Understanding Provider Groups and Group Members
Provider groups organize groups of workers that provide the services or support that are offered by an organization. Cases and service orders are assigned first to a provider group and then to a member of a provider group. For cases, you can assign cases directly to provider group members (agents) rather than going through a provider group assignment.
You can create provider groups that represent workers who service or support specific geographic regions, specific products, or specific customers. Provider groups might also represent workers who have specific competencies. Each worker that can be assigned to a service order must belong to at least one active provider group.
Provider Group Data Model
The following diagram illustrates that a provider group definition includes group cost information, group members, an operating schedule, assignment criteria, and competency information:
Image: Provider group data model
This diagram illustrates that a provider group definition includes group cost information, group members, an operating schedule, assignment criteria, and competency information.
Each group member can represent employees or third-party contractors. You can also define cost information for each worker in the group. Workers are defined using the Worker component.
Default Assignments for Service Orders
Default assignments for provider groups and group members can be automatically populated for service orders based on the related agreement or service. The defaults for an agreement take precedence over the defaults for a service. For on-demand service orders, the default provider group and group member information come from the service definition.
System-Suggested Assignments for Cases and Service Orders
For both provider groups and workers, you can define competencies and assignment criteria for provider group and group member assignment searches that are performed on a case or service order. The system uses the competency and assignment criteria to evaluate the best candidate for assignment to the case or service order.
To further inform assignment decisions, the system displays current availability status of each provider group or group member on the candidate list. To determine availability for a provider group, the system uses the schedule information—the hours of operations and holidays—that you define for the provider group.
For group members, the system determines availability by using schedule information that is defined on the worker's resource calendar, if it's available, or standard workweek information that is defined for the installation. In addition to availability status, the system also displays the current number of open cases that are assigned to each worker in the list when the assignment search is performed for a case.
Automatic Assignments for Cases
PeopleSoft Customer Relationship Management (PeopleSoft CRM) performs automatic assignment for regular and self-service cases based on the configuration rules that are set up at the call center business unit level. For each type of case (regular and self-service), you can configure separate assignment options for provider groups and group members (agents).
Regardless of the configuration, an existing provider group or group member assignment is never overwritten. For example, if you select a provider group for the case through the system-suggested assignment, the system does not attempt to assign a provider group when you save.
Automatic Assignments for Service Orders
Similar to cases, you can enable PeopleSoft CRM to assign service orders automatically at save time by activating the automatic assignment feature at the field service business unit level.
The automatic assignment feature, however, does not overwrite any provider group or group member values that are present on service orders as a result of manual, default, or system-suggested assignment.
If the Candidate must be available check box is selected at the business unit level, the assignment engine only considers provider groups and group members that are available (during the time the service is performed) for the automatic assignment. No automatic assignment will be made if this check box is selected and there is no provider group or technician available.