Method and system for a scalable computer-telephony integration system

• US 9,544,434 B1
• Filed: 03/21/2016
• Issued: 01/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Original Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Inventors: Kammeyer, Aaron C., Kirchner, Randall J., Ward, Christopher L., Littell, Louis A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Khai N
• Application Number:
  US15/075,679
• Time in Patent Office: 295 Days
• Field of Search: 379/210.01, 379/265.01, 379/265.02, 379/265.03, 379/265.04, 379/265.05, 379/265.06, 379/265.07, 379/265.08, 379/265.09, 379/265.1, 379/265.11, 379/265.12, 379/265.13, 379/265.14, 379/266.01, 379/266.02, 379/266.03, 379/266.04, 379/266.05, 379/266.06, 379/266.07, 379/266.08, 379/266.09, 379/266.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/84 output devices, e.g. displays or monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/256 comprising a service specific user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/404 Collaboration among agents
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/558 Databases
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/60 related to security aspects in telephonic communication systems network architectures or network communication protocols for network security H04L63/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/6009 Personal information, e.g. profiles or personal directories being only provided to authorised persons
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/6018 Subscriber or terminal logon/logoff
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5133 Operator terminal details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5166 in combination with interactive voice response systems or voice portals, e.g. as front-ends
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5183 Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/58 Arrangements for transferring received calls from one subscriber to another; Arrangements affording interim conversations between either the calling or the called party and a third party substation line holding circuits H04M1/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0012 : Details of application programming interfaces [API] for telephone networks; Arrangements which combine a telephonic communication equipment and a computer, i.e. computer telephony integration [CPI] arrangements

Abstract

Methods, systems, apparatus, and non-transitory computer readable media are described for a scalable computer-telephony integration system. Various aspects may include storing sets of call agent login information for several call agents within the computer-telephony integration system and across several independent computing systems in a contact center login database. Additionally, various aspects may include generating several contact center service categories and sets of contact information for each contact center service category, which may be stored in a contact center directory database. When an incoming call is received from a customer, various aspects may include obtaining customer call information from the customer and generating a customer call key, which may be stored as a reference to the customer call information in a contact center customer call information database. The call key may be used to reduce an amount of data electronically transferred between call agents during telephone call transfers.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing a contact center directory in a scalable computer-telephony integration system, the method executed by one or more processors programmed to perform the method, the method comprising:

generating, via one more processors, a plurality of contact center service categories each corresponding to a particular type of contact center service in a computer-telephony integration system;

for each of the plurality of contact center service categories;

generating, via the one or more processors, one or more sets of contact information for communicating with call agents assigned to the respective contact center service category; and

storing, via the one or more processors, the respective contact center service category along with a reference to each of the one or more sets of contact information assigned to the respective contact center service category in a database; and

for a call agent of a plurality of call agents;

presenting, via the one or more processors, one or more contact center service categories of the plurality of contact center service categories which the call agent has permission to access, and one or more sets of contact information assigned to each of the one or more contact center service categories on a display for use by the call agent; and

presenting, via the one or more processors, one or more user controls for transferring, dialing, or conferencing the call agents associated with the one or more sets of presented contact information on the display to facilitate efficiently transferring calls to call agents best suited for responding to an inquiry by a customer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for each of the plurality of contact center service categories, assigning, via the one or more processors, at least some of the plurality of call agents permission to access the respective contact center service category such that the at least some call agents have permission to view the respective contact center service category and associated one or more sets of contact information for communicating with the call agents assigned to the respective contact center service category.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising, for each of the plurality of contact center service categories denying, via the one or more processors, access to the respective contact center service category for call agents who are not assigned permission to access the respective contact center service category such that the unassigned call agents cannot view the respective contact center service category and associated one or more sets of contact information for communicating with the call agents assigned to the respective contact center service category.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein assigning, for each of the plurality of contact center service categories, at least some of the plurality of call agents permission to access the respective contact center service category, includes:

generating, via the one or more processors, a security group which includes a plurality of users who belong to the security group, wherein each user who belongs to the security group has permission to access the respective contact center service category and the associated one or more sets of contact information for communicating with call agents assigned to the respective contact center service category; and

assigning, by the one or more processors, the at least some call agents to the security group based upon at least one of;

(i) a job function related to a role of each of the at least some call agents within the computer-telephony integration system, or (ii) a contact center location corresponding to each of the at least some call agents within the computer-telephony integration system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the display is a first display and further comprising:

for a system administrator;

presenting, via the one or more processors, the plurality of contact center service categories and each of the one or more sets of contact information assigned to the plurality of contact center service categories on a second display for use by the system administrator; and

presenting, via the one or more processors, one or more user controls for editing the presented one or more sets of contact information on the second display.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more user controls for editing allow the system administrator to add a set of contact information to the database, remove a set of contact information from the database, assign a set of contact information to a contact center service category, and remove an association between a contact center service category and a set of contact information.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein when the system administrator updates or removes one of the sets of contact information via the one or more user controls, the method further comprises:

updating or removing, via the one or more processors, the set of contact information in or from the database; and

for the call agent, presenting, via the one or more processors, the updated or removed set of contact information with each of the contact center service categories that the updated or removed set of contact information is assigned to on the first display.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein when the system administrator, via the one or more user controls, removes one of the sets of contact information from one of the contact center service categories with which the set of contact information is assigned, the method further comprises:

removing, via the one or more processors, the reference to the set of contact information stored with the contact center service category in the database.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein when the system administrator, via the one or more user controls adds a set of contact information and assigns the added set of contact information to one or more of the plurality of contact center service categories, the method further comprises:

storing, via the one or more processors, the added set of contact information in the database; and

for each of the assigned contact center service categories, storing, via the one or more processors, a reference to the added set of contact information with the respective assigned contact center service category in the database.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a particular type of contact center service includes at least one of:

a banking service, an insurance sales service, an insurance claims service, a support service, an insurance underwriting service, or an insurance deductible service.

11. A system for managing a contact center directory in a scalable computer-telephony integration system, the system comprising:

one or more processors;

a communication network;

a database;

a non-transitory computer-readable memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors, the communication network, and the database, and storing thereon instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to;

generate a plurality of contact center service categories each corresponding to a particular type of contact center service in a computer-telephony integration system;

for each of the plurality of contact center service categories;

generate one or more sets of contact information for communicating with call agents assigned to the respective contact center service category; and

store the respective contact center service category along with a reference to each of the one or more sets of contact information assigned to the respective contact center service category in the database; and

for a call agent of a plurality of call agents;

present, via the communication network, one or more contact center service categories of the plurality of contact center service categories which the call agent has permission to access, and one or more sets of contact information assigned to each of the one or more contact center service categories on a display for use by the call agent; and

present, via the communication network, one or more user controls for transferring, dialing, or conferencing the call agents associated with the one or more sets of presented contact information on the display to facilitate efficiently transferring calls to call agents best suited for responding to an inquiry by a customer.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the system to:

for each of the plurality of contact center service categories, assign at least some of the plurality of call agents permission to access the respective contact center service category such that the at least some call agents have permission to view the respective contact center service category and associated one or more sets of contact information for communicating with the call agents assigned to the respective contact center service category.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the instructions further cause the system to:

for each of the plurality of contact center service categories, deny access to the respective contact center service category for call agents who are not assigned permission to access the respective contact center service category such that the unassigned call agents cannot view the respective contact center service category and associated one or more sets of contact information for communicating with the call agents assigned to the respective contact center service category.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein to assign, for each of the plurality of contact center service categories, at least some of the plurality of call agents permission to access the respective contact center service category, the instructions cause the system to:

generate a security group which includes a plurality of users who belong to the security group, wherein each user who belongs to the security group has permission to access the respective contact center service category and the associated one or more sets of contact information for communicating with call agents assigned to the respective contact center service category; and

assign the at least some call agents to the security group based upon at least one of;

(i) a job function related to a role of each of the at least some call agents within the computer-telephony integration system, or (ii) a contact center location corresponding to each of the at least some call agents within the computer-telephony integration system.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the display is a first display and wherein the instructions further cause the system to:

for a system administrator;

present, via the communication network, the plurality of contact center service categories and each of the one or more sets of contact information assigned to the plurality of contact center service categories on a second display for use by the system administrator; and

present, via the communication network, one or more user controls for editing the presented one or more sets of contact information on the second display.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more user controls for editing allow the system administrator to add a set of contact information to the database, remove a set of contact information from the database, assign a set of contact information to a contact center service category, and remove an association between a contact center service category and a set of contact information.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein when the system administrator updates or removes one of the sets of contact information via the one or more user controls, the instructions further cause the system to:

update or remove the set of contact information in or from the database; and

for the call agent, present, via the communication network, the updated or removed set of contact information with each of the contact center service categories that the updated or removed set of contact information is assigned to on the first display.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein when the system administrator, via the one or more user controls, removes one of the sets of contact information from one of the contact center service categories with which the set of contact information is assigned, the instructions further cause the system to:

remove the reference to the set of contact information stored with the contact center service category in the database.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein when the system administrator, via the one or more user controls adds a set of contact information and assigns the added set of contact information to one or more of the plurality of contact center service categories, the instructions further cause the system to:

store the added set of contact information in the database; and

for each of the assigned contact center service categories, store a reference to the added set of contact information with the respective assigned contact center service category in the database.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein a particular type of contact center service includes at least one of:

a banking service, an insurance sales service, an insurance claims service, a support service, an insurance underwriting service, or an insurance deductible service.