Get started with Dynamics 365 Service Scheduling

The new scheduling experience in Customer Service Hub is now live. It is powered by Universal Resource Scheduling and provides an efficient way to schedule resources for service activity. It considers the availability of employees, facilities, and, equipment to plan schedules accordingly. It also helps customer service organizations improve service quality by preventing over-scheduling.

If you use Dynamics 365 for Customer Service Enterprise, Customer Engagement Plan, or Dynamics 365 Plan licenses, get started with the new service scheduling by following the steps below:

To enable the functionality in your org,

  • For new environment, go to Customers service hub > Scheduling.
  • For existing environments, install ‘Core Service Scheduling’ solution from Admin center. More information: Install a solution from Admin center

Prerequisites

The org should have Customer Service Hub, version 9.0.5.56 or later. The environment should have Universal Resource Scheduling package, either version higher than 3.2.0.405 or the org should have no Universal Resource Scheduling package installed.

Experience the new Service Scheduling

The new service scheduling functionality brings in the URS entities – such as Resources, Resource Categories, Fulfillment Preferences, Organizational Units etc.  – and retains legacy service scheduling entities such as Service, Service Activity and Facilities/Equipment.

Set up resources

Set up resources of type Facilities or Equipment so that they can be consumed within scheduling. Once you set up a resources record, you can define its capacity and workhours, which helps in scheduling a service.

 

Set up a resource

 

Monthly calendar

Set up resource categories

Set up resource categories to include resources under various groups into categories.

This approach allows admins to define service criteria flexibly without having to hardcode a resource in the criteria.

 

Set up resource categories

Set up services

Set up services to define the resource criteria that needs to be applied for scheduling a service activity.

In the below example, while scheduling a Service Activity of the type ‘Ad-hoc bike service’, schedule board would show option to include 1 repair center and 1 workbench

Resource Requirements tab on Service record

Create and schedule a service activity

Create a service activity by choosing a predefined service. As you select ‘Book’, schedule board is launched to show the list of resource options that are applicable for the given requirement.

 

Create and schedule a service activity

 

The schedule board lets you use ‘Schedule Assistant Filter’ to narrow-down results to suit a specific customer need – based on time slot, organization unit, required resource etc.

 

Schedule Assistant filter

 

Learn more about Scheduling

 

We are eager to see how the new scheduling experience helps you transform your scheduling experience, and look forward to your adoption and feedback!

 

Thanks

Vamsi Korlepara, Shubham Jain

Dynamics 365 for Customer Service