Call center

• US 6,697,858 B1
• Filed: 08/14/2000
• Issued: 02/24/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Telephony@Work (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Margulies, Edwin Kenneth, Ezerzer, Ran, Aljane, Ali, Jarquin, Roberto Armando Portillo, Borodow, Eli Ben, Holly, Gerald Augustin Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain
• Assistant Examiner(s): DINH, KHANH Q
• Application Number:
  US09/638,274
• Time in Patent Office: 1,289 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/206, 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 709/220, 709/224, 709/227, 709/226, 709/228, 707/104.1, 705/27, 348/16, 370/231, 713/201, 379/266
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/51 Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention , e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing

Abstract

A software-based distributed architecture allows rapid provisioning and flexible management of fault-tolerant call centers for interaction between companies'"'"' agents and outside customers via multi-media messages, using both real time and non-real time messages. The real time messages include web-based chat, forms and applications sharing, PSTN calls, and incoming and outgoing Voice over IP calls. The non-real time messages include web call-back requests, voice messages, fax messages, and email messages. The architecture provides for sharing of non-dedicated resources among multiple companies, mirrored hot backup, dynamic resource provisioning and allocation, dynamic load balancing, and implementation of service controls on individual companies in accordance with subscription service limits.

Claims

1. A distributed multi-media e-contact system for telecommunications-based interactions between a company'"'"'s agents and outside customers, the e-contact system comprising a first signaling interface connected to a telecommunications network, a second signaling interface, applications, call center resources, network resources, and communications channels between the applications, the resources, the first signaling interface, and the second signaling interface;

wherein the applications comprise;

a network manager to allow dynamic real time adding, removing, modifying, starting, and stopping a resource in the system;

an administration manager that

creates a first company data structure for a first company and defines parameters stored in the first company data structure,

creates first company agent data structures for a plurality of agents associated with the first company and defines first company agent attributes stored in each first company agent data structure, the agent attributes include agent skills,

creates a first company supervisor data structure for a first supervisor associated with the first company and defines first company supervisor attributes stored in the first company supervisor data structure, the first company supervisor attributes include supervisor skills and capabilities, and

creates and defines a process for routing to the first company agents of incoming messages received from the telecommunications network and directed to the first company, and of outgoing messages from the first company over the telecommunications network;

the call center resources comprise;

a first Automateded Call Distributor (ACD) server that

monitors status of the first company agents, including availability of the first company agents, and

finds an appropriate first company agent for a received message directed to the first company in accordance with a type of the received message directed to the first company and first company agent skills;

a database server that broadcasts, substantially in real time, to the call center resources and the network resources changes in the data structures made by the administration manager;

a first information server associated with the first company, the first information server provides a communication link between the network resources and the applications for data exchange relating to the first company;

a resource manager that

maintains a list of the resources,

maintains a list of the first company agents,

informs the resources of availability of new resources,

informs the resources of shutdown of resources, and

provides alternate connections when existing connections are interrupted by resource shutdowns;

a unified mail server that

sends the outgoing messages to third party servers and receives the incoming messages from the third party servers, and

communicates results of sent outgoing messages to the database server;

a host server that

loads a network table describing correspondences between the resources and physical hosts of the e-contact system that can execute the resources,

starts each resource on a physical host in accordance with the network table,

starts stopped resources and the resources added by the network manager, and

provides a communication service to the network manager to enable the network manager to communicate with network elements including at least some resources;

a scheduling server that varies transaction routing rules in accordance with time of day, thereby allowing similar messages initiating transactions to be routed to different destinations depending on time of day;

the network resources comprise;

a call center server that

determines transaction routing

communicates with hardware-specific and channel-specific devices to setup and tear down transactions, and

monitors real time transactions.

2. The e-contact system of claim 1, wherein:

each call center resource and network resource belonging to a first subset of resources is capable of operating in master mode and mirror mode, the master and mirror mode operations of said each resource of the first subset having identical internal states and identical state transitions, wherein if said each resource of the first subset operating in the mirror mode receives real time copies of communications sent to its corresponding master resource, said each resource of the first subset operating in the mirror mode not duplicating transmissions of its corresponding master resource, said each resource of the first subset operating in the mirror mode changing its mode to master mode upon detection of non-operation of its corresponding master resource;

each resource registers on startup with the resource manager by identifying a mode of said each resource, a type of said each resource, a host identifier of the host on which said each resource is executing, and a list of resources needed by said each resource;

the resource manager notifies online resources that said each resource came online, after said each resource registers and comes online; and

if a notified online resource needs said each registered resource, the notified online resource establishes a communications link with said each registered resource.

3. The e-contact system of claim 2, further comprising:

a network database from which the network manager loads network descriptors of the e-contact system and to which the network manager stores the network descriptors, the network descriptors include configuration data for resources and communication channel specifiers, and the first company data structure;

wherein;

the network manager starts and stops the resources by instructing the host server to start and stop the resources;

the network manager provides a management interface facility that allows a network managing user to stop the resources, to provide the configuration data for the resources, to start the resources, to display topology of the e-contact system, to display connections between servers of the e-contact system, to monitor network activity and alarms, to change modes of the resources of the first subset, and to display parameters and status information of the resources;

said each resource on startup obtains its associated startup parameters from the network database;

the host server obtains resource status information from the resources and sends the resource status information to the network manager;

the host server starts and stops the resources without disrupting existing transactions and initiation of new transactions.

4. The e-contact system of claim 3, further comprising a load balancer implemented in the resource manager, wherein the load balancer observes requests for resources and causes the host server to start additional resources of a first type when received requests for resources of the first type exceed a first type threshold.

5. The e-contact system of claim 4, wherein:

the messages include facsimile transmissions, live voice messages, voice mail, email, and web-based messages;

the transactions include web chats, form sharing, conference transactions, live telephone communications, transmission and receipt of facsimiles, transmission and receipt of email, and receipt of voice messages;

the unified mail server sends results of the outgoing messages to the database server for storage and communicates with the call center server to receive notification of presence of messages awaiting transmission to third party correspondents and the first company agents;

the applications further comprise;

a mail manager for receiving message status information from the unified mail server, recovery of abnormal messages, the abnormal messages including undeliverable and corrupted messages, notification of the network managing user through the management interface facility of the existence of the abnormal messages, and enabling the network managing user to re-direct the abnormal messages;

an interaction manager that

sets up and tears down conference transactions,

records transactions and provides the network managing user with access to transaction records through the management interface facility, and

creates trouble tickets for troubleshooting and correcting errors;

a supervision manager for allowing a first supervisor at a first location to obtain real time reports of first company agent statistics and e-contact system usage, to monitor first company transactions, including remote screen and remote audio monitoring, to record first company agent activities, to send instant messages to the first company agents, to replace monitored first company agents in the course of the first company monitored transactions, to close down the first company monitored transactions, and to log-off a first company agent selected for log-off from the e-contact system;

the network resources further comprise;

a first collaboration server for

finding first company agents with chat and form sharing capabilities,

maintaining hard chat connections between web-based customers and the first company agents with chat and form sharing capabilities,

finding first company agents with video capabilities, and

maintaining video connections between customers with video capabilities and the first company agents with video capabilities;

a first email distributor for

retrieving email from the third party servers,

communicating with the first ACD server to find first company agents available for receipt of the email retrieved by the first email distributor,

routing the email retrieved by the first email distributor to the unified mail server, and

informing the interaction manager of the existence of the email retrieved by the first email distributor;

the call center resources further comprise;

a statistical server for saving the first company agents'"'"' log-in information, the status of the first company agents, and outcomes of the transactions, and for sending to the supervision manager the e-contact center statistics, the e-contact center statistics including the status of the first company agents, traffic statistics, and queue statistics, the queue statistics being a measure of waiting time for processing of at least some transactions; and

a chat server for

communicating with the first collaboration server and the first ACD server to find available first company agents with chat and form sharing capabilities to handle chat transactions,

providing hard chat connections between the available first company agents with chat and form sharing capabilities and the first collaboration server, and

maintaining real time connections between the first collaboration server and the available first company agents with chat and form sharing capabilities.

6. The e-contact system of claim 5, further comprising endpoint devices for use by the first company agents, the endpoint devices including telephones and a web servlet associated with the first company to enable the first company agents to communicate with web-based customers, wherein the network manager allows dynamic real time adding, removing, or modifying the endpoint devices.

7. The e-contact system of claim 5, further comprising an access limiter for limiting the first company'"'"'s use of the e-contact system;

wherein the type of the received message directed to the first company includes origination information and destination information of the received message directed to the first company.

8. The e-contact system of claim 5, wherein:

the administration manager

creates a second company data structure for a second company and defines parameters stored in the second company data structure,

creates second company agent data structures for a plurality of second company agents associated with the second company and defines second company agent attributes stored in each second company agent data structure, the second company agent attributes include agent skills,

creates a second company supervisor data structure for a second supervisor associated with the second company and defines second company supervisor attributes stored in the second company supervisor data structure, the second company supervisor attributes include supervisor skills and capabilities, and

creates and defines a process for routing to the second company agents of incoming messages received from the telecommunications network and directed to the second company, and of outgoing messages from the second company over the telecommunications network;

the resource manager maintains a list of the second company agents;

the network descriptors include the second company data structure;

the supervision manager allows a second supervisor at a second location to obtain real time reports of second company agent statistics and e-contact system usage, to record second company agent activities, to send instant messages to the second company agents, to monitor second company transactions, to replace monitored second company agents in the course of the second company monitored transactions, to close down the second company monitored transactions, and to log-off a second company agent selected for log-off from the e-contact system;

the statistical server saves the second company agents'"'"' log-in information, the status of the second company agents, and sends to the supervision manager the status of the second company agents;

the resources further comprise;

a second information server associated with the second company, the second information server provides a communication link between the network resources and the applications for data exchange relating to the second company;

a second ACD server that

monitors status of the second company agents, including availability of the second company agents, and

finds an appropriate second company agent for a received message directed to the second company in accordance with a type of the received message directed to the second company and second company agent skills;

a second collaboration server for

finding second company agents with chat and form capabilities,

maintaining hard chat connections between web-based customers and the second company agents with chat and form sharing capabilities,

finding second company agents with video capabilities, and

maintaining video connections between customers with video capabilities and the second company agents with video capabilities;

a second email distributor for

retrieving email from the third party servers,

communicating with the second ACD server to find second company agents available for receipt of the email retrieved by the second email distributor,

routing the email retrieved by the second email distributor to the unified mail server, and

informing the interaction manager of the existence of the email retrieved by the second email distributor;

a second chat server for

communicating with the second collaboration server and the second ACD server to find available second company agents with chat capabilities to handle chat transactions,

providing hard chat connections between the available second company agents with chat capabilities and the second collaboration server, and

maintaining real time connections between the second collaboration server and the available second company agents with chat.