Service Scheduling provides a set of features that allow you to seamlessly manage your service activities, by planning and scheduling activities to your resources, while taking into consideration their availability and expertise, as well as any requirements you may configure for each service.
It has been around for a while, but the new service scheduling on Unified interface (UCI) is now built on top of the Universal Resource Scheduling (URS), the scheduling engine used by not only Customer Service, but also Project Service and Field Service.
For the new Dynamics 365 Customer Service environments, the Core Service Scheduling solutions will be installed by default, whereas for the existing ones that don’t, they can be installed from the admin center. As soon as you have them installed, you can access the new scheduling experience from Customer Service Hub app.
Once you’re in the customer service hub app, you can access the features by selecting the “Scheduling” area, in the bottom left corner
Base Configuration
Before you start taking advantage of the scheduling features, there is some basic configuration work you must (and may want to) do.
Services: You must predefine the specific services you provide to your customers.
Resources: As the entity name suggests, they are the resources required to perform your services. They can represent people, equipment, facilities, and more.
Facilities/Equipment: In case providing your services requires the management of facilities or equipment, you should create them here.
Resource Categories: You categorize your resources by creating resource categories, which are essentially roles, that you will then assign to them. You can also add them as a requirement to the services, and by doing so, you’ll be able to filter the resources that are compatible with any given service.
Fulfillment preferences: Allows you to choose how schedule assistant results are displayed, for example, with neat hourly appointments, or morning and afternoon time windows.
Organizational Units: By creating them, you can organize your services by various areas, for example, geographic ones.
Business Closures: It allows you to define business closures, to prevent scheduling resources on non-working days, like holidays for example.
You can configure further, by hoping on to the Resource Scheduling app, in the “Settings” area.
There, you can configure more entities, such as Resource Characteristics (labeled as “Skills”). Just like Categories, you can use them as requirements for your services.
Once you have everything set up, you will be able to manage your service activities through an interactive schedule board.
