EP0954155A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
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Multimedia automatic call distribution system
Assignee: Siemens Communications Inc
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Filing: 1999-04-27
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2019-04-27
Abstract
Abstract An automatic call distribution system utilizes a number of H.323 compatible devices. An automatic call distribution (ACD) server (52) interfaces with a computer telephony interface gateway (54) to route calls to agents or to a music/video server (56). Calls are received by a gateway and supplied to a gatekeeper that determines an IP address of the destination. The ACD server selects the destination in response to the number of agents available. In addition, customer calls can be received via e-mail, facsimile or the Internet. The call distribution system can instruct an agent to return an e-mail or facsimile message or to call a customer if desired. Calls from one H.323 device can be routed to another H.323 device by a third party application by sending a call control message to the device's application program interface that executes the message as if it were generated at the device itself.
Inventors
- 👤 Michael Sassin
- 👤 Markku Korpi
- 👤 Richard W. Crouch
- 👤 Leon Xu
- 👤 Uwe Wrede
- 👤 Robert W. Stephens
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-09 18:11
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04M; H04M3/00; H04M3/42; H04M3/50; H04M3/51; H04M7/00; H04M7/006; H04M3/5183
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 15
Claim 1
Independent Claim
105 words
An automatic call distribution system for routing calls from a
customer to one or more service agents, comprising: a gateway that receives telephone calls on a public switched telephone
network; a gatekeeper coupled to the gateway via a computer network for
directing a call from the gateway to one of a plurality of agent terminals coupled to
the computer network in order to connect a service agent with the customer; and an automatic call distribution server coupled to the computer network
that determines when an agent terminal is available and instructs the gatekeeper to
route the call from the gateway to the available agent terminal.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
43 words
The automatic call distribution system of Claim 1, further comprising: a music/video server capable of providing music/video and
announcements coupled to the computer network to which a call can be routed by the
automatic call distribution server when no agent terminals are available.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
45 words
The automatic call distribution system of Claim 1, further comprising: a firewall server and Internet server coupled to the computer network
that receives calls on an Internet Protocol network and routes calls to an available
agent terminal as determined by the automatic call distribution server.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
34 words
The automatic call distribution system of Claim 1, further comprising
an e-mail server that receives e-mail messages from a customer which are routed by
the automatic call distribution server to an available agent terminal.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
43 words
The automatic call distribution system of Claim 1, ether comprising
a web server that receives the web requests including a customer name and call back
number from the Internet, the automatic call distribution server routing the web
request to an available agent terminal.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
19 words
The automatic call distribution system of Claim 1, wherein the calls
received comprise audio and audio/video and data calls.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
51 words
The automatic call distribution system of Claim 1, further comprising
a CTI gateway coupled to the plurality of agent terminals and the automatic call
distribution server, the CTI gateway monitoring the status of the plurality of agent
terminals ad informing the automatic call distribution server when a agent terminal
is available.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
20 words
The automatic call distribution system of Claim 1, wherein the
gateway, and the plurality of agent terminals are H.323 endpoints.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
18 words
The automatic call distribution system of Claim 8, wherein the
automatic call distribution server is an H.323 endpoint.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
25 words
The automatic call distribution system of Claim 1, wherein calls can
be generated at the plurality of agent terminals by the automatic call distribution
server.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
123 words
An automatic call distribution system for routing calls from a
customer to any of a number of devices on a computer network, comprising: a gateway that receives telephone calls on a public switched telephone
network; a gatekeeper coupled to the gateway via a computer network, the
gatekeeper determining an address of a device on the computer network to which the
call should be routed; and an automatic call distribution server coupled to the computer network
that determines which of the number of devices on the network is available to accept
the call and provides an indication of the device that can accept the call to the
gatekeeper that in turn determines a address of the available device for use in
routing the call.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
67 words
The automatic call distribution system of Claim 11, wherein the
number of devices on the computer network include: one or more agent terminals to which a call can be connected in order
to connect a service agent with the customer; a music/video server capable of providing music/video and
announcements, coupled to the computer network to which a call can be routed when
no agent terminal is available.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
101 words
A communication network, comprising: a plurality of networked H.323 compliant devices that can accept
telephone calls and direct telephone calls to another H.323 compliant device, each
device including an application program interface that can receive call control signals
from an external application runing on the network and execute the received call
control signals; a device coupled to the network that runs the external application that
generates the control signals and directs the call control signals to an application
program interface of one of the H.323 compliant devices in order to control the
routing of a telephone call from the external application.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
65 words
The communication network of Claim 13, further comprising: a CTI gateway coupled to each of the H.323 compliant devices and to
the automatic call distribution server, the CTI gateway operating to receive the call
control signals from the device that runs the external application ad to forward the
call control signals to a application program interface of one or more of the H.323
compliant devices.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
19 words
The communication network of Claim 13, wherein the device running
the external application is a automatic call distribution server.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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