Customer service maintenance automation

• US 6,957,257 B1
• Filed: 08/29/2000
• Issued: 10/18/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Buffalo, Clarence W., Centofante, Frances, Chao, Chin-Wang, Hou, Brian T., Kolmodin, Christian P., Lin, Shu-Chih, Olschwang, Elliot P., Teixeira, Fernando
• Primary Examiner(s): Follansbee, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEE, PHILIP C
• Application Number:
  US09/649,974
• Time in Patent Office: 1,876 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/223, 709/217, 709/200, 714/4, 714/25, 379/9, 379/9.03, 379/10.01
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and system for automatically providing infrastructure maintenance for a customer in response to a customer form/report/ticket in a communications network that includes a core communications (voice and data communications) service and an Access Provider service. Typically, the system includes a Work-Flow Manager and a maintenance program scheduler. The Work-Flow Manager is arranged to trigger, for each customer form/report/ticket, each automatic software program/engine of a plurality of automatic software programs/engines in response to an associated milestone event for the customer form/report/ticket. The maintenance program scheduler is coupled to the Work-Flow Manager and is used for invoking at least one predetermined maintenance software program based upon predetermined criteria being met by the form/report/ticket. The method includes the steps of: generating a ticket/customer repair request regarding a problem; diagnosing the problem; testing to determine whether the problem has been fixed; generating clearance and analysis codes; notifying the customer that the system has repaired the problem; and closing out the ticket/repair request upon successful repair of the problem.

Claims

1. An automatic customer maintenance system for automatically providing infrastructure maintenance in response to a customer form/report/ticket in a communications network that includes a core communications service and an Access Provider service, comprising:

a Work-Flow Manager, arranged to automatically trigger, for each customer form/report/ticket, at least one automatic diagnosis software program from a plurality of automatic diagnosis software programs without human intervention for automatically generating a ticket/customer repair request regarding a problem and diagnosing the problem by using the at least one automatic diagnosis software program and using an automatic linking program for automatically linking and correlating the customer form/report/ticket with another ticket for problem occurring in a higher level facility/equipment; and

a Maintenance Program Scheduler, coupled to the Work-Flow Manager, for invoking at least one predetermined maintenance software program based upon predetermined criteria being met by the form/report/ticket, and the results of the at least one automatic diagnosis software program, for automatically testing to determine whether the problem has been fixed, automatically generating clearance information and analysis codes on the ticket, automatically notifying the customer that the system has repaired the problem and automatically closing out the ticket/customer repair request upon successful repair of the problem, without human intervention.

2. The automatic customer maintenance system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of automatic diagnosis software programs include:

an automatic diagnosing program for providing automatic diagnosis;

an automatic linking program for automatically linking the customer with an area to solve a problem;

an automatic notification program for automatically notifying a maintenance technician when the problem requires further analysis;

an automatic referral program for automatically referring the problem to the Access Provider service via a first gateway;

an automatic preparation for clearance program for automatically populating clearance information and analysis codes on the ticket based on a diagnosis conclusion sent by the Access Provider service;

an automatic progress reporting program for automatically determining when a status is owed to the customer;

an automatic verification program for automatically verifying if the problem has been fixed;

an automatic customer notification program for automatically conveying clearance information for the customer; and

an automatic closing program for automatically checking for tickets that have been conveyed to the customer.

3. The automatic customer maintenance system of claim 1 wherein the at least one predetermined maintenance software program for the maintenance program scheduler include:

an automatic progress reporting program; and

an automatic closing program.

4. The automatic customer maintenance system of claim 1 wherein the Access Provider service is implemented using a second gateway for access that is coupled to a data communication network of the communications network.

5. The automatic customer maintenance system of claim 1 wherein the customer form/report/ticket is initiated by an agent in a Customer Care Platform that is coupled to a data communication network that delivers the customer form/report/ticket to a Business Maintenance Platform for processing without human intervention in accordance with at least the automatic software programs.

6. The automatic customer maintenance system of claim 5 wherein the Business Maintenance Platform includes:

a Database for storing circuit and customer information;

a Ticket Unit for processing the customer form/report/ticket;

a Test Unit for testing a selected infrastructure portion of the communications network;

an Alarm Unit for recording problems that the system detects in the network; and

an Event Unit having a Work-Flow Manager and a plurality of computer programs/engines, wherein the Event Unit is used for monitoring events and initiating activities based on events.

7. The automatic customer maintenance system of claim 1 wherein the Business Maintenance Platform is coupled in parallel to a Data Communication Network, Service Provisioning Systems, a Work Management System, Network Management Systems, a Billing System, and a Gateway.

8. A method for automatically providing, without human intervention, infrastructure maintenance in response to a customer form/report/ticket in a communication network that includes a core communications service and an Access Provider service, comprising the steps of:

automatically generating a ticket/customer repair request regarding a problem;

automatically diagnosing the problem by using at least one automatic diagnosis software program and using an automatic linking program for automatically linking and correlating the customer form/report/ticket with another ticket for problem occurring in a higher level facility/equipment;

automatically testing to determine whether the problem has been fixed;

automatically generating clearance information and analysis codes on the ticket;

automatically notifying the customer that the system has repaired the problem; and

automatically closing out the ticket/customer repair request upon successful repair of the problem.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein generating a ticket/customer repair request regarding a problem is accomplished by a customer and the ticket is transmitted to a Business Maintenance Platform for automatic infrastructure maintenance processing.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein generating a ticket/customer repair request regarding a problem is accomplished by an agent of a Customer Care Platform and transmitted to a Business Maintenance Platform for automatic infrastructure maintenance processing.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein testing to determine whether the problem has been fixed is accomplished by an automatic verification program for automatically verifying if the problem has been fixed.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein generating clearance and analysis codes is accomplished by an automatic preparation for clearance program for automatically populating clearance information and analysis codes on the ticket based on a diagnosis conclusion sent by the Access Provider service.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein notifying the customer that the system has repaired the problem is accomplished by an automatic customer notification program for automatically conveying clearance information for the customer that displays a circuit trouble description to the customer via e-maintenance, a web-based system that provides customers direct access to view/update their trouble ticket, and by an Interactive Voice Response system.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein closing out the ticket/repair request upon successful repair of the problem is accomplished by an automatic closing program for automatically checking for tickets that have been conveyed to the customer.

15. The method of claim 8 wherein an automatic notification program for automatically notifying a maintenance technician when the problem requires further analysis is utilized when a trouble ticket is sent to a maintenance technician as soon as the problem is diagnosed as a telephone service/core communications service problem requires manual intervention.

16. The method of claim 8 wherein an automatic progress reporting program for automatically determining when a status is owed to the customer is utilized to implement an Interactive Voice Response system that automatically phones the customer periodically and informs him/her/an answering machine of the current status of his/her ticket.

17. The method of claim 8 wherein an automatic verification program for automatically verifying if the problem has been fixed is utilized to run tests and perform alarm checks to determine if an Access Provider has fixed the problem that is being reported as cleared or a manual intervention has occurred to solve the problem.

18. A method for automatically providing infrastructure maintenance in response to a customer form/report/ticket in a communications network that includes a core communications service and an Access Provider service, comprising the steps of utilizing, without human intervention, software programs for automatically:

preparing, by one of a customer and an agent, a customer form/report/ticket concerning a circuit problem and sending the customer form/report/ticket to a Business Maintenance Platform;

determining whether the circuit problem reported ahs been caused by a higher level facility/equipment/lower level circuit problem, and where the circuit problem relates to a higher level facility/equipment, automatically preparing a second ticket for the higher level facility/equipment and correlating the customer form/report/ticket and the second ticket with respect to updates;

diagnosing the circuit problem and, where the circuit problem has been fixed, initiating clearing of the ticket, and where the problem exists in the Access Provider'"'"'s portion of the circuit, automatically sending an electronic referral to an Access Provider, and determining that manual intervention by a maintenance technician is needed, sending an electronic message to the maintenance technician alerting the maintenance technician to the need for repair;

sending, upon the Access Provider'"'"'s/the maintenance technician'"'"'s completion of the repair, a message requesting verification that the problem has been fixed;

testing and performing alarm checks to determine if the circuit problem has been repaired;

when the circuit problem has been repaired, pre-populating clearance information and analysis codes on the customer form/report/ticket to indicate that the circuit problem has been repaired;

providing an update to the customer, by one of an interactive voice response system and an email, indicating that the problem is fixed; and

when the customer confirms that the circuit problem is fixed, closing out the ticket.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein, following clearing, alternatively, an email (EM) is sent automatically to update the customer;

and when the customer indicates that the problem is fixed, automatically closing out the customer form/report/ticket.

20. The method of claim 18 including automatically sending an electronic message to the Access Provider to indicate that the public switched network service accepts closure after verification that the circuit is working correctly.

21. The method of claim 18 including automatically reporting upon one of the following:

a predetermined time having elapsed, an initiation by the automatic referral, an initiation by the automatic notification and an indication that a report on progress due is needed.