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US6570980B1 Expired / Lapsed US ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Method of distributing telephone calls to ordered agents

Assignee: Alcatel Lucent SAS
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Filing: 2000-08-08
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Granted: 2003-05-27
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Expires: 2020-08-08
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Abstract

Abstract A method of distributing telephone calls to provide users of extensions and/or terminals of a telecommunications network with access to a service provided by an agent includes the steps of determining agent profiles, determining a call profile, comparing the call profile to the agent profiles to constitute an ordered list of agents qualified to process a call, and distributing a call to agents from the list of agents.

Inventors

  • 👤 Sauveur Baruch

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction US
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-10-25 00:28
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04M; H04M3/00; H04M3/42; H04M3/50; H04M3/51; H04M3/523

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 13
Claim 1
Independent Claim 158 words
A method of distributing telephone calls to provide users of a telecommunications network with access to a service provided by an agent or operator, said method using a call-director which receives telephone calls which access the service and can use various modes associated with different routing directions that can associate with each call a pseudo-queue, or a waiting room, or a queue, a group of processing operators and a transit unit for calls received via the call-director and awaiting processing by an operator, the method comprising: determining agent profiles; determining a call profile; preparing an ordered list of agents able to process the call by performing a cost calculation that establishes a first cost corresponding to mandatory attributes of said call profile and a second cost corresponding to optional attributes of said call profile; comparing said call profile to said ordered list of agents; and distributing the call to at least one agent from said list of agents.
Claim 2
Independent Claim 158 words
A method of distributing telephone calls to provide users of a telecommunications network with access to a service provided by an agent or operator, said method using a call-director which receives telephone calls which access the service and can use various modes associated with different routing directions that can associate with each call a pseudo-queue, or a waiting room, or a queue, a group of processing operators and a transit unit for calls received via the call-director and awaiting processing by an operator, the method comprising: determining agent profiles; determining a call profile; preparing an ordered list of agents able to process the call by performing a cost calculation that establishes a first cost corresponding to mandatory attributes of said call profile and a second cost corresponding to optional attributes of said call profile; comparing said call profile to said ordered list of agents; and distributing the call to at least one agent from said list of agents.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 27 words
The telephone call distribution method claimed in claim 1 wherein said call profiles and said agent profiles comprise particular attributes chosen from a single list of attributes.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 37 words
The telephone call distribution method claimed in claim 1 wherein an attribute of a call profile comprises a character field, a field dedicated to the nature of said attribute of said call profile, and an expertise field.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 37 words
The telephone call distribution method claimed in claim 1 wherein an attribute of an agent profile comprises an expertise field, an activation field and a field dedicated to the nature of said attribute of said agent profile.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 25 words
The telephone call distribution method claimed in claim 1 wherein an expanded list of agents is drawn up at the expiry of a reselection time-delay.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim 28 words
The telephone call distribution method claimed in claim 1 wherein a call-director in open mode distributes calls to routing directions associated either with pseudo-queues or with waiting rooms.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim 27 words
The telephone call distribution method claimed in claim 1 wherein a call-director in blocked mode distributes calls to routing directions associated either with pseudo-queues or with queues.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim 40 words
The telephone call distribution method claimed in claim 1 wherein the routing directions associated with a queue and the routing directions associated with a waiting room can be preferred or back-up routing directions without ever coexisting in the same mode.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim 19 words
The telephone call distribution method claimed in claim 1 wherein a waiting room can serve more than one call-director.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim 22 words
The telephone call distribution method claimed in claim 1 wherein a waiting room can be served by more than one routing direction.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim 63 words
The telephone call distribution method claimed in claim 1 wherein said first cost corresponding to mandatory attributes is calculated by |(Nag(O)−Nap(O))|*D wherein D is the weight of the nature of the mandatory attribute O; Nag(O) is the expertise level of the mandatory attribute O of the agent profile; and Nap(O) is the expertise level of the mandatory attribute O of said call profile.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim 63 words
The telephone call distribution method claimed in claim 1 wherein said second cost corresponding to optional attributes is calculated by |(Nag(f)−Nap(f))|*D wherein D is the weight of the nature of the optional attribute f; Nag(f) is the expertise level of the optional attribute f of the agent profile; and Nap(f) is the expertise level of the optional attribute f of said call profile.

References Cited (Backward Citations)

EP0740450A2 Cited
US5825869A Cited
EP0835016A1 Cited
US6222918B1 Cited
EP0949794A1 Cited
US6173053B1 Cited
US6130942A Cited

USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows

Annuity Stage Window Opens Payment Deadline Surcharge Period Until Estimated Fee Status
3.5 Years (Year 4) 2006-05-26 2006-11-25 2007-05-27 $2000.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8) 2010-05-26 2010-11-25 2011-05-27 $3760.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12) 2014-05-26 2014-11-25 2015-05-27 $7700.00 Window Closed / Lapsed

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