Product advisor

1. A system for advising in the selection of products to offer customers, the system comprising:

a first data store that contains a first set of product selection related data including customer information;

a second data store that contains a second set of product selection related data including service information;

an integration layer containing a first component operable to retrieve data from the first data store and a second component operable to retrieve data from the second data store;

a product advisor engine to analyze the data retrieved by the first and second components to select products to offer to customers; and

a profile generated by the product advisor engine including at least one customer product offering;

wherein the product advisor engine further analyzes customer activities information and third party obtained information.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first and second components are separate systems, such that the first component is inoperable for communication with the second set of product selection related data and the second component is inoperable for communication with the first set of product selection related data, and wherein the integration layer is operable to promote communication of both the first and second set of product selection related data for analysis by the product advisor engine.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one product offering in the profile is a customized profile generated for a particular customer.

4. The system of claim 1 , above wherein product advisor engine the profile responsive to communication with a particular customer.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the first data store maintains the first set of product selection related data which includes personal customer data.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein a third data store maintains a third set of product selection related data including product data.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the product advisor engine is operable to generate the profile customized for each customer based on analysis of the customer and product data.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the product offering is selected from a group consisting of a wireless telephone service, a local telephone service, a long distance telephone service, an internet access service.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the product offering is an add-on service to an existing service selected from a group of existing services consisting of a wireless telephone service, a local telephone service, a long distance telephone service, an internet access service.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first set of product selection related data includes customer information selected from a group consisting of a previous customer inquiry information, a customer usage history information, a customer billing history information.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the integration layer includes a customer search engine component, a service accounts information retrieval component, service locations information retrieval component, service portfolio information retrieval component, service detail information retrieval component, network topology information retrieval component, product history information retrieval component, and third-party provided information retrieval component.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the product advisor engine further analyzes survey information about the customer.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the product advisor engine further analyzes web site information obtained during customer browsing.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the web site information is related to the customer browsing a telecommunication provider's web site.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the product advisor engine further analyzes customer information obtained by a customer service system during a communication with the customer.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein communication with the customer is further defined as a complaint call by the customer to a telecommunications provider.

17. A system for advising in the selection of telecommunications products to offer customers, the system comprising:

a first data store that contains a first set of telecommunications related data including customer data;

a second data store that contains a second set of telecommunications related data including service data;

a metadata maintaining data related to the first and second sets of telecommunications related data;

an integration layer containing a first component operable to retrieve data from the first data store and a second component operable to retrieve data from the second data store;

a product advisor engine using the metadata for correlation of the first and second sets of telecommunications data and to analyze the data retrieved by the first and second components to select products to offer to customers; and

a profile generated by the product advisor engine including at least one telecommunications product offering for at a particular customer, the product advisor engine generating the profile responsive to communication with the particular customer.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the first and second components are separate systems each selected from a group consisting of one of a customer service system, a billing system, a usage system.

19. The system of claim 17 , wherein the first data store that contains the first set of telecommunications related data selected from a group consisting of a system maintaining information on internet related services, a system maintaining information related to local/long distance telephone related services, and a system maintaining information related to wireless telephone service.

20. The system of claim 17 , wherein the telecommunications product offering is an add-on service to an existing service selected from a group of existing services consisting of a wireless telephone service, a local telephone service, a long distance telephone service, an internet access service.

21. The system of claim 17 , wherein the first set of telecommunications related data includes customer information selected from a group consisting of a previous customer inquiry information, a customer usage history information, a customer billing history information.

22. The system of claim 17 , wherein the integration layer includes a customer search engine component, a service accounts information retrieval component, service locations information retrieval component, service portfolio information retrieval component, service detail information retrieval component, network topology information retrieval component, product history information retrieval component, and third-party provided information retrieval component.

23. The system of claim 17 , wherein the product advisor engine analyzes call location related information of the service data.

24. The system of claim 17 , wherein the call location related information of the service data is selected from a group includes a geographic location of a tower where connecting the customer call, a geographic location of the customer during the call, a geographic location of other parties connected to the call.

25. The system of claim 17 , wherein the product advisor engine analyzes dropped call information.

26. A method for automatically generating a profile that assists in the selection of telecommunications products for a customer, the method comprising:

a service representative communicating with the customer;

retrieving, by an integration layer, a first set of telecommunications related information from a first data store and a second set of telecommunications related information from a second data store;

analyzing, by a product advisor engine, the telecommunications related information retrieved by the integration layer;

generating a profile during the communication with the customer by the product advisor engine, the profile including at least one product offering based on the analyzed telecommunications related information; and

using the profile by the service representative to advise the customer in selecting products and services while the service representative is in communication with the customer.

27. The method of claim 26 , wherein creating the profile includes creating a customer profile, a products profile, and a services usage profile.

28. The method of claim 26 , wherein the telecommunications product offering is an add-on service to an existing service selected from a group of existing services consisting of a wireless telephone service, a local telephone service, a long distance telephone service, an internet access service.

29. The method of claim 26 , wherein the telecommunications product offering is an new service selected from a group of existing services consisting of a wireless telephone service, a local telephone service, a long distance telephone service, an internet access service.

30. The method of claim 26 , wherein the communication with the customer is further defined as customer initiated.

31. The method of claim 26 , wherein the service representative is further defined as a customer service representative of a telecommunications provider.

32. The method of claim 26 , wherein service representative is further defined as a customer service representative of a reseller of products of a telecommunications provider.

33. The method of claim 26 , wherein generating the profile includes

determining a service usage of the customer;

matching customer inquires and service usage related to a particular telecommunications product with a particular telecommunication product offering; and

including the particular telecommunication product as one of the product offerings in the profile.

34. The method of claim 26 , wherein the integration layer includes a customer search engine, service accounts information retrieval component, service locations information retrieval component, service portfolio information retrieval component, service detail information retrieval component, network topology information retrieval component, product history information retrieval component, and third-party provided information retrieval component.