Resource pools

Associate resources to resource pools to enable schedulers to book requirements to a generic pool without needing to decide which resource will actually perform the work.

Why?

• Avoid being forced to book specific resources up front and instead book the “resource pool” while ensuring you are not overcommitting.
• Enable central schedulers to be shielded from details and leave the details to the local resource manager.
• Specific resources may not be named yet but capacity of the pool is established and resources will be named later. Schedulers can still schedule since capacity of the pool can be set as if all the resources were named (capacity management).
• Deliberately enable overbooking for expected cancellations.

What?

• Resource pools can be either pools of facilities, or pools of accounts/contacts/users, or pools of equipment. Pools are intended to be a set of homogenous resources.
• Pool members can be permanently or temporarily assigned to pools, date effective.
• Optionally derive overall pool capacity from pool members.

Onsite requirements not planned to be supported with resource pools

Resource pool scenarios

Facility scheduling

Provide service at service provider’s location instead of customer’s location.

• Sample scenarios
  • Reserve physical space
    • Reserve a room for an event or party
    • Reserve a room for an exercise class
    • Reserve a bay at mechanic shop
    • Reserve a boat
  • Reserve an appointment with a person at a facility
    • Fix laptop at Microsoft retail store
    • Wealth management consultation at bank
    • Tutor in a focus room

Scheduling at a facility

Fulfillment preferences

Simplify the experience for your schedulers and customers while decreasing the amount of time it takes to book appointments.

• Preset intervals – Offer appointments every 15 minutes, on the half hour, the hour, or choose your own granularity.
  • Doctor appointments
  • Wealth management consultations
  • Scheduled phone calls
• Time groups – Present windows of availability to schedulers such as 9 to 12, 12 to 3, and 3 to 6. * Air conditioning repair * Doctor appointments
• Hide specific time – Hide extra data that is not relevant if scheduling to a window.
• Display only the top results – Declutter scheduling screen by limiting results you deem redundant per time group, or per interval.

Schedule Assistant displaying results broken into windows

Schedule Assistant displaying results on the hour as part of interval scheduling

Capacity scheduling

Resource requirements can now specify how much effort a requirement needs from a resource. When scheduling, the Schedule Assistant will look at a resource’s defined capacity on its work hours to check if the necessary effort is available. A resource’s capacity can vary even within a day.

Capacity scheduling is exceptionally useful when booking a facility. By way of example, a van may require twice the space as a standard car. You can now create a facility with a certain capacity, but when booking time to work on a van, it consumes the capacity of the facility as if you were booking two cars or six motorcycles.

The Schedule Board will also offer a visual indicator when a resource has additional capacity even though there is a booking at a given time.

• Sample use cases
  • Staff augmentation where resources are unnamed.
  • Efficient resources.
    • Person can fix two bikes in the time a typical person can fix one.
  • Physical space.
    • One workspace can fit two cars or one van.
    • Create a “class” as a resource, and allow up to 10 customers to be booked to the class.

Resources that perform onsite work cannot have a capacity of more than one.

Schedule Board showing a resource with additional capacity row expanded