"Did You Know?" Series, Episode 2: Job Manager & Resource Planner
Ever wish there was a simple calendar view to help manage all your jobs? Where you can see easily schedule resources by roles? Where you can input pertinent notes with dates and have those as visual alerts on the calendar? Guess what, Spira's ORP™ offers these capabilities in their Job Manager & Resource Planner feature.
Who would use it?
Primarily, this feature is most impactful for service companies that have jobs that have multiple phases that would need resources with various roles and skillsets at different times on the project—i.e. construction, well servicing. But any company that has a requirement to see their jobs and resources laid out on a calendar can utilize and benefit from it. Rental companies can use it to see where their equipment is and when it is scheduled to be returned.
How is it typically used?
Generally speaking, a Dispatcher or Operations Administrator would pull up the Job Manager and search by a 7 day date range for next week, as most are planning a week in advance. For jobs that do not have resources assigned, they would assign available resources, filtered by role or skill set, or potentially push the job dates out as needed if no resources are available. If there are any special instructions for the resource for their assignment, a note can be added via the Resource Planner.
How does it empower the user to make educated decisions?
The visualization on the calendar in terms of colors and alerts are completely configurable and can be tailored to business needs. If important notes need to be highlighted, or an indicator that a resource is overbooked, it can all be achieved due to the flexibility of the setup.
The Job Manager provides a quick view of upcoming work and allows the Dispatcher to filter for resources based on role/skillset to assign to the job. With the availability indicators configured, the Dispatcher can see what resources are available for the job. This feature helps ensure that all work is staffed appropriately to mitigate any schedule delays. The Resource Planner provides a quick view of all jobs a resource is assigned to; this is helpful for managing overbooked resources or when jobs need to be grouped by geographical location.
