Method and apparatus for extended management of state and interaction of a remote knowledge worker from a contact center

• US 7,373,405 B2
• Filed: 03/01/2005
• Issued: 05/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/1998
• Status: Expired

• Current Assignee: Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Incorporated (Genesys Cloud Services Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Incorporated (Genesys Cloud Services Incorporated)
• Inventors: Deryugin, Vladimir N., Anisimov, Nikolay, Makagon, Petr, Ryabchun, Andriy, Giacomini, Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu; Le Hien
• Application Number:
  US11/070,898
• Publication Number:
  US 20050154792A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,169 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/230, 709/203, 709/246, 379/265.09, 379/265.03, 379/265.11, 379/265.06, 707/10, 370/352, 370/465, 705/7, 705/8, 704/260
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1026 at the edge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/103 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1036 at the edge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/104 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1043 Gateway controllers, e.g. media gateway control protocol [MGCP] controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4038 with floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/085 specially adapted for interworking of IP-based networks with other networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 : Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/203 : composed of PSTN and data network, e.g. the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2218 : Call detail recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42221 : Conversation recording systems at the subscriber's set H04M1/656
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42323 : PBX's with CTI arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4234 : Remote access to features of PBX or home telephone systems-teleworking in a PBX
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 : comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5125 : with remote located operators
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5166 : in combination with interactive voice response systems or voice portals, e.g. as front-ends
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 : Call or contact centers supervision arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5183 : Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 : interacting with the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 : with call distribution or queueing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 : Operator skill based call distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13034 : A/D conversion, code compression/expansion
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13072 : Sequence circuits for call signaling, ACD systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13093 : Personal computer, PC
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/1322 : PBX
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13345 : Intelligent networks, SCP
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0029 : Provisions for intelligent networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/64 : Distributing or queueing

Abstract

A network system for managing remote agents of a communication center includes a primary server connected to the network the primary server controlling at least one routing point; one or more secondary servers distributed on the network and accessible to the remote agents, the secondary server or servers having data access to agent computing platforms and communication peripherals; and, a software suite distributed in part to the secondary server or servers and distributed in part to one or more agents computing platforms and peripherals, the software suite including protocol for reporting agent status data. The system monitors agents computing platforms and peripherals for activity state through the one or more secondary servers whereupon the one or more secondary servers exchange control messaging and event related data using ISCC protocols with the primary server over the network for intelligent routing purposes.

Claims

1. A system for managing remote agents for a communication center comprising:

a network-based facility controlling at least one routing point used by the communication center, including functions accessible to the agents and having data access to agent computing platforms and communication peripherals; and

a software suite distributed in part to the network-based facility and in part to one or more agents computing platforms and peripherals, the software suite including protocol for reporting agent status data;

wherein the agent'"'"'s computing platforms and peripherals are monitored for activity state by the network-based facility exchanging control messages and event related data.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the network is the Internet network and the routing point is one of or a combination of a telephony switch, a service control point, and an Internet Protocol Router.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the remote agents are distributed over the network.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the software suite is an extension of a CTI software suite used in the communication center, the extended portion for parameterizing and enabling additional services and communication apparatus generic to the remote agents but not available within the center.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the control messaging and event related data exchanged is formatted using Extensible Markup Language.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein Extensible Style Sheet Language Transformation is used to transform the Extensible Markup Language files into formats useable on the computing platforms of the remote agents.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the useable formats include HTML, HDML, WAP, and WML.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein an Interactive Voice Response system is used to exchange data with a remote agent receiving calls on an analog telephone.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the remote agents establish one or more destination numbers for receiving events, the destination numbers to be set in for the period that the agent is logged into the system.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the destination numbers include one or a combination of telephone numbers, fax numbers, Internet Protocol addresses, e-mail addresses, universal resource locators, and pager numbers.

11. A software suite executing from a memory media in a computerized appliance, for managing remote agents of a communication center comprising:

a client portion executing from a computerized device remote from the communication center comprising a contact navigation application, a contact extension application, and a code library; and

a server portion executing from a proxy server comprising a transaction management application, an agent specific application, and an application program interface;

wherein the client portion specifies functionality and reports state information of remote agents to the server application, the server application reports same under ISCC protocol to a communication-center suite for routing purposes and wherein the communication-center suite provides event-related data to the server portion, which in turn transforms the data into data formats usable on various communication devices of the remote agent.

12. The software suite of claim 11 wherein the remote agents are part of a communication center network, the server portion functioning as the network access and agent monitoring point for the remote agents.

13. The software suite of claim 11 wherein the communication network includes the Internet network and the public switched telephony network.

14. The software suite of claim 11 wherein the remote agents are distributed over the network.

15. The software suite of claim 11 wherein the software suite is an extension of a CTI software suite used in the communication center, the extended portion for parameterizing and enabling additional services and communication apparatus generic to the remote agents but not available within the center.

16. The software suite of claim 11 wherein the ISCC protocols include Extensible Markup Language used to format messaging and event-related data.

17. The software suite of claim 16 wherein Extensible Style sheet Language Transformation is used to transform the Extensible Markup Language files into formats useable on the computing platforms of the remote agents.

18. The software suite of claim 17 wherein the useable formats include HTML, HDML, WAP, and WML.

19. The software suite of claim 11 wherein the remote agents establish one or more destination numbers for receiving events on the various communication devices, the destination numbers to be set for the period that the agent is logged into the system providing the software.

20. The software suite of claim 19 wherein the destination numbers include one or a combination of telephone numbers, fax numbers, Internet Protocol addresses, e-mail addresses, universal resource locators, and pager numbers.

21. A method for managing information about remote agents of a communication center for the purpose of intelligently routing events involving those agents comprising steps of:

(a) providing a software suite accessible to the agents for parameterizing and enabling additional services and communication apparatus generic to the remote agents but not available within the center;

(b) providing a network link between the software suite and software of the communication center; and

(c) routing communication events, involving the remote agents according to state and other information about the agents provided by and through the software suite.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein in step (a) the agents are accessible to the communication center through a combination of the Internet network and the public switched telephony network.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein in step (a) the software suite comprises a server portion and a client portion.

24. The method of claim 21 wherein in step (a) the software suit can be configured and updated from the communication server.

25. The method of claim 21 wherein in step (b) the network link supports ISCC protocol.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the ISCC protocol includes Extensible Markup Language and Extensible Style Sheet Transformation Language.

27. The method of claim 21 wherein the client portion resides on one or more of the communication apparatus and the server portion resides on a server accessible to the one or more communication apparatus via a network link.

28. The method of claim 21 wherein in step (c) state information includes ready, not ready, logged in, logged out, and on call.

29. The method of claim 21 wherein in step (c) other information includes skill level, registered destination numbers, and communication device type and platform.