Right Tool for Resource Planners and Schedulers

With ever growing competition in the global market, it has become critical for organisations to manage and utilise scarce resources more efficiently and smartly. Any improvement in resource utilisation adds directly to the bottom line of the organisation and provides required competitive edge against its competitors. So the role of the resource planner/scheduler in an organisation has become more critical and challenging than before. Resource planner/scheduler is not only expected to identify and schedule right resource to the right job but is also required to ensure optimum utilisation of resources, balance work load across the organisation, forecast resource shortfall or excess, track actual resource usage etc. It is difficult to address these new challenges using traditional resource planning spreadsheet or simple calendaring tools. It requires dedicated resource scheduling tool which is powerful and designed from scratch to manage and achieve best utilisation of the scarce resources and provide following facilities. Easily identify the right resource from BIG pool of resources based on role, skill, availability etc. rnIt is important that the resource scheduling tool helps in identifying the right resource from BIG pool of resources across the organisation, where resources may be present in different departments, teams, offices, cities, countries etc. It should be possible to filter right resource from the pool based on skill, training, role, availability etc. With centralised database across the organisation, it should be possible to get this information at click of a button. Easily allocate and manage resources against the jobs with simple drag and drop Once the right resource has been identified, it should be easy to allocate the resource to the job, modify the allocation, reallocate to another person with help of simple drag and drop. This is crucial especially when the planner/scheduler is dealing with large pool of resources across the organisation. Visual scheduler and calendar interfaces are most suitable for such requirements. Helps in improving resource utilisation and balance work load across the organisation Utilisation of resources should be readily available, so that the resources with over allocations and under allocations can be easily identified. Accordingly new work can be allocated and existing work can be easily reallocated to other resources across the organisation. This facilitates optimum utilisation of the resources with balanced work load, which ultimately adds to the profitability of the organisation. Helps in forecasting resource requirements and do capacity planning Based on demand and supply of resources, the resource scheduling tool should be able to accurately forecast excess and shortfall of specific type of resources based on skill, role, department, team, location etc. This is crucial for hiring right number of resources with right capability at right time and retrain current workforce. This facility is crucial for an organisation to respond quickly to changing market conditions. Provide management reports and graphs with slice/dice capability Various management reports and graphs should be readily available at click of buttons to analyse utilisation, availability, capacity, demand, actual etc. This is crucial for making right management decision as per changing business dynamics.