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Appointment Booking System

A significant portion of a service business is concerned with activities happening in the future, such as installations or preventive maintenance. The Siebel Appointment Booking System (ABS) is designed to automate the process of offering appointments to customers. The ABS operates in real time.

The ABS provides a list of available time slots for future appointments, and then reserves a selected appointment slot. Customers may prefer a shorter time slot, but the window should be large enough that there is a high probability that the engineer can meet a commitment. For example, if a customer wants a TV cable installed, which is approximately a one-hour activity, the service representative may give the customer a time slot from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

When preparing a list of possible time slots, the ABS enforces the following rules:

• The time slots offered must equal the availability of the personnel for a service region.
• The time slots offered must match the personnel who have the required skills. The Assignment Manger can enforce this rule.
• Time slots must meet other constraints; for example, never have an engineer do more than four installations per day. Other limits on field service activities can meet business or union requirements.
• The ABS can have activities that extend over more than one day.
• Activities that cross between the end of the Optimizer horizon and the beginning of ABS period are treated as locked by both of these engines.