Abstract: An agent presence application for monitoring target agent resources and rendering agent states to subscribing applications is provided. The presence application has at least one first portion for collecting data regarding states of activity of the target agent resources, and at least one second portion for integrating the data and rendering the agent states to the subscribing applications.

Abstract: A method to discriminate a signal as a DTMF digit is operative in a service provider having a VoIP-based media server. The media server accepts both in-band DTMF and RTP telephone events. A digit detection module receives as input a data stream that may include one or more DTMF digits. The module processes the input data stream and provides, as output, an indication of what digit(s) have been detected and from what source (e.g., in-band audio, an RTP 2833 telephone event, of both). The output is then further processed by a discrimination algorithm to make a final digit determination. If RTP telephone events are detected, the algorithm prefers them and ignores in-band DTMF until the call ends or the media is re-negotiated. The approach detects when duplicate digits of differing types are initially received and only accepts one of them, regardless of spacing or duration.

Abstract: A system that supports multiple contact centers includes a communications network that is coupled between a private network (e.g. MPLS network) and a remote computing environment (e.g. cloud environment). A server system in the remote computing environment monitors health of different network segments (e.g. bandwidth of the connection between the communications network and the remote computing environment, bandwidth of a link used by a tenant to access the private network, etc.). When it is determined that quality of service for voice conversations for one or more contact centers is at risk due to a health status parameter of a network segment reaching a threshold, an appropriate system reaction is triggered. The system reaction may be to offload future calls to a peer remote computing environment to service future calls. The system reaction may also be to cancel outbound campaigns, provide pre-determined “sorry” messages, and the like.

Abstract: In a system for managing an interaction flow for a contact center, the system includes: a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory has stored thereon, instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: display on a graphical display, an interaction flow canvas and an interaction block selection tool; receive a user input to add a first interaction block to the interaction flow canvas; generate a first interaction instruction corresponding to the first interaction block; and receive a user input to add a second interaction block to the interaction flow canvas, wherein the first interaction instruction comprises an instruction for proceeding to the second interaction block after a criterion of the first interaction block is satisfied.

Abstract: A system and method for managing a customer's experience with a contact center that takes available data about the customer, the agents of the contact center, and the organization represented by the contact center, for identifying opportunities for additional conversations/interactions with the customer and engaging in those additional conversations/interactions at a time and with a resource predicted to maximize outcomes for the organization. A processor is configured to identify express and/or implied intents for an interaction between the customer and the contact center. A business goal related to the express and/or implied intents is also identified for determining a current performance of the contact center and for identifying any performance gaps. Contact center targets are identified based on their performance in handling the express and/or implied intents, and the identified performance gaps. An available one of the identified targets is then selected for routing the interaction to the target.

Abstract: A method for routing activities in a contact center to contact center agents includes: identifying an activity to be routed to a contact center agent; identifying one or more parameters for handling the activity; identifying one or more contact center agents; retrieving preference settings for the identified one or more contact center agents; routing the activity to one of the identified contact center agents based on the identified one or more parameters and the retrieved preference settings.

Abstract: A management system for guiding an agent in a media-specific dialog has a conversion engine for instantiating ongoing dialog as machine-readable text, if the dialog is in voice media, a context analysis engine for determining facts from the text, a rules engine for asserting rules based on fact input, and a presentation engine for presenting information to the agent to guide the agent in the dialog. The context analysis engine passes determined facts to the rules engine, which selects and asserts to the presentation engine rules based on the facts, and the presentation engine provides periodically updated guidance to the agent based on the rules asserted.

Abstract: A system for a contact center includes: a processor; an interactive voice response (IVR) node configured to engage in an incoming interaction from a customer to the contact center by presenting set scripts to the customer and receiving corresponding responses; an intelligent automated agent including an artificial intelligence engine; a call server node configured to route the interaction and the responses to one of a pool of live agents or to the automated agent; and a non-transitory storage device coupled to the processor and configured to store customer profile data built from previous interactions. The automated agent is further configured to retrieve a profile of the customer from the customer profile data during the interaction and to update the retrieved profile on the storage device to reflect the interaction. The artificial intelligence engine is configured to learn knowledge from the interaction and to apply the learned knowledge to future interactions.

Abstract: A system for routing an interaction has a queue for staging the interaction, a router running a routing strategy for routing the interaction, and a number of object models maintained for a number of agents, the object models defining one or more agent skills, the values of the object models dynamically affected by real-time bio-metrics of the agents obtained through ongoing monitoring of voice and input actions of the agents. The routing strategy routes the interaction based on comparison of the dynamically-affected skill values of the agents, as evidenced in the object models.

Abstract: In one implementation an apparatus is provided, comprising a processor and a memory, the memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to access a pre-designed graphical user interface (GUI) framework, load into the GUI, first party and third party call controls, load into the GUI, representations of telephony objects, load into the GUI, at least one interactive link to one or more scripting tools, load into the GUI, a interactive user control panel, load into the GUI, a digital tone detector, display the GUI on a computing appliance monitor, and display current call state for one or more call connection types.

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 system for making outbound calls includes a first node connected to a network for placing outbound telephone calls, a second node connected to the network and accessible to the first node for reporting agent status relative to busy, ready, and time to ready, a number of agent appliances connected to the network and accessible to the second node, and a number of agent activity applications installed one per on the agent appliances. In a preferred embodiment outbound calls are predicted based on the number of agents reported ready to accept a call plus the number of agents predicted to be ready to accept a call within a specified time window.

Abstract: A call center system has a computerized server executing software (SW) from a machine-readable medium, a data collection function of the SW enabled for collecting data regarding incoming transactions, a data processing function coupled to the data collection engine and enabled for processing the data collected against a set of business rules, the data processing function determining a priority level for individual ones of the incoming transactions, and a distribution function enabled for distributing a priority indication determined by the data processing function to one or more presentation interfaces accessible to agents, at or near the time the associated transaction is engaged by the agent.

Abstract: A method for processing dialed outgoing calls in a contact center includes a method for matching a dialed string and a method for translating the dialed string. A method for matching includes identifying a set of available number categories based on a calling profile with which the dialing agent device is configured, matching the dialed string against each of a set of patterns in each of the categories, and translating the dialed string according to the category, if any category matches and if no blocked category matches the dialed string. The number may then be translated to a translated number including a PSTN telephone number and routing characters specifying how the call is to be routed from an IP network to the PSTN. The routing may be selected to minimize the cost of the call.

Abstract: In a multimedia call center (MMCC) operating through an operating system, a client-specific self-help wizard is provided for active clients and updated periodically with information related to client transaction history with the MMCC. A connected client is presented by the wizard with a selective media function through which the client may a select a media type for interaction and help, and the MMCC will then re-contact the client through the selected media. The client, for example, may select IP or COST telephony, and the MMCC will place a call to the client to a number or IP address listed for the client, and interactivity will then be through an interactive voice response unit. Help information specific to a client is updated in the client's wizard periodically according to ongoing transaction history with the MMCC. The wizard may also monitor client activity with the wizard and make reports available to various persons.

Abstract: System and method for enhanced interaction processing in a contact center that includes dynamically determining customer segmentation. A processor detects a pending interaction with a customer. The processor retrieves, in response to detecting the pending interaction, identification of a first customer segment to which the customer belongs. The first customer segment is associated with a first objective of the contact center. The processor predicts an outcome of the pending interaction, and identifies a second customer segment based on the predicted outcome. The processor re-associates the customer to a second customer segment, where the second customer segment is associated with a second objective of the contact center different from the first business objective. The processor handles the pending interaction according to the second objective instead of the first objective.

Abstract: A method of adding a server to, or removing a server from, a cluster of servers, and of transferring state information. A new server being added sends a message to all existing servers indicating that it is being added, the new server sends a request for state information, the existing servers in the cluster transfer state information to the new server, and the new server sends a commit message to finalize its addition. Acknowledge messages are exchanged during the process. An existing server being removed sends, to the remaining servers, an initiate message, a transfer of state information, and a commit message to finalize the removal, with acknowledge messages exchanged during the process.

Abstract: A system and method for monitoring deployment states of a contact center. A processor migrates a state of the contact center from a first deployment state to a second deployment state. The processor records the steps in migrating from the first deployment state to the second deployment state, and stores the recorded steps in association with metadata describing the second deployment state. The processor monitors health of the second state, and takes an action for moving the state of the contact center to a healthy state in response to determining that the second deployment state is unhealthy. The migrating may be based on detecting a condition relating to operation of the contact center. The processor dynamically adjusts at least one hardware or software resource for the contact center based on the detected condition for migrating the state of the contact center from the first to the second deployment state.

Abstract: A system for routing an interaction request based on skill presence reporting has a routing application for determining best routing for the interaction request, a data store for storing and reporting skills data, and an object-oriented interface for presenting skills views including state information of those skills. The system is characterized in that it determines any skills requirements of the interaction request to be routed and discovers which skills of considered routing destinations are available at the time of routing, and routes the interaction according to the available skills discovered and matching the skills requirement, the available skills intrinsic to one or more than one routing destination selected to process the interaction.

Abstract: Telephone call routing in networks is provided by forwarding routing data other than origination identification and destination identification in-band with calls, and using the in-band data at call destinations to do further routing. In some embodiments negotiation is accomplished between routers at different points in the network based on the in-band routing data. Practice of the invention extends to intelligent telephony networks and as well to simulated telephone calls between computers in wide area data networks, such as the Internet and Intranets.