Method and apparatus for multiple agent commitment tracking and notification

#The present invention is in the field of multimedia communications including conventional telephony and Data Network Telephony (DNT), and pertains more particularly to methods and apparatus for tracking order of communications related to specific issues, including commitments made and fulfillment of the commitments.

#Large organizations increasingly rely on communication centers known as call centers for dealing with clients and customers. Such call centers handle and distribute conventional telephone calls to agents according to various business plans, in many instances are adapted as multimedia centers to handle communication of many sorts, such as e-mail, voice mail, data network telephony (DNT) such as Internet phone calls, conventional phone calls, and the like. The same organizations increasingly rely on digital-network communication technologies to enhance and expedite communication both internally and externally. More and more companies are linking to digital communication networks because such networks enhance an organization's ability to operate more quickly and efficiently. Such networks, weather local area networks (LAN) or wide area networks (WAN), or both, link company executives, agents, service representatives, and the like to each other and to the outside world through their computerized workstations. Such individuals that are linked via digital network may practice many different forms of communication over the networks. E-mail, fax, video phone, data phone, video mail, and other forms of digital communication are possible.

#Of particular interest for the purpose of the present patent application is communication between large organizations and clients of those organizations, for example companies selling technically sophisticated products, and customers of such companies.

#FIG. 1 is an overview of a call-center environment wherein commitment tracking and notification is practiced according to an embodiment of the present invention.

#FIG. 2 is an exemplary agent interface of the commitment tracking and notification system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

#FIG. 3 is a work flow diagram illustrating basic steps of the commitment tracking and notification software according to an embodiment of the present invention.

#FIG. 1 is an overview of a typical call-center environment wherein commitment tracking and notification is practiced according to an embodiment of the present invention. A telephony-network architecture 11 comprises a company call center 17 that is linked to, in this example, both a publicly switched telephone network (PSTN) 13, and a wide area digital network (WAN) 15, which may be the public Internet or other digital network. In this particular embodiment call center 17 handles both conventional telephone calls, which may be categorized as connection-oriented, switched telephony (COST) calls, and data network telephony (DNT) calls, which may be DNT calls over a private digital network or calls according to a protocol such as the well-known Internet protocol. DNT calls are characterized in that data is transmitted as addressed data packets as opposed to dedicated connections in COST calls. As indicated, PSTN 13 may be a private rather than a public COST network. WAN 15 may be a company Intranet, the Internet, or another type of WAN known in the art.

#Incoming COST calls arrive at a representative network-level telephony switching apparatus 19 in network cloud 13 and are connected over trunk 23 to a central telephony switching apparatus 27 within call center 17. From switching apparatus 27, calls are routed according to existing routing rules over internal wiring 56 to agents'telephones 47, 49, 51, and 53 residing at agents'workstations 31, 33, 35, and 37 respectively. Other equipment generally associated with computer integrated telephony (CIT) networks such as CIT processors, routers, and the like are not shown here, but are assumed to be present in this embodiment, and may be connected to switching apparatus 27 and/or to a local area network 55 at the call center.

#Incoming DNT calls, and other communication events such as E-mail, Voice mail and the like, arrive at a representative routing node 21 in WAN 15 and are passed on over representative digital connection 25 to routing node 29 within call center 17. Once calls arrive at node 29, they are routed over LAN 55 according to existing routing rules to personal computer/video display units (PC/VDU) such as PC/VDU 39, 41, 43, or 45 located at agent's workstations 31, 33, 35, and 37 respectively.