Unified Workforce Data Storage and Search System
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Customer centers face challenges in efficiently managing and searching large volumes of data across multiple systems and databases, leading to increased maintenance costs, complexity, and unreliable performance due to the use of separate hardware and software components with different configurations and interfaces.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a system that integrates workforce applications with unstructured databases, allowing data from various functionalities like forecasting, scheduling, and monitoring to be stored and searched efficiently, using a search engine that communicates with both structured and unstructured databases, and a storage area network to facilitate data integration and retrieval.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple separate hardware and software components are used to achieve customer center business goals, then functional capabilities are improved, but device complexity and maintenance costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple separate hardware and software components into a unified integrated system. The customer center system integrates workforce management applications, unstructured databases, and search capabilities into a single cohesive platform, eliminating the need for multiple separate systems while maintaining all required functional capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The integrated system provides universal functionality by enabling a single system to perform multiple customer center functions including forecasting, scheduling, recording, monitoring, and data search. The unified architecture allows one system to replace what previously required multiple specialized components.
2Adaptability or versatility
If separate systems with different configurations and interfaces are used, then specialized functionality is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to multiple configuration methods and user interfaces
Solution Approach 1:
The unified system provides a consistent user interface and configuration method that works across all functions including forecasting, scheduling, recording, and monitoring. This universal interface allows operators to access specialized functionality without learning multiple different interfaces, improving ease of operation while maintaining specialized capabilities.
3Reliability
If structured databases store data for long durations to meet compliance regulations, then data retention requirements are improved, but storage size and maintenance costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments data storage into unstructured databases that can retain data for compliance periods while maintaining smaller storage footprints. By using unstructured database formats instead of traditional structured databases, the system achieves the required data retention for compliance while reducing overall storage requirements and maintenance costs.
4Loss of information
If structured databases continuously grow due to technological changes, then data completeness is improved, but query performance reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments data storage across multiple unstructured databases that are optimized for search operations. This segmentation allows the system to maintain data completeness from multiple sources while improving query performance reliability through the search capabilities of unstructured databases, which are better suited for handling growing data volumes compared to traditional structured databases.
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes generating data from workforce applications, at least one of the workforce applications including at least one of forecasting, scheduling, recording, and monitoring functionalities; and storing the data from the at least one of the workforce applications in a storage area network (SAN), the SAN being operable to connect the at least one of the workforce applications to computer storage devices. This may also include keeping recorded contacts in a long term storage device such as the SAN or an operational data store (ODS) and transparently searching in both the ODS and the SAN simultaneously. With a concept of moving data on to a file system SAN which is cheaper as compared to a database technology such as ODS, the method facilitates predictable performance from the ODS and easier manageability with constant cost from SAN.