Patent ID: 8676624

Claim:
A method performed by a server, the method comprising: defining, by the server, a plurality of avatars associated with a plurality of contacts, each avatar, of the plurality of avatars, being defined by information related to a workload, skills, an availability, and at least one of communication, responsibilities, experience, a physical location, or a history of work success of a contact of the plurality of contacts, each avatar representing an image of at least one of the skills or the responsibilities of the contact; registering, by the server, the plurality of avatars in an enterprise; receiving, at the server, a work item; identifying, by the server and based on a set of rules used to evaluate the work item, a group of contacts, of the plurality of contacts, based on availability and skills of the contacts of the group of contacts, the group of contacts including more than one contact, each contact, of the group of contacts, performing a different role with respect to the work item, each contact, of the group of contacts, being from a different organization within the enterprise; interacting, by the server, with each contact, of the group of contacts, based on the information defining the avatar associated with each contact, of the group of contacts and based on receiving the work item, the interacting with each contact, of the group of contacts, comprising: receiving, at the server, a request for the contact to participate with the work group, the request being based on the communication, the skills, the responsibilities, the experience, the physical location, the availability, the workload, or the history of work success of the contact, the contact being a service person; and conveying, by the server, the request to the contact using the communication information, the conveying the request comprising: binding, by the server, the request to a work item representing work being addressed by the work group; binding, by the server, a proxy avatar for the avatar to the work item; communicating, by the server, the conveying the request and at least some information pertaining to the work being addressed by the work group to the contact using the proxy avatar; and updating, by the server, the workload information to reflect a response to the request; and updating, by the server, the avatars corresponding to the contacts, of the group of contacts, to reflect the workload of the contacts and an outcome of participating with the work group.