Intelligent Workload Distribution with Resource Awareness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current workload distribution methods for contact centers are inefficient due to arbitrary employee allocation, human latency, limited resource visibility, and inability to respond to market opportunities, leading to suboptimal customer service and business agility.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for intelligent workload distribution that uses resource awareness to route work items based on priority, availability, skills, and location, with a routing server determining the best target for work items and modifying distribution criteria as needed, while also allowing for the testing and deployment of business rules to optimize task assignment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If work is distributed to employees based on rudimentary factors such as availability, then workload distribution is simple to implement, but employee utilization and customer service quality deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the parameters used for workload distribution from rudimentary factors (simple availability) to multiple dimensions including skills, proficiency, occupancy rate, and real-time resource status. This allows the system to maintain ease of automated implementation while dramatically improving employee utilization by matching work items to the most suitable employees based on comprehensive criteria.
2Reliability
If supervisors manually allocate work, then control over work distribution is maintained, but time spent on manual task selection and distribution increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service automated workload distribution where the intelligent routing system automatically selects and assigns work items to employees based on predefined criteria and real-time availability. This eliminates the time-consuming manual task selection and distribution process while maintaining reliable control through configurable distribution rules and policies that supervisors can set and monitor.
3Ease of manufacture
If employees self-report their availability data, then data collection is simple, but accuracy and insight into resource availability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces the manual mechanical process of employee self-reporting with an automated electronic system that collects availability data directly from employee profiles, scheduling systems, and real-time status updates. This automated approach maintains the simplicity of data collection while dramatically improving accuracy by eliminating human error, subjectivity, and delays in reporting.
4Device complexity
If standard interaction processing systems are used, then system simplicity is maintained, but ability to leverage customer interactions for market opportunities is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system enhances standard interaction processing by integrating multiple functions into a unified platform. It combines basic work distribution with advanced capabilities including real-time resource awareness, skills-based routing, customer interaction analysis, and market opportunity identification. This multi-functional approach maintains operational simplicity while enabling the system to leverage customer interactions for business agility and market responsiveness.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for workload distribution for a contact center includes identifying a work item for distribution based on an assigned distribution criteria; identifying a target for routing the work item; determining availability of the target; in response to determining that the target is available, transmitting a routing request for the work item to a routing server, and in response to the request, the routing server is configured to independently determine availability of the work item for routing the work item to the target; and in response to determining that the target is not available, refraining from transmitting the routing request for the work item to the routing server.