About Assigning Employees to Assignment Rules Based on Availability

You can create assignment rules for employee-based objects using availability-based assignment, which allows Siebel 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.

When an assignment object is configured for availability, a user specifies the following three times for the assignment object:

• Early Start Time. (Optional) The earliest time the assignment object can be scheduled (specified in the Calendar Early Start Time Column property of the assignment object).

  If this time is specified, then Assignment Manager looks for an available slot for the specified duration in the employees' schedules with the starting time anywhere between the Early Start Time and the Start Time. If this time is not specified, then it defaults to the Must Start Time, which means that Assignment Manager looks for an available slot for the specified duration starting exactly at the start time.

• Latest Start Time. The latest time the assignment object can be started (specified in the Calendar Start Time Column property of the assignment object).

• Duration. The time in minutes required to finish the assignment object's task (specified in the Calendar Duration Column property of the assignment object).

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.

Note: If the Calendar Early Start Time Column is not defined, but the Calendar Start Time Column is defined, then the Appointment Booking System checks to see whether employees are available or not at the exact Calendar Start Time. If both columns are defined, then the Appointment Booking System checks to see whether employees are available or not during the period from Calendar Early Start Time Column to Calendar Start Time Column. For more information about the Appointment Booking System, see Siebel Field Service Guide.

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, then 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, then 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 Employee Calendar box activates the assignment availability criteria.