Abstract: A web-based hosted solution through which business entities create and manage communications campaigns, such as interactive campaigns that afford target recipients an opportunity to be connected to a third party call center. A web interface is provided to enable a business entity customer to create a set of one or more rules that, when triggered during the campaign, cause the hosted solution to take certain control actions in real-time, based on campaign performance. Preferably, this “campaign performance” is measured indirectly, i.e. without requiring a direct connection to an on-premises call center ACD. Rather, preferably all information about the call center's performance during the campaign is derived from information (gathered by the hosted solution) about calls delivered, or attempted to be delivered, to the call center. In effect, the call center performance is inferred, and this performance is then exposed to the business entity customer through a web-based interface.

Abstract: An apparatus and methods for a call routing system is disclosed whereby the call routing service provider is associated with a series of partners. By providing a system supporting not only the main user, but also the partners, efficiencies are gained through cost-spreading. Agents can be qualified to field calls for multiple business entities. Cross-selling and proactive servicing based on caller demographic and profile data can be effectuated. The system employs a centralized or global bank of shared Interactive Voice Response (IVR) units so that unnecessary post-routing and call site interflow are reduced. The system comprises a central server system that interfaces with a long distance provider so that route requests are received, caller data is retrieved from one or more databases, routing and handling strategies are developed, load balancing is effectuated, and calls are appropriately routed to one of a plurality of geographically separated call center systems with queues staffed by agents.

Abstract: A system for enabling collaboration between two or more customer contact campaigns running within a call center environment includes at least one outbound contact server (OCS) resident on a digital medium, the OCS including an automated dialer application resident on a digital medium thereon or accessible thereto for dialing contact numbers from contact records assembled for the running campaigns, a call monitoring and recording system executing from software on a digital medium, for monitoring call dialing progress and business results of completed calls, a central data repository for storing dialing progress and business results data collected by the running outbound campaigns, and a data sharing mechanism executing from software resident on a digital medium, accessible to each campaign running on the OCS for sharing collected data among the running campaigns.

Abstract: A method and system for dynamically determining a poll wherein at least a first parameter for each queue of one or more queues is maintained and a poll for each queue based upon an initial polling mode corresponding to each of the one or more queues is conducted. The polling mode comprises either a scheduled polling mode or an on-demand polling mode. Thereafter, at least a second parameter for each queue based on the poll is determined and an interval or a mode of a subsequent poll for each queue based on a comparison between the first parameter and the second parameter corresponding to each queue is scheduled. The subsequent poll is either (a) a different one of the scheduled poll and the on-demand poll, or (b) the scheduled poll having a different polling interval than the initial polling mode wherein the initial polling mode is also the scheduled poll.

Abstract: A web-based hosted solution (a managed service or system) through which business entities create and manage communications campaigns, such as interactive campaigns that afford target recipients an opportunity to be connected to a call center. To reduce latency of customer-to-agent connections, the system implements an agent stay-on-line function by which a persistent telephony connection is established and maintained between the system infrastructure and an available agent. In this manner, the agent may handle multiple customers while avoiding an ACD hold queue. In addition, preferably a service-side hold queue also is established and maintained on the service-side of the infrastructure. This hold queue maintains calls that are waiting to be connected to available agents. It ensures that any customer abandons (on the service side) do not impair the connections that are being established and maintained to the agents. The managed service carries out a communications campaign on behalf of a client.

Abstract: A web-based hosted solution (a managed service or system) through which business entities create and manage communications campaigns, such as interactive campaigns that afford target recipients an opportunity to be connected to a call center. To reduce latency of customer-to-agent connections, the system implements an agent stay-on-line function by which a persistent telephony connection is established and maintained between the system infrastructure and an available agent. In this manner, the agent may handle multiple customers while avoiding an ACD hold queue. In addition, preferably a service-side hold queue also is established and maintained on the service-side of the infrastructure. This hold queue maintains calls that are waiting to be connected to available agents. It ensures that any customer abandons (on the service side) do not impair the connections that are being established and maintained to the agents. The managed service carries out a communications campaign on behalf of a client.

Abstract: A method of routing a received incipient transaction to an organization entity includes processing experiential data of a fact collection regarding past transactions, including processing experiential data regarding past transactions involving an initiator of the incipient transaction and experiential data regarding transactions handled by organizational entities. At least one routing rule is evaluated in view of the experiential data processing, to make a routing determination. The incipient transaction is routed, for completion, to one of the organizational entities based on the routing determination. Furthermore, experiential data regarding completion of the incipient transaction, may be fed back to the fact collection.

Abstract: Systems and methods for managing calls, both inbound and outbound, for available agents over a plurality of lines, where each call received or placed is pre-identified to be connected to one specific agent and upon the automatic detection of the call being received or answered, the call is either connected to the specific agent or placed in a queue for that specific agent.

Abstract: Systems and methods for managing calls, both inbound and outbound, for available agents over a plurality of lines, where each call received or placed is pre-identified to be connected to one specific agent and upon the automatic detection of the call being received or answered, the call is either connected to the specific agent or placed in a queue for that specific agent.

Abstract: An access-frequency estimating apparatus includes a storage unit that stores hours outside operating hours and for which a second-degree derivative of access frequency distribution for contact centers whose business is similar to that of a contact center subject to estimation is nearly 0, and a coefficient indicating relation between access frequency during operating hours of the other contact centers and access frequency outside the operating hours; an acquiring unit that acquires past access frequencies for operating hours of the contact center; an extracting unit that extracts, from the storage unit, a coefficient expressing relation between the access frequencies for the operating hours and an arbitrary hour outside the operating hours; a first calculating unit that calculates an estimated access frequency for the arbitrary hour of the contact center, based on the past access frequencies acquired and the coefficient; and an output unit that outputs the estimated the access frequency calculated.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for improving call yields and reducing redundant calls while contacting patients who have not responded to reminders to schedule a return appointment, or who are due for a visit according to accepted standards of care or office policies, but have not scheduled an appointment. The patient reactivation system is queried for the next patient on the contact list, and queried again to find all patients sharing one or more phone numbers with this patient. Information required for contacting these patients to invite them to make an appointment is displayed. The user is presented one phone number at a time, and prompted to call this number and invite all listed patients to make an appointment. Results are collected, and when multiple patients are displayed, the program may prompt the user for clarification regarding which patients a given result applies to.

Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to updating routing patterns in an enterprise network. In some implementations, a method for routing sessions includes identifying information associated with call sessions in an enterprise network. The information includes costs to an enterprise for using carrier services during the call sessions. Routing patterns for call sessions are dynamically updated through at least a portion of the enterprise network based, at least in part, on the costs associated with the call sessions.

Abstract: A method and system is provided for common account based distribution of contact records. A comparison engine analyzes call record accounts to identify and tag related call records, such as call record accounts related to the same individual. A common account tag detector detects related accounts and communicates with a common account controller of a distribution module that distributes contact attempts in pools and queues. The common account controller locates related accounts, such as by searching for accounts having the same tag, to prevent additional contact attempts to the individual associated with the related accounts. The related accounts are forwarded to the operator who made the successful contact to coordinate resolution of the related accounts along with the account that originated the contact attempt.

Abstract: A system directs action based on distinguishing audio content received in response to placing an outbound call. The system comprises an audio signal analysis system and an audio content analysis system. The audio signal analysis system directs a portion of an audio signal that comprises audio content to the audio content analysis system. The audio content analysis system: i) receives portions of the audio signal comprising audio content; and ii) directs handling of the outbound call in response to detecting a characteristic of the audio content. The audio content system: i) directs a first handling of the outbound call in response to identifying a first characteristic of the audio content; and ii) directs a second handling of the outbound call in response to identifying a second characteristic of the audio content.

Abstract: A method and system of generating prospective ability data is provided. Availability for at least one future temporal block is estimated, responsive to receiving an availability request, by applying availability rules to temporal block data associated with the at least one future temporal block, the temporal block data stored in a database.

Abstract: Systems and methods for detecting call blocking devices or services. The devices monitor outbound call connections to determine if a connected call has been answered by a call blocking device or service rather than a person or answering machine. The verification is a comparison between the connection of an outbound call and a predefined parameter of data associated with that connection. For example, the predefined timing parameter may require detecting a connection before the first ring, or a connection occur within a predetermine period of time from when the outbound call is placed, or a connection occurring after a certain number of rings, etc. Which predefined parameter is associated with a particular outbound call may depend on the call blocking device or service the call center placing the outbound call expects to encounter on a particular connection attempt of a particular phone number.

Abstract: A method and system for providing automated call center services, operating by identifying a caller, accessing the caller's account information, determining the likely reason for the call, identifying an agent skill group based on the likely reason for the call, and providing an available agent with access to the caller's account information, together with a script based on the likely reason for the call. Data and voice access to agents is combined with specialized methods and systems for determining agent optimization capabilities, thereby allowing multiple call centers located in geographically different areas to operate as a seamless virtual call center, having the capability to dynamically reorganize the structure of available agents, regardless of where located. Real time statistics allow determination of how many agents should be available and what skill sets those agents should have, thereby facilitating management decisions.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product for determining wait treatment for a customer in a call center is presented. Information relating to a customer in a communication session with the call center is recorded. The information relating to a customer in a communication session with the call center is then evaluated. From the evaluation the type of wait treatment to use for the customer is determined and is provided to the customer.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to systems and methods for providing an accurate forecast of resource availability within a determined forecast horizon. Statistics regarding time spent by resources in tasks that can be differentiated into or considered as a number of discrete segments are accessed to obtain a probability of resource completion of the task within the forecast horizon. In particular, statistics related to different task segments are combined to obtain a composite forecast of resource availability. Embodiments of the present invention may be applied to predictive dialer applications and workflow systems.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product for performing predictive dialing is presented. A probability of contact for each customer of a plurality of customers for a predetermined period of time is determined. A number of agents available during the predetermined period of time are also determined. A selection is then made regarding which customers to call based on the number of agents available during the time period and the probability of contact for each of the plurality of customers for a predetermined period of time. The number of calls are then placed to the selected customers.

Abstract: Outbound calls are processed in a telecommunications network. Schedule service data associated with network terminating addresses is stored in a memory of a content platform. During a connectivity session between the content platform and a first media platform configured for interactive voice response for outbound calling, available outbound port capacity of the first media platform is determined at the content platform. If the outbound port capacity of the first media platform is not available, a request for redirecting outbound calling capacity from a first outbound call production platform to a second outbound call production platform is transmitted to an outbound calling scheduler.

Abstract: The present invention relates to queue-theoretic models for integration of automated call routing systems with human operators. Organizations are increasingly turning to spoken dialog systems for automated call routing to reduce call center costs. To maintain quality service even in cases of failure, these systems often resort to ad-hoc rules for dispatching calls to a human operator. The present invention provides queue-theoretic methods that provide a modeling and simulation capability in support of decisions about the staffing of call-handling centers based on the frequency of incoming calls and the competency of automated dialog systems. The methods include a procedure for identifying when callers should be transferred to operators. The procedure integrates models that predict when a call is likely to fail using spoken dialog features with queuing models of call center volume and service time.

Abstract: The present invention discloses an online service system capable of predicting waiting time. The service system serves the users through a queuing mode and an electronic whiteboard mode. The queuing mode comprises a queuing-user counting unit for counting number of the user entering the queuing mode, a service channel counting unit for counting number of the service channels providing service, and a waiting-time prediction unit for predicting and showing the waiting time to the queuing users. Alternatively, the queuing users can search for related information from the database through a search engine. Once the service channel is available, the queuing user can exit from the queuing mode and request for service through the electronic whiteboard mode by transmitting audio/video, picture and character data. The present invention may further provide a performance evaluation mode for the system manager's reference.

Abstract: A call center includes a plurality of agent workstations, each agent workstation comprising means for entering information obtained from a telephone respondent in response to questions prompted by a script displayed on the display of the workstation, and means for producing status signals indicative of the progression of the agent through the script. A predictive dialling system receives status signals from each agent station and predicts from the status signals and statistical information regarding the number of calls previously made, how many new calls should be dialled to enable agents who have finished their previous call by the time the calls are answered to take the new calls.

Abstract: A system and method for monitoring and analyzing user activity of an interactive system, providing insight and recommendations to improve the interactive system based on the user activity. The present invention analyzes user behavior in the context of the structure of the interactive system as experienced by the user, the analysis of business-critical user tasks, the automated generation of recommendations for improving the interactive system, reports on the interactive system's application logic and data, unique visualizations of user behavior through the use of graphical displays, and secure report viewing and creation. The present invention can be applied to number of interactive systems or a combination thereof.

Abstract: A computer system and program product for managing support of an application. First program instructions receive a request to view contact information for support people for the application, and in response, determine whether the request occurs during On Shift support hours or Off Shift support hours of the application and determine the support people who are On Shift and the support people who are Off Shift for the application. There is a preferred e-mail address for On Shift contact and a preferred e-mail address for Off Shift contact for each of the support people. The preferred e-mail address for On Shift contact is different than the preferred e-mail address for Off Shift contact for at least one of the support people. Second program instructions receive a request to send an e-mail to one or more of the On Shift and Off Shift support people.

Abstract: Systems and methods for analyzing planned available resources and expected demand for resources are disclosed. Based on the analysis, changes to the distribution of demands for service to service processing resources may be recommended. The recommended changes are offered to a manager for approval and/or modification before implementation of the changes. In preferred embodiments the resources providing service are service agents that handle service requests. In some embodiments the service agents are humans, whereas other embodiments have non-human service agents in addition to or in place of human service agents.

Abstract: A method of operating a distributed call progress tone detection system. In one embodiment, the method includes: (1) receiving requests from an application over said packet network and transmitting transmit call and control processing commands to a switching partition via a main control unit, (2) providing an interface to corresponding access nodes via line interface modules, (3) generating a call on a first of said line interface modules, (4) employing an input-output distributor to interconnect a call progress tone detector and said first of said line interface modules to allow said call progress tone detector to perform a call progress tone detection analysis and generate an indication thereof with respect to said first of said line interface modules and (5) creating an interconnection between said first of said line interface modules and a second of said line interface modules based on said indication via said input-output distributor and notifying said application of said interconnection.

Abstract: The method and apparatus teach agents in a communication system, such as an automatic call distribution system. In a first step of one embodiment of the method, a previously stored call transaction having a plurality of dialog portions and decision points is provided to the agent. The call transaction is replayed, and at least one decision of the respective decision point in the call transaction is simulated. This simulation is different than an original decision at the respective decision point in the call transaction. The results are evaluated and presented to the agent. In one embodiment at least one decision is a best practice decision. Also, the method further may overlay preferred paths of a call transaction based on stored best practice call transactions. The apparatus implements the method for replaying call transactions.

Abstract: A method is provided for automatically updating a “Real Time” Average Speed of Answer, RASA, for a number of calls received by an automatic call distributor, ACD, during a set interval. This “real time” average speed of answer may be determined across a sliding time window via moving averages and exponential smoothing. The method includes the steps of computing a current average Speed of Answer, SA, for the number of calls received by the ACD during the set time interval, by dividing total waiting time to answer for these calls by the number of calls and scaling the current SA by a weight factor W. The real time average speed of answer, RASA, is updated by scaling a previous RASA by the unity complement of W, i.e. (1?W), and augmenting it by the scaled current SA.

Abstract: A resource task-completion forecaster (122) of an ACD (104) determines a probability that an agent (156) will complete servicing a presently-assigned call by a specified time horizon h. The forecaster determines (202) the type of call that the agent is servicing, determines (204) the amount of time t that the agent has already been servicing the call, retrieves (206) the mean and the variance of time historically spent by agents on servicing this type of call to completion, fits (208) the mean and the variance to a lifetime closed-form cumulative-probability distribution F, such as a Weibull distribution, to determine parameters of dispersion and central tendency, evaluates (210, 212) the distribution for t and h+t, computes (216) the probability of the agent not having completed servicing the call by now as Q=1?F(t), and computes (218) the probability that the agent will have completed servicing the call by the time horizon as P = F ? ( t + h ) - F ? ( t ) Q .

Abstract: A call centre includes a plurality of agent workstations, each agent workstation comprising means for entering information obtained from a telephone respondent in response to questions prompted by a script displayed on the display of the workstation, and means for producing status signals indicative of the progression of the agent through the script. A predictive dialling system receives status signals from each agent station and predicts from the status signals and statistical information regarding the number of calls previously made, how many new calls should be dialled to enable agents who have finished their previous call by the time the calls are answered to take the new calls.

Abstract: A feedback control for a predictive dialer employs three feedback loops. A first feedback loop adjusts the dialer's call initiations to compensate for error between the desired, reference, service level and a service level realized by calls that were initiated by the predictive dialer to steer the realized service level to the reference service level. A second loop adjusts the predictive dialer's call initiations for margin between the number of non-nuisance calls (successes) initiated by the predictive dialer over a time and the number of successes that would have been sufficient to produce the reference service level to force the realized service level to converge to the reference service error while ensuring that the oscillations of the realized service level stay above the reference service level.

Abstract: A system for granting access to agents at a communication center in response to requests for connection from network-level entities starts a fairness timer having a fairness time period when a first request is received for and agent, monitors any other requests for the same agent during the fairness time, and executes an algorithm at the end of the fairness time to select the network-level entity to which the request should be granted. In a preferred embodiment the fairness time is set to be equal to or greater than twice the difference between network round-trip latency for the longest latency and shortest latency routers requesting service from the communication center.

Abstract: A method for optimizing a workload of an agent of the transaction processing system is disclosed, where the agent handles inbound and outbound calls and the calls are based on voice-dialog communication and/or text-dialog communication. The method includes obtaining historical data from a database based on a category of a current call handled by the agent, where the historical data provides an indication of an expected duration of the call. The method also includes determining a predicted end time of the current call. If an inbound call is pending, the inbound call is routed to the agent after the current call terminates. If an inbound call is not pending, then an outbound call number is obtained from a list of outbound call numbers to be placed, the outbound call is placed a determined amount of time prior to the predicted end time of the current call, and the outbound call is routed to the agent.

Abstract: A mechanism and method for updating local call information databases for calls to be placed by predictive dialers deployed at different geographic locations within a communications network.

Abstract: A method of predicting expected performance of a processing center system is provided. The method includes receiving performance information from a performance monitoring system associated with the processing center system. A computer model of the processing center system is developed based on the performance information. The method further includes generating predictions based on the computer model, and analyzing the predictions to generate performance scenarios for the processing center system.

Abstract: A queued task/queued resource state forecaster employs a binomial distribution fitter to fit a composite binomial distribution to operational data of a work management system, such as a call center. The fitter obtains arrival statistics for calls and agents in the call center, determines moments for the net calls in-queue from the obtained arrival statistics, determines parameters of binomial distributions that corresponds to the moments, and fits the determined moments to a linear combination of offset binomial distributions to obtain a composite binomial distribution. The composite binomial distribution is then evaluated by a scheduler which adjusts the operation of the call center accordingly. For example, a task scheduler evaluates the distribution to obtain a probability of an additional call being enqueued by the future point in time in order to determine whether an outbound call should be launched.

Abstract: A method and system is provided for common account based distribution of contact records. A comparison engine analyzes call record accounts to identify and tag related call records, such as call record accounts related to the same individual. A common account tag detector detects related accounts and communicates with a common account controller of a distribution module that distributes contact attempts in pools and queues. The common account controller locates related accounts, such as by searching for accounts having the same tag, to prevent additional contact attempts to the individual associated with the related accounts. The related accounts are forwarded to the operator who made the successful contact to coordinate resolution of the related accounts along with the account that originated the contact attempt.

Abstract: A system that is configured for determining the value of one or at least one incoming call and routing the call for processing based on this determined value. In one embodiment, the system routes very low value calls to an automated system for processing, and directs all other calls to human operators for processing. In another embodiment, the system assigns at least one agent to one or more of a plurality of groups of agents based on the agent's talent for performing a particular task. For example, the most talented agents at handling a particular type of call are assigned to a first group, and the second most talented agents at handling this type of call are assigned to a second group. In one embodiment, the most important calls are routed to the first, “most talented” group for processing, and less important calls are routed to the second group for processing.

Abstract: Calls or other communications are processed in a system switch in accordance with a statistical control mechanism based on the assignment of weightings to call vectors or other processing scripts. The processing scripts specify operations to be performed in processing the communications in the switch, and each of at least a subset of the scripts in a set of processing scripts has a weighting associated therewith. A particular one of the processing scripts is selected for application to a given one of the communications in accordance with the assigned weightings, e.g., using a round-robin selection process. Advantageously, the assigned weightings are configured to provide a desired usage for each of the processing scripts over a given number of the communications, such that switch processing efficiency is improved, and load balancing across distributed switch processing elements is facilitated.

Abstract: A distributed call progress tone detection system and method of operation thereof. In one embodiment, the system includes a switching partition having line interface modules, a call progress tone detector configured to perform call progress tone detection analysis, and an input-output distributor configured to employ a circuit to interconnect the call progress tone detector and a first of the line interface modules. The system further includes a main control unit configured to receive requests from an application over a packet network, transmit call and control processing commands to the switching partition, create an interconnection between the first of the line interface modules and a second of the line interface modules based on an indication generated by the call progress tone detector and notify the application of the interconnection.

Abstract: A router routes calls to a network of call centers based on estimated call in-queue wait times (EWTs). The router periodically polls all call centers for the EWT and average advance time (AAT) of each queue, and increments each received EWT by a product of the AAT and the number of calls sent to that queue during the network delay time. Between polls, each time that an AAT period expires, its corresponding EWT is decremented by the AAT (but not below zero). When a call is received for processing by a skill/split, the router sends it to the skill/split queue that presently has the shortest EWT, and increments that EWT by the corresponding AAT.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and system places outbound calls using a predictive dialer at a call center and, optionally, receives inbound calls. The predictive dialing components use information about the substantive stage of the active calls at a given point in time to decide whether to begin to dial another outbound call. The calls that are considered may be inbound or outbound. In one form of the invention, statistics are maintained regarding each agent's passage through the various stages of an active call, then the statistics are used to control the predictive dialer.

Abstract: Paging, cellular telephone or other messaging functionality is incorporated into a virtual contact center system to permit logged-off customer service representatives (CSRs) to be alerted to a need to logon to the system, and to permit CSRs to alert supervisors or specialists to logon to the system. Matching at a contact control server of existing conditions to predetermined criteria, e.g., failure to login at an assigned time, or specified network conditions (such as length of customer queues), triggers a command for a communication to one or more logged-off CSRs. Results of follow-up testing at the contact control server for matches causes page requests to be renewed, redirected or canceled.

Abstract: According to the invention, a system and method for integrating call routing and workforce management functions in contact centers, enabling them to work together without opposing the influence of one against that of the other, is disclosed. In an embodiment of the invention, a feedback mechanism is provided between the routing system and either the forecasting engine or the adherence module of the workforce management system, or both. This feedback mechanism is used to pass useful information dynamically between the said workforce management system and the said routing system, said information exchange being unidirectional in either direction, or bidirectional. In another embodiment of the invention, a method in which information is passed from a call routing system to a forecasting engine or an adherence module of a workforce management system, or both, is disclosed.

Abstract: A method for allocating agents to telephone call campaigns by a telephony system is disclosed. The disclosed method is aimed at maximizing productivity of successful agents by prioritizing call distribution to those agents enjoying a high level of success with respect to a particular call campaign during a particular period of time. The method includes providing a plurality of agent resources to participate in at least one call campaign, establishing success criteria for each call campaign, assigning a success index to each agent for each call campaign, directing calls to the plurality of agent resources in a prioritized manner, whereby calls are connected to available agents in accordance with the value of agent success indexes from highest to lowest The method also includes updating each agent success index is based on the established success criteria while the call campaign is in progress.

Abstract: A personal computer banking system and method in which a personal computer is connected by a network service provider directly to a host computer system of a bank such that customer service requests can be processed automatically without need for intervention by customer service representatives. The system is capable of distinguishing between those customer service requests which are capable of automated fulfillment and those requests which require handling by a customer service representative. The system is integrated with the host computer system of the bank so that the remote banking customer can access other automated services of the bank.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for the recordal of call results in a computer database in a predictive dialing application. Operators communicate call results back to the dialing controller using DTMF signals. The system uses a single computer to coordinate, administer and store the results of the campaign, and the need for computer terminals at the operator stations is eliminated, since any DTMF capable device could be used.

Abstract: The system and method for dialing in a telephony system using a common channel signaling protocol, such as ISDN, maximizes the use of bearer or voice channels. The telephony system includes a dialing switch connected to a central office switch that supports the common channel signaling protocol. In one example, the connection is made using an ISDN primary rate interface (PRI) connection providing 23 bearer channels and one data channel. The dialing switch automatically dials to establish telephone connections between calling parties, such as agents in a call center, and called parties, such as existing or potential customers. The system also includes a telephony system control/manager that controls the dialing and manages telephony resources. The system determines predictive dialing factors, such as an anticipated connect ratio (ACR) of dialed numbers to connections with called parties, average talk time, a number of idle agents, and hold time.