Method and system for providing adaptive and proactive interaction management for multiple types of business interactions occurring in a multimedia communications environment

1. An object-oriented system for managing interactions of multimedia types in a communication center environment including one or more of a communications center, a telephony network, the Internet network, and a wireless access network, the system comprising:

a multimedia queuing system for queuing inbound, outbound, and internal communication events;

a processor for processing events in the queue;

an interaction server for selecting media type or types for a pending interaction or notification event;

a resource manager for reporting agent availability in terms of media types available to the agent; and

a data store for storing client information about media types available to the client and historical information about success of past use of those media types;

characterized in that the system processes and routes incoming events of known media type to access points defined as systems or agents based in part on media channel availability of the access point, the availability states reported to the system by the resource manager and wherein the system selects the media channel for certain events in queue that are not pre-dedicated as specific media type events, and wherein the system overrides a media preference of a client in routine an event to an access point or in delivery of an outbound proactive event to the client.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the interactions comprise interactive sessions of more than one media type between an access point and one or more clients.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the interactions comprise interactive sessions of more than one media type between one or more access points and a single client.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the interaction server triggers automatic outbound proactive events queued for delivery to clients at predefined steps of a modeled business process to which the clients are party.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the events are triggered according to detection by the system of occurrence of a business related event or intercept or receipt of knowledge of a business related event that may affect outcome of a business process.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the access point adds a media type or media types to a current interaction, the addition thereof processed in queue as an outbound event or events of the media type or types.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein a modeled business process defines a generic series of required events for completing a transaction the modeled process becoming a personalized transaction through dynamic application of contact parameter objects, media type objects for defined events, and assigned access point objects, the contact objects and access objects defining parties to the transaction.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein media channel selection includes selecting more than one media type for an interaction or notification event.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein all of the events queued are virtual events of unassigned media and all event processing including media assignment is performed while events wait in queue.

10. In a communication center environment including one or more of a communications center, a telephony network, the Internet network, and a wireless access network, a method for initiating a proactive event deliverable to a client, the event automatically assigned a preferred media type comprising steps of;

(a) recognizing a need for contacting the client during transaction of a business process that the client is party to;

(b) generating a generic event object having client identification data and intent or purpose data for the event;

(c) queuing the event for further processing and delivery to the client;

(d) consulting a data store having information about media types available to the client and historical information about success of past use of those media types, and determining which supported media type or types the event will be presented in;

(e) attaching the media type or types parameters to the event;

(f) executing the event for delivery, and

(g) overriding a media preference of the client in delivering the event.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein in step (a) a specific point in the process for contacting a client or clients is pre-set and a generic step in the process.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein in step (a) a step for contacting a client or clients is inserted into the business process as a result of system intercept or knowledge of an event related to the outcome of the process.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein in step (b) the generated event also included source data.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the source data is agent or system identification data.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein in step (b) the event is generated by an interaction server on behalf of a specific access point, the access point being an agent or automated system.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein in step (c) the queued event is one of an outbound event or an internal event.

17. The method of claim 10 wherein in step (e) an interaction server attaches the media parameters to the event.

18. The method of claim 10 wherein in step (e) event execution is automatic when all required contact parameters and media parameters are attached.

19. The method of claim 10 further comprising a step (f) for automated execution of applications related to an attached media type or types owned by one or more access points associated with event delivery, the application or applications opened enabling immediate interaction with the recipient.