1. A presence management system for a contact center comprising: a presence server configured to accept, manage, and distribute presence information using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) based messages and in conformance with an open standard; a data store communicatively linked to the presence server, wherein the data store is configured to store the presence information, said stored presence information including presence information for a plurality of contact center agents, wherein for each agent the stored presence information includes an element for expertise of the associated agent; and a plurality of watchers configured to subscribe to the presence information managed by the presence server, wherein each of the watchers corresponds to a unique expertise and wherein that watcher is associated with the presence information for all of the contact center agents having the unique expertise to which that watcher corresponds.