Patent ID: 8180044

Claim:
A method of managing a contact center having a plurality of agents, the method comprising the steps of: maintaining a virtual representation of the agents of the contact center in which agents are represented as resources connected to one another based on shared properties; representing a contact as a resource having properties which enable it to be connected to one or more agents, whereby said contact can be entered in said virtual representation; wherein said contact is represented within said representation as being connected directly to at least a first agent based on a first set of shared properties between said contact and first said agent, and said contact is represented within said representation as being connected indirectly to at least a second agent based on a second set of shared properties between said first and second agents, said second set of shared properties including properties not forming part of said first set of properties; assigning said contact to an agent based on the degree of connectedness between the contact and agents connected directly or indirectly to the contact calculated as a function of at least one of the number and strength of said first and second sets of shared properties and on the availability of said agents to service the contact; analyzing the virtual representation to identify conditions where the number of connections to a given resource exceed a threshold, and automatically modifying one or more resources connected to said given resource to thereby influence the connections to said given resource.