Strategy pairing

• US 9,124,702 B2
• Filed: 11/04/2013
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Steiner, Robert C., Uba, Gene Masaru, Hartman, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): AL AUBAIDI, RASHA S
• Application Number:
  US14/071,368
• Publication Number:
  US 20150124954A1
• Time in Patent Office: 666 Days
• Field of Search: 37926501-26502, 37926512-26514
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5235 Dependent on call type or called number [DNIS]

Abstract

A contact center is described as having the ability to simultaneously consider a plurality of different work assignment strategies. Specifically, a work assignment engine in the contact center is enabled to create merged strategies from work-finding-agent strategies and agent-finding-work strategies to determine if one such strategy contradicts the other strategy.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a first strategy at a work assignment engine;

receiving a second strategy at the work assignment engine, wherein the second strategy is different from the first strategy;

merging the first strategy with the second strategy to create a merged strategy; and

executing the merged strategy at the work assignment engine, wherein executing the merged strategy causes the work assignment engine to make a determination as to whether or not the first strategy conflicts with the second strategy by virtue of the strategy making a work assignment match between a work item and an agent in a contact center and the second strategy not making the same work assignment match between the work item and the agent.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first strategy corresponds to a work-finding-agent strategy and the second strategy corresponds to an agent-finding-work strategy.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the merged strategy is executed during a qualification phase.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining that the first strategy conflicts with the second strategy; and

in response to determining that the first strategy conflicts with the second strategy, disqualifying assignment of the work item to at least one agent in the contact center.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the merged strategy is executed during a scoring phase.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining that the first strategy conflicts with the second strategy; and

in response to determining that the first strategy conflicts with the second strategy, adjusting a matching score for a work item/agent pair in the contact center.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first strategy further comprises a rule set which defines one or more conditions associated with processing the plurality of tasks in the first set of executable tasks.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the merged strategy comprises:

(i) executing the first strategy, (ii) checking to see if results of executing the first strategy contradict a condition in the second strategy, (iii) executing the second strategy, and (iv) then checking to see if results of executing the second strategy contradict a condition in the first strategy.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first strategy comprises a rule set an a plurality of executable tasks, wherein the rule set defines one or more conditions associated with processing the plurality of tasks.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the merged strategy is executed during compile time of the work assignment engine.

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

instructions configured to receive a first strategy at a work assignment engine;

instructions configured to receive a second strategy at the work assignment engine, wherein the second strategy is different from the first strategy;

instructions configured to merge the first strategy with the second strategy to create a merged strategy; and

instructions configured to execute the merged strategy at the work assignment engine, wherein executing the merged strategy causes the work assignment engine to make a determination as to whether or not the first strategy conflicts with the second strategy by virtue of the first strategy making a work assignment match between a work item and an agent in a contact center and the second strategy not making the same work assignment match between the work item and the agent.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the first strategy corresponds to a work-finding-agent strategy and the second strategy corresponds to an agent-finding-work strategy.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the merged strategy is executed during a qualification phase of a work assignment decision.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, further comprising:

instructions configured to determine that the first strategy conflicts with the second strategy and in response to determining that the first strategy conflicts with the second strategy, disqualify assignment of the work item to at least one agent in the contact center.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the merged strategy is executed during a scoring phase of a work assignment decision.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising:

instructions configured to determine that the first strategy conflicts with the second strategy and in response to determining that the first strategy conflicts with the second strategy, adjust a matching score for a work item/agent pair in the contact center.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein executing the merged strategy comprises:

(i) executing the first strategy, (ii) checking to see if results of executing the first strategy contradict a condition in the second strategy, (iii) executing the second strategy, and (iv) then checking to see if results of executing the second strategy contradict a condition in the first strategy

18. A contact center, comprising:

a work assignment engine configured to execute a merged strategy that comprises a plurality of individual strategies, each of the individual strategies comprising discrete tasks and one or more rules defining conditions for performing the discrete tasks, wherein execution of the merged strategy enables the work assignment engine to determine whether execution of one of the plurality of individual strategies results in a violation of a work-item-to-agent assignment condition in another of the plurality of individual strategies.

19. The contact center of claim 18, wherein the plurality of individual strategies comprise at least one agent-finding-work strategy and at least one work-finding-agent strategy.

20. The contact center of claim 18, executing the merged strategy comprises:

(i) executing a first strategy, (ii) checking to see if results of executing the first strategy contradict a condition in a second strategy, (iii) executing the second strategy, and (iv) then checking to see if results of executing the second strategy contradict a condition in the first strategy.