Accumulative decision point data analysis system for telephony and electronic communications operations

#1. Field of the Invention

#The present invention is in the field of telephony and electronic communications systems and data analytic approaches and pertains particularly to a system for statistically analyzing data acquired over multiple communications system entry and decision points in a given communication route.

#2. Discussion of the State of the Art

#FIG. 1 is communication flow diagram illustrating communication path information and interaction data aggregation for statistical analysis according to an embodiment of the present invention.

#FIG. 2 is a process flow diagram illustrating steps for collecting information during an interaction routing sequence according to an embodiment of the present invention.

#FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating basic software layers and components for obtaining and presenting caller history and path information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

#FIG. 1 is communication flow diagram 100 illustrating communication path information and interaction data aggregation for statistical analysis according to an embodiment of the present invention. Diagram 100 is divided into 5 exemplary routing points. Reading from left to right, the routing points are a system entry point; an interactive voice response (IVR) unit or live operator; IVR options for further routing; an intermediate decision point (IDP); and a final destination, which may be a live agent or system. The exemplary routing points may represent points in a call center routing system in this example. However, routing points exist in a wide variety of voice and electronics communication systems. One with skill in the art will appreciate that other media types may be represented as well without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. This example of a call center flow is exemplary only and should not be construed as limiting in any way.

#The system entry point includes 3 router/server (R/S) nodes. These are an R/S nodes (1), (2), and (3). In this example, the system has 3 entry points. There may be more or fewer than 3 entry points and those points may be switches, routers, servers, or other machines capable of accepting communication events. In this example the system entry nodes are telephony nodes capable of determining destination number of the call through a standard destination number identification service (DNIS) and/or the origination number for the call through standard automated number identification service (ANIS). Other systems supporting other media types may use different protocols or services to determine caller identification and the destination desired by the caller. For example, an email routing system would identify the caller by the “from” email address and the destination by “to” email address.

#In this telephony example, there are 3 callers 101, 102, and 103 that have entered system 100 each at a different entry point. Caller 101 placing a call to a telephone number identified through DNIS has entered the system through R/S (1). Caller 102 has entered the system through R/S (2), and caller 103 has entered the system through R/S (3). The numbers identified through DNIS may be the same number or different numbers.