Methods, systems and computer program products for automatic task distribution

• US 6,681,010 B1
• Filed: 09/01/1998
• Issued: 01/20/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/1998
• 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: Anderson, David H., Germain, Shelley St. Phillips, Lamb, Scott Charles, DiAdamo, Giuseppe, Servilla, Danilo P., Buskirk, Martin C., Madrid, Richard J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsang; Fan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Escalante; Ovidio
• Application Number:
  US09/144,660
• Time in Patent Office: 1,967 Days
• Field of Search: 379/258,265,265.01,265.02,265.03,265.04,265.05,265.09,265.11,265.13,266.01
• US Class Current: 379/265.11
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet

Abstract

Methods, systems and computer program products are provided which automatically distribute tasks associated with a telephone system and tasks associated with a computer system between a plurality of agents tracking ACD telephone status of the plurality of agents and tracking computer status of the plurality of agents. When a request for a computer task is received, an agent of the plurality of agents is assigned to the computer task corresponding to the received request based on the ACD telephone status and the computer status of the agent of the plurality of agents.

Claims

1. A method for distributing tasks associated with a telephone system and tasks associated with a computer system between a plurality of agents, the method comprising:

maintaining a list of the ACD telephone status of at least one agent of the plurality of agents which is logged onto a telephone switch with automatic call distribution (ACD), wherein the list of telephone status of the agent corresponds to the status of the agent with respect to the telephone switch, and maintaining a copy of a call queue associated with the telephone switch;

maintaining a list of the computer status of at least one agent of the plurality of agents which is logged onto a virtual ACD, wherein the list of computer status of the agent corresponds to whether the agent is currently assigned to a computer task, and maintaining a copy of a computer task request queue associated with the virtual ACD;

receiving a computer task request having associated with it characteristics for an agent to be assigned the requested computer task;

generating a list of available agents from the plurality of agents;

determining if an agent of the plurality of agents is available to accept a computer task;

determining if the agent of the plurality of agents is at least one of logged off the telephone switch and available to take a call from the telephone switch;

adding the agent of the plurality of agents to the list of available agents if the agent is available to accept a virtual ACD task and is at least one of logged off the telephone switch and available to take a call from the telephone switch;

selecting an agent from the list of available agents having agent characteristics corresponding to the characteristics associated with the received request; and

assigning the received computer task request to the selected agent.

2. A system for distributing tasks associated with a telephone system and tasks associated with a computer system between a plurality of agents, comprising:

means for maintaining a list of the ACD telephone status of at least one agent of the plurality of agents which is logged onto a telephone switch with automatic call distribution (ACD), wherein the list of ACD telephone status of the agent corresponds to the status of the agent with respect to the telephone switch;

means for maintaining a copy of a call queue associated with the telephone switch;

means for receiving a request for a computer task, wherein the computer task comprises a task other than PSTN or IP Telephony communications;

means for receiving a computer task request, wherein the computer task request has associated with it characteristics of an agent to be assigned the requested computer task;

means for determining if an agent of the plurality of agents is available to accept a computer task;

means for determining if the agent of the plurality of agents is at least one of logged off the telephone switch and available to take a call from the telephone switch; and

means for adding the agent of the plurality of agents to the list of available agents if the agent is available to accept a virtual ACD task and is at least one of logged off the telephone switch and available to take a call from the telephone switch;

means for selecting an agent from the list of available agents having agent characteristics corresponding to the characteristics associated with the received request; and

means for assigning the received computer task request to the selected agent.

3. A computer program product for distributing tasks associated with a telephone system and tasks associated with a computer system between a plurality of agents, comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code means embodied in said medium, said computer-readable program code means comprising;

computer readable program code means for maintaining a list of the ACD telephone status of at lease one agent of the plurality of agents which is logged onto a telephone switch with automatic call distribution (ACD), wherein the list of ACD telephone status of the agent corresponds to the status of the agent with respect to the telephone switch; and

computer readable program code means for maintaining a copy of a call queue associated with the telephone switch;

computer readable program code means for maintaining a list of the computer status of at least one agent of the plurality of agents which is logged onto a virtual ACD, wherein the list of computer status of the agent corresponds to whether the agent is currently assigned to a computer task;

computer readable program code means for maintaining a copy of a computer task request queue associated with the virtual ACID;

computer readable program code means for receiving a computer task request, wherein the computer task request has associated with it characteristics of an agent to be assigned the requested computer task;

computer readable program code means for determining if an agent of the plurality of agents is available to accept a computer task;

computer readable program code means for determining if the agent of the plurality of agents is at least one of logged off the telephone switch and available to take a call from the telephone switch; and

computer readable program code means for adding the agent of the plurality of agents to a list of available agents if the agent is available to accept a virtual ACID task and is at least one of logged off the telephone switch and available to take a call from the telephone switch;

computer readable program code means for selecting an agent from the list of available agents having agent characteristics corresponding to the characteristics associated with the received request; and

computer readable program code means for assigning the received computer task request to the selected agent.