Systems and methods for integrating outsourcers

• US 20070299680A1
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Fama, Jason, Peleg, Uri, Shvarts, Simon, Bourke, Mike, Nies, James Gordon, Prabhu, Vinod
• Granted Patent: US 7,660,406 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/265.05
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales

Abstract

Systems and methods for integrating outsourcers are provided. In this regard, a representative method includes: receiving information corresponding to resources of a first contact center; and correlating the information with other information in order to improve integration of resources of the first contact center with resources of one or more other contact centers.

Claims

1. A method for integrating outsourcers comprising:

receiving information corresponding to resources of a first contact center that shares contacts with a second contact center;

importing the information into a database, the database being accessible to a workforce manager application associated with the second contact center that is operative to retrieve information stored in the database;

correlating the resources contained in the information with resources that are to be used at the second contact center; and

allocating resources of the second contact center using the information from the database, wherein the allocating is based, at least in part, on a correlation between the resources of the first contact center and the second contact center.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising allocating contacts between the first contact center and the second contact center, wherein at least some of the contacts are communicated via Internet protocol (IP) packets.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the resources include agents; and

allocating comprises determining work schedules of the agents of the second contact center.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein allocating work schedules for the agents of the second contact center comprises evaluating potential schedules for agents of the second contact center based on service level goals computed using contributions of the agents of the first contact center.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein, in receiving information, the information is received from a workforce manager application, associated with the first contact center, of a disparate type with respect to the workforce manager application associated with the second contact center.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first contact center is a remote contact center and the second contact center is a local contact center.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the information received is configured as an XML file.

8. A method for integrating outsourcers comprising:

receiving information corresponding to resources of a first contact center; and

correlating the information with other information in order to improve integration of resources of the first contact center with resources of one or more other contact centers.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

receiving comprises receiving information corresponding to work schedules of agents of the first contact center; and

correlating comprises tracking the first contact center to ensure adherence to the work schedules.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein:

correlating comprises correlating skills of agents of the first contact center with skills that are to be used for scheduling agents of a second contact center; and

the method further comprises generating work schedules for the agents of the second contact center based, at least in part, on a correlation between the skills of the agents of the first contact center and the second contact center, and an evaluation of the work schedules of the agents of the second contact center.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising importing the information into a database, the database being accessible to a workforce manager application associated with the second contact center that is operative to retrieve information stored in the database and generate work schedules using the information from the database.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising allocating contacts between the agents of the first and second contact centers based, at lest in part, on the schedules;

and

wherein at least some of the contacts are communicated via Internet protocol (IP) packets.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein generating work schedules comprises evaluating potential schedules for agents of the second contact center based on service level goals computed using contributions of the agents of the first contact center.

14. A system for integrating outsourcers comprising:

an integration system operative to receive information corresponding to resources of a first contact center, the integration system being further operative to correlate the received information with other information in order to improve integration of resources of the first contact center with resources of one or more other contact centers.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the information is received as an XML file.

16. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

a scheduling system operative to communicate with the integration system and to generate work schedules for agents of a second contact center based, at least in part, on a correlation between skills of agents of the first contact center and the second contact center, and an evaluation of work schedules for the agents of the first contact center, wherein the work schedules for the agents of the first contact center are contained in the information received by the integration system.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising a forecasting system operative to communicate with the integration system and to create a contact volume and average interaction time forecast of events for a specified time frame during which the work schedules are to be generated for the agents of the first contact center.

18. The system of claim 16, further comprising a database operative to store the information corresponding to the work schedules and the skills of agents of the remote contact center.

19. The system of claim 16, further comprising means for storing the information corresponding to the work schedules and the skills of agents of the remote contact center.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein, in generating the schedules, the scheduling system is operative to evaluate potential schedules for agents of the second contact center based on service level goals computed using contributions of the agents of the first contact center.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein, in generating the schedules, the scheduling system does not alter the work schedules of the agents of the first contact center.