Hey Makers
The first week of October is in its prime and here we are with another story of wits and automation. Come check it out.
Sales teams have a lot to juggle when it comes to hitting their targets, and sometimes, unnecessary multitasking can get in the way of progress. Progress that can also be hindered by an unequal distribution of tasks.
Philip Ragan of Erevu TechWorks developed a brilliant Make scenario that democratizes this prickly issue, creating a round-robin-style method of resource and personnel allocation that lets everyone focus on the right thing at the right time.
How does it work? Well, it’s based on the humble spreadsheet, which most organizations already use to organize personnel, tasks, requirements, availability, and other criteria.
Then, with each scenario execution, tasks are dynamically assigned to available team members, and the spreadsheet can simultaneously be updated to reflect changes in team members’ availability or task requirements.
But, we’ll let Philip give you the whole story below 
What problem were you trying to solve with your automation?
Simplifying structured assignment of resources and/or personnel.
Why did the problem exist?
Assigning personnel to a task in an automated manner can become inaccurate really quickly. The issue can get even worse when persons are added or removed from the list or need to be deactivated. We structured our solution to take advantage of spreadsheets since a lot of companies already use them, but this data source could easily be a Make Data Store.
How did you solve the problem? What does your solution look like?
Our Round Robin Make scenario allows users to dynamically assign personnel to tasks using a spreadsheet template. Each execution of the scenario automatically updates the spreadsheet while factoring in changes like additions, removals and availability.
What did your solution achieve?
- consistent assignment of personnel
- fairness in assignment
- ability to skip unavailable personnel by changing active state
- ability to scale
- ability to change order or assignment
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