EP1030504A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Web-based call center system with web document annotation
Assignee: Unify Inc
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Filing: 2000-02-10
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2020-02-10
Abstract
Abstract A web-based call center 10 and a method for its operation include multiple agent and customer terminals 50, 52 connected to a web server 42. The agent terminals and the customer terminals include a web browser 70, 74 for accessing 84, 92 web documents from the web server and annotation plug-in software 68; 72 for recording 86; 94 and replaying static and dynamic annotations on web documents. An HTML document registration tool 60 formats 80 web documents prior to storage on the web server, so that the web documents are formatted for annotation. An annotation server 44 includes a database 66 for storing annotated documents received from agent and customer terminals. Indexing software 64 associated with the annotation server extracts 98 key information from annotations received from customer terminals as part of callback requests. The extracted key information is indicative of a skills set which is required by an agent in order to handle the callback request. An ACD server utilizes the key information to route 102 callback requests to qualified call center agents. A customer terminal can transmit an information request in the form of a telephone call, a fax transmission, an e-mail, or a callback request which includes an annotated web document. An agent terminal can respond to the information request by telephone, fax, e-mail, or by returning an annotated web document. Alternatively, the customer and agent terminals can initiate 106, 108 a dynamic annotation data sharing session.
Inventors
- 👤 Chellury R. Sastry
- 👤 Darrin P. Lewis
- 👤 Arturo Pizano
- 👤 Uwe Wrede
- 👤 Michael Sassin
- 👤 Shmuel Schaffer
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-31 16:43
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06Q; G06Q30/00; G06Q30/02; G06F; G06F40/00; G06F40/10; G06F40/166; G06F40/169; H; H04; H04L; H04L67/00; H04L67/01; H04L67/02; H04L67/14; H04L67/142; H04L67/50; H04L67/51; H04L67/56; H04L67/568; H04L67/60; H04L67/63; H04L9/00; H04L9/40; H04M; H04M3/00; H04M3/42; H04M3/50; H04M3/51; H04M3/5183; H04M3/5191; H04M3/523; H04L67/131; H04L69/00; H04L69/30; H04L69/32; H04L69/322; H04L69/329; H04M2203/00; H04M2203/55; H04M2203/552; H04M3/5231; H04M3/5232; H04M3/5233; H04M7/00; H04M7/006
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 12
Claim 1
Independent Claim
91 words
A communications method in a web-based call center (10)
which includes a server (44) accessible by a customer terminal (52) and an
agent terminal (50), comprising the steps of: receiving (84; 92) a first document at one of said customer and said
agent terminals; recording (86; 96; 110) particular actions chosen from multimedia
actions performed on said first document; and transmitting (88; 96; 110) said recorded actions to the other of said
customer and said agent terminals as part of either an information request
or a response to an information request.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
63 words
A communications method according to claim 1, wherein the
step of: recording (86; 96; 110) comprises recording a particular sequence
of actions chosen from multimedia actions performed on said first
document such that said recorded actions can be played back to display
said actions in said particular sequence; and the step of transmitting (88; 96; 110) comprises transmitting said recorded
sequence of actions.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
30 words
A method according to claim 2 further comprising the step of
formatting (80) said first document to enable capture of said particular
sequence of actions performed on said first document.
Claim 4
Independent Claim
41 words
A method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein
said recording step (86; 94; 108) includes recording at least one of text,
voice information, video information, user-generated pointer gestures,
user-generated drawings, manipulation of image objects, and manipulation
of video objects.
Claim 5
Independent Claim
69 words
A method according to any of claims 2 to 4, further
comprising the steps of: analyzing (98) said recorded sequence of actions to determine
a first set of skills associated with said recorded sequence of actions;
and correlating (100) said first set of skills to skills sets of a
plurality of call center agents to determine which of said call center agents
are qualified to receive said information request.
Claim 6
Independent Claim
67 words
A method according to any of claims 2 to 5, wherein said step
of transmitting (110) said recorded sequence of actions is performed as a
part of a data sharing session, wherein dynamic annotation data is
streamed from said one of said customer (52) and said agent terminals
(50) to the other of said customer and said agent terminals substantially
simultaneously with generation of said annotation data.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
151 words
A call center (10) with annotation capability comprising: a document server (42) connected to a communications
network (76) to provide a plurality of clients access to documents formatted
(80) for input of annotation data; an annotation server (44) configured to provide storage for
annotated documents received from said clients, at least a portion of said
annotated documents including information requests received (82) from
customer client terminals (52); and a plurality of call center client terminals (50) configured to
process said information requests for presentation to call center agents,
each call center client terminal including an annotation module (72)
responsive to user inputs to record (86) annotation on one of said
formatted documents, said annotation including recorded data object
manipulations configured to display said recorded data object
manipulations, said data object manipulations including at least one of text,
image object manipulation, text object manipulation, video object
manipulation, and recording of voice information.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
123 words
A call center (10) according to claim 7 with dynamic
annotation capability in which: the document server (42) provides a plurality of clients access to
documents formatted (80) for input of dynamic annotation data; the annotation server (44) is configured to provide storage for
dynamically annotated documents received from said clients, at least a
portion of said dynamically annotated documents including information
requests received (82) from customer client terminals (52); and in which each call center client terminal includes a dynamic annotation
module (72) responsive to user inputs to record (86) a dynamic annotation
session on one of said formatted documents, said recorded dynamic
annotation session including sequentially recorded data object
manipulations configured for playback to display said sequentially recorded
data object manipulations.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
37 words
A call center (10) according to claim 8, further comprising a
document registration tool (60) configured to automatically format (80) said
documents to enable capture (86; 94) of user-generated multimedia
actions performed in said dynamic annotation sessions.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
57 words
A call center (10) according to claim 8 or 9, wherein said
dynamic annotation module (72) of each call center client terminal (50) is
configured to establish a data sharing session with a customer client
terminal (52) in which dynamic annotation data is streamed (110) to said
customer client terminal as said dynamic annotation data is generated.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
68 words
A call center (10) according to any of the preceding apparatus
claims further comprising an Automatic Call Distributor (18) (ACD)
responsive to receipt of said information requests to ascertain (98) skill
requirements associated with each information request and to compare
(100) said skill requirements to skill sets associated with said call center
agents to determine which of said call center agents are qualified to handle
particular information requests.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
67 words
A call center (10) according to any of the preceding
apparatus claims wherein said ACD is configured to ascertain (98) said
skill requirements based at least partially on one of text within underlying
web pages included in a customer annotation session, text generated by a
customer during said customer annotation session, and text extracted from
voice information generated by said customer during said customer
dynamic annotation session.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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