Flagged messages in an automatic integrated unified messaging escalation system
AssigneeAT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
InventorsMehrad Yasrebi, James Jackson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automatic message escalation system includes attaching an acknowledgement flag to a message after it is received in the message mailbox of an identified message recipient. The status of the acknowledgement flag indicates whether or not the message has been retrieved. After a given or specified period of time, the acknowledgement flag is checked to see if the message was retrieved. If the message was retrieved, the message will not be escalated. If the message was not retrieved, the message will be sent to the next message recipient on an escalation list.
Claims20
A method for message handling in a unified messaging system comprising:
- associating an acknowledgement flag with a message stored in a mailbox of a first recipient, wherein the first recipient is associated with a first level of an organizational chart;
- identifying selected recipients other than the first recipient, wherein the selected recipients are associated with a second level of an organizational chart, for escalation of the message based on a configured escalation structure associated with the mailbox of the first recipient, wherein the configured escalation structure comprises a list of the selected recipients for escalation of messages stored in the mailbox of the first recipient;
- and
- routing associated escalation messages to the selected recipients based on a status of the acknowledgement flag.
An apparatus for message handling in a unified messaging system comprising:
- a processor;
- and
- a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory to store computer program instructions, the computer program instructions when executed on the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
- associating an acknowledgement flag with a message stored in a mailbox of a first recipient, wherein the first recipient is associated with a first level of an organizational chart;
- identifying selected recipients other than the first recipient, wherein the selected recipients are associated with a second level of an organizational chart, for escalation of the message based on a configured escalation structure associated with the mailbox of the first recipient, wherein the configured escalation structure comprises a list of the selected recipients for escalation of messages stored in the mailbox of the first recipient;
- and
- routing associated escalation messages to the selected recipients based on a status of the acknowledgement flag.
A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with computer executable instructions for message handling in a unified messaging system, which when executed on a processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
- associating an acknowledgement flag with a message stored in a mailbox of a first recipient, wherein the first recipient is associated with a first level of an organizational chart;
- identifying selected recipients other than the first recipient, wherein the selected recipients are associated with a second level of an organizational chart, for escalation of the message based on a configured escalation structure associated with the mailbox of the first recipient, wherein the configured escalation structure comprises a list of the selected recipients for escalation of messages stored in the mailbox of the first recipient;
- and
- routing associated escalation messages to the selected recipients based on a status of the acknowledgement flag.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.