Mechanism for creation and utilization of an attribute tree in a contact center

• US 9,569,751 B2
• Filed: 05/29/2014
• Issued: 02/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Steiner, Robert C., Ju, Wen-Hua
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsang, Fan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pope, Kharye
• Application Number:
  US14/290,650
• Publication Number:
  US 20150350431A1
• Time in Patent Office: 992 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265, 379/266, 379/265.09, 379/265.02, 379/265.06, 379/265.03, 379/265.07, 379/266.07, 379/211.02, 379/265.12, 379/265.13, 379/266.02, 707/999.1, 707/E17.011, 707/798
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A graph database is described for use in connection with a contact center. The graph database includes a plurality of nodes and relationships that describe the operations, entities, personnel, and attributes in the contact center. Also included in the graph database is an attribute tree that enables a work assignment engine in the contact center to make proximity-based work assignment decisions.

Claims

1. A graph database apparatus, comprising:

a database interface that connects the graph database apparatus to a communication network; and

a data storage medium comprising a plurality of data elements stored therein, the plurality of data elements comprising an attribute tree comprising a plurality of nodes and at least one relationship defined between the plurality of nodes, wherein the plurality of nodes comprise nodes for a plurality of resources, wherein the plurality of resources comprise resources of a contact center, a work item, and a workflow task, and the at least one relationship enables a work assignment engine to traverse the nodes of the attribute tree when making a work assignment decision,

wherein every data element in the graph database apparatus is directly linked to every one of its adjacent data elements.

2. The graph database apparatus of claim 1, wherein, when an unassigned work item waiting for assignment to a resource cannot be matched with a resource of the plurality of resources comprising attributes that perfectly match processing requirements of the unassigned work item waiting for assignment, then the work assignment engine traverses the nodes of the attribute tree to search the contact center for non-optimal resources in the plurality of resources to assign to the unassigned work item.

3. The graph database apparatus of claim 2, wherein traversal of the attribute tree from one of the plurality of nodes to another of the plurality of nodes is assessed a traversal value that represents a cost associated with assigning the unassigned work item waiting for assignment to a non-optimal resource.

4. The graph database apparatus of claim 3, wherein the traversal value is calculated based on a value of each node in the plurality of nodes that is traversed, and wherein the traversal value is maintained as a property of at least one of the plurality of nodes.

5. The graph database apparatus of claim 3, wherein the traversal value is maintained as a property of the at least one relationship.

6. The graph database apparatus of claim 3, wherein the work assignment engine identifies, by traversal of the attribute tree, a first resource of the plurality of resources as an available but non-optimal resource for processing the work item, assigns a cost associated with assigning the unassigned work item to the first resource, and weighs the cost associated with assigning the unassigned work item against a cost associated with waiting for the resource comprising attributes that perfectly match the processing requirements of the unassigned work item.

7. The graph database apparatus of claim 1, wherein one or more of the plurality of nodes are connected to a first resource node via a first relationship and wherein the first relationship comprises at least one property that describes the first resource'"'"'s proficiency associated with the one or more of the plurality of nodes.

8. The graph database apparatus of claim 1, wherein the attribute tree is a hierarchical organization of the plurality of nodes comprising static relationships and dynamic relationships, wherein the static relationships comprise attributes of the plurality of resources, and wherein the dynamic relationships comprise histories of the plurality of resources, preferences of the plurality of resources, and goals of the plurality of resources.

9. The graph database apparatus of claim 1, wherein the graph database apparatus further comprises process controls of the contact center and work flows of the contact center such that the work assignment decision, the process controls, and the work flows use a common data structure accessed by the work assignment engine, and wherein the work assignment engine traverses the attribute tree to make proximity-based work assignment decisions.

10. A contact center, comprising:

a server comprising a processor that processes work assignment decisions;

a work assignment engine comprising instructions executed by the processor to process the work assignment decisions; and

a graph database, comprising;

a database interface that connects the graph database to the work assignment engine; and

a data storage medium comprising a plurality of data elements stored therein, the plurality of data elements comprising an attribute tree comprising a plurality of nodes and at least one relationship defined between the plurality of nodes, wherein the plurality of nodes comprise nodes for a plurality of resources, wherein the plurality of resources comprise resources of a contact center, a work item, and a workflow task, and the at least one relationship enables the work assignment engine to traverse the nodes of the attribute tree when making at least one of the work assignment decisions,

wherein every data element in the graph database is directly linked to every one of its adjacent data elements.

11. The contact center of claim 10, wherein, when an unassigned work item waiting for assignment to a resource cannot be matched with a resource comprising attributes that perfectly match processing requirements of the unassigned work item waiting for assignment, then the work assignment engine traverses the nodes of the attribute tree to search the contact center for non-optimal resources in the plurality of resources to assign to the unassigned work item.

12. The contact center of claim 11, wherein traversal of the attribute tree from one of the plurality of nodes to another of the plurality of nodes is assessed a traversal value that represents a cost associated with assigning the unassigned work item waiting for assignment to a non-optimal resource.

13. The contact center of claim 10, wherein the graph database comprises data elements for historical workflow models and real-time workflow models, and wherein the graph database is modeled into regions representing metrics of the contact center for a visual representation of the metrics.

14. The contact center of claim 12, wherein the attribute tree comprises goals for at least some of the resources of the contact center, and wherein the work assignment engine considers the goals with the traversal value.

15. The contact center of claim 12, wherein the work assignment engine identifies, by traversal of the attribute tree in multiple directions, a first resource of the plurality of resources as an available but non-optimal resource for processing the work item, assigns a cost associated with assigning the unassigned work item to the first resource, and weighs the cost associated with assigning the unassigned work item against a cost associated with waiting for the resource comprising attributes that perfectly match the processing requirements of the unassigned work item.

16. The contact center of claim 10, wherein every data element in the graph database comprises a direct pointer to adjacent elements.

17. The contact center of claim 10, wherein the attribute tree comprises some of the plurality of nodes being organized in a hierarchical organization within the graph database, and the other of the plurality of nodes being organized in a non-hierarchical organization within the graph database, and wherein the addition of new nodes to the attribute tree does not require a join operation.

18. The contact center of claim 10, wherein the work assignment engine uses the attribute tree to make proximity-based work assignment decisions by traversal of the attribute tree when a work item comes into the contact center for a work assignment decision to assign the work item to a data element in the attribute tree, and wherein new nodes are created automatically in the attribute tree based on unstructured data that comes into the contact center.

19. A method for using a graph database apparatus, comprising:

determining, by a processor, that a work item has been received in a contact center;

in response to determining that the work item has been received in the contact center, identifying, by the processor, one or more processing requirements associated with the work item;

mapping, by a work assignment engine, the one or more processing requirements associated with the work item to resource attributes, wherein the resource attributes are defined in an attribute tree comprising a plurality of nodes and at least one relationship defined between the plurality of nodes, wherein the attribute tree is maintained as a data structure in a graph database apparatus, and wherein the plurality of nodes further comprise a work item and a workflow task; and

based on the mapping by the work assignment engine of the one or more processing requirements associated with the work item to the resource attributes, matching, by the processor, the work item to a resource,

wherein every data element in the graph database apparatus is directly linked to every one of its adjacent data elements.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the resource does not comprise all attributes for the one or more processing requirements and wherein the attribute tree is traversed by a work assignment engine to identify the resource.