Mechanism for multisite service state description

• US 8,644,491 B2
• Filed: 08/21/2009
• Issued: 02/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Flockhart, Andrew D., Steiner, Robert C.
• Primary Examiner(s): AL AUBAIDI, RASHA S
• Application Number:
  US12/545,386
• Publication Number:
  US 20110047002A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,628 Days
• Field of Search: 37926501-26502, 379/265.12
• US Class Current: 379/265.12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 Schedule adjustment for a person or group

Abstract

A distributed contact center is described and systems, methods, and devices for sharing state information between the various parts of the contact center are provided. Skill state information is condensed into one or several bits such that a message describing the state of multiple skills can be generated and shared with other parts of the contact center. This provides the ability to convey a large amount of state information for a particular site in a multi-site system without consuming a large amount of bandwidth or utilizing a large amount of processing capabilities.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining a state of a first skill at a first site in a contact center;

determining a state of a second skill at the first site in the contact center;

generating a message comprising state information, the state information comprising the state of the first skill at the first site and the state of the second skill at the first site; and

transmitting the message to a second site in the contact center,

wherein the message comprises a maximum transmission unit in bytes and wherein the number of skills having a respective state described in the state information is greater than or equal to the maximum transmission unit of the message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the state information describes two or more of (i) whether there is a resource surplus for the first skill, (ii) whether there is a resource surplus for the second skill, (iii) a status of the resource surplus for the first skill, (iv) a status of the resource surplus for the second skill, (v) whether there is a work item surplus for the first skill, (vi) whether there is a work item surplus for the second skill, (vii) a status of the work item surplus for the first skill, and (viii) a status of the work item surplus for the second skill.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the message at the second site;

analyzing the state information in the message; and

making a work item routing decision based on the state information in the message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the maximum transmission unit is 1500 bytes and wherein at least 1500 skills at the first site have their state described in the state information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting comprises one or more of (i) sending the message directly to the second site, (ii) sending the message to a conference mechanism to which the second site is also connected, and (iii) sending the message to a third site which relays the message to the second site.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the state information represents an advocate state of at least the first and second skills, wherein the advocate state includes one or more of resources available, ahead of schedule, normal, future risk, immediate risk, behind target, and critical.

7. A method, comprising:

determining a state of a first skill at a first site in a contact center;

determining a state of a second skill at the first site in the contact center;

generating a message comprising state information, the state information representing the state of at least the first and second skills; and

transmitting the message to a second site in the contact center;

wherein the determining, generating, and transmitting steps are performed at a predetermined rate that is less than once every 5 seconds,

wherein the message comprises a maximum transmission unit in bytes and wherein the number of skills having their state described in the state information is greater than or equal to the maximum transmission unit of the message.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the predetermined rate is less than once every second.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the predetermined rate is once every clock cycle.

10. An automated contact distributor configured to distribute contacts among a plurality of resources in a contact center, wherein the contact center comprises at least two sites and wherein the automated contact distributor is located at a first of the at least two sites, the automated contact distributor comprising:

a work item queue comprising a plurality of queue positions for assignment to one or more work items received at the automated contact distributor;

a status module adapted to determine a state for each of a plurality of skills associated with the first site; and

a messaging module adapted to generate a message comprising state information, wherein the state information represents a state for each of two or more skills determined by the status module,

wherein the message comprises a maximum transmission unit in bytes and wherein the number of skills having a respective state described in the state information is greater than or equal to the maximum transmission unit of the message.

11. The automated contact distributor of claim 10, wherein the state information for each of the two or more skills describes two or more of (i) whether there is a resource surplus for the corresponding skill, (ii) a status of the resource surplus, (iii) whether there is a work item surplus for the skill, and (iv) a status of the work item surplus.

12. The automated contact distributor of claim 11, further comprising a network interface, wherein the network interface connects the automated contact distributor to a communication network and is used to transmit messages generated by the messaging module to a second site of the at least two sites.

13. The automated contact distributor of claim 12, wherein messages describing a plurality of skill states of other sites in the contact center and transmitted by other automated contact distributors in the contact center are received at the network interface and wherein skill states contained within the messages received at the network interface are analyzed to make a work item routing decision.

14. The automated contact distributor of claim 10, wherein the state information represents an advocate state of the two or more skills, wherein the advocate state includes one or more of resources available, ahead of schedule, normal, future risk, immediate risk, behind target, and critical.

15. An automated contact distributor configured to distribute contacts among a plurality of resources in a contact center, wherein the contact center comprises at least two sites and wherein the automated contact distributor is located at a first of the at least two sites, the automated contact distributor comprising:

a work item queue comprising a plurality of queue positions for assignment to one or more work items received at the automated contact distributor;

a status module adapted to determine a state for each of a plurality of skills associated with the first site; and

a messaging module adapted to generate a message comprising state information, wherein the state information represents a state for each of two or more skills determined by the status module, wherein the message comprises a maximum transmission unit in bytes and wherein the number of skills having a respective state described in the state information is greater than or equal to the maximum transmission unit of the message.

16. The automated contact distributor of claim 15, wherein the maximum transmission unit is 1500 bytes and wherein at least 1500 skills at the first site have their state described in the state information.

17. A message generated by or received at an automated contact distributor, the message representing state information for two or more skills associated with a resource, wherein the state information is the status of the state of each of the two or more skills,

wherein the message comprises a maximum transmission unit in bytes and wherein the number of skills having a respective state described in the state information is greater than or equal to the maximum transmission unit of the message.

18. The message of claim 17, wherein the state information for each of the two or more skills describes two or more of (i) whether there is a resource surplus for the corresponding skill, (ii) a status of the resource surplus, (iii) whether there is a work item surplus for the skill, and (iv) a status of the work item surplus.

19. A message generated by or received at an automated contact distributor, the message representing state information for two or more skills associated with a resource, further comprising a maximum transmission unit in bytes and wherein the number of skills having a corresponding state described in the state information is greater than or equal to the maximum transmission unit of the message.