Web-based call center system with web document annotation

• US 6,687,877 B1
• Filed: 02/17/1999
• Issued: 02/03/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Unify Inc. (Atos SE)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Corporate Research Incorporated (Siemens AG), Siemens Information & Communication Networks, Inc. (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Sastry, Chellury R., Lewis, Darrin P., Pizano, Arturo, Wrede, Uwe, Sassin, Michael, Shaffer, Shmuel
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): HUYNH, THU V
• Application Number:
  US09/251,704
• Time in Patent Office: 1,812 Days
• Field of Search: 707/512, 709/204, 345/751, 715/512, 715/500, 715/501.1
• US Class Current: 715/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/552 Call annotations
• 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 3/5231 with call back arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution
• 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

Abstract

A web-based call center and a method for its operation include multiple agent and customer terminals connected to a web server. The agent terminals and the customer terminals include a web browser for accessing web documents from the web server and annotation plug-in software for recording and replaying static and dynamic annotations on web documents. An HTML document registration tool formats web documents prior to storage on the web server, so that the web documents are formatted for annotation. An annotation server includes a database for storing annotated documents received from agent and customer terminals. Indexing software associated with the annotation server extracts key information from annotations received from customer terminals as part of callback requests. The extracted key information is indicative of a skills set which is required by an agent in order to handle the callback request. An ACD server utilizes the key information to route callback requests to qualified call center agents. A customer terminal can transmit an information request in the form of a telephone call, a fax transmission, an e-mail, or a callback request which includes an annotated web document. An agent terminal can respond to the information request by telephone, fax, e-mail, or by returning an annotated web document. Alternatively, the customer and agent terminals can initiate a dynamic annotation data sharing session.

Claims

1. In a web-based call center which includes a server accessible by any of a plurality of customer terminals and any of a plurality of agent terminals, a communications method comprising the steps of:

storing an annotatable first document at said server such that said first document remains accessible in an annotatable condition following each of a plurality of non-synchronous downloads of said first document;

during each of a plurality of temporally separate download occasions, receiving a download of said first document in said annotatable condition at one of said customer and said agent terminals;

for each said download occasion, recording a particular sequence of multimedia actions performed on said download of said first document such that said recorded multimedia actions can be played back to display said multimedia actions in said particular sequence, said recorded multimedia actions being specific to said download occasion; and

transmitting said recorded sequence of multimedia actions, via said server, to the other of said customer and said agent terminals as part of either an information request or a response to an information request, said transmitting being repeatable for each said download occasion;

wherein at least some of said recorded sequences of multimedia actions are recorded to provide data relevant to soliciting desired responsive information to be contained in responses to said information requests, with reception of each said information request during operation of said server initiating an automated search for key words in a corresponding said recorded sequence to determine appropriate processing of said corresponding recorded sequence.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of formatting said first document to enable capture of said particular sequence of multimedia actions performed on said first document, said formatting remaining intact following each said download occasion.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said recording step includes recording at least one of voice information, video information, user-generated pointer gestures, user-generated drawings, manipulation of image objects, and manipulation of video objects.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said recording step includes synchronizing recording of one of a traversal of a hyperlink, video information, and voice information with user actions, including at least one of manipulation of text objects, manipulation of image objects, and manipulation of video objects.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

analyzing said key words to determine a first set of skills associated with said recorded sequence of multimedia actions; and

correlating said first set of skills to skills sets of a plurality of call center agents to determine which of said call center agents are qualified to receive said information request.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said searching step includes extracting key words from one of voice information included in said recorded sequence of multimedia actions, text included in said recorded sequence, and text from web pages underlying said recorded sequence.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of transmitting said recorded sequence of multimedia actions is performed as a part of a data sharing session, wherein dynamic annotation data is streamed from said one of said customer and said agent terminals to the other of said customer and said agent terminals substantially simultaneously with generation of said annotation data, said data sharing session being limited to one said customer terminal and one said agent terminal.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said step of recording said sequence includes transmitting said multimedia actions from said one of said customer and said agent terminals to a server and recording said multimedia actions at said server.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of transmitting said recorded sequence is a step of transmitting said recorded sequence of multimedia actions independently of underlying data objects within said first document.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of transmitting said recorded sequence of multimedia actions is a step of transmitting a dynamically annotated instructional document from a terminal of a teacher to a terminal of a student.

11. A call center with dynamic annotation capability comprising:

a document server connected to a communications network to provide a plurality of clients access to documents formatted for input of dynamic annotation data, said document server being configured to provide access to said documents as templates for repeated use of said documents in entering said dynamic annotation data;

an annotation server configured to provide storage for dynamically annotated documents received from said clients following independent user inputs of said dynamic annotation data to said formatted documents by said clients, at least a portion of said dynamically annotated documents including information requests received from customer client terminals, said annotation server including indexing software to extract key words from said information requests and to determine skill requirements relevant to each said information request; and

a plurality of call center client terminals configured to process said information requests for presentation to call center agents, each call center client terminal including a dynamic annotation module responsive to user inputs to record a dynamic annotation session on one of said formatted documents, said recorded dynamic annotation session including sequentially recorded data object manipulations configured for playback to display said sequentially recorded data object manipulations, said data object manipulations including at least one of image object manipulation, text object manipulation, video object manipulation, and recording of voice information.

12. The call center of claim 11 further comprising a document registration tool configured to automatically format said documents to enable capture of user-generated multimedia actions performed in said dynamic annotation sessions.

13. The call center of claim 11 wherein said dynamic annotation module of each call center client terminal is configured to establish a data sharing session with a customer client terminal in which dynamic annotation data is streamed to said customer client terminal as said dynamic annotation data is generated.

14. The call center of claim 11 further comprising an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) responsive to receipt of said information requests to compare said skill requirements to skill sets associated with said call center agents to determine which of said call center agents are qualified to handle particular information requests.

15. The call center of claim 11 wherein said indexing software is used to ascertain said skill requirements based at least partially on one of text within underlying web pages included in a customer dynamic annotation session, text generated by a customer during said customer dynamic annotation session, and text extracted from voice information generated by said customer during said customer dynamic annotation session.