We’ve already gone through and taken a look as to how we set up Queues (https://thecrm.ninja/omnichannel-for-dynamics-365-queues/) and Users (https://thecrm.ninja/omnichannel-for-dynamics-365-users/). The final part of this trio is looking at how we set up Skills in Omnichannel, and apply them (which is going to be in several parts, due to the complexity of this one item!)

As we’ve previously covered (https://thecrm.ninja/omnichannel-for-dynamics-365-queues-users-skills/), skills are used within Omnichannel to enable Skill-Based Routing.

There are several parts to getting this working:

1. Setting up the actual skill entries
2. Enabling/configuring skill-based routing
3. Enabling/configuring the ability for chats to utilise skill-based routing

Yup – it’s somewhat more complex than just saying ‘I want skills!’

So this post is going to cover how to actually set up the skill record entries, which thankfully isn’t too difficult (especially if you’ve been bearing with me, and following the other setup instructions that we’ve been through so far).

To create skills, it’s necessary to have a skill type. Think of it as a hierarchy – if you’re wanting to provide customer services in multiple languages for technical issues, you’re going to want a Language skill type, and Technical skill type. Under each skill type, you’re going to have the applicable entries. So for Language, you’ll have English, Spanish, Chinese, etc.

At the time of writing, creating Skill Types are done from the Systems Customisation (this will likely move to the new Admin Centre at some point, but hasn’t yet). So make sure that you’re logged in as a Dynamics system Administrator, and open Advanced Settings:

Note: The process below is taking place in the default solution. It’s of course possible to deploy this as part of a custom solution – if you’re wanting to do this, then open the custom solution from the Power Platform admin centre, and continue with the steps shown below.

Hover over ‘Settings’ in the ribbon menu bar, and choose Customisations

Now select ‘Customise the System’

Select ‘Option Sets’ in the left hand navigation, then scroll down to ‘Bookable Resource Characteristic Type’ in the main window

Open up, and you’ll see the following window

Using our scenario, I’ve added Language and Technical Area as skill types. Now very importantly, ensure that you SAVE the record, and then PUBLISH it. If you don’t, the skill types won’t show to be used!

Right, now that we’ve done all of that prep work, we can get on with actually entering the skills that we want to use…

So, go back to the Omnichannel Administration section, scroll down in the left hand menu to Skills, and click it to open it. It’ll show all of the skills that we’ve entered (well, it won’t show any entries here yet, as none have been put in yet!). Click ‘New’ on the menu ribbon to create a new entry

You’ll be presented with the following screen, which after all of the above is thankfully quite simple.

The fields are as follows:

• Name. What it says on the field – nothing complicated. It does need to be unique though, so have a careful think about your needs. You can always use multiple skills together to create a blend that you need across skills
• Type. This is the Skill type (which we’ve just set up beforehand). If you don’t see the values that you’ve set up in here, make sure that you saved and published the customisations!
• Description. Put something user-friendly in here to describe what the skill is (if you think it’s necessary…)

Then click ‘Save’ on the menu bar. Once the entry saves, the form will update, and now show a User (Agent) section:

You can now add users (agents, as they’re referred to) to the skill. Click the ellipse on the right hand side of the Users (Agents) grid, and then select the ‘New Bookable Resource Characteristic’ option (the names of these things just keep on getting longer and longer, don’t they!)

A nice simple window will open on the right of the screen, where you can enter the details:

This is done as follows:

• Skill Value – this is the skill that you’re wanting to assign a user to
• User (Agent) – this is the actual user. You can type to search through the available users. Very important to note that if you didn’t follow the steps to set up the user as a Bookable Resource, you won’t see them in this list (see https://thecrm.ninja/omnichannel-for-dynamics-365-users/ for instructions on how to do this)
• Rating Value – this is used to rate the proficiency of the user at the skill. We’ll cover setting this up in a later post, but essentially think of using a 5 star scale. 1 would mean the user has basic ability at the skill, 3 would mean they’re alright with the skill, and 5 means that they’re at the top of their game with it

You can then click the ‘Save and Close’ button at the bottom of the window, and it’ll add them.

However if you have multiple users that you’re wanting to add, I’d HIGHLY recommend clicking the arrow next to this button, and selecting the ‘Save and Create New’ option. It’s not just to create with the same skill – you can change the Skill Value as well, and it’ll save you more clicks!

Hopefully you’re still following along, and managing to get the setup done correctly – well done!

Up next – enabling skill based routing( https://thecrm.ninja/omnichannel-for-dynamics-365-skills-part-ii/)

Now that we’ve set up and assigned Omnichannel security role/s for the users in the system who need access to Omnichannel (https://thecrm.ninja/omnichannel-for-dynamics-365-security/), and seen how queues work (https://thecrm.ninja/omnichannel-for-dynamics-365-queues/), we’re going to look at how we manage users and the various pieces of information for them.

To do this, we need to be in the Omnichannel Administration application (accessed through the Dynamics 365 navigation bar), and select the ‘Users’ option under ‘Queues & Users’

If you hover over a user, you get a quite useful little window, showing their status and some details

Double clicking on the user will open up the system user record. The important thing to note is that there’s now an ‘Omnichannel’ tab available.

From here, it’s possible to set the users default presence (such as Available, DND, Busy, etc – you’re able to add new entries to this list) and capacity.

Capacity is a sort of loose term. Essentially (as we’ll cover in another post) it’s possible to set up different enquiry types. Each enquiry type will have a capacity against it, based on how complex you think it’ll be. So for example checking an order may have a lower capacity set against it than someone dealing with a damaged item.

Capacity is used with routing rules (which will also be covered in another post). When a communication channel is opened up, the system will check to see which agent/s are showing as available, and of those agent/s, which one/s have available capacity for the session (as they may be already dealing with other sessions at the same time).

You’ll also be able to see a list of the Queues that the user has been assigned to.

What you’ll now do is add a Bookable Resource record for the user. What is this exactly?

A bookable resource is anything that can be scheduled. Field Service uses this as well, usually covering people, equipment, and physical spaces (facilities). Each resource can have different attributes that distinguish it from others, including but not limited to:

• Characteristics (eg Accounting)
• Categories (eg Manager)
• Territories (eg United Kingdom)
• Organisational Unit (eg Customer Service)
• Location (eg London)
• Resource Type (eg User)

Omnichannel uses scheduling to know which users are available, assigned to specific queues, etc. Due to this, we need to create this ‘Bookable Resource’ record (which is unique – you can only have one of these for each user!).

To create this, scroll down the page, until you get to the ‘Skills Configuration’ section. Here you should click the menu ellipse, and select ‘New Bookable Resource’.

This will open the ‘New Bookable Resource’ window. Leave everything as it is, and just fill in the ‘Name’ field with the name of the user

Click the save button on the menu bar, and it’ll then take you back to the user record. Well done! You’ve now created the Bookable Resource record for the user.

In the next section, we look at how to start setting up Skills – https://thecrm.ninja/omnichannel-for-dynamics-365-skills-part-i/