A method and an electronic device are provided that include receiving at the electronic device a start and an end of an out-of-office period and an out-of-office preference for responding to new invitations to events occurring during the out-of-office period received at the electronic device, receiving at the electronic device a new invitation to an event occurring during the out-of-office period, and automatically transmitting at the electronic device a response to the new invitation based on the out-of-office preference.

Method and systems for scheduling tasks to field professionals include: receiving a request to book a new appointment for a service, wherein the service is expected to be completed within a time period; identifying a first possible time slot and a subsequent second possible time slot for the new appointment within the time period; calculating a first scheduling cost associated with the first possible time slot and a second scheduling cost associated with the second possible time slot; enabling selection of the second possible time slot when it is determined that both the first scheduling cost and the second scheduling cost are below a scheduling cost threshold; and outputting a no-available-time-slot notification when is determined that both the first scheduling cost and the second scheduling cost are above the scheduling cost threshold.

A time slot scheduling system is provided. Employees are divided into bid groups and a bidding session is created for a group of time slots in which preference time windows are specified for each employee in the bid group(s) of the bid to input their time slot preferences, and a bidding time window is specified for each employee in the bid group(s) of the bid to select their time slots among the vacant time slots in the bidding session.

To schedule a future interaction between a caller and a call-center, a management computing system associated with the call center is configured to determine an estimated call time for addressing the caller's issues, based at least in part on a predicted call intent as well as feature enrichment data received from one or more memory storage areas. Upon determining a predicted call duration for the call, the management computing entity accesses the caller's calendar, such as through an internet-based communication between the caller's user computing entity and the management computing entity, or via third-party access permissions provided by the caller. The management computing entity identifies one or more candidate timeslots based at least in part on the predicted call duration, and receives user input selecting a candidate timeslot for scheduling the callback.

A method of workforce optimization includes acquiring video data. The video data is obtained from a plurality of video cameras in a facility comprising a plurality of departments. A customer load for each of the plurality of departments is identified. A location of each of a plurality of employees in the facility is identified. A customer-to-employee ratio is determined for each department. The determined customer-to-employee ratio for each department is provided to a computing device. At least one employee deployment notification is provided from the computing device to another computing device.

A method operates a forest communication system having multiple mobile communication apparatus, the communication apparatus each including an output and input device. The output and input device is designed for the output and input of work process data relevant to one member in a working group about work steps on tree sections that are to be worked on and/or have been worked on. The method reconciles the work process data between the communication apparatus in a peer-to-peer network by way of wireless transmission on the basis of a medium-range transmission technology.

A system and method are disclosed for determining long-range staff planning. Embodiments include determining a baseline measurement of labor needs over a time period of one or more employees at one or more entities and modifying the baseline measurement of the labor needs over the time period based on one or more constraints that allow the one or more employees to work additional types of labor needs at the one or more entities. Embodiments further include determining working times and job assignments of the one or more employees based on one or more simulated employees that represent potential employees to the modified baseline measurement of the labor needs over the time period and storing the determined working times and job assignments in the database for the one or more employees at the one or more entities.

A computer-implemented method of training machine learning models for making simulated estimations is provided. The method includes collecting, from a database, a set of historical data, applying one or more transformations to the set of historical data to create a set of model features, and separating the set of model features into one or more pools, each pool comprising one or more model features of the set that are homogeneous with respect to a common value. the method further includes, for each pool, dynamically creating a training set that includes the one or more sets of model features of the pool and at least some of the historical data. The method further includes, for each training set, training a machine learning model on the training set.

A system is provided that uses location aware technologies in a variety of environments including retail environments and workplace environments. Location aware technologies associated with computing devices such as mobile phones are used to track users as they move within an environment. With respect to retail environments, a loyalty application may be installed in the phone of a customer that can provide the location of the customer to the retail environment. When it is determined that the customer is near the retail environment, a user profile associated with the customer can be used to select offers or promotions that can be displayed to the customer by the loyalty application to encourage the customer to enter the retail environment. When it is determined that the customer is inside the retail environment, the location of the customer can be used to determine where to dispatch an employee to interact with the customer.

A system, device and method are provided for modifying workflows in a hospital environment. The system includes a workflow stratification server configured to receive and analyze event messages from a nurse call system and interface devices. The workflow stratification server determines a current state of the hospital environment and relevant applicable conditions for each event message identified as a trigger event. That way, the workflow stratification server prioritizes the trigger events and provides responses to the trigger events in a manner that takes into account resources in the hospital environment.