Phantom Session Routing for Contact Center Interoperability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Contact centers face challenges in integrating third-party automatic call distributors (ACDs) with primary ACDs for seamless communication session routing without significant reconfiguration of routing vectors and agent skills.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a high priority contact center queue with phantom communication sessions, where the number of phantom sessions exceeds the number of assigned agents, allowing for coordination with external control applications by assigning available agents to these sessions and sending notifications for session routing, thereby minimizing reconfiguration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a third party ACD is integrated with a primary ACD to route calls, then interoperability and routing capability are improved, but system complexity and reconfiguration requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary interface layer between the third-party ACD and primary ACD systems. This interface uses standardized protocols to mediate communication, allowing different ACD systems to interoperate without direct complex integration. The intermediary handles protocol translation and coordination, reducing the complexity burden on individual systems while maintaining versatility.
Solution Approach 2:
The routing interface is designed with universal functionality that can handle multiple types of communication sessions and work with different ACD vendors. By implementing a standardized, multi-functional interface that can adapt to various routing scenarios, the system achieves broad interoperability without requiring custom integration logic for each third-party system, thereby controlling complexity.
2Manufacturing precision
If routing vectors and agent skills are reconfigured to accommodate third party ACD, then routing accuracy is improved, but operational overhead and time consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary configuration by establishing standardized routing vectors and agent skill profiles in advance that can accommodate multiple ACD types. Template-based routing configurations are pre-defined, allowing rapid deployment when integrating new third-party ACDs without requiring extensive custom reconfiguration, thus maintaining routing accuracy while reducing reconfiguration time.
Solution Approach 2:
The routing interface dynamically adjusts routing parameters based on the specific third-party ACD being integrated, rather than requiring complete reconfiguration of routing vectors and agent skills. By changing only the necessary parameters specific to each integration while preserving core routing logic, the system achieves accurate routing with minimal operational overhead and time consumption.
3Extent of automation
If phantom communication sessions are created to coordinate routing, then automation and coordination capability are improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates phantom communication sessions as simplified copies or representations of actual communication sessions. These phantom sessions contain only the essential routing information needed for coordination, not the full complexity of real sessions. This copying approach enables automated routing coordination while keeping the phantom session management relatively simple and manageable.
Data Source
AI summary
A number of phantom communication sessions and a number of contact center agents are assigned to a high priority contact center queue. The number of phantom communication sessions are greater than or equal to the number of assigned contact center agents. The high priority contact center queue is used for coordinating communication session routing with an external control application. A first contact center agent of the number of contact center agents is determined to be available. The first contact center agent is assigned to a first phantom communication session in response to determining that the first contact center agent is available. This results in a notification being sent to the external control application that the first contact center agent is available. This allows the external control application to coordinate routing of the communication session.