Abstract:
A system and method automatically allocates agent resources and prioritizes call campaigns to maximize productivity of a call center by prioritizing call distribution along with agent resource allocation to those campaigns enjoying a high level of success, such as sales success, during a particular period of time. A plurality of call campaigns are grouped together to form a pacing group. Each call campaign in the pacing group is then assigned a campaign pacing ratio each having a sales success criteria. During the processing of the call campaigns, the pacing ratio of each call campaign will then be adjusted, whereby those campaigns realizing higher levels of current sales success will have their pacing ratios increased while those experiencing lower levels of current success will have their pacing ratios decreased.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to telephony management systems and more particularly, to a system and method of prioritizing a plurality of telephone call campaigns based on campaign productivity. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Many business and customer service organizations utilize automated call distribution systems which route incoming calls to operators or agents in one or more various departments. Such systems efficiently screen incoming calls and are capable of providing initial, preliminary information to the customer by automated voice in response to system prompts. As a need for an agent occurs, the inbound telephone system distributes the incoming call to an agent based on agent availability. 
     Additionally, credit collection agencies and other types of business utilize outbound automated dialing systems to efficiently reach customers by automatically dialing telephone numbers contained within a pre-selected group of call records. Upon detecting a live answer, the automated dialing system connects the call to an agent, typically based on agent availability. However, if agents receive incoming or outbound calls without consideration as to their capabilities or experience, many instances are presented where assigned agents are incapable of servicing a call. Placing such a call on hold while a more suitable agent is located is time consuming and cost inefficient, resulting in lost or abandoned calls. 
     In an attempt to direct specific incoming calls to pre-selected agents, some prior art systems utilize agent splits or hunt groups. These systems require incoming call campaigns to be pre-set such that specific calls are directed to pre-selected agents. However, these system are limited in that agents are not selected dynamically as the call campaign is active based on agent attributes. Rather, agents are bound to an incoming call campaign prior to activation of the call campaign. 
     More sophisticated prior are systems and methods, such as the system and method disclosed in commonly-owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,592,543, which is incorporated herein by reference, provide systems and methods for allocating agents to telephone call campaigns by a telephony system for servicing call records contained in call campaigns. Such systems allocate agent resources to service telephone call campaigns based on agent experience and expertise, and not solely on first availability. 
     With respect to outbound telephone call campaigns, it is a common occurrence to have a call center simultaneously process more than one call campaign. However, with currently available systems and methodologies, each campaign is individually run by the call center telephony system. Like the differing success levels realized by different agents, there are also differences in successes realized by different campaigns. The differences in success may be due to a wide variety of factors, including the type of script being used, the product or service being offered for sale or the price of the product or service. It could also be due other factors, such as the time at which a particular campaign is being run. 
     Telemarketing companies recognize the fact that certain campaigns will enjoy different success levels at different times and accordingly they quite often vary the types of campaigns that they run at particular times. However, in order to determine which types of campaigns are successful and which types are not, call centers are typically forced to initiate many campaigns at different times and then analyze the success levels achieved. As can be appreciated, this strategy is time consuming since it requires a significant amount of trial and error in order to compile the necessary results. 
     In addition, simple trial and error does not identify a specific problem with a campaign. For example a campaign may not be successful because it is initiated at the wrong time of day or wrong time of year or to a wrong class of prospective customers (e.g. male customers vs. female customers). Thus, in order to determine the reason why a campaign is or is not successful would require a great deal of trial and error. During this time period, the overall productivity of the call center would be adversely affected. 
     Accordingly, what is needed is an automated system and method of managing multiple call campaigns that eliminates the manual trial and error strategies that are currently being utilized by call center supervisors. Such a system would allow a call center to initiate multiple campaigns and determine which of those campaigns are successful and which are not and automatically adjust call pacing to take advantage of those call campaigns that are realizing success and reduce the call pacing to those campaigns that are not immediately successful. A desirable system would also be able to detect changes in success levels of call campaigns dynamically and adjust pacing levels accordingly to account for dynamic changes in success levels realized by the call campaigns. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In accordance with the present invention, a method for allocating agents to a plurality of telephone call campaigns by a telephony system is provided for servicing call records contained within the plurality of telephone call campaigns. The method is aimed at maximizing productivity of a call center by prioritizing call distribution along with agent resource allocation to those campaigns enjoying a high level of success during a particular period of time. 
     In one preferred embodiment, the method begins by providing a plurality of agent resources to participate in a plurality of call campaigns to be managed by a telephony system. The plurality of call campaigns are grouped together to form a pacing group. Each call campaign in the pacing group is then assigned a campaign pacing ratio which is a function of an assigned overall group pacing ratio and a fractional amount of agent resources allocated to each call campaign. 
     Next, a call center supervisor or other person responsible for the success or productivity of the call center establishes success criteria for each call campaign in the pacing group. Then, during the processing of the call campaigns, each connected call is monitored to determine if the established success criteria has been met. Based on a level of recognized success, the pacing ratio of each call campaign will then be adjusted, whereby those campaigns realizing higher levels of current success will have their pacing ratios increased while those experiencing lower levels of current success will have their pacing ratios decreased. Given a constant amount of agent resources to allocate amongst the plurality of call campaigns, the overall campaign group pacing ratio will remain constant. 
     Since the updating step occurs dynamically, as particular campaigns become increasingly or decreasingly successful, the system will reallocate the prioritization of calls thus taking advantage of those immediately successful call campaigns. Since call campaigns experiencing a high degree of current success will be assigned higher pacing indexes, more calls will be directed those campaigns and more agent resources will be allocated thereto to handle the increase in the number of calls initiated on those successful campaigns. Accordingly, the overall efficiency and productivity of the call center will be enhanced. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be better understood by reading the following detailed description, taken together with the drawings wherein: 
     FIG. 1 is a diagrammatical representation of a telephony system capable of call processing in accordance with the present invention; 
     FIGS. 2A and 2B are a diagrammatical representation showing in more detailed description the telephony system of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is a diagrammatical representation of the outbound campaign manager of FIG. 2, which is configured to adjust call pacing and agent resource allocation to take advantage of successful campaigns according to the present invention; and 
     FIG.  4 . is a flow diagram showing the steps of a method of prioritizing a plurality of telephone campaigns to increase call center productivity according to the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     A telephony system  10 , FIG. 1, capable of controlling and combining inbound call processing and outbound dialing automation includes a telephony resource server  12 , coupled to a digital communication server  14  as well as a supervisor station  24  and management center  22 . A telephony resource server  12 , digital communication server  14 , supervisor station  24  and management center  22 , may be provided, for example, as the Davox Unison® system manufactured by Davox Corporation, Westford, Mass. 
     The system may provide a plurality of telephony resource servers  12   a - 12   n , generally denoted as  12 , for increased capabilities. Similarly, the system may provide a plurality of digital communication servers  14   a - 14   n , generally denoted as  14 . 
     Telephony resource server  12  initiates and maintains outgoing call campaigns and integrates incoming call center activities with a customer provided inbound call center which may be coupled to the present system as another digital communication server. Outgoing call campaign parameters are generated by the supervisor/customer at the supervisor station  24  in response to menu-driven prompts. Call campaigns may be monitored by one or more management centers  22  once initiated by telephony resource server  12 . 
     Telephony resource server  12  comprises various functions, discussed below in greater detail in conjunction with FIG. 2, which interact with the other components of the telephony platform  10  to perform the active call campaigns. 
     For outgoing call campaigns initiated by the supervisor/customer, telephony resource server  12  obtains a group of call records from a database  21  within a host system  20  via signal path  30 . The telephony resource server  12  processes the call records as directed by preselected system scripts and sends a request to digital communication server  14  to dial a telephone number contained within the call record. 
     Digital communication server  14  detects a dial tone, dials a telephone number over a trunk line  36  to the central telephone company switching office  18 . Once a call is answered, the digital communication server forwards the voice portion of the call over voice path  38  to the headset of a preselected operator (not shown) located at one of a plurality of agent workstations  16   a - 16   n , generally denoted as  16 . The agents are selected by the telephony resource server  12  in response to the initial call campaign parameters established by the supervisor/customer at the supervisor station  24 . 
     In one embodiment, the agent at agent workstation  16  interfaces with the telephony resource server  12  over signal path  34  to obtain customer information from host system  20  over signal path  30 . In another embodiment, the agent interacts directly with host  20  and data path  19  through protocol converter  17 . In response, host system  20  sends data contained within and/or associated with each call record to the requesting agent workstation  16 . 
     For inbound calls, the central office  18  typically sends incoming calls to digital communication server  14  via a plurality of T 1  type preselected telephone lines within trunk  36 . Alternatively, an ACD (Automated Call Distributor) which is generally in existence at the customer location may handle such incoming calls. In response, digital communication server  14  sends an incoming call signal over signal path  32  to telephony resource server  12  for inbound call processing. Telephony resource server  12  processes the incoming calls in accordance with preselected system scripts, discussed in greater detail in conjunction with FIG. 2, below, sending data over signal path  34  and directing digital communication server  14  to send the incoming call to a preselected agent at agent workstation  16  over voice path  38 . 
     Referring now to FIG. 2, the functional components of the telephony platform  10  are discussed in greater detail. The supervisor/customer logs in at supervisor station  24  to establish inbound and outbound call campaigns. Supervisor station  24  typically includes a display monitor  42  featuring color bitmapped graphics, a keyboard  44  and a graphical supervisor/customer interface  46  and is further described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,343,518, issued on Aug. 30, 1994, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference. The supervisor station  24  may be provided, for example, as a SUN IPC model workstation manufactured by Sun Microsystems, Chelmsford, Mass. 
     The supervisor/customer establishes both inbound and outbound call campaigns in response to menu-driven prompts provided by the graphical supervisor/customer interface  46 . System scripts are generated through a layered approach to define system behavior to the extent necessary for the desired call campaign. The highest layer interface is simply a form to be filled in by the supervisor/customer based on a specific call campaign application, for example, an outbound dialing call campaign versus an inbound call campaign. If a more complex set of criteria is necessary or desired, the supervisor/customer may be presented with a lower layer comprising more complicated forms to allow the supervisor/customer to better define the behavior of the telephony platform  10 . 
     A system script is activated when a defined event occurs, such as a call record to dial, an incoming call is received, a function key is pressed at an agent workstation  16 , etc. A script may also be bound by the supervisor/customer to specific events, being activated when the event is posted by the system, such as when a call is completed, a time of day, etc. 
     In addition to system scripts, the supervisor/customer generates other campaign parameters for each call campaign, such as how the telephony resource server  12  should respond in the event of a busy dial tone, a no answer dial tone, etc. Further, agent and trunk parameters are defined by the supervisor/customer, discussed below in greater detail, as well as how the system should process the particular call campaigns. Once the call campaigns have been defined, the supervisor/customer notifies the telephony resource server  12  over signal path  30  that the particular call campaign is ready to start. 
     For an outbound call campaign, the outbound campaign manager  62  of telephony resource server  12  is directed to begin the call campaign. The outbound campaign manager  62  receives a group of call records from a host system  20 , each call record including a telephone number for the outbound campaign manager  62  to dial. Depending on the type of host system  20  used to generate the batch of call records, a communication server  58  may be required to permit the host system  20  to communicate with the telephony resource server  12 . Communication server  58  may be a protocol converter used for converting the communication protocol used by host system  20 , typically an SNA or Token-Ring protocol, over bus  114 , to the communication protocol utilized by the telephony resource server, typically a TCP/IP protocol, over bus  57 . 
     The group of call records sent to the outbound campaign manager  62  is selected in response to one or more call record selection criteria initially generated by the supervisor/customer. The call record selection criteria defines and groups call records with similar characteristics within the call record database  21  of host system  20 . As records are selected, system scripts initially generated by the supervisor/customer are activated to initiate dialing activity. The supervisor/customer may monitor the processing of the telephony system by the outbound campaign manager  62  at the management center  22 . Management center  22  typically includes a database  52  for storing the call records downloaded from host system  20 , a group controller  54  and a flow controller  56 , and is further described in part in commonly-owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,343,518. 
     Flow controller  56  is provided for linking a plurality of call campaigns in a selected order and to apply the call campaigns to the telephony resource server  12  via the call manager  68  over signal path  69 . The call manager  68  processes and formulates the outbound call campaign as directed by the preselected campaign parameters or system scripts, and forwards the outbound call campaign to the outbound campaign manager  62 . The flow controller may also change the order in which the call campaigns are joined, all such changes being performed in real-time, even after being applied by the telephony resource server  12 . 
     Group controller  54  is provided for monitoring the call campaign in real-time. The supervisor/customer may modify the particular outbound call campaign, as well as the inbound call campaign discussed below, by changing the preselected campaign parameters, system scripts or call record selection criteria. All such changes are performed in real time. The outbound campaign manager  62  provides a supervisor/customer interface to enable modifications to the outbound call campaign while the campaign is active in response to modifications made by the supervisor/customer. 
     The campaign parameters initially generated by the supervisor/customer further include campaign resources such as agents and/or outbound dialing trunks which possess predetermined resource attributes. A telephony application client  72  (discussed in more detail below) sends a request to the agent resource manager  74  for an agent possessing specific agent attributes as defined by the supervisor/customer. The agent resource manager  74  monitors available agents possessing the specified agent attributes and upon availability, allocates an agent possessing the specified attributes to the telephony application client  72 . 
     Similarly, the telephony application client  72  sends a request to the trunk resource manager  68  for an outbound trunk possessing specific trunk attributes as defined by the supervisor/customer. The trunk resource manager  68  monitors available trunks possessing the specified trunk attributes such as least cost routing, ISDN trunk, direct line, etc. and allocates a trunk possessing the specified attributes to the telephony application client  72 . 
     The agent resource manager  74  and the trunk resource manager  68  report particular agent log-ons and log-offs and trunk availabilities to the system event server  70 , discussed below in greater detail, thereby providing real-time detailed information on the agent and trunk resources. By monitoring the stream of events occurring within the system, the outbound campaign manager  62  determines when it is time to initiate each new outbound dial. Once an agent resource and/or trunk resource is available to service the outbound dial, the outbound campaign manager  62  obtains a call record and initiates the telephony application client  72 , preselected by the supervisor/customer at the start of the particular outbound call campaign, to process the call record. 
     The telephony application client  72  includes programs, campaign call scripts, or other processes that make use of the telephony platform  10  resources to perform telephony operations. The telephony application client  72  may be started by the outbound campaign manager  62  to process a call record or an outbound dialing application or the inbound campaign manager  64  to process an incoming call, or it may be started by the system event server  70  to perform some programmed response to a system defined event. 
     The telephony application client  72  sends a request to the telephony application server  78  to initiate a call according to the parameters generated by the outbound campaign manager  62 . 
     The request to generate an outbound call from the telephony application client  72  includes dialing instructions such as the maximum number of rings allowed before declaring a no answer. The telephony application server  78  further directs the digital communication server  14  to wait and listen for predetermined signal patterns and to return a status signal indicating what signal pattern was detected. Predetermined signal patterns include busy tones, voice detection, answering machine, modem/fax signals, etc. 
     The digital communication server  14  detects, reports, and generates a variety of signals, and detects specific states on a particular digital switch port using digital signal processor  92 . Further, digital signal processor  92  is capable of playing digitized voice, as well as recording and play back of incoming voice via PCM bus  101 . Digital voice messages are stored on disk, and transferred from the telephony resource server  12  over path  32 , and referenced by campaign call scripts directed by telephony application server  78  over signal path  79 . An auxiliary digital signal processor  93  may be used for expansion capability. Those skilled in the art will recognize that a plurality of auxiliary digital signal processors  93  a may be used for increased expansion capability. Communication between the digital signal processor  92  and the auxiliary digital signal processors  93   a  is accomplished  12  by a plurality of ethernet buses  105 . 
     Digital signal processor  92  interfaces with digital switch  94  over VME communication bus  95  and PCM communication bus  101 . Digital switch  94  includes switch ports which may attach to T 1  channel  36 , agent headsets of agent workstations  16  and private branch exchange  90  extensions. A plurality of digital switches  94   n  may be used for increased switching capability. 
     Local internal switch  94  interfaces with line interface card  96  over VME communication bus  95  and PCM communication bus  101  and provides for rapid switching between an agent and the incoming/outgoing trunk lines. Line interface card  96  optionally interface with the agent workstations  16  directly over voice path  15  or via private branch exchange  90 , over TI telephone lines  97 , to provide T 1 , analog and audio interface functions. A plurality of line interface cards  96   n  may be used for increased capability. 
     The private branch exchange  90  sends voice path  93  to agent workstation  16  to connect the outside third party, reached by an outbound call record dial, or an inbound calling party, to the headset of the agent selected by the outbound campaign manager  62  or inbound campaign manager  64 . 
     Three-way connections between the agent, outside third party and the agent&#39;s supervisor may be requested by the agent after the call has been answered, enabling features such as conferencing and consulting via the digital switch  94  and serviced by the telephony application server  78 . 
     Upon receiving an outbound call over voice path  93  to the agent&#39;s headset, the system automatically provides customer information contained within the call record from the host to the agent&#39;s workstation. In the preferred embodiment, agent workstations  16  are data terminals which utilize an ethernet network. Direct communication may be made with the telephony resource server  12  over bus  81 , and in particular to the workstation application server  76  over bus  112  which also utilizes an ethernet network. 
     The workstation application server  76  interfaces with the host system  20  by means of a forms package which has the ability to access the call record database containing customer information and to forward the customer information to the workstation screen at the agent workstation  16 . Further, the forms package has the ability to update this database based on responses by the agent at the agent workstation  16  to forms package prompts. 
     In an additional embodiment, the agent workstation  16  may be a dumb terminal utilizing a proprietary asynchronous communication protocol over line  102  requiring a communication server  80 , illustrated in dashed lines, as a protocol converter. To permit communication with the telephony resource server  12  over bus  108 , and in particular with the workstation application server  76 , over bus  112 , proprietary asynchronous line  102  is converted by ethernet converter  84  to an ethernet network thereby allowing compatibility with workstation application server  76 . For direct communication with the host system  20  over bus  110 , proprietary asynchronous line  102  is converted to the protocol utilized by host system  20 , typically SNA or Token-Ring, by protocol converter  82 . The telephony resource server  12  further includes a system event server  70  for providing the supervisor/customer real-time access to the current status and detail information on campaigns, agents, trunks, etc. The supervisor/customer may access this information through graphical supervisor/customer interface  46  at the supervisor workstation  24 , as well as through a standard spread sheet or reporting package. 
     The system event server  70  is the central focal point for posting system events and maintaining real-time information as to current system activity. All of the functional components within the telephony resource server  12  communicate with the system event server  70  as indicated by signal paths  65  and  75  to maintain current system activity. All system events which can be posted by the system are predefined by the supervisor/customer and posted in an event database  71  within the system event server  70  as specific events occur. As system events are posted in the event database, system statistics, stored in the statistics database within the system event server  70 , are updated thereby providing the supervisor/customer with real-time system information. 
     Turning now to FIG. 3, an automated system  200  for prioritizing a plurality of call campaigns to maximize call center productivity is shown. The automated system  200  includes an outbound campaign processor  62  as explained above. However, in this specific embodiment, the outbound campaign processor  62  further includes a call campaign prioritizer  120 , which works in connection with a call campaign success processor  130  to automatically identify if any of the call campaigns being managed by the telephony system  10  (FIGS. 1 and 2) are realizing greater current success than any of the other campaigns presently running. 
     The call campaign success processor monitors each call connected to a call center agent  16  by the telephony system  10  and compares the result of each call with established success criteria that is stored in a success criteria database  140  to determine if the established success criteria has been satisfied. Of course, since the telephony system will be managing a plurality of different call campaigns simultaneously, there may be differing success criteria for each call campaign. As will be discussed in greater detail below, when the success processor  130  identifies one or more successful campaigns, then the call campaign prioritizer  120  will adjust the pacing ratios of each campaign to increase the number of calls being made on successful campaigns and decrease the number of calls being made on unsuccessful campaigns. 
     The call campaign processor  120  will work in connection with the agent resource manager  74  and trunk resource manager  66  to ensure that sufficient agent and trunk resources are allocated and available to participate in the plurality of call campaigns that are being simultaneously run by the telephony system  10 . 
     The goal of the system and method of the present invention is to automatically control call pacing based on the current productivities of a plurality of call campaigns being simultaneously managed by a telephony system. Call pacing is a function of a pacing ratio assigned to a call campaign. A pacing ration may be fixed or it may be adjusted, either manually or automatically, in response to conditions monitored by a telephony system or system supervisor. 
     If an agent is logged onto multiple call campaigns, then the agent is considered to be a “resource” for each of the campaigns or, more precisely, a “fractional resource” for each campaign. Campaigns having higher pacing ratios would use more of an agent resource than campaigns having lower pacing ratios. 
     However, in order to automatically control the call pacing in one campaign, the system and method must consider all of the campaigns that are competing for control of the agent resources that are assigned to the plurality of campaigns. The system and method cannot simply raise one or more campaign pacing ratios since there are a finite number of agent resources available for the entire plurality of campaigns being managed by the telephony system. Accordingly, if one or more pacing ratios are raised, then one or more of the pacing ratios associated with the other campaigns must be reduced. In the preferred embodiment, where the productivity of a call center is the ultimate goal, then agent resources would be taken away from call campaigns that are not realizing current success and applied to those campaigns that are currently successful. 
     In order to effectively manage resources that are being shared by more than one campaign, the disclosed system and method establishes a pacing group. Individual campaigns are created and collectively are assigned a standard pacing method, which may be a standard ratio or automatic percentage as are well known to those skilled in the art. As one or more campaign included in the pacing group becomes successful, then that campaign will take agent resources from the other campaigns in the pacing group so that more calls can be placed on the successful campaign(s). Thus, the group of campaigns included in the pacing group would collectively maintain a set overall pacing level. 
     Referring now to FIG. 4, a method  300  of prioritizing a plurality of telephone call campaigns to increase the productivity of a call center including a telephony system for managing the plurality of campaigns is provided. The method begins by grouping at least two call campaigns into a campaign pacing group, step  310 . Then a plurality of agent resources are assigned by the telephony system to participate in all of the call campaigns included in the campaign pacing group, step  320 . 
     Once the pacing group is established and the agent resources are assigned thereto, a fraction of the assigned agent resources is assigned to each campaign in the pacing group, step  330 . For example, if a pacing group includes four call campaigns, when the campaign group is initiated, the call center supervisor may desire to assign one-fourth of the agent resources to each campaign. Of course, unequal initial agent resource allocations would also be contemplated by the invention. 
     Then, in step  340 , an initial call pacing ratio is set for each call campaign in the pacing group. The initial call pacing ratios are based on an overall pacing group pacing ratio and the fraction of agent resources allocated to each call campaign in step  330 . For example, the overall pacing group pacing ratio may be set as a number of telephone lines assigned to a number of agents, such as three lines for two agents. 
     After the initial pacing ratios are established, then the call center supervisor or other individual responsible for the success of each call campaign establishes success criteria for each campaign, step  350 . Then, during the processing of the pacing group, each call made for each campaign is monitored and whether or not the established success criteria has been satisfied is recorded, step  360 . In step  370 , a success index is calculated for each call campaign based on the recorded success of calls made on each call campaign. 
     Based on the calculated success indexes for each call campaign in the pacing group, the pacing ratios of at least two call campaigns in the pacing group are adjusted, step  380 . Success indexes may be calculated at predetermined intervals, for example every fifteen minutes, every hour or the like. 
     The pacing ratio(s) of successful call campaign(s) are increased while the pacing ratio(s) of unsuccessful call campaign(s) are reduced. The steps of monitoring each call to determine of it is successful as well as the steps of calculating success indexes and adjusting the pacing ratios of the call campaigns are repeated during the processing of the pacing group. 
     There are a variety of alternative strategies that may be employed to adjust the pacing ratios of the call campaigns included in the pacing group. A first strategy contemplates assigning a reflective pacing ratio to each campaign in the pacing group. Using a reflective pacing ratio strategy, campaigns are given priority over others in their pacing group reflective of how much more successful they are than the remainder of campaigns in the group. For example, if campaign A realizes sixty-two percent (62%) of the total sales of all of the campaigns in the pacing group, then, using a reflective ratio strategy, 62% of the calls made in the pacing group would be made on campaign A. 
     Another strategy would be a weighted reflective ratio strategy. This would be similar to a basic reflective ratio strategy. However, any increase would be in addition to the preset weight. For example, assume a preset weight of 10% and a campaign group consisting of three campaigns that achieve the following sales results: 
     Campaign A=75% of sales 
     Campaign B=19% of sales 
     Campaign C=6% of sales. 
     Since the preset weighting amount is set at 10%, each campaign would automatically be assigned 10% of the calls plus a percentage of what is left (the remaining 70%) based on the sales percentages. Thus, if 100 calls are to be placed, then the calls will be allocated to the three campaigns as follows: 
     
       
         
               
               
               
             
           
               
                   
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
                 Campaign A 
                 =  10% + (75% of 70) calls 
               
               
                   
                   
                 =  10  + 52.5 = 62.5 calls 
               
               
                   
                 Campaign B 
                 =  10% +  (19% of 70) calls 
               
               
                   
                   
                 =  10 + 13.3 = 23.3 calls 
               
               
                   
                 Campaign C 
                 =  10% + (9% of 70) calls 
               
               
                   
                   
                 =  10 + 4.2 = 14.2 calls 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
     The weighted strategy allows supervisors to effectively set a minimum level of calls for a campaign. In the above example, the weight was quite high. Thus, the best campaigns will be dialed more while still allowing the poorer performing campaigns to receive a small percentage of outgoing calls. 
     Other strategies, such as a shared remainder strategy or a preset ratio strategy could also be utilized. With a shared remainder strategy, the campaign realizing the highest current level of success would receive a predetermined percentage of calls (e.g. 90%), while the remaining campaigns would share the remaining percentage (e.g. 10%) equally. Using a preset ratio strategy, a supervisor could assign preset percentages of calls for campaigns as they rank in terms of success indexes. For example, the top campaign could get 80% of the calls, the next most successful campaign could get 10% of the calls, etc. 
     Accordingly, productivity based campaign pacing allows a call center supervisor to be as creative as he or she desires with a plurality of campaigns and group the campaigns together into pacing groups and allow the campaigns to compete against each other for agent resources based on their recognized success. One significant benefit of productivity based campaign pacing is that a call center customer (i.e. a product or service provider) will not suffer from the introduction of an unsuccessful campaign in order to find out that it is indeed unsuccessful. Instead, the system will automatically detect that a campaign is unsuccessful and will reduce the level of calls that it makes on that campaign. It will simultaneously detect those campaigns that are currently successful and increase the level of calls made to those campaigns. Finally, since the system dynamically adjusts call pacing, an unsuccessful campaign that begins to become increasingly successful will have its pacing level increased in real time. 
     Modifications and substitutions by one of ordinary skill in the art are considered to be within the scope of the present invention which is not to be limited except by the claims which follow.