Systems and Methods for Scheduling Contact Center Agents

• US 20080043985A1
• Filed: 06/26/2007
• Published: 02/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Witness Systems Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Nies, James, Peleg, Uri, Fama, Jason, Shvarts, Simon, Bourke, Mike, Prabhu, Vinod
• Granted Patent: US 7,660,407 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/265.03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5237 Interconnection arrangements between ACD systems

Abstract

Systems and methods for scheduling contact center agents are provided. In this regard, a representative method includes: receiving information corresponding to work schedules and skills of agents of a remote contact center that shares contacts with a local contact center; correlating the skills with skills that are to be used for scheduling agents of the local contact center; and generating work schedules for the agents of the local contact center based, at least in part, on a correlation between the skills of the agents of the remote contact center and the local contact center, and an evaluation of the work schedules of the agents of the remote contact center.

Claims

1. A method for scheduling contact center agents, comprising:

receiving information corresponding to work schedules and skills of agents of a remote contact center site that shares contacts with a local contact center, the information being configured as an XML file;

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

correlating the skills contained in the XML file with skills that are to be used for scheduling agents of the local contact center; and

generating work schedules for the agents of the local contact center using the information from the database, the work schedules being based, at least in part, on a correlation between the skills of the agents of the remote contact center and the local contact center, and an evaluation of the work schedules of the agents of the remote contact center.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the contacts shared between the remote contact center and the local contact center are communicated via Internet protocol (IP) packets.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the work schedules of the agents of the remote contact center are locked such that the schedules of the agents of the remote contact center are not changed responsive to generation of the work schedules for the agents of the local contact center.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating work schedules for the agents of the local contact center comprises evaluating potential schedules for agents of the local contact center based on service level goals computed using contributions of the agents of the remote contact center.

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

6. A method for scheduling contact center agents comprising:

receiving information corresponding to work schedules and skills of agents of a remote contact center that shares contacts with a local contact center;

correlating the skills with skills that are to be used for scheduling agents of the local contact center; and

generating work schedules for the agents of the local contact center based, at least in part, on a correlation between the skills of the agents of the remote contact center and the local contact center, and an evaluation of the work schedules of the agents of the remote contact center.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising importing the information into a database, the database being accessible to a workforce manager application associated with the local contact center that is operative to retrieve information stored in the database and generate work schedules using the information from the database.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein, in receiving information, the information is received from a workforce manager application, associated with the remote contact center, of a disparate type with respect to the workforce manager application associated with the local contact center.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the work schedules of the agents of the remote contact center are locked such that the schedules of the agents of the remote contact center are not changed responsive to generation of the work schedules for the agents of the local contact center.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein at least some of the contacts shared between the remote contact center and the local contact center are communicated via Internet protocol (IP) packets.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein generating work schedules for the agents of the local contact center comprises evaluating potential schedules for agents of the local contact center based on service level goals computed using contributions of the agents of the remote contact center.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising providing forecasted contact center service requirements to the remote contact center, wherein the work schedules of the agents of the remote contact center are generated using the forecasted requirements.

13. A system for scheduling contact center agents comprising:

an integration system operative to receive information corresponding to work schedules and skills of agents of a remote contact center, wherein contacts are allocated between the remote contact center and a local contact center; and

a scheduling system operative to generate work schedules for the agents of the local contact center based, at least in part, on a correlation between the skills of the agents of the remote contact center and the local contact center, and an evaluation of the work schedules for the agents of the remote contact center.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising a forecasting system operative 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 remote contact center.

15. The system of claim 13, further comprising a database operative to store the information corresponding to the work schedules and the skills of agents of the remote contact center.

16. The system of claim 13, means for storing the information corresponding to the work schedules and the skills of agents of the remote contact center.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the information is received as an XML file.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the integration system is further operative to correlate information associated with the agents of the remote contact center with categories of information used by the scheduling system in scheduling agents of the local contact center.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein, in generating the schedules, the scheduling system is operative to evaluate potential schedules for agents of the local contact center based on service level goals computed using contributions of the agents of the remote contact center.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein, in generating the schedules, the scheduling system does not alter the work schedules of the agents of the remote contact center.