Abstract: A message center server retrieves e-mail messages from one or more e-mail accounts and intelligently distributes them among a plurality of agents handling the messages. Messages received from the same originator regarding the same subject matter are treated as transactions and assigned a unique transaction identifier. When a message initiating a new transaction is forwarded to an agent, the agent's login is associated with the transaction identifier for that message. Thereafter, messages retrieved from the e-mail account(s) are scanned for a transaction identifier. If found, the message—a continuance of the transaction—is placed in the appropriate agent queue. The same agent thus handles all messages from the originator regarding a specific transaction, avoiding the need to relearn a transaction history. If no transaction identifier is found, the message is forwarded to an appropriate pool of new messages.