Siebel Systems, Inc.

Mingtse Chen

Anil Kumar Annadata

Wai Pak

Henry Dana Jay

Kuang Huang

Leon Chan

A method, system, computer system and computer program product determine that a communication connection has switched between an active state and an inactive state and cause a user interface for communicating via the connection to be updated asynchronously to correspond to the current state. For example, the user interface can indicate that the connection is active or inactive and allow or disallow initiation of communication via the connection accordingly. For example, consider a call center agent using a computer system as the user interface to the telephone channel, but the user does not click a 'hang up' button when the caller hangs up the telephone. The disconnection of the telephone is determined and the user interface is asynchronously updated, thereby allowing the agent to make another call. In one embodiment, a communication server determines the change in state and causes a web browser user interface to be updated asynchronously.

Synchronization of communication connection state with communication user interface

The present invention provides a user interface and method for communicating using multiple communication channels of different media types. The method includes obtaining an event communicated via an incoming communication channel, where the event corresponds to a work item available to an agent. A notification of the work item is provided via the user interface. The method includes receiving an activation of a work item object of the user interface, where the work item object is associated with the work item. The method includes issuing a command associated with the activation of the work item object to an outgoing communication channel. The user interface enables the agent to work using different communication channels while presenting a consistent interface independent of the media type of the communication channel.

User interface for multi-channel communication

An apparatus and method for maintaining data for multi-channel communication queuing associated with different media formats such as telephone, email, and fax. A list of agent data includes information related to types of communication media an agent can access. The data can further include information related to an agent's skills, a list of media routes, statistics for communication channels of specified media types, statistics for an agent, and journals for work items. Priority values for the media routes, the maximum number of queued items for the media routes, and times for escalating a work item can also be included.

Adaptive communication application programming interface

A method and apparatus for inter-module communication is disclosed. The method includes defining a command definition, wherein the command definition comprises commands for interfacing with a multi-channel, multi-media, communication queuing system. The command definition can include, for example, driver object commands to request media type lists and command event lists, create drivers, request service, and release drivers. The command definition can also include, for example, service object commands to release service objects, notify when handling of an event is complete, invoke commands, release work items, suspend work items, resume work items, handle queued events, and cancel queued events. The command definition can also include, for example, client object commands to start a work item, release work items, save work item contexts, restore work item contexts, serialize work items, free work item storage, begin batch processing, and end batch processing.

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Mingtse Chen