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Summmary
Oneserve's pooled scheduler allows you to use pre-defined settings to manage the scheduling of appointments. By setting up specific day divisions, resource/site coordinates, and team services, the pooled scheduler allows you to simply drop appointments in and let the system manage the timings. If you are making use of the nightly optimiser, it will manage any pooled appointments you set up.
Note: To learn more about the optimiser, see the optimiser section
Guide
Day Divisions
Note: The more day divisions you have set up in a single day, the greater the load on the system
Day divisions will control the slots available within your scheduler. These are normally set to AM and PM but it can be configured by our support or technical team. Day divisions are assigned to a client so if you can accommodate for different service level agreements with your clients.
The day divisions set per-client will need to cover a 24 hour period. If you were to have the AM and PM set up the AM would start at 00.00 and run until 11.59.59 and the PM slot would start at 12 and run until 23.59.59
Another option would be to have smaller day division slots such as 9-11, 11-1, 1-3, 3-5. If you are using the nightly optimiser you may see smaller drive time savings because the optimiser can only move appointments within the same day division so if you have lots of smaller slots the appointments will be limited on rescheduling options.
The pooled scheduler will show availability for a day division if the appointment can start within the slot even if the duration is too long to finish within the same slot.
Drive Time
Note: To make the most out of the Drive Time calculator, ensure all resources and sites have valid location data set up
If you are scheduling the first appointment of the day or an appointment after non-working time it will use the resource home details to calculate the drive time. If your new appointment is scheduled after another appointment it will use the site details for the previous appointment.
If your sites and resource home address includes coordinate information the drive time will be calculated using the latitude and longitude values. If the coordinate data is missing the drive time will use the postcode value. If the coordinates and postcode fields are both empty the drive time will use the default value which is usually set as 10 minutes.
Appointment Order
To benefit from the Pooled scheduler and the Nightly Optimiser we advise our users to try and book more pooled appointments instead of fixed appointments. This is due to the pooled scheduler moving appointments within a day division to minimise resource drive time, this will increase available time for additional appointments.
The pooled scheduler will try dropping the appointment in every possible position within a day division slot for the available resources.
For example, if there are already two appointments scheduled, it will try scheduling it as the first, second, and third appointment. It will choose the position with the shortest drive time.
If scheduling the appointment for the first place results in an additional 14 minutes of drive time, and scheduling it as the second appointment results in an additional 22 minutes of drive time, then it will use the first position and move the pre-booked appointment to start after. If you have fixed appointments within the schedule it will make it difficult for the pooled scheduler to move appointments to get the best order for the resource drive times.
Days Displayed
There is a setting called RS Pooled Number of Days Displayed (RSPDN) that determines how many days you can see on the pooled scheduler as a default. This is normally set to 7 days but if you would like to change this value please raise a request with our support team.
Users can change the days on the pooled scheduler by using the dropdown by the date selector but it will go back to the default option for the next appointment.
Selected Date
By opening the pooled scheduler for a new appointment the job priority settings will determine what date you land on, this will affect the first day you will see availability for.
On the Admin - Priority screen you will see a field called 'Display Delay Days'. If you set the number of days, the scheduler will default the first day in the view to the same value.
For example, if you set the value to be 10, the scheduler will open by default to 10 days from the current day (it will not use job reported date) and it will not consider exclusion days and dates.
Default Team
When you use the 'Schedule Appointment' option from the Job Resource tab it will open the Pooled scheduler unless you have asked for a setting called Default to pooled view (RSDEP) changed so you can open the fixed scheduler first.
The Team drop-down will default to the Team from the job but it can be changed to another active team. Only one team can be selected at a time.
After changing the team selection remember to use the blue refresh button to update the availability below for the selected team.
Available Resources
The pooled scheduler will default the available resources within the dropdown to be 'All Suitable' This will include a count to show how many resources are suitable compared to the active resources shown after the team name.
To calculate the 'All Suitable' option it will check what resources cover the location details for the site and the services for all selected activities being scheduled for the appointment.
The count against all suitable can change if you were to use the Primary and Secondary options for postcode and services as additional resources could match the appointment requirements.
You can select one individual resource and refresh the availability view when you book the appointment it will set it to that resource and stop the optimiser moving the appointment to another resource.
Available Slots
The key on the scheduler will refer to green slots as 'Best Fit'. Best Fit slots will be shown if available resources who already has an appointment in the same slot where the site region for both appointments matches.
As day division/slots are configured per client the appointment being scheduled and the appointments already booked within the day division will need to have the same client.
If you select a Best Fit slot there will be no guarantee that the appointment will be assigned to the resource scheduled for the other appointment. The pooled scheduler will allocate the appointment to the resource who is available and matches the appointment requirements (Service and postcode) and the shortest drive time.
Not Available
You will see empty day divisions if the appointment cannot be scheduled, this could be due to one of the reasons below
- Not enough available time for any resource to start and finish the appointment within the day
- No resources within the selected team that have the services required for the appointment activities
- No resources within the selected team that cover the postcode area for the site of that job.
Resource Efficiencies
Resource service efficiencies will impact the appointment duration because the time can be increased or decreased depending on a positive or negative value. The resource efficiency is not used to determine which resource should be assigned to the appointment However, efficiencies are used when working out whether a resource has the availability for the appointment.
It will check the drive time calculation and the appointment duration once the efficiencies have been applied.
- Positive resource efficiency will decrease the appointment duration
- Negative resource efficiency will increase the appointment duration
Out of Target
Out of target slots will appear in Red, this will indicate that appointments booked within the slot will be out of target according to the Jobs Target date.
Job target dates include a time so the appointment could go out of target half way through the slot but the whole slot will be red.
E.g. the job target date is 15.30 but the PM slot is 12 to midnight so it will be red because it will go out of date within that time period.
Users will be asked for a reason when they schedule an out of target appointment, the reasons within the dropdown can be configured by opening the Admin menu, Click on the Notes page, Select the plus icon to add new notes against the 'Late scheduled appointment reason' note type.
Auto Appointment
The auto appointment button will be available on the pooled scheduler above the date selector. This will allow the system to chose the best slot to schedule the appointment without the user making the decision.
The Auto Appointment button can be used if the job matches the following criteria
- The job is within the target date.
- A priority can have a delay day set, this will determine the number of days the scheduler will move on from the created date. Eg job created on the 1st of the month with a priority that has a delay day of 5 days, by default the scheduler will open on the 6th. The target date cannot be within the priority delay days window.
If the appointment cannot be booked using the auto appointment the target date will need to be increased or the user will need to choose a date and select a slot on the pooled scheduler
Consider Previous Slots
If your user type has this right assigned you will see the option for 'Consider previous app.slot for best fit' in the filters list. By selecting this option you will be able to see green appointment slots with a resource name included in the slot if another appointment has been booked for a site with the same Client and Site Region. Normally green slots will only display for a single day division so this option will allow you to see the previous and next day division as well.
