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Assigning Employees to Assignment Rules Based on Availability

Assignment rules can be created for employee-based objects using availability-based assignment, which allows Assignment Manager to check an employee's calendar and to consider the employee's availability when determining assignment eligibility. Assignment objects must be preconfigured before using the assignment availability criteria feature. For more information on configuring assignment availability, see Configuring Assignment Objects for Availability-Based Assignment.

When an assignment object is configured for availability, a user specifies three times for the assignment object: an Early Start Time, a Must Start Time, and a Duration.

Each of these times is accessed by Assignment Manager when determining the availability of an employee. Assignment Manager then uses the availability information like other criteria when evaluating employees for the assignment object. Assignment Manager can also be configured to add an activity to the calendar of the employee who is assigned the assignment object. For example, if a service request is created with times indicating a service duration of four hours, Assignment Manager evaluates the object's times and employees' schedules, and selects only employees who are available for the four hours indicated by the service object. Assignment Manager then selects the highest scoring employee available and creates an activity for the employee (if the object is configured to assign activities). Employees can manually insert activities into their calendar to block assignments during specific periods. Similarly, an employee can delete activities created by the original assignment so further assignments can be made.

Assignment Manager functions for both single employees and teams. If an object is assigned to a team, every employee within the team is assigned an activity for the duration of the assignment (if the object is configured to assign activities). Assignment Manager can assign activities for the same object at different times based on the calendars of individual team members. A calendar activity, however, cannot be split up across multiple dates and times.

When administrators define a new rule, selecting the Check Calendar box on the Assignment Rules form activates the assignment availability criteria (see Figure 38).

Figure 38.  Check Calendar Box in the Assignment Rule Form

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 Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide 
 Published: 18 June 2003