JP7687829B2 - Systems and methods - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a system and method.

There is a known technology that, when an incoming call is made to a main number of a company, department, etc., selectively rings one or more terminals of the extension numbers associated with the main number, depending on the location of each terminal (for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2011-114476 A

However, the above-mentioned conventional technology does not allow for flexible changing of the target terminal to be alerted depending on the situation of the person using the terminal.

In particular, in recent years, the spread of telework has led to an increase in the number of people working from home, and meetings with customers are sometimes held from home using web conferencing tools, etc. For this reason, it is desirable to be able to flexibly change the device that is the target of the alarm, taking into account various situations such as whether or not the person is working from home or whether or not they are in a meeting.

One embodiment of the present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and aims to flexibly change the device that is the target of the alarm depending on the situation of the person using the device.

In order to achieve the above object, a telephone system according to one embodiment includes a plurality of telephone terminals, a telephone exchange, and a server device, and the telephone exchange has a first storage unit that stores a main number, an extension number assigned to the telephone terminal, and a connection possibility indicating whether or not the telephone terminal having the extension number should ring when an incoming call is made to the main number, in association with each other, and a call to the main number for a telephone terminal having an extension number associated with the main number among the plurality of telephone terminals and having a connection possibility indicating whether or not the telephone terminal having the extension number should ring when an incoming call is made to the main number, and The server device has a first transmission unit that transmits a connection request to request a connection to the selected calling terminal, and the server device has a second storage unit that stores an extension number and a judgment condition for judging whether or not a connection can be made to a telephone terminal having the extension number in association with each other, a judgment unit that judges whether or not a connection can be made to the telephone terminal from the judgment condition according to the situation of the user using the telephone terminal, and a second transmission unit that transmits an update request for the connection availability stored in the first storage unit to the telephone exchange using the connection availability judged by the judgment unit and the extension number associated with the judgment condition used when judging the connection availability.

The device that will be notified can be flexibly changed depending on the situation of the person using the device.

1 is a diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a telephone system according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of a PBX according to the present embodiment. FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a connection permission information table. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of an update request server according to the present embodiment. FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a connection permission determination information table. FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram showing an example of the flow of a call connection control process. FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram showing an example of the flow of a process for updating connection propriety information. 11 is a sequence diagram showing an example of the flow of a process for setting and updating connection availability determination information. FIG.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below. In this embodiment, a telephone system 1 will be described that can flexibly change the terminal that is to be ringed when an incoming call is made to the main number depending on the situation of the person in charge (user) using the terminal. Note that a main number is a phone number that is set as the representative of two or more phone numbers (outside numbers) for an organization such as a company or department. Also, a person in charge is someone who is engaged in work that requires answering calls to the main number, such as a sales person or a person in charge of product inquiries.

<Overall composition>
Fig. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a telephone system 1 according to this embodiment. As shown in Fig. 1, the telephone system 1 according to this embodiment includes a plurality of telephone terminals 10, a PBX 20, an update request server 30, an administrator terminal 40, and various devices 50. These are connected to each other so as to be able to communicate with each other via a communication network 60 including the Internet, a public line network, etc.

The telephone terminal 10 is, for example, a smartphone or other terminal with telephone functions. Each telephone terminal 10 is assigned a unique extension number within an organization such as a company or department, and is capable of responding to a call connection request addressed to this extension number. In other words, the telephone terminal 10 is a smartphone used by, for example, making it a "smartphone extension." However, the telephone terminal 10 is not limited to a smartphone, and may be, for example, a tablet terminal with telephone functions, a wearable device, a PC (personal computer), etc.

In the following, when distinguishing between the N telephone terminals 10, they will be represented as "telephone terminal 10-1", ..., "telephone terminal 10-N", etc. Also, the extension numbers assigned to telephone terminals 10-1 to 10-N will be "0001" to "000N", respectively. For example, when N=10, the extension numbers of telephone terminals 10-1 to 10-10 will be "0001" to "0010", respectively.

The PBX 20 is, for example, a cloud-based PBX (Private Branch eXchange), a telephone exchange that performs various call controls. For example, the PBX 20 manages connection availability information that associates the extension numbers of telephone terminals 10 that are candidates for ringing with the connection availability of those telephone terminals 10 for each main number, and when a call is received at the main number, the connection availability information is used to send a call connection request to the telephone terminals 10 that are candidates for ringing and that are connectable. This causes the telephone terminals 10 to ring. Note that ringing refers to notifying the user of the telephone terminal 10 of an incoming call by sound, vibration, blinking light, music, display of symbols or characters, or a combination of these.

The update request server 30 determines whether the telephone terminal 10 of the person in charge can be connected based on the situation of the person using the telephone terminal 10 (e.g., the geographical location of the person in charge, working situation, schedule, login status of the business PC, etc.), and dynamically updates the connection availability information managed by the PBX 20 based on the result of the determination.

The administrator terminal 40 is a terminal of an administrator who manages the update request server 30. Using the administrator terminal 40, the administrator can set and update the connection feasibility determination information that the update request server 30 refers to when determining whether a connection is possible. As will be described later, the connection feasibility determination information includes, for each extension number, determination conditions that indicate under what circumstances a connection is possible (or not possible).

The device 50 is a device from which various information is collected to identify the status of the person in charge who uses the telephone terminal 10. In this embodiment, the device 50 includes a PC terminal 51 used by the person in charge for work, a work management system 52 that manages the work status of the person in charge, and a scheduler system 53 that manages the schedule of the person in charge. However, these are merely examples, and the device 50 may include various devices that can collect information to identify the status of the person in charge. In addition, various information to identify the status of the person in charge who uses the telephone terminal 10 may be collected from a service provided on the cloud (e.g., a scheduler service) other than the device 50.

<Functional configuration>
<PBX20>
Fig. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the PBX 20 according to this embodiment. As shown in Fig. 2, the PBX 20 according to this embodiment has a call connection control unit 201, a terminal identification unit 202, and an update unit 203. Each of these units is realized by a process in which one or more programs installed in the PBX 20 are executed by an arithmetic device such as a processor.

The PBX 20 according to this embodiment also has a connection availability information storage unit 204. The connection availability information storage unit 204 is realized by various storage devices.

The call connection control unit 201 receives a call connection request in which a representative number is specified as the destination (hereinafter also referred to as a first call connection request). Furthermore, when the terminal identification unit 202 identifies telephone terminals 10 to be ringed in response to the first call connection request, the call connection control unit 201 transmits a call connection request (hereinafter also referred to as a second call connection request) to the identified telephone terminals 10, requesting a connection to the originating terminal of the representative number specified in the first call connection request. Furthermore, when there is a response to the second call connection request, the call connection control unit 201 establishes a call connection between the telephone terminal 10 that responded and the originating terminal.

When the call connection control unit 201 receives a first call connection request, the terminal identification unit 202 refers to the connection availability information table stored in the connection availability information storage unit 204 to identify the telephone terminal 10 to ring in response to the first call connection request. At this time, the terminal identification unit 202 identifies, as the telephone terminal 10 to ring, the telephone terminal 10 having an extension number that is associated with the main number specified in the first call connection request and that is associated with connection availability.

When the update unit 203 receives an update request from the update request server 30, it updates the connection availability information contained in the connection availability information table stored in the connection availability information storage unit 204 in response to the update request.

The connection availability information storage unit 204 stores a connection availability information table that is composed of connection availability information that associates the extension numbers of telephone terminals 10 that are ringing candidates for each main number with the connection availability of the telephone terminals 10. An example of the connection availability information table stored in the connection availability information storage unit 204 is shown in FIG. 3. The connection availability information table shown in FIG. 3 includes connection availability information that associates the main number "03-1234-5678", the extension number "0001", and the connection availability "connectable" to connection availability information that associates the main number "03-1234-5678", the extension number "0010", and the connection availability "not connectable". In this way, the connection availability information table associates the extension numbers of telephone terminals 10 that are ringing candidates when a call is received by the main number with the connection availability indicating whether or not the call will actually ring.

Note that the connection availability information table shown in FIG. 3 shows only one main number, "03-1234-5678," but this is just an example and multiple main numbers may be included. For example, if a company has multiple departments and each department has its own main number, the connection availability information table will contain connection availability information for each main number that associates the main number with an extension number and whether or not it can be connected.

<Update request server 30>
Fig. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the update request server 30 according to this embodiment. As shown in Fig. 4, the update request server 30 according to this embodiment has a collection unit 301, a connection possibility determination unit 302, an update request unit 303, and a setting unit 304. Each of these units is realized by a process in which a program installed in the update request server 30 causes a calculation device such as a processor to execute the program.

The update request server 30 according to this embodiment also has a connection availability determination information storage unit 305. The connection availability determination information storage unit 305 is realized by various storage devices.

The collection unit 301 collects various information from the telephone terminal 10 and the device 50 to identify the status of the person in charge who uses the telephone terminal 10. In this embodiment, for example, location information collected from each telephone terminal 10, login information collected from each PC terminal 51, work status information collected from the work management system 52, and schedule information collected from the scheduler system 53 are assumed as these pieces of information. In addition, for example, the location, work status, PC usage status, and schedule are assumed as the status of the person in charge. Here, for example, the location takes values such as "inside the company", "outside the company", "home", etc., and the value is identified from the location information. In addition, the work status takes values such as "telecommuting", "inside the company", "on vacation", etc., and the value is identified from the work status information. The PC usage status takes values such as "logged in" and "logged off", etc., and the value is identified from the login information. The schedule takes values such as "in a meeting" and "out", etc., and the value is identified from the schedule information. However, these statuses and their possible values are just examples, and a variety of agent statuses and their possible values are available.

The collection unit 301 acquires various pieces of information at predetermined time intervals, but the time intervals may differ depending on the information (or type of information). For example, dynamically changing information such as location information may be acquired at time intervals of several to several tens of seconds, while information that changes relatively little such as login information, work status information, and schedule information may be acquired at time intervals of several minutes to several tens of minutes.

The connection feasibility determination unit 302 refers to the connection feasibility determination information table stored in the connection feasibility determination information storage unit 305 and determines whether each telephone terminal 10 can be connected from the information collected by the collection unit 301. That is, for example, the connection feasibility determination unit 302 identifies the status of each person in charge using the information collected by the collection unit 301, and then determines whether the status is such that the person in charge can answer the phone (i.e., whether the telephone terminal 10 of the person in charge can be connected).

The update request unit 303 transmits an update request to the PBX 20 to update the connection availability included in the connection availability information table according to the determination result by the connection availability determination unit 302. For example, when the connection availability of a telephone terminal 10 having a certain extension number changes (i.e., when it changes from connection available to connection unavailable or from connection unavailable to connection available), the update request unit 303 transmits an update request including the extension number and the connection availability to the PBX 20. As a result, the connection availability associated with the extension number is updated among the connection availability in the connection availability information table managed by the PBX 20.

When the setting unit 304 receives a setting request (or an update request) from the administrator terminal 40, it updates the connection availability determination information table in response to the setting request (or update request).

The connection feasibility determination information storage unit 305 stores a connection feasibility determination information table that is composed of connection feasibility determination information that associates, for each extension number, the current connection feasibility of the telephone terminal 10 having that extension number with a determination condition that indicates the situation in which the telephone terminal 10 is determined to be connectable. An example of the connection feasibility determination information table stored in the connection feasibility determination information storage unit 305 is shown in Figure 5. The connection availability determination information table shown in FIG. 5 includes connection availability determination information that associates the extension number "0001" with the current connection availability "available" and the determination condition "((location = in the office) ∧ (work status ≠ telecommuting) ∧ (PC usage status = logged in)) ∨ ((location = outside the office) ∧ (work status = telecommuting) ∧ (schedule ≠ in a meeting))" to connection availability determination information that associates the extension number "0010" with the current connection availability "not available" and the determination condition "(work status ≠ telecommuting) ∧ (schedule ≠ in a meeting)".

As described above, the judgment condition is a condition that indicates the situation in which the telephone terminal 10 having the corresponding extension number is judged to be connectable, and is expressed in the form of a logical expression in the connection availability judgment information table shown in FIG. 5. For example, the judgment condition "(work status ≠ telecommuting) ∧ (schedule ≠ in a meeting)" means that the telephone terminal 10 having the corresponding extension number is judged to be connectable when the person in charge is not telecommuting and is not in a meeting. Similarly, for example, the judgment condition "(location = in the office) ∨ (PC usage status = logged in)" means that the telephone terminal 10 having the corresponding extension number is judged to be connectable when the person in charge is either in the office or logged in.

In this way, the judgment conditions are set for each extension number (i.e., for each person using the telephone terminal 10). This makes it possible to finely set the circumstances under which the telephone terminal 10 is judged to be connectable for each person.

In the connection availability determination information table shown in FIG. 5, the determination conditions are expressed in the form of a logical expression, but this is only one example and may be expressed in any other form. For example, the determination conditions may be such that the possible values of each status, such as location, work status, PC usage status, and schedule, are quantified, and connection is determined to be possible if the weighted sum of these is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold. In this case, it is possible to set which status is given priority based on the weight of each status, such as location, work status, PC usage status, and schedule.

In addition, in this embodiment, the judgment conditions are set for each extension number, but this is just one example, and they may be set for each organization (e.g., each department or team). For example, employees in a certain organization whose overtime hours are limited may not be able to connect after 5 p.m.

<Flow of various processes>
<Call connection control processing>
FIG. 6 shows the flow of call control processing when N=3 and an incoming call is made to the main number "03-1234-5678."

First, the call connection control unit 201 of the PBX 20 receives a first call connection request specifying the main number "03-1234-5678" (step S101).

Next, the terminal identification unit 202 of the PBX 20 refers to the connection availability information table stored in the connection availability information storage unit 204 to identify the telephone terminal 10 to be made to ring in response to the first call connection request (step S102). That is, the terminal identification unit 202 identifies the telephone terminal 10 having the extension number associated with the main number "03-1234-5678" and the extension number associated with connection availability as the telephone terminal 10 to be made to ring in response to the first call connection request. For example, in the connection availability information table shown in FIG. 3, the telephone terminal 10-1 having the extension number "0001" and the telephone terminal 10-3 having the extension number "0003" are identified as the telephone terminal 10 to be made to ring in response to the first call connection request. On the other hand, the telephone terminal 10 having the extension number "0002" is not identified as the telephone terminal 10-2 to be made to ring in response to the first call connection request because it is not connectable.

Then, the call connection control unit 201 of the PBX 20 transmits a second call connection request to the telephone terminals 10-1 and 10-3 identified in step S102 above (steps S103 to S104). This causes the telephone terminals 10-1 and 10-3 to ring. Note that, in addition to causing multiple telephone terminals 10 to ring simultaneously, each telephone terminal 10 may be caused to ring sequentially in a predetermined order, for example.

When there is a response from telephone terminal 10-1 or telephone terminal 10-3, the call connection control unit 201 establishes a call connection between the telephone terminal 10 that responded first and the originating terminal of the main number specified in the first call connection request. This enables a call between the telephone terminal 10 that responded first and the originating terminal.

<Connection availability information update process>
The flow of the process of updating the connection availability information is shown in Fig. 7. This process of updating the connection availability information is repeatedly executed at predetermined time intervals (for example, at time intervals of several seconds to several tens of seconds). As a result, the connection availability information managed by the PBX 20 is dynamically updated.

First, the collection unit 301 of the update request server 30 collects various information from the telephone terminal 10 and the device 50 to identify the status of the person using the telephone terminal 10 (step S201). That is, the collection unit 301 collects the location information of each telephone terminal 10, the login information of each PC terminal 51, the work status information of each person, and the schedule information of each person.

Next, the connection availability determination unit 302 of the update request server 30 refers to the connection availability determination information table stored in the connection availability determination information storage unit 305 and determines whether each telephone terminal 10 can be connected based on the information collected in step S201 (step S202). That is, for example, the connection availability determination unit 302 uses the information collected in step S201 to identify the status of each person in charge (location, work status, PC usage status, and schedule), and then uses the status and the determination conditions included in the connection availability determination information table to determine whether each telephone terminal 10 having each extension number can be connected.

The location of each person in charge can be identified, for example, from the identification information of the telephone terminal 10 and the latitude and longitude information contained in the location information. The work status of each person in charge can be identified, for example, from the identification information of each person in charge and the information indicating the work status contained in the work status. The PC usage status of each person in charge can be identified, for example, from the identification information of each person in charge and the status indicating the login status contained in the login information. The schedule of each person in charge can be identified, for example, from the identification information of each person in charge, the schedule contents, and the current time contained in the schedule information.

Next, the connection availability determination unit 302 of the update request server 30 compares the current connection availability contained in the connection availability determination information table with the connection availability determined in step S202 above to determine whether there is a telephone terminal 10 whose connection availability has changed (step S203). For example, when the current connection availability for a telephone terminal 10 with a certain extension number is "connectable" and the connection availability determined in step S202 above is "not connectable", this corresponds to a change in connection availability. Similarly, when the current connection availability for a telephone terminal 10 with a certain extension number is "not connectable" and the connection availability determined in step S202 above is "connectable", this corresponds to a change in connection availability. On the other hand, for example, when the current connection availability for a telephone terminal 10 with a certain extension number is "connectable" and the connection availability determined in step S202 above is "connectable," or when the current connection availability is "not connectable" and the connection availability determined in step S202 above is "not connectable," this does not apply to a case where the connection availability has changed.

If it is determined in step S203 above that there is a telephone terminal 10 whose connection availability has changed, the update request unit 303 of the update request server 30 sends an update request to the PBX 20 including the extension number of this telephone terminal 10 and the connection availability determined in step S203 above (step S204). Note that if it is determined in step S203 above that there are multiple telephone terminals 10 whose connection availability has changed, an update request including the extension numbers and connection availability of each of these multiple telephone terminals 10 is sent to the PBX 20. However, it is also possible to send an update request at all times, not just when the connection availability has changed.

When the update unit 203 of the PBX 20 receives an update request from the update request server 30, it uses the extension number and connection availability included in the update request to update the connection availability corresponding to the extension number among the connection availability information table (step S205). For example, if the extension number included in the update request is "0001" and the connection availability is "no connection", the update unit 203 updates the connection availability corresponding to the extension number "0001" among the connection availability information table to "no connection". As a result, if the connection availability changes depending on the situation of the person using the telephone terminal 10, the connection availability managed by the PBX 20 is dynamically updated.

<<Setting and updating connection availability information>>
The flow of the process of setting and updating the connection feasibility determination information is shown in Fig. 8 below. This process of setting and updating the connection feasibility determination information is executed as appropriate, for example, when a new extension number is added, when an extension number is deleted, when it is desired to change the judgment conditions included in the connection feasibility determination information, etc. In the following, when a new extension number is added, adding new connection feasibility determination information including that extension number to the connection feasibility determination information table is referred to as "setting." On the other hand, when an extension number is deleted, deleting connection feasibility determination information including that extension number or changing the judgment conditions included in the connection feasibility determination information constituting the connection feasibility determination information table is referred to as "updating."

The administrator terminal 40 accepts input of the extension number to be set or updated and the judgment conditions (step S301). However, if an extension number is deleted, it is sufficient to accept input of only the extension number to be updated. The extension number and judgment conditions are input by the administrator of the update request server 30, etc.

Next, the administrator terminal 40 transmits a setting request or an update request including the extension number and the judgment condition input in step S301 to the update request server 30 (step S302). However, if the extension number is deleted, it is sufficient to transmit an update request including only the extension number.

Then, when the setting unit 304 of the update request server 30 receives a setting request or an update request, it updates the connection availability determination information table accordingly (step S303). That is, when a setting request is received, the setting unit 304 adds the connection availability determination information of the extension number and the determination condition included in the setting request to the connection availability determination information table. Note that the current connection availability may be set to a predetermined value. On the other hand, when an update request is received, the setting unit 304 updates the connection availability determination information constituting the connection availability determination information table with this update request. For example, when the update request includes only an extension number, the setting unit 304 deletes the connection availability determination information including the extension number from the connection availability determination information table. Also, for example, when the update request includes an extension number and a determination condition, the setting unit 304 updates the determination condition of the connection availability determination information including the extension number among the connection availability determination information constituting the connection availability determination information table to the determination condition included in the update request. This updates the connection availability determination information table.

<Summary>
As described above, when a call is received at a main number, the telephone system 1 according to the present embodiment rings telephone terminals 10 having extension numbers associated with the main number and whose connection availability is "connectable." Furthermore, the telephone system 1 according to the present embodiment dynamically changes the connection availability of the telephone terminals 10 according to the situation of the person using the telephone terminals 10. This makes it possible to flexibly change the connection availability of the telephone terminals 10 according to the moment-to-moment changes in the situation of the person using the telephone terminals 10.

The telephone system 1 according to this embodiment can also set various conditions as the criteria for determining whether or not a connection can be established. This makes it possible to finely adjust whether or not a connection can be established, taking into account the individual circumstances of each person in charge.

The present invention is not limited to the specifically disclosed embodiments above, and various modifications, changes, and combinations with known technologies are possible without departing from the scope of the claims.

1 Telephone system 10 Telephone terminal 20 PBX
30 Update request server 40 Administrator terminal 50 Device 60 Communication network 201 Call connection control unit 202 Terminal identification unit 203 Update unit 204 Connection availability information storage unit 301 Collection unit 302 Connection availability determination unit 303 Update request unit 304 Setting unit 305 Connection availability determination information storage unit

Claims (6)

A system including a plurality of terminals, an exchange, and a server device,
The exchange,
a first storage unit that stores a main number , an extension number assigned to the terminal, and a connection possibility indicating whether or not the terminal having the extension number should ring when an incoming call is made to the main number , in association with each other;
a first transmission unit that, when an incoming call is made to the main number , transmits a connection request to a terminal among the plurality of terminals that has an extension number associated with the main number and whose connection availability is set to connectable, to request a connection with a source terminal that made a call to the main number ;
The server device includes:
A determination unit that determines whether or not the terminal can be connected depending on a situation of a user who uses the terminal;
a second transmission unit that transmits to the exchange a request to update the connection availability stored in the first storage unit, using the connection availability determined by the determination unit and an extension number of the terminal for which the connection availability has been determined;
A system having The server device includes:
a second storage unit that stores an extension number and a judgment condition for judging whether or not a terminal having the extension number can be connected in association with each other;
The determination unit is
determining whether or not the terminal is connectable based on the determination conditions;
The second transmission unit is
2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the update request is sent to the exchange using the connection availability determined by the determination unit and an extension number associated with the determination condition used when determining the connection availability. The server device includes:
a collection unit that collects one or more types of information at predetermined time intervals in order to determine information about a user who uses the terminal;
The determination unit is
The system according to claim 2 , wherein when the one or more types of information are collected by the collection unit, the user's situation is identified from the one or more types of information, and whether or not the terminal can be connected is determined based on the identified situation and the determination conditions. The system according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the user's status includes one or more of the user's location, the user's work status, the user's schedule, and the login status of a PC used by the user for work. The system according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the determination condition is a conditional expression that expresses a situation in which the connection availability of the terminal used by the user is determined to be connectable. A method for use in a system including a plurality of terminals, an exchange, and a server device, comprising:
The exchange,
a first storage step for storing in a first storage unit a main number , an extension number assigned to the terminal, and a connection possibility indicating whether or not the terminal having the extension number should ring when an incoming call is made to the main number, in association with each other;
a first transmission step of transmitting a connection request to a terminal among the plurality of terminals, which has an extension number associated with the main number and has a connection permission set to "connectable", to request a connection with a source terminal that has made a call to the main number ;
The server device,
a determination step of determining whether or not the terminal can be connected depending on a situation of a user who uses the terminal;
a second transmission step of transmitting an update request for the connection availability stored in the first storage unit to the exchange by using the connection availability determined by the determination step and an extension number of the terminal for which the connection availability has been determined;
How to do it.

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