Automating Work Order Assignments and Forwarding Work Orders
After you have a list of technicians listed in the Work Order Assignment module, you can:
- automate assigning work orders to technicians and
- forward work orders to other technicians.
Automating Work Order Assignments
You can automatically assign work orders to technicians, based on trade and location. For example, you can automatically assign technician Frank to all Plumbing work orders for 2 locations and Miriam for 3 different locations. This is useful so you do not have to come into Work Order Assignment every time there is a new work order; they will automatically be assigned to the technician(s) you set up.
- Click Assign WO next to one of the desired technicians.
The Assign WO modal appears. - Switch to the Automate tab.
- Under Add Assignment Rules, select the locations you want to assign the technician to.
Pick the trades the technician should service at the selected locations.
To assign the technician to all trades, including those that will appear in the future, opt for the Select All (including future available trades) checkbox.
(Optional) To automatically assign this rule to other technicians as well, click the Technician dropdown, and then select the desired technicians.
- Click Add. The auto-assignment rule is created for the technician and appears under the Current Rules section. You can update the created rule if required.
(Optional) To create more assignment rules for the technician, repeat steps 3–6.
You may need to do this if your technician should service different trades within different locations.
Close the overlay when ready.
From now on, all work orders created for the locations and trades assigned to the technician get automatically routed to the tech. Technicians need to log in to the ServiceChannel Provider mobile app to start working on them.
Forwarding Work Order Assignments to Other Technicians
While a technician is not working, you may forward their work orders to other technicians or to an external provider. This is useful when your technician is ill, on vacation, or for any other reason the technician might not be available.
Creating Forwarding Rules
You can configure forwarding based on the Location and Trade of the work orders. For example, Justin typically works all General Maintenance work orders and some Plumbing work orders for 7 trades across 3 locations in a district. Justin is going on an international backpacking adventure for 3 weeks. You can configure forwarding so all of Justin’s work orders to Miriam.
You may also create more than one forwarding rule. In the previous example, you may decide to forward all General Maintenance work orders to Miriam, and all Plumbing work orders to Kyle. Or, you can forward all work orders from 2 locations to Miriam, and 1 location to Kyle.
- Click Assign WO next to the desired technician.
The Assign WO modal appears. - Switch to the Forward tab.
- Under Create Forwarding Rule, select the desired Location(s) and Trade(s).
- Select the forwarding start date (From) and end date (To).
- Select to either subcontract the work or keep in-house:
(Subcontract the work) Select Reassign to external provider.
Work orders created for the selected locations and trades will be dispatched to the next ranked provider of the client.
(Keep work in-house) Choose Select technicians, and then select the desired technician(s).
- Click Create Forwarding Rule.
The new rule appears under the Current Rules section. You can update the rule if required.
- (Optional) To create more forwarding rules for the technician, repeat steps 3–6.
- Close the overlay when ready.
All work orders for that location(s) and trade(s) will forward to the selected recipient(s).
Updating Existing Forwarding Rules
You can update existing forwarding rules to include or exclude locations or trades as well as to extend or shorten the forwarding time period. You can also add or remove technicians, or reassign to an external provider if the work was kept in-house.
- Click Assign WO next to the desired technician. The Assign WO modal appears.
- Switch to the Forward tab.
- Under Create Forwarding Rule, click the down arrow to display the Current Rules section.
- Modify the desired information:
- Location(s) and/or Trade(s).
- Start date (From) and end date (To).
- Either select the Reassign to external provider checkbox, or pick the desired technician(s) to forward the work orders.
- Click Update Rule.
All work orders for that location and trade will forward to the selected recipient(s).
Deleting a Forwarding Rule
When you no longer need a forwarding rule, you can delete it.
- Click Assign WO next to the desired technician. The Assign WO modal appears.
- Switch to the Forward tab.
- Under Create Forwarding Rule, click the down arrow to display the Current Rules section.
- Locate the desired rule, and then click Delete Rule. The rule is removed from the list.
Auto-Assignment and Forwarding Rules for Supervisors and Regional Managers
Your next step after assigning tech permissions is to specify for which locations and trades your technicians, supervisors, and regional managers should be responsible — by creating auto-assignment rules and forwarding rules for these employees.
Watch for the additional sections under the Automate and Forward tabs in the assignment overlay:
- WO Assignments: To create auto-assignment and forwarding rules for Technicians.
- Supervisor Assignments: To create auto-assignment and forwarding rules for Supervising Techs.
- Regional Manager Assignments: To create auto-assignment and forwarding rules for Regional Managers.
These sections allow you to set up the rules based on the tech permission assigned in User Management. Switch between the tabs below to view the sections.
For employees with several technician permissions, several sections get added to the overlay.
For instance, Derek Crown acts as a Technician at locations 1 and 3 and services trades Electrical and Doors, while for locations 2 and 4 the same employee fulfils the role of a Supervising Tech.
- For Derek as a Technician: Create auto-assignment and forwarding rules on to the WO Assignments tab.
- For Derek as a Supervisor: Switch to the Supervisor Assignments tab to create the rules.
Once you are on the required tab, you can get down to creating auto-assignment rules and forwarding rules.
Adding More Technicians to a Rule
When you create auto-assignment rules for a technician and would like to add more technicians, the list of available employees will contain only those with the same tech permissions.
The same rule holds true for creating forwarding rules. As you select an employee who is supposed to deal with service requests while another tech, supervisor, or regional manager is unavailable, you can forward work orders to employees with the same tech permission only. So, if a regional manager goes on vacation, only another regional manager can take over their work orders.
|
|
|
|
|
Work Order Reassignment Path
After the required rules are set up, work orders go to the technicians based on these rules.
See the flowchart below showing the work order reassignment path.
