We will learn and understand the difference between old schedule board and new schedule board in Dynamics 365 Field Service. Before we start, make sure to subscribe to CRM Crate so that you can stay up to date in the field of Dynamics 365.
How to enable new Schedule Board in MS CRM / D365 Field Service?
- The new schedule board is not turned on by default, so you’ll have to enable it in order to use it in your organization.
- To enable the new schedule board, go to Scheduling > Administration > Scheduling Parameters and switch on the Enable new Schedule Board toggle.
Key comparision between Old Schedule Board & New Schedue Board
| Feature | Category | Old Schedule Board | New Schedule Board | Details |
| Manual scheduling | Dispatcher | Yes | Yes | Dispatcher can manually select a resource and create a booking for an unscheduled requirement by interactions like dragging and dropping the requirements, selecting an open timeslot, and using booking panel. |
| Assisted scheduling | Dispatcher | Yes | Yes, it is available in 2021 release wave 2. | Dispatcher can select an unscheduled requirement on the requirement panel and select “Find Availability,” which opens up the schedule assistant view, and shows the available timeslots for the available resources. Dispatcher can choose a timeslot and create a booking. |
| Automated scheduling | Dispatcher | No | Yes (For existing resource scheduling optimization customers, public preview is available). | The default capabilities of resource scheduling optimizer functionality are made available in the schedule board, enabling dispatchers to manage schedules from a requirement’s or resources point of view with the organization’s business goals applied automatically by the optimizer. |
| Auto update travel time | Dispatcher | Yes | Yes | When a booking is manually scheduled or rescheduled via drag-and-drop, the travel time from the resource’s previous location is automatically calculated and displayed in the front of the booking. See more details. |
| View modes – Hourly, daily | Dispatcher | Yes | Yes | Show the resources and their bookings on the hourly and daily views of the schedule board. |
| View modes – Weekly, monthly | Dispatcher | Yes | Yes | Show the resources and their bookings on the weekly and monthly views of the schedule board. |
| View types – List view | Dispatcher | Yes | Yes | List view is a simple view, in which bookings of the resources are shown as a simple list. This list view provides accessible view to the Users to browse and create Bookings |
| View types – Map view | Dispatcher | Yes | Yes | |
| View types – Details view | Dispatcher | Yes | Yes, it is available in 2021 release wave 2. | Details view is a configurable view, to show and add details of a resource, requirement, or a booking record. |
| Multi-resource scheduling | Dispatcher | Yes | Yes, it is available in 2021 release wave 2. | Requirement groups allow you to define groups of resources that would be appropriate for a job and to then schedule all those resources with a single search. With requirement groups, you can mix and match the different types of resources—such as individual field technicians, a whole crew, equipment, or facilities—needed for a job (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/field-service/multi-resource-scheduling-requirement-groups) |
| Multi-day assisted scheduling | Dispatcher | Yes | Yes, it is available in 2021 release wave 2. | Work orders and scheduling requirements can be scheduled across multiple days and weeks. A common example is scheduling a 40-hour work order across an entire work week where the field technician is expected to perform more detailed work at the same location each day. (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/field-service/schedule-multi-day-work) |
| Multi-day manual scheduling | Dispatcher | Yes | Yes | Work orders and scheduling requirements can be scheduled across multiple days and weeks. A common example is scheduling a 40-hour work order across an entire work week where the field technician is expected to perform more detailed work at the same location each day. |
| Pools and crews | Dispatcher | Yes | Yes, it is available in 2021 release wave 2. | Resource pool scheduling allows you to assemble groups of similar resources to manage capacity and give schedulers the option to assign specific resources at a later time. Resource crews allow dispatchers to search and schedule multiple resources at once. Crews can include a group of employees, subcontractors, equipment, facilities, or any combination thereof who will perform the same work during a period of time. Crews speed up and simplify the scheduling process and allow team members to work together more consistently. (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/field-service/resource-pools) |
| Configuration | Adminstrator | Yes | Yes, it is available in 2021 release wave 2. | Admin can create new tabs on the schedule board and configure changes on the board, tab settings, and scheduler settings |
| Extensibility | Administrator | Yes | Yes, it is available in 2021 release wave 2. | Admin can extend the schedule board and use extensibility on some of features like Custom Booking template (Hours) – HTML Custom Booking alerts – HTML Custom Resource Cell Template – HTML Custom Filter Layout – Universal FetchXML SB/SA Retrieve Resources Query – Universal FetchXML SB/SA Retrieve Constraints query – Universal FetchXML Custom Web resource support Client Extensions (support for JavaScript, style sheets, and Localizations files) Booking Rules (Support for custom business logic via JavaScript on the booking creation) |
Improvements in the New Schedule Board
The new schedule board is faster, with better usability, and it lays the foundation for new capabilities for multi-day scheduling and intelligent interactions. Below are few highlighting features of the New Schedule Board.
A. Enabling the new schedule board –
Go to the schedule board and use the toggle button in the top right of the schedule board to switch between the current and new schedule boards.
B. Select and filter resouces –
This feature is common to the old schedule board except the UI changes are responsiveness as shown below.
C. Resource Cards –
Right-click a resource’s name and then choose View Resource Card to see more, like the resource’s skill set (characteristics) and roles This feature is common to the old schedule board except the UI changes are responsiveness as shown below.
D. Map view of requirements and resources –
Select the map icon in the upper right of the schedule board to display the resources and requirements on a map.
After expanding the map view, select a resource’s name to see their route. The numbers indicate the order the resource is scheduled to arrive at each job (requirement) location.
E. Daily view –
The new schedule board supports a daily view of scheduled jobs and supports dragging-and-dropping to the schedule. Scheduled requirements with a short duration will display across the entire day to make it easier to view details. Hover over the requirement or double-click to see the actual duration.
F. Weekly and monthly views –
Switch to the weekly or monthly views to see scheduled jobs at a higher level. Select a resource’s time slot and a requirement below to trigger the booking panel.
The booking panel will help you schedule a work order across multiple days and choose how the work should be divided each day.
G. Schedule resources (Preview) –
Beyond manual drag and drop scheduling, organizations using resource scheduling optimization can select one or more requirements from the new schedule board and either have the system Suggest resources or Book resources. This feature is currently in Preview for the organizations using Resource Scheduling Optimization.
Selecting Suggest resources will display recommended resources in the right panel for the dispatcher to book.
Selecting Book resources will find the most optimal resources and book them without further actions from the dispatcher.
H. Move a booking to a resource on the current schedule board tab, or change the start date/time, or both –
In the new schedule board, we can move a booking to any specific user on the current board. To do so, right click on the booking and click on “Move To” as shown below.
Then reassign this booking to any resource on the current schedule board tab or change the start date and the start time of the booking.
I. Move a booking to a resource on a different schedule board tab, or change the start date or time, or both –
Now you can reassign this booking to any resource on any tab and change the start date and start time of the booking.
J. Automatic scheduling with optimization goals –
The schedule board supports optimization goals. After selecting suggested resources, dispatchers can edit the optimization goal, which dictates how resources are recommended. There is a default optimization goal that applies to the entire system and serves as the default for optimization requests. Dispatchers can also edit the default optimization goal for each schedule board. Finally, dispatchers can edit the optimization goal for a single optimization request by selecting Suggest Resources.
K. Automatic scheduling with optimization goals –
After a multi-day booking is created across multiple days, weeks, or months, dispatchers can right-click a booking, select edit, and change how many hours are assigned for each day, week, or month via a booking panel on the right.
L. Booking Status Legend Information –
In the new schedule board, the users can easily view the color significance of each booking status as shown below.
M. Schedule Board settings –
The schedule board settings appear in the new UI experience.
N. New schedule board support –
The new schedule board is currently supported on Microsoft Edge, Chrome, and Firefox browsers. Currently, Internet Explorer 11 is not supported.
The schedule board is only supported in Unified Interface web (Field Service v8.x+) and not in tablets or phones.
Thus, we learned the difference between the Old Schedule Board Vs New Schedule Board in the Dyanmics 365 CRM.
