Patents by Inventor Joylee Kohler

Joylee Kohler has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9781263
    Abstract: A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, assess contextual information and adjust an outbound dialer's pacing algorithm based on the assessment thereof. The contextual information may be obtained from sources that are inside the contact center and outside the contact center.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew D. Flockhart, Joylee Kohler, Robert C. Steiner
  • Patent number: 9451087
    Abstract: Systems and methods for routing and/or servicing contacts using video analysis of one or more video streams are provided. The systems and methods are particularly applicable to a contact center.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Luciano Godoy Fagundes, Thomas Moran, Dhaval Desai, Joylee Kohler, Paul Roller Michaelis
  • Patent number: 9118765
    Abstract: A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, selectively promote and demote agent skills to respond to various changes in contact center conditions. This enables the contact center to respond to unexpected changes in processing conditions without significantly impacting the overall performance of the contact center.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2015
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew D. Flockhart, Joylee Kohler, Robert C. Steiner
  • Patent number: 9100480
    Abstract: A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, reward positive agent behavior and performance by providing the agent with rewards and incentives. The rewards and incentives are provided to the agent by altering one or more aspects of the routing logic in the contact center.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2015
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Joylee Kohler, Andrew D. Flockhart, Robert C. Steiner
  • Patent number: 8965878
    Abstract: A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, define, in real-time, qualifier set combinations for work items. Thus, the contact center can create a dictionary of combinations of work item attributes that may be defined as work items are introduced to the system. The definition of the combinations allows for large qualifier sets without the large expenditure of resources to define all possible combinations of attributes for the contact center.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2015
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Robert C. Steiner, Joylee Kohler, Andrew D. Flockhart
  • Patent number: 8953775
    Abstract: A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, simultaneously execute two different work assignment algorithms on the same work flow either in real-time as the work flow is received or in a simulation environment. The differences in the way that each work assignment algorithm handles the same work flow are compared and contrasted to help describe the differences in the work assignment algorithms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 10, 2015
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew D. Flockhart, Robert C. Steiner, Joylee Kohler
  • Patent number: 8938063
    Abstract: A contact center is provided that includes a plurality of agents for servicing incoming contacts and an event manager that is operable to monitor various administrative changes made within the contact center, determine if those changes had a positive or negative effect on the contact center performance (either locally or globally), and reverse the change if it is determined that the change resulted in negative effect on the contact center.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 20, 2015
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Kenneth R. Hackbarth, Murray Jenson, Sarah H. Kiefhaber, Joylee Kohler
  • Patent number: 8903080
    Abstract: A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, determine an estimated wait time for contacts waiting to be serviced by resources of the contact center without relying on the traditional First-In-First-Out behavior of contact centers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2014
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew D. Flockhart, Joylee Kohler, Robert C. Steiner
  • Patent number: 8811597
    Abstract: A contact center is provided that includes a plurality of agents for servicing incoming contacts and an a performance analysis module that compares a proposed contact center configuration and/or change in secondary contact center performance parameter against a set of contact center templates, the contact center templates defining a historical contact center configuration as of respective points in time and, based on the results of this operation, predicts an impact on a primary contact center performance parameter if the proposed contact center configuration and/or change in secondary performance parameter were to be implemented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 19, 2014
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Kenneth R. Hackbarth, Murray Jenson, Sarah H. Kiefhaber, Joylee Kohler, Douglas W. Swartz
  • Patent number: 8761380
    Abstract: Systems and methods for providing adaptive estimated wait time predictions for work items are provided. More particularly, a processor-enabled module may select a best estimated wait time algorithm from among a plurality of estimated wait time algorithms that meets the accuracy and calculation resource conditions of a contact center based on rules. Furthermore, the conditions of a contact center may change at times and as a result the selection of which estimated wait time algorithm is considered best will adapt to suit the contact center change. In addition, the selected best estimated wait time prediction can be provided to client communication devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Joylee Kohler, Robert C. Steiner, Andrew D. Flockhart, William H. Jolicoeur
  • Publication number: 20140161248
    Abstract: A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, define, in real-time, qualifier set combinations for work items. Thus, the contact center can create a dictionary of combinations of work item attributes that may be defined as work items are introduced to the system. The definition of the combinations allows for large qualifier sets without the large expenditure of resources to define all possible combinations of attributes for the contact center.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2014
    Publication date: June 12, 2014
    Inventors: Robert C. Steiner, Joylee Kohler, Andrew D. Flockhart
  • Patent number: 8718268
    Abstract: The present disclosure describes various ways of providing agents with a configurable mechanism by which they may bid on training opportunities with contacts in a given contact center. Specifically, an architecture providing a team of agents and agents-in-training to service a contact or set of contacts and methods of employing that team architecture are described. The bids of one or more agents may be collected and evaluated to determine at least one winning agent that will team together with at least one subject matter expert, qualified agent, or team in handling a contact for the purposes of training.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Robert C. Steiner, Andrew D. Flockhart, Joylee Kohler
  • Patent number: 8718267
    Abstract: A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, dynamically and in real-time utilize contact center analytics feedback mechanisms to adjust parameters that are used in making work assignment decisions. The adjusted parameters may correspond to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for agents of the contact center rather than skill values for the agents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew D. Flockhart, Joylee Kohler, Robert C. Steiner
  • Patent number: 8718269
    Abstract: A contact center which provides the ability to, among other things, support deferring work assignment decisions while simultaneously assessing the risks associated with such a deferred decision. The intelligent deferment of work assignment decisions helps to achieve better matching without losing the opportunity to timely assign work to an agent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Joylee Kohler, Robert C. Steiner, Andrew D. Flockhart
  • Patent number: 8699691
    Abstract: A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, determine performance efficiencies/metric associated with one or more multi-tasking agents and provide relief to agents based on rules. This multi-tasking relief may be provided to the one or more agents via reducing an amount of multi-tasking work, inserting breaks into the agent's work flow, and/or directing work items to other resources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2014
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Joylee Kohler, Robert C. Steiner, Andrew D. Flockhart
  • Patent number: 8699695
    Abstract: A contact center is provided that pushes notifications to one or more resources about available work item opportunities. The one or more resources can pull the work item from the notification groups to handle the work item. Moreover, the pushed notifications can be added to a traditional work assignment scheme to aid in the answering of work items and/or offer training to a plurality of resources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2014
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew D. Flockhart, Robert C. Steiner, Joylee Kohler
  • Patent number: 8688684
    Abstract: A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, define, in real-time, qualifier set combinations for work items. Thus, the contact center can create a dictionary of combinations of work item attributes that may be defined as work items are introduced to the system. The definition of the combinations allows for large qualifier sets without the large expenditure of resources to define all possible combinations of attributes for the contact center.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2014
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Robert C. Steiner, Joylee Kohler, Andrew D. Flockhart
  • Publication number: 20140079209
    Abstract: A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. Work assignment methods are disclosed that push notifications to one or more resources about available work item opportunities. The one or more resources can pull the work item from the notification groups to handle the work item. Moreover, the pushed notifications can be added to a traditional work assignment scheme to aid in the answering of work items and/or offer training to a plurality of resources.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 19, 2012
    Publication date: March 20, 2014
    Applicant: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew D. Flockhart, Robert C. Steiner, Joylee Kohler
  • Publication number: 20140081689
    Abstract: A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. In particular, work assignment methods are disclosed that are configured to utilize multiple selection mechanisms in determining an optimal work assignment. By analyzing data relating to agent selection, queue information, and state information, of one or more contact centers, a work item may be efficiently assigned to achieve a work item optimal solution. In some cases, the optimal solution for a work item may be contrary to an optimal solution for a particular contact center. However, the primary goal of efficiently handling the work item via one or more resources can be achieved by merging selection mechanisms and intelligently assigning work items on a system-wide basis.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2012
    Publication date: March 20, 2014
    Applicant: AVAYA INC.
    Inventors: Robert C. Steiner, Andrew D. Flockhart, Joylee Kohler, Gene Masaru Uba
  • Publication number: 20140082179
    Abstract: A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. In general, methods are disclosed that are configured to analyze work assignments to determine one or more scarce resources for further management. By analyzing the attributes, that are common to a number of work assignments made over a period of time, resources possessing those attributes may be classified as scarce. These scarce resources may be managed in accordance with their demand and business rules. To efficiently handle work items associated with valued customers, the scarce resources may be removed from traditional work assignments and held in reserve. The reserved scarce resources may be applied to the valued customers' work items.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 19, 2012
    Publication date: March 20, 2014
    Applicant: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Robert C. Steiner, Andrew D. Flockhart, Joylee Kohler