Patent ID: 7440907

Claim:
A computerized method for identifying the contention severity of a resource, comprising: (a) identifying a first staff/date time to assign a first task to a resource; (b) determining whether the resource is already allocated at the first date/time; (c) determining a second date/time at which the resource is available if the resource is already allocated at the first date/time; (d) determining the time difference between the first date/time and the second date/time as the contention severity for the first task; (e) repeating steps (a) through (d), substituting a second task for the first task; and (f) determining a total contention severity for the resource by summing the contention severity for each of the tasks scheduled to use that resource; wherein, if; (i) the resource is already allocated at the first date/time; and (ii) a second date/time at which the resource is available is determined; then further comprising: incrementing by one a contention counter for the resource; repeating inquiry steps (i) and (ii) for each task assigned to the resource, incrementing by one the contention counter for the resource if inquiry steps (i) and (ii) are satisfied, thereby generating a total contention count for the resource; evaluating a total contention count for a plurality of resources; and generating promotions or sales incentives to solicit work orders not involving resources with a total contention count above a predetermined threshold.