Dynamic Load Balancing Between Multiple Locations With Different Telephony System

• US 20120093302A1
• Filed: 12/16/2011
• Published: 04/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Paden, Jonathan, Sams, Bobby, Harris, Jon
• Granted Patent: US 8,660,256 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.22
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5234 Uniform load distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5237 Interconnection arrangements between ACD systems

Abstract

A method includes receiving a call from a primary interactive voice response (IVR) system at a load-balancing IVR system. The primary IVR system routes a first percentage of calls to routing logic and a second percentage of calls to the load-balancing IVR system. A telephony system is selected from among a plurality of telephony systems based on agent availability data associated with call center sites of the plurality of telephony systems. The method includes routing the call to a routing protocol component of the routing logic, where the routing protocol component routes the call to a call center of the selected telephony system.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive a call from a primary interactive voice response system at a load-balancing interactive voice response system, wherein the primary interactive voice response system is configured to route a first percentage of a plurality of calls to routing logic and to route a second percentage of the plurality of calls to the load-balancing interactive voice response system;

select a telephony system from among a plurality of telephony systems based on agent availability data associated with call center sites of the plurality telephony systems; and

route the call to a routing protocol component of the routing logic, wherein the routing protocol component routes the call to a call center of the selected telephony system.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to determine which of the plurality of telephony systems has a highest overall agent availability, and to select the telephony system having the highest overall agent availability.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to perform a dual tone multiple frequency release transfer using a routing configuration of the selected telephony system.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to receive a voice call without transfer of other data.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to receive user-specified routing criteria, wherein the telephony system is selected based at least partially on the user-specified routing criteria.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to determine a recommendation of the second percentage of calls.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to receive the agent availability data via a web-accessible application program interface.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to generate an alert signal based on a trend or a surge indicated by the agent availability data.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive, at routing logic, a call directed to a primary interactive voice response system, wherein the primary interactive voice response system is configured to route a first percentage of received calls to the routing logic and to route a second percentage of the received calls to a load-balancing interactive voice response system, wherein the first percentage of received calls is based at least partially on routing criteria;

receive agent availability data associated with a plurality of telephony systems; and

dynamically route the call based at least partially on the agent availability data.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to send the call to a routing protocol component of the routing logic that is associated with at least one telephony system, wherein the routing protocol component allocates the call to a call center site of the at least one telephony system.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to set the routing criteria based on the agent availability data.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the percentage is adjustable.

13. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions executable by the processor to generate a user interface configured to;

receive user-specified routing criteria; and

send the user-specified routing criteria to a load-balancing interactive voice response system that receives calls from a primary interactive voice response system, wherein the user-specified criteria is usable by the load-balancing interactive voice response system to determine which of a plurality of telephony systems to route a received call to.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the user interface is further configured to receive an alert signal from the load-balancing interactive voice response system.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the alert signal is based on a trend in agent availability data associated with at least one of the plurality of telephony systems.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein user interface is further configured to receive a definition of an alert signal from a user.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the received call is routed further based on agent availability data associated with call center sites of the plurality of telephony systems.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the received call is routed to a telephony system having a highest overall agent availability.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the plurality of telephony systems includes a first telephony system associated with a first vendor and a second telephony system associated with a second vendor.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the user-specified routing criteria favors the first vendor over the second vendor.