Host connect gateway for communications between interactive voice response platforms and customer host computing applications

• US 6,353,608 B1
• Filed: 06/16/1998
• Issued: 03/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MCI Communications Corporation (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Cullers, William R., Underhill, Greg L.
• Primary Examiner(s): MARCELO, MELVIN C
• Application Number:
  US09/098,371
• Time in Patent Office: 1,358 Days
• Field of Search: 370/352-356, 370/401
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5166 in combination with interactive voice response systems or voice portals, e.g. as front-ends
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5183 Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements

Abstract

The present invention provides a customer host connect gateway that connects any Interactive Voice Response (IVR) platform with any customer host computer. The customer host connect gateway enables IVR applications to perform transactions with the customer host computer during the processing of a customer call in a call center. The customer host connect gateway satisfies all interoperability requirements, freeing IVR applications from the need for specifying any hardware or software information related to a host computer and from the need for providing a network address for the customer host computer. The customer host connect gateway includes a separate application for each customer host connection. The IVR platform issues a transaction to a customer host computer by sending a message to the customer host connect gateway. The customer-specific application on the host connect gateway then determines the format required for the customer host transaction, based upon the customer host computing platform an application. The customer host connect gateway also determines the particular connectivity protocols necessary for communicating with the customer host computer and the network address for the customer host computer. The customer host connect gateway also provides a user interface that allows new applications to be rapidly built and deployed on the host connect gateway.

Claims

1. A customer host gateway that interfaces between an interactive voice response platform that generates information requests and at least one customer host computer having a customer host computer application, comprising:

at least one host connect application server, including;

a host connect application that receives information requests from the interactive voice response platform and translates the information requests into formatted messages acceptable by the at least one customer host computer and the customer host computer application, and

a screen scraper application that receives the formatted messages, accesses the customer host computer application, and transmits the formatted messages to an appropriate location in a user interface of the customer host computer application; and

an application server that receives status messages from the at least one host connect application server.

2. The customer host gateway recited in claim 1, further comprising:

a common gateway interface process in communication with the interactive voice response platform that receives externally directed messages from the interactive voice response platform and formats the externally directed messages into information requests, wherein the information requests have a single format and the formatted messages prepared by the host connect application have more than one format.

3. The customer host gateway recited in claim 1, further comprising a database connected to the application server that stores the status messages received by the application server.

4. The customer host gateway recited in claim 1, further comprising a wide area network that provides communications between the customer host gateway and the interactive voice response platform.

5. The customer host gateway recited in claim 1, further comprising an Ethernet that provides communications between the at least one host connect application server and the application server.

6. The customer host gateway recited in claim 1, further comprising a token ring network that provides communications between the customer host connect gateway and the at least one customer host computer.

7. The customer host gateway recited in claim 1, further comprising a TCP/IP network connection that provides communications between the customer host connect gateway and the at least one customer host computer.

8. The customer host gateway recited in claim 1, further comprising an application preparation device that transmits new host connect applications to the customer host connect gateway.

9. The customer host gateway recited in claim 1, further comprising an application preparation device that transmits updates to host connect applications to the customer host connect gateway.

10. A customer host gateway that interfaces between a request-generating device that generates information requests and at least one customer host computer having a customer host computer application, comprising:

a front-end application programming interface that interfaces with the request-generating device and extracts information requests from messages sent by the request-generating device;

a back-end application programming interface that interfaces with the at least one customer host computer and formulates host messages for the at least one customer host computer from the extracted information requests; and

a host connect application that examines the extracted information requests to identify the at least one host computer to which each extracted information request has been directed.

11. The customer host gateway recited in claim 10, further comprising:

a host connect application server that includes the front-end application programming interface and the back-end application programming interface and further comprises;

a screen scraper application that receives the formulated host messages, accesses the at least one customer host computer application, and transmits the formatted messages to an appropriate location in a user interface of the at least one customer host computer application.

12. The customer host gateway recited in claim 10, further comprising:

a host connect application server that includes the front-end application programming interface and the back-end application programming interface and further comprises;

a database application that receives the formulated host messages, accesses the at least one customer host computer application, and uses the formulated host messages to perform database queries on the at least one customer host computer application.

13. The customer host gateway recited in claim 10 wherein the request-generating device is an interactive voice response platform, further comprising:

a common gateway interface process in communication with the interactive voice response platform that receives externally directed messages from the interactive voice response platform and formats the externally directed messages into information requests, wherein the information requests have a single format and the formulated host messages prepared by the back-end application programming interface have more than one format.

14. The customer host gateway recited in claim 10, further comprising a wide area network that provides communications between the customer host gateway and the request-generating device.

15. The customer host gateway recited in claim 10, further comprising a token ring network that provides communications between the customer host gateway and the customer host computer.

16. The customer host gateway recited in claim 10, further comprising a TCP/IP network connection that provides communications between the customer host gateway and the at least one customer host computer.

17. The customer host gateway recited in claim 10, further comprising an application preparation device that transmits a replacement back-end application programming interface to the customer host gateway that replaces the back-end application programming interface.

18. The customer host gateway recited in claim 17 wherein the application preparation device transmits a replacement front-end application programming interface to the customer host gateway that replaces the front-end application programming interface.

19. The customer host gateway recited in claim 10 wherein the request-generating device is an interactive voice response platform.

20. The customer host gateway recited in claim 10 wherein the request-generating device is a web server.

21. A host connect application server in a customer host gateway that interfaces between a request-generating device generating information requests and at least one customer host computer having a customer host computer application, comprising:

a host connect application that receives information requests from the request-generating device and translates the information requests into formatted messages acceptable by the at least one customer host computer and the customer host computer application;

a connection application that receives the formatted messages, accesses the customer host computer application, and transmits the formatted messages to an appropriate location in the customer host computer application;

a back-end application programming interface that translates information requests for the connection application into formatted messages acceptable by the at least one customer host computer and the customer host computer application using host-specific information provided by the host connect application; and

a front-end application programming interface that formats reply messages from the customer host computer application into a format acceptable by the request-generating device using request-generating device information provided by the host connect application.

22. The host connect application server recited in claim 21 wherein the connection application is a screen scraper application that receives the formatted messages, accesses the customer host computer application, and transmits the formatted messages to an appropriate location in a user interface of the customer host computer application.

23. The host connect application server recited in claim 21 wherein the connection application is a database application that receives the formulated messages, accesses the customer host computer application, and uses the formulated messages to perform database queries on the customer host computer application.

24. The host connect application server recited in claim 21 wherein the connection application is a Systems Network Architecture (SNA) communications application that receives the formulated messages, accesses the customer host computer application, and communications the formulated messages to the customer host computer application using an SNA communications protocol.

25. The host connect application server recited in claim 21 wherein the host connect application prepares status messages for transmission to an application server having a system status database.

26. The host connect application server recited in claim 21 wherein the host connect application assures that reply messages directed towards the request-generating device are formatted for receipt by a common gateway interface process in communication with the request-generating device that receives messages directed for the request-generating device and extracts data from the received messages.

27. The host connect application server recited in claim 21 wherein communications between the host connect application server and the at least one host computer are formatted for transmission through an Ethernet communications device.

28. The host connect application server recited in claim 21 wherein communications between the host connect application server and the at least one host computer are formatted for transmission through a token ring network.

29. The host connect application server recited in claim 21 wherein information requests received from the request-generating device are formatted according to a TCP/IP communications protocol.

30. The host connect application server recited in claim 21, further comprising an application preparation device that transmits a replacement host connect application to the host connect application server that replaces the host connect application.

31. The host connect application server recited in claim 30 wherein the application preparation device transmits a replacement connection application to the customer host gateway server that replaces the connection application.

32. The host connect application server recited in claim 21 wherein the request-generating device is an interactive voice response platform.

33. The host connect application server recited in claim 21 wherein the request-generating device is a web server.

34. In a common gateway interface that receives information requests from a request-generating device and provides formatted information requests to a customer host connect gateway for processing by at least one customer host computer application, a computer-readable medium having a data structure, comprising:

a first field that identifies a host gateway application to process the formatted information request;

a second field that includes the Internet Protocol address of a host connect gateway server; and

a third data field that includes the request to be processed by the at least one customer host computer application.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 34, further comprising:

a fourth field that identifies a length of the third data field, and

a fifth field that identifies the request-generating device.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 34 wherein the data structure resides in microcode accessed by the common gateway interface.

37. In a customer host gateway that interfaces between a request-generating device that generates information requests and at least one customer host computer having a customer host computer application, a method for processing information between the request-generating device and the at least one customer host computer, comprising:

receiving an information request from the request-generating device;

identifying the at least one customer host computer to receive the information request;

translating the information request into a formatted message acceptable by the identified at least one customer host computer and the customer host computer applications; and

sending the formatted message to the identified at least one customer host computer by a screen scraping application wherein said screen scraping application locates an appropriate terminal screen of said identified at least one customer host computer and deposits and retrieves requested information.

38. The method recited in claim 37, further comprising:

directing the identified at least one customer host computer to process the formatted message; and

locating response information processed by the identified at least one customer host computer following processing of the formatted message.

39. The method recited in claim 38, further comprising:

formatting the response information into a format acceptable by the request-generating device; and

transmitting the formatted response information to the request-generating device.

40. The method recited in claim 37, further comprising:

preparing status information regarding the processing of messages within the customer host connect gateway, and

sending the status information to a status information database.

41. The method recited in claim 37, further comprising formatting messages to the request-generating device according to a format required by a common gateway interface associated with the request-generating device.

42. The method recited in claim 37, further comprising formatting messages sent to the request-generating device in a manner suitable for transmission across a wide area network that resides between the customer host connect gateway and the request-generating device.

43. The method recited in claim 37, further comprising preparing the formatted message in a manner suitable for transmission to the identified at least one customer host computer across an Ethernet local area network that provides communications between the identified at least one customer host computer and the customer host connect gateway.

44. The method recited in claim 37, further comprising preparing the formatted message in a manner suitable for transmission to the identified at least one customer host computer across a token ring network that provides communications between the identified at least one customer host computer and the customer host connect gateway.

45. The method recited in claim 37, further comprising formatting messages sent to the request-generating device in a manner suitable for a TCP/IP network connection that provides communications between the customer host connect gateway and the request-generating device.

46. The method recited in claim 37, further comprising receiving a new host connect application and replacing the host connect application with the new host connect application.

47. The method recited in claim 37 wherein the request-generating device is an interactive voice response platform.

48. The method recited in claim 37 wherein the request-generating device is a web server.

49. In a customer host gateway that interfaces between a request-generating device that generates information requests and at least one customer host computer having a customer host computer application, a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method for processing information between the request-generating device and the at least one customer host computer, comprising:

receiving an information request from the request-generating device;

identifying the at least one customer host computer to receive the information request;

translating the information request into a formatted message acceptable by the identified at least one customer host computer and the customer host computer application; and

sending the formatted message to the identified at least one customer host computer by a screen scraping application wherein said screen scraping application locates an appropriate terminal screen of said identified at least one customer host computer and deposits and retrieves requested information.

50. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 49, further comprising:

directing the identified at least one customer host computer to process the formatted message; and

locating response information processed by the identified at least one customer host computer following processing of the formatted message.

52. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 49, further comprising:

preparing status information regarding the processing of messages within the customer host connect gateway; and

sending the status information to a status information database.

53. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 49, further comprising formatting messages to the request-generating device according to a format required by a common gateway interface associated with the request-generating device.

54. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 49, further comprising formatting messages sent to the request-generating device in a manner suitable for transmission across a wide area network that resides between the customer host connect gateway and the request-generating device.

55. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 49, further comprising preparing the formatted message in a manner suitable for transmission to the identified at least one customer host computer across an Ethernet local area network that provides communications between the identified at least one customer host computer and the customer host connect gateway.

56. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 49, further comprising preparing the formatted message in a manner suitable for transmission to the identified at least one customer host computer across a token ring network that provides communications between the identified at least one customer host computer and the customer host connect gateway.

57. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 49, further comprising formatting messages sent to the request-generating device in a manner suitable for a TCP/IP network connection that provides communications between the customer host connect gateway and the request-generating device.

58. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 49, further comprising receiving a new host connect application and replacing the host connect application with the new host connect application.

59. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 49 wherein the request-generating device is an interactive voice response platform.

60. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 49 wherein the request-generating device is a web server.

51. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 51, further comprising:

formatting the response information into a format acceptable by the request-generating device; and

transmitting the formatted response information to the request-generating device.