User's Guide to Business Manager

Chapter 6: Scheduling Applications

Introduction

Overview

This chapter discusses the processes and procedures involved in the scheduling of your phone applications, as well as the tools you use to schedule the applications.

The purpose of scheduling applications is so you can decide which applications run at what time, and on what line. When you begin to run the Monitor program, Monitor looks at the schedule to see what should be running, as well as when and where it should be running. Specifically, this chapter shows you how to:

Interpret the Application Scheduler and its controls
Create a schedule using the scheduling controls
Begin creating your own schedule

Terms

Committing

This is the act of saving the information in an Application Schedule so you can use the committed schedule. You also commit changes to a system tree.

Daily Schedule

This is the displayed schedule for the chosen day. Using the Day of the Week buttons, you can view the daily schedule for any day of the week.

Schedule Grid

This is the area of the Application schedule in which you insert the applications to run. Each space in the grid represents one hour of run time, beginning with 6 A.M. and ending with 5 A.M..

The Application Scheduler

This is the part of the Business Manager program that you use to schedule the applications to run. To begin using the Application Scheduler, you must first enter that portion of the Business Manager program. You do so by clicking the File option on the menu bar, then selecting the Schedule option from the File menu. The Application Scheduler window appears similar to the one shown in Figure 18:

Figure 18 - The Application Scheduler window

Each of the parts and of the Application Scheduler are discussed here. These controls are:

The Application list
The Day of Week buttons
The Schedule Grid
The Control buttons
The Status Line

This section covers the nature of these controls and fields, as well as their usage.

Application List

This is a list of all of the phone applications you currently have in your system. This includes all of the CBSI phone applications that you have, as well as any phone applications you've created. When you schedule an application to run at a certain time, you select it from this list. Once you select an application, a blue box appears around it.

There are two special entries in the Application list. These are the Combination Application* and the Stop Line Activity* entries. Here's how they work:

Combination Application - Selecting this option for the schedule means that you intend to run more than one application on one line. Using the Application Configuration box, you edit the Combination Application so that it runs the selected programs. For more information on the Combination Application, refer to Chapters 8 and 9.
Stop Line Activity - This option tells your system to stop any phone line activity on the selected line at the selected time. You use this to give you some free time for updating your system, or modifying your system without being concerned by calls coming in. If you wish, you may alert your callers as to these 'down times'.

Day of Week Buttons

These buttons allow you to select which day's Scheduling Grid appears in the Application Scheduler. You select a day by clicking it. When you select a day, a black dot appears in the white circle to the left of the day. You may display only one day's Schedule Grid at a time.

Schedule Grid

If you leave a cell in the Schedule Grid blank, then Monitor looks at the last application entry in the Schedule Grid and continues to run that application. Monitor runs that application until it encounters another scheduled application or a Stop Line Activity entry.

This is the area in which you insert the applications to run. Each space in the grid represents one hour of run time, beginning with 6 A.M. and ending with 5 A.M.. The vertical scroll bar along the right of the Scheduling Grid allows you to move down through the listing of times. A phone number appears at the top of the Scheduling Grid, indicating which phone line pertains to which schedule. If you are using multiple phone lines, this makes it easier to see which schedule pertains to which phone line.
You use the buttons below the Schedule Grid to affect the information in the schedules. You may select a time cell by clicking on it. A blue box appears in the selected cell in the grid, and it is highlighted. If the currently selected cell contains an application name, then that name also appears in the Current Cell: display field. This field is located just above the Schedule Grid.

Control Buttons

These buttons allow you to perform operations on the Scheduling Grid, such as inserting an application into a cell, clearing an application from a cell, copying a day's schedule to another day, copying a time cell, and pasting a copied time cell. Specifically, the Control buttons and their purposes are:

Insert - This button allows you to insert the selected application from the Application list into the selected time cell on the Schedule Grid. The h key on the keyboard also performs this function.

Clear - This button allows you to clear the application from the selected time cell in the Schedule Grid. The c key on the keyboard also performs this function.

Rep Day - Clicking this button displays the Replicate Day box. You use this box to copy the current day's schedule to one or more of the other days.

Copy Ln - (Copy Line) If you have multiple phone lines, this button allows you to copy the currently selected phone line's daily schedule. You may then paste the daily schedule to one of the other lines daily schedules.

Paste Ln - (Paste Line) You use this button to paste a copied daily schedule to the currently selected daily schedule. You may paste the same daily schedule as many times as you wish, until you close the Application Scheduler or you copy another daily schedule.

Status Line

This is a line that appears at the bottom of the Application Scheduler. It displays information pertaining to the function or use of the control that the mouse pointer is currently on. This is to help you along as you move towards mastery of the program.

Creating a Schedule

This section discusses the procedures you use to create a schedule, as well as the ideas and concepts behind creating the schedule. You will learn to add an application to a daily schedule, and clear an application from a daily schedule, how to repeat a daily schedule for another day, and how to copy a scheduled cell to another cell.

Adding an Application

Adding an application to the schedule is a simple procedure in which you select an application from the Application list, select a cell in the schedule, then click the Insert button. By adding an application to the Schedule Grid, you're telling your system to run the selected application at the selected time. You can also use this procedure to add a Stop Line Activity to the schedule.

Use the following procedure to add an application to the schedule:

Begin by clicking the application in the Application list that you want to add to the schedule. The selected application highlights.
Decide which day on which you want to schedule the application, then click the corresponding Day of Week button at the top of the screen. A small black dot appears in the white circle to the left of the selected day, indicating that the Schedule Grid for that day displays.
Click on the time cell in the Schedule Grid where you want to schedule the application. If you have multiple Schedule Grids for multiple phone lines, make sure to select the correct schedule for the correct phone line. If the time cell you want does not appear in the Schedule Grid, click on the lower arrow of the scroll bar until the cell you want appears. When you click the desired cell, the cell highlights.

You may also insert the selected application by double clicking the cell.

Click the Insert button. Notice that the highlighted application in the Application list appears in the highlighted cell in the Schedule Grid.

At this point, you've scheduled the application to run on the selected line, on the selected day, and at the selected time.

Clearing an Application

This is a process that you use to remove a scheduled application from a cell in the Schedule Grid. You also use this procedure to clear a Stop Line Activity entry from the Schedule Grid. The process involves clicking on the cell in the Scheduling Grid that you wish to clear, then clicking the Clear button. This comes in handy when you decide you want to leave the selected cell blank. It is important to note that a blank cell does not mean that line activity stops. It means that the system will run the last cell that contains an application until it encounters another completed cell. The section in this chapter entitled "Creating Your Own Schedule" discusses this in detail.

Use the following procedure to clear an application from a cell:

Begin by clicking the Day of Week button that corresponds to the day of the schedule you want. A black dot appears in the white circle to the left of the selected day, and the schedule for that day appears in the Scheduling Grid.
Click on the cell that contains the application you wish to clear. The selected cell highlights.
Click the Clear button. The selected cell clears. This means that the application that used to be there will no longer run at that time.

Repeating a Daily Schedule

If you decide that you wish to repeat a day's schedule for another day (or other days), you may do so quickly and easily using the Rep Day button. This button calls up the Replicate day box, and you click which days you want to be like the current day. This saves you the time consuming chore of completing a schedule for each day.

Use the following procedure to repeat a daily schedule:

Begin by selecting the Day of Week button that corresponds to the daily schedule you wish to duplicate. A black dot appears in the white circle to the left of the selected day, and the schedule for that day appears in the Scheduling Grid.
Click the Rep Day button. The Replicate Day box appears, similar to the one shown in Figure 19:

Figure 19 - The Replicate Day box

The box displays a list of the available days. The current day is not an option, as you cannot copy a day's schedule on top of itself.

To unselect a day, click the option again and the "X" disappears.

Select the day or days for which you want duplicate schedules. An "X" appears in the box to the left of the selected option or options, indicating that it is selected.

Clicking the Cancel button cancels the process, and closes the Replicate Day box.

When you finish selecting the days to have duplicate schedules, click the OK button. The Replicate Day box closes, and the selected days have the same schedule as the current day.

You should keep in mind that if you replicate a daily schedule onto an already scheduled day, the replicated schedule replaces the old schedule for that day.

An interesting way to clear an entire daily schedule is to replicate a blank daily schedule onto the schedule you want to clear. This saves you the time it takes to clear each completed cell of that day's schedule.

Copying One Phone Line's Daily Schedule to Another

If you are using multiple phone lines and you wish to run the same set of applications on the another line, you may save yourself some scheduling time by copying the daily schedule from one line to another. You may copy the daily schedule to one or more of the other lines, and even to different days.

Use the following procedure to copy one phone line's daily schedule to another line's daily schedule:

First, select the daily schedule you wish to copy by using the Day of Week buttons. Now click somewhere in the daily schedule of the phone line that you wish to copy.
Click the Copy Ln button. The daily schedule is now temporarily stored.
Now click the daily schedule of the other phone line that you want to have the copied schedule. Click the Paste Ln button, and the copied daily schedule appears in the current line's Scheduling Grid.
At this point, you may continue pasting the copied schedule elsewhere, if you wish. Remember that you can also paste the schedule to other days on the other lines.

Committing the Schedule

When you finish creating or modifying a schedule, you must save the changes. This process is called 'Committing', and it tells your system that this is the new schedule to follow. If you change or create a schedule without committing it, all of the schedule changes are lost and the system continues to use the current schedule.

Use the following procedure to commit changes to your Application Schedule:

While viewing the Application Schedule window, click the File option on the menu bar. The File menu appears.
Click the Commit Schedule menu option. Your system than takes a few seconds to save the schedule. Once you commit the schedule, the previous schedule is erased. This newly committed schedule is now the one that your system uses to schedule the phone lines and applications.

If the Monitor program is running when you commit the schedule, then Monitor immediately begins using the new schedule. If Monitor is not running when you commit the changes, then Monitor begins using the new schedule the next time it begins running (i.e., the next time you enter Windows, or the next time you start the Monitor program). For more information on the Monitor program, refer to Chapter 7: "Using the Monitor Program".

Closing the Application Scheduler Window

When you finish your scheduling tasks, you may close the Application Scheduler window and move on to other tasks. Use the following procedure to close the Application Scheduler window:

While viewing the Application Scheduler window, click the File option on the menu heading. The File menu appears.
Click the Schedule option, and the Application Scheduler window closes.

Creating Your Own Schedule

Now that you've learned how to create a schedule, you should consider some of the possibilities open to you when you create your own schedule. This section discusses some of the considerations you should have in mind when creating your schedule

First off, how many phone lines do you have? If you have one phone line, you still have a number of options open to you. You can schedule different applications to run at certain times, based on consumer demand. You can also use the Combination Application, which allows you to run more than one application on a single phone line. Here's how it works:

You edit the Combination Application so that it runs the applications you want. When a caller calls in, they have a choice of applications that they can access. They choose from the menu that plays, then they go to the application they select.

The Combination Application gives you some of the power of multiple lines. The only difference is that only one caller may access your system at a time. If your clients have trouble getting into the system, it may be time to get more phone lines.

While we're discussing the Combination Application, think of the possibilities of creating other versions of it. You would then have a few custom versions that you could schedule at different times, thus offering your callers varying applications to use.

If you have multiple phone lines, then you have plenty of flexibility. Of course, having these additional lines also means that you have to create schedules for them. Coordinating these schedules takes some careful planning, but you can do so much more with them.

You might decide to schedule a different application on each line, giving your callers different services to choose from. You could dedicate a line to a special version of an application designed for a specific set of users, while running other applications on the other lines.

Perhaps you'd like to run the same application on each line. If you have one application that really takes off in your area, it might be a good idea to do this to handle the caller demand. You could get a 'Rotary Group' for two or more lines, depending on how many lines you want to devote to one application.

You could also run the Combination Application on one line, then run other applications on the other lines. You could also run the Combination Application on all of the lines, giving you callers a wide variety of application choices. If you run the same application or applications (using the Combination Application) at the same time on all lines, you might consider giving the phone company a call to set you up with the 'Rotary Group' service. That way, your callers call one number, and get transferred to an available line.

If you purchased the Computerized Monitor Service program, please read this section. If you do not have this program, you should still be aware of this information.

One other thing you must be aware of is how the Computerized Monitor Service program interacts with Business Manager and the phone applications. You see, Computerized Monitor Service uses the Business Manager program to run. Computerized Monitor Service will make its scheduled calls on a phone line that is not currently handling a call for any other application. For complete information on how Computerized Monitor Service works and interacts with Monitor, refer to the User's Guide for Computerized Monitor Service.

The more practice you have at writing schedules, the better your schedules will be. A thoughtfully planned out and executed schedule will make your callers happy, while a carelessly designed schedule may frustrate callers. As you continue to schedule your applications, you will learn how to allocate your phone lines and match them with your applications so you may best satisfy your business objectives.

*Committing*	This is the act of saving the information in an Application Schedule so you can use the committed schedule. You also commit changes to a system tree.
*Daily Schedule*	This is the displayed schedule for the chosen day. Using the Day of the Week buttons, you can view the daily schedule for any day of the week.
*Schedule Grid*	This is the area of the Application schedule in which you insert the applications to run. Each space in the grid represents one hour of run time, beginning with 6 A.M. and ending with 5 A.M..

To unselect a day, click the option again and the "X" disappears.	Select the day or days for which you want duplicate schedules. An "X" appears in the box to the left of the selected option or options, indicating that it is selected.
Clicking the Cancel button cancels the process, and closes the Replicate Day box.	When you finish selecting the days to have duplicate schedules, click the OK button. The Replicate Day box closes, and the selected days have the same schedule as the current day.