Automatic contact center expansion and contraction

• US 9,516,169 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2014
• Issued: 12/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Reilly, John, Eustace, Tom, Nowak, Dawid, McGreevy, John, Dervan, Siobhn
• Primary Examiner(s): Addy, Thjuan K
• Application Number:
  US14/562,456
• Publication Number:
  US 20160165052A1
• Time in Patent Office: 732 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265.1, 379/265.11, 379/265.05, 379/265.01, 379/265.06
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/402 Agent or workforce management
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5238 with waiting time or load prediction arrangements

Abstract

A contact center, methods, and mechanisms are provided for dynamically scaling a contact center based on scaling triggers and monitored activity. The monitored activity includes information provided from one or more sources. This information serves to indicate whether a contact center activity is increasing, decreasing, or maintaining a steady-state. When the activity at a contact center is increasing, a scaling mechanism increases a number of resources provisioned to the contact center according to rules. When the activity at a contact center is decreasing, a scaling mechanism decreases a number of resources provisioned to the contact center according to rules. The scaling triggers are created, removed, modified, or otherwise classified as correlations between monitored activity and contact center scaling are observed.

Claims

1. A contact center, comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable medium coupled with the processor, the computer-readable medium comprising instructions that are executable by the processor, the instructions comprising;

a scaling mechanism which causes the processor to automatically determine a level of activity associated with the contact center at one or more time periods based at least partially on activity data provided by one or more information sources communicatively connected to the contact center, wherein the activity data comprises key information comprising data corresponding to a generation of keys for interactions between customer communication devices and resources of the contact center, wherein the scaling mechanism further causes the processor to determine whether the level of activity matches at least one scaling trigger for scaling the contact center and to automatically scale the contact center by adjusting a configuration of a group of provisioned resources associated with the contact center when the level of activity matches the at least one scaling trigger.

2. The contact center of claim 1, wherein the processor determines whether the level of activity matches at least one scaling trigger for scaling the contact center by comparing first activity data received at a first time period to second activity data received at a second time period for an increase or decrease in the level of activity, wherein increases in the level of activity over time provide an expansion scaling adjustment, and wherein decreases in the level of activity over time provide a contraction scaling adjustment.

3. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a processor of a contact center, activity data provided from one or more sources communicatively connected to the contact center, wherein the activity data corresponds to a level of activity associated with the contact center at a time that the activity data is provided, and wherein the activity data comprises key information comprising data corresponding to a generation of keys for interactions between customer communication devices and resources of the contact center;

storing, by the processor, the activity data in a computer-readable medium associated with the processor;

determining, by the processor, whether the stored activity data matches scaling information; and

scaling, by the processor, the contact center by automatically adjusting a configuration of a group of provisioned resources associated with the contact center when the stored activity data matches the scaling information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining whether the stored activity data matches scaling information further comprises:

analyzing, by the processor, the activity data stored in the computer-readable medium for changes over time, wherein increases in the level of activity over time provide an expansion scaling adjustment, and wherein decreases in the level of activity over time provide a contraction scaling adjustment.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the computer-readable medium comprises a partitioned in-computer-readable medium data grid, and wherein the partitioned in-computer-readable medium data grid is configured for maintaining data in a format for big data analysis by the processor.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the activity data received at the processor is included in at least one portion of data provided by the one or more sources, and prior to storing the activity data, the method further comprises:

filtering, by the processor, the activity data from the data provided by the one or more sources; and

classifying, by the processor, the filtered activity data as a particular type of activity data for storage in a location of the computer-readable medium associated with the processor.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein determining whether the stored activity data matches scaling information further comprises:

determining, by the processor, whether the stored activity data matches at least one scaling trigger criterion stored in the computer-readable medium.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein prior to scaling the contact center, the method further comprises:

determining, by the processor, whether rules stored in the computer-readable medium allow for contact center scaling, wherein the rules comprise one or more factors corresponding to a desired operational state of the contact center; and

allowing, by the processor, contact center scaling only when the stored activity data matches the at least one scaling trigger criterion stored in the computer-readable medium and when a current contact center state matches the desired operational state of the contact center.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

detecting, by the processor after determining that the stored activity data does not match scaling information, that a contact center has not been scaled;

monitoring, by the processor, a state of the contact center not scaled;

determining, by the processor, whether the state of the contact center has fallen below a threshold performance value; and

generating, by the processor in response to determining that the state of the contact center has fallen below the threshold performance value, a new scaling trigger criterion based at least partially on the stored activity data.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

monitoring, by the processor, a state of the contact center after the contact center is scaled;

determining, by the processor, whether the state of the contact center has fallen below a threshold performance value; and

generating, by the processor in response to determining that the state of the contact center has fallen below the threshold performance value, a new scaling trigger criterion based at least partially on the stored activity data.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein prior to scaling the contact center, the method further comprises:

providing, by the processor, a scaling output identifying a type of scaling instruction when the stored activity data matches the at least one scaling trigger criterion stored in the computer-readable medium, and wherein the scaling instruction defines the adjustment to the configuration of the group of provisioned resources.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the type of scaling instruction comprises information for one of expanding and contracting the group of provisioned resources associated with the contact center, wherein expanding the group comprises adding one or more resources to the group, and wherein contracting the group comprises releasing one or more resources from the group of provisioned resources.

20. The method of claim 3, wherein the activity data comprises interaction data for the interactions of the contact center, wherein the interaction data comprises one or more of a size of data associated with a particular interaction at the contact center, an identification of one or more links to sites or pages viewed in the particular interaction, or notes or comments associated with the particular interaction, and resource data comprising information defining whether a particular resource is in the group of provisioned resources or in a group of unprovisioned resources.

13. A server, comprising:

a processor; and

a computer readable medium, coupled to the processor and comprising instructions stored thereon that cause the processor to;

automatically determine a level of activity associated with a contact center over time, wherein the level of activity is based at least partially on key information generated for interactions between communication devices of customers and resources of the contact center over time, wherein the key information comprises a number of keys generated by the processor, a timing for each of the number of keys generated, or a key lifetime for each of the number of keys generated;

automatically determine whether the level of activity matches at least one scaling trigger for scaling the contact center; and

automatically scale the contact center by adjusting a configuration of a group of provisioned resources associated with the contact center when the level of activity matches the at least one scaling trigger.

14. The server of claim 13, wherein the key lifetime for each of the number of keys generated comprises an amount of time that a key associated with a particular interaction at the contact center has existed.

15. The server of claim 14, wherein the processor is further caused to:

automatically determine whether the key lifetime for at least one of the number of keys generated exceeds a predetermined threshold.

16. The server of claim 15, wherein the processor is further caused to:

analyze attributes of interactions with key lifetimes exceeding the predetermined threshold; and

provide an expansion scaling adjustment adding at least one resource to the interactions with key lifetimes exceeding the predetermined threshold, the at least one resource comprising one or more attributes that are different from the analyzed attributes.

17. The server of claim 13, wherein the level of activity is based at least partially on interaction data for the interactions between the communication devices of customers and the resources of the contact center over time.

18. The server of claim 17, wherein the interaction data comprises a size of data associated with a particular interaction at the contact center, an identification of one or more links to sites or pages viewed in the particular interaction, and notes or comments associated with the particular interaction.

19. The server of claim 18, wherein the level of activity is based at least partially on resource data for the contact center over time, the resource data comprising information defining whether a particular resource is in the group of provisioned resources or in a group of unprovisioned resources.