Provide own dates

Discussion required, external system involved

SUMMARY:

Implement a method to callup a task without requesting a date so the supplier can enter their own.

DETAILS:

The ability for the supervisors to request for the supplier to propose a start date.

Each of our maintenance teams works with suppliers that accept callups, but will provide their own date in return.

We have considered using JobFile to allow the supplier to propose an alternative date, but we found that would not meet our needs; from a reporting point of view, the initial planned date is misleading, and there is no way to track requests where the supplier is expected to update the planned date (compared to those who are not).

This is particularly important with maintenance tasks as the houses are occupied and the trade must arrange a time with the client after accepting the job.

We do sometimes find that this is the case with construction callbacks, where the initial callup has an expected date and prior agreement with the supplier (i.e. 5 days is fine) but the callbacks are handled as exceptions, or by a different team who provide best effort response.

Instead, we would like to see implemented a method to call the task without requesting a date. The supplier would be requested to schedule the work and provide the planned date to the office.

That way, we can report and manage tasks that have been sent to suppliers, but have not yet been scheduled.