Method and system for analyzing contact studies

• US 9,846,846 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2006
• Issued: 12/19/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated (Kyndryl Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ricketts, John A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Waldron, Scott A
• Assistant Examiner(s): MINA, FATIMA P
• Application Number:
  US11/559,519
• Publication Number:
  US 20080112557A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,053 Days
• Field of Search: 707608, 707736, 707798
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A method, system and computer-readable medium for analyzing contact studies for a call service center is presented. The method includes the steps of: acquiring data instances of a Collector tool from all persons monitoring contacts at a call service center during a given study period; retrieving a study design from a Planner tool to verify that acquired data instances conform to the study design; selecting data parameters for the acquired data instances, wherein the data parameters describe multiple features of the acquired data; automatically selecting an appropriate chart format that is appropriate for measurement units used by the data parameters; and creating a chart using the appropriate chart format and the data parameters. The steps in the method may all be automatically performed by an Analyzer logic.

Claims

1. A method for analyzing contact studies for a call service center, the method comprising:

acquiring data instances of a Collector tool from all persons and software driven monitors monitoring contacts at a call service center during a given study period into a database, wherein the contacts include telephone calls that each have multiple phases, and wherein each of the multiple phases has a respective phase code and the multiple phases include a classify phase, a diagnosis phase, and a resolution phase;

identifying a phase out of the multiple phases of a telephone call by identifying keywords associated with an identified phase in the telephone call to determine a contact type of the telephone call;

correcting any erroneous and incomplete data instances of the acquired data instances, including discarding data instances which are not needed for any application;

retrieving a study design from a Planner tool to verify that the acquired data instances conform to the study design;

evaluating the database to ensure sample sizes of the acquired data instances are adequate for the study design;

performing transformations on the acquired data instances to satisfy assumptions of statistical models to determine whether notification for a collection of new data instances needs to be sent to the Collector tool;

selecting data parameters for the acquired data instances, wherein the data parameters describe multiple features of the acquired data instances, wherein the data parameters include the multiple phases, a parameter representing when an issue was resolved, and a parameter representing customer satisfaction;

automatically selecting an appropriate chart format that is appropriate for measurement units used by the data parameters; and

creating a chart using the appropriate chart format and the data parameters, wherein the chart includes a respective time spent in each of the multiple phases.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein all steps in claim 1 are automatically performed by an Analyzer logic.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

automatically generating one or more questions regarding operations of the call service center, wherein the one or more questions are automatically generated by the Analyzer logic by associating one or more pre-defined questions with selected data parameters.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

consolidating the data instances, from multiple independent storage devices, into a single database that is accessible to the Analyzer logic.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

automatically sorting, via the Analyzer logic, the depicted data instances in the chart, wherein data instances are spatially depicted in a decreasing order.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the call service center is part of a Business Transformation Outsourcing (BTO) service.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by an Assistance Allocation Manager (AAM), a Data for Initiating Assistance (DIA) from a resource in a data processing system; and

in response to receiving the DIA, executing a rule, in the AAM, that is specific for the DIA and the resource that sent the DIA, wherein executing the rule in the AAM causes the steps described in claim 1 to be executed for the resource that sent the DIA.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the instructions are further configured for:

receiving, by an Assistance Allocation Manager (AAM), a Data for Initiating Assistance (DIA) from a resource in a data processing system; and

in response to receiving the DIA, executing a rule, in the AAM, that is specific for the DIA and the resource that sent the DIA, wherein executing the rule in the AAM causes the steps described in claim 1 to be executed for the resource that sent the DIA.

8. A system for analyzing contact studies for a call service center, the system comprising:

a processor;

a data bus coupled to the processor;

a memory coupled to the data bus; and

a computer-usable medium embodying computer program code, wherein the computer readable storage medium is not a transitory signal per se, the computer program code comprising instructions executable by the processor and configured for executing steps that comprise;

acquiring data instances of a Collector tool from all persons and software driven monitors monitoring contacts at a call service center during a given study period into a database, wherein the contacts include telephone calls that each have multiple phases, and wherein each of the multiple phases has a respective phase code and the multiple phases include a classify phase, a diagnosis phase, and a resolution phase;

identifying a phase out of the multiple phases of a telephone call by identifying keywords associated with an identified phase in the telephone call to determine a contact type of the telephone call;

correcting any erroneous and incomplete data instances of the acquired data instances, including discarding data instances which are not needed for any application;

retrieving a study design from a Planner tool to verify that the acquired data instances conform to the study design;

evaluating the database to ensure sample sizes of the acquired data instances are adequate for the study design;

performing transformations on the acquired data instances to satisfy assumptions of statistical models to determine whether notification for a collection of new data instances needs to be sent to the Collector tool;

selecting data parameters for the acquired data instances, wherein the data parameters describe multiple features of the acquired data instances, wherein the data parameters include the multiple phases, a parameter representing when an issue was resolved, and a parameter representing customer satisfaction;

automatically selecting an appropriate chart format that is appropriate for measurement units used by the data parameters; and

creating a chart using the appropriate chart format and the data parameters, wherein the chart includes a respective time spent in each of the multiple phases.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein all steps are automatically performed by an Analyzer logic.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the instructions are further configured for:

automatically generating one or more questions regarding operations of the call service center, wherein the one or more questions are automatically generated by the Analyzer logic by associating one or more pre-defined questions with selected data parameters.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the instructions are further configured for:

consolidating the data instances, from multiple independent storage devices, into a single database that is accessible to the Analyzer logic.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions are further configured for:

automatically sorting, via the Analyzer logic, the depicted data instances in the chart, wherein data instances are spatially depicted in a decreasing order.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the instructions are further configured for:

exporting a sorted chart and the one or more questions into a written report.

15. A storage device embodying computer program code for analyzing contact studies for a call service center, the computer program code embodied on a computer-usable medium which is not a transitory signal per se, and comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed by a data processing system, are configured for:

acquiring data instances of a Collector tool from all persons and software driven monitors monitoring contacts at a call service center during a given study period into a database, wherein the contacts include telephone calls that each have multiple phases, and wherein each of the multiple phases has a respective phase code and the multiple phases include a classify phase, a diagnosis phase, and a resolution phase;

identifying a phase out of the multiple phases of a telephone call by identifying keywords associated with an identified phase in the telephone call to determine a contact type of the telephone call;

correcting any erroneous and incomplete data instances, including discarding data instances which are not needed for any application;

retrieving a study design from a Planner tool to verify that the acquired data instances conform to the study design;

evaluating the database to ensure sample sizes of the acquired data instances are adequate for the study design;

performing transformations on the acquired data instances to satisfy assumptions of statistical models to determine whether notification for a collection of new data instances needs to be sent to the Collector tool;

selecting data parameters for the acquired data instances, wherein the data parameters describe multiple features of the acquired data instances, wherein the data parameters include the multiple phases, a parameter representing when an issue was resolved, and a parameter representing customer satisfaction;

automatically selecting an appropriate chart format that is appropriate for measurement units used by the data parameters; and

creating a chart using the appropriate chart format and the data parameters, wherein the chart includes a respective time spent in each of the multiple phases.

16. The storage device of claim 15, wherein all steps are automatically performed by an Analyzer logic.

17. The storage device of claim 16, wherein the instructions are further configured for:

automatically generating one or more questions regarding operations of the call service center, wherein the one or more questions are automatically generated by the Analyzer logic by associating one or more pre-defined questions with selected data parameters.

18. The storage device of claim 17, wherein the instructions are further configured for:

consolidating the data instances, from multiple independent storage devices, into a single database that is accessible to the Analyzer logic.

19. The storage device of claim 15, wherein the computer executable instructions are deployable to a client computer from a download server that is at a remote location.

20. The storage device of claim 15, wherein the computer executable instructions are provided by a download service provider to a client computer on an on-demand basis.