GB2424142A

GB2424142A - Call handling in a telecommunications network

Info

Publication number: GB2424142A
Application number: GB0504794A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Rick Norsworthy
Original assignee: Siemens PLC
Current assignee: Siemens PLC
Priority date: 2005-03-09
Filing date: 2005-03-09
Publication date: 2006-09-13
Also published as: GB0504794D0

Abstract

A method of call handling comprises receiving a call in a telecommunications network 1, transmitting a prompt from the network to the caller 9 prompting the caller to provide information regarding the nature of the call, transmitting a message indicating the nature of the call to one or more end user devices 5 in the network; and connecting the call to at least one of the end user devices in response to a user of the device indicating acceptance of the call. The end user devices may be Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) endpoints 5 connected via a LAN 2. The message indicating the nature of the call may be provided by voice message and transmitted to the end devices via instant messaging (IM) or e-mail. The content of the message may be used to determine to which end devices the message should be sent. End devices may be chosen based upon the online presence state of their users and the message may be sent to available users upon determining that a called party for whom the call was originally intended is unavailable.

Description

A Method of Call Handling The present invention relates to a method of

handling a call in a communications network.

Background

HiPath (RTM) Openscape, is a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) based open software suite offered by Siemens (RTM) to provide presence-based real time communication systems. As an open application, using the Microsoft Office Live Communications Server, HiPath OpenScape can be integrated seamlessly into existing IT environments to establish a link between existing communication tools such as phone, instant messaging, e-mail, voice mail, Short Message Service (SMS), diary functions and conferencing. In such systems, user presence is based on information concerning the availability for communication of a user. A user of a HiPath OpenScape system may alert the system at any time to changes in his or her presence status, can define rules for how different people may contact him or her and designate preferred devices to be contacted on. So for example, a manager who is Openscape user and is in a business meeting in his or her office may specify their presence state so that only calls from certain customers will be connected to his or her office phone, while other calls, say from colleagues, are connected instead directly to a voice box. Detailed information on HiPath Openscape may be found in Siemens document Reference No:A31003-S5000-A300-l_7629.

In business voice communications systems, including those that use HiPath Openscape, it is common that an incoming telephone call may be answered by any one of a number of staff. For example, a call to a particular number may be directed to several phones and all these phones may alert their respective users simultaneously. Alternatively, a call to a particular number may cause the phone associated with that number to alert its user in a normal fashion, for example by ringing, whilst other phones alert their users in a different way, for example, silently with a flashing light. In a simple system, only the primarily targeted phone alerts its user, but other authorised users within hearing distance may pick up the call.

All of these solutions have the disadvantage that users who may be interested in answering a call are not aware of the nature of the call, or alternatively the most appropriate person to deal with the call overlooks the call and leaves it for somebody else to answer. Sometimes, displaying the caller identity may give potential clues as to the nature of the call, but not always, particularly if the caller is the member of the public rather than a known business associate.

Embodiments of the present invention aim to alleviate the above mentioned problems.

According to the present invention there is provided a method of call handling in a telecommunications network, the method comprising: receiving a call in the network; transmitting from the network to the caller a prompt prompting the caller to provide information regarding the nature of the call; after receiving the prompted information from the caller, transmitting to one or more users in the network a message indicating the nature of the call; and connecting the call to the at least one of the users in response to the at least one of the users of indicating acceptance of the call.

The above and further features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims and together with advantages thereof will become clearer from consideration of the following detailed description of an exemplary embodiment of the invention given with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 illustrates a system embodying the invention.

Description

Referring now to Figure 1, a corporate communication system 1 operating HiPath Openscape comprises a Local Area Network (LAN) 2. An Openscape routing server 3, an Openscape media server 4 and a plurality of Openscape user devices or SIP endpoints 5 are each connected to the LAN 2.

The SIP endpoints 5 may be any of a variety of different devices for example, SIP telephones or SIP softphones such as Windows Messenger.

The routing server 3 is a server based routing application running on an Openscape/Live Communications Server. As is well known regarding Openscape systems, the routing server 3 receives calls intended for users of the system and based upon the current availability/presence state of the called user determines which would be the appropriate SIP endpoint to route the call to.

The Media server 4 is effectively a SIP endpoint capable of processing media channels to render interactive telephony applications. The Media Server 4 supports Instant Messaging (IN) and so can transmit instant messages to the end point devices 5. The Media Server 4 also supports Voice XML/SALT for deploying web based voice applications.

The communications system 1 further comprises a SIP gateway 6 that connects the system 1 to the Public Switched Telephone Network 7 (PSTN) via a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) 8.

In this example of the invention, a caller attempts to contact a user of the communications system 1 by placing a call from telephone 9. The call is routed through the PSTN 7 to the PBX 8 and from there to the Routing server 3 via the SIP gateway 6. The routing server 3 determines from the presence state of the called user that the called user is currently unavailable and so diverts the call to the Openscape media server 4.

In response to receiving the call, the media server 4 uses an interactive voice application to transmit an audio message back to the caller, informing the caller that the called party is unavailable and offering the caller the option of sending a real-time broadcast alert' to any users of the system 1 that are online and who may be able to help the caller.

If the caller accepts this offer, he or she may leave a suitable voice message at the media server 4 explaining the reason for the call. This message is recorded at the Media Sever 4 using a VoiceXML record tag. The Media Server 4 maintains a contact list listing the called party and his or her colleagues who may be able to deal with the call in lieu of the called party. The Media Sever 4 sends a broadcast IM alert to each of the colleagues on the list whose presence status indicates them as being available alerting them to the fact that the called party is unavailable and that a caller is currently on hold. The instant message also includes a copy of the recording left by the caller. After listening to the recording, any of the colleagues in receipt of the message may use their endpoint device to select to be connected to the caller. If one or more of the colleagues makes this selection they are added to a Multi Channel Conferencing Unit (MCU) (not shown) with the caller who is connected via the SIP gateway. MCUs are known devices that allow users to set up voice, data and multimedia conferencing sessions.

In this way, the caller is conveniently and quickly connected to a user who has knowledge of the reason for the call and thus is more likely to be able to help the caller.

There are various ways other than Instant Messaging by which the information regarding the nature of the call may be broadcast to the system users. For example, the message may - be sent via E-mail.

There are various ways other than recording a voice message that the caller may provide information regarding the nature of the call. For example, voice recognition techniques may be used to try to match the caller's query with known queries and after a match is made an appropriate message sent to users authorised to answer that query. This speech matching process could be based on traditional techniques which match caller's utterances with a pre-defined grammar or on developing techniques that use natural language recognition.

Alternatively, a caller may be prompted to select from a menu of frequent queries (using voice or touch keys).

Having thus described the present invention by reference to preferred embodiments it is to be well understood that the embodiments in question are exemplary only and that modifications and variations such as will occur to those possessed of appropriate knowledge and skills may be made without departure from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method of call handling in a telecommunications network, the method comprising: receiving a call in the network; transmitting from the network to the caller a prompt prompting the caller to provide information regarding the nature of the call; after receiving the prompted information from the caller, transmitting to one or more users in the network a message indicating the nature of the call; and connecting the call to at least one of the users in response to the at least one of the users indicating acceptance of the call.

2. A method according to claim 2 wherein the caller is prompted to provide a voice message to provide information regarding the nature of the call.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the message indicating the nature of the call contains a recorded voice message provided by the caller.

4. A method according to any of claims 1 to 3 wherein the message indicating the nature of the call is transmitted to one or more end user devices as an Instant Message.

5. A method according to any of claims 1 to 3 wherein the message indicating the nature of the call is transmitted to one or more end user devices as an E - Mail.

6. A method according to any preceding claim, the method further comprising: determining that a called party for whom the call is intended is unavailable, prior to transmitting the message to one or more end user devices.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the determination is made based upon an online presence state of the called party.

8. A method according to claim 6 or 7 wherein the users to whom the message is transmitted are selected from a list of authorised users.

9. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein the one or more users to whom the message is transmitted have an online presence state which indicates availability to accept the call.

10. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein the communications network is a IP network.

11. A method according to any preceding claim wherein the communications network is a SIP network.

12. Apparatus configured to implement the method of any preceding claim.

13. Computer programme for implementing the method of any of claims 1 to 12.