Management of support center calls

• US 7,596,504 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2003
• Issued: 09/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Tillman, Harry D., Hughes, Kimberly J.
• Primary Examiner(s): DeCady; Albert
• Assistant Examiner(s): ROBERTSON, DAVID
• Application Number:
  US10/644,677
• Publication Number:
  US 20050043983A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,232 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/7.17
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063118 Staff planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/51 Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention , e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/515 Night service systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements

Abstract

A computer system and program product for managing support of an application. First program instructions receive a request to view contact information for support people for the application, and in response, determine whether the request occurs during On Shift support hours or Off Shift support hours of the application and determine the support people who are On Shift and the support people who are Off Shift for the application. There is a preferred e-mail address for On Shift contact and a preferred e-mail address for Off Shift contact for each of the support people. The preferred e-mail address for On Shift contact is different than the preferred e-mail address for Off Shift contact for at least one of the support people. Second program instructions receive a request to send an e-mail to one or more of the On Shift and Off Shift support people. If the e-mail request occurs On Shift, the e-mail is sent to the preferred On Shift e-mail address for each of the one or more On Shift support people and each of the one or more Off Shift support people. If the e-mail request occurs Off Shift, the e-mail is sent to the preferred Off Shift e-mail address for each of the one or more On Shift support people and each of the one or more Off Shift support people. The computer system also displays the support people in an order based on whether the current time is On Shift or Off Shift.

Claims

1. A computer program product for managing contact information of support people for one or more applications each application having On Shift support hours and Off Shift support hours and a plurality of On Shift and Off Shift support people, said program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium;

program instructions stored on said computer readable storage medium for execution on a computer, comprising;

first program instructions to receive a request to view contact information for a plurality of support people for an application, and in response, determine whether said request occurs during said On Shift support hours or said Off Shift support hours for said application, and

second program instructions, responsive to said request occurring during said On Shift support hours for said application, to determine the support people who are On Shift and the support people who are Off Shift for said application, and direct display of contact information of said On Shift support people and said Off Shift support people in a list wherein said support people who are On Shift are listed before said support people who are Off Shift;

said second program instructions, further responsive to said request occurring during said Off Shift support hours for said application, to determine the support people who are Off Shift and the support people who are On Shift for said application, and direct display of contact information of said Off Shift support people and said On Shift support people in a list wherein said support people who are Off Shift are listed before said support people who are On Shift;

third program instructions to create a database specifying said On Shift support hours and said Off Shift support hours for each of said one or more applications, and specifying which of said support people are On Shift and which of said support people are Off Shift for each of said On Shift support hours and Off Shift support hours, wherein the plurality of said On Shift support people includes an On Shift primary support person and an On Shift backup support person, and the plurality of said Off Shift support people includes an Off Shift primary support person and an Off Shift backup support person, and wherein in each of said display of contact information of support people, the respective primary support person is listed before the respective backup support person.

2. The computer program product as set forth in claim 1 wherein there is a preferred On Shift contact method and a preferred Off Shift contact method for each of said On Shift support people and each of said Off Shift support people, and each of said lists specifies said preferred On Shift contact method for each of said On Shift support people and said preferred Off Shift contact method for each of said Off Shift support people.

3. The computer program product as set forth in claim 1, wherein said database comprises a plurality of participant records for each of said support people and a plurality of application records for said application.

4. The computer program product as set forth in claim 3, wherein said plurality of participant records for a given one of said support people comprises (i) an identification of applications that said given one of said support people supports, (ii) On Shift contact information, (iii) On Shift preferred method of contact, (iv) Off Shift contact information, and (v) Off Shift preferred method of contact.

5. The computer program product as set forth in claim 3, wherein said plurality of application records for said application comprises (i) an account name that said application is associated with, (ii) time zone shift hours, (iii) On Shift start and end hours, (iv) On Shift personnel, and (v) Off Shift personnel.