Patent ID: 7995742

Claim:
A method, comprising: (a) selecting a first contactee to be contacted by a resource of a contact center, the first contactee having a first address associated with a first communication device, the first communication device communicating by at least a first communication mode; (b) immediately prior to contacting the first contactee, querying a presence server for presence information associated with the first contactee; (c) based on the presence information, performing at least one of the following substeps: (c1) immediately contacting the first contactee if the presence information indicates current availability of the first contactee and postponing contact of the first contactee if the presence information does not indicate current availability of the first contactee; (c2) selecting a second communication device associated with the first contactee, the first and second communication devices having differing addresses and contacting the first contactee via the second communication device; and (c3) selecting a second communication mode to communicate with the first contactee, the first and second communication modes being different, and contacting the first contactee via the second communication mode, wherein the contact center resource is a human agent and wherein a contact list contains a list of party identifiers, including an identifier of the first contactee, and contact information for each party identifier the contact information associating the selected first address with a first party identifier for the first contactee, and further comprising: (d) notifying the agent before the contact with the first contactee is initiated; and (e) waiting, by a dialer, for confirmation from the agent before initiating the contact.