Enhance Your Field Service Experience with Resource Scheduling Optimization

If you’re looking for a way to enhance your Field Service experience while saving money, the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Resource Scheduling Optimization add-on is the tool for your business. The Resource Scheduling Optimization (RSO) add-on for Dynamics 365 for Field Service is a great tool to help increase the efficiency of your field technicians, which can lead to increased customer satisfaction through optimized scheduling and routing.

The scheduling of a work order in Dynamics 365 for Field Service can be achieved in two ways:

• Manually by clicking and dragging a work order to the desired resource and time slot on the schedule board or,
• By using the Scheduling Assistant to filter resources based on skills, roles, and other options

With Resource Scheduling Optimization for Field Service, work orders can be configured to be scheduled automatically to minimize travel time while maximizing work hours. In addition to increased efficiency, this can also reduce cost by having the most efficient routes scheduled, which saves on fuel and vehicle maintenance costs. By combining the out-of-box scheduling features of Dynamics 365 for Field Service with the automation of RSO, resources can be automatically scheduled based on skills, travel time, and other important criteria.

Configuring Dynamics 365 Resource Scheduling Optimization

The Resource Scheduling Optimization add-on for D365 Field Service is highly configurable. Administrators can set the optimization goals and their priority. For example, if you want to maximize the total work hours and minimize the total travel time you can set both as optimization goals. You will then set one as a higher priority than the other in the optimization.

Optimization Scope

You can set the “look-ahead” and scope features – how many days in the future do you want RSO to optimize and which work orders to optimize and which ones to ignore. You can also set how fast or how intensive you want the optimization. Fast optimization of the schedule is a great option to have when needed, but we recommend a more intense optimization that will take more time to run.

Running RSO

Speaking of running the optimization, you can also schedule when the optimization runs. Or if a new work order is added at the last minute, you can run RSO at any time during the day and it will optimize the new work order along with the remaining work orders where the work has not yet been started.

Automated Scheduling

Automated scheduling can be especially powerful when paired with IoT devices that may be monitoring remote equipment. When an IoT device is configured to predict maintenance or failures, you can use RSO to automatically schedule a technician to service the equipment before a negative event even occurs. Imagine being able to resolve an issue before it even occurs! This proactive service can significantly increase customer satisfaction and retention.

Installing Resource Scheduling Optimization

In order to add RSO to your environment, you must first purchase licenses based on the number of bookable resources you will be optimizing. A bookable resource is any person, vehicle, or anything else that needs to be scheduled. Once the RSO add-on licenses have been purchased, the Resource Scheduling Optimization application then needs to be installed from the Microsoft Dynamics 365 admin center. With the RSO application installed, the configuration can begin.

If you are interested in exploring and implementing Dynamics 365 for Field Service and any of the features mentioned in this post for your organization, contact Velosio to schedule a conversation with a consultant.