What’s new in Universal Resource Scheduling for Dynamics 365 June 2018 Update

Applies to Universal Resource Scheduling solution (version 2.4.3.xx), Field Service application (version 7.5.1.xx), Project Service Automation application (version 2.4.4.xx) On Dynamics 365 version 9.0.x)

 

We’re back with Universal Resource Scheduling June 2018 Update! As always, we focus on our customers in these updates with improvements in user experience, feature discoverability, stability, performance, and highly requested scenarios. For information on bug fixes, see Release Notes for Field Service and and Project Service Automation Update Release 7.

 

This “What’s new in June 2018” blog post breaks down as follows:

Scheduling enhancements

 

Schedule assistant – Display “Dates in the Past” error before search takes place

When searching for availability, sometimes the dates on the requirement are in the past. Since the schedule assistant does not search the past, an error is presented to the scheduler explaining that the search dates are in the past. Now, instead of executing the schedule assistant search and then displaying the error message (wasting valuable time), the error appears right away.

 

Here you can see this error message just above the schedule assistant panel:

 

Dates in the past error

 

Drag requirements from map to daily, weekly, and monthly schedule boards

Prior to this release, you could only drag map pins from the map to the hourly schedule board to create bookings. Now, you can accomplish this on the multiday schedule boards as well!

Just drag a map pin to the date you would like to book, for the resource you would like booked, and the booking panel opens and allows you to complete the booking!

 

Here is a video showing this process:

 

 

 

User experience enhancements

We’re continuing our quest for improved usability and user experience, even through the smallest of tweaks, such as….

 

Added search icon to resource search

We added a search icon to the resource search bar to make it even more discoverable.

 

Screenshot showing search icon in resource search bar

Screenshot showing search icon in resource search bar

 

Selecting resource cell opens booking panel in hourly schedule assistant

On the daily, weekly, and monthly schedule board views, selecting a resource in the schedule assistant pops out the booking panel for booking. Now, on the hourly schedule board, we do the same.

Take a look at this screenshot showing what happens when you select a Resource in Schedule Assistant hourly board. The resource and the first available time is passed into the booking panel.

 

Resource and the first available time passed into booking panel

 

Also, take a look at a video showing the schedule assistant on the hourly schedule board. It shows the selection of a resource, which automatically opens the booking panel on the right side and sets the time to the first available slot.

 

 

 

We hope you enjoy these enhancements, as they are driven from your feedback! Please keep blogging, posting, Yammering on the Field Service Partner Group and the Project Service Partner Group and submitting ideas. We are keeping an eye out for what is needed!

 

Happy Scheduling!

Dan Gittler

Principal Program Manager, Dynamics 365 Engineering