Method and apparatus for enabling full interactive monitoring of calls to and from a call-in center

• US 6,047,060 A
• Filed: 02/20/1998
• Issued: 04/04/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Incorporated (Genesys Cloud Services Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Incorporated (Genesys Cloud Services Incorporated)
• Inventors: Bondarenko, Oleg, Fedorov, Sergey
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Harry S.
• Application Number:
  US09/026,795
• Time in Patent Office: 774 Days
• Field of Search: 379/34, 379/35, 379/265, 379/266, 379/309, 379/93.06, 379/267, 379/387
• US Class Current: 379/265.02
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/20 with means for interrupting existing connections; with means for breaking-in on conversations
• 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 3/42221 Conversation recording systems at the subscriber's set H04M1/656
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42323 PBX's with CTI arrangements
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5183 Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/12 for working between exchanges having different types of switching equipment, e.g. power-driven and step by step or decimal and non-decimal

Abstract

An agent station at a telephony call center has a telephone and a computer platform with a sound card. The telephone has a speaker line connected to at least a microphone input at the sound card. In some instances the speaker line is connected to both the microphone and speaker ports of the sound card. Agent stations in the call center are interconnected on a LAN such that a supervisor at one station may monitor telephone conversations at another station having the connected telephone and sound card. In some instances a file-sharing application is used, allowing a supervisor to view a screen at the agent station as well as to monitor and participate in telephone conversations. The system provides a complete monitoring a service-observing capability in the call center.

Claims

1. An interactive telephone-computer platform combination, comprising:

a telephone having a microphone and a speaker for audio input and output respectively;

a computer platform having a sound card coupled to an internal bus, wherein the sound card has a line-in port and a line out port; and

an audio interface comprising a connection from the telephone speaker line to both the sound card line-in and line-out ports, such that analog audio may be provided to the telephone speaker line from the computer bus through the sound card, and may be provided to the computer bus from the telephone.

2. The interactive combination of claim 1 wherein the audio interface comprises resistors installed to protect drive circuitry in both the telephone and the sound card.

3. The interactive combination of claim 1 wherein the audio interface comprises amplification circuitry in the connecting lines between the sound card and the telephone speaker line.

4. A telephone-to-sound card connector, comprising:

a first extension adapted for connecting to a microphone and speaker of the telephone;

a second extension adapted for connecting to microphone and speaker circuitry in the telephone, wherein the telephone speaker is connected to the speaker circuitry by a speaker line, and the microphone is connected to the microphone circuitry by a microphone line, through the first and second extensions; and

a third extension adapted for connecting to both of microphone and speaker ports of a sound card expansion card;

wherein both of the microphone and speaker ports of the sound card are connected to the speaker line between the telephone speaker and the telephone speaker circuitry, such that analog audio may be provided to the telephone speaker line from a computer bus through the sound card, and may be provided to the computer bus from the telephone.

5. The connector of claim 4 comprising resistors installed in one or more of the lines within the connector to protect drive circuitry in both the telephone and the sound card.

6. The connector of claim 4 comprising amplification circuitry in the connecting lines within the connector.

7. A telephony call center, comprising:

a first agent station having a computer platform connected to a local area network (LAN); and

a second agent station connected to the LAN and having a computer platform and a telephone, wherein the computer platform is equipped with a sound card, the sound card having a microphone port for audio input and a speaker port for audio output, and wherein the telephone has a speaker, speaker circuitry for driving the speaker via a speaker line connecting the speaker circuitry and the speaker, a microphone, and microphone circuitry for receiving and processing audio input from the microphone; and

control software at the first and second agent stations;

wherein the telephone at the second agent station has the speaker line connected to both of the microphone port and the speaker port of the sound card, and the control software enables a person at the first agent station to join in to, as well as listen to, a telephone conversation conducted on the telephone at the second agent station, audio being supplied from the telephone via the telephone speaker line to the sound card microphone port, thence to an internal bus of the computer platform at the second agent station, thence via the LAN to the first agent station, and from the first agent station via the LAN to the computer platform at the second agent station, thence to the internal bus at the second agent station, thence to the sound card, thence to the telephone via the sound card speaker port.

8. The call center of claim 7 wherein the control code further comprises file-sharing code, whereby the person at the first agent station may, on a display monitor of the computer platform at the first agent station, also view and interact with a display on a display monitor at the second agent station.

9. The call center of claim 7 wherein the control code comprises code enabling telephone conversations on the telephone at the second agent station to be recorded at one or both of the first agent station and the second agent station.

10. The call center of claim 7 further comprising a data server connected to the LAN, and wherein the control code comprises code adapted for archiving telephone conversations on the telephone at the first agent station in a database at the data server.

11. The call center of claim 7 further comprising a transaction log facility, whereby transactions at the second call center are logged, and wherein saved voice files are associated with logged transactions, such that voice files associated with transactions may be retrieved and reviewed.

12. A method for participating in activities of an agent at a call center agent station having a telephone and a first computer, comprising steps of:

(a) connecting a speaker line of the telephone to both of a microphone input and a speaker output of a sound card coupled to an internal bus of the first computer;

(b) converting analog audio signals from the telephone speaker line to digital audio data in the sound card;

(c) providing the digital audio data to an internal computer bus at the first computer by the sound card;

(d) sharing the digital audio data from the first computer to a second computer via a network;

(e) converting the digital audio data at the second computer back to analog audio signals; and

(f) using the analog audio signals at the second computer to drive a speaker;

(g) converting analog audio input at a speaker at the second computer to digital audio data;

(h) providing the digital data thus converted to the sound card at the first computer via the network;

(i) converting the digital audio data received at the sound card from the second computer to analog audio signals;

(j) using the analog audio signals thus converted to drive a speaker in the telephone connected to the speaker line, wherein a person at the second computer is enabled to monitor and interact in a conversation on the telephone connected to the sound card at the first computer.

13. The method of claim 12 comprising an additional step for storing the digital audio data as a data file on a digital storage device accessible by the first computer.

14. The method of claim 12 comprising an additional step for storing the digital data as a digital file at a database server connected on the network.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the network is a local area network.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein the network is a wide area network.

17. The method of claim 12 further comprising steps for sharing files between the first computer and the second computer over the network, such that the person at the second computer may view and interact with a display on a display monitor at the first computer.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein, in step (d), audio data is shared according to an ITU H.323 standard protocol.