Abstract: A method for managing outbound communications for a contact center includes: detecting, by a processor associated with the contact center, a trigger for transmitting outbound messages to a customer of the contact center, determining, by the processor, a notification strategy for the customer in response to the detected trigger, identifying, by the processor, a contact group designated for the customer, initiating, by the processor, first and second conversations with respectively first and second contacts in the contact group for transmitting first and second outbound communications according to the notification strategy, monitoring, by the processor, progress of the first and second conversations, and modifying, by the processor, a state of the second conversation with the second contact based on the progress of the first conversation with the first contact.

Abstract: A system and method are presented for outlier identification to remove poor alignments in speech synthesis. The quality of the output of a text-to-speech system directly depends on the accuracy of alignments of a speech utterance. The identification of mis-alignments and mis-pronunciations from automated alignments may be made based on fundamental frequency methods and group delay based outlier methods. The identification of these outliers allows for their removal, which improves the synthesis quality of the text-to-speech system.

Abstract: A method for identifying concepts in a plurality of interactions includes: filtering, on a processor, the interactions based on intervals; creating, on the processor, a plurality of sentences from the filtered interactions; computing, on the processor, a saliency of each the sentences; pruning away, on the processor, sentences with low saliency for generating a set of informative sentences; clustering, on the processor, the sentences of the set of informative sentences for generating a plurality of sentence clusters, each of the clusters corresponding to a concept of the concepts; computing, on the processor, a saliency of each of the clusters; and naming, on the processor, each of the clusters.

Abstract: A system for soliciting and activating one or more groups of workers to service contact center business includes an interface accessible to the one or more groups for accepting group registration data, publishing contact center business and for enabling the groups to subscribe to receive business; a data repository for storing the registration data for subscribing groups; and a routing server for specifying routing strategies for event routing to the groups. The system is characterized in that the one or more groups of workers may be activated during contact center business activity to perform services based on need.

Abstract: A system for interacting with a multimedia presentation includes one or more machine-readable codes embedded in a plurality of sequential frames or in individual slides of a multimedia presentation, the frames or slides defining at least one interactive portion of a larger multimedia presentation, a touch-screen driver extension resident on a digital medium and transferable over a network to the digital medium of a touch-screen operated multi-media device, the extension enabling interpretation at the multimedia-enabled interactive response unit of touch-screen taps input during play of the multimedia presentation, and a set of machine instructions resident on a digital medium coupled to or accessible to a multimedia-enabled interactive response system, the machine instructions executable by physical interaction with the one or more of the machine-readable codes in the multimedia presentation to serve one or more additional multimedia presentations to the touch-screen multimedia device.

Abstract: A method for mapping ready agents to incoming transactions has steps for (a) placing incoming transactions in a first queue managed by software executing from a machine-readable medium on a computerized appliance; (b) issuing a determined number of invitations in a period of time to agents known to be available to consider an invitation to interact with an incoming transaction; (c) placing identification of ready agents, who have accepted an invitation to interact, in a second queue managed by the software; (d) mapping transactions from the first queue to agents from the second queue; (e) monitoring changes in state of both the first and the second queues in the time period; and (f) adjusting determined number of invitations in step (b) in a manner to drive a chosen system performance metric toward a desired target value.

Abstract: A system and method for optimized rendering of contact center services in a hybrid operations environment. A processor in a first operations environment receives a message transmitted by a first contact center resource relating to a contact center service. The message is forwarded to the processor by an edge device coupled to a second operations environment different from the first operations environment. The edge device is configured to hide from the message identification of a location of the contact center resource. Despite such hiding, the processor identifies the location of the first contact center resource based on identification information that the processor retrieves from the message. The processor selects a second contact center resource based on the identified location of the first contact center resource for providing the contact center service.

Abstract: Content is inserted into conversations hosted on a takeoff site using creatives that provide lures and links to other material that users engaged in the conversation might find helpful and relevant. Such insertions are made in a contextually meaningful fashion through the use of a matching and decision process that determines best candidate creatives and an appropriate time and place for their insertion into the conversation.

Abstract: An apparatus is provided and includes a processor and a memory, the memory storing instructions that when executed from a non-transitory physical medium by the processor cause the processor to detect when a request for interaction that is configured for a scheduled processing is received or otherwise registered at a service access point associated with a contact center, identify schedule data from the request and add the schedule data along with a request identification and a location identifier to a scheduling and reporting application, consult a contact center interaction routing system in response to determining that the scheduled interaction request is to be processed, and route or cause processing of the interaction request based on the schedule data. According to one embodiment, the schedule data includes a scheduled time and date for processing the request.

Abstract: A system for managing customer involvement with a contact center involves one or more monitoring applications executing on one or more computerized servers associated with the contact center, the applications monitoring communications between individual customers and the center; and a rules engine executing on the one or more computerized servers, the rules engine accessible to the monitoring application, the rules engine enabled to generate and implement business rules. Upon detection by one of the monitoring applications of an instance of unsuccessful or incomplete interaction between a customer and the contact center, session data determined during monitoring is used by the rules engine to determine contact center-initiated activity to be implemented to establish new communication with the customer to resolve issues related to the unsuccessful or incomplete interaction.

Abstract: A system and method are presented for the encoding of participants in a conference setting. In an embodiment, audio from conference participants in a voice-over-IP setting may be received and processed by the system. In an embodiment, audio may be received in a compressed form and de-compressed for processing. For each participant, return audio is generated, compressed (if applicable) and transmitted to the participant. The system may recognize when participants are using the same audio encoding format and are thus receiving audio that may be similar or identical. The audio may only be encoded once instead of for each participant. Thus, redundant encodings are recognized and eliminated resulting in less CPU usage.

Abstract: A network-connected server for meeting initiation has software executing on the server from a non-transitory physical medium, the software providing a function allowing a user to schedule a meeting and to configure availability conditions, a function for informing scheduled participants of the scheduled meeting, a function for receiving indications of availability for the scheduled meeting from communication appliances associated with scheduled participants, and a function for connecting the communication appliances to communicate when the configured availability conditions are met.

Abstract: A user is prompted to select a social site for generating a voice enabled social artifact. A user selection of the social site is received. Responsive to receiving the user selection, information associated with an account of the user on the social site is obtained. The user is prompted to select a social artifact associated with the social site for voice enablement. A user selection of the social artifact is received. The selected social artifact is configured for voice enablement. The selected social artifact is displayed on the social site with an indication that the selected social artifact is voice enabled.

Abstract: In a contact center, a system for processing communication events has an interaction server for managing events waiting to be routed, a routing server for routing the events, a rules engine, and a gateway server executing rules invocation logic and interacting with the rules engine. The interaction server tracks incoming events, initiates and sends a routing request to the routing server, including a special routing object, for each event that requires conformance to business rules, the routing server, executing the routing object, sends an execution request to the gateway server, which upon receipt of the request prepares a business object model (BOM), being a set of facts upon which the rules engine executes rules appropriate to the facts, resulting in routing direction for the routing server to route the event.

Abstract: A system and method for performance-based routing of interactions in a contact center. A routing server receives information on an interaction to be routed, and identifies a call reason for the interaction. The identification of the call reason may be based, for example, speech analytics. The routing server identifies one or more agents having experience in handling the topic. The routing server further determines a proficiency level of the identified agents in handling the topic, and selects one of the identified agents having at least a minimum level of proficiency. The routing server transmits a message for routing the interaction to the selected agent.

Abstract: A system and method for composing a routing strategy for a contact center via a graphical user interface. The graphical user interface provides a plurality of selectable blocks and a workspace for assembling selected ones of the plurality of blocks. Each of the plurality of blocks is associated with logic for managing an interaction with the contact center. A processor receives identification of one of the blocks and identification of a location in the workspace area relative to other blocks in the workspace area, and places the identified block in the identified location. The processor generates the routing strategy based on the blocks in the workspace area and location of the blocks relative to each other in the workspace area. The processor also stores a layout of the blocks in the workspace area as a routing diagram for the routing strategy. The processor activates the routing strategy for managing the inbound interaction according to the activated routing strategy.

Abstract: In a system for managing chat automation, the system includes: a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: receive a signal indicating a communication is being initiated by an end user operating an end user device; receive information from the end user device regarding the communication; select a conversation path based on the information regarding the communication; invoke an automated chat resource for engaging in a chat communication session with the end user device, wherein the automated chat resource is configured to follow the conversation path during the chat communication session; monitor confidence levels of automated chat responses during the chat communication session; and redirect the chat communication session to a second conversation path in response to at least one of the confidence levels falling below a threshold level.

Abstract: A system for optimizing response time to events or representations thereof waiting in a queue has a first server having access to the queue; a software application running on the first server; and a second server accessible from the first server, the second server containing rules governing the optimization. In a preferred embodiment, the software application at least periodically accesses the queue and parses certain ones of events or tokens in the queue and compares the parsed results against rules accessed from the second server in order to determine a measure of disposal time for each parsed event wherein if the determined measure is sufficiently low for one or more of the parsed events, those one or more events are modified to a reflect a higher priority state than originally assigned enabling faster treatment of those events resulting in relief from those events to the queue system load.

Abstract: A software application for recommending workforce resource allocation in a communication center based on requirements of events represented in a communication-center queue has a first interface for accessing information from the queue; a second interface for accessing information from a data source about workforce availability and state information; a processing component for processing queue information and workforce information; and a message generation and delivery component for generating a workforce allocation recommendation based on processing results and sending the recommendation to a target entity. In a preferred embodiment, the application periodically accesses the queue and the data source to obtain the most recent information for processing and generates periodic recommendations based on real-time requirements of events and availability states of resources, the recommendations sent ahead of time before the resources are required.

Abstract: A software application for recommending workforce resource allocation in a communication center based on requirements of events represented in a communication-center queue has a first interface for accessing information from the queue; a second interface for accessing information from a data source about workforce availability and state information; a processing component for processing queue information and workforce information; and a message generation and delivery component for generating a workforce allocation recommendation based on processing results and sending the recommendation to a target entity. In a preferred embodiment, the application periodically accesses the queue and the data source to obtain the most recent information for processing and generates periodic recommendations based on real-time requirements of events and availability states of resources, the recommendations sent ahead of time before the resources are required.