Ser Solutions, Inc.

Eis International, Inc.

Paul Zmuda

Lawrence P Mark

John E David

In an outbound call management system, calls to dial are placed in a buffer queue before transfer to the outbound switch. The rated switch capacity (i.e., X calls per minute) is divided into small submultiples (i.e., Y calls per second) such that short term switch capacity will not be exceeded. Calls are transferred from the queue at the submultiple rate or less depending upon the number of calls in the queue. The time scale is small enough that this instantaneous rate at which calls can be transferred from the queue to the switch does not exceed the instantaneous capacity of the switch. If calls are being placed into the queue at a faster rate than they are sent to the switch, the number of calls in the queue will increase. The call management system will see a resultant apparent increase in the number of placed but unanswered calls. The call management system uses the number of available trunks as a factor when calculating the number of calls to dial, if the number of calls in the queue exceeds a certain number, the call management system will interpret the situation as one in which all the trunks are in use. In this situation, the call management system reduces the number of calls to be dialed.

Outbound switch pacing

A 'look-ahead' calculation projects what would be the effect on the abandon rate if several additional abandons happened to occur. The method uses the result of this 'look-ahead' calculation of a projected abandon rate to modify its estimation of the number of ringing dials that will or will not result in an answer. If the projected abandon rate indicates the abandon rate is sensitive to an increase in the number of abandons, the method increases the estimate of those ringing calls which are likely to answer by up to two and one-half times the 'average', depending on the degree of sensitivity. If the sensitivity forecasts little danger of exceeding the set abandon rate, the method decreases the estimate of ringing calls that will answer by up to one-half. In the former case, dialing is slowed down and in the latter, dialing is speeded up. Both cases have the advantage to 'looking ahead' rather than simply reacting to events that may not be quickly correctable once they have occurred.

Growing community of inventors

Stratford, CT, United States of America

Paul Zmuda