Architecture & capabilities

Overview

The Dispatcher Assistant is built on four agentic skills coordinated by a Support Agent. It operates as a real-time exception orchestrator, running continuously alongside PSO, monitoring live operational signals, and managing the full exception response cycle from detection through to customer confirmation and system update. This article covers the core skills, the full dispatch management workflow, integration points, and how the system determines when to act autonomously versus when to escalate to a dispatcher.

Agentic Skills

Customer Exception Parsing & Intent Detection

Understands and interprets customer communications and operational signals to accurately identify service disruptions and required actions. This skill distinguishes between different exception types, cancellation, reschedule request, site access issue, job scope change, and extracts relevant context such as asset, location, work order, and urgency level. It classifies the exception and triggers the appropriate workflow, including highlighting SLA exposure risk before any action is taken.

Engineer & Resource Reallocation Analysis

Analyzes engineer availability and workload to recommend optimal reallocations and minimize service disruption. This skill evaluates engineer skill match against job requirements, location and travel feasibility, regional workload balance, and live job completion probability, accounting for the downstream impact on other appointments before any reallocation is proposed. It surfaces ranked options with the reasoning behind each, so dispatchers have the context to make a fast, informed decision.

Appointment Renegotiation & Customer Communication

Manages customer-facing interactions to reschedule appointments, propose alternatives, and maintain clear, consistent communication throughout the process. This skill generates new appointment options ranked by SLA compliance, travel efficiency, and customer priority, then engages the customer via email, SMS, or Teams, handles back-and-forth responses, refines options based on customer feedback, and captures the confirmed appointment for schedule update. It operates autonomously for routine renegotiations and escalates to dispatchers when customer preferences or constraints require judgment.

PSO Schedule Exception Explanation & Dispatcher Support

Explains schedule changes and optimization decisions by translating PSO outputs into clear, actionable insights for dispatchers. This skill identifies the root cause of an exception, analyzes schedule inefficiencies and available slack capacity, and surfaces trade-off options with clear impact explanations, helping dispatchers understand not just what changed, but why, and what the consequences of each resolution option would be. This is particularly valuable for exceptions where PSO has produced a recommendation that requires dispatcher confidence before it can be actioned.

Dispatch Management Workflow

The following table outlines the full exception management workflow from initial detection through to stakeholder notification.

Stage	What the System Does	Action / Output	Channel
Exception Detection	Detects live disruptions, delays, cancellations, SLA risks, parts readiness issues	Triggers exception workflow, identifies affected job, engineer, and schedule window	FSM / PSO / Teams
Context & Impact Analysis	Evaluates schedule, SLA risk, engineer availability, and constraints; assesses downstream impact	Surfaces SLA breach risk, flags high-priority customers, identifies affected downstream appointments	FSM / PSO
Slot Generation & Optimization	Creates best-fit appointment options ranked by SLA exposure, travel efficiency, and priority	Proposes engineer swap, resequencing, or new appointment slots; accounts for real-time availability and constraints	FSM / PSO
Customer Negotiation	Engages customer via email, SMS, or Teams; proposes options; handles responses	Presents appointment options, iterates based on customer feedback, captures confirmed slot	Email / SMS / Teams
Confirmation & Schedule Update	Confirms agreed slot, updates IFS Cloud schedule, reassigns engineer if needed	Schedule updated, engineer notified with job pack and relevant resources	IFS Cloud / PSO
Stakeholder Notification	Notifies customer, engineer, and dispatch; logs the full decision	Confirmation sent, outcome recorded, full audit trail maintained	Email / SMS / Teams

Exception paths: When no suitable slot is available, the system expands the search window and escalates to the dispatcher with trade-off options. When a decision is high-impact or low-confidence, the exception is routed to the dispatcher with ranked scenarios and clear reasoning. When a customer rejects proposed options, the system iterates with new proposals or adjusts based on stated preferences before escalating if needed.

Integration Points

IFS Cloud / PSO: Core integration for live schedule data, engineer availability, SLA commitments, and appointment updates. The Dispatcher Assistant runs alongside PSO, reading optimization outputs and writing confirmed schedule changes back into the system.

ERP / Inventory Systems: Provides parts availability context relevant to job feasibility and appointment timing.

CRM / Ticketing Systems: Provides customer history, priority context, and communication records.

Email / SMS: Primary channels for customer appointment renegotiation and confirmation.

Collaboration Platforms: Microsoft Teams and email for human-in-the-loop escalation, dispatcher decision support, and engineer notification.

Knowledge Platforms: Connects to knowledge sources to provide relevant job resources to newly assigned engineers.

Human-in-the-Loop Design

The Dispatcher Assistant is designed so that routine exception handling proceeds automatically and dispatcher judgment is applied to the decisions that genuinely require it.

The system proceeds automatically when:

• The exception is low-risk and a clear resolution exists within configured parameters

• Customer communication follows a standard renegotiation pattern

• Engineer reallocation meets all feasibility criteria without conflict

• The action falls within approved thresholds for autonomous execution

Dispatcher approval is required when:

• The exception is high-impact or the confidence in the recommended action is low

• No suitable slot is available within the standard search window

• Trade-offs between SLA protection, customer impact, and engineer workload require judgment

• The customer rejects proposed options and the situation requires a strategic decision

When escalating to a dispatcher, the system surfaces ranked options with clear reasoning, impact explanations, and trade-off context, everything needed to make a confident decision in seconds rather than minutes. Once the dispatcher confirms, the system executes immediately and handles all downstream communication and system updates.

Feedback and Continuous Improvement

Dispatchers can rate the Dispatcher Assistant's recommendations with a thumbs up or thumbs down directly in the Teams interface. This feedback loop reinforces effective behavior and surfaces patterns for improvement over time, both in how exceptions are classified and in how reallocation options are ranked and presented.

All exceptions, recommendations, decisions, and outcomes are logged with full traceability, providing the data needed for ongoing performance analysis, SLA auditing, and operational improvement.