GB2290193A - Call transfer arrangement - Google Patents
Call transfer arrangement Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- GB2290193A GB2290193A GB9511318A GB9511318A GB2290193A GB 2290193 A GB2290193 A GB 2290193A GB 9511318 A GB9511318 A GB 9511318A GB 9511318 A GB9511318 A GB 9511318A GB 2290193 A GB2290193 A GB 2290193A
- Authority
- GB
- United Kingdom
- Prior art keywords
- call
- data
- telephony
- processing system
- data area
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Granted
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Classifications
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
- H04M3/50—Centralised arrangements for answering calls; Centralised arrangements for recording messages for absent or busy subscribers ; Centralised arrangements for recording messages
- H04M3/51—Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention, e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
- H04M3/523—Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention, e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing with call distribution or queueing
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
- H04M3/58—Arrangements for transferring received calls from one subscriber to another; Arrangements affording interim conversations between either the calling or the called party and a third party
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M2201/00—Electronic components, circuits, software, systems or apparatus used in telephone systems
- H04M2201/38—Displays
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
- H04M3/56—Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities
Landscapes
- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Signal Processing (AREA)
- Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
- Marketing (AREA)
- Telephonic Communication Services (AREA)
Abstract
A telephony system includes means responsive to a message from a switch arrangement 5 for allocating a call identifier within a data processing system 15 for identifying any particular ongoing call relative to any other ongoing call and means for allocating a data area within the data processing system associated with any particular call identifier and for recording data associated with a particular call identifier. In response to a call from one telephony device to another telephony device a further call identifier and a further data area are allocated to the call and all or part of the data from the first-mentioned data area is copied to the further data area. Such an arrangement permits data gathered by one person to be transferred to another without the need for the second person to repeat the data gathering exercise and permits the use of the data in more than one application. <IMAGE>
Description
TELEPHONY SYSTEM
The present invention is concerned with a telephony system, and more particularly is concerned with a telephony system in which data associated with a telephone call is treated as an integral part of that call.
It is conventional in telephony systems to be able, for example, to transfer calls from one telephony device, such as a telephone extension, to another. However, it is often desirable or necessary when a call is made or received to record data provided, for example in a computer system.
Hereinafter the term "agent" is used to denote a telephony device (such as an interactive voice response unit) or a person recording the data and the term "customer" is used to denote the person providing the data (either orally or by other means), although these terms are not to be interpreted in a restricted sense. However, a situation may arise where the agent is unable to complete the data required or is unable to act on the available data and it is necessary to transfer the call to a second agent for completion. In such situations, the second agent will need to establish from the customer not only any additional data required, but also the data originally provided by the customer to the first agent. This repetition is time consuming and therefore costly and also frustrating to the customer who has already provided the original data.
Should the second agent find it necessary to pass the customer on to a third agent, further time is wasted and there is a serious risk that the customer may terminate the call prematurely.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide means for recording data associated with an ongoing telephone call at one telephony device and for passing that data with the call should the telephony device handling the ongoing call be used to initiate a call to a further telephony device.
According to the present invention there is provided a telephony system comprising: a plurality of telephony devices; a switch arrangement connected to the plurality of telephony devices, the switch arrangement being capable of directing a call to or from any one or more of the telephony devices; and a data processing system communicating with each of the telephony devices and with the switch arrangement, wherein the data processing system includes: means responsive to a message from the switch arrangement for allocating a call identifier within the data processing system for identifying any particular ongoing call relative to any other ongoing call; means for allocating a data area within the data processing system associated with any particular call identifier and for recording data associated with a particular call identifier; and means responsive to a message from the switch arrangement corresponding to a call from one of the telephony devices to another of the telephony devices, said one telephony device having associated therewith an ongoing call and a data area associated with the call identifier allocated to such ongoing call, to allocate a further call identifier to said call from the one telephony device to the other telephony device, to allocate a further data area within the data processing system associated with the further call identifier, and to copy all or part of the data from the first-mentioned data area associated with the ongoing call to the further data area associated with the call from one telephony device to the other telephony device.
The ability to pass data with a call represents a significant advance in this field and permits data to be gathered by one person and transferred to another without the need for the second person to repeat the data gathering exercise. Additionally, the use of a separate data area permits the use of the data in more than one application program. The first step in transferring a call and the data associated with that call generally involves setting up what is in effect a "conference call" between two telephony devices, one of which has an ongoing call and data associated therewith. All or part of the data from the ongoing call is copied to a new data area associated with the "conference call" at the other telephony device.
At this stage the "conference call" can be terminated by the other telephony device to leave the ongoing call with the first telephony device, or the "conference call" can be terminated by the first telephony device to complete the transfer of the ongoing call to the other telephony device.
In the former case the call identifier and the data area associated with the other telephony device are deleted, while in the latter case the data processing system allocates the call identifier of the "conference call" to the transferred ongoing call and the first data area and the call identifier associated therewith are deleted. As an alternative to setting up a "conference call", calls can be transferred directly.
The data area may be defined by reference to the number and nature of application programs that may require to use data contained within the data area.
Data may be recorded in any particular data area from a number of sources. For example, data may be supplied by an external caller such as by way of a multi-frequency tone dialling telephone and an interactive voice response unit forming a telephony device or by way of a speech recognition system forming part of a telephony device, by an application program, or by an operator in communication with a customer and keying information into a workstation forming part of a telephony device. Data in a data area may be used by one or more application programs forming part of the data processing system or may be used, for example, by a predictive dialling system forming part of the data processing system and which predicts when an operator will be available to make a call and initiates a call on the basis of such prediction.
Advantageously, the data processing system includes means for determining the size of the data areas in response to a number of data elements required by the one or more applications programs. Preferably, the data processing system includes means for increasing the further data area relative to the first-mentioned data area in response to a number of data elements required by one or more applications programs capable of accessing the further data area but not the first-mentioned data area.
The data processing system may include means for deleting the first-mentioned data area and for deleting the call identifier associated therewith upon transfer of a call from said one telephony device to said another telephony device.
The data processing system may include means for deleting the further data area and for deleting the call identifier associated therewith upon termination of a call from said one telephony device to said another telephony device.
For a better understanding of the present invention and to show more clearly how it may be carried into effect reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings in which:
Figure 1 is a diagrammatic representation of one embodiment of a telephony system according to the present invention; and
Figure 2 is a diagrammatic representation of another embodiment of a telephony system according to the present invention.
There is an increasing tendency to provide services by telephone. Such services may include banking services, insurance services and other financial services in addition to retail services (so-called "home shopping"). The provision of such services generally involves a telephone discussion between an agent representing the service provider and the customer or prospective customer during which data required by the service provider, in order to be able to furnish the service required, is provided by the customer to the agent. However, should the agent be unable to complete the call, for example he may not be able to authorise a loan above a predetermined amount or a second service may be required which is to be dealt with by another agent, it will be necessary to transfer the call to enable the service provision to be completed.In such a situation we have found it desirable to be able to transfer the data relating to the call in order that the other agent does not need to seek a repetition of data from the customer.
It must be emphasised, however, that application of the present invention is not restricted to the use specifically described herein and that the invention can be used whenever it is desirable to associate with a telephone call data related to that call. For example, alternative telephony devices to a conventional headset and workstation may be used, such as an interactive voice response unit (IVR) which is able to gather data as a result of the customer pressing different keys on a telephone handset in response to certain predetermined questions. Speech recognition by computer is also becoming feasible in certain circumstances.
The telephony system illustrated in Figure 1 represents a particularly simple system and shows a customer 1 using a telephone 3 to communicate with the service provider's telephony system. The telephony system comprises a switch arrangement 5 inter alia for directing. an incoming call from the customer to a telephony device in the form of an interactive voice response unit 6 or to one of a number of extensions 7, 9 which are serviced by agents 11, 13 respectively. The switch arrangement may be any one of a number of switch arrangements known to the skilled person.
The switch arrangement 5 is connected to and controlled by a computer 15 which incorporates inter alia a switch interface program for connecting the computer to various types of switch arrangement, a telephony program which communicates with the switch arrangement by way of the switch interface program and provides general telephony services, and one or more application programs for providing services to customers.
Each agent 11, 13 is provided with a workstation 17, 19 respectively which comprises a keyboard or other data entry means and a monitor or other data display means and which is connected to the computer 15. The workstation provides the agent with access to the telephony program for telephony services and to the or each application program for providing services to customers. Thus, the telephone extension 7, 9 and the respective workstation 17, 19 together form a telephony device for use in the present invention.
When a call is received it is routed to the interactive voice response unit or to an available agent or, alternatively, an agent may make an outgoing call to a customer or prospective customer or to another agent or group of agents. Further, an outgoing call made be made by a predictive dialling system.
Whenever a call is received or whenever an outgoing call is established, the switch arrangement issues a "new call" message and the telephony program creates a data area relating to that call. Such a data area is hereinafter referred to as a clipboard since the function of the data area is to hold data elements relating to the call much in the manner of a clipboard.
In particular, the clipboard is able to contain both system data and application data. The system data includes a unique call identifier, such as a number, generated by the telephony program in order to identify that clipboard from any other clipboards that may have been created in response to other calls. For example, the unique call identifier may be taken from or incorporate a connection identifier provided by the switch arrangement as part of the "new call" message.
The system data may also include other data such as a clipboard reference, the type of call, identification of the telephone number from which the call originates (calling line identifier), a record of the or each agent associated with the call and call-related information such as the duration of the call and the length of time the call has been queued.
The application data comprises general purpose data required for applications, such as customer account details, and can be provided by the application program, for example from data provided during a previous call, and/or by the interactive voice response unit or an agent in response to information from the customer.
The application data for any particular clipboard is initially defined by an application program when the clipboard is created, but since different application programs may require different information and more than one application may be involved with a single call, the application data for any particular clipboard combines the data elements required by all the applications involved.
More than one application program may require knowledge of modification of a particular data element and the telephony program maintains a record of which application program is interested in which data element. Thus, when that data element is updated either by the agent or by an application program, the telephony program ensures that all application programs that have registered an interest in that data element are updated as necessary. In this way, one application program can update a data element which will result in another one or more application programs being informed of the update.
Each application data element within a clipboard contains three fields, a name which is used to identify the element for updates, contents (i.e. the data for that element of the clipboard), and an application reference which is a reference for that element provided to the clipboard by an application program.
System data is also made available to application programs, but cannot be updated by application programs. Thus, system data is "read only" so far as application programs are concerned.
When it is desired to transfer (or requeue) a call from a first agent to a second agent, or when a first agent requires advice from a second agent, a "conference call" is generally initiated by the first agent to the second agent and effected by the switch arrangement 5 under control of the telephony program. The telephony program also extracts and stores the elements of the clipboard relating to that call until the conference call has been established.
When the conference call is established, the switch arrangement 5 issues a "new call" message. The telephony program detects the message and identifies from where the call came. The program then generates a new call identifier for the conference call and copies the contents of the originating clipboard into a new clipboard having the new call identifier and associated with the conference call and updates the new clipboard with additional system information relating to the call history.
It is quite possible that the second agent will be running one or more application programs which may not be the same as the one or more application programs being run by the first agent and for which additional application data is required in the clipboard. In such an event, the new clipboard is enlarged on creation to incorporate any additional data elements required by the application program(s) of the second agent so that the relevant application program(s) can be updated as necessary.
However, if a clipboard is transferred to an agent who does not require all the data elements contained within the application data of the clipboard, the new clipboard is not modified.
If the conference call is terminated by the first agent, the ongoing call is transferred to the second agent, the originating clipboard is deleted and the clipboard reference associated with the originating clipboard is transferred to the new clipboard.
However, if the conference call is terminated by the second agent following consultation between the first and second agents, the ongoing call remains with the first agent and the new clipboard is deleted.
When a call is cleared, the clipboard relating to that call is deleted.
As an alternative to establishing a conference call, a call can be transferred directly, but a new clipboard is still created and the originating clipboard is destroyed.
The telephony system illustrated in Figure 2 represents a somewhat more complex system than that illustrated in
Figure 1. A customer 21 is shown using a telephone 23 to communicate with the service provider's telephony system.
The system comprises a number, three as illustrated, of switches 25 forming a switch arrangement 27 for directing an incoming voice call from the customer by way of a voice network 29 to a telephony device in the form of an interactive voice response unit 30 or to one of a number of extensions 31, 33, 35, 37 which are serviced by agents 39, 41, 43, 45 respectively.
The switch arrangement is connected by way of part 47 of a data network to computing means in the form of two computers 49, 51 which incorporate a switch interface program for connecting the computers to various types of switch arrangement and a telephony program which communicates with the switch arrangement by way of the switch interface program and the part 47 of the data network and provides general telephony services.
A further part 53 of the data network connects the two computers 49, 51 to further computing means in the form of three computers 55, 57, 59 on which are running various application programs for providing services to customers.
The data network 53 is also connected to a host computer 61 which, in the illustrated embodiment is located at a separate site.
Each agent 39, 41, 43, 45 is provided with a workstation 63, 65, 67, 69 which is connected to a further part 71 of the data network and which provides access to the telephony program running on computers 49, 51 for general telephony services and to the or each computer 55, 57, 59 for applications programs for providing services to customers.
Thus, the telephone extension 31, 33, 35, 37 and the respective workstation 63, 65, 67, 69 together form a telephony device for use in the present invention. The interactive voice response unit 30 is also connected to the part 71 of the data network.
Clearly numerous other configurations are possible. For example, it is not necessary for all the agents to be located at a single site. Thus, call and data transfers may be intra-switch transfers or inter-switch transfers.
Operation of the telephony system illustrated in Figure 2 is essentially identical to that illustrated in Figure 1 and further description is not considered necessary.
Claims (9)
1. A telephony system comprising: a plurality of telephony devices; a switch arrangement connected to the plurality of telephony devices, the switch arrangement being capable of directing a call to or from any one or more of the telephony devices; and a data processing system communicating with each of the telephony devices and with the switch arrangement, wherein the data processing system includes: means responsive to a message from the switch arrangement for allocating a call identifier within the data processing system for identifying any particular ongoing call relative to any other ongoing call; means for allocating a data area within the data processing system associated with any particular call identifier and for recording data associated with a particular call identifier; and means responsive to a message from the switch arrangement corresponding to a call from one of the. telephony devices to another of the telephony devices, said one telephony device having associated therewith an ongoing call and a data area associated with the call identifier allocated to such ongoing call, to allocate a further call identifier to said call from the one telephony device to the other telephony device, to allocate a further data area within the data processing system associated with the further call identifier, and to copy all or part of the data from the first-mentioned data area associated with the ongoing call to the further data area associated with the call from one telephony device to the other telephony device.
2. A telephony system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data areas are available to one or more applications programs forming part of the data processing system.
3. A telephony system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the data processing system includes means for determining the size of the data areas in response to a number of data elements required by the one or more applications programs.
4. A telephony system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the data processing system includes means for increasing the further data area relative to the first-mentioned data area in response to a number of data elements required by one or more applications programs capable of accessing the further data area but not the first-mentioned data area.
5. A telephony system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the data processing system includes means for deleting the first-mentioned data area upon transfer of a call from said one telephony device to said another telephony device.
6. A telephony system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the data processing system includes means for deleting the call identifier associated with the first-mentioned data area.
7. A telephony system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the data processing system includes means for deleting the further data area upon termination of a call from said one telephony device to said another telephony device.
8. A telephony system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the data processing system includes means for deleting the call identifier associated with the further data area.
9. A telephony system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB9411458A GB9411458D0 (en) | 1994-06-08 | 1994-06-08 | Telephony system |
Publications (3)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| GB9511318D0 GB9511318D0 (en) | 1995-08-02 |
| GB2290193A true GB2290193A (en) | 1995-12-13 |
| GB2290193B GB2290193B (en) | 1999-03-03 |
Family
ID=10756384
Family Applications (2)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB9411458A Pending GB9411458D0 (en) | 1994-06-08 | 1994-06-08 | Telephony system |
| GB9511318A Expired - Lifetime GB2290193B (en) | 1994-06-08 | 1995-06-05 | Telephony system |
Family Applications Before (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB9411458A Pending GB9411458D0 (en) | 1994-06-08 | 1994-06-08 | Telephony system |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| GB (2) | GB9411458D0 (en) |
Cited By (5)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP0806858A2 (en) * | 1996-05-07 | 1997-11-12 | Inventions, Inc. | Call center |
| GB2336066A (en) * | 1998-03-31 | 1999-10-06 | Ibm | Call centre evaluation |
| EP1643741A2 (en) | 2004-09-30 | 2006-04-05 | Avaya Technology Corp. | Computer and telephony integration |
| WO2006072478A1 (en) * | 2005-01-08 | 2006-07-13 | International Business Machines Corporation | Embedding data obtained from a caller in sip signalling messages and passing this data on during a call transfer |
| EP3402177B1 (en) | 2008-05-09 | 2021-07-07 | Semafone Limited | Signal detection and blocking for voice processing equipment |
Citations (2)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US4805209A (en) * | 1987-12-09 | 1989-02-14 | International Business Machines | Coordinated transfer of voice and information through a digital switch |
| EP0425161B1 (en) * | 1989-10-24 | 1995-12-20 | AT&T Corp. | Customer definable integrated voice/data call transfer technique |
-
1994
- 1994-06-08 GB GB9411458A patent/GB9411458D0/en active Pending
-
1995
- 1995-06-05 GB GB9511318A patent/GB2290193B/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
Patent Citations (2)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US4805209A (en) * | 1987-12-09 | 1989-02-14 | International Business Machines | Coordinated transfer of voice and information through a digital switch |
| EP0425161B1 (en) * | 1989-10-24 | 1995-12-20 | AT&T Corp. | Customer definable integrated voice/data call transfer technique |
Cited By (14)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US6314089B1 (en) | 1996-05-07 | 2001-11-06 | Inventions, Inc. | Creating and using an adaptable multiple-contact transaction object |
| EP0806858A2 (en) * | 1996-05-07 | 1997-11-12 | Inventions, Inc. | Call center |
| EP0806858A3 (en) * | 1996-05-07 | 2000-01-05 | Inventions, Inc. | Call center |
| AU731709B2 (en) * | 1996-05-07 | 2001-04-05 | Inventions, Inc. | Creating and using an adaptable multiple-contract transaction object |
| US6741697B2 (en) | 1998-03-31 | 2004-05-25 | International Business Machines Corporation | Telephone call centre performance evaluation |
| GB2336066B (en) * | 1998-03-31 | 2003-07-23 | Ibm | Telephony call centre performance evaluation |
| GB2336066A (en) * | 1998-03-31 | 1999-10-06 | Ibm | Call centre evaluation |
| EP1643741A2 (en) | 2004-09-30 | 2006-04-05 | Avaya Technology Corp. | Computer and telephony integration |
| EP1643741A3 (en) * | 2004-09-30 | 2009-02-25 | Avaya Inc. | Computer and telephony integration |
| US8509419B2 (en) | 2004-09-30 | 2013-08-13 | Avaya, Inc. | Computer and telephony integration |
| WO2006072478A1 (en) * | 2005-01-08 | 2006-07-13 | International Business Machines Corporation | Embedding data obtained from a caller in sip signalling messages and passing this data on during a call transfer |
| US8576835B2 (en) | 2005-01-08 | 2013-11-05 | International Business Machines Corporation | Method and apparatus for providing contextual information with telephone calls |
| EP3402177B1 (en) | 2008-05-09 | 2021-07-07 | Semafone Limited | Signal detection and blocking for voice processing equipment |
| EP2286576B1 (en) | 2008-05-09 | 2022-06-15 | Semafone Limited | Signal detection for voice processing equipment |
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| GB2290193B (en) | 1999-03-03 |
| GB9411458D0 (en) | 1994-07-27 |
| GB9511318D0 (en) | 1995-08-02 |
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Legal Events
| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 732E | Amendments to the register in respect of changes of name or changes affecting rights (sect. 32/1977) | ||
| PE20 | Patent expired after termination of 20 years |
Expiry date: 20150604 |