US6490350B2 — Monitoring system for telephony resources in a ca…

Claim 1

Independent Claim 96 words

A call center for handling calls for more than one business, comprising: agent stations for agents, each agent station including telephony resources through which agents handle calls; a monitor for monitoring calling activity of the agents and producing statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents; a computer system having a display device and running a program for obtaining the statistics from the monitor via periodic polling and displaying the statistics on the display device, wherein the computer system displays at least one statistic specific to a subset of the businesses handled by the call center.

Claim 2

Dependent Claim 96 words

A call center for handling calls for more than one business, comprising: agent stations for agents, each agent station including telephony resources through which agents handle calls; a monitor for monitoring calling activity of the agents and producing statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents; a computer system having a display device and running a program for obtaining the statistics from the monitor via periodic polling and displaying the statistics on the display device, wherein the computer system displays at least one statistic specific to a subset of the businesses handled by the call center.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 37 words

The call center of claim 1 , further comprising an event source for generating events regarding calls handled by the call center for forwarding the events to the monitor that uses the events in producing the statistics.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 17 words

The call center of claim 1 , further comprising a database for storing information regarding the agents.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 27 words

The call center of claim 1 wherein the computer system produces a graphical user interface and the statistics are displayed as part of the graphical user interface.

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 24 words

The call center of claim 1 wherein the monitor is a server process and the program run on the client is a server process.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 22 words

The call center of claim 1 wherein the monitor includes an agent module for producing statistics regarding calling activity of the agents.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 28 words

The call center of claim 1 wherein the monitor includes a call center module for producing statistics regarding calling activity of all the agents in the call center.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 45 words

The call center of claim 1 wherein the call center includes business clients that use the call center to handle calls on their behalf and wherein the monitor includes a business client module for generating statistics regarding calling activity on behalf of the business client.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 30 words

The call center of claim 1 , wherein said statistics include an average work time which identifies the time at which the agent is processing the call but not talking.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 28 words

The call center of claim 1 , wherein said statistics include an average talk time which identifies the time at which the agent is talking on the call.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 27 words

The call center of claim 1 , wherein said statistics include a business client code that identifies the business client for which a call is being processed.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 111 words

In a call center having agents who handle calls for more than one business and a computer system having a display device, a method comprising the computer implemented steps of: providing a monitor for monitoring calling activity by the agents and gathering statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents; with the monitor, gathering statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents; passing the statistics to an application program running on the computer system based on periodic polling; and with the application program, displaying the statistics on the display device, wherein the displayed statistics comprise at least one statistic pertaining to a subset of the businesses handled by said call center.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 111 words

In a call center having agents who handle calls for more than one business and a computer system having a display device, a method comprising the computer implemented steps of: providing a monitor for monitoring calling activity by the agents and gathering statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents; with the monitor, gathering statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents; passing the statistics to an application program running on the computer system based on periodic polling; and with the application program, displaying the statistics on the display device, wherein the displayed statistics comprise at least one statistic pertaining to a subset of the businesses handled by said call center.

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 22 words

The method of claim 12 wherein the statistics are displayed as part of a graphical user interface produced by the application program.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 32 words

The method of claim 13 wherein the call center has a physical layout and wherein the graphical user interface depicts the physical layout of at least a portion of the call center.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 19 words

The method of claim 14 wherein the graphical user interface depicts the layout of all of the call center.

Claim 18

Dependent Claim 19 words

The method of claim 12 wherein the monitor also maintains state information about the agents in the call center.

Claim 19

Dependent Claim 52 words

The method of claim 16 , further comprising the steps of: passing the state information about the agents from the monitor to the application program; displaying a visual cue about a state of at least one of the agents on the display device based on the state information passed from the monitor.

Claim 20

Dependent Claim 20 words

The method of claim 12 wherein the monitor is a server process and the application program is a client process.

Claim 21

Dependent Claim 39 words

The method of claim 12 wherein the call center further includes an event source for generating events regarding calls handled by the call center and for forwarding the events to the monitor to facilitate the monitor generating the statistics.

Claim 22

Dependent Claim 18 words

The method of claim 12 wherein the statistics include statistics regarding calling activity of each of the agents.

Claim 23

Dependent Claim 24 words

The method of claim 12 wherein the statistics include aggregate statistics regarding the calling activity of all of the agents in the call center.

Claim 24

Dependent Claim 30 words

The call center of claim 12 , wherein said statistics include an average work time which identifies the time at which the agent is processing the call but not talking.

Claim 25

Dependent Claim 28 words

The call center of claim 12 , wherein said statistics include an average talk time which identifies the time at which the agent is talking on the call.

Claim 26

Dependent Claim 27 words

The call center of claim 12 , wherein said statistics include a business client code that identifies the business client for which a call is being processed.

Claim 27

Dependent Claim 142 words

A telecommunications system for handling call for more than one business, comprising: agent stations where agents are stationed to handle calls, each agent station including telephony resources for handling calls; a switching mechanism for routing calls for the telecommunications system and generating raw data regarding calls; a computer/telephony integration server for receiving the raw data from the switching mechanism and generating events about calling activity in the telecommunications system based on the raw data; a monitoring server for receiving the events from the computer/telephony integration server and generating statistics regarding calling activity of the agents; and a workstation running a program for acquiring the statistics from the monitoring server via periodic polling and generating output that includes at least some of the statistics, wherein the statistics comprise at least one statistic pertaining to a subset of the businesses handled by said agents.

Claim 28

Dependent Claim 142 words

A telecommunications system for handling call for more than one business, comprising: agent stations where agents are stationed to handle calls, each agent station including telephony resources for handling calls; a switching mechanism for routing calls for the telecommunications system and generating raw data regarding calls; a computer/telephony integration server for receiving the raw data from the switching mechanism and generating events about calling activity in the telecommunications system based on the raw data; a monitoring server for receiving the events from the computer/telephony integration server and generating statistics regarding calling activity of the agents; and a workstation running a program for acquiring the statistics from the monitoring server via periodic polling and generating output that includes at least some of the statistics, wherein the statistics comprise at least one statistic pertaining to a subset of the businesses handled by said agents.

Claim 29

Dependent Claim 31 words

The telecommunications system of claim 25 wherein the system includes a display device and the program running on the workstation displays at least some of the statistics on the display device.

Claim 30

Dependent Claim 31 words

The telecommunications system of claim 26 wherein the program produces a graphical user interface on the display device and the displayed statistics are displayed as part of the graphical user interface.

Claim 31

Dependent Claim 28 words

The telecommunications system of claim 25 wherein the program includes a polling mechanism for periodically polling the monitoring server for updated statistics regarding calling activity of the agents.

Claim 32

Dependent Claim 30 words

The call center of claim 25 , wherein said statistics include an average work time which identifies the time at which the agent is processing the call but not talking.

Claim 33

Dependent Claim 28 words

The call center of claim 25 , wherein said statistics include an average talk time which identifies the time at which the agent is talking on the call.

Claim 34

Dependent Claim 27 words

The call center of claim 25 , wherein said statistics include a business client code that identifies the business client for which a call is being processed.

Claim 35

Dependent Claim 119 words

In a call center having agents who handle calls for more than one business and a computer system having a display device, a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: providing a monitor for monitoring calling activity by the agents and gathering statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents; with the monitor, gathering statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents; passing the statistics to an application program running on the computer system in response to periodic polling; and with the application program, displaying the statistics on the display device, wherein the displayed statistics comprise at least one statistic pertaining to a subset of the businesses handled by said call center.

Claim 36

Dependent Claim 119 words

In a call center having agents who handle calls for more than one business and a computer system having a display device, a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: providing a monitor for monitoring calling activity by the agents and gathering statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents; with the monitor, gathering statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents; passing the statistics to an application program running on the computer system in response to periodic polling; and with the application program, displaying the statistics on the display device, wherein the displayed statistics comprise at least one statistic pertaining to a subset of the businesses handled by said call center.

Claim 37

Dependent Claim 23 words

The computer-readable medium of claim 32 wherein the statistics are displayed as part of a graphical user interface produced by the application program.

Claim 38

Dependent Claim 33 words

The computer-readable medium of claim 33 wherein the call center has a physical layout and wherein the graphical user interface depicts the physical layout of at least a portion of the call center.

Claim 39

Dependent Claim 20 words

The computer-readable medium of claim 34 wherein the monitor also maintains state information about the agents in the call center.

Claim 40

Dependent Claim 20 words

The computer-readable medium of claim 32 wherein the monitor also maintains state information about the agents in the call center.

Claim 41

Dependent Claim 55 words

The computer-readable medium of claim 36 wherein the method further comprises the steps of: passing the state information about the agents from the monitor to the application program; displaying a visual cue about a state of at least one of the agents on the display device based on the state information passed from the monitor.

Claim 42

Dependent Claim 19 words

The computer-readable medium of claim 36 wherein the statistics include statistics regarding calling activity of each of the agents.

Claim 43

Dependent Claim 25 words

The computer-readable medium of claim 32 wherein the statistics include aggregate statistics regarding the calling activity of all of the agents in the call center.

Claim 44

Dependent Claim 29 words

The call center of claim 32 wherein said statistics include an average work time which identifies the time at which the agent is processing the call but not talking.

Claim 45

Dependent Claim 28 words

The call center of claim 32 , wherein said statistics include an average talk time which identifies the time at which the agent is talking on the call.

Claim 46

Dependent Claim 27 words

The call center of claim 32 , wherein said statistics include a business client code that identifies the business client for which a call is being processed.

Claim 47

Dependent Claim 111 words

a call center having agents who handle calls on behalf of business clients, a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method practiced in a computer system, comprising the computer-implemented steps of: providing a monitor for monitoring calling activity by the agents and gathering information for generating statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents; gathering and generating statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents that summarize calling activity per business client, wherein the statistics include a business client code that identifies the business client for which a call is being processed; and passing the statistics to a device in response to a polling signal received from the device.

Claim 48

Dependent Claim 111 words

a call center having agents who handle calls on behalf of business clients, a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method practiced in a computer system, comprising the computer-implemented steps of: providing a monitor for monitoring calling activity by the agents and gathering information for generating statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents; gathering and generating statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents that summarize calling activity per business client, wherein the statistics include a business client code that identifies the business client for which a call is being processed; and passing the statistics to a device in response to a polling signal received from the device.

Claim 49

Dependent Claim 124 words

A computer system for monitoring calling activity by agents in a call center that handles calls on behalf of business clients, said call center having a computer telephony/integration server for generating events about calling activity in the call center and an application program, comprising: an interface for receiving events generated by the computer/telephony integration server; a statistics generator configured to gather and generate statistics regarding the calling activity by agents in the call center on a per business client basis, wherein the statistics include a business client code that identifies the business client for which a call is being processed; and an interface to the application program for passing statistics generated by the statistics generator to the application program in response to periodic polling.

Claim 50

Dependent Claim 124 words

A computer system for monitoring calling activity by agents in a call center that handles calls on behalf of business clients, said call center having a computer telephony/integration server for generating events about calling activity in the call center and an application program, comprising: an interface for receiving events generated by the computer/telephony integration server; a statistics generator configured to gather and generate statistics regarding the calling activity by agents in the call center on a per business client basis, wherein the statistics include a business client code that identifies the business client for which a call is being processed; and an interface to the application program for passing statistics generated by the statistics generator to the application program in response to periodic polling.

Claim 51

Dependent Claim 100 words

In a call center having agents who handle calls for more than one business and a computer system having a display device, a method comprising the computer implemented steps of: monitoring calling activity by the agents; gathering statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents based on the monitoring; periodically passing the statistics to an application program running on the computer system in response to a polling signal; and displaying, via the application program, the statistics on the display device, the displayed statistics comprising at least one statistic pertaining to a subset of the businesses handled by the call center.

Claim 52

Dependent Claim 100 words

In a call center having agents who handle calls for more than one business and a computer system having a display device, a method comprising the computer implemented steps of: monitoring calling activity by the agents; gathering statistics regarding the calling activity of the agents based on the monitoring; periodically passing the statistics to an application program running on the computer system in response to a polling signal; and displaying, via the application program, the statistics on the display device, the displayed statistics comprising at least one statistic pertaining to a subset of the businesses handled by the call center.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	2005-12-02	2006-06-03	2006-12-03	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	2009-12-02	2010-06-03	2010-12-03	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	2013-12-02	2014-06-03	2014-12-03	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

Monitoring system for telephony resources in a call center

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