Multi-party information analysis in a VoIP system

• US 8,135,125 B2
• Filed: 05/10/2006
• Issued: 03/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sidhu, Gursharan S, Wang, Kuansan, Malueg, Michael D, Forbes, Scott C
• Primary Examiner(s): SHAH, ANTIM G
• Application Number:
  US11/431,957
• Publication Number:
  US 20070265990A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,134 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265.11, 379/265.12, 379/265.13, 379/266.01, 379/266.02, 379/266.07, 379/266.08, 379/268.03, 379/265.03, 379/265.02, 379/266.1
• US Class Current: 379/265.03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0284 Time or distance, e.g. usage of parking meters or taximeters
• 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 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 system and method for collecting contextual information from several parties and generating an analyzed response to the contextual information is provided. Multiple sets of contextual information may be received from one or more clients. Relevant contextual information may be identified and pushed into a module which is configured to aggregate the relevant contextual information until it meets its threshold within a predetermined period. A set of events relating to the relevant contextual information may be generated to execute appropriate actions. The appropriate actions may include notifying a potential problem or an issue, providing a known solution, and so on. In this manner, contextual data from multiple parties can be analyzed to identify potential issues/problems that are frequently reported.

Claims

1. A method executing on a processor of a computing device for collecting and analyzing contextual information relating to clients of a call center coupled to an aggregator agent, comprising:

initializing a communication channel between the call center and at least one client;

wherein the communication channel is used to transmit contextual data packets and conversational data packets;

establishing between the call center and the at least one client a predefined structured hierarchy to use to transmit contextual information;

wherein the predefined structured hierarchy is used to transmit the contextual information;

receiving contextual information relating to at least one client;

wherein the contextual information is packetized and arranged according to the predefined structured hierarchy;

receiving other sets of contextual information relating to other clients, the other sets of contextual information sharing at least some common information with the received contextual information;

identifying relevant contextual information from the received contextual information and the received other sets of contextual information;

providing the identified contextual information to the aggregator agent that aggregates the relevant contextual information and the other sets of contextual information;

determining when the aggregated contextual information meets a threshold and based on the determination determining when to receive and aggregate more contextual information in addition to previously collected contextual information;

during the aggregating, identifying levels of relevancy of the received contextual information and the other sets of contextual information;

receiving a set of events from the aggregator agent;

executing actions corresponding to the set of events; and

clearing the aggregated contextual information and the threshold for a new analysis.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of events is received from the aggregator agent when a threshold associated with the relevant contextual information has been met.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the executed actions include identifying issues in the contextual information related more than one of the clients.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

collecting additional contextual information relating to at least one client.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving multiple sets of contextual information relating to several clients, the multiple sets of contextual information sharing at least some common information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the relevant contextual information is identified from the common information.

7. A method executing on a processor of a computing device for aggregating contextual information relating to several clients and analyzing the aggregation, comprising:

initializing a communication channel between a service provider and at least one client;

wherein the communication channel is used to transmit contextual data packets and conversational data packets;

establishing between the service provider and the at least one client a predefined structured hierarchy to use to transmit contextual information;

wherein the predefined structured hierarchy is used to transmit the contextual information;

receiving multiple sets of contextual information from the at least one client and other clients;

aggregating the received contextual information;

determining when the aggregated contextual information meets a threshold and based on the determination determining when to receive and aggregate more contextual information and when to generate an event;

during the aggregating, identifying levels of relevancy of the received contextual information;

upon detecting that the aggregated contextual information meets its corresponding threshold, generating an event and clearing the aggregated contextual information and the threshold for a new analysis; and

providing the generated event.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

upon generating the event, storing and logging information relating to the aggregated contextual information and the threshold.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

clearing, storing, or caching the aggregated contextual information and the threshold for a new analysis.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the threshold is changed for another analysis.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein an appropriate set of criteria is determined to find similarity in the received contextual information.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the received contextual information with the similarity is aggregated and, if the aggregation meets a corresponding threshold, an event is generated.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the threshold corresponds to a predetermined period.

14. A storage memory having computer executable components for collecting contextual information relating to several clients and generating an analyzed response to the contextual information, comprising:

initializing a communication channel between a service provider and at least one client;

wherein the communication channel is used to transmit contextual data packets and conversational data packets;

establishing between the service provider and the at least one client a predefined structured hierarchy to use to transmit contextual information;

wherein the predefined structured hierarchy is used to transmit the contextual information;

an interface component for receiving multiple sets of contextual information from the at least one client and other clients;

a filtering component for identifying relevant contextual information based on predefined factors including determining an increase in a rate of calls;

an aggregator component for aggregating the identified contextual information, monitoring the level of aggregation, determining when the aggregated contextual information meets a threshold and based on the determination determining when to receive and aggregate more contextual information and when to generate an event; and

upon detecting the level of aggregation meets the threshold, generating a event in accordance with predefined logic;

during the aggregating, identifying levels of relevancy of the received contextual information; and

wherein the interface component pushes the identified contextual information to the aggregator component and clears the aggregated contextual information for a new analysis.

15. The storage memory of claim 14 further comprising:

a storage component for storing information relating to the predefined factors, the aggregation, the received contextual information, the event, the value of the threshold and time/date stamps.

16. The storage memory of claim 15, wherein the storage component stores contextual information relating to each client.

17. The storage memory of claim 15, wherein the interface component collects additional contextual information relating to the several clients.

18. The storage memory of claim 15, wherein the filtering component selects an appropriate set of criteria to identify relevant contextual information from the multiple sets of contextual information.

19. The storage memory of claim 18, wherein the appropriate set of criteria and the threshold are dynamically defined.

20. The storage memory of claim 19, wherein upon receipt of a dynamically defined threshold, the aggregator component reevaluates the aggregated contextual information and generates a second event based on the aggregated contextual information.