CROSS CHANNEL IDENTIFICATION IN ELECTRONIC COMMERCE ENVIRONMENTS

• US 20100322404A1
• Filed: 06/23/2009
• Published: 12/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle OTC Subsidiary LLC (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Art Technology Group Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: MUSZYNSKI, STEPHANE SAMUEL, COLEMAN, BARRY GORDON
• Granted Patent: US 8,571,201 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/220.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2038 Call context notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0027 Collaboration services where a computer is used for data transfer and the telephone is used for telephonic communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1205 where the types of switching equipement comprises PSTN/ISDN equipment and switching equipment of networks other than PSTN/ISDN, e.g. Internet Protocol networks

Abstract

A technique for providing context information for a PSTN phone call originating from an user includes dynamically selecting a phone number (or invite code or combination thereof) from among a pool of available phone numbers; displaying the selected phone number to the user in a web page; receiving context information corresponding to the user; receiving an incoming phone call on the dynamically selected phone number, connecting the incoming call to an outgoing call to the call center, and providing the context information to a computer corresponding to an agent to whom the outgoing call is connected. The context information may include a web page viewed by the user, and may be sufficient to provide a co-browsing capability. The technique may be utilized with or without session based web pages and may be performed by a sever that serves web page content to the user or a third party service provider.

Claims

1. A computerized method for providing context information comprising the steps of:

selecting a public switched telephone network (PSTN) phone number from among a pool of PSTN phone numbers;

associating the PSTN phone number with a web session identifier;

including the PSTN phone number in a web page downloaded to a user during a web session;

receiving an incoming PSTN phone call corresponding to the PSTN phone number from the user;

determining the web session identifier associated with the PSTN phone number;

directing the incoming PSTN phone call to a second person;

retrieving context information using the web session identifier; and

providing the context information to the second person.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the context information includes an identifier of a web page being displayed to the user when an indication that a PSTN phone call is desired is received.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the context information includes an identifier of the user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the identifier is entered by the user during the web session.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the web session identifier identifies a web session at a server from which the web page is downloaded.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the context information is retrieved from a server different from a serve from which the web page was downloaded.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the PSTN phone number includes an invite code.

8. A computerized method for providing context information comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from an end user PC (personal computer) at a first server;

dynamically allocating a PSTN phone number from a pool of PSTN phone numbers, the phone number being usable for placing a PSTN phone call;

transmitting, in response to the request, the PSTN phone number to the end user PC for display to an end user associated with the end user PC;

receiving an incoming PSTN phone call corresponding to the PSTN phone number from the end user;

connecting the incoming PSTN phone call to an outgoing PSTN phone call to a second person; and

transmitting context information corresponding to the end user to a second computer associated with the second person.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the steps of:

transmitting tracking software to the end user PC from the first server, the tracking software being operable to cause the end user PC to transmit context information to the first server.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the context information is sufficient to enable a co-browsing between the end user PC and the second computer.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the context information comprises information entered by the end user at the end user PC.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the context information comprises an identifier of a web page viewed by the user at the end user PC.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the identifier is a uniform resource locator.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the PSTN phone number includes an invite code.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the phone number is transmitted in a message addressed to the end user PC.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the context information corresponding to the end user PC is received from the end user PC.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein server is configured to transmit the phone number to the end user PC in response to a request from the end user PC.

15. A system for providing context information to a call center, the system comprising:

a PSTN call switching device connectable to the PSTN; and

a server connected to the PSTN call switching device;

wherein the server is configured to perform the steps of

dynamically selecting a phone number from among a pool of available phone numbers;

transmitting the phone number for display on an end user PC associated with an end user;

receiving context information corresponding to the end user PC;

receiving a notification of an incoming phone call corresponding to the PSTN phone number on the PSTN call switching device;

directing the PSTN call switching device to connect the incoming phone call to an outgoing call to a call center; and

providing the context information to a second computer associated with the call center.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the PSTN call switching device comprises a first VOIP (voice over internet protocol) gateway connected to a second VOIP gateway, the first VOIP gateway having an input connected to an output of the second VOIP gateway, and the first VOIP gateway having an output connected to an input of the second VOIPO gateway.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the server is configured to receive a request for the context information from the second computer, the request for context information containing an identifier corresponding to a PSTN phone number associated with the outgoing call.

21. The system of claim 15, wherein the wherein the phone number is transmitted in a message addressed to a second server, the second server being configured to include the phone number in a web page downloaded to the end user PC.

22. The system of claim 15, wherein the PSTN phone number includes an invite code.