Configure shift-based routing for work items

Configure assignment rules to route and assign cases and conversations based on shift bookings of customer service representatives (service representative or representative). The shift bookings can be in the Dynamics 365 system or schedules imported from external systems. By verifying representatives' schedules in advance, organizations can route tasks to only those representatives who are available, and reduce the risk of delays.

You can incorporate shift assignments and time-off considerations into the routing process to foster an employee-centric approach, and streamline operational workflows for productivity and improved retention rates.

With shift bookings, the routing engine considers the shift activity type to determine if a representative can be considered for assignment. If the shift activity type associated with the shift booking is "non assignable" like training or lunch break, then the representative isn't considered for assignment. Learn how to configure shift activity types.

Prerequisites

• Workforce Management for Customer Service is enabled in your environment, or a non-Microsoft adapter is configured to import representative schedules from an external system. If you're importing external schedules using the non-Microsoft adapter, opt in every representative (bookableresource) into shift-based routing by setting the msdyn_generatecalendarfromshift column of the corresponding bookableresource entry to True.
• Shift bookings are created in the Dynamics 365 system.
• Unified routing is enabled and set up.
• Workstreams and advanced queues are set up.
• Custom assignment method is configured for the queue.
• You must have a non-Microsoft adapter configured to import representative schedules from an external system. Without an adapter in place, external schedules can't be surfaced in the representative calendar, and representatives can't view their schedules in Dynamics 365 Customer Service.
• Shift-based routing is enabled.
• When you're importing external schedules using the non-Microsoft adapter, opt in every representative (bookable resource) into shift-based routing by setting the msdyn_generatecalendarfromshift column of the corresponding bookableresource entry to True.

Enable shift-based routing

1. In the site map of Copilot Service admin center, select Workforce management under Operations.
2. In the Shift based routing section, select Manage.
3. On the Shift based routing page, turn on the Enable routing based on shift bookings toggle, and then select Save.

Import external schedule data

You can create shift bookings in the Dynamics 365 system. Optionally, if you want to integrate schedules from external non-Microsoft systems, you can use an adapter to import the schedules into Customer Service.

Alternatively, you can use Organization Service or Dataverse OData Web API to import representative schedules from external systems into Dynamics 365. For a detailed overview of how to import external schedules and the entities in Customer Service that can represent these external schedules, see the Schedule import integration guide.

Configure an assignment rule

1. In the site map of Copilot Service admin center, select Queues, and then select Manage in the Advanced queues area.
2. Select the queue that you want to configure the assignment rule for, select the custom assignment method, and select Edit.
3. Create a rule or modify an existing rule and do the following steps:

   1. In Conditions, select Add row, and then select Calendar schedule. The Is working value is automatically selected.

   2. Save and close.

      

View routing diagnostics records

View the conversation diagnostics in Azure Application Insights to understand how a work item is routed when routing is configured based on shift bookings.

How shift-based routing works

The imported schedules from external systems are represented in Dynamics 365 as "bookings". You can also create shift bookings natively in the Dynamics 365 system in Customer Service. The bookableresourcebooking entity stores this information. Shift bookings are added as activities to a shift plan assigned to a representative. The representative is recorded as a bookable resource and each of them with one or more bookings has a corresponding entry in the bookableresource entity.

Shift-based routing is applicable only when booking-based routing is enabled at organization level for all queues.

Unified routing considers the shift bookings in committed, assignable status for automatic assignment. It doesn't consider any other bookings outside of the shift bookings, like appointments or field service bookings.

To find a matching representative, the assignment engine performs the regular assignment checks configured in custom assignment method with the check for assignable shift booking.

The booking start time needs to be before or equal to the time when automated assignment is attempted. The booking end time needs to be after the automated assignment attempted time.

If a representative has an assignable shift booking outside their calendar working hours, they are considered for automatic assignment because shift-based routing ignores work hour calendar and considers shift bookings only.

If a representative has overlapping shift bookings and all of them are assignable, the representative is considered. If there's even one non-assignable shift booking, representative isn't considered for automatic assignment for the duration of non-assignable booking. If all the overlapping bookings are non-assignable, representative won't be considered for automatic assignment for the combined duration of the overlapping bookings.

If representative doesn't have a booking when assignment is attempted, no work is assigned automatically. The representatives can pick up work manually or supervisors can assign work to them.

Related information

Use Copilot Service workspace
View the representative calendar