Patent ID: 7706523

Claim:
A method for assigning tasks to agents at a server in a service center based on an agent skill set required to service individual tasks, comprising steps of: (a) receiving a task at a server operating within the service center; (b) preparing the task for service by determining the agent skill set that would be best suited for responding to the task, and ascertaining all agent skills required to process the task out of a set of N defined skills; © representing the N skills as N separate boolean variables; (d) determining a set X of all logical states of the Boolean variables that contain the required skills; (e) building a skill table of all available agents having skills at least partially matching the determination of skills needed to service the task in step (b), wherein the skill table is organized by skill sets that include all skills possessed by the agents, and wherein the skill table is organized by the logical states of the N Boolean variables and each agent is represented in each state that includes all skills possessed by the agent; (f) determining from the skill table of available agents all agents qualified to service the task; (g) disqualifying from serving the task all agents associated with a state of the agent skill table that is not within the set X; (h) selecting an agent least qualified to service the task from the agents remaining in contention and assigning the task to the selected agent; and (i) servicing the task by the selected agent utilizing at least a portion of the skills listed in the skill table.