Dynamic reallocation of calls to agent groups

Abstract

An arrangement for selectively altering the serving of emergency serving areas ESAs. Normally emergency serving areas are grouped and all calls for a group are handled by teams of agents at public safety answering point (PSAP) positions. For special emergencies such as a fire it is deskable that all traffic from one emergency service area be specially routed either to a single destination such as one PSAP position or a telephone in a fire station or to a special group of agents. This is accomplished by assigning a different routing telephone number to the emergency service number ESN corresponding to each emergency service area and using that routing telephone number ESN for routing calls. The calls are routed first to a single agent position which is normally not logged in and then on a default basis to an automatic call distributor (ACD) number for routing to a team of PSAP agents. If a special emergency occurs in one of the ESAs, then the routing for the corresponding ESN is changed either by logging on an agent to handle all calls for that ESN or by changing the default ACD number to route these calls to a different ACD or to a different telephone. Advantageously, such an arrangement allows for a highly flexible routing under special emergency conditions without requiring a complex individual ACD routing for each ESN under normal conditions.