Distributed Hardware/Software System for Managing Agent Status in a Communication Center

• US 20120030271A1
• Filed: 09/15/2011
• Published: 02/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Incorporated (Genesys Cloud Services Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Incorporated (Genesys Cloud Services Incorporated)
• Inventors: Coussement, Stefaan Valere Albert
• Granted Patent: US 8,437,463 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/6018 Subscriber or terminal logon/logoff
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42102 Making use of the called party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42365 Presence services providing information on the willingness to communicate or the ability to communicate in terms of media capability or network connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5183 Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5237 Interconnection arrangements between ACD systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/00 Arrangements for interconnection between switching centres
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0069 comprising a residential gateway, e.g. those which provide an adapter for POTS or ISDN terminals

Abstract

An agent presence application for monitoring target agent resources and rendering agent states to subscribing applications is provided. The presence application has at least one first portion for collecting data regarding states of activity of the target agent resources, and at least one second portion for integrating the data and rendering the agent states to the subscribing applications.

Claims

1. A system for providing agent station status information to subscribing applications, comprising:

a computerized appliance at the agent station; and

software executing on the computerized appliance from a non-transitory physical medium;

wherein the software comprises;

a first portion automatically collecting real-time data regarding conditions of attributes of communication capabilities and availability of agent resources; and

a second portion integrating the collected data and rendering the data to the subscribing applications;

wherein the agent resources include at least communication devices at the agent workstation and capabilities include at least media protocol capabilities including at least one or more of e-mail, Internet Protocol (IP) phone, chat communication applications, file sharing programs, and instant messenger applications.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein multiple copies or versions of the first portion execute on the platforms monitoring individual ones of the one or more communication devices, and provide the data to at least one agent proxy server executing a copy of the second portion, the at least one agent proxy server dedicated to integrating the data for the one or more communication devices.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the first portions provide data to more than one agent proxy server to provide redundancy.

4. In a communication center system, a method for routing an incoming communication, comprising the steps of:

(a) collecting real-time data regarding communication activity and capabilities of communication devices used at the agent station, including at least media protocol capabilities for one or more of e-mail, Internet Protocol (IP) phone, chat communication applications, file sharing programs, and instant messenger applications, by a first software portion executing from a non-transitory medium at the agent station;

(b) integrating the data from step (a) and rendering the data to a subscribing application by a second software portion; and

(c) determining routing for the incoming communication center using at least a portion of the integrated data in step (b).

5. The method of claim 4 wherein multiple copies or versions of the first portion execute on computer platforms monitoring individual communication devices, and provide data to at least one agent proxy server executing a copy of the second portion, the at least one agent proxy server dedicated to integrating the data for the one or more communication devices.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein one or more of the platforms upon which the first portions execute are computers in the agent stations.