How to Use the Dynamics 365 Field Service Schedule Board
Using the Dynamics 365 Field Service Schedule Board can help you better manage your field service operations.
For companies with many field service agents with varying areas of expertise, managing which employees respond to which calls can get complicated. By using the schedule board, you gain access to a centralized, interactive tool that lets you efficiently plan, assign, and manage field service work orders.
What is the Dynamics 365 Field Service Schedule Board?
It gives you a real-time visual representation of technician availability, job locations, and scheduling constraints so you can make informed decisions and improve your service delivery. This tool within Dynamics 365 Field Service is beneficial for several key reasons:
- Optimized resource allocation: You can visualize agent availability, workload, and location to ensure you assign the right technician with the proper skills.
- Increase Productivity: The schedule board allows you to quickly assign and re-assign work orders and automate scheduling with AI-powered recommendations.
- Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: More automation and greater insights let you speed up your on-time delivery and provide customers with accurate arrival times and real-time updates.
- Cost Savings: The ability to assign the closest or most qualified technician for a job reduces travel costs and improves fix rates.
- Real-Time Visibility and Reporting: Gaining insights into technician performance, completion times, and operational bottlenecks allows you to find areas of improvement and make decisions on the fly.
How to Use the Schedule Board in Field Service
Efficient scheduling is the backbone of effective field service management. Dynamics 365 Field Service offers a robust Scheduling Board that empowers dispatchers and service managers to allocate resources optimally, ensuring timely service delivery and enhanced customer satisfaction.
Navigating the Scheduling Board
The Scheduling Board is structured into three primary areas:
- Actions Area: Located at the top, this section offers tools and options to manage and customize the board's display and functionalities.
- Resource List: Displays available resources, such as field technicians or equipment, along with their current bookings and availability.
- Requirement Pane: Shows unscheduled work orders or service requests that need to be assigned to appropriate resources.
Key Features of the Actions Area
The Actions Area is the meat and potatoes of the Scheduling Board and provides you with core operational needs. Here's how you can utilize its features:
Map View
Visualize resources and requirements geographically:
- Access Map View: Click on the 'Map view' icon to display resources and requirements on a map.
- Resource Routes: Select a resource to view its planned route, with numbers indicating the sequence of scheduled requirements.
- Drag and Drop Scheduling: Assign unscheduled requirements by dragging pins from the map to the resource timeline or adjust resource routes to include nearby unscheduled requirements.
Filters
Filters allow you to sort specific resources based on status, availability, location, or expertise. This helps you assign the right technicians to the right cases.
- Select Resources: Click on the ellipsis (…) and choose 'Select Resources' to pick a subset of resources to display.
- Apply Filters: Define criteria to filter the selected resources further.
- Save as Default: After setting your filters, select 'Save as Default' to make this configuration the default view for all schedule boards.
- Reset to Default: To revert to the original settings, select 'Reset to Default'.
Time Scale, View Type, and Date Range
With these features, you can adjust your view to see different information without switching screens. This includes:
- Time Scale: Switch between hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly views to view perspectives from different time frames.
- View Types:
- Gantt: A bar chart illustrating schedules over time, reflecting start dates, durations, and end dates.
- List: Displays resources in a list format, allowing for expanded views to show time granularity.
- Set Date Range: Define the period you wish to view on the board. You can navigate ranges by using the arrows. Note: In Field Service views, weeks start on Sundays.
- Navigate: Use the arrows to move between time frames. Note that weeks start on Sundays.
Booking and Moving Appointments
In Dynamics 365 Field Service, you can manage and book appointments easily, both manually and with automated workflows. Here’s how the system helps you do this:
- Book Appointments: Manually schedule a requirement by selecting a resource, start and end times, booking status, and method. For constraint-based scheduling, utilize the schedule assistant.
- Create Booking Alerts: The ability to create booking alerts keeps your dispatchers aware of important updates or status changes to ensure accurate schedules, timely job completion, billing accuracy, and customer satisfaction management.
- Move Bookings: To reschedule, select 'Show more schedule board actions (…) > Move bookings' to shift bookings of a specific status to a different day while preserving other parameters.
- Scheduling Assistant: Provides recommendations that match criteria, like technician availability, skills, requirements, or proximity to a work order.
- Resource Scheduling Optimization: The Resource Scheduling Optimization feature automatically schedules work orders to the technicians who are best suited for them and can assign multiple jobs at the same time. Note: This is an add-on that comes with an additional cost.
Refreshing, Focus Mode, Legend, and Board View Settings
These features help you ensure the schedule board is always up-to-date and tailored to fit the needs of your dispatching team. Let’s look a bit deeper:
- Refresh Board: The schedule board refreshes automatically when you make changes to the start date, end date, resource assignment, or status of a booking. You can also manually refresh the scheduling board.
- Focus Mode: Clicking the “Focus Mode” icon allows you to block out other navigation items by putting the schedule board in full screen.
- Legend: Navigate here to view color codes and the icon library for status, priority, timeline, and travel time.
- Board View Settings: If you select the ellipsis (…) and navigate to “Scheduler Settings you can configure and customize the scheduler board tab settings.
Resource List
On the left-hand side of the screen, you will find a list of your technicians. You can right-click on a resource’s name to see more options and information.
- Choose “View resource card” to see details like the technician's skills and roles. This option also lets you start chats, send emails, or make phone calls.
- Choose “Get driving directions” to see where the technician will be driving that day.
Utilizing the Requirement Pane
This section lets you effectively manage unscheduled work orders, ensuring your skilled technicians can resolve customer issues quickly and efficiently.
- Sort and Filter: Each column in the requirement pane can be sorted and filtered to prioritize tasks.
- Find Availability: Select a requirement and choose “Find availability” to launch the schedule assistant, which suggests suitable resources based on availability and skills.
- Manually Assign Bookings on the timeline: By right-clicking on a booking and selecting “Move to”, you can choose to assign it to a technician. You can also change the start date and start time of the booking here.
Customizing the Scheduling Board
Tailor the board to fit your organization's unique needs:
- Change Time Granularity: Adjust the time granularity using the slider at the bottom right or browser zoom shortcuts (e.g., Ctrl+scroll).
- Create New Tabs: Select 'New schedule board tab (+)' to add a new tab with specific configurations.
- Copy Links: Configure the board as desired, then select 'More options (…) > Copy link' to generate a URL reflecting the current settings.
Best Practices for Effective Use of the Dynamics 365 Field Service Scheduling Board
The Dynamics 365 Field Service schedule board helps you and your team operate at peak efficiency by consolidating everything you need to schedule and assign work orders to your technicians in a unified view. Here are some key tips on maximizing the benefits:
- Regularly Update Resource Information: Ensure that resource availability, skills, and locations are current to facilitate accurate scheduling. For example, Technician A is the only member of your team who has a skillset that qualifies them to work on a particular issue. If you decide to train Technician B so they can cover holidays, sick days, and overlaps, you must update that resource information so the system knows to assign work orders to Technician B when Technician A goes on holidays.
- Utilize Filters and Views: Customize filters and views to focus on relevant information, enhancing decision-making efficiency. Knowing how to use these tools lets your dispatchers sort and view highly relevant information tied to work orders.
- Leverage the Map View: Use the geographical representation to optimize routes and reduce travel time. This empowers your dispatchers to communicate with field technicians and give them important information on traveling to their jobs.
- Train Dispatchers Thoroughly: Provide comprehensive training to dispatchers to utilize all features effectively, leading to improved scheduling outcomes. Making sure they know all of the features and functionalities of the schedule board will help them do their jobs quickly and easily. In turn, that boost in efficiency will be passed on to the field technicians, who will have fast and constant communication with dispatchers.
By mastering the features and functionalities of the Scheduling Board in Dynamics 365 Field Service, your organization can achieve streamlined operations, optimized resource utilization, and enhanced customer satisfaction.
Contact Stoneridge Today to Learn More About Dynamics 365 Field Service
Dynamics 365 Field Service comes equipped with many great tools to help you streamline work order management and empower your technicians to provide great customer service.
Talk to our team today to optimize your field service operations.
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