Electronic communication work flow manager system, method and computer program product

• US 8,868,660 B2
• Filed: 03/22/2006
• Issued: 10/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Hastings, Roy J., Torres, Randolph T., Pamintuan, Kimberly T., Linz, Teresa A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Thu Ha
• Assistant Examiner(s): FABBRI, ANTHONY E
• Application Number:
  US11/386,259
• Publication Number:
  US 20070226340A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,135 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/224, 379/9.03, 370/225, 705/9, 707/3
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

The present invention provides systems, methods and a computer program product for the management of electronic work items by providing uniform methodology across an enterprise. Work items are electronically received by an organization and routed to available users depending upon the business rules of the organization and certain parameters of the work items. Service level commitments may be assigned, tracked and reported as capturing standard reporting across the enterprise specifically with respect to electronic work items.

Claims

1. A method, comprising steps of:

electronically receiving a work item at an electronic workflow manager, from an originator;

in response to the receipt of the work item, automatically and electronically sending an acknowledgement of the received work item to the originator of the work item;

determining one or more parameters from or about the received work item;

applying the one or more parameters to business rules defined for determining one or more customer service representatives to assign to the work item, wherein a plurality of customer service representatives belong to a team, a plurality of teams are at a center, and a plurality of centers belong to a business enterprise;

wherein the business rules comprise multiple sets of business rules, each set of business rules corresponding to a respective customer service representative, team, and center;

wherein rules of each set of business rules for a customer service representative are more specific than those for a team and rules of each set of business rules for a team are more specific than those for a center;

if said one or more parameters comport with the applied business rules, then;

A) sequentially performing the following steps;

1) automatically determining, based upon the application of a first set of the business rules to said one or more parameters of said work item, a center from amongst the plurality of centers belonging to the business enterprise;

2) automatically determining, based upon the application of a second set of the business rules to said one or more parameters of said work item and based on the determined center, a team at the determined center;

3) automatically determining, based upon the application of a third set of the business rules to said one or more parameters of said work item and based on the determined team, one or more customer service representatives from the plurality of customer service representatives of the determined team, for processing said work item; and

4) automatically determining if any of the determined one or more customer service representatives are available and routing said work item to an available customer service representative for processing said work item, while if none of the determined one or more customer service representatives are available, then holding said work item in an electronic queue until at least one of the determined one or more customer service representatives becomes available, and routing said work item to one of the determined customer service representatives that has become available, for processing said work item; and

B) performing the following steps;

determining a correspondence type associated with the work item and one or more of the team, the center, or the business enterprise to which the work item is routed; and

electronically sending a message related to the processing of the work item as a result of the routing of the work item, to the originator of the work item, in a message template associated with the determined correspondence type; and

if said one or more parameters do not comport with at least one of the applied business rules in steps

     1),

     2) and

     3), then;

5) routing said work item to an electronic queue for unidentified work items; and

6) after said routing of said work item;

A) assigning the unidentified work item to a selected center from amongst the plurality of centers, a selected team at the selected center, or a selected customer service representative at the selected team, wherein all work items routed to the electronic queue for unidentified work items are assigned; and

B) modifying, when determined by a representative of the business, the at least one of the applied business rules in steps

     1),

     2) and

     3) based on attributes of the unidentified work items in the electronic queue, such that said one or more parameters of said work item in said electronic queue for unidentified work items comports with the at least one modified business rule and therefore future received work items having similar attributes to the unidentified work items in the electronic queue will not be routed to the electronic queue for unidentified work items.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein businesses rules include one of more of keywords, an email address, a corporate database, a service market, and a fulfillment location.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said work item is one of an electronic message, an order for services, an order for a device, or an order for services and a device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said one or more parameters from or about the work item include one or more of an Internet domain from which the work item originated, an email address from which the work item originated, and key words, phrases or codes contained within the work item.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein if more than one customer service representative is determined to be available to process the work item, a customer service representative available for a longest period of time is assigned the work item.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising steps of:

assigning the work item a service level commitment based on a timeframe for processing the work item,

monitoring the work item and its assigned service level commitment, and

reporting the work item if it is in jeopardy of not meeting its assigned service level commitment or has missed its assigned service level commitment.

7. A method, comprising steps of:

electronically receiving a work item at an electronic workflow manager, from an originator;

in response to the receipt of the work item, automatically and electronically sending an acknowledgement of the received work item to the originator of the work item;

determining one or more parameters from or about the received work item;

A) sequentially performing the following steps;

1) automatically and electronically applying the one or more parameters of the work item to a first set of business rules that define attributes of a first electronic queue associated with a center of a business enterprise and if said one or more parameters comport with said first set of business rules, then routing said work item to the first electronic queue, and if said one or more parameters do not comport with said first set of business rules, then routing said work item to an electronic queue for unidentified work items and after said routing of the work item;

A) assigning the unidentified work item to a selected center from amongst a plurality of centers, wherein all work items routed to the electronic queue for unidentified work items are assigned, and B) modifying, when determined by a representative of the business, said first set of business rules based on attributes of the unidentified work items in the electronic queue, such that said one or more parameters of said work item in said electronic queue for unidentified work items comports with said modified first set of business rules and therefore future received work items having similar attributes to the unidentified work items in the electronic queue will not be routed to the electronic queue for unidentified work items;

2) automatically and electronically applying the one or more parameters of the work item in the first electronic queue to a second set of business rules that define attributes of a second electronic queue associated with a team of the center and if said one or more parameters comport with said second set of business rules, then routing said work item from the first electronic queue to the second electronic queue, and if said one or more parameters do not comport with said second set of business rules, then routing said work item to the electronic queue for unidentified work items and after said routing of the work item;

A) assigning the unidentified work item to a selected team from amongst a plurality of teams, wherein all work items routed to the electronic queue for unidentified work items are assigned, and B) modifying, when determined by a representative of the business, said second set of business rules, based on attributes of the unidentified work items in the electronic queue such that said one or more parameters of said work item in said electronic queue for unidentified work items comports with said modified second set of business rules and therefore future received work items having similar attributes to the unidentified work items in the electronic queue will not be routed to the electronic queue for unidentified work items;

3) automatically and electronically applying the one or more parameters of the work item in the second electronic queue to a third set of business rules that define attributes of a third electronic queue associated with a customer service representative of the team and if said one or more parameters comport with said third set of business rules, then routing said work item from the second electronic queue to the third electronic queue to await processing by an available customer service representative, and if said one or more parameters do not comport with said third set of business rules, then routing said work item to the electronic queue for unidentified work items and after said routing of the work item;

A) assigning the unidentified work item to a selected customer service representative from amongst a plurality of customer service representatives, wherein all work items routed to the electronic queue for unidentified work items are assigned, and B) modifying, when determined by a representative of the business, said third set of business rules, based on attributes of the unidentified work items in the electronic queue such that said one or more parameters of said work item in said electronic queue for unidentified work items comports with said modified third set of business rules and therefore future received work items having similar attributes to the unidentified work items in the electronic queue will not be routed to the electronic queue for unidentified work items; and

B) performing the following steps;

determining a correspondence type associated with the work item and one or more of the first electronic queue, the second electronic queue, or the third electronic queue to which the work item is routed, and electronically sending a message related to the processing of the work item as a result of the routing of the work item, to the originator of the work item, in a message template associated with the determined correspondence type, wherein;

the initially determined one or more parameters establish whether or not the work item is routed from the first electronic queue to the second electronic queue and from the second electronic queue to the third electronic queue, and

the third set of business rules are more specific than the second set of business rules, and the second set of business rules are more specific than the first set of business rules, to enable delivery of the work item to the most appropriate queue for completing the work item.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said work item is one of an electronic message, an order for services, an order for a device, or an order for services and a device.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein said one or more parameters from or about the work item include one or more of an Internet domain from which the work item originated, an email address from which the work item originated, and key words, phrases or codes contained within the work item.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein one or more of the first set of businesses rules, the second set of business rules, and the third set of business rules includes one of more of keywords, an email address, a corporate database, a service market, and a fulfillment location.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising assigning the work item a service level commitment based on a timeframe for processing the work item, monitoring the work item and its assigned service level commitment and reporting the work item if it is in jeopardy of not meeting its assigned service level commitment or has missed its assigned service level commitment.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein said first electronic queue is associated with a center that comprises a portion of a business enterprise.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said second electronic queue is associated with a team that comprises a portion of the center.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said third electronic queue is associated with the customer service representative that comprises a portion of the team.

15. A system operating on one or more computing devices, said system comprised of:

an import server, wherein said import server receives one or more work items that are sent to a business organization and stores said one or more work items at least momentarily on a database, wherein the business organization is comprised of a plurality of centers, a plurality of teams at each center, and a plurality of customer service representatives on each team;

a module configured to automatically and electronically send an acknowledgement of the received work item to the originator of the work item, in response to the receipt of the work item;

a routing engine, wherein said routing engine discerns information from and about each of said one or more work items, applies business rules to said information, the business rules defined for determining one or more customer service representatives customer service representatives for processing the one or more work items, wherein the business rules comprise multiple sets of business rules and each set of the business rules corresponds to a respective customer service representative, team and center, wherein rules of each set of business rules for a customer service representative are more specific than those for a team and rules of each set of business rules for a team are more specific than those for a center, wherein;

based upon said information comporting with said business rules said routing engine;

sequentially performing the following steps;

1) automatically determines based upon the application of a first set of business rules to said one or more parameters of said work item, a center from amongst the plurality of centers belonging to the business organization, for processing each work item,

2) automatically determines, based upon the application of a second set of business rules to said one or more parameters of said work item and based on the determined center, a team at the determined center;

3) automatically determines, based upon the application of a third set of business rules to said one or more parameters of said work item and based on the determined team, one or more customer service representatives from the plurality of customer service representatives of the determined team, for processing each work item, and

4) automatically routing each work item to an available one of the determined customer service representatives, for processing said work item, and

if said information does not comport with at least one of said business rules in steps

     1),

     2) and

     3), then;

5) routing engine routes each said work item to an unidentified work item electronic queue and

6) after said routing of said work item;

A) assigning the unidentified work item to a selected center from amongst the plurality of centers, a selected team at the selected center, or a selected customer service representative at the selected team, wherein all work items routed to the electronic queue for unidentified work items are assigned; and

B) modifying, when determined by a representative of the business, the at least one of the applied business rules in steps

     1),

     2) and

     3) based on attributes of the unidentified work items in the electronic queue, such that said one or more parameters of said work item in said electronic queue for unidentified work items comports with the at least one modified business rules and therefore future received work items having similar attributes to the unidentified work items in the electronic queue will not be routed to the electronic queue for unidentified work items; and

an application server, wherein the application server services one or more graphical user interfaces (GUIs) such that each respective one or more work item routed to a respective one available customer service representative is displayed to the respective one available customer service representative and the respective one available customer service representative may interact with and process the respective work item on a discrete and consolidated basis;

wherein said routing engine further processes each respective work item by determining a correspondence type associated with the work item and one or more of the team, the center, or the business organization to which the work item is routed, and electronically sends a message related to the processing of the work item as a result of the routing of the respective work item to an originator of the respective work item in a message template associated with the determined correspondence type; and

wherein the import server, the routing engine, and the application server each comprise a memory device configured to store respective instructions and a processing device configured to execute the respective instructions.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the routing engine determines which of one or more available customer service representatives to route each said one or more work items based upon periods of availability of the one or more available customer service representatives.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein:

the module comprises a templates and auto-acknowledgment module that acknowledges receipt of each respective work item by the business organization to the originator of the respective work item and further is configured to provide for an available customer service representative to electronically communicate with the originator of the respective work item, and

the templates and auto-acknowledgment module comprises a memory device configured to store instructions for the templates and auto-acknowledgment module and a processing device configured to execute the templates and auto-acknowledgment module instructions.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the electronic communication with the originator of the respective work item is via email using pre-existing templates.

19. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

a tracking module, wherein each respective one of said one or more work items is assigned a service level commitment based on a timeframe for processing the respective work item, said tracking module monitors work items and their assigned service level commitments and provides an alert if any one work item is in jeopardy of not meeting its assigned service level commitment or has missed its assigned service level commitment,

wherein the tracking module comprises a memory device configured to store instructions for the tracking module and a processing device configured to execute the tracking module instructions.

20. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

a reporting module configured to provide discrete and cumulative statistical reports on the one or more work items received by the business organization, the processing of the one or more work items by the system, and the one or more customer service representatives of the system,

wherein the reporting module comprises a memory device configured to store instructions for the reporting module and a processing device configured to execute the reporting module instructions.

21. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

a business applications module that is configured to interface with business applications of the business organization such that actions taken in response to the one or more work items by the business applications may be tracked and reported by the system,

wherein the business applications module comprises a memory device configured to store instructions for the business applications module and a processing device configured to execute the business applications module instructions.

22. A computer program product, comprising:

a non-transitory computer memory having computer readable code embodied therein, for execution by a computing device, for processing a work item using an electronic workflow manager, said code comprising;

a) executable code for electronically receiving a work item from an originator;

b) executable code for automatically and electronically sending an acknowledgement of the received work item to the originator of the work item, in response to the receipt of the work item;

c) executable code for determining one or more parameters from or about the received work item;

d) executable code for applying the one or more parameters to business rules defined for determining one or more customer service representatives to assign to the work item, wherein a plurality of customer service representatives belong to a team, a plurality of teams are at a center, and a plurality of centers belong to a business enterprise;

wherein the business rules comprise multiple sets of business rules, each set of business rules corresponding to a respective customer service representative, team, and center;

wherein rules of each set of business rules for a customer service representative are more specific than those for a team and rules of each set of business rules for a team are more specific than those for a center;

e) executable code for determining if said one or more parameters comport with said business rules;

sequentially performing the following executable code;

f) executable code for automatically determining, based upon the application of a first set of business rules to said one or more parameters of the work item, a center from amongst the plurality of centers belonging to the business enterprise;

g) executable code for automatically determining, based upon the application of a second set of business rules to said one or more parameters of the work item and based on the determined center, a team at the determined center;

h) executable code for automatically determining, based upon the application of a third set of business rules to said one or more parameters of the work item and based on the determined team, one or more customer service representatives from the plurality of customer service representatives of the determined team, for processing said work item if said executable code for determining if said one or more parameters comport with said business rules determines that said one or more parameters comport with said business rules;

i) executable code for, after determining the one or more customer service representatives, automatically determining if any of the determined one or more customer service representatives are available and routing said work item to an available customer service representative for processing said work item;

j) executable code for, while if none of the determined one or more customer service representatives are available, then holding said work item in an electronic queue until at least one of the determined one or more customer service representatives becomes available, and routing said work item to one of the determined customer service representatives that has become available, for processing said work item;

k) executable code for determining if said one or more parameters do not comport with at least one of the applied business rules in steps f), g) and h), and if so;

1) routing said work item to an electronic queue for unidentified work items, and

2) after said routing of said work item;

2A) assigning the unidentified work item to a selected center from amongst the plurality of centers, a selected team at the selected center, or a selected customer service representative at the selected team, wherein all work items routed to the electronic queue for unidentified work items are assigned, and 2B) modifying, when determined by a representative of the business, the at least one of the applied business rules in steps

     1),

     2) and

     3) based on attributes of the unidentified work items in the electronic queue, such that said one or more parameters of said work item in said electronic queue for unidentified work items comports with the at least one modified business rules, and therefore future received work items having similar attributes to the unidentified work items in the electronic queue will not be routed to the electronic queue for unidentified work items; and

l) executable code for determining a correspondence type associated with the work item and one or more of the team, the center, or the business organization to which the work item is routed, and electronically sending a message related to the processing of the work item as a result of the routing of the work item to the originator of the work item in a message template associated with the determined correspondence type.