Methods and apparatus for work management and routing
First Claim
1. A computer implemented method of making one or more resource assignments by assigning a work item to one or more resources from a set of plural resources, the method including the steps ofevaluating by a computer a fitness of one or more skills any of required or desired 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 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 reflecting a completion status of the work item with respect to at least one deadline associated therewith, and/or of a level of stress on any of(i) one or more work items,(ii) one or more resources, andassigning by a computer the work item to a resource selected from a pool of resources each having at least a selected fitness, wherein as a result of said evaluation of said function, the size of the pool of resources having at least the selected fitness changes as the stress factor varies such that the size changes from any of:
- a smaller pool having resources with both the required and desired skills to a larger pool with at least required skills, ora larger pool with at least required skills to a smaller pool having both the required and desired skills.
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Accused Products
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.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. A computer implemented method of making one or more resource assignments by assigning a work item to one or more resources from a set of plural resources, the method including the steps of
evaluating by a computer a fitness of one or more skills any of required or desired 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 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 reflecting a completion status of the work item with respect to at least one deadline associated therewith, and/or of a level of stress on any of (i) one or more work items, (ii) one or more resources, and assigning by a computer the work item to a resource selected from a pool of resources each having at least a selected fitness, wherein as a result of said evaluation of said function, the size of the pool of resources having at least the selected fitness changes as the stress factor varies such that the size changes from any of: -
a smaller pool having resources with both the required and desired skills to a larger pool with at least required skills, or a larger pool with at least required skills to a smaller pool having both the required and desired skills. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A computer implemented method of making one or more resource assignments by assigning a work item to one or more resources from a set of plural resources, the method including the steps of:
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evaluating by a computer a fitness of one or more skills any of required or desired 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 any of required or desired by the work item and the one or more skills provided by each of the plurality of resources, and (b) a stress factor, where the stress factor is a measure reflecting a completion status of the work item with respect to at least one deadline associated therewith, and/or of a level of stress on any of (i) one or more work items, (ii) one or more resources, and assigning by a computer the work item to a resource selected from a pool of resources each having at least a selected fitness, wherein as a result of said evaluation of said function, the size of the pool of resources having at least the selected fitness changes as the stress factor varies such that the size changes from any of; a pool of a first size, which pool has resources that at least provide a matching preferred skill, to a pool of second size, which pool has resources that provide at least one of the matching preferred skill or a matching secondary skill, or a pool of a first size, which pool has resources that provide at least one of the matching preferred skill or the matching secondary skill, to a pool of a second size, which pool has resources that at least provide the matching preferred skill. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A computer implemented method of making one or more resource assignments by assigning a work item to one or more resources from a set of plural resources, the method including the steps of
evaluating by a computer a fitness of one or more skills any of required or desired 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 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 by a computer the work item to a resource selected from a pool of resources each having at least a selected fitness wherein as a result of said evaluation of said function, the size of the pool of resources having at least the selected fitness changes as the stress factor varies such that the size changes if the work item is not complete when said deadline passes from any of a smaller pool having resources with both the required and desired skills to a larger pool with at least required skills, or a larger pool with at least required skills to a smaller pool having both the required and desired skills.
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27. A computer implemented method of making one or more resource assignments by assigning a plurality of work items to one or more resources from a set of plural resources, the method including the steps of
evaluating by a computer for each of the plurality of work items a fitness of (i) one or more skills any of required or desired 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 any of required or desired 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 reflecting a completion status of at least one of the plurality of work items with respect to at least one deadline associated therewith, and of a level of stress on any of (i) one or more work items, (ii) one or more resources, and optimizing assignment by a computer of the plurality of work items to the resources based on the respective fitnesses, where at least one of the plural resources is a delaying action, and wherein each of the plurality of work items is assigned a resource selected from a pool of resources each having at least a selected fitness, wherein as a result of said evaluation of said function, the size of the pool of resources having at least the selected fitness changes as the stress factor varies such that the size changes from any of: -
a smaller pool having resources with both the required and desired skills to a larger pool with at least required skills, or a larger pool with at least required skills to a smaller pool having both the required and desired skills. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
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Specification