Networked contact center

• US 8,275,116 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2008
• Issued: 09/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 8X8, Inc.
• Original Assignee: 8X8, Inc.
• Inventors: Southwick, Richard, Townsend, Robert, Salame, Mansour
• Primary Examiner(s): AL AUBAIDI, RASHA S
• Application Number:
  US12/201,599
• Publication Number:
  US 20100054450A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,488 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265.02, 379/265.09
• US Class Current: 379/265.02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5141 Details of processing calls and other types of contacts in an unified manner unified messaging in packet-switching networks H04L51/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet

Abstract

This document discusses, among other things, a networked contact center that includes multiple platforms to host multiple tenants. Example embodiments include receiving a message associated with one of the tenants and identifying one or more of the platforms associated with the message. For some example embodiments, the networked contact center may allow the platform to access a data location that is both associated with the tenant and shared by two or more of the multiple tenants.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

at a networked contact center that includes a plurality of platforms to host a plurality of tenants, the networked contact center further including a plurality of data locations associated with the plurality of tenants;

hosting at least one tenant of the plurality of tenants on a first of the plurality of platforms;

replicating the hosting of the at least one tenant on at least a second of the plurality of platforms;

associating at least one of the plurality of data locations with the at least one tenant;

uploading tenant configuration data on the associated at least one of the plurality of data locations;

receiving a message associated with the at least one tenant; and

based on a determination that the first of the plurality of platforms is unavailable due to one of a failover event and a maintenance event, selecting at least one platform from the at least the second of the plurality of platforms upon which the hosting of the at least one tenant was replicated.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the message includes receiving the message from at least one of an Internet network and a public switched telephone system network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is further associated with an interaction between a customer of the at least one tenant and an agent of the at least one tenant.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is further associated with an interaction between an agent of the at least one tenant and the networked contact center.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one tenant is associated with a set of instructions to be executed by a machine within the first of the plurality of platforms and the at least the second of the plurality of platforms, the method further comprising:

routing the message to the set of instructions; and

receiving a request for data based on executing the set of instructions.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating a database to vary a classification for the at least one tenant of the at least the second of the plurality of platforms from an inactive platform to an active platform.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the tenant configuration data includes a list of agents and skills of the agents.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of platforms includes call distribution software, skills based routing software, and an agent web interface.

9. A networked contact center comprising:

a plurality of platforms to host a plurality of tenants;

a plurality of data locations associated with the plurality of tenants; and

a processing module to perform operations comprising;

hosting at least one tenant of the plurality of tenants on a first of the plurality of platforms;

replicating the hosting of the at least one tenant on at least a second of the plurality of platforms;

associating at least one of the plurality of data locations with the at least one tenant;

uploading tenant configuration data on the associated at least one of the plurality of data locations;

receiving a message associated with the at least one tenant; and

based on a determination that the first of the plurality of platforms is unavailable due to one of a failover event and a maintenance event, selecting at least one platform from the at least the second of the plurality of platforms upon which the hosting of the at least one tenant was replicated.

10. The networked contact center of claim 9, wherein the processing module is to receive the message via at least one of an Internet network and a public switched telephone system network.

11. The networked contact center of claim 9, wherein the message is further associated with an interaction between a customer of the at least one tenant and an agent of the at least one tenant.

12. The networked contact center of claim 9, wherein the message is further associated with an interaction between an agent of the at least one tenant and the networked contact center.

13. The networked contact center of claim 9, wherein the at least one tenant is associated with a set of instructions to be executed by a machine within the first of the plurality of platforms, and the at least the second of the plurality of platforms, the processing module is further to perform operations comprising:

routing the message to the set of instructions; and

receiving a request for data based on executing the set of instructions.

14. The networked contact center of claim 9, wherein the processing module is to update a database to vary a classification for the at least one tenant of the at least the second of the plurality of platforms, from an inactive platform to an active platform.

15. The networked contact center of claim 9, wherein the tenant configuration data includes a list of agents and skills of the agents.

16. The networked contact center of claim 9, wherein the plurality of platforms includes call distribution software, skills based routing software, and an agent web interface.

17. A machine-readable storage medium containing instructions that when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to perform a method comprising:

at a networked contact center that includes a plurality of platforms to host a plurality of tenants, the networked contact center further including a plurality of data locations associated with the plurality of tenants;

hosting at least one tenant of the plurality of tenants on a first of the plurality of platforms;

replicating the hosting of the at least one tenant on at least a second of the plurality of platforms;

associating at least one of the plurality of data locations with the at least one tenant;

uploading tenant configuration data on the associated at least one of the plurality of data locations;

receiving a message associated with the at least one tenant; and

based on a determination that the first of the plurality of platforms is unavailable due to one of a failover event and a maintenance event, selecting at least one platform from the at least the second of the plurality of platforms upon which the hosting of the at least one tenant was replicated.

18. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the receiving of the message includes receiving the message from at least one of an Internet network and a public switched telephone system network.

19. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the message is further associated with an interaction between a customer of the at least one tenant and an agent of the at least one tenant.

20. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the message is further associated with an interaction between an agent of the at least one tenant and the networked contact center.

21. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, further comprising:

routing the message to the set of instructions; and

receiving a request for data based on executing the set of instructions, wherein the tenant is associated with a set of instructions to be executed by a machine within the first of the plurality of platforms and the further platform.

22. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, further comprising:

updating a database to vary a classification for the at least one tenant of the at least the second of the plurality of platforms, from an inactive platform to an active platform.

23. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the tenant configuration data includes a list of agents and skills of the agent.

24. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the plurality of platforms includes call distribution software, skills based routing software, and an agent web interface.