Telephonic communications – Centralized switching system – Call distribution to operator
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-16
2004-07-20
Aubaidi, Al (Department: 2742)
Telephonic communications
Centralized switching system
Call distribution to operator
C379S093010
Reexamination Certificate
active
06766011
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to telecommunications contact centers, and more specifically, to an improved technique of controlling and monitoring a plurality of agent stations in the contact center.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Many large customer oriented companies maintain a call center in order to permit agents to interact with customers. A typical example of such a call center would be that maintained by an airline or credit card company, where customers may call in with questions, make reservations, etc. Often the call centers include the ability to do automated outbound calling to selected customers as well.
Recently, these call centers have evolved into full “contact centers.” A contact center is substantially the same as a call center other than the fact that communications may be in a variety of media, instead of just by telephone. For example, a contact center may have the ability to support agent customer interaction via e-mail, web chat, video, etc. The particular types of interactions are the subject of the client's own choice, and the contact center may support some or all such interactions.
Contact centers will often co-exist and complement PBX systems. PBX systems provide telephony functions to a set of users in a business environment. In one type of architecture, contact center software will direct the operation of the PBX via a computer telephony interface (CTI) link.
Recently, full contact center systems have become available that comprise both contact center software and contact center switches in a single system. One such contact center system is sold by the Assignee of the present patent application under the trademark CCPRO. These contact center systems typically comprise a plurality of call center software applications as well as switching capability for routing incoming and outgoing contacts between customers and agents. In many modem contact centers, the call center system is added to an existing PBX system.
When adding a call center system, an issue arises regarding how to integrate such new hardware, and associated software, with the existing PBX and agent stations. Specifically, both the PBX and the contact center switch contain switching capacity, and both may be addressing the same set or subset of users. Thus, there is the potential for conflict in controlling the operation of the call center. It is important to note that either the PBX or the contact center switch can use either traditional analog or digital telephony to connect the desktop devices together, and to connect desktop devices to the public networks; or either or both the PBX or the contact center switch can use packet or cell based data networks—for example, an Internet protocol network—to provide such connectivity.
FIG. 1
shows a typical technique utilized to integrate the call center applications hardware/software (hereinafter “call center application's switch”, “call center switch” or “switch”) with the PBX. In the arrangement of
FIG. 1
, a semi-permanent connection is “nailed up” between call center applications
102
and telephones
104
-
106
. The PBX is used to nail up this connection, operating as a semi-permanent patch panel rather than an actual switching device. Specifically, the PBX is utilized to establish semi-permanent connections from telephones
104
-
106
to call center applications switch
102
. The semi-permanent connections are established when an agent logs on to the contact center system, and persist during the period of time in which the agent is logged in. Different semi-permanent connections are established through PBX
103
for each of the telephones
104
-
106
. The nailed up connection is initiated by switch
102
after the agent at one of terminals
107
-
109
logs onto switch
102
. Switch
102
knows which telephone extension is associated with each of terminals
107
-
109
, and can thus nail up the appropriate connection. The data and voice terminal are associated with each other to form the agent positions
120
-
122
as shown.
In the arrangement of
FIG. 1
, call center switch
102
includes switching hardware analogous to that included in the PBX. Thus, all of the applications and the switching are executed on the hardware denoted call center switch
102
. The PBX is simply left to patch connections together.
One problem with the arrangement of
FIG. 1
is the increased cost resulting from all of the connections. Specifically, switch
102
requires a port to connect to each of data terminals
107
-
109
, another port for each voice terminal
104
-
106
connected to the switch through the PBX
103
, and still further ports for connecting to the public network
101
. This increases hardware and software requirements, as well as cost, and also decreases reliability by having too many failure points.
A second configuration for utilizing a call center application switch to implement a call or contact center is shown in FIG.
2
. The arrangement of
FIG. 2
includes a local area network (LAN)
210
for interconnecting the call center application switch
206
with a plurality of agent stations. The functionality required for all of the call center applications, as well as the ability to switch contacts into and out of the call center, is contained within call center application switch
206
. It is noted that while the LAN
210
is shown as interconnecting the agents with the call center application switch, separate connections between the call center switch
206
and agents
201
-
204
may also be implemented. The approach shown in
FIG. 2
also has several flaws. One problem is that the PBX is eliminated from the entire architecture. The functionality of the PBX is instead implemented in call center application switch
206
. However, since such a switch is not designed to be a full PBX, some of the functionality of a typical PBX is not included in such a call center switch. For example, general purpose conferencing, unified messages and other functions normally included in the PBX are typically not included in a call center applications switch.
Still another architecture for integrating a call center application switch with the PBX is shown in FIG.
3
. The architecture of
FIG. 3
includes a separate PBX
302
and a call center applications switch
301
. Each of the PBX
302
and call center application switch
301
may independently talk to a wide area network (WAN)
350
. Agents that require a call center applications to service customers are connected to a LAN
320
for communication with call center applications switch
301
. General personnel within the company, whose telephone sets are indicated by
303
-
306
, are connected only to PBX
302
for general inbound and outward calling. Finally, supervisory personnel
311
-
315
, who require access to both the PBX
302
for general calling purposes, and to call center applications switch
301
to monitor and/or participate in call center applications, are connected to both PBX
302
and call center applications switch
301
.
The arrangement of
FIG. 3
permits those personnel utilizing mostly PBX functionality to configure their systems with only one port for access to the PBX. Personnel stationed at stations
307
-
310
are typically configured for access to call center applications switch
301
. The disadvantages of the arrangement shown in
FIG. 3
is that any of the personnel at stations
311
-
315
may be on the telephone or servicing a contact from either PBX
302
or call center applications switch
301
, when the other of the two requests contact with the particular person. Moreover, the stations
311
-
315
which require access to both, also require duplicative hardware and software.
In view of the above, there exists a need in the art for an improved and economical manner in which a contact center system can be integrated into a system, which also includes a PBX. Ideally, the functionality of both the PBX and contact center applications switch
301
should be utilized in conjunction with one another to maximize the effectiveness of the system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Aubaidi Al
Bourque & Associates P.A.
Concerto Software, Inc.
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