Revolutionize Your Scheduling with Microsoft Dynamics Field Service

Posted on: February 9, 2017 | By: Jim Bertler | Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Scheduling employees for service calls can be very complicated for any business with workers out in the field. From maintenance, to customer service, to sales, coordinating which workers need to be at which site can be painful. Often times companies resort to a manual process that takes hours of work to complete. With the introduction of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service, scheduling of employees can be easy. Introduced in late 2016, the Field Service module contains a wealth of functionality for managing people, time, resources, and costs.

 field service module

 

Field Service is an additional module that connects directly to the user’s existing Dynamics 365 environment so that it works together with accounts, contacts, opportunities, and other functionalities. It works by giving users the ability to schedule resources based on a set of criteria. Resources can be scheduled based on territory, rating, role, teams and many other factors.

What makes the Field Service module so unique is the interactive Schedule Board.

 interactive schedule board

With the schedule board you can view at a glance where when your resources are booked. The times available for each resource appear in white and the times the resource is unavailable are grayed out based on their individual schedule. On the left of the schedule board you can filter who is available by using the dropdowns. Say, for example, you only want to see highly rated employees for a particular job, or employees with a specific skill set. You now have the ability to pick and choose who you want to schedule. If an appointment changes you can simply click the colored booking on the schedule board and move the appointment earlier or later in the day. Once set the time will update automatically. Adding a new booking is easy too. Simply click the ‘Book’ button on the schedule board and fill in the necessary criteria.

create resource booking

 Once you pull the booking screen up, click on the work order that needs to be completed. Work orders are a list of actions that need to be completed for the company and need a resource assigned. Once you have chosen your work order, choose your resource, status, start & end date, and timeframe for the work to be completed. Then click Book and you will now see the resource and work order added to the schedule board and ready to be completed. Consider Field Service if you have challenges with your scheduling capabilities as this new product from Microsoft has an extremely vast amount of capabilities and functionality.

If you think that a CRM system is your next best step for your business, contact Logan Consulting your Microsoft Dynamics CRM partner offering services in Chicago, Milwaukee and throughout the United States.

 



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