Universal state-aware communications

• US 6,970,547 B2
• Filed: 05/12/2003
• Issued: 11/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Teletech Customer Care Management Incorporated (TTEC Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Onstate Communications Corp. (TTEC Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gechter, Jerry, Andrews, Wayne
• Primary Examiner(s): Matar, Ahmad F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Agdeppa, Hector
• Application Number:
  US10/436,546
• Publication Number:
  US 20040228469A1
• Time in Patent Office: 932 Days
• Field of Search: 379/93.01, 379/106.01, 379/93.23, 379/265.01, 379/266.1, 709/204, 709/205, 709/206
• US Class Current: 379/210.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0805 by checking availability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42093 Notifying the calling party of information on the called or connected party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42365 Presence services providing information on the willingness to communicate or the ability to communicate in terms of media capability or network connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5232 Call distribution algorithms

Abstract

A communications system for general business environments that exploits knowledge of user state to provide advantages of efficiency and control for individual users and for the business. The communications system also provides particular advantages in environments where users have multiple communication devices and for communications of a business with external parties. In other aspects, the communication system provides features of application flexibility and system fault-tolerance with broad applicability to communication systems.

Claims

1. A system for establishing communications between users comprising

one or more communication devices for each said user, and

a controller that

monitors the states of said users,

receives communication requests for the establishment of a communication between two or more said users,

establishes a requested communication among two or more said users when said two or more said users are each in an appropriate state for participating in said communication,

maintains waiting communications data associated with communication requests waiting to be established, referred to as waiting communications,

sends a waiting communication notification with information about an addition, deletion, or change to the waiting communications or other change to the waiting communications data to at least one party that did not request the addition, deletion or change,

responds to a waiting communication management request from a recipient of a waiting communications notification by modifying the waiting communications data;

and

responds to a change of state for a user by selecting at most one waiting communication that can be established because the corresponding users are each in an appropriate state for participating in the communication, said selecting based on the current waiting communications data.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein one of said requests for the establishment of a communication includes specification of an appropriate state for one of said users to participate in the communication.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein said controller monitors the states of said users by receiving state change messages requesting or indicating a change in the state of said users.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein said controller monitors the states of said users by polling for state data for said users.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein said communication requests can be originated by users.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein said communications requests can be originated by parties who are not users.

12. The system claim 1 wherein the states of said users include an Available state in which a user is willing to communicate with another user.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein a user can be in the Available state independent of whether said user is currently communicating with another user.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the states of said users include a state that is independent of whether the user is currently communicating with another user.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein a user can be in the Available state independent of whether said user is currently communicating with another user.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein said waiting communications notification is sent automatically to a recipient.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein said waiting communications notification is sent in response to a request from a recipient.

18. The system of claim 1 wherein said recipient of a waiting communications notification is a user.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein said recipient of a waiting communications notification is a person who is not a user.

20. The system of claim 1 wherein said recipient of a waiting communications notification is a computer application.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein said recipient of a waiting communications notification is a Customer Relationship Management system.

22. The system of claim 1 wherein said recipient receives the waiting communications notification directly from said controller.

23. The system of claim 1 wherein said controller receives the waiting communications management request directly from said recipient.

24. The system of claim 1 wherein said recipient receives the waiting communications notification from another party based on a waiting communications notification received directly from said controller.

25. The system of claim 1 wherein said controller receives the waiting communications management request from another party based on a waiting communications management request received directly from said recipient.

26. The system of claim 1 wherein the waiting communications notification provides the length of time a communication request has spent waiting to be established.

27. The system of claim 1 wherein said modifying includes a deletion of a communication request that is waiting to be established.

28. The system of claim 1 wherein said modifying includes a change to a communication request that is waiting to be established.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein said change includes a change to one or more of the users in the communication request.

30. The system of claim 28 wherein said change includes a change to the appropriate state for a user to participate in a communication.

31. The system of claim 28 wherein said change includes a change to the media or the subject of the communication request.

32. The system of claim 1 wherein said modifying deactivates a communication request, so that it cannot be chosen by said selecting, or activates a deactivated communication request so that it can be chosen.

33. The system of claim 1 wherein said modifying sets a corporate priority order among the communication requests waiting to be established, and said selecting is responsive to the corporate priority order to determine the order in which communications are established.

34. The system of claim 33 wherein only some parties and not others are permitted to set a corporate priority order.

35. The system of claim 1 wherein said recipient is a user and said modifying only involves communication requests for said user.

36. The system of claim 35 wherein said modifying sets a user priority order for call requests involving the user, and said selecting is responsive to said user priority order to determine the order in which communications are established for the user.

37. The system of claim 1 wherein said controller further receives a user state change request from a user and responds to the user state change request by sending user state information indicating the requested change of state has occurred for the user.

38. The system of claim 37 wherein said controller responds to the change of state request from the user by establishing a communication instead of indicating the requested change of state has occurred for the user.

39. The system of claim 1 wherein the controller includes a reporting interface that provides historical information on the handling of communication requests by the system and said historical information provides the duration of the waiting time before a requested communication was established.

40. The system of claim 1 wherein the controller includes an administrative interface and the logic for selecting can be modified by said administrative interface.

41. The system of claim 1 wherein logic for selecting is specified by logical links between basic operations and the links and basic operations are defined in a database.

42. The system of claim 1 wherein said communication is a real-time communication medium such as voice.

43. The system of claim 1 wherein said communication is a non-real-time communication medium such as email.

44. The system of claim 1 wherein said communication involves an Instant Messaging system.

45. The system of claim 1 wherein said communication involves the Public Switched Telephone network.

46. The system of claim 1 wherein the state of a user is monitored using an Instant Messaging system, a CRM system, a SIP network, or a GPS system.

47. The system of claim 1 wherein the state of a user is monitored using a Web server or a Web service.

50. The system of claim 47 wherein said selection logic is defined by user-editable scripts.

2. A system for establishing communications between users comprising

one or more communication devices for each said user, and

a controller that

monitors the states of users,

receives communication requests for the establishment of a communication between two or more said users,

enables one of said users to set conditions under which communications are to be established with said user,

establishes a requested communication among two or more said users according to said conditions set by said users and when said two or more said users are each in an appropriate state for participating in said communication,

maintains waiting communications data associated with communication requests waiting to be established, referred to as waiting communications,

sends a waiting communication notification with information about an addition, deletion, or change to the waiting communications or other change to the waiting communications data to at least one party that did not request the addition, deletion or change,

responds to a waiting communication management request from a recipient of a waiting communications notification by modifying the waiting communications data;

and

responds to a change of state for a user by selecting at most one waiting communication that can be established because the corresponding users are each in an appropriate state for participating in the communication, said selecting based on the current waiting communications data.

48. The system of claim 2 wherein said conditions are set by modifying said waiting communications data.

49. The system of claim 2 wherein said conditions are set by specifying selection logic for said selecting.

51. The system of claim 2 wherein said conditions are set by specifying priorities for callers or caller attributes to be used by said selecting.

3. A system for establishing communications between users comprising

one or more communication devices for each said user, and

a controller that

monitors the states of said users,

receives communication requests for the establishment of a communication between two or more said users,

receives conditions under which communications are to be established among said users from a system administrator,

establishes a requested communication among two or more said users according to said conditions set by said administrator and said two or more said users are each in an appropriate state for participating in said communication,

maintains waiting communications data associated with communication requests waiting to be established, referred to as waiting communications,

sends a waiting communication notification with information about an addition, deletion, or change to the waiting communications or other change to the waiting communications data to at least one party that did not request the addition, deletion or change,

responds to a waiting communication management request from a recipient of a waiting communications notification by modifying the waiting communications data;

and

responds to a change of state for a user by selecting at most one waiting communication that can be established because the corresponding users are each in an appropriate state for participating in the communication, said selecting based on the current waiting communications data.

52. The system of claim 3 wherein said administrative conditions are set by modifying said waiting communications data.

53. The system of claim 3 wherein said administrative conditions are set by specifying selection logic for said selecting.

54. The system of claim 53 wherein said selection logic is defined by administrative scripts.

55. The system of claim 3 wherein said administrative conditions are set by specifying priorities for organizations to be used by said selecting.

56. The system of claim 3 wherein said administrator is a user.

57. The system of claim 3 wherein said administrator is not a user.

4. A system for establishing communications between users involved in a project comprising

one or more communication devices for each said user, and

a controller that

monitors the states of said users and project states relating to said project,

receives communication requests for the establishment of a communication between two or more said users,

establishes a requested communication among two or more said users based upon the state of at least one said user and said project states,

maintains waiting communications data associated with communication requests waiting to be established, referred to as waiting communications,

sends a waiting communication notification with information about an addition, deletion, or change to the waiting communications or other change to the waiting communications data to at least one party that did not request the addition, deletion or change,

responds to a waiting communication management request from a recipient of a waiting communications notification by modifying the waiting communications data;

and

responds to a change of state for a user by selecting at most one waiting communication that can be established based upon the state of at least one said user and said project states, said selecting based on the current waiting communications data.

58. The system of claim 4 wherein said controller responds to a change in project state by initiating a communication request.

59. The system of claim 4 wherein said controller responds to a change in project state by setting a corporate priority for a communication request, where said corporate priority is used by said selecting to determine the order in which communications are established.

60. The system of claim 4 wherein said controller responds to a change in project state by changing the state of a user.

61. The system of claim 4 wherein said controller establishes said requested communication based upon the states of said two or more said users and said project states.

62. The system of claim 4 wherein said controller responds to a change in project state by deleting a communication request that is waiting to be established.

63. The system of claim 4 wherein said controller responds to a change in project state by modifying a communication request that is waiting to be established.

64. The system of claim 63 wherein said controller responds to a change in project state by changing the users involved in a communication request that is waiting to be established.

65. The system of claim 63 wherein said controller responds to a change in project state by changing an appropriate state for a user to participate in a communication.

66. The system of claim 63 wherein said controller responds to a change in project state by changing the media or the subject of a communication request.

67. The system of claim 4 wherein said controller responds to a change in project state by deactivating a communication request, so that it cannot be chosen by said selecting, or by activating a deactivated communication request so that it can be chosen.

68. The system of claim 4 wherein said controller responds to a change in project state by modifying the waiting communications data.

5. A system for establishing communications between users comprising

one or more communication devices for each said user, at least some said users having more than one said communication device, and

a controller that

monitors the states of said users on their communication devices,

receives communication requests for the establishment of a communication between two or more said users,

establishes a requested communication when said two or more said users are each in an appropriate state on an appropriate device for participating in said communication,

maintains waiting communications data associated with communication requests waiting to be established, referred to as waiting communications,

sends a waiting communication notification with information about an addition, deletion, or change to the waiting communications or other change to the waiting communications data to at least one party that did not request the addition, deletion or change,

responds to a waiting communication management request from a recipient of a waiting communications notification by modifying the waiting communications data;

and

responds to a change of state for a user by selecting at most one waiting communication that can be established because the corresponding users are each in an appropriate state on an appropriate device for participating in the communication, said selecting based on the current waiting communications data.

69. The system of claim 5 wherein said selecting further includes device selection logic to determine which user devices are appropriate for said requested communication and said device selection logic depends on the states of at least one of said two or more said users on their devices.

6. A system to establish communications between users comprising

one or more communication devices for each said user,

one or more communication requesters, each said communication requester able to request the establishment of a communication for a requesting user with one or more additional users,

a controller that

monitors the states of said users,

receives communication requests for the establishment of a communication from said communication requesters,

establishes a requested communication between said requesting user and said additional users when said requesting user is in an appropriate state,

maintains waiting communications data associated with communication requests waiting to be established, referred to as waiting communications,

sends a waiting communication notification with information about an addition, deletion, or change to the waiting communications or other change to the waiting communications data to at least one party that did not request the addition, deletion or change,

responds to a waiting communication management request from a recipient of a waiting communications notification by modifying the waiting communications data;

and

responds to a change of state for a requesting user by selecting at most one waiting communication that can be established because the requesting user is in an appropriate state for participating in the communication, said selecting based on the current waiting communications data.

70. The system of claim 6 wherein the waiting communications notification provides the length of time a communication request has spent waiting to be established.

71. The system of claim 6 wherein said modifying includes a deletion of a communication request that is waiting to be established.

72. The system of claim 6 wherein said modifying includes a change to a communication request that is waiting to be established.

73. The system of claim 72 wherein said change includes a change to one or more of the users in the communication request.

74. The system of claim 72 wherein said change includes a change to the appropriate state for the requesting user to participate in a communication.

75. The system of claim 72 wherein said change includes a change to the media or the subject of the communication request.

76. The system of claim 6 wherein said modifying deactivates a communication request, so that it cannot be chosen by said selecting, or activates a deactivated communication request so that it can be chosen.

77. The system of claim 6 wherein said modifying sets a corporate priority order among the communication requests waiting to be established, and said selecting is responsive to the corporate priority order to determine the order in which communications are established.

78. The system of claim 6 wherein said requests for the establishment of communication include specification of said appropriate state for the requesting user.

79. The system of claim 6 wherein said waiting communication notification provides historical information on the handling of communication requests by the system and said historical information provides the duration of the pending time before a requested communication was established.

80. The system of claim 6 wherein the states of the requesting user include a state that is independent of whether the user is currently communicating with another user.