# US 2020/0394591 A1 · System and method for queue look ahead to optimize agent assignment and utilization

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- Number: US 2020/0394591 A1
- Document ID: US20200394591A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 16/443,238
- Filed: 2019-06-17
- Published: 2020-12-17
- Earliest claimed: 2019-06-17
- Assignees: Verint Americas Inc.
- Applicants: Verint Americas Inc.
- Inventors: Stephen McSwiggan
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20200394591A1

## CPC

- G06F 9/5027: {the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals}
- G06Q 10/063112: {Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task}
- G06F 9/5044: {considering hardware capabilities}
- G06F 9/5055: {considering software capabilities, i.e. software resources associated or available to the machine}
- G06Q 10/063114: {Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group}
- G06Q 10/0633: Workflow analysis
- H04M 3/5233: {Operator skill based call distribution}
- H04M 3/5238: {with waiting time or load prediction arrangements}
- G06Q 10/063116: {Schedule adjustment for a person or group}
- H04M 2203/402: Agent or workforce management
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- H04M: TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION (circuits for controlling other apparatus via a telephone cable and not involving telephone switching apparatus G08)

## Abstract

An exemplary embodiment of the present application is a system and method for work allocation optimization. In the present disclosure, analytics are applied to work items while the work items are waiting in a work queue in order to optimize the routing and allocation of work items to agents in the most efficient manner possible, while optimizing the utilization of agents. By performing a look ahead at more than the initial work item, the system assesses the agent skills required by imminent work items in the work queue. This is then compared to a skillset of each available and/or soon to be available agent in order to achieve the optimal allocation of the work items to maximize utilization of agents. The work items are then routed to the agents accordingly.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method for optimized scheduling, comprising:
receiving a work queue from the customer engagement center (CEC) at a work allocation engine (WAE), wherein the work queue includes a set of work items;
receiving an agent list from the CEC at the WAE, wherein the agent list includes at least one agent;
performing a work queue analysis of the work queue using a WAE software module on the WAE;
generating an imminent work item list based on the work queue analysis of the WAE software module;
performing an agent analysis of the work queue using the WAE software module on the WAE;
generating an available agent list based on the agent analysis of the WAE software module;
passing the imminent work item list and the available agent list to a smart work allocator (SWA);
performing an optimization analysis of the first imminent work item based on the available agent list using a SWA software module on the SWA;
assigning an available agent from the available agent list to the first imminent work item based on the optimization analysis of the SWA software module;
updating the imminent work item list by removing the assigned first imminent work item; and
updating the available agent list by removing the assigned available agent.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising repeating the steps of the SWA with the updated imminent work item list and the updated available agent list until the imminent work item list is empty.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the agents in the agent list each include metadata indicating whether the agent is currently assigned a work item, a type of work item assigned, and a time the work item was started.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3, wherein the agent analysis includes:
determining that an agent is an available agent if the metadata indicates the agent is not currently assigned a work item; and
determining that an agent is an available agent if the metadata indicates the agent is current assigned a work item and an estimated time remaining for servicing the work item is less than a threshold time.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the work items in the work queue each include a set of required skills, wherein the required skills are attributes that the CEC system has determined are beneficial for handling the work item.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The method of claim 5, wherein the agents in the list of agents each include a set of agent abilities, wherein the agent abilities are attributes indicating the agent's ability to handle required skills of work items.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The method of claim 6, wherein the optimization analysis by the SWA software module includes:
determining an optimal match agent for the first imminent work item, wherein the optimal match agent is determined based on a set of predetermined criteria such that the optimal match agent is the agent from the list of available agents whose agent attributes most closely correlate to the required skills for the first imminent work item;
temporarily assigning the optimal match agent to the first imminent work item;
determining if any of the remaining agents in the available agent list are qualified to handle the first imminent work item;
creating a list of qualified available agents based on the determination;
comparing the agent attributes of each qualified available agent to the required skills of each remaining imminent work item in the imminent work item queue and determining if the qualified available agent is also qualified to handle at least one of the remaining imminent work items in the imminent work item queue;
determining that the optimal match agent is the assigned agent to the first imminent work item, when all of the qualified available agents are determined to be qualified to handle at least one remaining imminent work item;
performing an additional optimization analysis of the first imminent work item, when it is determined there is at least one qualified available agent who is not qualified to handle any of the remaining imminent work items in the imminent work item queue; and
determining the assigned agent to the first imminent work item based on the additional optimization analysis.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7, wherein the determination of the qualified available agents is based on a set of qualification rules that use the comparison of the agent abilities of the remaining available agents to the required skills of the imminent work items in the determination process.

### Claim 9 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7, wherein the additional optimization analysis includes:
determining a first qualified available agent that is not qualified to handle any other imminent work items in the imminent work item queue, wherein the determined first qualified available agent is the first available agent in the qualified agent list that is not able to handle any other imminent work items;
comparing the agent abilities of the optimal match agent to each imminent work item remaining in the imminent work item queue and determining if the optimal match agent is qualified to handle at least one other imminent work item;
determining that the optimal match agent is the assigned agent to the first imminent work item, when it is determined that the optimal agent is not qualified to handle any of the remaining imminent work items in the imminent work item queue; and
determining that the first qualified available agent is the assigned agent to the first imminent work item, when it is determined that the optimal match agent is qualified to handle at least one other imminent work item in the imminent work item queue.

### Claim 10

A system for optimizing scheduling, comprising:
a processor; and
a non-transitory computer readable medium programmed with computer readable code that upon execution by the processor causes the processor to execute a method for optimized scheduling, comprising:
receiving a work queue from the customer engagement center (CEC) at a work allocation engine (WAE), wherein the work queue includes a set of work items;
receiving an agent list from the CEC at the WAE, wherein the agent list includes at least one agent;
performing a work queue analysis of the work queue using a WAE software module on the WAE;
generating an imminent work item list based on the work queue analysis of the WAE software module;
performing an agent analysis of the work queue using the WAE software module on the WAE;
generating an available agent list based on the agent analysis of the WAE software module;
passing the imminent work item list and the available agent list to a smart work allocator (SWA);
performing an analysis of the first imminent work item based on the available agent list using a SWA software module on the SWA;
assigning an available agent from the available agent list to the first imminent work item based on the analysis of the SWA software module;
updating the imminent work item list by removing the assigned first imminent work item; and
updating the available agent list by removing the assigned available agent.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The system of claim 10, wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium further includes repeating the steps of the SWA with the updated imminent work item list and the updated available agent list until the imminent work item list is empty.

### Claim 12 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, wherein the agents in the agent list each include metadata indicating whether the agent is currently assigned a work item, a type of work item assigned, and a time the work item was started.

### Claim 13 (depends on 12)

The method of claim 12, wherein the agent analysis includes:
determining that an agent is an available agent if the metadata indicates the agent is not currently assigned a work item; and
determining that an agent is an available agent if the metadata indicates the agent is current assigned a work item and an estimated time remaining for servicing the work item is less than a threshold time.

### Claim 14 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, wherein the work items in the work queue each include a set of required skills, wherein the required skills are attributes that the CEC system has determined are beneficial for handling the work item.

### Claim 15 (depends on 14)

The method of claim 14, wherein the agents in the list of agents each include a set of agent abilities, wherein the agent abilities are attributes indicating the agent's ability to handle required skills of work items.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The method of claim 15, wherein the optimization analysis by the SWA software module includes:
determining an optimal match agent for the first imminent work item, wherein the optimal match agent is determined based on a set of predetermined criteria such that the optimal match agent is the agent from the list of available agents whose agent attributes most closely correlate to the required skills for the first imminent work item;
temporarily assigning the optimal match agent to the first imminent work item;
determining if any of the remaining agents in the available agent list are qualified to handle the first imminent work item;
creating a list of qualified available agents based on the determination;
comparing the agent attributes of each qualified available agent to the required skills of each remaining imminent work item in the imminent work item queue and determining if the qualified available agent is also qualified to handle at least one of the remaining imminent work items in the imminent work item queue;
determining that the optimal match agent is the assigned agent to the first imminent work item, when all of the qualified available agents are determined to be qualified to handle at least one remaining imminent work item;
performing an additional optimization analysis of the first imminent work item, when it is determined there is at least one qualified available agent who is not qualified to handle any of the remaining imminent work items in the imminent work item queue; and
determining the assigned agent to the first imminent work item based on the additional optimization analysis.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The method of claim 16, wherein the determination of the qualified available agents is based on a set of qualification rules that use the comparison of the agent abilities of the remaining available agents to the required skills of the imminent work items in the determination process.

### Claim 18 (depends on 16)

The method of claim 16, wherein the additional optimization analysis includes:
determining a first qualified available agent that is not qualified to handle any other imminent work items in the imminent work item queue, wherein the determined first qualified available agent is the first available agent in the qualified agent list that is not able to handle any other imminent work items;
comparing the agent abilities of the optimal match agent to each imminent work item remaining in the imminent work item queue and determining if the optimal match agent is qualified to handle at least one other imminent work item;
determining that the optimal match agent is the assigned agent to the first imminent work item, when it is determined that the optimal agent is not qualified to handle any of the remaining imminent work items in the imminent work item queue; and
determining that the first qualified available agent is the assigned agent to the first imminent work item, when it is determined that the optimal match agent is qualified to handle at least one other imminent work item in the imminent work item queue.

### Claim 19

A non-transitory computer readable medium programmed with computer readable code that upon execution by a processor causes the processor to execute a method for real-time predictive scheduling, comprising:
receiving a work queue from the customer engagement center (CEC) at a work allocation engine (WAE), wherein the work queue includes a set of work items;
receiving an agent list from the CEC at the WAE, wherein the agent list includes at least one agent;
performing a work queue analysis of the work queue using a WAE software module on the WAE;
generating an imminent work item list based on the work queue analysis of the WAE software module;
performing an agent analysis of the work queue using the WAE software module on the WAE;
generating an available agent list based on the agent analysis of the WAE software module;
passing the imminent work item list and the available agent list to a smart work allocator (SWA);
performing an analysis of the first imminent work item based on the available agent list using a SWA software module on the SWA;
assigning an available agent from the available agent list to the first imminent work item based on the analysis of the SWA software module;
updating the imminent work item list by removing the assigned first imminent work item; and
updating the available agent list by removing the assigned available agent.