Method and apparatus enabling voice-based management of state and interaction of a remote knowledge worker in a contact center environment
First Claim
1. A network system for enabling voice interaction between communications-center applications and human agents remote from the center comprising:
- a primary server connected to the network the server controlling at least one routing point used by the center;
a secondary server connected to the network the secondary server for generating and serving voice extensible markup language;
a voice gateway associated with the secondary server, the gateway for executing voice extensible markup language and recognizing speech input; and
a software platform based in the primary server and distributed in part as a server application to the secondary server, the software suite functioning as a data transformation interface between the center applications and the gateway;
characterized in that the remote agents report state information over the network to the center using speech, the speech recognized and text rendered at the gateway, the text transformed to one or more formats understood by the primary server and certain ones of the center applications and, wherein data sourced from center applications destined to remote agents is provided and incorporated to one or more VXML scripts at the secondary server, the scripts executed by the gateway, the gateway connecting to voice-capable devices used by the remote agents over the network, the scripts played as synthesized voice media.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A network system for enabling voice interaction between communications-center applications and human agents remote from the center has a primary server connected to the network the server controlling at least one routing point used by the center, a secondary server connected to the network the secondary server for generating and serving voice extensible markup language, a voice gateway associated with the secondary server, the gateway for executing voice extensible markup language and recognizing speech input, and a software platform based in the primary server and distributed in part as a server application to the secondary server, the software suite functioning as a data transformation interface between the center applications and the gateway. In a preferred use agents and applications communicate bi-directionally using VXML.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A network system for enabling voice interaction between communications-center applications and human agents remote from the center comprising:
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a primary server connected to the network the server controlling at least one routing point used by the center; a secondary server connected to the network the secondary server for generating and serving voice extensible markup language; a voice gateway associated with the secondary server, the gateway for executing voice extensible markup language and recognizing speech input; and a software platform based in the primary server and distributed in part as a server application to the secondary server, the software suite functioning as a data transformation interface between the center applications and the gateway; characterized in that the remote agents report state information over the network to the center using speech, the speech recognized and text rendered at the gateway, the text transformed to one or more formats understood by the primary server and certain ones of the center applications and, wherein data sourced from center applications destined to remote agents is provided and incorporated to one or more VXML scripts at the secondary server, the scripts executed by the gateway, the gateway connecting to voice-capable devices used by the remote agents over the network, the scripts played as synthesized voice media. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for receiving at a communications center routing point state information, the information reported vocally from a non-CTI-enabled agent telephone remote from the center and routing a subsequent telephony event and optionally, event-related data, from the routing point to the remote agent'"'"'s telephone based on at least the reported state information and optional caller interaction comprising steps of:
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(a) connecting to and interacting with a predetermined telephone number dialed from the agent telephone, the number registered to a gateway application, the interaction therewith comprising at minimum prompted vocalization of the agent state reported thereto; (b) recognizing at the gateway the vocalization of state information and populating one or more data fields of a VXML script with a text version of the state information reported; (c) transforming the language of the script to one or more languages understood at the routing point rendering the information available to the routing point; (d) receiving an incoming event destined for the remote agent at the routing point and optionally, interacting with the caller from the routing point to obtain event related data; (e) routing the event to the agent telephone, simultaneously making the event related data available to a VXML-enabled server, (f) transforming the event related data to a form useable in one or more data fields of a VXML script; and (g) establishing a telephone connection to the remote agent, executing the script once connected. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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Specification