Method of controlling silent monitoring of a group

• US 5,854,825 A
• Filed: 10/07/1996
• Issued: 12/29/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Fumeno, Takeshi, Nakamatsu, Takaki, Mukaihara, Masataka, Kususe, Miwa
• Primary Examiner(s): Kuntz, Curtis A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Barnie, Rexford N.
• Application Number:
  US08/726,752
• Time in Patent Office: 813 Days
• Field of Search: 379/34, 379/35, 379/38, 379/111, 379/112, 379/113, 379/133, 379/265, 379/266, 379/309
• US Class Current: 379/309
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2281 Call monitoring, e.g. for law enforcement purposes; Call tracing; Detection or prevention of malicious calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/51 Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention , e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements

Abstract

A method of controlling silent monitoring of a group in an electronic exchange accommodating a terminal of a monitoring individual and terminals of individuals to be monitored, wherein a call between a prescribed individual to be monitored and a customer is allowed to be monitored by the monitoring individual. The individuals to be monitored are divided into groups, groups to be monitored are allocated to the monitoring individual and this information is entered into a call controller of the electronic exchange. The call controller observes, group by group, call-in-progress/call-not-in-progress status of the individuals to be monitored and allows the monitoring individual to automatically monitor, in succession, calls between customers and call-in-progress individuals to be monitored belonging to the monitoring target groups allocated to the monitoring individual.

Claims

1. A method of controlling silent monitoring of a group in an electronic exchange accommodating a terminal of a monitoring individual and terminals of individuals to be monitored and having a silent monitoring function which allows the monitoring individual to monitor a call between a prescribed individual to be monitored and a customer, the method comprising the steps of:

forming the individuals to be monitored into groups;

allocating monitoring target groups to the monitoring individual;

observing, group by group, call-in-progress/call-not-in-progress status of individuals to be monitored belonging to the monitoring target group; and

allowing the monitoring individual to automatically monitor, in succession, calls between customers and call-in-progress individuals to be monitored belonging to the monitoring target groups allocated to said monitoring individual.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

observing status of monitoring; and

notifying the monitoring individual of said status of monitoring and notifying an individual who is currently being monitored of the fact that monitoring is in progress.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining one of whether a call-in-progress individual to be monitored exists in a monitoring target group at start of monitoring and when a monitored individual is changed;

if the call-in-progress individual to be monitored does not exist in the monitoring target group, inquiring of the monitoring individual whether monitoring is to be ended or whether the monitoring individual will wait until monitoring becomes possible; and

executing one of monitoring termination processing and monitoring standby processing, depending upon a command from the monitoring individual.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

setting conditions for changing an individual to be monitored; and

allowing the monitoring individual to automatically change the individual to be monitored in accordance with these conditions.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

observing, after start of monitoring, whether the monitoring individual has requested that an individual to be monitored be changed; and

if the monitoring individual has requested that an individual to be monitored be changed, allowing the monitoring individual to monitor the call between a customer and the next call-in-progress individual to be monitored belonging to the monitoring target group.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

setting monitoring levels for respective ones of individuals to be monitored and the monitoring individual; and

performing control in such a manner that if the monitoring level of the monitoring individual is lower than the monitoring level of an individual to be monitored, then this individual is not monitored by the monitoring individual.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

giving a predetermined individual to be monitored the right to refuse monitoring;

observing whether a monitored individual currently being monitored has requested refusal of monitoring;

if this monitored individual has requested refusal of monitoring, determining whether this monitored individual has been given the right to refuse monitoring;

if this monitored individual has been given the right to refuse monitoring, halting monitoring of this monitored individual and starting monitoring of the next individual to be monitored; and

if said monitored individual has not been given the right to refuse monitoring, continuing monitoring of this monitored individual.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

setting monitoring levels for respective ones of the groups and the monitoring individual; and

performing control in such a manner that if the monitoring level of the monitoring individual is lower than the monitoring level of a monitoring target group, then monitoring of an individual belonging to this monitoring target group will not be performed by the monitoring individual.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of terminating monitoring of a monitoring target group if the monitoring individual has issued a monitoring termination request.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

allocating a plurality of monitoring target groups to a monitoring individual;

if, when a monitoring request is issued by the monitoring individual, a monitoring target group has not been specified by the monitoring individual, starting monitoring of a call-in-progress individual to be monitored belonging to a first-ranked monitoring target group among the allocated monitoring target groups; and

if, when a monitoring request is issued by the monitoring individual, a monitoring target group has been specified by the monitoring individual, starting monitoring of a call-in-progress individual to be monitored belonging to the specified monitoring target group.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

setting conditions for changing a monitoring target group; and

allowing the monitoring individual to automatically change a monitoring target group in accordance with these conditions.

12. The method according to claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

observing whether the monitoring individual has issued a request to change a monitoring target group; and

if the monitoring individual has issued the request to change a monitoring target group, allowing the monitoring individual to monitor the call between a customer and a call-in-progress individual to be monitored belonging to the next monitoring target group.

13. The method according to claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

observing whether an individual to be monitored has issued a monitoring request;

if the individual to be monitored has issued a monitoring request, obtaining a monitoring individual for whom the group to which this monitored individual belongs is made the monitoring target group; and

allowing the obtained monitoring individual to start monitoring of this monitored individual.

16. The method as in claim 1, wherein status is observed of at least one of start/end of monitoring, change of monitored individual, and change of monitoring target group.

14. A system for silent monitoring of a group, said system having a silent monitoring function which allows a monitoring individual to monitor a call between an individual to be monitored and a customer, said system comprising:

a first ISDN exchange accommodating terminal of monitored individuals;

a second ISDN exchange accommodating a terminal of monitoring individual; and

an ISDN trunk line connecting said first and second ISDN exchanges;

wherein said first ISDN exchange forms the monitored individuals into groups, allocates monitoring target groups to the monitoring individual and observes call-in-progress/call-not-in-progress status of the monitored individuals group by group;

when a monitoring request has been issued by the monitoring individual, said second ISDN exchange sends said first ISDN exchange a call set-up request message, which includes the identification number of the monitoring individual and a monitoring start request; and

said first ISDN exchange receives the call set-up request message and sends a call signal, which is obtained from a customer and a call-in-progress monitored individual belonging to the monitoring target group allocated to the monitoring individual, to the terminal of the monitoring individual via said ISDN trunk line and said second ISDN exchange.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein said first ISDN exchange observes status of monitoring, and sends said status of monitoring to the terminal of the monitoring individual via said ISDN trunk line and said second ISDN exchange.

17. The system according to claim 15, wherein status is observed of at least one of start/end of monitoring, change of monitored individual, and change of monitoring target group.