Bean Bag

Spineless.

A little something for faber

Do yourself a faber

Alternative Implementation of Call Center

Most call centers needs sophisticated call management software to distribute calls among the call center workers. Asterix and openpbx are few open source alternatives.  Basically the core design in based on proxy/middleware architecture. I am sure this is expensive.

An alternative way to implement the same functionality would be to use say smartphone based apps. Instead of putting your switching logic on the server, the same can be accomplished via the client. The idea is instead of pushing logic into the IVR or call proxy, use the internet connection and the computing power of the smart phone and your normal webserver (in your favorite langauge) handle the logic aspect of the call and then just make the app call the right number for the job. The approach has multiple benefits.

• Use phone to store the answers to most stupid questions asked like name of the customer, address of the customer, even phone number of the customer, his choice of language and customer specific ids like account number or customer identification number or may be the receipt number etc. No need to waste time. 
• Even if the stored information is insufficient, you could let the customer enter it on his mobile device instead of doing it over the IVR.
• Customer can talk to the same guy he talked to earlier and save time. This helps the customer by skipping the context and generates faster response time.
• No need to buy a special number. Just expose a web API which tells the phone app which number to call based on the information stored in the phone. Put whatever logic you need to put into that web API like .... if customer has called 5 times and the issue is not yet resolved, automatically route the call to the manager. The numbers could be regular mobile numbers or desk phone numbers of the employees. 
• Very easy for the customer to give feedback. You have complete power of the webapp at your disposal. 
• Very easy to implement say a work queue....customer simply presses a button and says call me back. Why wait.

Most "customers" already have smartphones and the ones that don't have are going to have them in next few years. By using the internet connection on phones and their computing power, it is possible to build much better customer management solution at fraction of the cost by offloading the "logic" to the app and webapi and use usual phone number to do the actual talking. Somehow we are still stuck in pushing logic into the phone line. 

Life doesn't teaches us much

Contrary to popular beliefs, I think that life doesn't teaches us much. If it was true, we would have become very much like each other. We are, but then we are not.

I think after a point life simply reinforces what we already know.  

Patents - Necessary Evil

The deal with patents is fairly simple. Innovate, file patent, get exclusive rights for some period of time on your invention and make money from your invention. Now the problems.

• Too many patents being filed
• Too many generic patents 
• Patent Troll
• Defensive patents 

In simple terms the problem is uncertainty. I have developed this cool technology and I have no clue if someone already has a patent on it. File stupid patents, because if you don't someone else will and that is a threat. Oops someone sued me, how much do I need to pay to settle this apart from the lawyer fees. Patents add huge variance to predicting costs/profits in business. 

The fix is simple enough - bring certainty and sanity to the patent ecosystem. 

Time is money

The exclusive rights to use your invention is nothing but a way to make money. And the simplest way to fix this is to base exclusiveness on money and not on time. What this means is that at the time of filing patents, you need to put a monetary value on it which tells the worth of the patent. The cost of filing patent would be based on this monetary value (call it patent tax).  This has two important repercussions.

• Patent Troll is controlled because a finite value is attached to patent. Irrespective of how patents are "sold" to others for use, total payout cannot exceed the declared value of the patent. 
• Stupid patents are avoided because you need to attach monetary value which will be taxed. Unless you are sure that patent is worth that value, you probably don't want to waste money on it.

I guess what I am talking about is making patents a market where patents can be purchased/used to  make life  better on planet by figuring out a way to attach monetary value to patents instead of finding it out through expensive court battles. This makes the process efficient and reduces uncertainty and provide value to both the inventor and the user of the technology. The idea as I understood was always to reward the inventor and never to prevent others from using it. Preventing other from using it is just a way to reward the inventor, but not the only way.  If we can find alternative ways for ensuring the same, we can perhaps bring some sanity to the system so that both the inventor and society as a whole can benefit from the invention at reasonable costs, predictably.