Management and Control of Call Center and Office Telephony Assets

Abstract

Call center and office telephony assets, including telephones, headsets, on-line indicators (OLI), and handset lifters, are managed and controlled over a network by a remote computer system. Each asset has associated therewith one or more network addresses, in some cases the network addresses mapped from an electronic identifier stored within the particular asset or determined by a proxy. In one embodiment, an asset's network address is mapped from the asset's unique media access control (MAC) address. The computer system communicates with the assets over the network to manage and control the assets.

1 - 32 . (canceled) 
   
   
       33 . A method of monitoring the utilization of a call center or office telephony asset, comprising:
 establishing communication with the asset over a network using a network address, the network address determined using an electronic identifier associated with the asset;   transmitting a request to the asset over the network; and   receiving a response to the request from the asset, the response indicating the utilization of the asset.   
   
   
       34 . The method of  claim 33 , wherein the asset is a telephone and the response indicates whether the telephone has an active call. 
   
   
       35 . The method of  claim 33 , wherein transmitting comprises sending requests to the asset at predetermined intervals. 
   
   
       36 . The method of  claim 33 , wherein the asset comprises a headset and the utilization includes whether the headset is coupled to a telephone line, the method further comprising:
 routing telephone calls to the telephone line if the headset's utilization indicates that the headset is coupled to the telephone line, otherwise routing telephone calls to another telephone line.   
   
   
       37 . A method of determining the location of a call center or office telephony asset, comprising:
 establishing communication with the asset over a network using a network address, the network address determined using an electronic identifier associated with the asset;   transmitting a message to the asset over the network, the message passing intermediate devices on the network;   receiving an echo message, the echo message including identification information associated with the intermediate devices; and   determining the location of the asset using the identification information of the intermediate devices.   
   
   
       38 . A method of updating the software or firmware for one or more call center or office telephony assets, comprising:
 establishing communication with the asset over a network using a network address, the network address determined using an electronic identifier associated with the asset; and   transmitting a software or firmware update to the asset over the network.   
   
   
       39 . The method of  claim 38 , further comprising:
 querying the asset for version information for the asset's software or firmware; and   receiving a response from the asset, the response indicating the version information for the asset.   
   
   
       40 . The method of  claim 38 , further comprising:
 responsive to the version information's being different that the update, re-transmitting the update to the asset over the network.   
   
   
       41 . The method of  claim 38 , further comprising:
 transmitting the update to a plurality of assets over the network.   
   
   
       42 . The method of  claim 41 , wherein transmitting comprises broadcasting the update to a multicast network address associated with the plurality of assets.