Apparatus and methods for coordinating telephone and data communications

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APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR
COORDINATING TELEPHONE AND DATA
COMMUNICATIONS

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 5

This invention relates to data and telephone communications, and particularly to coordinating data and telephone communications so that they can be routed to desired places.

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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Computer technology has improved drastically in the past thirty years. One of the results of the improvement is that the price of a computer having similar computation power dropped exponentially. For example, a microcomputer costing less than a thousand dollars today has more data processing power than a mainframe computer thirty years ago costing millions of dollars. Thus, computers become affordable to small companies and homes. As more and more 2Q companies and homes acquire computers, there is a desire to connect them together so as to share information. As a result, data communication technology (such as local and wide area networks) also underwent major development. The technology allows computer data to be easily transferred between ^ computers.

One of the most exciting development in data communication is the Internet, which is a worldwide interconnection of millions of computers, from low end personal computers to high-end mainframes. The Internet grew out of work 30 funded by the U.S. government's Advanced Research Projects Agency. For a long time, Internet was used by scientists in universities and national laboratories to share information. As the existence of the Internet became more widely known, other people (such as employees of large 35 corporations) started to use Internet to carry electronic mails. In 1989, a wide-area information system know as the World Wide Web ("the web") was developed. The web is a widearea hypermedia information retrieval system aimed to give universal access to a large universe of documents. At that 40 time, the web was known to and used by the academic/ research community only. There was no easily available tool which allows a technically untrained person to access the web. The most exciting development in Internet is the development of web "browsers." These browsers have a 45 simple but powerful graphic interface that allows a user to retrieve web documents and navigate the web using simple commands and popular methods such as point-and-click. Because the user does not have to be technically trained and the browser is easy to use, it has the potential of opening up 50 the Internet to the masses.

Internet can also be used as a communication medium for users to purchase services and products. In this application, "merchants" display product and ordering information as web documents. Customers can review the documents and 55 place orders by clicking on (i.e., selecting) appropriate places on the documents. Information about an order (e.g., model number and quantity) and its associated customer (e.g., name and shipping address) may be transmitted electronically. It is anticipated that this form of electronic go commercial transaction will grow in importance as more and more homes install computers and gain access to the Internet.

Another technology that is gaining in popularity by the reduced costs of computers is the development of telephone 65 call centers. In a call center, a large number of agents handle telephone communication with customers. The matching of

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calls between customers and agents is typically performed by software. A simple example is used here to describe a few of the many advantages of using call centers. When a call is made to a call center, the telephone number of the calling line is typically made available to the call center by a telephone carrier. Based on this telephone number, the software in the call center can access a database server to obtain information about the customer who has been assigned that phone number. The software can now route the call to an agent who can best handle the call based on predefined criteria (e.g., language skill, knowledge of products the customer bought, etc.). The software immediately transfers relevant information to a computer screen used by the agent. Thus, the agent can gain valuable information about the customer prior to receiving the call. As a result, the agent can more effectively handle the telephone transaction.

As the price of computers decreases, the equipment costs of implementing a call center also decrease. Consequently, it is affordable for the "merchants" in electronic commerce to operate call centers.

It is desirable to coordinate Internet communication of computer data with call center routing of telephone calls. For example, a customer using Internet to conduct electronic commerce may not wish to transmit his/her credit card information electronically because of security risks in the Internet. Thus, the customer may wish to orally give the credit card information to an agent of the "merchant." As another example, the customer may wish to ask an agent additional information about a product while viewing a web document describing the product. If the agent can have access to the web documents seen by the customer prior to receiving the call, the quality and efficiency of services provided by the agent can be improved tremendously.

Even though both the data communication technology and call center technology are useful for business applications, coordinating data communication and telephone communications has been difficult. One of the reasons is that these two technologies follow different protocols and products designed for one technology cannot be communicate with products designed for the other technology.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention involves methods and systems for coordinating telephone and data communication between different sites. In a first embodiment of the present invention, a first site has at least a computer and a telephone. The computer in the first site displays information (e.g., web pages) originated from a server. A second site has a plurality of agents each associated with a computer and a telephone. The second site also has a telephone switch for directing incoming phone calls to these agents. The computer in the first site sends to the server, via a communication network, such as the Internet, information identifying the first site and a request indicating an intention to call the second site. The request and the identification information are delivered to a software module in the second site. Based on this identification information, the second site can retrieve information on the first site (which has previously been stored in a database in the second site). An agent who is able to respond to a call from the first site is selected. A telephone number of a routing point of the telephone switch is reserved for this phone call, and the telephone number is sent to the first site via the digital communication network. When the switch receives an incoming call having this telephone number, this incoming call is routed to a telephone associated with the selected agent. The digital information originated from the 3

server and the retrieved information of the first site are delivered to a computer associated with the selected agent. As a result, the agent can obtain information about the first site (i.e., the caller) and immediately display the same information already displayed on the computer in the first site.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the telephone call is initiated by the second site (whereas the above first embodiment involves a telephone call initiated by the first site). The computer in the first site sends to the server, via the communication network, a request to the second site indicating a desire to receive a phone call from the second site. The request includes information related to a telephone number associated with the telephone in the first site. This telephone number is stored in a file in the second site. The file also contains other outbound telephone numbers. The second site contains a device that can dial the telephone numbers stored in the file and monitor the status of telephone lines carrying the dialed telephone numbers. After the telephone number corresponding to the telephone in the first site is dialed and upon determining it is able to receive the phone call (i.e., the line is not busy), an agent who is able to handle the phone call is selected. Information about the first site (which has previously been stored in the second site) is retrieved. The retrieved information on the first site and the information originated from the server are delivered to a computer associated with the selected agent. As a result, the agent can obtain information about the first site and immediately display the same information already displayed on the computer in the first site.

These and other features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a voice and data communication system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a computer-telephonyintegration system of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram showing the flow of events during an exemplary data and voice communication session conducted in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of another computer-telephonyintegration system of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram showing the flow of events during another exemplary data and voice communication session conducted in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE
INVENTION

The present invention comprises a novel system and related methods for coordinating telephone and data communications. The following description is presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention. Description of specific applications is provided only as examples. Various modifications to the preferred embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features disclosed herein.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a voice/data communication system 100 operating in accordance with the

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present invention. System 100 comprises a provider site 102 and a customer site 104 connected by a data communication network 106, such as the Internet. It should be appreciated that the Internet is used here as an exemplary data commu

5 nication network, and the present invention is not limited to be used in Internet. In this embodiment, provider site 102 and customer site 104 are engaged in electronic commercial transactions. Thus, provider site 102 sends (via Internet 106) product information, order forms, confirmation notices, etc.

10 to customer site 104 and customer site 104 sends in (again via Internet 106) orders, shipping address, and payment information, etc. to provider site 102. In this system, provider site refers generally to a location which sells information, products or services and customer site refers to

15 a location which requests such information, products or services. A plurality of other provider sites, such as provider site 108, and a plurality of other customer sites, such as customer site 110, are also connected to Internet 106. It should be appreciated that the present invention relates

20 to coordinating data and telephone communications between any two sites. The description of provider sites and customer sites pertains to an important (but not the only) application of the present invention envisioned by the inventor. The present invention can be applied to many applications.

25 Customer site 104 comprises a client computer 114 running a browser 116 of the present invention. Client computer 114 is connected to a modem 122 which is coupled to a TCP/IP connection 124. As a result, client computer 114 is able to gain access to the Internet 106. A user in customer

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site 104 uses browser 116 to communicate with other computers connected to Internet 106.

Customer site 104 also contains a telephone 128 which allows the user in customer site 104 to make telephone

35 communication with a service agent in provider site 102. Telephone 128 is coupled to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 160 via a telephone channel 162. In the prior art system, it is not possible for the system to coordinate voice (via PSTN 160) and data (via Internet 106)

40 communication between the user and the service agent. One aspect of the present invention allows such coordination to take place. As a result, the user and the service agent can display the same data (e.g., the same web page) at their respective computer screens and communicate orally (or

45 visually if picture-phones are installed in both sites) at the same time.

Provider site 102 comprises a server 132 connected to Internet 106 through a TCP/IP connection 134. Server 132 supplies various web documents (e.g., product information,

50 order forms, etc.) to browsers that request the documents. Provider site 102 contains a service assistance center 140 in which a number of service agents can take telephone calls from users in various customer sites. Service assistance center 140 contains a computer-telephony-integration (CTI)

55 system 142 for accepting calls from PSTN 160 and routing calls to a plurality of telephones, one of them is shown as telephone 144. Service assistance center 140 also contains a plurality of computers, one of them is shown as computer 146. CTI system 142 is coupled to PSTN 160 via a high

60 bandwidth telephone channel 164, such as a primary rate interface (PRI) as defined in the CCITT ISDN 1.431 standard. The service agents use both the computers and telephones to efficiently provide services to various users in the customer sites.

65 It should be appreciated that the CTI system 142 is not limited to route voice communication. It can also route other types of communication. A CTI system that can route video