The present invention relates to configurable workstation, and more particularly, to a configurable workstation in a enhanced services platform such as a prepaid telephone system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Enhanced services telephone systems such as prepaid calling systems are well known. Subscribers in such systems are provided with a calling card containing a personal identification number ("PIN") by which the amount of telephone usage remaining on the card can be determined by the subscriber at the time the call is placed.

In known prepaid telephone systems, there are a number of work stations to assist the service provider in performing the various functions needed for the operation of the system.

These functions include (a) the administration of the subscriber database which controls call utilization, (b) the interface with the customer regarding the balance in the subscriber's account, the status of the account and recharging of prepaid cards by a subscriber, (c) the live operators who assist in the placing of the calls, and (d) system administration which often spans multiple servers and even multiple locations. Other workstation functions also often exist.

Heretofore, the software for each of the class or type of work station was unique to such class or type of work station and the administrator of the enhanced services platform generally had a limited number of choices, i. e., the selection of the group in which any individual agent was assigned, and this selection was made by the selection of the application loaded on the computer at each workstation.

In the event that it became desirable to change the functions of any class of work station, it was necessary to load the software for a different program, or to rewrite the software code for that work station. The problem is excerbated when the original software was written for groups of functions, and it is desirable to modify the functional grouping. Clearly the time and expense of rewriting the code negatively impacted the ability of such systems to respond to growth in the system, the changing needs of subscribers, etc.

Operating costs were high due to the administration of multiple workstations. In addition, significant retraining was needed when someone was moved from one workstation to another to work with an application with different functions.

The present invention addresses these problems by providing a single software program for all workstations regardless of the functions to be performed at that workstation, and then limiting access to various functions of the program by means of login and/or passwords. In this way, any workstation may be used for any one or more of the high level functions performed by the software program.

Additionally, the configuration of each of the high level functions may be selectively customized for the user assigned to any workstation by means of a user configurable table, in which the settings used to reconfigure the software for any particular work station are recorded as data thus obviating the necessity to load an additional program and/or rewrite code.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel method and system which obviates many of the problems of known telephone systems with great financial and temporal savings.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel method and system which permits a single computer software program to be used for all workstations in the system without burdening the agent at any workstation with the complexity of use associated with functions not needed by that agent, all without the necessity to modify the software program.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel method and system which permits the computer software program for any class of workstation in the system to be selectively configurable to better serve the needs of the agent at that workstation, without burdening the agent at any workstation with the delay and complexity of use associated with functions not needed by that particular agent, all without the necessity to modify the software program.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a novel method and system that allows the permissible capabilities of a user of a workstation to change over time.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel software program that reduces retraining requirements by using a single program having a basically consistent user interface for all functions.

It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a novel method and system which reduces system ownership costs due to the multiple functions which can be performed on a single workstation.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel method and system to configure a workstation (i. e., allocate permission to access certain features) by way of a GUI/WUI representation of the Unified Workstation Application and thereby the enabling/disabling of functionality graphically through the clicking on the various features.

These and many other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims, the appended drawings, and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a pictorial representation illustrating the spectrum of workstation capabilities and functionality made available by the present invention.

Figure 2 is a schematic showing the interdependencies of the workstations in an enhanced services system.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In lieu of creating separate applications for database administration, customer service representative, and live telephone operator, the enhanced services platform for the present invention uses a single application with a superset of functionality. The functionality is presented in a continuous spectrum so that users may redefine and create custom roles suitable for the particular business model.

The functionality of each position will be protected by user login and passwords with the amount of functionality for any station controlled by a user configuration table. As shown in Figure 1, a table may list each of the users, the type of use, and the various features within each type of use.

Users and features may be added and job descriptions changed through use of the table by the system administrator. By this approach, no new hardware or software is needed to reconfigure the system.

As shown in Figure 2, the system may comprise a telephone switch such as the Harris Corporation 20/20 Switch 10, a host application server 12 with a prepaid application, a prepaid database 14 and any number of agent workstations 16.

With continued reference to Figure 2, the switch 10 may include a Harris Digital Telephone System automated call distribution ("ACD") application and database.

The agent shown pictorially at 20 may log onto the agent workstation 16 manually. Once logged in, the agent 20 has access to the operating system, here the NT Kernal, and is connected through a telephony application programming interface ("TAPI") to the database 14 from which data will be needed.

An incoming call is routed the ACD by a conventional host interface link ("HIL") to the host application server 12. At the host server 12, the call controller obtains from the database the new call parameters and, through TAPI, makes the information available to the agent 20 at the agent workstation 16.

There may be communications between a live telephone operator and/or personal computer at the host server 12 and the agent workstation 16.

The agent at the workstation, upon receipt of the incoming call, and depending on the functions assigned to that workstation, may chose between a menu of services, e. g., a debit call, a credit call, recharge of the prepaid account, a rate quote, a language change or sports (where the latest scores are available). By clicking on a service or an icon displayed on the screen of the workstation, the agent will either receive the screens necessary to serve the caller or automatically route the call to an agent who can access the appropriate function on his/her workstation.

One of the significant advantages of the present system is the residence of all functions in all workstations with essentially unlimited flexibility in making the functions available to individuals or to groups of individuals as a function of log in. For example, the agent at one of the workstations with the administration function may have a screen with a chart or matrix which lists each of the individual agents in a column and provides a row of the various functions. By the simple expedient of indicating a "yes"or"no"in the appropriate box, an individual may be given access to that function in the application.

This process may be expedited by the grouping of functions under a group heading and the expedient of indicating in the chart the inclusion of an individual within a group. Because there is complete flexibility on defining the groups by the administrator of the application, the application is expandable to accommodate the various needs of the application as it grows over time, all without any changes in the software of the application.

Among the advantages of the present invention is the ability to selectively promote/demote workers to access to new functions, the establishment of multiple profiles by which a user may selectively log into at different times and/or from different locations as a function of the security of the location, and the instant disabling/enabling of functions to individual users, groups of users, or all users as a function of system events such as equipment failure and the identify of the users logon.

While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, it is to be understood that the embodiments described are illustrative only and the scope of the invention is to be defined solely by the appended claims when accorded a full range of equivalence, many variations and modifications naturally occurring to those of skill in the art from a perusal hereof.