Qualifier set creation for work assignment engine

• US 8,965,878 B2
• Filed: 02/14/2014
• Issued: 02/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Steiner, Robert C., Kohler, Joylee, Flockhart, Andrew D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Woo, Isaac M
• Application Number:
  US14/181,111
• Publication Number:
  US 20140161248A1
• Time in Patent Office: 375 Days
• Field of Search: 707600-899
• US Class Current: 707/713
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution

Abstract

A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, define, in real-time, qualifier set combinations for work items. Thus, the contact center can create a dictionary of combinations of work item attributes that may be defined as work items are introduced to the system. The definition of the combinations allows for large qualifier sets without the large expenditure of resources to define all possible combinations of attributes for the contact center.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions that cause a computing system to execute a method, the instructions comprising:

instructions to receive a work item having one or more attributes that enable a routing decision to be made with respect to routing the work item among a plurality of resources in a contact center;

instructions to generate an initial bitmap for the work item;

instructions to search a dictionary database for a qualifier set definition similar to the initial bitmap;

if a similar qualifier set definition is found, instructions to provide the qualifier set definition with the work item;

if a similar qualifier set definition is not found, instructions to define a new qualifier set definition for the work item;

instructions to include the work item in a work pool that includes work items associated with customers;

instructions to compare the one or more attributes of the work item with attributes of the plurality of resources;

instructions to select, based on the comparing step, a first resource from the plurality of resources to receive the work item; and

instructions to route the work item to the first resource.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the dictionary database includes at least one previously created qualifier set definition.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising determine attribute data associated with the work item to create the initial bitmap.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising storing the new qualifier set definition in the dictionary database.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising:

instructions to receive an event;

in response to the event, instructions to manage the dictionary database; and

instructions to commit changes to the dictionary database.

6. A contact center, comprising:

a work assignment mechanism including;

a work assignment engine configured to compare attributes of work items in a work pool with attributes of resources in a resource pool and match the work items to resources based on the comparison of attributes; and

a service matcher configured to;

receive a work item having one or more attributes that enable a routing decision to be made with respect to routing the work item among a plurality of resources in a contact center;

generate an initial bitmap for the work item;

search a dictionary database for a qualifier set definition similar to the initial bitmap;

if a similar qualifier set definition is found, provide the qualifier set definition with the work item, wherein the qualifier set definition is common between two or more work items; and

if a similar qualifier set definition is not found, define a new qualifier set definition for the work item and provide the new qualifier set definition to the work assignment engine.

7. The contact center of claim 6, wherein the service matcher comprises:

a data ingest module configured to receive or collect data associated with the work item;

an attribute determination module configured to generate the initial bitmap associated with the data collected by the data ingest module;

a bitmap research module configured to search for a qualifier set definition in the dictionary database that is similar to the initial bitmap; and

a bitmap definition module configured to define the new qualifier set definition for the work item, based on the initial bitmap, if the bitmap research module fails to find a qualifier set definition in the dictionary database that is similar to the initial bitmap.

8. The contact center of claim 6, wherein the bitmap definition module is further configured to store the new qualifier set definition in the dictionary database.

9. The contact center of claim 6, wherein the bitmap definition module is further configured to provide the new qualifier set definition to the work assignment engine.

10. The contact center of claim 6, wherein the bitmap definition module is further configured to:

receive an event;

in response to the event, manage the dictionary database; and

commit changes to the dictionary database.