Apparatus for supervising an automatic call distribution telephone system

What is claimed is:

1. An agent supervising apparatus for supervising an automatic call distribution (ACD) telephone system having a plurality of telephone stations assigned to a plurality of agents for handling a plurality of telephone calls, the ACD being coupled to a locating network for determining the locations of said agents, the agent supervising apparatus comprising:

an agent supervising station including a processing unit, a display and an input device for monitoring a plurality of agent call handling status;

said locating network including:

a plurality of remote badge units, each being associated with a respective one of said plurality of agents for transmitting corresponding identification information;

a plurality of transceivers, each adapted for detecting said identification information from said remote badge units and for forwarding said identification information to a locating processor; and

said locating processor being responsive to said identification information for generating location information corresponding to the locations of said plurality of agents; and

said processing unit of said agent supervising station including associated memory and stored programs, responsive to said location information and to commands from said input device, for displaying on said display a graphic indicating said call handling status including locations of said plurality of agents.

2. The agent supervising apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said display displays said agent call handling status.

3. The agent supervising apparatus as set forth in claim 2 wherein said agent call handling status includes the number of calls waiting to be answered and the number of agents available to answer calls.

4. The agent supervising apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein each of said plurality of agents is assigned to one of a plurality of agent groups and said graphic includes a listing of the number of available agents, the number of calls waiting to be answered, and the longest time a caller has been waiting in each of said agent groups.

5. The agent supervising apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said associated memory of said supervising station stores bit map graphic data including a positional representation of an ACD facility housing said ACD system, and said graphic is generated from said bit map graphic data and includes a map representation of said ACD facility.

6. The agent supervising apparatus as set forth in claim 5 wherein:

said telephone stations and corresponding assigned agents are displayed on said map in one mode; and

said map representation depicts in a second mode, the locations of said agents as determined by said locating network.

7. An automatic call distribution (ACD) telephone system having a plurality of telephone stations distributed throughout an area in a facility, each of said telephone stations being assigned to a respective one of a plurality of agents for handling a plurality of telephone calls, said ACD telephone system comprising:

an agent supervising station including a processor, a display and an input device for monitoring agent call handling status;

a locating network connected to said agent supervising station for determining the locations of said agents, including:

a plurality of remote badge units each respectively assigned to each of said plurality of agents for transmitting corresponding identification information;

a plurality of remote transceivers positioned at predetermined locations throughout said area for detecting said identification information and for forwarding said identification information to a locating processor; and

said locating processor being responsive to said identification information for generating location information corresponding to the locations of each of said plurality of agents; and

said processor of said agent supervising station including associated memory and stored programs, responsive to said location information and to commands from said input device, for displaying on said display a graphic indicating each agent at the location determined by said locating network.

8. The ACD telephone system as set forth in claim 7 wherein said graphic includes agent status in changing colors as call status changes.

9. The ACD telephone system as set forth in claim 7 wherein said associated memory of said supervising station stores bit map graphic data representing the geographic layout of said area, and said graphic including a display of said geographic layout is generated from said bit map graphic data, said graphic further includes an indication of the locations of each of said agents in said area.

10. The ACD telephone system as set forth in claim 7 wherein said associated memory of said supervising station includes stored programs for performing multiple tasks including separating said agents by groups and selectively assigning different agents to different tasks.

11. The ACD telephone system as set forth in claim 10 wherein said agent tasks include handling inbound and outbound calls.

12. An agent supervising apparatus for a telephone system having a plurality of telephone stations assigned to a plurality of agents and call distribution to said telephone stations, the agent supervising apparatus comprising:

an agent supervising station including a processing unit, a display and an input device, said processing unit including associated memory and stored programs for storing map graphic data, agent identification information, and a plurality of telephone station designations, said processing unit being responsive to commands from said input device for displaying on said display a map representation corresponding to said map graphic data and for displaying a portion of said agent identification information positioned on said display corresponding to said plurality of telephone station designations; and

a locating network connected to said agent supervising station, including:

a plurality of remote badge units assigned to a respective plurality of agents for transmitting corresponding agent identification information;

a plurality of remote transceivers for detecting said agent identification information and for forwarding said agent identification information to a locator processor; and

said locator processor being responsive to said agent identification information for generating location information corresponding to the locations of said agents.

13. The agent supervising apparatus as set forth in claim 12 wherein said processing unit of said agent supervising station receives status information relating to a respective state of the distributed calls to the plurality of telephone stations, and displays on said display a portion of said status information corresponding to said telephone station designations.

14. The agent supervising apparatus as set forth in claim 13 wherein said processing unit further includes means for changing color attributes as said status information changes.

15. The agent supervising apparatus as set forth in claim 14 wherein said changing means responds to at least one threshold condition of said status information being attained to change said color attributes.

16. The agent supervising apparatus as set forth in claim 14 wherein said processing unit includes menu means for generating a menu on said display to set said at least one threshold condition.

17. The agent supervising apparatus as set forth in claim 12 wherein said telephone station designations correspond to the location of said telephone stations relative to said plurality of remote transceivers.

18. The agent supervising apparatus as set forth in claim 12 wherein:

said telephone stations and remote transceivers are located in a geographic region; and

said map representation depicts corresponding locations of the geographic region and depicts said telephone stations positioned according to said telephone station designations.

19. The agent supervising apparatus as set forth in claim 12 wherein said locator processor sends said location information to said processing unit through a private branch exchange (PBX).

20. An agent supervising apparatus for a telephone system having a plurality of telephone stations assigned to a plurality of agents and call distribution to said telephone stations, the agent supervising apparatus comprising:

an agent supervising station including a display and an input device; and

a processing unit including:

associated memory and stored programs for storing agent identification, call status information, and a plurality of telephone station designations, said associated memory including a queue of queued inbound calls;

means for predicting potential loss of at least one of said queued inbound calls; and

signalling means, responsive to said means for predicting, for signalling said agent supervising station of said potential loss.

21. The agent supervising apparatus as set forth in claim 20 wherein said means for predicting includes means for analyzing a plurality of parameters including average agent availability time.

22. The agent supervising apparatus as in claim 21 wherein at least one of said parameters is user adjustable.

23. The agent supervising apparatus as set forth in claim 20 wherein said signalling means displays on said display a portion of said status information indicating potential loss of calls having color attributes corresponding to said call status information.

24. The agent supervising apparatus as set forth in claim 23 wherein said processing unit further includes means for displaying potential costs corresponding to said potential loss of calls.

25. The agent supervising apparatus as set forth in claim 24 wherein said processing unit further includes means for changing said color attributes as said call status information changes.

26. The agent supervising apparatus as set forth in claim 25 wherein said changing means responds to at least one threshold condition of said call status information to change said color attributes.

Description Submit all comments and votes

FIELD OF INVENTION

This invention relates to telephone systems, and particularly to an agent supervising system and method for use in a call distribution environment.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Modern telephone systems are invariably computer controlled; i.e. computers and computer processors perform functions such as call switching, respond to calls automatically, generate error messages on detecting malfunctions, and otherwise implement stored programs and subroutines to operate the telephone system. Other features may be added to enhance the use of the telephone system to be convenient or user friendly. For example, the telephone system may be menu driven by inputs from a telephone keypad to provide user selected functions such as obtaining one's credit card balance or one's telephone bill balance over a touch tone capable telephone.

Some telephone systems automatically distribute incoming or inbound calls among a plurality of telephone stations. These automated call distribution (ACD) systems have been applied, for example, to route inbound telephone calls to telephone stations assigned to specific personnel or inbound agents. In other applications, outbound telephone calls may be initiated by an ACD using automated dialers and predictive dialing techniques, and the ACD then transfers the established calls to outbound agents. ACDs may employ call queues and various distribution algorithms and methods, implemented in software, to enhance performance of the overall telephone system. Some of the above features of ACD are described in greater detail in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/123,309, filed Sep. 17, 1993, which is incorporated herein by reference.

ACD telephone systems also may implement monitor or supervisor features; i.e. facilities allowing a supervisor to track the ACD in the telephone system and to evaluate the performance of the personnel or agents in the telephone system. For example, in a telemarketing system such as described in the above incorporated U.S. patent application, a system administrator may display information on a display screen to show the status of the telemarketing campaign and the performance and status of each agent.

To insure proper operation of these computerized telephone systems, such supervising systems are employed separately or as part of the telephone system to allow a system supervisor or administrator to access the information processed by the telephone system, to setup or reconfigure its operation, and to interact with users of the system; i.e. callers or telephone system personnel.

Although agents are assigned to individual telephone stations, individual agents may not be present at their corresponding telephone stations at all times. To avoid automatically distributing an inbound call to an unoccupied telephone station and thus delaying the response to a waiting call, it would be advantageous to integrate the monitoring system with an automated personnel locating system, such as the locating system described in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/087,394, filed Jul. 2, 1993, which is incorporated herein by reference. The aforesaid locating system includes a plurality of remote units such as badges which may be worn by people, attached to objects, or incorporated in equipment. The badges wirelessly transmit information including badge identification (ID) information to a nearby stationary transceiver. The stationary transceiver further transmits the badge information to a central computer for processing and identifying the badge and its location. For example, in a hospital environment, staff and patients may be located and audio, video, or data communications may be transmitted throughout the hospital facility; i.e. to a nurse control station, to selected patient stations, and/or to staff stations to achieve enhanced patient care.

In an agent supervising system for an ACD environment for inbound and/or outbound calls, it would be advantageous for an automated locating system operatively coupled to the ACD to provide the agent supervising system with location and information of the agents. The system according to the present invention provides such an integrated supervising system for use in conjunction with a locating system. The system according to the present invention also provides a visual map on the supervisor display to graphically locate each agent and telephone station for a supervisor to efficiently locate specific personnel and objects during ACD operation.

ACD systems having supervising monitoring capabilities have been described. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,425 to Darland et al. discusses a system for monitoring the operation of an automated dialing system. Menus, windows, and icons in a graphical computer interface are employed to permit a supervisor to select various options and to display further information.

Given the available monitoring systems including the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,425 which is incorporated herein by reference, there is a need for an ACD system having improved data and status collection in conjunction with enhanced conveyance techniques for an ACD supervisor. The system according to the present invention provides an ACD supervisor with enhanced display of status information including the graphical display of agent locations. Greater efficiency in supervising and conducting the ACD operations is also achieved using predictive abandonment to predict the pending loss of calls to react accordingly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an agent supervising apparatus for a telephone system having a plurality of telephone stations assigned to a plurality of agents for handling a plurality of telephone calls. The agent supervising apparatus comprises an agent supervising station including a display and an input device; a locating network including a plurality of remote units transmitting corresponding identification information; a plurality of remote transceivers for detecting the identification information and for generating corresponding detection signals; and a central processing station responsive to the detection signals for generating location information corresponding to the location of the remote units; and a processing unit is included in the agent supervising apparatus having associated memory and stored programs responsive to commands from the input device and to the location information, for generating and displaying on the display a graphic indicating the location information.

The agent supervising apparatus has at least one remote unit which is physically attachable to each respective agent. The agent supervising apparatus has a central processing station which sends locating information to the processing unit through a private branch exchange (PBX). The graphic includes a directory listing each remote unit and corresponding location information.

The agent supervising apparatus includes memory storage of map graphic data, and the graphic is generated from the map graphic data and alternatively includes a map representation having a portion of the identification information positioned in the map representation corresponding to the location information. The agent supervising apparatus also has telephone stations and remote transceivers located in a geographic region with the map representation depicting corresponding locations of the geographic region.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features of the present invention will become more readily apparent and may be better understood by referring to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment of the present invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, where:

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the supervising system of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a group activity screen;

FIG. 2A shows a Dynamic Screen Profile Edit Screen;

FIG. 3 shows an agent directory screen;

FIG. 4 illustrates an alternative agent directory screen;

FIG. 5 illustrates a main supervisor menu screen;

FIG. 5A shows a System Maintenance Screen;

FIG. 5B shows a Time Interval for Color Alarm screen;

FIG. 6 shows a map screen having agent and office information;

FIG. 7 shows a map screen showing agent status information and agent locations;

FIG. 8 illustrates a directory screen listing agent locations;

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of the operation of the system according to the present invention;

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of a supervisor monitoring subroutine;

FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of a subroutine implementing display commands selected by the supervisor;

FIG. 12 illustrates a block diagram of a predictive abandonment subroutine; and

FIG. 13 illustrates the elements of the locating network according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now in specific detail to the drawings, with like reference numerals identifying similar or identical elements, the present invention comprises an agent supervising system 10 for use with a telephone system employing ACD and optionally for use with a locating system. As shown in FIG. 1, the agent supervising system 10 includes a supervisor station 20 interacting with programs executed by a private branch exchange (PBX) 30 controlling automatic call distribution (ACD) in a telephone system having a plurality of telephone stations 40 and also interacting with programs executed by an applications processor 50. The supervisor station 20 includes a display and input devices 15 such as a keyboard and/or a mouse. The display is preferably a color monitor capable of outputting a plurality of distinct colors for text in foregrounds and various background palettes to highlight the text. In a preferred embodiment, the supervisor station 20 and the agent telephone stations include an ISOETEC.TM. terminal available from EXECUTONE.RTM. Information Systems, Inc., but other terminals having equivalent display characteristics may alternatively be employed. Separate telephone devices having handsets and/or headsets may also be included in the supervisor station 20 and in each agent telephone station 40 for telephone operations.

The PBX 30 is a digital telephone switching system which handles call processing, call queueing, call routing, voice announcements and other voice related functions. The PBX may be 68000 processor based and includes a real time clock, EPROM memory to store the operating system of the PBX 30 and battery-backed static RAM software routines to store operational data and information including system configuration and location information.

The PBX 30 preferably utilizes time division switching techniques and pulse code modulation (PCM) and provides a capacity of 432 ports which may be configured as 420 phones and 12 trunks, or 12 phones and 420 trunks or any combination in between. The capacity is upgradable with additional PBXs. The PBX 30 has a voice data bus divided into time slots with each port provided a time slot. This time slot arrangement provides a telephone system which is non-blocking between ports. In addition, the PBX 30 has a user data bus independent and parallel of the voice data bus, allowing for simultaneous voice and user data operation.

The PBX 30 preferably provides four I/O ports on a main distribution frame (MDF). Ports 1 and 2 are configured for RS-232 type connections and each of ports 1 and 2 has a default baud rate of 9600 baud. Data information can be switched through the PBX 30 at speeds from 300 to 38.4K baud. The PBX 30 is preferably transparent to the connected devices, and no protocol or data speed conversion is necessary; i.e. any compatible serial data communications devices can communicate through the PBX 30. In the present invention, the PBX 30 is preferably an IDS.TM. telephone system available from EXECUTONE.RTM. Information Systems, Inc.

The applications processor 50 generates and stores data reflecting call activity of the agent telephone stations 40 assigned to agents operating within the ACD. The applications processor 50 executes application software with a UNIX.RTM. based operating system. The applications processor 50 performs storage, coordination and control functions such as providing menus and graphic windows for accessing and generating statistical reports, and the applications processor 50 responds to commands from the supervisor station 20 to display the statistical reports to the supervisor.

The applications processor 50 includes, in the preferred embodiment, an INTEL.RTM. 386-based central processing unit (CP