Methods and apparatus for work management and routing

• US 20060173724A1
• Filed: 01/28/2005
• Published: 08/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pegasystems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Pegasystems Incorporated
• Inventors: Hofmann, Andreas G., Trefler, Alan
• Granted Patent: US 8,335,704 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for service-level based and/or skills-based assignment of a work item to one (or more) of a plurality of resources based on fitness, for example, of skills required by the former to those provided by the latter. Assignment takes into account the level of stress on the work item and/or resources, such that the number of resources fit for assignment varies as the level of stress varies. Systems according to the invention can be used, by way of example, to route a call or other request made by a customer to a service center. The requirements for processing the call (determined, for example, by an incoming call operator) are matched against the skill sets of available customer service agents, taking call and/or resource stress levels into account. For example, some implementations may match an incoming call having a low stress factor (e.g., a newly received call from a standard customer) to a smaller pool of agents with both required and desired skills, while assigning a call with a higher stress factor to a larger pool of agents with at least required skills. Other embodiments may match an incoming call having a low stress factor to the larger pool of agents having at least the required skills, while assigning a call with a higher stress factor (e.g., a call from a priority customer) to an agent from the smaller pool of agents who have both required and desired skills.

Claims

1. A method of assigning a work item to one or more resources from a set of plural resources, the method including the steps of

evaluating a fitness of one or more skills any of required or desired (collectively for the claims that follow, “

required”

) by the work item with one or more skills provided by each of the plural resources, where the evaluation is a function of

(a) a similarity between the one or more skills required by the work item and the one or more skills provided by each resource, and

(b) a stress factor, where the stress factor is a measure of stress on any of

(i) one or more work items,

(ii) one or more resources, and

assigning the work item to a resource having at least a selected fitness, wherein the resources having at least the selected fitness varies as the stress factor varies.

2. A method of claim 1 for assigning plural work items to one or more resources, comprising the step of optimizing assignment of the plural work items to the resources based on the fitnesses associated with each of those work items.

3. A method of claim 1, including the steps of

assigning to each of at least selected resources a skill level indicative of a proficiency of that resource with respect to a given skill, and

wherein the evaluating step includes determining the fitness as an additional function of the skill levels assigned to the resources.

4. A method of claim 3, including the steps of

identifying a skill level required by the work item for each of one or more required skills, and

wherein the evaluating step includes determining the fitness as an additional function of the skill level required by the work item for each of one or more required skills.

5. A method of claim 1, including the steps of

assigning to each of at least selected resources a skill level indicative of a proficiency of that resource with respect to each of a plurality of skills, and

wherein the evaluating step includes determining the fitness as an additional function of the skill levels assigned to each of the selected resources.

6. A method of claim 5, including the steps of

identifying a skill level required by the work item for each of a one or more required skills, and

wherein the evaluating step includes determining the fitness as an additional function of the skill levels required by the work item.

7. A method of assigning a work item to one or more resources from a set of plural resources, the method including the steps of

evaluating a fitness of one or more skills any of required or desired (collectively for the claims that follow, “

required”

) by the work item with one or more skills provided by each of the plural resources, where at least one resource has a preferred skill,

the evaluation being a function of

(a) a similarity between the one or more skills required by the work item and the one or more skills provided by each of the plurality of resources,

(b) a similarity between the one or more skills required by the work item and a preferred skill provided by one or more resources, and

(c) a stress factor, where the stress factor is a measure a stress on any of

(i) one or more work items,

(ii) one or more resources, and

assigning the work item to a resource having at least a selected fitness, wherein the resources having at least the selected fitness varies as the stress factor varies.

8. A method of claim 7, including the step of assigning relative preference levels to each of a plurality of skills provided by a resource.

9. A method of claim 8, including the step of assigning primary, secondary and tertiary preference levels to skills provided by a resource.

10. A method of claim 7, including the steps of

assigning to each of at least selected resources a skill level indicative of a proficiency of that resource with respect to a given skill, and

wherein the evaluating step includes determining the fitness as an additional function of the skill levels assigned to the resources.

11. A method of claim 10, wherein the evaluation is a function of a level of stress on a system executing the claimed method.

12. A method of claim 11, wherein the evaluation of fitness of one or more skills required by at least one work item with one or more skills provided by at least one resource varies as a function of the level of stress on the system.

13. A method of claim 12, wherein the evaluation of fitness of one or more skills any of required or desired by at least one work item with one or more skills provided by at least one resource increases as a level of stress on the system increases.

14. A method of claim 13, wherein the evaluation of fitness of one or more skills desired by at least one work item with one or more skills provided by at least one resource increases as a level of stress on the system increases.

15. A method of claim 10, including the steps of

identifying a skill level required by the work item for each of one or more required skills, and

wherein the evaluating step includes determining the fitness as an additional function of the skill level required by the work item for each of one or more required skills.

16. A method of claim 7, including the steps of

assigning to each of at least selected resources a skill level indicative of a proficiency of that resource with respect to each of a plurality of skills, and

wherein the evaluating step includes determining the fitness as an additional function of the skill levels assigned to each of the selected resources.

17. A method of claim 16, including the steps of

identifying a skill level required by the work item for each of a one or more required skills, and

wherein the evaluating step includes determining the fitness as an additional function of the skill levels required by the work item.

18-21. -21. (canceled)

22. A method of assigning a work item to one or more resources from a set of plural resources, the method including the steps of

evaluating a fitness of one or more skills required by the work item with one or more skills provided by each of the plural resources, where the evaluation is a function of

(a) a similarity between the one or more skills any of required or desired (collectively for the claims that follow, “

required”

) by the work item and the one or more skills provided by each resource,

(b) a stress factor, where the stress factor is a measure reflecting a completion status of the work item with respect to a deadline associated therewith, and

assigning the work item to a resource having at least a selected fitness, wherein the resources having at least the selected fitness varies as the stress factor varies.

23. A method of claim 22, wherein the stress factor is based on a completion status of the work item with respect to a plurality of deadlines.

24. A method of claim 22, comprising

assigning a first stress factor to reflect whether the work item has been completed by a first deadline,

assigning one or more other stress factors to reflect whether the work has been completed by one or more other subsequent respective deadlines.

25. A method of claim 24, comprising

assigning a first stress factor to reflect whether the work item has been completed by a first deadline or goal deadline,

assigning a second stress factor to reflect whether the work item has been completed by a second deadline or due deadline, and

assigning a third stress factor to reflect that the work item has not been completed by the due deadline.

26. A method of claim 22, including the steps of

assigning to each of at least selected resources a skill level indicative of a proficiency of that resource with respect to a given skill, and

wherein the evaluating step includes determining the fitness as an additional function of the skill levels assigned to the resources.

27-46. -46. (canceled)

47. A method of assigning a plurality of work items to one or more resources from a set of plural resources, the method including the steps of

evaluating for each of the plural work items a fitness of

(i) one or more skills any of required or desired (collectively for the claims that follow, “

required”

) by that work item, with

(ii) one or more skills provided by each of the plural resources, where the evaluation is a function of

(a) a similarity between the one or more skills required by that work item and the one or more skills provided by each resource, and

(b) a stress factor, where the stress factor is a measure of stress on any of

(i) one or more work items,

(ii) one or more resources, and

optimizing assignment of the plural work items to the resources based on the respective fitnesses,

where at least one of the plural resources is a delaying action.

48. A method of claim 47, comprising assigning a work item to the delaying action and to one or more other resources.

49. A method according to claim 47, comprising the steps of

generating one or more further work items that correspond to a work item assigned to the delaying action, and

assigning the further work items to one or more resources other than a delaying action.

50-58. -58. (canceled)