Patent ID: 8588398

Claim:
A method for allocating resources in a contact center comprising: a) maintaining a network of nodes, said network of nodes comprising: a plurality of service nodes; and a plurality of resource nodes; wherein: i) the network of nodes is a hierarchical network; ii) each service node from the plurality of service nodes has no more than one parent node; and iii) each service node from the plurality of service nodes has one or more child nodes; b) enqueuing a first contact at a first service node from the plurality of service nodes based on a routing recommendation for said first contact, wherein said routing recommendation is based at least in part on a set of real time resource availability data stored in a computer readable medium; c) dequeuing said first contact from said first service node to a first resource node from said plurality of resource nodes based at least in part on a path between said first service node and said first resource node; d) updating said set of real time resource availability data stored in said computer readable medium to reflect that said first contact has been dequeued to said first resource node; e) servicing said first contact using a resource corresponding to said first resource node; and f) after the first contact has been serviced, updating said set of real time resource availability data stored in said computer readable medium to reflect that the resource corresponding to the first resource node is no longer servicing said first contact; wherein the path between the first service node and the first resource node is a path between nodes in the hierarchical network; and wherein the path between said first service node and said first resource node comprises a second service node.