Abstract:
A social proxy and protocol gateway for interfacing with a carrier network, a social listening device, a social network or proprietary social feedback apparatus, and a contact center and contact center database is disclosed. A data link is connected to a carrier network to receive, author tags, attributes, and routing information requests and other routing data. Additional data links are connected to a contact center database and a social network listening device or proprietary social feedback apparatus to obtain information used in determining routing and tagging instructions. A user interface is connected to the social proxy and protocol gateway to accept configurable conditions for determining routing instructions. A text conversion function and speech conversion function is disclosed for providing media conversion for the requirements of each target enterprise contact center.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application relates to and claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/532011 filed Sep. 7, 2011 and entitled SOCIAL PROXY AND PROTOCOL GATEWAY, the entire content of which is wholly incorporated by reference herein. 
     
    
     STATEMENT RE: FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH/DEVELOPMENT 
       [0002]    Not Applicable 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    1. Technical Field 
         [0004]    The present disclosure relates generally to telecommunications systems, and more particularly, to a social proxy and protocol gateway. 
         [0005]    2. Related Art 
         [0006]    Social networking services and blogging/micro-blogging services facilitate the sharing of comments, photographs, and other data amongst its users, who typically establish accounts and create profiles containing basic biographic data. The subject matter of comments posted on social networking sites oftentimes touch upon daily life experiences, including those relating to interactions with consumer-oriented businesses and products thereof. Accordingly, the observation of user-generated content on social networking sites provides companies an insight into their customers&#39; minds, and is a valuable metric that goes beyond traditional surveying modalities. 
         [0007]    Various systems for observing activity on social networks are known in the art, including Radian6, Lithium, Jive, Getsatisfaction.com, and so forth. Unfortunately, however, the consumer content does not easily relate back to the customer service inquiry or the interaction that was the genesis of the customer service experience. 
         [0008]    Another problem that besets the enterprise in providing customer service over social media is that most do not have the apparatus to route the data from social streams as if it were inbound email, chat, phone calls or SMSs. Only proprietary software is available, and as a result, customer service over social media is effectively operating as an island in the enterprise contact center. 
         [0009]    Accordingly, there is a need in the art to make such social media content actionable so that it can be placed in the normal flow of customer service center transactions. Furthermore, there is a need in the art for systems that contemplate the conversion of social media streams into a regular communication that the call center infrastructure is accustomed to handling. For instance, it would be advantageous to convert social media into an email and allow a standard email routing system to disposition it in a standard way. 
       BRIEF SUMMARY 
       [0010]    The present disclosure is directed to a social proxy and protocol gateway that connects social network interactions with customer service interactions, and determining the requisite actions with the cause and the customer or author of the social media. The social proxy and protocol gateway can be between the social networks and the enterprise customer service center and provide protocol conversion and routing such that social media streams become part of the everyday communication of a common enterprise, using common contact center apparatus. In accordance with one embodiment, there is a communications system for bridging social networks and customer contact centers. The system may include an incoming data access point connected to first data links to the social networks over carrier networks and receptive to social data and routing information requests thereof. There may also be an outgoing data access point connected to second data links to the customer contact centers. Furthermore, there may be an application server connected to the incoming data access point. The received social data and routing information requests may being segregated based at least on configurable routing instructions. The system may further include a component database. Additionally, there may be a plurality of modality-specific proxies for each segregation as defined by the configurable routing instructions. The proxies may be connected to the application server and to the outgoing data access point for communicating with the customer contact centers. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0011]    These and other features and advantages of the various embodiments disclosed herein will be better understood with respect to the following description and drawings, in which like numbers refer to like parts throughout, and in which: 
           [0012]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a social proxy and protocol gateway in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure; 
           [0013]      FIG. 2  is a flowchart showing the steps of receiving, labeling, and storing of incoming social data; 
           [0014]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart showing the steps of telephony conversion in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; and 
           [0015]      FIGS. 4  is a flowchart showing telephony conversion according to one embodiment. 
       
    
    
       [0016]    Common reference numerals are used throughout the drawings and the detailed description to indicate the same elements. 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0017]    The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended as a description of the presently preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, and is not intended to represent the only form in which the present invention may be developed or utilized. The description sets forth the functions of the invention in connection with the illustrated embodiment. It is to be understood, however, that the same or equivalent functions may be accomplished by different embodiments that are also intended to be encompassed within the scope of the invention. It is further understood that the use of relational terms such as first and second and the like are used solely to distinguish one from another entity without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities. 
         [0018]    With reference to  FIG. 1 , a social proxy and protocol gateway  100  is illustrated, along with its interaction with a plurality of social networks, native social networks, and a plurality of enterprises. The social proxy and protocol gateway  100  includes an incoming data access point  105 , an application server  110 , and a database  115 . Furthermore, there is a text conversion processor  120  and a speech conversion processor  125 . The social proxy and protocol gateway also includes a data transfer proxy  136 , a native proxy  140 , SMS (Short Message Service) proxy  145 , a chat proxy  150 , an e-mail proxy  155 , a telephony proxy  130 , and an outgoing data access point  160 . Further details regarding these components and their interconnections will be described more fully below. 
         [0019]    The social proxy and protocol gateway  100 , and specifically the incoming data access point  105  thereof, is connected to a social network A  200  and a social network N  205  over a communications channel  500  and a communications channel  501 , respectively. In one preferred embodiment of the invention, such communications channels  500 , 501  may be the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP)-based modality, and is understood to convey information over the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS). In an alternate embodiment of the invention, such facilities may be proprietary in nature, bearing information conveyed over private networks. 
         [0020]    Those having ordinary skill in the art will recognize various listening devices that produce HTTP/HTTPS streams of data that can be re-directed or listened to by a variety of devices. Such devices are typically agent consoles, in which agents are able to view social networking information that has been filtered social listening devices. These may be available from Salesforce.com and Attensity, for example. The incoming data access point  105  captures the stream of data from the social network A  200  and/or the social network N  205 . It is to be understood that while the present disclosure only shows two social networks A, N  200 ,  205 , there may be others connected to the social proxy and protocol gateway in accordance with different embodiments of the present disclosure. Thus, the social network N, in this context, is understood to refer to an indeterminate one. 
         [0021]    The stream of data from the social networks A, N  200 ,  205  may have embedded information therein such as routing tags, thought leader tags, product tags, or other attributes that may be useful in processing social stream data for further routing or disposition. Here, the incoming data access point  105  is used to parse, inject, and format social data based on information supplied by templates that are pre-defined in the database  115 . The application server  110  is used to decide what templates and what subsequent actions are taken depending on the incoming social streams. 
         [0022]    Native social data A  210  and native social data N  215  also connect to the incoming data access point  105  over communications channels  503 ,  504 , respectively. In one embodiment of the invention, such communications facilities may similarly be the Internet or any IP-based modality and will convey information over HTTP or HTTPS. In an alternate embodiment of the invention, such facilities may be proprietary in nature, bearing information conveyed over private networks. Native social data A  210  and native social data N  215  may convey social information that is embedded inside of proprietary software, such as smartphone devices, private enterprise web sites, or other proprietary devices. Such devices can be programmed to transmit social networking information, including consumer sentiment, that can be filtered and tagged by the native social data A  210  and the native social data N  215  entities. In this scenario, the incoming data access point  105  captures the stream of the native social data A  210  and the native social data N  215 . 
         [0023]    Such data may have embedded information therein such as routing tags, thought leader tags, product tags, or other attributes that may be useful in processing social stream data for further routing or disposition. The incoming data access point  105  is used to parse, inject, and format social data based on information supplied by templates that are pre-defined in the database  115 . The application server  110  is used to decide what templates and what subsequent actions are taken depending on the incoming social streams. 
         [0024]    The application server  110  is connected to the incoming data access point  105  over a communication channel  600 . Such channel  600  may be an IP communication channel, or a proprietary channel Likewise, the application server  110  is connected to the database  115  over another communications channel  605 . This communications channel may be implemented as a Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) access method, Structured Query Language (SQL) Query, Stored Procedure Call, or a variety of proprietary methods for database communications. The database  115  may be local or remote. 
         [0025]    The application server  110  is also connected to the data transfer proxy  135  over a communication channel  610 . The communication channel  610  can be an IP connection, HTTP, REST or other means to send signals and data. Additionally, the application server  110  is connected to the text conversion processor  120  over a communication channel  615 . Such a communication channel can be an IP connection, HTTP, REST or other means to send signals and data. The application server  110  is also connected to the speech conversion processor  125  over a communication channel  620 . Likewise, the communication channel  620  can be an IP connection, HTTP, REST or other means to send signals and data. 
         [0026]    The database  115  stores a variety of information dealing with text or speech conversion protocols, social attribute tag data, routing and destination data, timing threshold information, and other attributes that aid in the processing and disposition of social networking media streams. Templates are stored in the database  115  that define pre-determine routines for processing social media streams. User interfaces to the database  115  can be implemented as web pages, and those having ordinary skill in the art will recognize the various ways in which the storage of user-typed data in templates inside of a database can be achieved. The templates can be created by a provider of the social proxy and protocol gateway  100 ; or, with the proper security, can be created by users of an enterprise A  300  or of an enterprise N  400 . The application server  110  can be used to govern the communications with the database  115  in the case of its access being allowed for users of the respective enterprises A and N,  300 ,  400 . 
         [0027]    The text conversion processor  120  receives incoming social media stream information and re-formats the same into a standard text payload. The re-formatting may be for e-mail, and those having ordinary skill in the art will recognize the form of e-mail headers and addressing. Assuming the routing and destination data in a stored template in the database  115  calls for a social stream to be converted into an e-mail, the text conversion processor will parse the data, create a MIME header, and embed all of the requisite addressing information into the item. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the “sender” address may be spoofed in such a way as to use the handle or pseudo-name of the social poster as the originating email address. 
         [0028]    Likewise, if a response back to the poster is required, the text conversion processor  120  may be used in reverse, so as to dis-assemble an email and re-construct a social stream in the same format as the original, incoming social media stream from the social network A  200  or the social network N  205 . It will be appreciated that the text conversion processor  120  can convert social media streams into any text-based format. For example, in the case of a social-to-chat conversion, the social media stream can be parsed much like an email, but instead of a MIME address conversion, the text conversion processor can instead put the media into the form of a chat request. Such a chat request can be directed to an enterprise chat server using Short Message Peer-to-Peer (SMPP) or other common protocols. Likewise, an SMS conversion can spoof destination addresses with an SMS short code and routing information that is suitable for reading by an SMS gateway. 
         [0029]    The speech conversion processor  125  reformats the incoming social media stream information into a standard speech payload. According to one embodiment, common text-to-speech conversion utilities such as those from Nuance communications can be utilized. The speech conversion processor  125  may be capable of reading text and synthesizing a spoken word equivalent. 
         [0030]    In an alternate embodiment, the routing and destination data in a stored template in the database  115  may call for a social stream to be converted into speech. Here, the speech conversion processor  125  will parse the data, create a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) header, and embed all of the requisite addressing information into the item. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the “sender” address may be spoofed in such a way as to speak the handle or pseudo-name of the social poster as the “caller.” Likewise, if a response back to the poster is required, the speech conversion processor  125  may be used in reverse, so as to reconstruct the spoken word of an enterprise agent into a social stream in the same format as the original, incoming social media stream from the social network A  200  or the Social Network N  205 . 
         [0031]    The speech conversion processor  125  is connected to the telephony proxy  130  over a communications channel  165 . In a preferred embodiment of the invention, such communication channel  165  may be in the form of a SIP-based communication, using a Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP) to control the Text-To-Speech or Speech-To-Text conversion Likewise, a Real-Time Transport (RTP) communication channel and a separate SIP channel for control may be used for the speech conversion processor  125  to communicate to the telephony proxy  130 . 
         [0032]    The telephony proxy  130  is used to take the SIP Header information, the content from the social media stream, and convey the same via phone call to the enterprise A  300  or the Enterprise N  400  systems over communication facilities  710  and  715 , respectively. Those having ordinary skill in the art will recognized that the telephony proxy  130  can be implemented with commonly available tools such as FreeSwitch or the SOPHIA SIP stack, along with hardware from Diaglogic Corporation or Sangoma corporation. The aforementioned communications facilities may be a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) facilities. This is readily configured, as the telephony proxy can be equipped with PSTN/VoIP conversion apparatus to serve either type of network interface. 
         [0033]    The enterprise A  300  and the enterprise N  400  each have an interactive voice response (IVR) system and/or an automatic call distribution (ACD) system  305 ,  405 , respectively. The telephone calls made by the telephony proxy  130  are processed by the telephone answering and routing apparatus deployed by that particular enterprise. The templates stored in the database  115  can be used to navigate the telephony-based menu system in order to dispose the calls to an appropriate agent. Once routed, the IVR/ACD  305 ,  405  will send the calls to respective agent interfaces  315 ,  415  over communications channels  720 ,  725 . Such communications channels will be dependent on the IVR or ACD deployed by the enterprise. 
         [0034]    Contemporaneously to the calls being placed by the telephony proxy  130 , the outgoing data access point  160  may convey coordinating signals over communication channels  700  or  705  to a customer relationship management (CRM)  310 ,  410 , respectively, also respectively on behalf of the Enterprise A  300  and the Enterprise N  400 . Such a communication is known using commonly available protocols from vendors such as AVAYA or Cisco, for example. In an alternate embodiment of the invention, such communications links may also be achieved without CTI per se, but rather by communicating directly to a desktop software in an agent interface  315 ,  415 . 
         [0035]    The outgoing data access point  160  derives its chief communications payload, media and routing information from the data transfer proxy  135 , which is controlled by the application server  110 . The application server  110  can use the template data stored in the database  115  to instruct the data transfer proxy  135  how to assemble coordinating routing and destination data, along with any appropriate tag or attribute data, such that it can assemble information in the appropriate target CTI or proprietary format for any given enterprise. 
         [0036]    The native proxy  140 , the SMS proxy  145 , the chat proxy  150 , and the e-mail proxy  155  are all similarly situated as the data transfer proxy  135  in their relation to the outgoing data access point  160 . In some cases, all of the relevant routing, attribute, payload and destination information may be embedded in the media as with an email. Emails, for example, have origination, destination, subject and body. Tags and other relevant data may be stored in the subject line for downstream processing. 
         [0037]    Likewise, tags and other relevant data may be inserted into the body of the email. Such data, including the origination, destination and other attributes may be enough to process the information in an Enterprise email routing and distribution system. Such systems are available from Oracle and Avaya, for example. In the case of a communication not having all of the relevant routing, destination, or other attributes available in the payload or header of the communication, the data transfer proxy  135  can be of particular utility in contemporaneously transmitting such data out-of-band while the message payload is delivered over a commonly available medium. 
         [0038]    One embodiment of the present disclosure contemplates a method that includes the receipt, labeling, and storing of incoming social data, best illustrated in the flowchart of  FIG. 2 . The method has a start  1000  and is understood that social mentions are created on a formal social network, blog site, enterprise customer service portal, or on a proprietary smartphone or other proprietary application in the form of a private or native sentiment broadcast or mention. Next, at step  1010 , the social proxy and protocol gateway  100  fetches such social network data. This data may be raw, unfiltered data, or it may be pre-processed by a listening device, such as those available from Attensity or Salesforce.com. Likewise, such social data may be pre-processed by a decisioining engine, or natural language processing engine. Next, in a step  1020 , native social data, including proprietary or standard sentiment broadcast data is fetched. 
         [0039]    The social proxy and protocol gateway  100  then utilizes the data access point  105  to parse the text of the social data in order to identify any routing, origination, or tag information, or other intelligent attributes that may be used in its disposition per a step  1030 . Thereafter, the social proxy and protocol gateway  100  determines if a predetermined routing request has been logged and identified for the type of social media fetched in a decision branch  1040 . This data is stored in a template in the database  115 . If there is no routing data, the method proceeds to a step  1045  where default routing rules are used based on available data in the social media. If routing information is available that matches with the pre-defined templates, the process proceeds to a step  1050  where the appropriate routing labels and other data are tagged to the social media stream to determine which type of communication the social data will be converted to downstream. 
         [0040]    At a step  1055 , the social proxy and protocol gateway  100  stores the social media data in the database  115  per step  1060 . Such data may be used as an archive or for purposes of store-and-forward for redundancy and recovery. Per step  1065 , the social proxy and protocol gateway  100  further queries the pre-defined social template and loads that data into memory. At a step  1070 , the application server  110  matches the stored template data with the attributes of the social media. 
         [0041]    At a decision branch  1075 , the timing threshold attribute is inspected to ascertain the importance or priority of the social media based on attributes stored in the social media template. If timing thresholds are defined, the social media is scheduled for action in step  1080 . This may be as simple as a one hour or two-hour delay or a delay for only minutes depending on the preferences of the enterprise the social proxy and protocol gateway  100  is serving. 
         [0042]    At a step  1085 , the social proxy and protocol gateway processes all of the relevant attributes required for destination routing of the social media. The database  115  may be queried per  1095  for default routing information not stored in the template. At step  1095 , the application server determines the type of media conversion requested in the template and loads the appropriate parsing, addressing, and content data based on pre-defined protocols per  1100 . The application server hands this data off to the text conversion processor  120  and the speech conversion processor  125  as appropriate, depending on the medium required by the enterprise. At a decision branch  1105  the social proxy and protocol gateway  100  determines if telephony treatment is required. If telephony treatment is required the process continues at a step  2000  as further described below with reference to  FIG. 3 . Alternatively, if no telephony treatment is required, the process continues at step  3000  as described below with reference to  FIG. 4 . 
         [0043]    With reference to  FIG. 3 , a telephony conversion routine begins with a step  2000  after the social proxy and protocol gateway  100  has determined telephony treatment is required to dispose the social media stream. The social proxy and protocol gateway  100  fetches the telephony destination information required to make a phone call to the target enterprise in a step  2010 . The database  115  is queried per  2015  for default telephony routing information. Next, in a step  2020 , the social proxy and protocol gateway begins to set up a telephone call with all of the relevant origination information [quasi-ANI] and destination information [quasi-DNIS]. At step  2025 , the system converts text to speech to prepare the content of the telephony call. 
         [0044]    The social proxy and protocol gateway  100  initiates an outbound call to the enterprise IVR/ACD  305 ,  405  in accordance with a step  2030 . Contemporaneously, any data that is relevant to the call may be passed to the enterprise over a data link at step  2035 . At step  2040 , a connection is made to the enterprise agent, based on the native routing capabilities of the IVR/ACD  304 ,  405  of that enterprise. The agent will hear the transcribed social media in the form of the spoken word. Here the agent will take appropriate action such as looking up the identity of the originator of the social network data in the CRM database, adding comments, or making an outbound communication over a customer-preferred communication channel. Per step  2050 , the information entered by the agent in response to, or in recognition of the social media stream, will be stored in the social proxy and protocol gateway  100 , and in particular, its database  115 . Alternately, such data may be stored in an enterprise database. It is expressly contemplated that the data may be stored in both database  115  and the enterprise database. 
         [0045]    Various embodiments of the present disclosure also contemplate a text conversion routine, the details of which are shown in the flowchart of  FIG. 4 . The process begins at  3000 , after the social proxy and protocol gateway  100  has determined that a text conversion treatment is necessary to dispose the social media stream. In a step  3010 , the social proxy and protocol gateway  100  fetches the social media destination information required to send native data, or a chat, or an email, or an SMS to the target enterprise. The database  115  may be queried per  3015  for default media routing information. At step  3020 , the social proxy and protocol gateway  100  begins to set up a native send, or a chat, or an SMS, or an email, with all of the relevant origination information [quasi-ANI] and destination information [quasi-DNIS]. In a step  3025 , the system converts the social media stream into the appropriate text format for a native send, or a chat, or an SMS, or an email. 
         [0046]    The social proxy and protocol gateway  100  pushes the preferred communication (i.e. native send, or a chat, or an SMS, or an email) to the enterprise IVR/ACD  304 ,  405 . Contemporaneously, any data that is relevant to the call may be passed to the enterprise over a data link in a step  3035 . Then, in a step  3040 , a connection is made to the enterprise agent, based on the native routing capabilities of the IVR/ACD of that enterprise. The agent will see the transcribed social media in the form of a native send, or a chat, or an SMS, or an email, as stipulated by the template taken from the social proxy and protocol gateway database  115 . Here the agent will take appropriate action such as looking up the person in the CRM database, adding comments, or making an outbound communication over a customer-preferred communication channel. Next, in a step  3050 , the information entered by the agent in response to, or in recognition of the social media stream, will be stored in the social proxy and protocol gateway database  115 . Alternately, such data may be stored in the enterprise database, or in both the social proxy and protocol gateway database  115  and the enterprise database. 
         [0047]    The particulars shown herein are by way of example only for purposes of illustrative discussion, and are presented in the cause of providing what is believed to be the most useful and readily understood description of the principles and conceptual aspects of the various embodiments set forth in the present disclosure. In this regard, no attempt is made to show any more detail than is necessary for a fundamental understanding of the different features of the various embodiments, the description taken with the drawings making apparent to those skilled in the art how these may be implemented in practice.