Resource Scheduling - R15

Owned by Persia Xenopoulou (Deactivated)
Last updated: Mar 28, 2019
7 min read


Overview

Resource scheduling is used by an organization to efficiently assign the employees that are necessary to complete tasks such as installations, phone support, and internal training.   A task is planned subject to the availability of the required resources. Use of resource plans allows you to generate time slots during which resources from an organization's departments can be booked to deliver specific services; Resources can be requested through planned tasks (activities and jobs), which are billed based on their duration.


Setting Up Resource Scheduling and Core Processes

Before you start using Resource Scheduling set up the system to reflect your own business needs.

Settings

 Configuration / Foundation Application / Foundation Settings / Resource Scheduling Settings

Resource scheduling settings provides business rules for the generation of resource plan entries and for booking resource requests.  As resources can be booked via activities and jobs, it is important to set up your rules on how resourcing will be handled through both areas. You can define the activity and job types that will be allowed to request resources as well as the maximum number of requests that can be submitted per activity or activity service.

Additionally you can determine if an available resource should be reserved automatically or whether a confirmation should be requested. If a confirmation is required, the resource request is created in a 'Pending' life cycle state.  Otherwise, it is created in an 'Accepted' state. You also have the option to force the use of a resource in which case the activity or job won't be allowed to be completed unless a recourse is requested through Force Resource Requests. This can be applicable only for specific activity /job types but make sure that the one you select has already been added to the allowed types.

Through settings you will ca also provide the default settings for new resource plans. Important information for a resource plan are the following:

  • Working Days: The days of the week that are considered as working days in your organization and for which plan entries will be enabled.
  • Working Hours: The time slots using From and To for which entries will be created.  Slots range from 5 minutes to 24 hours. 
  • Effective Availability Percentage (%): A percentage value for the total available time that is considered as 'Effective' (i.e., can be booked by resource requests).  The value can exceed 100%.  Unless specified, all (100%) of the available time is considered as 'Effective'.
  • Overbooking Percentage (%): A percentage value for the total available time that can be booked in excess of the actual capacity. If specified, the Effective Availability plus Overbooking Percentage is available for resource requests. If not specified, overbooking is not allowed.

Resource Plans

Foundation / Resource Scheduling / Manage Resource Plans

Start by creating resource plans. Resource Plans are used to define the availability of resources; the time frame for which the resources are available for, the type of tasks that resources can perform within this time frame, the duration that resources can spend on each task and of course the actual resources. Resource Plans consist of the following:

Resource plan entries become available for booking by agents when the plan is saved.

Each unit (i.e. team) in CRM.COM must have her own resource plan applicable for a specific period (i.e. 1 week or 1 month) and you can define the days which are considered working, so the resource entries are created accordingly.

Provide the Resource Plan entry information. Each entry specifies the working day and hours, the services that can be provided and the number of resources available on that day. For each service you can provide the minimum and maximum amount of time necessary to perform the service. Additionally, you can provide the following

  • Average Number of Resources that are available and can perform tasks on behalf of the specified unit during the effective period.
  • Effective Availability Percentage (%): A percentage value for the total available time that is considered as 'Effective' (i.e., can be booked by resource requests).  The value can exceed 100%.  Unless specified, all (100%) of the available time is considered as 'Effective'.
  • Overbooking Percentage (%): A percentage value for the total available time that can be booked in excess of the actual capacity. If specified, the Effective Availability plus Overbooking Percentage is available for resource requests. If not specified, overbooking is not allowed.

As soon as the plan is saved the resources are available for booking through activities and jobs


Recommended additional setup


In addition to the Resource Scheduling specific settings the following may be configured for the Resource Scheduling to operate at its full capacity.

  • Activities: Set up the activity types for which resource plan entries will be booked for
  • Products: set up the one-time service products for which resources will be created for. It is through the product (one-time service) that the billing will take place if applicable

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Using Resource Scheduling

Foundation / Resource Scheduling / Manage Resource Requests

 

Booking a resource 

 Requests can be booked from the following Data Entry pages: 

  1. Manage resource requests
  2. Manage activities
  3. Manage jobs 

The process for requesting a resource is identical.

  1. Provide the following information and SEARCH the available resource plan entries.
    1. Requested Unit (automatically set to the 'Assigned to Unit' if it is already defined for the activity)
    2. Number of resources
    3. The entry (activity or job) that requires the resource
    4. From and To dates (optionally provide the desired hour slots)
      1. From: If the start date of the job or activity is defined and greater than the current date, then From is set to the start date.  Otherwise, it is set to the current date.

      2. To:  Automatically set to the estimated completion date of the activity. If that is not available or the estimated completion date of the job or activity is greater than the current date, then it is set equal to 7 days after the From date.

    5. Request Resources in the Action Details section is set to the number of resources defined in the Resource Request Data Entry page (and can be updated).
  2. The system searches for available resource entries that meet the criteria specified by the:  
    1. Requested Unit 
    2. Service
    3. From Date
    4. To Date
  3. Available resources are displayed in the SEARCH RESULTS section.
    1. Planned Resources: The number of resources defined when creating the plan.

    2. Available Resources: The number of resources that have yet to be booked.

      If Planned Resources < Available Resources, then the Overbooking Percentage has been set to greater than 0 % and (most likely) no resources have been allocated yet.

      If Planned Resources > Available Resources, then some resources have already been allocated and consequently removed from the available resources.

  4. Check the select box to the left of the entry you would like to book and click on SELECT.

    Resources from different days cannot be booked.
    As many consecutive slots as necessary can be booked, as long as the period exceeds the Minimum Duration and is less than or equal to the Maximum Duration set on the service when creating the resource plan.

Accepting a resource request 

As a resource request affects resource availability, a mechanism can be set up requiring that an authorized user accepts the request before the resources are booked.  This enables back-office personnel to confirm appointments with customers before finalizing the employee schedule. 

Requests that require acceptance are created with a 'Pending' life cycle state, indicating that the resource plan entry has yet to be confirmed. To accept a request, use Accept from the Actions' menu in the Data Entry page of the request.  The life cycle state of the request changes to 'Accepted' and the resources are reserved immediately. 

To enable the confirmation requirement, enable Resource Request Confirmation is Required in the Resource Scheduling Settings.

 Rejecting or cancelling a resource request 

 Requests that require acceptance can be rejected leaving the resource availability unaffected.  To reject a request, use Reject from the Actions menu.  The life cycle state of the request changes to 'Rejected'.

 In case an appointment needs to be rescheduled or a customer changes their mind, accepted requests can be canceled.  If the request was already accepted, then the reserved resources are released and become available again. To cancel a request, use Cancel from the Actions menu. The life cycle state of the request changes to 'Cancelled'.

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Business Flows


Verifying and Approving Resource Requests

Scenario

Company ZX would like to review resource requests before booking therm. The installation back-office is responsible for contacting customers to confirm the appointments before finalizing the weekly installer schedule.

In the beginning of the week, the back-office should call again to reconfirm the booked appointments. If customers decide to cancel their appointment, then the back-office must free the slot and make it available for booking again.


Configuration

  • Resource Scheduling Settings
    • Enable 'Request Confirmation is Required for Activity Resource Requests' so that requested resources are accepted before being booked.

User Process

Plan the upcoming week's schedule

New resource requests that are booked by agents have a life cycle state set to 'Pending'.
The installation back-office department is responsible for retrieving and handling the requests. Once the booking is confirmed by the customers:

  • Navigate to Manage Resource Requests.
  • Search and retrieve requests in a 'Pending' life cycle state for the upcoming week.
  • For each request, access customer details through the contact information defined on the activity and confirm the appointment.
  • Accept confirmed or Reject canceled appointments from the Actions menu.


Confirm the current week's schedule

Requests for planned and confirmed appointments have a life cycle state set to 'Accepted'.
The installation back-office department is responsible for retrieving appointments planned for the week and reconfirm that they are still valid. If the customer reconfirms, then no further action is necessary. However, if the customer cancels or postpones the appointment, the booked resources must be released:

  • Navigate to Manage Resource Requests.
  • Search and retrieve requests in an 'Accepted ' life cycle state for the current week.
  • For each request, access customer details through the contact information defined on the activity and confirm the appointment.
  • Cancel the appointments by using Cancel from the Actions menu.

On this page

For the developer

Check out the Resource Scheduling WEB API for a complete list of actions available used to integrate CRM.COM to external systems

WEB API

Release news

Check out a full list of CRM.COM features available per release.

Features

Check out upgrade notes to find out what needs to be done to upgrade from your current release to the latest release of CRM.COM.

Upgrade Notes