Patent Issued for Systems and methods for managing computer-based requests (USPTO 11115499): Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company

2021 SEP 24 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (Springfield, Massachusetts, United States) has been issued patent number 11115499, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are John, Jiby (Suffield, CT, US), Knas, Michal (Monson, MA, US).

This patent was filed on August 21, 2019 and was published online on September 7, 2021.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Existing computer-based systems and methods do not adequately further the objectives of the clientele they serve. As an example, service organizations such as “call centers” are frequently used, either as part of a larger organization, or as a separate entity, to manage the provision of a range of possible services to customers or clients. A client or customer typically contacts the service organization to make a request for services, such as information technology-related services. A typical service organization receives numerous such requests, and therefore make some effort to prioritize the handling of these requests for services. For example, service request may be processed on a “first-in, first-out” (FIFO) basis. In other words, those requests for services that are placed earlier in time are given priority over those requests for services that occur later in time. Typical prioritization schemes may also allow for deviation from a default first in, first out scheme. Such prioritization may allow for escalating the priority of a request for services. However, these typical schemes for managing service requests do not involve consideration of business-process specific information associated with the customers, clients, or their organizations. Therefore, the manner in which such service requests are typically handled by the service organization do not necessarily further the business objectives of their customers, clients, or their organizations, in an optimal way.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “For the aforementioned reasons, there is a need for a method and a system to efficiently manage computer-based service request. The systems and methods disclosed herein attempt to address the above-mentioned shortcomings in the art and provide a variety of other benefits. The systems and methods described herein can manage and perform an optimal processing of the computer-based service requests.

“In an embodiment a method comprises receiving, by a server, a request from a client device, wherein the request is received via an electronic message originated from the client device. The method comprises generating, by the server, a first instruction configured to receive a characteristic of the client device associated with the request. The method comprises upon transmitting the first instruction to a database, receiving, by the server, the characteristic of the client device. The method comprises determining, by the server, whether the request has a predetermined time period for priority service based on the characteristic of the client device within the database. The method comprises, upon the request having a predetermined time period for priority service, determining, by the server, whether a timestamp of the request is within the predetermined time period for the priority service. The method comprises upon determining that the timestamp of the request is within the predetermined time period for priority service, incrementing, by the server, a counter value associated with request having the timestamp within the predetermined time period for the priority service. The method comprises upon the counter value satisfying a threshold value, automatically adjusting, by the server, a record of the request having the characteristic of the client device to indicate a priority service regardless of a basis for the request.

“In another embodiment, a computer system comprises a server, which is configured to receive a request from a client device, wherein the request is received via an electronic message originated from the client device. The server is configured to generate a first instruction configured to receive a characteristic of the client device associated with the request. The server is configured to, upon transmitting the first instruction to a database, receive the characteristic of the client device. The server is configured to determine whether the request has a predetermined time period for priority service based on the characteristic of the client device within the database. The server is configured to upon the request having a predetermined time period for priority service, determine whether a timestamp of the request is within the predetermined time period for the priority service. The server is configured to, upon determining that the timestamp of the request is within the predetermined time period for priority service, increment a counter value associated with request having the timestamp within the predetermined time period for the priority service. The server is configured to, upon the counter value satisfying a threshold value, automatically adjust a record of the request having the characteristic of the client device to indicate a priority service regardless of a basis for the request.

“In another embodiment, a method comprises receiving, by a server, a phone call from a client device comprising a request. The method comprises determining, by the server, a characteristic of the client device associated with the request, wherein the characteristic of the client device is associated with a phone number associated with the client device. The method comprises generating, by the server, a first instruction configured to query for a record to identify whether the characteristic has a predetermined time period for priority service. The method comprises upon transmitting the first instruction to a database, determining whether the characteristic has a predetermined time period for priority service. The method comprises upon the characteristic having a predetermined time period for priority service, determining, by the server, whether a timestamp of the request is within the predetermined time period for priority service. The method comprises upon determining that the timestamp of the request is within the predetermined time period for priority service, routing, by the server, the phone call to an agent.

“Numerous other aspects, features and benefits of the present disclosure may be made apparent from the following detailed description taken together with the drawing figures.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: displaying, by a server, a dashboard having a plurality of requests on at least one agent computer of a plurality of agent computers, each request having a timestamp corresponding to when each request was received from at least one client computing device of a plurality of client computing devices, each request is associated with an indicator corresponding to a counter value; retrieving, by the server, a characteristic associated with each client computing device from a database, the characteristic corresponding to a predetermined time period for satisfaction of a service associated with each client computing device, the characteristic associated with each client computing device further corresponding to a grouping of one or more client computing devices; determining, by the server, whether the timestamp of a request received from the at least one client computing device is within the predetermined time period for the satisfaction of the service associated with its corresponding client computing device; dynamically incrementing, by the server, the counter value associated with the request upon determining that the timestamp of the request received from the at least one client computing device is within the predetermined time period for the satisfaction of the service associated with its corresponding client computing device; determining, by the server, whether the counter value satisfies a threshold value indicative of a level of importance for at least one group for the request; automatically adjusting, by the server, a record of the request displayed on the dashboard to indicate a priority service when the counter value satisfies the threshold value; and when the record of the request is associated with the priority service, automatically routing, by the server, the request to a first agent computer of the plurality of agent computers available for processing the request.

“2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: adjusting, by the server, the record of the request to indicate the priority service regardless of a basis for the request.

“3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: displaying, by the server, adjusted record of the request indicating the priority service on the dashboard on the at least one agent computer.

“4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: assigning, by the server, the request to a second agent computer of the plurality of agent computers to process the request when the first agent computer is unable to process the request.

“5. The method of claim 4, further comprising: displaying, by the server, the record of the request on the dashboard of the second agent computer for processing the request.

“6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating, by the server, an alert corresponding to the request when the record of the request is associated with the priority service.

“7. The method of claim 6, further comprising: transmitting, by the server, the alert to each of the plurality of agent computers, wherein the alert is displayed on the dashboard of each of the plurality of agent computers.

“8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: placing, by the server, the request in a top of a queue associated with each of the plurality of agent computers, wherein the queue comprises the plurality of requests.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein each request is in a form of a phone call received from each client computing device.

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein the characteristic associated with each client computing device comprises a phone number associated with each client computing device.

“11. A system comprising: a plurality of client computing devices configured to transmit a plurality of requests to a server; at least one agent computer of a plurality of agent computers configured to display a dashboard generated by the server; and the server in communication with each client computing device and the plurality of agent computers, the server configured to: display the dashboard on the at least one agent computer having the plurality of requests, each request having a timestamp corresponding to when each request was received from at least one client computing device of the plurality of client computing devices, each request is further associated with an indicator corresponding to a counter value, retrieve a characteristic associated with each client computing device from a database, wherein the characteristic associated with each client computing device correspond to a predetermined time period for satisfaction of a service associated with each client computing device, the characteristic associated with each client computing device further corresponding to a grouping of one or more client computing devices, upon determining that the timestamp of a request received from the at least one client computing device is within the predetermined time period for the satisfaction of the service associated with its corresponding client computing device, dynamically increment the counter value associated with the request, automatically adjust a record of the request to indicate a priority service when the counter value satisfies a threshold value indicative of a level of importance for at least one group for the request, and when the record of the request is associated with the priority service, route the request to a first agent computer of the plurality of agent computers available for processing the request.

“12. The system of claim 11, wherein the server is further configured to adjust the record of the request to indicate the priority service regardless of a basis for the request.

“13. The system of claim 12, wherein the server is further configured to display adjusted record of the request indicating the priority service on the dashboard on the at least one agent computer.

“14. The system of claim 11, wherein the server is further configured to assign the request to a second agent computer operated by a second agent to process the request when the first agent computer is unable to process the request.

“15. The system of claim 14, wherein the server is further configured to display the record of the request on the dashboard of the second agent computer for processing the request.

“16. The system of claim 11, wherein the server is further configured to generate an alert corresponding to the request when the record of the request is associated with the priority service.

“17. The system of claim 16, wherein the server is further configured to transmit the alert to each of the plurality of agent computers, wherein the alert is displayed on the dashboard of each of the plurality of agent computers.

“18. The system of claim 17, wherein the server is further configured to place the request in a top of a queue associated with each of the plurality of agent computers, wherein the queue comprises the plurality of requests.

“19. The system of claim 11, wherein each request is in a form of a phone call received from each client computing device.

“20. The system of claim 11, wherein the characteristic associated with each client computing device comprises a phone number associated with each client computing device.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: John, Jiby. Systems and methods for managing computer-based requests. U.S. Patent Number 11115499, filed August 21, 2019, and published online on September 7, 2021. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11115499.PN.&OS=PN/11115499RS=PN/11115499

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