Cross-Platform Chat Intermediary for Unified Collaboration
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Solution Overview
Problem
In organizations, the use of different chat platforms by various users can impede communication, making it difficult for agents to resolve customer issues when collaborating with users who prefer or use different chat platforms.
Innovation Solution
A collaborative chat system that enables users of a native chat platform to communicate with users of non-native chat platforms by displaying visual indications of available platforms and facilitating bi-directional communication, allowing agents to select and add users for collaborative chats regardless of their preferred platform, and generating knowledge articles for future incident resolution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If users within an organization use different chat platforms or have preferences for different platforms, then users can choose their preferred communication tool, but communication efficiency and collaboration between users deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a collaborative chat system that acts as an intermediary between users on different chat platforms. This system enables cross-platform communication by establishing connections between native platform users and third-party platform users, allowing them to collaborate without switching platforms. The intermediary system translates and routes messages between different communication environments, resolving the contradiction by maintaining platform preferences while enabling efficient cross-platform collaboration.
2Ease of operation
If agents must contact users on their preferred chat platforms rather than using a unified platform, then user accessibility is improved, but the complexity of managing multiple chat platforms increases
Solution Approach 1:
The collaborative chat system provides universal functionality by enabling communication across multiple chat platforms through a single interface. Agents can initiate collaborative chats with users regardless of which platform those users prefer, and the system automatically routes communications through the appropriate channels. This multi-functional approach maintains ease of operation by allowing agents to access all users through one system while managing the complexity of multiple platforms centrally.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the system integrates multiple third-party chat platforms to enable cross-platform collaboration, then communication versatility improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system architecture is segmented into distinct modular components, each responsible for integrating with specific third-party chat platforms. The collaborative chat system includes separate modules for different platforms (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex), allowing independent integration and management of each platform. This segmentation enables the system to support multiple platforms while maintaining manageable complexity, as each platform integration can be developed, tested, and maintained independently.
Data Source
AI summary
In accordance with the present approach, a collaborative chat system is provided that enables collaborative communication between a user preferring a native chat platform and a different user who communicates using a non-native or third-party chat platform. The user may particularly select various other users to be added to a collaborative chat, regardless of which chat platform the other users have set as their main or preferred communication channel. Indeed, when displaying the various users available to be added to the collaborative chat, the collaborative chat system may display a visual indication or icon that indicates which chat platform the various users are available through. The collaborative chat system or platform may utilize bi-directional communications between the native chat platform and any communicatively coupled third-party chat platforms to link the user with the selected other users within a collaborative chat instance.