Abstract:
A contact center is described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. The contact center proposed herein provides the ability to, among other things, support deferring work item routing decisions for a predetermined amount of time even when agents that are technically qualified to handle the work item are available. The deferment of work item routing decisions helps to achieve better matching and, therefore, increases contact center efficiency even though decisions are delayed.

Description:
FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE 
     The present disclosure is generally directed toward communications and more specifically toward contact centers. 
     BACKGROUND 
     The work assignment logic in contact centers usually makes only a single routing decision for a contact at a single point in time. It is conventional wisdom that making a single routing decision on a work item results in the most efficient use of resources. The work assignment decision is, therefore, based on a single state of the contact center. This limits the work assignment logic from making perfect contact-to-agent assignments if the perfect agent is not currently available at the time when the assignment decision is made. 
     SUMMARY 
     It is with respect to the above issues and other problems that the embodiments presented herein were contemplated. In particular, embodiments of the present disclosure provide the ability to defer work assignment decisions in a contact center based on one or both of the following considerations: value-based deferment and skill-based deferment. 
     In a value-based deferment scheme the following process may be employed: (1) a service time goal (target time) is set for contacts in the contact center; (2) a first percentage of the target time is defined and expected losses are associated with that first percentage of the target time; (3) agents are split into at least two tiers (more tiers are possible) where a tier 1 agent is expected to earn a first amount for handling contacts of a certain type and a tier 2 agent is expected to earn a second amount (which is less than the first amount) for handling contacts of the same type; (4) the tiers may be based on agent skill, but do not necessarily have to be based on agent skill—rather, it can be based on actual Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the agents; and (5) a deferment rule is defined such that during periods of agent surplus (e.g., when tier 2 agents are available, but the tier 1 agents are not available) the work assignment decision is deferred for an amount of time equal to the actual wait time of the contact plus the first percentage unless a tier 1 agent becomes available. Prior to this amount of time elapsing, tier 2 agents are not considered eligible to receive the contact, even though the tier 2 agents are actually qualified to handle the contact. Accordingly, the work assignment decision is actually being processed but no agent-to-contact assignment decision is made because the tier 2 agents are not considered eligible. After the requisite amount of time has passed, the tier 2 agents become eligible and the best suited tier 2 agent among the available tier 2 agents is assigned to the contact (unless a tier 1 agent has become available in the meantime). This deferment scheme can be expanded to support more than two tiers of agents. In particular, up to N (where N is greater than or equal to 2) tiers of agents can be established along with up to N−1 incremental deferment stages. The example of two tiers and a single deferment decision will be described for ease of understanding the principles of the present disclosure. 
     In a skill-based deferment scheme the following process may be employed: (1) a service time goal (target time) is set for contacts in the contact center; (2) agents are split into at least two tiers (more tiers are possible) where a tier 1 agent is expected to process contacts of a certain type in a first amount of time and a tier 2 agent is expected to process contacts of the same type in a second amount of time (which is greater than the first amount of time by a delta time that is calculated based on expected losses for using a tier 2 agent as compared to a tier 1 agent to handle the contact); (3) the tiers may be based on agent skill, but do not necessarily have to be based on agent skill—rather, it can be based on actual KPIs for the agents; and (5) a deferment rule is defined such that during periods of agent surplus (e.g., when tier 2 agents are available, but the tier 1 agents are not available) the work assignment decision is deferred for an amount of time equal to the delta time unless a tier 1 agent becomes available. Prior to this amount of time elapsing, tier 2 agents are not considered eligible to receive the contact. Accordingly, the work assignment decision is actually being processed but no agent-to-contact assignment decision is made because the tier 2 agents are not considered eligible. After the delta time has passed, the tier 2 agents become eligible and the best suited tier 2 agent among the available tier 2 agents is assigned to the contact (unless a tier 1 agent has become available in the meantime). 
     The tiered approach described herein is much easier to implement than previously-available solutions. Specifically, the administrator only has to define a first percentage of target time (e.g., 1%, 5%, 7%, etc.) and that percentage can be applied across every skill or work type. Additionally, multiple tiers can be easily defined because the system administrator only has to define multiple percentages and define the routing rules that occur after a percentage-based threshold has been crossed. These rules can be defined across multiple skills for any type of agent rather than applying specific threshold rules for different types of agents at different skills. 
     In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure, a method is provided which generally comprises: 
     dividing a group of contact center agents into at least two tiers, the at least two tiers including a first tier and a second tier; 
     receiving a work item at a first time, wherein agents from the group of contact center agents are qualified to process the received work item; 
     determining that no first tier agent is available to receive the work item; and 
     deferring a work assignment decision for the work item regardless of whether or not a second tier agent is available to receive the work item, wherein the work assignment decision is deferred until a second time that is a predetermined amount of time after the first time. 
     The phrases “at least one”, “one or more”, and “and/or” are open-ended expressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. For example, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C”, “at least one of A, B, or C”, “one or more of A, B, and C”, “one or more of A, B, or C” and “A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together. 
     The term “a” or “an” entity refers to one or more of that entity. As such, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more” and “at least one” can be used interchangeably herein. It is also to be noted that the terms “comprising”, “including”, and “having” can be used interchangeably. 
     The term “automatic” and variations thereof, as used herein, refers to any process or operation done without material human input when the process or operation is performed. However, a process or operation can be automatic, even though performance of the process or operation uses material or immaterial human input, if the input is received before performance of the process or operation. Human input is deemed to be material if such input influences how the process or operation will be performed. Human input that consents to the performance of the process or operation is not deemed to be “material”. 
     The term “computer-readable medium” as used herein refers to any tangible storage that participates in providing instructions to a processor for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, NVRAM, or magnetic or optical disks. Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as main memory. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, magneto-optical medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, a solid state medium like a memory card, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other medium from which a computer can read. When the computer-readable media is configured as a database, it is to be understood that the database may be any type of database, such as relational, hierarchical, object-oriented, and/or the like. Accordingly, the disclosure is considered to include a tangible storage medium and prior art-recognized equivalents and successor media, in which the software implementations of the present disclosure are stored. 
     The terms “determine”, “calculate”, and “compute,” and variations thereof, as used herein, are used interchangeably and include any type of methodology, process, mathematical operation or technique. 
     The term “module” as used herein refers to any known or later developed hardware, software, firmware, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, or combination of hardware and software that is capable of performing the functionality associated with that element. Also, while the disclosure is described in terms of exemplary embodiments, it should be appreciated that individual aspects of the disclosure can be separately claimed. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The present disclosure is described in conjunction with the appended figures: 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a communication system in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram depicting pools and bitmaps that are utilized in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram depicting a data structure in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; and 
         FIG. 4  is a flow diagram depicting a method of deferring work item routing decisions in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The ensuing description provides embodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the claims. Rather, the ensuing description will provide those skilled in the art with an enabling description for implementing the embodiments. It being understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims. 
       FIG. 1  shows an illustrative embodiment of a communication system  100  in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure. The communication system  100  may be a distributed system and, in some embodiments, comprises a communication network  104  connecting one or more communication devices  108  to a work assignment mechanism  116 , which may be owned and operated by an enterprise administering a contact center in which a plurality of resources  112  are distributed to handle work items (in the form of contacts) from the customer communication devices  108 . 
     In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure, the communication network  104  may comprise any type of known communication medium or collection of communication media and may use any type of protocols to transport messages between endpoints. The communication network  104  may include wired and/or wireless communication technologies. The Internet is an example of the communication network  104  that constitutes an Internet Protocol (IP) network consisting of many computers, computing networks, and other communication devices located all over the world, which are connected through many telephone systems and other means. Other examples of the communication network  104  include, without limitation, a standard Plain Old Telephone System (POTS), an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) network, a cellular network, and any other type of packet-switched or circuit-switched network known in the art. In addition, it can be appreciated that the communication network  104  need not be limited to any one network type, and instead may be comprised of a number of different networks and/or network types. As one example, embodiments of the present disclosure may be utilized to increase the efficiency of a grid-based contact center. Examples of a grid-based contact center are more fully described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/469,523 to Steiner, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. Moreover, the communication network  104  may comprise a number of different communication media such as coaxial cable, copper cable/wire, fiber-optic cable, antennas for transmitting/receiving wireless messages, and combinations thereof. 
     The communication devices  108  may correspond to customer communication devices. In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure, a customer may utilize their communication device  108  to initiate a work item, which is generally a request for a processing resource  112 . Exemplary work items include, but are not limited to, a contact directed toward and received at a contact center, a web page request directed toward and received at a server farm (e.g., collection of servers), a media request, an application request (e.g., a request for application resources location on a remote application server, such as a SIP application server), and the like. The work item may be in the form of a message or collection of messages transmitted over the communication network  104 . For example, the work item may be transmitted as a telephone call, a packet or collection of packets (e.g., IP packets transmitted over an IP network), an email message, an Instant Message, an SMS message, a fax, and combinations thereof. 
     In some embodiments, the communication may not necessarily be directed at the work assignment mechanism  116 , but rather may be on some other server in the communication network  104  where it is harvested by the work assignment mechanism  116 , which generates a work item for the harvested communication. An example of such a harvested communication includes a social media communication that is harvested by the work assignment mechanism  116  from a social media network or server. Exemplary architectures for harvesting social media communications and generating work items based thereon are described in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 12/784,369, 12/706,942, and 12/707,277, filed Mar. 20, 1010, Feb. 17, 2010, and Feb. 17, 2010, respectively, each of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. 
     The format of the work item may depend upon the capabilities of the communication device  108  and the format of the communication. In some embodiments, work items are logical representations within a contact center of work to be performed in connection with servicing a communication received at the contact center (and more specifically the work assignment mechanism  116 ). The communication associated with a work item may be received and maintained at the work assignment mechanism  116 , a switch or server connected to the work assignment mechanism  116 , or the like until a resource  112  is assigned to the work item representing that communication at which point the work assignment mechanism  116  passes the work item to a routing engine  132  to connect the communication device  108  which initiated the communication with the assigned resource  112 . The connection between the customer communication device  108  and a resource  112  may be effected by the routing engine  132  assigning one or more communication resources (e.g., sockets, buffers, physical ports, etc.) to establish a communication path (e.g., media stream such as RTP or SRTP) between the communication device  108  and resource  112 . In some embodiments, the communication path established between the communication device  108  and resource  112  may also carry call control signaling, however, it may also be possible to maintain the signaling path at the work assignment mechanism  116 . 
     Although the routing engine  132  is depicted as being separate from the work assignment mechanism  116 , the routing engine  132  may be incorporated into the work assignment mechanism  116  or its functionality may be executed by the work assignment engine  120 . 
     In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure, the communication devices  108  may comprise any type of known communication equipment or collection of communication equipment. Examples of a suitable communication device  108  include, but are not limited to, a personal computer, laptop, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), cellular phone, smart phone, telephone, or combinations thereof. In general each communication device  108  may be adapted to support video, audio, text, and/or data communications with other communication devices  108  as well as the processing resources  112 . The type of medium used by the communication device  108  to communicate with other communication devices  108  or processing resources  112  may depend upon the communication applications available on the communication device  108 . 
     In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure, the work item is sent toward a collection of processing resources  112  via the combined efforts of the work assignment mechanism  116  and routing engine  132 . The resources  112  can either be completely automated resources (e.g., Interactive Voice Response (IVR) units, processors, servers, or the like), human resources utilizing communication devices (e.g., human agents utilizing a computer, telephone, laptop, etc.), or any other resource known to be used in contact centers. 
     As discussed above, the work assignment mechanism  116  and resources  112  may be owned and operated by a common entity in a contact center format. In some embodiments, the work assignment mechanism  116  may be administered by multiple enterprises, each of which has their own dedicated resources  112  connected to the work assignment mechanism  116 . 
     In some embodiments, the work assignment mechanism  116  comprises a work assignment engine  120  which enables the work assignment mechanism  116  to make intelligent routing decisions for work items. In some embodiments, the work assignment engine  120  is configured to administer and make work assignment decisions in a queueless contact center, as is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/882,950, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. 
     More specifically, the work assignment engine  120  can generate bitmaps/tables  128  and determine, based on an analysis of the bitmaps/tables  128 , which of the plurality of processing resources  112  is eligible and/or qualified to receive a work item and further determine which of the plurality of processing resources  112  is best suited to handle the processing needs of the work item. As will be discussed in further detail herein, the work assignment engine  120  may comprise one or more rule sets for making intelligent work item routing decisions, which in some embodiments may actually be a decision to defer a work item routing decision for a predetermined amount of time. 
     In situations of work item surplus, the work assignment engine  120  can also make the opposite determination (i.e., determine optimal assignment of a work item to a resource). In some embodiments, the work assignment engine  120  is configured to achieve true one-to-one matching by utilizing the bitmaps/tables  128  and any other similar type of data structure. 
     The work assignment engine  120  may reside in the work assignment mechanism  116  or in a number of different servers or processing devices. In some embodiments, cloud-based computing architectures can be employed whereby one or more components of the work assignment mechanism  116  are made available in a cloud or network such that they can be shared resources among a plurality of different users. 
     In addition to comprising the work assignment engine  120 , the work assignment mechanism  116  may also comprise a state monitor  124 . The state monitor  124  may be configured to monitor and assess the state of the contact center  100  on a continual or periodic basis and provide results of its assessment to the work assignment engine  120 . Specifically, the state monitor  124  may provide its analysis information to the work assignment engine  120  to assist the work assignment engine  120  in making work item routing decisions. In some embodiments, the input from the state monitor  124  may be used as inputs to the decision rules contained in the work assignment engine  120 . More specifically, the work assignment engine  120  may comprise one or more value-based deferment rules  136  and/or one or more skill-based deferment rules  140 . The variable or considerations of these deferment rules  136 ,  140  may include data received from the state monitor  124 . 
     Specifically, the state monitor  124  may be responsible for monitoring one or more agent performance metrics (e.g., KPIs, schedule adherence, overall profitability, skill improvements, etc.) for some or all agents in the contact center  100  and comparing those metrics with one or more Service Level Objectives or SLOs. The results of these comparisons may be provided to work assignment engine  120  to assist in making work item routing decisions. 
     Information monitored by the state monitor  124  may include information which describes an agent&#39;s current or historical (e.g., past hour, day, week, month, quarter, year, recent work assignment history, etc.) performance within the contact center. In some embodiments, the state monitor  124  may provide KPI information that is obtained from the work assignment engine  120  or from some other analysis and reporting module running within the contact center. As used herein, KPIs may include, without limitation, any metric or combination of metrics that define performance of an entity within a contact center (e.g., a contact center agent, a group of contact center agents, etc.). Specifically, a KPI can be defined in terms of making progress toward strategic goals or simply the repeated achievement of some level of an operational goal. 
     In a contact center context, KPIs may vary depending upon whether work items correspond to outbound contacts (e.g., contacts originated by the contact center) or inbound contacts (e.g., contacts received at the contact center that have been originated outside the contact center). Non-limiting examples of outbound contact KPIs include: Contacts per hour—Average number of customers a call center agent was able to contact within an hour; Leads Conversion Rate—The percentage of leads that actually converted to sales; Hourly Sales—The average amount of sales the call center representative was able to close in an hour; Daily Sales—The average value of sales the agent was able to close in a day; and Accuracy—Extent to which a contact has been handled according to a predetermined script. 
     Non-limiting examples of inbound contact KPIs include: Real time Q—Metrics; Calls per hour—The average number of calls the agent is able to take per hour; Saves/One-Call Resolutions—The number of times our agents are able to resolve an issue immediately within the first phone call. Colloquially referred to as “one-and-done” calls; Average Handle Time—How long it takes for one call to be handled, which includes the call time itself, plus the work done after that call; Average Wait Time—How long a caller is put on hold before a call center agent becomes available to take the call; Accuracy; Abandonment Rate—This is the percentage of customers who disconnected before an agent was able to intercept the call; and Completion Rate—The ratio of successfully finished calls to the number of attempted calls by the customer. 
     Other types of KPIs that are not necessarily specific to inbound or outbound contacts include, without limitation, customer satisfaction level, customer service level, average speed of answer, contact forecast precision level, quality of services rendered, average handling cost of a contact, agent occupancy ratio, schedule adherence and conformity, and time distribution (in service, non-service detailed time or “shrinkage”). Other examples include number of times calls are put on hold, number of transfers, $/min, $/call, number of upsells, number of cross-sells, etc. 
     As can be appreciated, the state monitor  124  and/or bitmaps/tables  128  may be internal to the work assignment mechanism  116  or they may be separate from the work assignment mechanism  116 . Likewise, certain components of the work assignment engine  120  (e.g., value-based deferment rules  136  and skill-based deferment rules  140 ) do not necessarily need to be executed within the work assignment engine  120  and may be executed in different parts of the contact center  100 . 
       FIG. 2  depicts exemplary data structures  200  which may be incorporated in or used to generate the bitmaps/tables  128  used by the work assignment engine  120 . The exemplary data structures  200  include one or more pools of related items. In some embodiments, three pools of items are provided, including an enterprise work pool  204 , an enterprise resource pool  212 , and an enterprise qualifier set pool  220 . The pools are generally an unordered collection of like items existing within the contact center. Thus, the enterprise work pool  204  comprises a data entry or data instance for each work item within the contact center  100  at any given time. 
     In some embodiments, the population of the work pool  204  may be limited to work items waiting for service by or assignment to a resource  112 , but such a limitation does not necessarily need to be imposed. Rather, the work pool  204  may contain data instances for all work items in the contact center regardless of whether such work items are currently assigned and being serviced by a resource  112  or not. The differentiation between whether a work item is being serviced (i.e., is assigned to a resource  112 ) may simply be accounted for by altering a bit value in that work item&#39;s data instance. Alteration of such a bit value may result in the work item being disqualified for further assignment to another resource  112  unless and until that particular bit value is changed back to a value representing the fact that the work item is not assigned to a resource  112 , thereby making that resource  112  eligible to receive another work item. 
     Similar to the work pool  204 , the resource pool  212  comprises a data entry or data instance for each resource  112  within the contact center. Thus, resources  112  may be accounted for in the resource pool  212  even if the resource  112  is ineligible due to its unavailability because it is assigned to a work item or because a human agent is not logged-in. The ineligibility of a resource  112  may be reflected in one or more bit values. As discussed in further detail herein, the eligibility of a resource  112  may differ from the availability of that resource  112  to handle work as determined by the deferment rules  136 ,  140 . Specifically, depending upon an agent&#39;s assigned tier according to one or more deferment rules  136 ,  140 , an agent may actually be available to handle work items, but may be ineligible to handle work items of a particular type (e.g., skill requirement). The available but ineligible status of an agent may allow the deferment rules  136 ,  140  to actually defer work item routing decisions for a period of time, perhaps in the hope that a better qualified agent will become available and eligible in the meantime. 
     The qualifier set pool  220  comprises a data entry or data instance for each qualifier set within the contact center. In some embodiments, the qualifier sets within the contact center are determined based upon the attributes or attribute combinations of the work items in the work pool  204 . Qualifier sets generally represent a specific combination of attributes for a work item. In particular, qualifier sets can represent the processing criteria for a work item and the specific combination of those criteria. Each qualifier set may have a corresponding qualifier set identified “qualifier set ID” which is used for mapping purposes. As an example, one work item may have attributes of language=French and intent=Service and this combination of attributes may be assigned a qualifier set ID of “12” whereas an attribute combination of language=English and intent=Sales has a qualifier set ID of “13.” The qualifier set IDs and the corresponding attribute combinations for all qualifier sets in the contact center may be stored as data structures or data instances in the qualifier set pool  220 . 
     In some embodiments, one, some, or all of the pools may have a corresponding bitmap. Thus, a contact center may have at any instance of time a work bitmap  208 , a resource bitmap  216 , and a qualifier set bitmap  224 . In particular, these bitmaps may correspond to qualification bitmaps which have one bit for each entry. Thus, each work item in the work pool  204  would have a corresponding bit in the work bitmap  208 , each resource  112  in the resource pool  212  would have a corresponding bit in the resource bitmap  216 , and each qualifier set in the qualifier set pool  220  may have a corresponding bit in the qualifier set bitmap  224 . 
     In some embodiments, the bitmaps are utilized to speed up complex scans of the pools and help each the work assignment engine make an optimal work item/resource assignment decision based on the current state of each pool. Accordingly, the values in the bitmaps  208 ,  216 ,  224  may be recalculated each time the state of a pool changes (e.g., when a work item surplus is detected, when a resource surplus is detected, etc.). 
     With reference now to  FIG. 3 , a data structure  300  that may be used by one or both sets of deferment rules  136 ,  140  will be described in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. The data structure  300  may comprise a number of data fields that enable the deferment rules  136 ,  140  to intelligently defer work item routing decisions based on the current state of the contact center  100 . In some embodiments, the fields in the data structure  300  include a plurality of agent tier definition fields  304   a -N, a value-based deferment rule field  308 , a skill-based deferment rule  312 , and a service goal(s) field  316 . 
     As can be appreciated, the agent tier definition fields  304   a -N along with the deferment rule fields  308 ,  312  may actually be integrated into the deferment rules  136 ,  140  as appropriate. The data structure  300  may also be separated or duplicated among each different deferment rules  136 ,  140  as appropriate. In other words, the value-based deferment rule  136  may comprise a first data structure that includes a first set of agent tier definition fields  304   a -N, a value-based deferment rule field  308 , and a service goal field  316 . The skill-based deferment rule  140  may comprise a second data structure that includes a second set of agent tier definition fields  304   a -N (different from the first set of agent tier definition fields), a skill-based deferment rule field  312 , and a service goal field  316 . 
     In some embodiments, the agent tier definition fields  304   a -N may comprise rules for assigning agents to agent tiers and/or an association between each agent in the contact center and their assigned tier. For instance, the first agent tier definition field  304   a  may comprise a rule or definition for assigning a value of tier 1 to an agent. Alternatively, or in addition, the first agent tier definition field  304   a  may comprise a listing of agents in the contact center  100  that have been assigned a value of tier 1. 
     It should be appreciated that agents may be assigned multiple different tier values for each skill in contact center. More specifically, an agent may be assigned a value of tier 1 for work items of a first type (e.g., a first skill), but a value of tier 2 or tier 3 for work items of a second type (e.g., a second skill). Accordingly, there may be different tier assignment definitions for each skill within the contact center. This means that deferment rules may vary according to the skill requirements of a work item. A first work item having a first set of skill requirements (or single skill requirement) may have a first deferment rule applied thereto whereas a second work item having a second set of skill requirements (or single skill requirement) may have a second deferment rule applied thereto. 
     Further still, depending upon the state of the contact center, the work assignment engine  120  may elect to either apply a value-based deferment rule  136  or a skill-based deferment rule  140 . As the state of the contact center changes, the work assignment engine  120  may switch between applying the different deferment rules  136 ,  140 . In some embodiments, the decision to apply one deferment rule versus another deferment rule may depend upon whether and to what extent one or more service goals (also referred to as SLOs) as defined in the service goal field  316  are currently being met. As discussed above, a SLO is an objective for one or more pre-defined performance metrics that are currently being analyzed in the contact center  100  (perhaps by the state monitor  124 ). 
     If a particular SLO or set of SLOs are not being met, the work assignment engine  120  may decide to apply either the value-based deferment rule  136  or the skill-based deferment rule  140 . If multiple SLOs are not being met and some dictate that one deferment rule should be applied and others dictate that the other deferment rule should be applied, the work assignment engine  120  may be provided with logic that selects which deferment rule  136 ,  140  should be applied in such a situation. The logic applied by the work assignment engine  120  in such a situation may be as simple as comparing the number of skill-related-SLOs being violated with the number of value-related-SLOs being violated and then selecting the appropriate deferment rule based on that comparison (e.g., if more skill-related-SLOs are being violated, then apply the skill-based deferment rule or if more value-related-SLOs are being violated, then apply the value-based deferment rule). Additional considerations may also be included in the selection analysis such as the relative importance to the contact center  100  of the SLOs being violated and to what extent the various SLOs are being violated. 
     With reference now to  FIG. 4 , additional details related to the application of the deferment rules  136 ,  140  will be described in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. The method depicted and described herein will refer to a two-tiered structure. However, it should be appreciated that embodiments of the present disclosure are not so limited and the concepts described in connection with  FIG. 4  may be applied to situations where more than two agent tiers are defined and/or situations where multiple different agent tiers are defined for different skills in the contact center  100 . Furthermore, an agent may be assigned different tiers even for the same skill if the agent is highly efficient at handling work items for that skill, but is not particularly as good at extracting full value for the same work items. In this situation, the agent may be assigned a value of tier 1 if the skill-based deferment rules  140  are used to defer a routing decision, but the same agent may be assigned a value of tier 2 (or lower) if the value-based deferment rules  136  are used to defer a routing decision. Accordingly, an agent may be assigned a different tier for the same work item depending upon the state of the contact center  100 . 
     The method begins with the creation of agent tier definitions and the assignment of such definitions to the agents in the contact center  100  (step  404 ). Specifically, each agent may be assigned a tier value for one or both of the value-based deferment rules  136  and skill-based deferment rules  140 . Alternatively, the proficiency of an agent (e.g., skill-based proficiency and value-based proficiency) for every agent in the contact center may already be known and stored in a local database. The definition of tier definitions may simply involve defining a tier assignment rule that is applied to every agent in the contact center  100 . 
     The method continues when a work item is received at the contact center  100  and the associated attributes of the work item (e.g., skill or processing requirements) (step  408 ). This particular step may occur when the work item is received at the work assignment engine  120 . The attributes of the work item may be obtained using any known mechanisms such as obtaining information from a customer database, analyzing caller identification information, receiving information from an IVR interaction with the customer, etc. 
     After the attributes of the work item have been determined, the work assignment engine  120  continues by analyzing the resource pool  212  or the bitmap  216  associated therewith to determine whether any tier 1 agents are available (step  412 ). It should be appreciated that rather than referring to the bitmap  216 , if a queue-based contact center is being employed, the work assignment engine  120  may assign the work item to the appropriate queue and determine if any tier 1 agents are currently available in the associated resource queue. As noted above, the analysis of whether a tier 1 agent is available may depend upon whether the work assignment engine  120  is currently applying a value-based deferment rule  136  or a skill-based deferment rule  140 . The application of the value-based deferment rule  136  versus the skill-based deferment rule  140  may depend upon the current state of the contact center  100  as determined by information received from the state monitor  124 . 
     If a tier 1 agent is available to handle the received work item, then the method continues with the work assignment engine  120  selecting the best agent from the available tier 1 agents and assigning the work item to the best agent (step  436 ). In some embodiments, the best agent determination may be made by analyzing one or more of the bitmaps  208 ,  216 ,  224 . In a queue-based contact center, the selection of the best agent may be simplified in that the work assignment engine  120  may select the tier 1 agent that has been idle for the longest amount of time (e.g., the tier 1 agent has the highest queue position). 
     The work assignment engine  120  may provide the assignment information to the routing engine  132  to effect the work assignment decision (step  440 ). In particular, the routing engine  132  may establish a communication channel or communication session between the communication device  108  associated with the work item and the communication device of the selected tier 1 agent (e.g., the selected resource  112 ). The manner in which the communication channel or session is established may vary depending upon the nature of the work item/contact (e.g., whether the contact is a real-time or non-real-time contact). 
     Referring back to step  412 , if no tier 1 agents are currently available for the work item, then the method continues with the work assignment engine  120  analyzing the appropriate deferment rule  136  or  140  to determine if the work item routing decision should be deferred for a predetermined amount of time or not (steps  420 ,  424 ). As discussed above, the deferment rule  136 ,  140  analyzed by the work assignment engine  120  may depend upon whether and to what extent certain SLOs are being met. Other considerations that control which deferment rule should be used include whether the contact center is in a state of emergency, whether the state monitor  124  is predicting that one or more SLOs will not be met in the future, and any other condition of the contact center that might result in or is currently resulting in a decrease in the contact center&#39;s performance. 
     If the analysis of the appropriate deferment rule dictates that the work assignment decision should be deferred for a predetermined amount of time, then the method proceeds to step  428  where the work assignment engine  120  will cause the assignment decision to be deferred for that particular work item. During the deferment period, the hope is that a tier 1 agent will become available and the amount of time that was lost due to deferment will be offset by assigning the work item to a tier 1 agent instead of assigning the work item to a tier 2 (or lower) agent. The amount of time that an assignment decision is deferred may depend upon the deferment rule definitions and the number of SLOs that are currently being violated. It should be appreciated that if a relatively small number of SLOs (or less important SLOs) are being violated, then the deferment period can be longer than if a larger number of SLOs (or more important SLOs) are being violated. The importance of SLOs may be defined by a contact center manager or administrator and can be based on business rules or other considerations. 
     After the predetermined amount of time has passed (e.g., the assignment decision has been deferred for a first deferment period), the method returns to step  412 . If at step  424  it is determined that the work assignment decision should not be deferred (e.g., because the decision has already been deferred for the work item more than a predetermined number of times), the method proceeds with the work assignment engine  120  altering the eligibility of tier 2 agents (or lower tiers) to include more agents as eligible in the work assignment decision (step  432 ). The method is then depicted as proceeding to step  436  where a work assignment decision is made. However, it should be appreciated that if more than two tiers of agents are defined for the work item, then a second deferment period may be enforced after which additional tiers of agents may be switched from ineligible to eligible for handling the work item. 
     The work assignment decision made in step  436  after a deferment period has been enforced may be slightly different than if no deferment period has been enforced. Specifically, if during the deferment period a higher tier agent became available, then the work item can be assigned to the highest tiered or best agent. If no higher tier agent became available during the deferment period, then the work item can be assigned to the best suited available and eligible agent as dictated either by idle agent time (e.g., assign the work item to the agent that has been waiting the longest) or by analyzing the bitmaps  208 ,  216 ,  224 . It should be appreciated that the selection of a “best” agent will depend upon whether the contact center  100  is queue-based or queueless. 
     Accordingly, it should be appreciated that while embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in connection with a queueless contact center architecture, embodiments of the present disclosure are not so limited. In particular, those skilled in the contact center arts will appreciate that some or all of the concepts described herein may be utilized in a queue-based contact center or any other traditional contact center architecture. 
     Furthermore, in the foregoing description, for the purposes of illustration, methods were described in a particular order. It should be appreciated that in alternate embodiments, the methods may be performed in a different order than that described. It should also be appreciated that the methods described above may be performed by hardware components or may be embodied in sequences of machine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause a machine, such as a general-purpose or special-purpose processor (GPU or CPU) or logic circuits programmed with the instructions to perform the methods (FPGA). These machine-executable instructions may be stored on one or more machine readable mediums, such as CD-ROMs or other type of optical disks, floppy diskettes, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or other types of machine-readable mediums suitable for storing electronic instructions. Alternatively, the methods may be performed by a combination of hardware and software. 
     Specific details were given in the description to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. For example, circuits may be shown in block diagrams in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments. 
     Also, it is noted that the embodiments were described as a process which is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be re-arranged. A process is terminated when its operations are completed, but could have additional steps not included in the figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, its termination corresponds to a return of the function to the calling function or the main function. 
     Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middleware or microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessary tasks may be stored in a machine readable medium such as storage medium. A processor(s) may perform the necessary tasks. A code segment may represent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a software package, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures, or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc. 
     While illustrative embodiments of the disclosure have been described in detail herein, it is to be understood that the inventive concepts may be otherwise variously embodied and employed, and that the appended claims are intended to be construed to include such variations, except as limited by the prior art.