How to Use Google Calendar Integration
Google Calendar is a powerful tool to help you manage your technician schedule. SIMPLer is able to integrate with Google Calendar in order to assist with this management. Please note that there is a small update that Azotel staff have to do in order to enable the Calendar on your instance. After doing step 4 below contact Azotel to enable the Calendar option.
1) Setup a scheduling "parent" calendar in Google Calendar:
installcal@gmail.com
2) Setup installer calendar accounts for different install teams:
team1@gmail.com
team2@gmail.com
Note: Installer calendars don't need to be setup from email addresses. If creating a "custom" calendar you would use the "Calendar ID" in step 6 below.
The Calendar ID can be found under the "Calendars" tab in the "Calendar Settings" for Google Calendar. Select the calendar from the list and scroll to the
"Calendar Address" section to find the Calendar ID.
3) Share the installer calendars with the parent calendar. Giving the parent calendar the right to edit the installer calendars.
4) Add the parent calendar to SIMPLer (Global Settings->Google Calendars). You must then activate the calendar, as described here! Contact Azotel at this point to enable the Calendaring integration.
5) Setup Installer Zones (Global Settings -> Installer Zones). Ensure that you enter the parent calendar name into the "Google Calendar" field (e.g. "installcal" defined in the previous Step 4).
6) Add installers to SIMPLer (customers->installers->"Add"). Be sure when adding the installer to add the proper Google Calendar account (e.g. team1@gmail.com)
7) Fill in "Free" slots on the parent calendar (if you would like Azotel can do this with a script if you provide us with scheduling details). This is an optional step to help keep things organized.
8) When scheduling an install/service call (with a ticket open in SIMPLer with installer tracking assigned to the ticket...you don't need to assign the installer or time though) do the following:
find a free space on the calendar
add the customer nickname to the "What" (i.e. title) field for the free event in square brackets (i.e. "[jdoe01] Customer Install"). Notes outside of the square brackets are ignored. Note that for convenience a "schedule install" button has been added to SIMPLer on the "general details" page of the customer account when the customer is in the status "waiting for install". If you click on this button it creates some information for you to copy and paste directly into the calendar event.
Change the "Calendar" field for the event to the proper installer team
Sync the calendar with SIMPLer. This happens automatically every hour but to force a sync you can go to the tools menu and select the option "update calendar now". The syncing will update the SIMPLer ticket's installer tracking to assign the installer and update the time. It will also push customer details out to the calendar (i.e. address and GPS if available).
SIMPLer will send out notification emails (with included work orders) to installers the day before their install. Note it uses the installers Email not the Google Calendar email since they are often different. By default the calendar and SIMPLer will only sync events set for the next 7 days.
The way that SIMPLer knows which installer to assign a ticket to is based on the installers Google calendar account under the installer setup. That is why you need to have individual accounts for each installer (or installer team). Otherwise SIMPLer won't know who to assign the ticket to and it will require the CSRs to duplicate the data from the calendar in SIMPLer. This will leave things open to human error increasing the potential for missed calls.
Revised Date: [28-July-2020]
Contact Azotel Support:
Need more help? Save time by creating a maintenance ticket to Azotel through your instance.