Persistent Agent Telephony Connection for Call Latency Reduction

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing communication campaign management systems experience high latency and inefficient agent utilization due to reliance on automated call distributors (ACDs) and separate agent connections, leading to long hold queues and abandoned calls.

Innovation Solution

A web-based hosted solution that implements an agent stay-on-line function, maintaining a persistent telephony connection between the system infrastructure and available agents, and a service-side hold queue to manage calls, allowing agents to handle multiple customers without ACD hold queues and reducing customer-to-agent latency.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If a traditional ACD hold queue system is used to manage customer-to-agent connections, then call routing flexibility is improved, but customer connect time increases and agent utilization decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecall routing flexibilityVSAvoidcustomer connect time

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system establishes persistent telephony connections to agents in advance, before customers need to connect. Agents remain in a pre-connected, ready state so that when a customer needs to connect, the linkage is immediate rather than requiring queue waiting time.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

Agents maintain continuous telephony connections with the system infrastructure, staying in a persistent ready state rather than disconnecting between calls. This continuity eliminates the disconnection and reconnection overhead that causes delays in traditional systems.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #20Continuity of useful action

2Productivity

If agents disconnect between calls in a traditional ACD system, then agent availability for new calls is improved, but agent idle time increases and connection latency increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveagent availabilityVSAvoidconnection latency

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

Inventive Principle:

Principle #20Continuity of useful action

Solution Approach 2:

The persistent agent connection serves multiple functions simultaneously: it maintains agent availability for new calls, reduces connection latency, and enables rapid call acceptance. The single persistent connection fulfills multiple roles that in traditional systems required separate connection establishment for each function.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

3Measurement precision

If separate agent connections are established for each customer call, then call connection accuracy is improved, but system complexity increases and connection time increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecall connection accuracyVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system merges the connection management function into a persistent state. Instead of establishing separate connections for each call, the system maintains a single persistent telephony connection that handles multiple calls sequentially, reducing the number of connection establishment operations while maintaining accurate call routing.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Data Source

PatentUS9680993B2Managing interactive communications campaigns with reduced customer-to-agent connection latency

Publication Date: 2017.06.13 GENESYS CLOUD SERVICES INC

AI summary

A web-based hosted solution through which business entities create and manage communications campaigns is described. 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 do not impair the connections being established and maintained to the agents.