A proxy-server system (15) connected preferably to a computer-telephone
system (10) intercepts, processes, and analyzes as traffic-analysis results
(68A-C) all forms of real- and non-real-time electronic communication passing
over the network in the form of raw traffic data (61). The proxy-server
system normalizes each communication into the measure of time needed by recipient(s)
of the communication to understand the information contained therein. Once normalized,
the data may be aggregated into summary reports (69A-C). As part of the
analysis, the aggregated communication records are compared with user-defined rules
to provide alerts if the individual or aggregated durations exceed boundaries set
by the rules. In one embodiment, the summary reports may be integrated with general-ledger
data (94) and other raw business data (74) via a relational database
(72) to derive more accurate records of activity-based-costing information
(76). Additionally, the data of the summary reports may be visualized in
two- or three-dimensional representations of communication-flow patterns to illustrate
in an intuitive and semantically scalable manner the desired level of detail for
time and time-based expense consumed by the electronic interactions of an individual
or organization.
