Patent ID: 7260191

Claim:
A system for processing an incoming call, the system comprising: a call router for providing external application flow control for an interactive voice response unit, the call router including rules for handling call arrival and call departure, wherein the rules for handling call arrival include rules for pre-routing a call to the interactive voice response unit based on available call parameters by issuing a call notification to the interactive voice response unit, wherein the call notification includes an application number, and wherein the rules for handling call arrival further include rules for responding to a query from the interactive voice response unit to provide a suggested treatment based on caller data collected by the interactive voice response unit, and wherein the rules for handling call departure comprise rules for determining a call destination based on an exit condition from the interactive voice response unit; and the interactive voice response unit for processing calls distributed by the call router comprising a state and event table for operation as a state machine for intermediate processing between call arrival and call departure, wherein the interactive voice response unit is configured to run an application based on the application number in the call notification to collect caller data, to query the call router to obtain the suggested treatment based on the caller data, and to determine the exit condition based on the suggested treatment using the state and event table.