Systems and methods for an omni-channel routing broker

• US 9,420,104 B1
• Filed: 08/18/2015
• Issued: 08/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Lintner, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Addy, Thjuan K
• Application Number:
  US14/829,347
• Time in Patent Office: 364 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265.09, 379/265.05, 379/265.1, 379/265.11, 379/266.01, 379/265.01, 379/266.08, 379/266.06, 379/265.14
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/402 Agent or workforce management
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5183 Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5232 Call distribution algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5237 Interconnection arrangements between ACD systems

Abstract

Omni-channel routing broker technology is usable to improve the experience for customers and for workers using service channels, especially for very large enterprise service operation centers that have large pools of agents, helping businesses determine the relative priority for handling a variety of service channels, and to efficiently route issues accordingly. Omni-channel routing broker includes intelligent routing of service requests in a large, distributed service center operation, efficiently prioritizing the routing of work across organizations to agents based on availability, capacity and priority—in a multi-tenant environment. The disclosed methods are usable for managing digital data for many tenants to software instances, including groups of users who share common access with a specific set of privileges to a software instance of at least one application. The disclosed technology makes possible the delivery of an improved performance from routing 3-4 requests per second to routing 100 requests per second.

Claims

1. A method of routing of service requests in a large, distributed service center, the method including:

across multiple nodes having disjoint memory spaces, tracking presence and status of agents in a plurality of disjoint agent pools and publishing update events to at least one event queue;

across one or more processors that have access to a node-based database used to track agent presence and status in one or more disjoint agent pools, processing selected update and request events, including;

updating the node-based database from the selected update events; and

publishing the selected request events to at least one node-based routing queue;

on a single thread per organization running on a processor having memory-bus access to the node-based database;

making routing decisions on the request events using the node-based database and updating the node-based database accordingly; and

publishing routing decision events to the event queue;

implementing the routing decision events, including;

testing the routing decision events for consistency with a master agent presence and status database; and

making consistency-qualified updates to the master agent presence and status database and publishing update events accordingly.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the master presence and status database stores agent presence and status data across agent pools serving the multiple nodes; and

the node-based database is a subset of the master presence and status database that is eventually consistent with the master presence and status database as a result of processing events from the event queue.

3. The method of claim 1, further including:

processing the selected update and request events from the event queue; and

on the single thread per organization, reading service request events from the node-based routing queue.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the distributed service center handles service requests for a plurality of organizations, each organization having an agent pool disjoint from agent pools of other organizations, and having one or more work queues for the organization'"'"'s disjoint agent pool.

5. The method of claim 1, further including:

tracking the presence and status of agents in the master presence and status database using multiple threads per node on the multiple nodes; and

updating the node-based database and publishing to the node-based routing queue using multiple threads.

6. The method of claim 1, further including:

in case of lack of consistency between a particular routing decision and the master presence and status database;

publishing a routing decision rollback event to the event queue and not applying the particular routing decision to the master presence and status database; and

updating the node-based database to roll back the routing decision.

7. The method of claim 1, applied to managing digital data for a plurality of tenants to software instances, each tenant of the plurality of tenants comprising a group of users who share a common access with a specific set of privileges to a software instance of at least one application, wherein each tenant includes one or more of the organizations.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the agent pool serving the organization includes agents working on a plurality of app servers, the method further including:

operating a single thread for routing service requests to the agent pool serving the organization across the plurality of app servers used by the agent pool.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the agent pool serving the organization includes agents working on a plurality of app servers, geographically disbursed across pods operating in different data centers, the method further including:

operating a single thread for routing service requests to the agent pool serving the organization across the plurality of app servers, geographically disbursed across pods operating in different data centers, used by the agent pool.

10. A system of routing of service requests in a large, distributed service center, the system including:

a processor, memory coupled to the processor, and computer instructions loaded into the memory that, when executed, cause the processor to implement a process that includes;

across multiple nodes having disjoint memory spaces, tracking presence and status of agents in a plurality of disjoint agent pools and publishing update events to at least one event queue;

across one or more processors that have access to a node-based database used to track agent presence and status in one or more disjoint agent pools, processing selected update and request events, including;

updating the node-based database from the selected update events; and

publishing the selected request events to at least one node-based routing queue;

on a single thread per organization running on a processor having memory-bus access to the node-based database;

making routing decisions on the requests events using the node-based database and updating the node-based database accordingly; and

publishing routing decision events to the event queue;

implementing the routing decision events, including;

testing the routing decision events for consistency with a master agent presence and status database; and

making consistency-qualified updates to the master agent presence and status database and publishing update events accordingly.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein:

the master presence and status database stores agent presence and status data across agent pools serving the multiple nodes; and

the node-based database is a subset of the master presence and status database that is eventually consistent with the master presence and status database as a result of processing events from the event queue.

12. The system of claim 10, further including:

processing the selected update and request events from the event queue; and

on the single thread per organization, reading service request events from the node-based routing queue.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the distributed service center handles service requests for a plurality of organizations, each organization having an agent pool disjoint from agent pools of other organizations, and having one or more work queues for the organization'"'"'s disjoint agent pool.

14. The system of claim 10, further including:

tracking the presence and status of agents in the master presence and status database using multiple threads per node on the multiple nodes; and

updating the node-based database and publishing to the node-based routing queue using multiple threads.

15. The system of claim 10, further including:

in case of lack of consistency between a particular routing decision and the master presence and status database;

publishing a routing decision rollback event to the event queue and not applying the particular routing decision to the master presence and status database; and

updating the node-based database to roll back the routing decision.

16. The system of claim 10, applied to managing digital data for a plurality of tenants to software instances, each tenant of the plurality of tenants comprising a group of users who share a common access with a specific set of privileges to a software instance of at least one application, wherein each tenant includes one or more of the organizations.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the agent pool serving the organization includes agents working on a plurality of app servers, the system further including:

a single thread, for routing service requests to the agent pool serving the organization, operated across the plurality of app servers used by the agent pool.

18. A tangible computer readable storage medium loaded with computer instructions that, when executed, cause a computer system to perform actions that route service requests in a large, distributed service center, the actions including:

across multiple nodes having disjoint memory spaces, tracking presence and status of agents in a plurality of disjoint agent pools and publishing update events to at least one event queue;

across one or more processors that have access to a node-based database used to track agent presence and status in one or more disjoint agent pools, processing selected update and request events, including;

updating the node-based database from the selected update events; and

publishing the selected request events to at least one node-based routing queue;

on a single thread per organization running on a processor having memory-bus access to the node-based database;

making routing decisions on the requests events using the node-based database and updating the node-based database accordingly; and

publishing routing decision events to the event queue;

implementing the routing decision events, including;

testing the routing decision events for consistency with a master agent presence and status database; and

making consistency-qualified updates to the master agent presence and status database and publishing update events accordingly.

19. A tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein:

the master presence and status database stores agent presence and status data across agent pools serving the multiple nodes; and

the node-based database is a subset of the master presence and status database that is eventually consistent with the master presence and status database as a result of processing events from the event queue.

20. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 18, further including:

processing the selected update and request events from the event queue; and

on the single thread per organization, reading service request events from the node-based routing queue.

21. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the distributed service center handles service requests for a plurality of organizations, each organization having an agent pool disjoint from agent pools of other organizations, and having one or more work queues for the organization'"'"'s disjoint agent pool.

22. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 18, further including:

tracking the presence and status of agents in the master presence and status database using multiple threads per node on the multiple nodes; and

updating the node-based database and publishing to the node-based routing queue using multiple threads.

23. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 18, further including:

in case of lack of consistency between a particular routing decision and the master presence and status database;

publishing a routing decision rollback event to the event queue and not applying the particular routing decision to the master presence and status database; and

updating the node-based database to roll back the routing decision.

24. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 18, applied to managing digital data for a plurality of tenants to software instances, each tenant of the plurality of tenants comprising a group of users who share a common access with a specific set of privileges to a software instance of at least one application, wherein each tenant includes one or more of the organizations.

25. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the agent pool serving the organization includes agents working on a plurality of app servers, geographically disbursed across pods operating in different data centers, the computer readable storage medium further including:

a single thread operated for routing service requests to the agent pool serving the organization across the plurality of app servers, geographically disbursed across pods operating in different data centers, used by the agent pool.