Resource groups

A resource group is a named list of people: the group record plus one Resource Group Member row for each person (resource) in it. You build the list once and then point other records at it. A support or telephony queue uses it as its agent pool, an assignment rule can pick from it, an incentive plan can limit its members to it, and an allocation console can filter its people by it. Before you build groups, set up the resources they contain. After that, link each group from the queue, rule or plan that needs it.

Overview

A resource group has two parts:

• The group — a Name, an optional Description and an optional Resource Group Type (Scheme or Incentive).
• Its members — one Resource Group Member row per person, each pointing at the group and at a Resource.

Membership is always explicit. You add and remove members yourself, by hand or by import, and xMatix never changes the list on its own. The group record does nothing by itself. It takes effect only where another record or screen reads its members:

Field sales also uses a resource group as a beat's HQ for outlet transfer. That use reads the beat's own link to a group, not the member list (see Outlet transfer and HQs).

When to use it

Create a resource group whenever several features need the same list of people, or when you want a list you can change in one place:

• a team of support or call-centre agents who share a queue;
• the people an assignment rule should share new leads or cases between;
• the field staff who belong to one incentive plan;
• a team a dispatcher or manager wants to filter on in an allocation console.

You don't need a group to give one person work. Queues need a group, but assignment rules can also pick One specific resource, a position holder or resources mapped to a partner.

How xMatix handles it

Membership is manual

The group form has a Field Filter Criteria panel with Dynamic Member Type, Rule Success Criteria and Rule Success Custom Logic. These fields are not implemented for resource groups. Nothing evaluates them, and saving a group never adds or removes members, so leave them empty. Account groups and item groups do build members from rules, but resource groups don't.

Resource Group Type is a label only. No feature checks it, so a queue, rule or plan accepts a group of any type, or a group with no type at all.

Each feature applies its own checks to the members

Being a member makes a person a candidate, not an automatic choice. Each feature then filters the members in its own way:

Outlet transfer and HQs

With the field sales setting HQ set to Resource Group (the default), the mobile outlet-transfer flow treats each beat's resource group as its HQ. Outlets can move only between beats of the same channel partner and the same HQ, and a beat with no resource group can't be transferred at all. The beat's resource group is a link on the beat itself, so the group's members play no part.

No shipped beat form, and no metadata field, exposes that link. A beat gets an HQ only when an integration or a data load writes it. If your beats have no HQ, change HQ to No HQ so that outlet transfer works (see Configuration).

Numbering

Member rows are numbered automatically from the Resource Group Member Name Setting (series RGM) when they are saved. Groups have no numbering, so you type their Name yourself.

Prerequisites

• The people exist as resources. For queue routing, each resource also needs Is Active switched on and a linked User.
• Your security profile can view the Rewards app or the Support app, and has access to the Resource Group and Resource Group Member entities. All the shipped profiles have full access to both entities.

Procedure

Step 1 — Open the resource group list

Open the list in either of two places:

• Rewards app → Resource Groups in the navigation.
• Support app → Settings → the Resource Groups card.

The list shows Name, Description, Resource Group Type and the audit columns.

Step 2 — Create the group

1. Select New.
2. Enter a Name. Use a name that says what the group is for, such as "Inbound support — level 1". Several features may use the same group, so the name should make sense in each of them.
3. Optionally choose a Resource Group Type and add a Description.
4. Leave the Field Filter Criteria panel empty.
5. Save. The group's record page opens, with a Related tab and a Details tab.

Step 3 — Add the members

1. On the group's record page, open the Related tab. It lists the group's Resource Group Members.
2. Select New above the list. A quick-add card opens with Resource Group already filled in.
3. Pick the Resource and save. The row gets an RGM number.
4. Repeat for each person.

You can also open the Resource Group Members list on its own and create rows there, choosing both Resource Group and Resource. To load a large team, import Resource Group Member rows with the group and the resource (see Import data).

Step 4 — Link the group where it is needed

• Queue: in Setup → Feature Hub → Service → Telephony → Queues, open or create the queue and choose the group in Agent pool. Support administrators can also set Resource Group on the queue record (Support app → Settings → Queues). See Queues and routing.
• Assignment rule: in Setup → Automation → Assignment Rules, set Candidates to Members of a resource group, pick the group in Resource group, then choose Only candidates who are and Pick (First by sequence, Round robin or Fewest open records).
• Incentive plan: Resource Group is not on the shipped plan forms. An administrator adds it to the plan layout, or sets it by import. See Incentive plans.
• Allocation console: no setup is needed. The Resource group chip lists every group, unless the console page's designer has turned that chip off.

Step 5 — Change who is in the group

• Add someone: repeat Step 3.
• Remove someone: on the group's Related tab, use Delete on the person's row.

Queue routing, assignment rules and the allocation console read the member list each time they run, so a change applies to the next call, case, record or console refresh. Work already assigned stays with its owner.

Incentive plans behave differently: removing a member does not remove the person from a plan they are already enrolled in.

Step 6 — Rename, edit or delete a group

Use Edit on the group's record page to change its name, type or description. You can also change a field in place on the Details tab. Renaming is safe for queues, plans and assignment rules that pick the group from a list, because they store the group itself. A rule that names the group in a variable or expression must be updated to match.

Delete removes the group. xMatix does not stop you deleting a group that a queue, assignment rule, incentive plan or beat still uses, so point those at another group first.

Fields

Resource group

Resource group member

The Resource Group and Resource Group Member references list every field.

Business rules

• No automatic membership. Members change only when someone adds, deletes or imports a member row.
• Duplicates are allowed. Adding the same person to a group twice is not refused. Routing, assignment and enrolment count each person once.
• A person can be in many groups. Queue routing caps each agent's total work across every queue, through the agent's Max Work Items on their presence record.
• Type is not enforced. A Scheme group works as an agent pool, and an Incentive group works in an assignment rule.
• No group, no candidates. A queue with no Agent pool, or with an empty pool, routes nothing. The work stays Pending, and an inbound call falls back to ringing every signed-in agent.
• Clone copies the group only. The Clone action is not on the shipped record page. When it is used, members are not copied.

Example

A support team runs a first-line queue for inbound calls and wants new web cases shared out fairly.

1. The administrator opens Support → Settings → Resource Groups, selects New, and creates "Inbound support — level 1" with no type.
2. On the Related tab they add four members: Agent A, Agent B, Agent C and Agent D. Each is an active resource with a linked user.
3. In Setup → Feature Hub → Service → Telephony → Queues they create the queue "Level 1", choose Load balance and set Agent pool to "Inbound support — level 1".
4. In Setup → Automation → Assignment Rules they add a rule for new cases: Candidates Members of a resource group, Resource group "Inbound support — level 1", Only candidates who are Not on leave, absent or on holiday today, Pick Round robin.
5. Agent D goes on leave, and the leave request is recorded. The assignment rule skips Agent D automatically on those days. Calls to "Level 1" also skip Agent D, as long as Agent D's presence is not Available.
6. When a fifth agent joins, the administrator adds one member row, and the queue and the rule both pick the new agent up straight away.

Training

Practice exercise

In a sandbox:

1. Create a resource group "Training pool" with two members: yourself (an active resource linked to your user) and one other active resource.
2. Open Setup → Automation → Assignment Rules and create a rule for a test entity, with Candidates Members of a resource group, Resource group "Training pool" and Pick Round robin.
3. Create two records that the rule applies to.

Expected result: the two records are assigned to the two members, one each. Delete your own member row and create a third record; it goes to the other member.

Quick reference

• Open groups from Rewards → Resource Groups or Support → Settings → Resource Groups.
• Add people on the group's Related tab with New.
• Membership is manual; the Field Filter Criteria panel does nothing.
• Resource Group Type is a label; no feature checks it.
• Queue routing needs members who are active, linked to a user and Available.
• Assignment rules filter members with Only candidates who are.
• Removing a member doesn't take the person out of incentive plans they're already in.
• Point queues, rules and plans elsewhere before deleting a group.

Permissions

All the shipped security profiles have full access to both entities, so in a new organization anyone who can open either app can change groups. Restrict access on the security profiles if group changes should be limited to administrators.

Configuration

Common problems

Calls or cases for a queue are never assigned to anyone

Check the queue's Agent pool first. If it is empty, or the group has no members, nothing can be chosen. Then check each member's resource: it must be active and linked to a user. Finally check that at least one member is Available with spare capacity. See Support troubleshooting.

A person in the group never gets work from the queue

Their resource may be inactive or have no linked user. Their presence may also not be Available: presence is kept alive by the agent's open browser and expires after five minutes without renewal. Or they may already hold their Max Work Items. On a Skill-based queue, they also need a resource skill with exactly the requested name.

I set Dynamic Member Type and rules but the group stays empty

Those fields are not implemented for resource groups. Add the members yourself on the Related tab, or import them.

An assignment rule says there is no resource group

The rule names a group that doesn't exist, often because the group was renamed after the rule was written. Pick the group again in Resource group, or update the name the rule uses.

Outlets can't be transferred: "This beat is not assigned to an HQ (Resource Group), so its outlets cannot be transferred."

With HQ set to Resource Group, every beat needs a resource group, and no shipped screen sets it. Either have the beats' resource group filled in by your data load, or set HQ to No HQ in Setup → Feature Hub → Sales → Settings.

Someone I removed from the group is still in an incentive plan

Enrolment only ever adds members. Remove the person from the plan's members directly.

The Resource group chip on the allocation console is missing some people

The console loads up to 2,000 member rows. In a very large organization, members beyond that are not counted, so use smaller groups for console filtering.

Common questions

Is a resource group the same as a team or a business unit?

No. Teams and business units belong to record security: they decide which records users can see (see Roles, teams and business units). A resource group gives no access to anything. It is a list of people that queues, assignment rules, incentive plans and consoles read when they choose or filter people. One person can be in any number of resource groups, whatever their team or business unit.

Should I use separate groups for support and incentives?

Yes, when the lists differ. Resource Group Type doesn't keep them apart, because no feature checks it, so name your groups clearly. Use one shared group only when the same people really belong in every feature that reads it. A change made for one feature also changes the others.

Do groups update when someone leaves?

Not by themselves. Deactivating the person's resource is enough to stop queue routing, assignment rules and new incentive enrolments from choosing them, because each feature checks that the resource is active. The member row stays in place until you delete it, and the allocation console still lists the person. Remove the member rows as part of offboarding (see Resources).

Can a group contain another group?

No. Members are always individual resources. To combine two groups, add the people from both to a new group.

Related topics

• Resources — the people a group contains
• Queues and routing — how a queue routes work to its agent pool
• Work routing and skills
• Telephony configuration
• Incentive plans — member enrolment
• Route stops and outlet transfer
• Resource Group reference · Resource Group Member reference
• Resource — entity reference