Patent ID: 7424108

Claim:
A method of assigning a number of agents in a pool of agents to a preferred state and assigning a number of agents in the pool of agents to another state, where the preferred state is one of an inbound state and an outbound state and the other state is one of the outbound state and the inbound state, the method comprising: determining a first number of agents for assignment to the preferred state based on an expected call rate; determining a second number of agents for assignment to the preferred state at a first time based on a first call rate sampled at the first time, and assigning the second number of agents to the preferred state; determining a third number of agents for assignment to the other state at the first time based on the magnitude between the first number of agents and the second number of agents, and assigning the third number of agents to the other state; receiving a second call rate sampled at a second time; determining a fourth number of agents for assignment to the preferred state at the second time based on the received second call rate sampled at the second time; and changing the number of agents assigned to the preferred state by an amount equal to the magnitude between the second number and the fourth number.