Method and Apparatus for Integrating Agent Status between a Customer Relations Management System and A Multiple Channel Communications Center

Abstract

A system for integrating a contact center, an agent station, and a customer relation management server for communication includes an application coupling the contact center, the agent station, and the customer relation management server, and one or more dynamic states maintained by the application wherein the one or more states represent current agent activity and presence attributes.

1 . A system for integrating a contact center, an agent station, and a customer relation management server for communication comprising: 
 an application coupling the contact center, the agent station, and the customer relation management server; and    one or more dynamic states maintained by the application wherein the one or more states represent current agent activity and presence attributes.    
   
   
       2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the contact center, the agent station, and the customer relation management server are coupled over one or more networks, which may be the Internet network or a telephone network.  
   
   
       3 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the application is also coupled to a data library for aid in CTI data interpretation.  
   
   
       4 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the one or more dynamic states may include an agent status model identifying the agent, the channels of the agent, and the current presence and activity conditions of the agent in interaction relative to the channels.  
   
   
       5 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the customer relation management server is physically located within the contact center.  
   
   
       6 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the customer relation management system is maintained by a third party.  
   
   
       7 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the one or more dynamic states are updateable from an agent station and from a contact center.  
   
   
       8 . The system of  claim 7  wherein agent state updates are pushed to the connected nodes according to need dependent upon current media events received at the agent station and queued for the agent station.  
   
   
       9 . The system of  claim 7  wherein agent state updates are accessed from the one or more dynamic states through a subscription to services and an agent model reporting the state or states.  
   
   
       10 . The system of  claim 1  further comprising software running on the agent station, the software providing agent interaction and agent control ability for manipulating agent states, including an interface for interacting with customer relation services.  
   
   
       11 . The system of  claim 10  wherein the software is a browser plug-in or otherwise browser-based with data transferred over hypertext transfer protocol-enabled network connections.  
   
   
       12 . The system of  claim 1  further comprising software running at the contact center, the software adapted to provide event notification, queue management, agent state interpretation, and agent state updates.  
   
   
       13 . The system of  claim 12  wherein the software instance contains a descriptor of voice destination parameters and a descriptor of media channel destination parameters for each agent status model that describes a single agent or a group of agents.  
   
   
       14 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the customer relation management server accesses the agent station based on agent state detection and current need according to enterprise rules.  
   
   
       15 . The system of  claim 14  wherein the customer relation management server provides services appropriate to the state or states detected.  
   
   
       16 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the customer relation management server is accessed by the agent station based on agent state detection and current need according to enterprise rules, and orders data and or services.