Intelligent Staffing Overview

Intelligent Staffing is the name given to PSA's resource matching engine. It enables you to match resources by combining suitability, attributes, and availability to find the best matches for the work required. This reduces the time and manual effort involved in finding suitable resources.

Resource matching is a two-step process comprising the following steps:

1. Filtering out resources that do not match all essential criteria (including all or any essential skills).

2. Ranking the remaining resources on their suitability, based on:

   • Any ideal, desirable, and suggested criteria
   • Any desirable skills
   • Resource availability
   • Resource cost rate

The ranking step is the most complex for the org because all resources that remain after the filtering step must be evaluated. This means that the volumes of data to consider can get very high. For more information, see How High Volumes of Data can Impact Resource Matching and Improving Resource Matching Performance at Scale.

You can match resources in the following ways:

• Resourcing tab on a resource request
• Auto-staffing of resource requests
• Resource Request Staffer
• Assignments of multiple resources to a project using the Assign Multiple Resources to Project action on a project
• Resource Optimizer
• Resource Search Service API

Each of these methods, except the Resourcing tab, uses Intelligent Staffing automatically. For information about using Intelligent Staffing on the Resourcing tab, see Using The Resourcing Tab to Match Resources.

How Intelligent Staffing Works

Two key factors determine how Intelligent Staffing filters and ranks resources for matching. These factors are weightings and priorities, and they are explained below.

You can see worked examples that illustrate how weightings and priorities influence the results of resource matching in Intelligent Staffing Examples.

Weightings

The first step in the resource matching process is to filter out any resources that do not match the values of the following filter criteria: Role, Region, Practice, Group, Worked With Customer, Preferred Resource, and any resource search fields. By default, all these criteria are weighted as essential which means that resources must match them all.

You can adjust the weighting of these criteria if any are not considered to be essential. From most important to least important, the weighting levels are:

• Essential
• Ideal
• Desirable
• Suggested

If you set the weighting of any criteria to be Ideal, Desirable, or Suggested, resources that don't match the criteria are still included for ranking provided that they match all other essential criteria. For example, if you set the weighting of Group to be Ideal, a resource that does not match on Group will still be included for ranking provided that it matches all other essential criteria.

Note:

If no value is specified for a filter criteria, that criteria is not applied. For example, if no filter value is supplied for Group, that criteria is not applied when filtering resources.

Understanding the Precedence of Weightings

A resource that matches one criteria will be ranked higher than a resource that matches multiple less important criteria. For example, let's assume you have set up the following weightings:

Filter Criteria	Weighting
Role	Essential
Region	Essential
Practice	Essential
Group	Ideal
Worked With Customer	Desired
Preferred Resource	Suggested

Resource A matches Role, Region, Practice, and Group.

Resource B matches Role, Region, Practice, Worked With Customer, and Preferred Resource.

Although Resource B matches one more criteria than Resource A, because Group is weighted as more important than Worked With Customer and Preferred Resource, Resource A ranks above Resource B.

Filtering by Resource Search Fields

Resource search fields provide a way for you to use custom contact fields as filter criteria. By default, all resource search fields have the same weighting. This weighting is derived from the Custom Filter Fields Weighting in the Resource Search Service custom setting unless a resource search settings record applies. You can weight resource search fields individually by creating resource search field weightings. For more information, see Resource Search Fields Overview.

Priorities

The second step in the resource matching process is to rank the resources that match all essential criteria (including any or all essential skills) for suitability based on the following attributes which are listed in the default priority order:

1. Any criteria with ideal, desirable, and suggested weightings
2. Any desirable skills
3. Resource availability
4. Resource cost rate

Resources with the best match on the highest priority attribute move towards the top of the results. Where two resources have equal value for the highest priority attribute, the second highest priority attribute is used to rank them, then the third, and finally, the fourth attribute is used.

You can change the order of priorities. For example, you might want to rank by skills first, then filter criteria, then availability, and finally by cost rate (if available). For performance reasons, we recommend you never rank by availability first.

Note:

If multiple resources are ranked equally because they exactly match the same criteria, skills, availability, and cost rate, they are returned in no specific order and might be returned in a different order if the same search is performed again.

Resource Availability Calculation

By default, a resource's availability is calculated across the given date range as a whole. You can apply a more granular calculation method known as schedule availability if you match resources via the Resourcing tab, auto-staffing, or Resource Request Staffer. When schedule availability is enabled, the Availability attribute is locked as the lowest priority and cannot be changed. For information about configuring schedule availability, see Setting up Resource Availability to Account for Resource Schedules.

Note:

When schedule availability is enabled, the Cost Rate attribute (if available) is positioned according to the value set in the Cost Rate Priority field and the Availability attribute is always locked at the fourth position. If Cost Rate Priority is set to 4, the system automatically reassigns it to third position so it doesn't conflict with the locked Availability attribute.

Using Cost Rate as a Priority

By default, cost rate is not included as a priority. If you want to use it, you must enter a number (1-4) in the Cost Rate Priority field in the Resource Search Service custom setting, or in resource search settings records if you are using them.

Notes:

• Ranking by cost rate is only available if you have read permission for the following fields:

  • On the Contact object:
    • Contact Currency
    • Default Cost Rate
    • Default Cost Rate is Daily Rate
    • Work Calendar
  • The Standard Hours Per Day field on the Work Calendar object.
  • The Cost Rate Priority field on the Resource Search Settings object. This is required if you use resource search settings records.

• If the cost rate for a resource is 10, 000 USD and another has a cost rate of 15, 000 USD, they both might be placed at the same position when ranking on the basis of cost rate priority. This is because the maximum limit set for the cost rate calculation is 10, 000 USD.

• If the Default Cost Rate is Daily Rate checkbox is selected for a resource, the cost rate used for ranking is calculated by dividing the resource's default cost rate by the standard hours per day defined in the work calendar. For example, if the default cost rate is 80 USD and the standard hours per day is 8, the ranking cost rate will be 10 USD.

Resource Matching on Skills

Skills can be requested as essential or desirable. Requests for essential skills can include a minimum rating such as Some Familiarity, Comfortable, or Expert.

When skills are requested as being essential, resources will be required to match ALL or ANY of them:

• If ALL essential skills must be matched, resources are filtered out if they do not match all the essential skills.
• If ANY essential skills must be matched, resources that match at least one essential skill are included for ranking provided that they match all other essential criteria.

If an essential skill has a minimum rating, resources will be filtered out if they do not meet that minimum rating. A resource with a higher rating has no advantage over a resource with the minimum rating; it does not affect their relative ranking.

When a resource matches all essential criteria (including all or any essential skills), the number of desirable skills it matches then influences its rank. For example, a resource that matches three desirable skills will rank higher than a resource that matches one desirable skill.

To see examples of how matching on skills influences the results of resource matching, see Intelligent Staffing Examples.

Note:

Fields in the Resource Search Service custom setting enable you to configure whether:

• Aspirational skills and certifications are included or excluded in the matching process.
• Expired skills and certifications are included or excluded in the matching process.
• Skill or certification ratings must have particular approval statuses to be included in the matching process.

For more information, see Resource Search Service Settings.

Intelligent Staffing Configuration

The resource matching process uses the default weightings and priorities explained above until they are configured differently. You can define the configuration at the following levels depending on which resource matching methods you use.

Configuration Level	How to Configure Intelligent Staffing at this Level	Supported by Which Methods of Resource Matching	Further Information
Set the default configuration for the org, specific profiles, or individual users	Edit the weighting and priority fields in the Resource Search Service custom setting.	All	Resource Search Service Settings
Override the default configuration for particular categories of resource requests	Edit the weighting and priority fields in resource search settings records which are linked to staffing preferences used by resource requests.	The Resourcing tab on the resource request page Resource Request Staffer Auto-staffing	Staffing Preferences Overview
Adjust the configuration at run time	Click to open the Match Settings panel where you can adjust the weighting and priority fields for the current resource matching session.	The Resourcing tab on the resource request page The Open Requests tab on Resource Request Staffer Resource Optimizer	Configuring Match Settings in the Resourcing Tab Resource Request Staffer Overview Resource Optimizer for Resource Requests

Note:

For information about configuring resource search fields in order to filter by custom contact fields, see Resource Search Fields Overview.