Intelligent communication routing

• US 8,831,205 B1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 09/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Patent Armory Inc.
• Original Assignee: Steven Mark Hoffberg, Toby Heller, Wai Wu
• Inventors: Wu, Wai, Heller, Toby, Hoffberg, Steven M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Harry S
• Application Number:
  US13/836,180
• Time in Patent Office: 543 Days
• Field of Search: 370/351, 370/352, 379/220.01, 379/265.02, 379/265.06, 379/265.11, 379/265.12, 379/266.01, 379/309
• US Class Current: 379/265.11
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/405 Competitive bidding for work items
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution

Abstract

A system and method for communicating in a communication network, comprising presenting a communication comprising data over a communications network to a router, said router being adapted to route the communication to one of a plurality of available network destinations; automatically executing a communication targeting algorithm in the router, based at least in part on the data, wherein the communication targeting algorithm operates to contextually jointly analyze a plurality of parameters extracted from the data and a plurality of contextual parameters, to determine an optimum target for the communication, wherein the optimum target varies in dependence on both the data and the context of the communication; and routing the communication in dependence on the algorithm execution.

Claims

1. A communication method, comprising:

for each of a plurality of users, maintaining a profile comprising a plurality of characteristics of a respective user in a memory system;

for each of a first subset of the users, comprising a plurality of users, receiving a request for respective communication opportunities;

for each of a second subset of the users, comprising a plurality of users, determining an availability of each respective user for a communication;

defining an optimization criterion for matching members of the first subset with members of the second subset, for a plurality of mutually exclusive communications, each between a respective member of the first subset and a respective member of the second subset, the defined optimization criterion having a value dependent on at least an analysis of the plurality of characteristics of each maintained profile for respective members of the first subset and respective members of the second subset, and a valuation of the communications;

combinatorially determining, using at least one automated processor, a predicted net benefit to the plurality of users, with respect to the optimization criterion, of a proposed set of respective mutually exclusive communications which at least partially satisfy the request for respective communication opportunities of the first subset, based on at least the plurality of characteristics of each maintained profile for respective members of the first subset and respective members of the second subset, and the valuation of the communications, and defining a set of respective mutually exclusive communications which represents the highest net benefit to the plurality of users as an optimum set of respective communications; and

storing in a memory a description of the optimum set of respective communications.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of users consists essentially of the union of the first subset and the second subset.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the combinatorially determining comprises performing a combinatorial optimization to determine an optimum set of respective mutually exclusive communications from all unblocked matches of available members of the first subset with available respective members of the second subset.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the optimization criteria comprises an economic cost function applied to each pairing of a respective member of the first subset with a respective member of the second subset in a respective mutually exclusive communication, based on at least an economic value of a benefit of the respective mutually exclusive communication to at least one user and an economic opportunity cost of the respective communication to at least one user.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the combinatorially determining ranks a plurality of sets of proposed respective mutually exclusive communications.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein a respective mutually exclusive communication is associated with a respective benefit to at least one member of the first subset and a respective benefit to at least one member of the second subset, and the net benefit comprises a sum of the respective benefits to the at least one member of the first subset and second subset for all of the set of respective mutually exclusive communications.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein a respective valuation for each respective mutually exclusive communication is a function of at least an economic utility of the respective mutually exclusive communication and an economic cost of the respective mutually exclusive communication.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the mutually exclusive communications comprise telephone communications.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second subset of users comprise call center agents, and the characteristics of the second subset comprise skills.

14. The method according to claim 1, further comprising establishing communications channels through a communication network according to the description of the optimum set of respective communications.

7. A method for defining mutually exclusive communication channels between users, comprising:

maintaining a plurality of user profiles for a plurality of users, each user profile comprising a plurality of user characteristics;

receiving a plurality of request for mutually exclusive communication channels among respective users from the plurality of users;

performing a combinatorial optimization with an automated processor, to predict a net benefit of the mutually exclusive communication channels between respective users of the plurality of users, with respect to an optimization criteria representing a net value of each respective mutually exclusive communication channel for a plurality of mutually exclusive communication channels, based on at least the plurality of user profiles; and

storing in a memory a description of an optimum set of mutually exclusive communication channels.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the mutually exclusive communication channels provide respective communication paths between a first subset of the plurality of users and a second subset of the plurality of users, and the net benefit is determined based on at least a net benefit to the first subset of users.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein net benefit is further determined based on at least a net benefit to the second subset of users.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the net benefit comprises at least a cost incurred as a result of a reduction in availability of a respective user for different respective mutually exclusive communications.

15. A method for communicating, comprising:

maintaining a plurality of user profiles, each comprising a plurality of user characteristics;

performing an optimization using an automated processor, to predict an optimum set of concurrent communications between respective pairs of users based on the plurality of user characteristics for each user in the set of concurrent communications, wherein each concurrent communication consumes at least a portion of a limited communications capacity of a respective user involved in the concurrent communication, the optimization comprising selecting the optimum set of concurrent communications by determining a set of concurrent communications having a highest aggregate value of the concurrent communications, a value of a respective concurrent communication being based on at least;

(a) an analysis of the plurality of characteristics of the respective users for each respective concurrent communication, and

(b) a predicted net economic gain resulting from the respective concurrent communication with respect to at least a benefit to the respective users for each respective concurrent communication, an opportunity cost, and a cost of the communication; and

storing in a memory a description of the optimum set of concurrent communications.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the predicted net economic gain a function of at least an economic utility of the respective concurrent match and an economic cost of the respective match.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein a respective concurrent communication completely exhausts an available concurrent communication capacity for at least one respective user involved in the respective concurrent communication.

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein a respective concurrent communication partially exhausts an available concurrent communication capacity for at least one respective user involved in the respective concurrent communication, such that a respective user involved in the respective concurrent communication is available for concurrent communication with a plurality of other respective users.

19. The method according to claim 15, wherein each respective concurrent communication is mutually exclusive with respect to the respective users involved in the concurrent communication, and the aggregate value of each concurrent communication accounts for at least one cost associated with the concurrent communication.

20. The method according to claim 15, wherein the users are segregated into a plurality of types, and the concurrent communications seek to link a user of a first predetermined type with a user of a second predetermined type.