The present invention is directed to an integrated implementation framework and resulting medium for knowledge retrieval, management, delivery and presentation. The system includes a first server component that is responsible for adding and maintaining domain-specific semantic information and a second server component that hosts semantic and other knowledge for use by the first server component that work together to provide context and time-sensitive semantic information retrieval services to clients operating a presentation platform via a communication medium. Within the system, all objects or events in a given hierarchy are active Agents semantically related to each other and representing queries (comprised of underlying action code) that return data objects for presentation to the client according to a predetermined and customizable theme. This system provides various means for the client to customize and “blend” Agents and the underlying related queries to optimize the presentation of the resulting information.

System and method for knowledge retrieval, management, delivery and presentation

An intelligent automated assistant system engages with the user in an integrated, conversational manner using natural language dialog, and invokes external services when appropriate to obtain information or perform various actions. The system can be implemented using any of a number of different platforms, such as the web, email, smartphone, and the like, or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, the system is based on sets of interrelated domains and tasks, and employs additional functionally powered by external services with which the system can interact.

Intelligent Automated Assistant

A flowchart-based tool can be used to build a logical structure. In the context of a customer relationship management (CRM) system, the logical structure can comprise an ordered set of questions and branching logic that are presented to a customer of the business when the customer contacts the business with an inquiry, such as for a sale or service inquiry or other interaction. An engine can run a session associated with the logical structure, with the session presenting questions, text, graphics, and the like dynamically to customer across a network, such as the Internet and a web site. Branching logic determines the appropriate information to present to the user based on answers to previous questions. The engine allows presentation of the information to the user/customer, by generating hypertext markup language (HTML) files to display the questions or other elements of the logical structure as part of a user interface on a client terminal of the customer.

Engine to present a user interface based on a logical structure, such as one for a customer relationship management system, across a web site

A method and system organize and retrieve information using taxonomies, a document classifier, and an autocontextualizer. Documents (or other knowledge containers) in an organization and retrieval subsystem may be manually or automatically classified into taxonomies. Documents are transformed from clear text into a structured record. Automatically constructed indexes help identify when the structured record is an appropriate response to a query. An automatic term extractor creates a list of terms indicative of the documents' subject matter. A subject matter expert identifies the terms relevant to the taxonomies. A term analysis system assigns the relevant terms to one or more taxonomies, and a suitable algorithm is then used to determine the relatedness between each list of terms and its associated taxonomy. The system then clusters documents for each taxonomy in accordance with the weights ascribed to the terms in the taxonomy's list and a directed acyclic graph (DAG) structure is created.

System and method for implementing a knowledge management system

The various methods and devices described herein relate to devices which, in at least certain embodiments, may include one or more sensors for providing data relating to user activity and at least one processor for causing the device to respond based on the user activity which was determined, at least in part, through the sensors. The response by the device may include a change of state of the device, and the response may be automatically performed after the user activity is determined.

Automated Response to and Sensing of User Activity in Portable Devices

A method and system are disclosed for retrieving information through the use of a multi-stage interaction with a client to identify particular knowledge content associated with a knowledge map. The present invention is an application program running on a server accessed via the world-wide web or other data network using standard Internet protocols, a web browser and web server software. In addition to an automated portion, the present invention allows a human dialog designer to model the way the system elicits information, giving a human feel to the dialog and a better customer experience. In operation, users start a dialog by directing their web browser to a designated web page. This web page asks the user some initial questions that are then passed to a dialog engine. The dialog engine then applies its methods and algorithms to a knowledge map, using dialog control information\ and the user's responses to provide feedback to the user. The feedback may include follow-up questions, relevant documents, and instructions to the user (e.g., instructions to contact a human customer service representative). This dialog engine response is rendered as a web page and returned to the user's web browser. The user can then respond further to the follow-up questions he or she is presented, and the cycle repeats. The invention can be implemented so that it can interact with customers through a wide variety of communication channels including the Internet, wireless devices (e.g., telephone, pager, etc.), handheld devices such as a Personal Data Assistant (PDA), email, and via a telephone where the automated system is delivered using an interactive voice response (IVR) and/or speech-recognition system.

System and method for providing an intelligent multi-step dialog with a user

This document discusses, among other things, systems and methods for implementing at least partially automated customer relationship management (CRM) distributed across various enterprises or entities. Such entities may include an anchor or affinity enterprise vending a “whole product” to consumers, and various secondary or tenant enterprises vending components of the whole product. Such entities may also include a reseller or other value-adder as the affinity enterprise, and the product manufacturer as the secondary enterprise. By providing a distributed CRM content provider, documentation or other content can be substantially independently created, managed, and/or updated by the particular entity most capable of doing so. Autocontextualization of documents and/or user-provider dialog to concepts allows efficient and inexpensive content management. In addition to dialog-driven concept-organized content providers, other content providers include, among other things, web site documents or services, text search engines, discussion threads, and/or escalation to (or de-escalation from) an interface for interacting with a human customer service representative over a computer network or at the enterprise's CRM call center.

Distributed customer relationship management systems and methods

This document discusses, among other things, systems, devices, and methods for implementing an efficient and cost-effective automated content provider that effectively steers a user to relevant stored documents. Word or text features are extracted from user query language, and matched to substantially similar concept features. The concepts are organized in primary groups, such as Activities, Objects, Symptoms, and Products groups, which may be implemented as taxonomies. Documents that include the concept feature are tagged to that concept. A list of links or other document indicators tagged to the matched concepts is displayed for the user. Derived groups map relationships between concepts in the same or different primary groups, so that a particular matched concept results in the display of related concepts for restricting or otherwise changing the documents in play that are displayed for the user. This document also describes techniques for ranking the related concepts for display to the user.

Efficient and cost-effective content provider for customer relationship management (CRM) or other applications

This document discusses, among other things, a system that receives context, such as from a customer relationship management (CRM) or other case tracking system, and uses the received context to formulate a customized inquiry resolution process, which is particularized to the customer inquiry. The customized process can be used by a customer service agent to resolve the customer inquiry. The customized process can create additional context which is written back to any calling system.

Mark Angel

Papers

System and method for implementing a knowledge management system

System and method for providing an intelligent multi-step dialog with a user

Distributed customer relationship management systems and methods

Efficient and cost-effective content provider for customer relationship management (CRM) or other applications

Context sensitive dynamic user interface for customer service agent