Dispatch Board Live Tracking

[GCAS-SP]

Can the calls/box on the dispatch board auto adjust to when the technicians Dispatch themselves and when they complete the call. So the dispatch board is clean and shows a more real time disapply. The idea is that the calls would adjust and will show availability if a technicians is running ahead of schedule or if they are behind schedule. 

In the picture below it shows our schedule from yesterday and for example our tech Brandon dispatched himself at 730am, would like the box to expand to 730am and he finished at 845am and then the box would adjusted to reflex that. Then when he dispatches himself to the next call it would adjust the calls. But at the same time adjust if it is taking a technician longer. Like in tech Joe he didn't finish until after 215pm but the schedule box ends at 1pm. 

I know we all try to watch the technicians and manage the board/adjust as needed but when you are doing multiple jobs (Answers Phones, Scheduling Calls, Ordering Parts, Checking in parts, Registering equipment, Enter warranty claims and Etc.) it would help to have more of a real time dispatch board. 

I think it would be a helpful idea and feature for Scheduling.

[nikkicoolidge]

This would be a great update to implement if down the line ST finds it possible. Also something I’ve longed for since being on ST.  Having the jobs move with the technicians time would be optimal and definitely help not only visually, but to help with ACP if you’re using that function. I’m never worried about stretching calls, but if what should’ve been a 2-3 hour job only took an hour, my tech could continue to early call and move up things, which in retrospect helps create availability later in the schedule. Otherwise we spend all day having to physically move calls and shorten accordingly to try and keep our ACP accurate. 

[TeraWhetten]

I agree. This is something we do regularly as we are primarily an Emergency Service company. Every bit of availability is helpful. We call it "squishing" where our Dispatchers watch the job and if they finish up early, they shorten the grey box, in essence squishing it shorter than the intended time, and then call / move the next job up, which allows us to book more calls. We don't use capacity planning at all. Our dispatchers basically play tetris and babysit the board.

[RandiThompson]

@GCAS-SP I can defiantly see the benefit in what your suggesting! I would be interested to hear how it would negatively impact reporting or dynamic pricing ( @BCN ) 

If the job "block" is consuming the whole day and the tech finishes at noon, we either need to pull a call off another tech and moved it to them or book a new job for them. Having a live accurate visual would be amazing. 

[BCN · Accepted solution]

Your request here suggests that your dispatchers are determining availability by looking for gaps on the dispatch board, which isn't really best practice. The boxes on the dispatch board are not meant to represent the actual working time of the job, only the scheduled working time. adjusting them to reflect actual working time will cause problems in other areas of the product including reporting and the upcoming dynamic pricing. I suggest looking into schedule assistant or adjustable capacity planning and using one of those to determine availability.