Patent ID: 6831966
Filing Date: 2004-12-14
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
A call center system for enabling communication between callers and subscribers, the system comprising:a public switched telephone network (PSTN); and a virtual call center shared by subscribers in accordance with service level agreements between the subscribers and the virtual call center, the virtual call center being operable to receive calls from callers via the PSTN, the virtual call center performing Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Automated Call Distributor (ACD) functions to the callers on behalf of the subscribers of the virtual call center for enabling communication between the callers and the subscribers, wherein the virtual call center performs IVR and ACD functions to callers on behalf of each subscriber based on a service level agreement between each subscriber and the virtual call center; wherein the virtual call center performs IVR functions associated with a subscriber for a caller to access information from the subscriber and for a caller to provide information to the subscriber, wherein the virtual call center performs ACD functions associated with a subscriber to connect a caller with an agent of the subscriber; wherein the virtual call center includes a call management unit having telephony ports for enabling connection of calls from the PSTN made by callers to the virtual call center for enabling communication between the callers and the subscribers, wherein the call management unit connects a call from the PSTN made by a caller to the virtual call center by allocating a telephony port to the call, wherein the availability of the telephony ports of the call management unit for calls made by callers to a subscriber is based on the service level agreement of the subscriber with the virtual call center.