Telephonic communications – Centralized switching system – Call distribution to operator
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-22
2001-05-08
Matar, Ahmad (Department: 2642)
Telephonic communications
Centralized switching system
Call distribution to operator
C379S220010, C379S309000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06229888
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to telephone communications, and particularly to methods and systems for centrally managing a plurality of geographically separated call centers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The telephone is one of the most widely used communication equipment in the world. At first, it was merely a convenient tool to allow people to communicate while they are physically separated. Recently, many companies use telephones to market products and services, provide technical supports to consumer products, allow callers to access their own financial data, etc. Thus, the telephone is becoming a major business and marketing tool.
In order to more effectively use telephone for business and marketing purposes, call centers have been developed. In a call center, a large number of agents handle telephone communication with callers. The matching of calls between callers and agents is typically performed by software. A simple example is used here to describe a few of the many advantages of using call centers. When a call is made to a call center, the telephone number of the calling line is typically made available to the call center by a telephone carrier. Based on this telephone number, the software in the call center can access a database server to obtain information about the caller who has been assigned that phone number. The software can now route the call to an agent who can best handle the call based on predefined criteria (e.g., language skill, knowledge of products the caller bought, etc.). The software immediately transfers relevant information to a computer screen used by the agent. Thus, the agent can gain valuable information about the caller prior to receiving the call. As a result, the agent can more effectively handle the telephone transaction.
It can be seen from the above example that the enabling technology requires a combination of telephone switching and computer information processing technologies. The term commonly used for this combined technology is computer-telephony-integration (CTI).
In a prior art call center architecture, each call center is a self-contained unit. Typically, it has a telephone switch (e.g., automatic call distributor and private branch exchange), a software module for selecting agents based on a predefined script, one or more databases containing information on agents, calls, statistics, and customers, and means for routing an incoming and related data to a selected agent. This single call center system works well when a small company wants to set up only one call center. However, as the size and requirements of a company increase, there is a need to set up multiple call centers. It is desirable that information and resource of all these call centers be shared and that calls received in one call center can be handled by agents in another call center. If each call center is set up according to the prior art call center architecture, there is little or no sharing of resource and information between the call centers. Thus, it is very difficult to know whether there is an agent in another call center who is best able to handle a call received by a call center. Consequently, the full potential of these call centers cannot be fully utilized.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention involves an architecture and a system for routing calls in call centers. This architecture and system allow information and resource of all the call centers to be shared. As a result, the calls can be routed to the agents most qualified to handle them.
The present architecture is a three-layer CTI architecture. The first layer contains a plurality of automatic call distributors. Each call center contains at least one of the call distributors. Because these distributors may be manufactured by different vendors, they may have different properties and different mode of operation. In order to provide a uniform interface to the other layers, each automatic call distributor is matched with a software module (called herein the “CTI server”). This CTI server monitors and interacts with the automatic call distributor while communicating with the other layers through a common application programming interface (API). Thus, status information of all the automatic call distributors made by different vendors can be easily sent to software of the other layers using the API, and software in the other layers can control the operations of the automatic call distributors using the API.
In this architecture, the second layer comprises a software module (called herein the “stat-server”) for storing status information related to the operation of all the call centers, such as the status of the automatic call distributors and agents working in these call centers. The stored information can be retrieved by software modules in the third layer.
The third layer comprises one or more applications (i.e., software modules). An important application is a routing server for routing an incoming call (received by one of the call centers) to the best available agent (who may be physically located in another call center).
An example of a system using the architecture of the present invention is a multiple call center's system. An incoming call arrives at an automatic call distributor of a first call center. The CTI server sends the information (using API events) to the stat-server and the routing server. The routing server retrieves information regarding the call (e.g., previous ordering information originated from the phone placing the call) from a database and the status of agents from the stat-server. If the best available agent to handle the call is located in a second call center, the routing server requests the CTI server of the second call center to reserve a routing point in its matching automatic call distributor. The routing server then instructs the CTI server of the first call center to cause its matching automatic call distributor to transfer the call to the reserved routing point of the automatic call distributor in the second call center. After the call is transferred, the CTI server of the second call center notifies the routing routine. The routing routine routes this call to the selected agent in the second call center. The routing routine also delivers information from the database to a workstation used by the agent. As a result, the best available agent is able to handle the call and all pertinent information delivered thereto.
These and other features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
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Newton's Telecom Dictionary, Harry Newton, 1998, pp. 684-685, Oct. 1998.
Boys Donald R
Central Coast Patent Agency
Deane, Jr. William J.
Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories
Matar Ahmad
LandOfFree
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