ZUGSEIL Service Scheduling (SRS)

Scheduling appointments between supplier or customer is a major task of the procurement process chains handled in the ZUGSEIL BEST Shop (BS) , but are also required in maintenanace of products which is handled in the ZUGSEIL BEST Lifecycle Management (LCM) service bundle. By nature it concerns two parties. The supplier party offering the appointments, which needs to make sure that the resources required for perfoming the services are available. And the consumer side, which has to reserve the time for appointment in which the services are performed. This negotiation process typically is happening through b-op real-time communication facilitated by the Appointment-broker b-op connector.

Supplier side

When selling products over the b-op plattform to customers, each supplier has the option define service products, which can be used in these contexts

Standalone service product

These are products, which represent a standalone service. Regarding scheduling there exist only the option "requires appointment before order can be placed" (not required / optional / mandatory). This defines the neccessity for the customer to define an appointment in order to get the service.

If an appointment scheduling is optional or mandator, the possible appointment-types for this service-product must be defined.

Bundled service product

A product can be marked a product bundle (formerly set articles). This means that it does not exist one physical product, but a product consisting itself of a set of products. Product bundles are distributed over the regular regular b-op catalog server process. A product bundle may contain other products, which may even cascades through product bundles containing other product bundles. Each product bundle may also contain service products, with these service specific settings relevant for scheduling:

• Does not require appointment making
• appointment making before order can be placed - the customer must select an appointment before he can place the order If this option is selected, the service provider has to select an appointment type matching the product, and define whether the appointment making is mandatory or optional for the customer in the shopping environment, e.g. ZUGSEIL BEST Shop (BS) or ZUGSEIL BEST Lifecycle Management (LCM) Use case: optician appointment when ordering a pair a correction glasses (to allocate the resource at the optician)
• appointment making before fulfillment may start - the customer must select an appointment before the fulfillment can start (after the order). e.g. the customer has to visit a optician before correction-glasses can be produced. If this option is selected, the service provider has to select an appointment type matching the product. The system will send out appointment requests to the customer once the order is confirmed. Use case: Made to measure try-on for a tailormade suit (before production can be scheduled)
• appointment making to finish the fulfillment process - the customer must define an appointment when the fulfillment process is finished. If this option is selected, the service provider has to select an appointment type matching the product. The system will send out appointment requests to the customer once the order is confirmed and the goods are ready for shipment. Use case: Typically this is made for handover-meetings of products to the customer. E.g. Made-2-Measure Suite try on.

Appointment making requests

One a services requiring appointment-making are ordered and have reached the desired level of ripeness (according to the criterion when appointmentmaking is defined)

Customer side

Process-stages

The appointment-making can happen on two stages of the procurement process:

• Pre-Procurement appointment selection (service products) - To order standalone service products (which require appointment-making), the appointment is made by the user during the procurement process directly in the ZUGSEIL BEST Shop (BS).

• Post-Procurement appointment making (regular products with bundled services) - If bundled service products are procured through the the service providing digital can trigger appointment scheduling requests to the customer digital and offer

Appointment selection process

When potential appointment slots are proposed, the user wants to find the next matching appointment quickly. This filtering typically happens over:

• location, where the service is offered,
• or by staff performing the service or a part of the service.

Slots and availabilites are precalculated by B-Op appointment making concept.

Related articles

• ZUGSEIL BEST Shop (BS)
• ZUGSEIL BEST Lifecycle Management (LCM)

Related technical articles

• Service Scheduling - Technical Overview
• Appointment Request Process
• Appointment Resource Abstraction Service
• Appointment Making API Service