Call Center Arbitration System for Agent Versatility

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Solution Overview

Problem

Call center systems face inefficiencies in managing agent availability and call distribution across multiple locations and activities, particularly when agents need to handle both incoming and outgoing calls, leading to idle agents and duplication of work.

Innovation Solution

Implementing a local arbitration system that coordinates agent status between processes and applications, allowing agents to interact with multiple resources and databases, and using an automated call manager to forward calls based on agent availability, while maintaining a shared contact database and enabling remote software updates.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If agents are assigned to multiple activities and locations, then agent versatility and resource utilization improve, but system complexity and coordination difficulty increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveagent versatilityVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an arbitrator process as an intermediary component that coordinates between multiple applications and the agent's availability status. This arbitrator manages the complexity of multi-location, multi-activity agent assignment by centralizing status arbitration, allowing agents to be versatile without proportionally increasing system complexity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements universal agent status management that works across multiple applications, locations, and activity types. The arbitrator process provides a unified mechanism for managing agent availability regardless of which application or location is involved, enabling agents to handle diverse tasks without requiring separate management systems for each.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Productivity

If local arbitration is implemented between processes, then call distribution efficiency improves, but communication overhead and processing time increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecall distribution efficiencyVSAvoidprocessing time

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The arbitrator process maintains a current availability status of the agent in memory before calls are distributed. By pre-establishing and caching the agent's status, the system avoids time-consuming status checks during call distribution, thus improving efficiency without significant processing overhead.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system uses a local copy of agent status information stored in memory that can be quickly accessed by the arbitrator process. This local copy eliminates the need for repeated real-time queries to remote systems, reducing communication overhead while maintaining accurate call distribution decisions.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

Data Source

PatentUS9137370B2Call center input/output agent utilization arbitration system

Publication Date: 2015.09.15 XANT INC

AI summary

Disclosed herein are systems and methods that provide for maintenance of the status of availability of call-center agents through the use of local arbitration between processes and applications that may interact with more than one resource of telephone contacts between differing activities or work for these call-center agents. Detailed information on various example embodiments of the inventions are provided in the Detailed Description below, and the inventions are defined by the appended claims.