A JADE-LEAP based application to Support Team-based Job

A JADE-LEAP based application to Support Team-based Job Management in a Telecommunications Service Environment Habin Lee and John Shepherdson {ha. lee, john. shepherdson}@bt. com

Mobile Workforce Management Issues • BT has 25, 000 Engineers performing 150, 000 installation and repair tasks each day in the UK • A centralized workflow system is scheduling all the tasks based on estimated travelling and task execution time Typical Customer Issues - “Why should I wait for at home from 9: 00 to 5: 00” (real time progress tracking) - “They rarely arrive on time even if they promise” (exception handling) -“Somebody visited my home three times just to replace a simple component” (KM / stock mgt) - “They changed the delivery date three times over four months” (Integration with legacy systems) - “Why can’t I ask the delivery driver about the Company’s products? ” (Knowledge retrieval)

MAS as an enabler of enterprise mobilization • Purely distributed system (scalable for differing sizes of workforce) • Well known interaction protocols can be used to coordinate distributed mobile workers • Agents can learn preferences of each worker and provide customized services • Autonomous response to structured conversation components – Where are you ? / Which job are you working on ? / what’s your next job location ? etc. • Wrapper agents integrate legacy systems

m. Power: A mobile CSCW System • A smart agent on a mobile device that - Provides mobile worker with services by executing pluggable coordination components (C-COMs) - Configures user interface and service access based on device type and user role - Features (semi) autonomous personal agents To increase team interaction, empower the individual and enhance the customer experience

Dynamic service provision and composition Resource DB (People & Job) Web pages File System …. . ……. . Firewall Wf. MS Knowledge exchange Job trade Swap Shift / Leave Smart Agent Peer-to-Peer Coordination GPRS over VPN Device profile / user role Smart Agent KM System Workflow Agent KMS Gateway Agent Register service and component (C-COM) Service Librarian Agent

Service Library Decentralised work co-ordination Trade Work Request / Swap Shift Trade Overtime / Cancel Leave Bookings Call For Overtime Registration Request Expertise Make Collective Decision Request Leave Change Travel management Plan Route / Replan Route Estimate Route Cost Knowledge Management Attendance Management And more Find Expert Find Relevant Information Update Knowledge Base

Customer Experience • Prior to Engineer visit (self service) – Log job via Web • Specify ring ahead number and time threshold • Receive appointment time – Track progress via Web • Engineer’s name and proximity • Dynamically re-assign to a nearest engineer in case of exceptional cases (Feedback is sent to the customer automatically)

Customer Experience • During visit (via Engineer’s mobile terminal) – Request and be given other product and service details – Place orders and be given appointments – Agree (via electronic signature) e. g. • time related charges; consent to dig. • On completion (via Engineer’s mobile terminal) – Customer Satisfaction survey (electronic signature)

Conclusions • Increased flexibility on mobile workflow management via cooperation of multiple agents • Increased customer satisfaction via agile workforce management • Exploitation of multi agent technology for mobile CSCW (Computer Supported Cooperative Work) • Validation via field trials – Technical feasibility – Usability – Business benefits

What Next? • Context Understanding for Work Milestone Management • Device Adaptation and Dynamic Device Change • Voice-Text Integrated Human-Agent Interaction

Context Understanding for Work Milestone Management Location trace GUI Usage Log Services used Job schedule / due date He is executing Job 2 with probability of xxx

Device Adaptation and Dynamic Device profile Change <Device> <Type>Mobile. Phone </Type> <Screen> <Colour>2</Colour> <Size>300</Size> …. Device profile <Device> <Type>PDA</Type> <Screen> <Colour>256</Colour> <Size>1204</Size> …. C-COM Library GUI & Service Mediator

Voice-Text Integrated Human-Agent Interaction Do you want to accept a job offer? Please answer with one of. . TTS Job Offer Voice Input List of possible answers -Accept -Reject -Defer

Selected References 1. H. Lee, P. Mihailescu and J. Shepherdson, Multi-Agent Technology as an enabler of Computer Supported Cooperative Work for the Mobile Workforce, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Forthcoming, September 2004 2. H. Lee, P. Mihailescu, and J. Shepherdson, m. Power: A Reusable Framework for Building Multi-Agent Systems to Automate Business Processes, BT Technology Journal, 21 (4), 92 -103, Oct. 2003. H. Lee, J. Shepherdson, P. Mihailescu, A Multi-agent System for Team-based Job Management in Telecommunications Service Environment. Special Issue on Jade of Telecom Italia Journal Exp, 3 (3), 96 -105, Sep. 2003. 4. H. Lee, P. Mihailescu, and J. Shepherdson, Conversational Component-based Open Multi-agent Architecture for Flexible Information Trade, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI), 2782, 109 -116, 2003. 5. Berger, M. , Buckland, B. , Bouzid, M. , Lee, H. , Lhuillier, N. , Olpp, D. , Picault, J. , and Shepherdson, J. , An Approach to Agent-based Service Composition and it's Application to Mobile Business Processes. IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 2(3), 197 -206, 2003. 6. H. Lee, S. Case, and J. Shepherdson, Agent Mediated Knowledge Management for Mobile Workforces in a Telecommunications Service Provision and Maintenance Domain, In Proceedings of ECAI workshop on Agent Mediated Knowledge Management, August 22 -27, 2004, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain). 7. P. Mihailescu, J. Shepherdson, P. Marrow, L. Lee, and H. Lee, MAS platforms as an enabler of enterprise mobilisation: The state of the art, In Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man & Cybernetics, The Hague, Netherland, October 10 -13, 2004.

m. Power: Demonstration

Coordination centric m. Power Demo 3: Job Trade (mini) Team Member B Team Member A 2: Job Publication 4: Job Trade (maxi) Team Leader 1: Job Notification (new or urgent job) All coordination via C-COMs 5: Job Update/ Closure Job DB