Point-of-presence call center management system
First Claim
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1. A telephone call handling system comprising:
- a point of presence call center communicatively coupled to receive one or more inbound calls via a local telephone network and to queue said one or more inbound calls pending transfer to an automated call distributor that also queues inbound calls in a queue and distributes the inbound calls in sequence to human operators as human operators become available, the point of presence call center further being communicatively coupled to a data network separate from the local telephone network over which the point of presence call center transmits proxy call requests corresponding to the one or more inbound calls; and
a computer telephony server coupled to the automated call distributor, and to a second telephone network, and configured to receive proxy call requests from the data network, the computer telephony server being configured to (i) receive the proxy call requests from the data network, (ii) insert, for each proxy call request, a corresponding proxy call in the queue, and (iii) notify the point of presence call center via the data network when the proxy call has advanced to a threshold point in the queue.
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Abstract
A point-of-presence (POP) call center system capable of answering, servicing, queuing and routing of calls at local points of presence to reduce communications costs and enhance operational efficiency for toll-free inbound call centers. The POP call center system includes a set of point-of-presence call center gateways distributed at points of presence close to the point of call origination that are connected by a virtual private network to premises call center gateways at business locations where the call centers reside.
234 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A telephone call handling system comprising:
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a point of presence call center communicatively coupled to receive one or more inbound calls via a local telephone network and to queue said one or more inbound calls pending transfer to an automated call distributor that also queues inbound calls in a queue and distributes the inbound calls in sequence to human operators as human operators become available, the point of presence call center further being communicatively coupled to a data network separate from the local telephone network over which the point of presence call center transmits proxy call requests corresponding to the one or more inbound calls; and
a computer telephony server coupled to the automated call distributor, and to a second telephone network, and configured to receive proxy call requests from the data network, the computer telephony server being configured to (i) receive the proxy call requests from the data network, (ii) insert, for each proxy call request, a corresponding proxy call in the queue, and (iii) notify the point of presence call center via the data network when the proxy call has advanced to a threshold point in the queue. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12)
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9. The telephone call handling system of 8 wherein the IP telephony gateway server is configured to translate traditional circuit switched voice communications to packet switched communications and to transport voice over long distance using a number of IP networks.
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13. A telephone call handling system comprising:
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a number of point of presence call centers, each communicatively coupled to receive one or more inbound calls via respective local telephone networks and to queue said one or more inbound calls pending transfer to an automated call distributor that also queues inbound calls in a queue and distributes the inbound calls in sequence to human operators as human operators become available, each of the point of presence call centers further being communicatively coupled to one or more data networks separate from the local telephone networks; and
a computer telephony server coupled to the automated call distributor, a second telephone network, and the data networks, the computer telephony server being configured to (i) receive the proxy call requests from the data networks, (ii) insert, for each of the proxy call requests a corresponding proxy call in the queue, and (iii) notify a first one of the point of presence call centers that transmitted a specific first one of the proxy call requests via one of the data networks when a corresponding first proxy call has advanced to a threshold point in the queue. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification