JP2006270525A - Telephone system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a telephone system whereby the direct reply of an operator to an incoming call can be attained by enabling a called telephone set to be uniquely particularized on the basis of the call transmission history of the operator. <P>SOLUTION: In the arrival of the incoming call from a customer having the history of dialing from any of IP telephone sets in a group A or B in the past, an IP phone having the history of dialing is defined to be a person in charge of an opposite party (customer) of the incoming call on the basis of contents of a database 41 of a SIP server 40. Then a special call incoming processing is applied to the IP phone of the person in charge in addition to an ordinary call incoming processing. This is realized by changing setting data of an exchange 20. As the change contents, "generation of a special ring tone to only the IP phone of the person in charge", "special blinking of the LED of the call receiving key of only the IP phone of the person in charge", and "display of customer information on a liquid crystal display board" or the like are considered. The direct response of the person in charge is realized through the processing above and extermination of the response waiting time and improvement of the job efficiency of both the parties can be realized. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a telephone system used as a call center, for example.

  A system is known in which calls received from an unspecified number of customers are distributed to a plurality of telephones and received, and a plurality of operators handle the customer (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2). This type of system is called a call center or the like, and is installed in a customer service room in a company. In order to average the operator's load, there is also a function called ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) that causes the telephones that are logged in to receive calls evenly.

  By the way, in this type of telephone system, it can be said that a telephone call from a customer comes to a “group such as a department”. That is, since the caller cannot make a call by designating the responder, the responder who answers the call is often a person unrelated to the caller. For this reason, although a response is made, a call is frequently transferred from the operator to an appropriate person or a call is put on hold frequently, so that both the caller and the responder lose time.

Furthermore, the priority of incoming calls can be known only by the other party information displayed on the telephone, and the current situation is that the selection of an appropriate transfer destination depends on the memory of the operator. Therefore, even if a call is transferred, an appropriate and quick response cannot be performed if the memory of the operator who receives the call is uncertain.
JP 2000-332898 A JP 2004-227228 A

As described above, the existing telephone system has a problem that it is difficult to uniquely connect a caller and a responder, resulting in a loss of time for both parties.
The present invention has been made under the circumstances described above, and its purpose is to enable an operator's direct response to an incoming call by making it possible to uniquely identify the destination telephone device based on the outgoing call history of the operator. An object of the present invention is to provide a telephone system with improved serviceability for both callers and responders.

  In order to achieve the above object, according to one aspect of the present invention, in a telephone system including a plurality of telephone devices, an association means for associating the user for each of the plurality of telephone devices, The outgoing call history management means for managing while updating the outgoing call destination database associated with each user, and searching the outgoing call destination database in response to the arrival of the incoming call, to the caller source number included in this incoming call There is provided a telephone system comprising: a specifying unit that specifies a telephone device corresponding to a user who has a history of outgoing calls; and an incoming call control unit that causes the telephone device specified by the specifying unit to receive the incoming call. The

  By taking such means, the user and the telephone device are first associated with each other. In addition, the transmission history for each user is managed as a database. This database is referred to each time an incoming call arrives, and a user who has a call history to the caller number included in this call is specified. This gives priority to a user who has a call history to the caller. For example, only the telephone device in use by this user can be received. Also, when a group call is received, the user's telephone device that should respond preferentially to this call is identified and a different incoming call notification operation (special ringing, special flashing of the incoming key LED, special display on the liquid crystal display, etc.) ) Can be implemented. Therefore, the operator (user) can surely receive an incoming call that should be answered with priority, and the serviceability for both the sender and the responder can be improved.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to uniquely specify a destination telephone device based on an outgoing call history of an operator, and thus to provide a telephone system with improved serviceability for both a caller and a responder. it can.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a system diagram showing an embodiment of a telephone system according to the present invention. This system has an IP (Internet Protocol) network as a core, and implements telephone communication via this IP network, and forms a so-called VoIP (Voice over IP) system. A group A and a group B composed of a plurality of IP telephones are connected to the IP network, and IP telephones A1 to Am and B1 to Bn belong to the groups A and B, respectively. A router 30 is provided in the IP network, and the router 30 is connected to the switching device 20 that performs connection with the public network. As a result, mutual communication between the IP telephones of the groups A and B and the facsimile apparatus 11, telephone 12, and softphone apparatus 13 belonging to the public network becomes possible. Furthermore, if the public network is connected to the wireless network, communication with the mobile terminal 14 is also possible.

  The system further includes a SIP server 40 and a system administrator terminal 50. The SIP server 40 processes a protocol known as SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and includes a database 41. The system administrator terminal 50 is provided to perform various settings for the switching device 20, the SIP server 40, and the IP telephones A1 to Am and B1 to Bn.

  The system of FIG. 1 is a system that realizes telephone communication on an IP network by causing SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) to function on the VoIP system. As described above, a system using SIP usually has a function of managing login / logout of a user (operator). Accordingly, each of the IP telephones A1 to Am and B1 to Bn has a function of notifying the SIP server of the IP address assigned to itself and the ID information and password of the logged-in user.

  FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the SIP server 40 of FIG. In FIG. 2, the SIP server 40 includes an interface unit (I / F) 21 connected to the IP network, a display unit 22, an input / output unit 23, a control unit 24, and a database 41. Among these, the database 41 stores a user management table 41a and a transmission history management table 41b in a dedicated storage area.

  FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the contents of the user management table 41a of FIG. This table is used to manage telephone numbers and information for identifying individual telephone users. The extension telephone numbers of IP telephones A1 to Am and B1 to Bn and the IDs of users who use the telephones ( Identification) and password (PW). In the example of FIG. 3, the telephone number 100 is assigned to the user with ID = 11111, PW = aaa, and the telephone number 101 is assigned to the user with ID = 21110, PW = bbb. Further, each IP phone IP phone A1 to Am, B1 to Bn is assigned a unique IP address by a DHCP server (not shown). The switching device 20 in FIG. 1 performs incoming call control to each IP telephone based on this IP address. That is, the user management table 41a is a database in which the IP addresses of the IP telephones A1 to Am and B1 to Bn are associated with user IDs (identification information).

  FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing the contents of the outgoing call history management table 41b of FIG. This table is for managing the outgoing call history of each logged-in user, and is a database in which the telephone number of the outgoing call is associated with the operator ID of the logged-in user. Note that the outgoing call history management table 41b in FIG. 2 shows a state in which the time at which the outgoing call is made and the call time are arranged with respect to the passage of time. For example, the destination number for each operator is sorted by operator ID. Can be extracted.

  FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram showing the exchange device 20 of FIG. The exchange device 20 includes a central processing unit 31, a memory 32 that stores programs and data used for various controls by the central processing unit 31, and an exchange processing unit 33. The exchange processing unit 33 is connected to the public network and the router 30, and performs various incoming call processing (such as group incoming call) and exchanges data with the SIP server under the control of the central processing unit 31.

  The central processing unit 31 includes a specific processing unit 31a and an incoming call notification control unit 31b as processing functions according to this embodiment. When an incoming call arrives, the specific processing unit 31a first accesses the outgoing call history management table 41b of the SIP server 40 and searches for a destination number that matches the telephone number of the caller included in the incoming call. If the destination number is found, the identification processing unit 31a identifies the login user corresponding to the destination number, and further refers to the user management table 41a to identify the IP telephone being used by the login user. The incoming call notification control unit 31b controls the form of the incoming call notification operation of the identified IP telephone to a form different from that of other telephones. Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described in detail.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure in the telephone system configured as described above. In FIG. 6, when a login operation is performed at any IP telephone, the ID of the logged-in user (operator) and the extension number and group number of the login destination IP telephone are notified to the SIP server 40 together with the date and time. Is done. When the authentication process is normally completed upon receiving this notification, these pieces of information are registered in the SIP server (step S31). Next, when a call operation is performed from the IP telephone (step S32), the time and date of the call, the ID of the call operator, and the call destination number are registered in the SIP server 40 (step S33). Thereafter, when the call is disconnected (step S34) and disconnected (step S35), the disconnection time is registered in the SIP server 40 together with the date. Next, the call time is calculated based on the call origination time and the disconnection time (step S36).

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure at the time of an incoming call in the telephone system configured as described above. When an incoming call occurs in FIG. 7, first, the database of the SIP server 40 is referred to (step S41), and it is determined whether or not the caller telephone number included in the incoming call is in the outgoing call history management table 41b (step S41). Step S47). If not (No), a normal incoming call operation is performed (step S46). If there is (Yes in step S47), it is determined in the next step whether or not there is an incoming call history from this caller (step S42). If there is no incoming call history (No), the normal incoming call operation is performed. If there is (Yes), the operator's login status is determined in the next step (step S43).

  In this step, it is determined whether or not the operator having the largest outgoing history for the caller telephone number or the operator having the largest incoming call history from the caller telephone number is logged in. If the operator is logged in (Yes), only the IP phone performs an incoming call notification operation in a form different from other IP phones in the group (step S44). In this step, a direct incoming call to the operator is made by means of special ringing, LED flash mode change, liquid crystal display, or the like. On the other hand, if the answer is No in step S43, it is determined whether or not the operator has the second largest log of outgoing calls and incoming calls for the caller (step S45). If Yes here, the processing procedure moves to step S44, and a direct call to the operator is made. If No in step S45, the incoming call is normal. Next, an operation image of the system will be described.

(Normal incoming call)
In FIG. 1, it is assumed that groups A and B are set for each department section of the office. When an incoming call with the representative number occurs, all the telephones in group A or B ring in the same form (or the key LED is turned on). Flashes). The caller's partner information is specified by information displayed on the liquid crystal display panel of the telephone. In response to this, “someone in the department” responds, and after hearing the requirement (name of the person in charge of the call) from the other party, operations such as hold / transfer are performed.

(Incoming calls from customers with outgoing call history)
When there is an incoming call from a customer with a history of outgoing calls from either group A or B IP phones, the IP phone with outgoing history is selected from the contents of the database 41 of the SIP server 40 as the destination of the incoming call. (Customer) person in charge. Then, in addition to the normal incoming call processing, special incoming call processing is performed for the IP phone of this person in charge. This is realized by changing the setting data of the exchange device 20. Possible changes include (a special ringing tone is generated only on the IP phone of the person in charge), (LED of the incoming call key flashes only on the IP phone of the person in charge), (display of customer information on the LCD panel), etc. . Such processing can realize a direct response from the person in charge, thereby eliminating the brokerage time and improving the business efficiency of both parties.

(Incoming calls from customers with a lot of incoming calls)
As described above, the person in charge can be defined from the outgoing call history and not only the incoming call processing data for the telephone in charge can be changed, but also a link function linked to the incoming call history can be provided. Therefore, the incoming call history for each IP telephone is stored in the database 41 of the SIP server 40. Then, for a customer whose number of incoming histories is greater than a predetermined threshold (which can be set by the system administrator terminal 50), special incoming call processing is performed from the next incoming group. However, since it is assumed that the customer is a “new customer” who has no outgoing call history, all the telephones in the group (or telephones registered in advance with data) are used for special ringing, special blinking, and special display. Such processing can speed up the telephone response to customers who have made phone calls over and over again.

  Specifically, the special incoming call processing is performed after setting the parameters to perform special ringing, special flashing, and special display in the “Alert-Info” parameter included in the “INVITE” message sent when receiving an incoming call using the SIP protocol. This message can be realized by transmitting this message to the IP telephone.

  FIG. 8 is a system diagram for explaining an incoming call form in an existing telephone system. In FIG. 8, for example, when one incoming call is made for group A, the IP telephones in group A ring all at once, flash the keys, or display partner information without distinction. That is, there is only the same information in the group, and the priority of the intra-group telephone for an incoming call cannot be set. In such a case, when a plurality of incoming calls are made to group A (incoming call (1) and subsequent incoming call (2)), similarly, the telephones in group A further ring all at once, and the keys flash (other keys). Although the other party information is displayed (however, since the preceding incoming call information is displayed), priority information for the incoming call cannot be provided. The priority information is only the other party information displayed on the liquid crystal display panel of the IP telephone, but only one incoming call can be displayed, and the user cannot prioritize multiple incoming calls. For this reason, both the caller side and the callee side (especially telephone responders) take time, resulting in a reduction in work efficiency.

  Calls from customers come to “groups such as departments”, and the person in charge answering the call is not necessarily related to the caller. For this reason, an operation such as forwarding to the person in charge after the response occurs, and time is lost for both the sender and the responder. Also, the only factor indicating the priority for incoming calls is the other party information displayed on the destination telephone, and the operator only has to remember that information. As a result, there is a problem that a reliable response cannot be made only by relying on the memory of the telephone responder even when the customer's response to the call is promptly connected to the person in charge.

  In contrast, in this embodiment, in the SIP telephone system, the outgoing and incoming histories of the IP telephones A1 to Am and B1 to Bn are managed on the SIP server 40 side, and these databases are searched when an incoming call is received. Then, from the outgoing call history, a person who has a previous call history for an incoming call is defined as a person in charge. If there is a “group incoming call to the department”, the other party is searched from the caller information on the SIP server 40 side, and the person in charge is searched against the call history. Based on the result, in addition to the ringing / lamp display of the corresponding telephone when the group calls to the normal department, the "person in charge" telephone is specially ringed, the LED of the incoming call key is flashed specially, and the special display is displayed on the liquid crystal display. I will let you. By such processing, an operator can directly respond to an incoming call, thereby providing a telephone system with improved serviceability for both the caller and responder.

(Second Embodiment)
FIG. 9 is a system diagram showing a second embodiment of the telephone system according to the present invention. 9, parts that are the same as those in FIGS. 1, 2, and 5 are given the same reference numerals, and only different parts will be described here. The telephone system of FIG. 9 accommodates telephone terminals A1 to Am and B1 to Bn via an extension network 100 by a PBX (Private Branch eXchange) apparatus 200. The PBX device 200 is connected to the public network via the office line L. That is, this system assumes an extension telephone network formed in an office equipped with the PBX device 200, and the operator login / logout and outgoing / incoming control (including group incoming calls) are centralized by the PBX device 200. Executed.

  FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram showing the PBX device 200 of FIG. 10, the PBX device 200 includes an extension interface circuit 61, a station line interface circuit 62, a time switch 63, a data highway interface unit 64, a control unit 66, and a storage unit 67. The time switch 63, the office line interface circuit 62, and the extension interface circuit 61 are connected to each other via the PCM highway 68.

  The office line interface circuit 62, the extension interface circuit 61, and the data highway interface unit 64 are connected to each other via the data highway 69. Further, the control unit 66, the storage unit 67, and the data highway interface unit 64 are connected to each other via the CPU bus 65. The time switch 63 is directly connected to the control unit 66.

  The time switch 63 exchanges and connects the office line interface circuit 62 and the extension interface circuit 61 by exchanging the time slots on the PCM highway 68 based on the control of the control unit 66. A public network is connected to the office line interface circuit 62 via an office line L such as a public line or a dedicated line. The office line interface circuit 62 performs an office line interface operation for the connected office line L. The office line interface operation refers to conversion of an audio signal (analog) given via the office line L into a PCM signal, conversion of a PCM signal given via the time switch 63 into an audio signal (analog), and the office line L State monitoring, and transmission of various signals to the network connected via the office line L. The office line interface circuit 62 exchanges various control information with the control unit 66 via the data highway interface unit 64, the data highway 69, and the CPU bus 65.

  Extension terminals A1 to Am and B1 to Bn are connected to the extension interface circuit 61 as necessary. The extension interface circuit 61 performs extension interface processing for the connected extension terminals A1 to Am and B1 to Bn. The extension interface processing includes extraction of PCM signals output from the extension terminals A1 to Am and B1 to Bn from the PCM highway 68, status monitoring of the extension terminals A1 to Am and B1 to Bn, and extension terminals A1 to Am and B1 to B1. For example, transmission of various signals to Bn. The extension interface circuit 61 exchanges various control information related to extension interface processing with the control unit 66 via the data highway 69, the data highway interface unit 64, and the CPU bus 65.

  The control unit 66 realizes the operation as the PBX device 200 by processing based on the operation program stored in the storage unit 67. The storage unit 67 stores an operation program of the control unit 66 and other various data. In this embodiment, the control unit 66 is provided with a control function related to the management of incoming / outgoing calls and incoming call control.

  By the way, the control part 66 is provided with the login process part 24a, the transmission log | history management part 24b, the specific process part 31a, and the incoming call alerting | reporting control part 31b. The storage unit 67 stores a user management table 41a and a transmission history management table 41b. That is, in this embodiment, both the function of the exchange device 20 in FIG. 1 and the function of the SIP server 40 are implemented in the PBX device 200. Management of a user's outgoing call history can be managed by existing technology regardless of the SIP protocol. The function for controlling incoming calls can be easily implemented as a function of the PBX device 200.

  In the above configuration, the management of the outgoing call history, the incoming call history, and the update process of the tables 41a and 41b for each of the extension terminals A1 to Am and B1 to Bn are performed by the control unit 66. The processing procedure relating to the management of the outgoing call history of the operator is the same as that in FIG. 6, and the processing procedure relating to the incoming call control is the same as that in FIG.

  As described above, in this embodiment, the outgoing call history of each user in the extension telephone system is managed without using the SIP protocol, and the incoming call notification operation for each extension terminal is controlled based on the situation. In other words, the extension terminal of the user who has a call history to the caller number included in the incoming call is operated to notify the incoming call in a different form from the others. Thus, the present invention can also be applied to a local extension telephone system.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment as it is, In an implementation stage, a component can be deform | transformed and embodied in the range which does not deviate from the summary. In addition, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of components disclosed in the embodiment. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment. Furthermore, constituent elements over different embodiments may be appropriately combined.

1 is a system diagram showing an embodiment of a telephone system according to the present invention. The functional block diagram of the SIP server 40 of FIG. The schematic diagram which shows the content of the user management table 41a of FIG. The schematic diagram which shows the content of the transmission log | history management table 41b of FIG. The functional block diagram which shows the exchange apparatus 20 of FIG. The flowchart which shows the process sequence in the telephone system concerning embodiment of this invention. The flowchart which shows the process sequence at the time of the incoming call in the telephone system concerning embodiment of this invention. The system figure for demonstrating the incoming call form in the existing telephone system. The system figure which shows 2nd Embodiment of the telephone system concerning this invention. The functional block diagram which shows the PBX apparatus 200 of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  A1 to Am, B1 to Bn ... IP telephone, 30 ... router, 20 ... exchange device, 11 ... facsimile device, 12 ... phone, 13 ... softphone device, 14 ... mobile terminal, 40 ... SIP server, 50 ... system administrator 41, database, 41a, user management table, 41b, transmission history management table, 200 ... PBX device, 61 ... extension interface circuit, 62 ... office line interface circuit, 63 ... time switch, 64 ... data highway interface unit, 66 ... Control unit, 67 ... Storage unit, 68 ... PCM highway, 69 ... Data highway, 65 ... CPU bus

Claims (6)

In a telephone system comprising a plurality of telephone devices,
Association means for associating the user for each of the plurality of telephone devices;
A call history management means for managing a call destination database while updating a call destination database in which a history of a call destination number is associated with each user; and
A specifying means for searching the destination database in response to an incoming call and specifying a telephone device corresponding to a user having a call history to a caller source number included in the incoming call;
A telephone system comprising: an incoming call control means for causing the telephone device specified by the specifying means to receive the incoming call. When the plurality of telephone devices are grouped by a common telephone number,
2. The incoming call control unit according to claim 1, wherein the incoming call notification operation for the incoming call by the common telephone number is different between the telephone device specified by the specifying unit and the other telephone devices. The telephone system described. A plurality of telephone devices connected to the packet communication network and uniquely assigned address information in the packet communication network; an exchange device for controlling incoming calls to the plurality of telephone devices based on the address information; and the packet communication A telephone system comprising a server device connected to a network,
Each of the plurality of telephone devices is
A notification means for notifying the server device of the address information of the own device and the identification information of the user input by the user's login operation;
The server device
Login information management means for managing the login telephone device in association with each user while updating the login user database that associates the address information and identification information notified by the notification means;
A transmission history management means for managing the transmission history of the user while updating a transmission destination database in which the identification information of the user is associated with a transmission destination number;
The exchange device is
The destination database is searched in response to the arrival of an incoming call, and when the destination number that matches the source number included in the incoming call is in the destination database, the user corresponding to the destination number is A specifying means for specifying a telephone device being logged in with reference to the login user database;
A telephone system comprising: an incoming call notification control means for making different incoming call notification operations for the incoming call between the telephone device specified by the specifying means and the other telephone devices. A plurality of telephone devices connected to the packet communication network and uniquely assigned address information in the packet communication network; an exchange device for controlling incoming calls to the plurality of telephone devices based on the address information; and the packet communication A telephone system comprising a server device connected to a network,
Each of the plurality of telephone devices is
A notification means for notifying the server device of the address information of the own device and the identification information of the user input by the user's login operation;
The server device
Login information management means for managing the login telephone device in association with each user while updating the login user database that associates the address information and identification information notified by the notification means;
Incoming call history management means for managing the incoming call history to the user while updating the caller database that associates the identification information of the user who responded to the incoming call with the caller number included in the incoming call. ,
The exchange device is
The caller database is searched in response to the arrival of an incoming call, and when the caller source number included in the incoming call is in the caller database, the user corresponding to the caller number is logged in Identifying means for identifying the telephone device with reference to the login user database;
A telephone system comprising: an incoming call notification control means for making different incoming call notification operations for the incoming call between the telephone device specified by the specifying means and the other telephone devices. The packet communication network is an IP (Internet Protocol) network,
The server device is a SIP server that processes SIP (Session Initiation Protocol),
5. The telephone system according to claim 3, wherein the incoming call notification control unit makes the description content of the INVITE method included in the SIP message different between the specified telephone apparatus and the other telephone apparatus. 6. . 6. The telephone system according to claim 5, wherein the incoming call notification control means describes calling party information corresponding to the calling party number in an ALERT INFO message included in the INVITE method.

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