Beyond Basic Dispatching for Service Orders and Projects: What Are the Options?

deoaashreeti
Oct 14
3 min read

As enterprises push service reliability expectations higher, the old "one-size-fits-all" dispatcher no longer suffices. I speak from the CTO chair at CSQ because every missed window is a customer trust problem—and the choices you make about scheduling and dispatching now determine whether you keep that trust.

Introducing Business Central—and Why It Matters

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central has become the operational backbone for many organizations aiming to unify finance, supply chain, projects, and service management within a single, connected platform. Its modular architecture, scalability, and integration capabilities make it a natural fit for enterprises evolving from fragmented legacy systems to a modern ERP ecosystem.

For service-driven businesses in particular, Business Central delivers robust functionality to register equipment as serviceable items, link them to warranty dates and service contracts, manage pricing and charges through Service Orders and Standard Service Codes, and track project profitability using flexible work-in-progress (WIP) calculations and billing methods. In short, it ensures that every part of your service operation has financial and operational accountability.

However, while Business Central handles the transactional and financial side with precision, it doesn't automatically solve the operational puzzle of dispatching. Who should handle a particular Service Order? When should it be done? How can resources, travel, and materials be synchronized efficiently? That's where organizations need to think beyond the built-in features—to orchestrate people, equipment, and projects in real time.

Context: The Dispatching Dilemma

Field teams, parts, travel time, and SLAs turn scheduling into an orchestration challenge. Many organizations find native ERP workflows must be augmented with dispatch engines, mobile execution, or event-driven triggers to meet real-world service demands.

Business Central provides the framework, but leaders must decide how to extend it intelligently—without adding unnecessary complexity. The question is no longer whether dispatching tools are needed, but which combination delivers the right blend of automation, visibility, and control.

Insights: A CTO's Perspective

From my point of view, effective dispatching is two things: precise orchestration and pragmatic simplicity. Orchestration means linking Service Orders and project tasks to real constraints—such as skill sets, part availability, travel windows, and contract entitlements—so the system's reasons are like an operations manager rather than a ledger. Simplicity means exposing a small, fast intake path, so call takers can enter service orders quickly, even for Contacts not already in Business Central.

A practical route is hybrid: keep Business Central as the source of truth for warranties, pricing, and WIP, and pair it with a specialized dispatcher such as Expand IT for real-time scheduling and mobile execution. In one deployment I observed, call-taker entry time dropped by half (illustrative), which materially improved response to SLAs without changing the underlying billing or project logic. In this session, you will learn how quickly call takers can enter service orders in Business Central, how Expand IT can control your dispatching and efficiently schedule your work orders, and how Expand IT can assist with closing a work order before invoicing the customer.

Counterintuitively, the best outcomes often come from constraining options—fewer scheduling rules, clearer escalation paths—not by adding more automation. Expect AI-assisted routing to raise first-time fix rates, but only when combined with disciplined work-close practices that ensure orders are complete before invoicing.

Key Takeaways

Enter service orders rapidly, even for external contacts—streamline intake of workflows.

Expand IT to centralize dispatching and optimize technician scheduling with constraints.
Close work orders accurately before invoicing to improve billing and customer satisfaction.

Closing: Join the Conversation

Join my live session to explore concrete options for scheduling and dispatch—how to combine Business Central capabilities with dispatch tools, mobile execution, and process design. This session will discuss the possibilities. Come with your questions and take home your answers.

Event: Community Summit

Date/Time: Oct 23 I 8:15 AM - 9:15 AM ET