Patent ID: 6744877
Filing Date: 2004-06-01
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
A method for processing customer communications received by a communication-processing system that comprises a plurality of communication-processing resources, each with a communication-processing resources set that includes a description of the communication-processing resource, comprising:receiving a customer communication into the communication-processing system; parking the communication at a location that is not dedicated for use by some communication-processing resources of the system to an exclusion of other communication-processing resources of the system; analyzing the customer communication to create a communication properties set; selecting a communication-processing resource of the plurality of communication-processing resources by comparing the communication properties set against the communication-processing resources set that includes a description of the communication-processing resource for at least a portion of the communication-processing resources, wherein the selecting step is made irrespective of whether the communication-processing resource is presently available and free to process the transaction and/or is presently busy with other work; sending a new work indicator to the selected communication-processing resource, the new work indicator comprising information in both the communication properties and the communication-processing resources sets, wherein the new work indicator comprises a pointer to the communication; receiving a reply from the selected communication-processing resource, the reply indicating whether or not the selected communication-processing resource elects to service the customer communication; and when the selected communication-processing resource elects to service the customer communication, requesting that the transaction pointed to by the new work indicator be connected to an address of the selected communication-processing resource provided in the request, transferring the communication for processing from the location where the selected transaction is parked to the address provided in the request, and thereafter forwarding to the selected communication-processing resource customer further customer-related information not included in the new work indicator.