Patent ID: 8577017

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, at a contact center, a contact from a customer; generating, in the contact center, a work item representation of the contact in the contact center, the contact being a work item of the contact center; determining, by a work assignment engine operating in the contact center, processing requirements of the work item; generating, by the work assignment engine, a modified pool of eligible agents, wherein the modified pool of eligible agents comprises: agents in the contact center that are eligible to process the work item; a first agent having a status of AUXILIARY to process the work item; and a second agent having a status of AVAILABLE to process the work item; determining, by the work assignment engine, that the first agent is an optimal agent for processing the work item based on the first agent's attributes meeting the processing requirements of the work item better than any other agent in the modified pool of eligible agents; determining, by the work assignment engine, that the second agent is a best AVAILABLE agent for processing the work item based on the second agent's attributes meeting the processing requirements of the work item better than any other AVAILABLE agent in the modified pool of eligible agents; and selecting, by the work assignment engine, an agent from the modified pool of eligible agents to process the work item.