selectively interconnected with the agent telephonic unit in response to the initiation of the automatic call distributor selectively interconnecting the voice path. - View Dependent Claims (37)
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Specification