Patent ID: 7817796

Claim:
A method for assigning to at least one agent, of a plurality of agents for a contact center, a work item, wherein a call distribution component for the contact center receives a plurality of incoming work items and routes the incoming work items to selected ones of the plurality of agents according to agent availability, comprising: receiving a proxy call at a site for a selected agent, wherein the proxy call relates to assigning a work item to the selected agent such that the proxy call is not the work item; wherein the selected agent is selected by the call distribution component from one of the agents of a group of one or more agents, and the call distribution component routes the proxy call to the site; after the agent is selected, obtaining from the proxy call, work item related information wherein the work item related information is used to access at least one of: additional data indicative of the work item, and an application for performing the work item; requesting that the call distribution component designate the selected agent as unavailable for taking a subsequent one of the incoming calls; providing, to the selected agent, at least one of: the additional data indicative of the work item, and the application for performing the work item; and discontinuing the proxy call prior to the selected agent completing the work item.