Scheduling Users and Other Resources

Your resources are the users who can provide a service A type of work performed for a customer by one or more resources. Services are schedulable activities., and the equipment The tools or assets used to perform a service activity. and facilities The physical spaces, such as conference rooms or service bays, where service activities can be performed. required to provide the service to your customers. You can use Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to manage the schedules, the services to be performed, and the availability of your workforce. When you combine the skills of your personnel with the correct equipment and facilities required to perform services, you can improve the efficiency with which you schedule and provide services to your customers.

Scheduling resources includes the following tasks:

• Selecting resources
• Defining when resources are available
• Scheduling closures

Selecting the Resources That Perform Services

For each service your organization offers, you can select the resources required, either as individual resources or as resource groups, to perform the service. To select resources, you create selection rules for the service that details what combination of individual personnel, equipment, and facilities, or resource groups is required when someone schedules this service. For example, you can set up a rule that a bike repair requires a bike technician and a specific set of tools.

If you have groups of resources with similar skills or skill levels that can be scheduled interchangeably, you can create resource groups for easier selection. For example, you can put all your repair technicians into a "technicians" resource group, and then when you are defining the selection rules for your services, you select only the "technicians" group instead of the individual technicians.More information: Defining Rules and Resources for Services

Defining When Your Resources Are Available

You can manage the schedule of individual resources by scheduling the availability of each resource. This includes vacations, time-off, working hours, capacity, and maintenance. You can view the schedule for resources, compare it to other schedules, and check for conflicts.

With this information, when you schedule a service, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online determines which resources or combination of resources are available to perform the service at a specific date and time.

Scheduling 0rganization-Wide Closures

You can set the days your organization is closed for holidays and other events. You can exempt individual resources from the closure schedule.