Real-time appointment of enterprise mobile agents in response to customer requests

• US 9,378,511 B2
• Filed: 07/15/2009
• Issued: 06/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chafle, Girish Bhimrao, Chakraborty, Dipanjan, Dasgupta, Koustuv, Kumar, Anant, Mittal, Sumit, Mukherjea, Sougata, Nagar, Seema
• Primary Examiner(s): Rotaru, Octavian
• Application Number:
  US12/503,241
• Publication Number:
  US 20110015963A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,540 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.13, 705/7.15, 705/7.16, 705/7.21, 705/7.22, 705/7.23, 705/7.25, 705/7.26, 705/7.27, 705/7.12, 705/7.17, 705/7.42, 701/300, 455/466
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 Schedule adjustment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration

Abstract

Techniques for enabling real-time enterprise workforce management over a telecom network are provided. The techniques include receiving real-time workforce information from one or more telecom networks, and using the real-time information for dynamic load optimization to enable real-time enterprise workforce management.

Claims

1. A method for enabling real-time enterprise workforce management comprising:

consolidating, a workforce management system, a map-based computer application of a real-time geographic information service, and a service delivery platform, to provide real-time information to an agent finder component;

simultaneously tracking, using the consolidating, a plurality of field technicians which are region-clustered based on recent movement patterns;

identifying, using the agent finder component, a first field technician, from the plurality of field technicians, who has a real-time location within a radius of a customer'"'"'s location;

communicating with said first field technician by dragging and dropping, on the map-based computer application, a short message service widget and a call widget on an icon on the map representing said first field technician;

assigning, based on the communicating and using a hardware processor, said first field technician to the customer'"'"'s location to provide a task, said task selected from a group comprising;

installation, repair, and un-installation of a work order, wherein the assigning further considers an availability of said first technician, a skill set of said first technician, and an average travel time margin in the region;

monitoring a trajectory of the first field technician before a designated start time of said task;

generating, based on;

the simultaneous tracking, the identifying, the assigning and the monitoring, an alert when the first field technician is beyond the radius of the customer'"'"'s location and suggesting a reassignment of a second field technician to the task at the customer'"'"'s location, wherein the second field technician is available and nearer to the customer'"'"'s location than the first field technician;

validating a presence of the second field technician once arrived at the customer'"'"'s location; and

generating, using the hardware processor, a report comprising;

a mean distance covered by the first technician and the second technician, a first time spent by the first technician and the second technician in different regions, and a second time taken by the first technician and the second technician to travel from the different regions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the real-time information comprises at least one of off-hook and on-hook status of each of the multiple agents of the enterprise, and on-call duration of each of the multiple agents of the enterprise.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the real-time enterprise workforce management comprises at least one of task assignment policy, task re-assignment policy, attendance management, and tracking of the multiple agents of the enterprise.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said assigning comprises assigning based on current work load of each of the plurality of field technicians.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said assigning comprises assigning multiple of the plurality of field technicians.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating an alert further comprises generating an alert upon suggestion of a task reassignment.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein generating an alert further comprises generating an alert upon detection of a deviation of a given one of the plurality of field technicians from a specified route.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein generating an alert further comprises generating an alert upon detection of a deviation of a given one of the plurality of field technicians from a specified region.

9. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium for enabling real-time enterprise workforce management, on which is recorded computer executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute steps of a method comprising:

consolidating, a workforce management system, a map-based computer application of a real-time geographic information service, and a service delivery platform, to provide real-time information to an agent finder component;

simultaneously tracking, using the consolidating, a plurality of field technicians which are region-clustered based on recent movement patterns;

identifying, using the agent finder component, a first field technician, from the plurality of field technicians, who has a real-time location within a radius of a customer'"'"'s location;

communicating with said first field technician by dragging and dropping, on the map-based computer application, a short message service widget and a call widget on an icon on the map representing said first field technician;

assigning, based on the communicating and using the processor, said first field technician to the customer'"'"'s location to provide a task, said task selected from a group comprising;

installation, repair, and un-installation of a work order, wherein the assigning further considers an availability of said first technician, a skill set of said first technician, and an average travel time margin in the region;

monitoring a trajectory of the first field technician before a designated start time of said task;

generating, based on;

the simultaneous tracking, the identifying, the assigning and the monitoring, an alert when the first field technician is beyond the radius of the customer'"'"'s location and suggesting a reassignment of a second field technician to the task at the customer'"'"'s location, wherein the second field technician is available and nearer to the customer'"'"'s location than the first field technician;

validating a presence of the second field technician once arrived at the customer'"'"'s location; and

generating, using the processor, a report comprising;

a mean distance covered by the first technician and the second technician, a first time spent by the first technician and the second technician in different regions, and a second time taken by the first technician and the second technician to travel from the different regions.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the real-time information comprises at least one of off-hook and on-hook status of each of the multiple agents of the enterprise, and on-call duration of each of the multiple agents of the enterprise.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the real-time enterprise workforce management comprises at least one of task assignment policy, task re-assignment policy, attendance management, and tracking of the multiple agents of the enterprise.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein said assigning comprises assigning based on current work load of each of the plurality of field technicians.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein said assigning comprises assigning multiple of the plurality of field technicians.

14. A system for enabling real-time enterprise workforce management, the system comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured for;

consolidating, a workforce management system, a map-based computer application of a real-time geographic information service, and a service delivery platform, to provide real-time information to an agent finder component;

simultaneously tracking, using the consolidating, a plurality of field technicians which are region-clustered based on recent movement patterns;

identifying, using the agent finder component, a first field technician, from the plurality of field technicians, who has a real-time location within a radius of a customer'"'"'s location;

communicating with said first field technician by dragging and dropping, on the map-based computer application, a short message service widget and a call widget on an icon on the map representing said first field technician;

assigning, based on the communicating and using the at least one processor, said first field technician to the customer'"'"'s location to provide a task, said task selected from a group comprising;

installation, repair, and un-installation of a work order, wherein the assigning further considers an availability of said first technician, a skill set of said first technician, and an average travel time margin in the region;

monitoring a trajectory of the first field technician before a designated start time of said task;

generating, based on;

the simultaneous tracking, the identifying, the assigning and the monitoring, an alert when the first field technician is beyond the radius of the customer'"'"'s location and suggesting a reassignment of a second field technician to the task at the customer'"'"'s location, wherein the second field technician is available and nearer to the customer'"'"'s location than the first field technician;

validating a presence of the second field technician once arrived at the customer'"'"'s location; and

generating, using the at least one processor, a report comprising;

a mean distance covered by the first technician and the second technician, a first time spent by the first technician and the second technician in different regions, and a second time taken by the first technician and the second technician to travel from the different regions.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the real-time information comprises at least one of off-hook and on-hook status of each of the multiple agents of the enterprise, and on-call duration of each of the multiple agents of the enterprise.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the real-time enterprise workforce management comprises at least one of task assignment policy, task re-assignment policy, attendance management, and tracking of the multiple agents of the enterprise.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein said assigning comprises assigning based on current work load of each of the plurality of field technicians.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein said assigning comprises assigning multiple of the plurality of field technicians.