Work at home ACD agent network with cooperative control
First Claim
1. A method of providing ACD (automatic call distributor) service for a call center, said ACD service provided by a first switching system, from a plurality of agent stations including a serving remote agent station served by a second switching system different from said first switching system, said serving remote agent station being one of one or more remote agent stations serving callers of said call center, said method comprising the steps of:
- establishing data connections from one or more active remote agent stations to a server system for maintaining status information for said remote agent stations;
responsive to receipt of an incoming ACD call for said ACD system, querying said server system to provide an identification of an available remote agent station;
responsive to determining in said server system that one or more of said remote agent stations is available, responding from said server system to said first switching system with an identity of one or more available remote agent stations said identities including all identity of said serving remote agent station; and
extending said incoming call to one of said serving remote agent stations via an audio connection from said first switching system, via said second switching system, andresponsive to an indication of change of status of a remote agent station of said call center from unavailable to available, sending a message to said call center that a remote agent station is available for serving a call of said call center, said sending a message that a remote agent station is available being performed only if no other remote agent station is available.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for adapting a switch arranged to provide automatic call distributor (ACD) service from remote agent stations as well as local agent stations. The remote agent stations are served by a switch other than the switch serving the ACD. The remote agent stations are connected by a data connection for transmitting agent status information to the ACD switch. The data connection is terminated on a server system for maintaining agent status information for the remote agents. When the ACD requests an identity of an available remote agent station, that identity is supplied by the server system. Advantageously, the server system can be programmed to select among available remote agent'"'"'s stations in accordance with the wishes of the ACD customer. Advantageously, this arrangement allows remote agents to serve ACD callers in essentially the same way as local agents serve these callers, thus, permitting the remote agent to work at different locations including, for example, their homes, while also permitting the owner of the ACD to take advantage of special characteristics or knowledge of selected remote agents.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. A method of providing ACD (automatic call distributor) service for a call center, said ACD service provided by a first switching system, from a plurality of agent stations including a serving remote agent station served by a second switching system different from said first switching system, said serving remote agent station being one of one or more remote agent stations serving callers of said call center, said method comprising the steps of:
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establishing data connections from one or more active remote agent stations to a server system for maintaining status information for said remote agent stations; responsive to receipt of an incoming ACD call for said ACD system, querying said server system to provide an identification of an available remote agent station; responsive to determining in said server system that one or more of said remote agent stations is available, responding from said server system to said first switching system with an identity of one or more available remote agent stations said identities including all identity of said serving remote agent station; and extending said incoming call to one of said serving remote agent stations via an audio connection from said first switching system, via said second switching system, and responsive to an indication of change of status of a remote agent station of said call center from unavailable to available, sending a message to said call center that a remote agent station is available for serving a call of said call center, said sending a message that a remote agent station is available being performed only if no other remote agent station is available. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. An ACD (automatic call distributor) for serving one or more remote agent stations comprising:
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a switch for receiving incoming calls to the ACD; a server system for maintaining a status of each of said one or more remote agent stations; said switch connectable via a public switched telephone network to each of said plurality of remote agent stations; said server system connectable via a data connection to available ones of said plurality of remote agent stations for receiving agent status information; said server system connected to said switch for providing an identification of an available remote agent station to said switch only if no other remote agent station is available; and said switch for extending a received incoming call for the ACD to the identified available remote agent station via said public switched telephone network. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method of providing ACD (automatic call distributor) service for a call center, said ACD service provided by a first switching system, from a plurality of agent stations including a serving remote agent station served by a second switching system different from said first switching system, said serving remote agent station being one of one or more remote agent stations serving callers of said call center, said method comprising the steps of:
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establishing data connections from one or more active remote agent stations to a server system for maintaining status information for said remote agent stations; responsive to receipt of an incoming ACD call for said ACD system, querying said server system to provide an identification of an available remote agent station; responsive to determining in said server system that one or more of said remote agent stations is available, responding from said server system to said first switching system with an identity of one or more available remote agent stations said identities including all identity of said serving remote agent station; and extending said incoming call to one of said serving remote agent stations via an audio connection from said first switching system, via said second switching system and responsive to all indication of change of status of a remote agent station of said call center from unavailable to available, sending a message to said call center that a remote agent station is available for serving a call of said call center performance of said sending a message being based on the availability status of other remote stations. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification