Opening Hours

Opening Hours are defined to reroute calls within your Workflows according to the hours / time zone at which customers call your service. Their configuration determines the final caller routing experience as follows:

Notes	Nimbus Configuration UI
The default state in a calendar determines how the service should "react" according to the time it is called. Note that the service itself can still be technically "available", but reacts and rotes caller according to the "Default" stat ein your Opening Hours calendar. Periods in your calendar override the default status. Whenever no period is defined, the default applies again. Note that a period has no effect if it is not handled in your service's workflow. Workflows - in particular the "Check Opening Hours" activity.  determines the handling of your calendar periods. Ensure to read the chapter on handling opening hours in workflows. Service Settings apply the configured calendar. This also allows you to define multiple calendars per service (e.g. Holidays and Service-Specific calendars).	How Opening Hours are handled in Nimbus
Important Learnings Opening Hours just by themselves do not have an effect on your service's presence status. In combination with Workflows - e.g. according to the time zone of the service called by your customers - will callers be routed according to the "Check Opening Hours" Workflow Activity. Even a "Closed" service can be available if your workflow allows so. Nimbus distinguishes by primary and secondary Opening Hours calendars, which must each be applied in your in Service Settings first to take effect. The rules are explained below.

Primary and Secondary Hours

Each team may decide if the opening hours are defined as primary or secondary. This is determined via service-individual Service Settings > "General" Tab.

Ruleset: Primary and Secondary Opening Hours

Opening Hours Period Ruleset: If at least one defined period is found in the primary opening hours calendar, this period is prioritized. If there is no period in defined primary calendar, the secondary calendar period is applied. If no appointment is found in either calendar (with a secondary configured), the "Default" state of the first calendar is used. The default of the secondary calendar never applies in a two-calendar scenario. If the secondary calendar has no periods defined it is effectively ignored. Rule of thumb: Primary Defined? >  Secondary Defined? > Both no? > Use Primary Default! An example of how this rule is applied can be found below.

Service Settings with applied opening hours. The current applicable status is shown under "Active Opening Hours".

Show me an example In this example there are  two  calendars defined: one provided the Admin (e.g. Company-Wide special holidays) and one "Service Specific" calendar created by a Team Owner. For simplicity we're assuming these calendars operate on a "whole day" basis for one week.   Each day will be handled differently to illustrate a case from the rules above.   The calling customer will experience the service status as follows: On  Monday  the primary calendar has a "holiday"  defined. → The service workflow will react according to the path defined for holidays (usually a closed-announcement), otherwise the default applies (also closed). On  Tuesday  the primary calendar is default "closed", however the secondary has a  special  period defined. → In this case the the secondary calendar takes precedence. On  Wednesday  the primary calendar is default "closed", however the secondary has an "open" period defined. → In this case the secondary calendar "open" period takes precedence. On  Thursday  the primary calendar and secondary calendar have a default status, but no specific periods defined. → The primary default "closed  is used, secondary default gets always ignored. On  Friday  the primary calendar has a special event type defined. → Depending on how the service workflow is configured, it will react to the "special" primary calendar period (e.g. same as Tuesday).

Creating Opening Hours

New Opening Hours can be defined from within Configuration either by Service Owners or Admins.

1. Within the Nimbus UI, head to Configuration > .Opening Hours vCurrent.
2. Click on "Add New" → the "Add Opening Hours" view opens.
3. Specify a Name for your calendar entry.
   This name will be used to identify the opening hours entry in listings and selections.
4. Specify an Organization Unit to define where the Calendar will be available.
   When a Tenant Admin accesses the Config Administration to create an Opening Hours entry a shared calendar can be made available to multiple services.
5. Specify a "Default" state that applies when no other periods are defined in the calendar.
   We recommend to leave it at: Closed and work with specific periods to define working hours.
   

Calendar UI Elements

An Opening Hours calendar consists of the following elements:

Name	Definition
Calendar Popup	Allow you to switch between days, switch resolution (day, week, month)  or jump back to present day. Also contains a calendar view for quick selection.
Calendar Period (Colored block item)	Create a new period by double clicking into the blank calendar space or click "Add Period" You can edit any existing period entry by double clicking it → refer to "Add Period" chapter below. Recurring entries are marked with an circular arrow icon at the top left The "x" at the top right deletes entries. → You will be asked to delete series or single periods. On period types and defaults Who to handle the different period types? With multiple calendars in place, different types of periods may be overlapping. Nimbus follows a priority for these periods in determining which state the service may appears. The precedence order is: Special 4 > Special 3 > Special 2 > Special 1 >  Holiday > Closed > Open > Default When multiple calendars overlap each other, the primary defined period takes precedence. See → Primary and Secondary hours chapter above. Your team's Workflow determines how the calls are handled as per currently valid period type, e.g. by playing an announcement during "Special" opening hours or routing the calls to other services during a holiday.
Show Full Day / Show Business Hours (toggle)	Allows to expand the default view vertically to a full day's length or just a 8 AM to 8 PM view. Default view is "business hours".
Day / Week / Month View (switch)	Allows to view periods either on current day, week or a monthly calendar. Default view is "week".

Calendar UI Elements

Create / Edit Calendar Period

Note - Before you edit productive calendars:

Please note that - once a calendar is created and in productive use - that any changes to its periods / recurring events will take effect immediately. Make sure to:

• Check if the calendar is used as "Primary" or "Secondary" in any service's Service Settings.
  
• Make edits to productively used calendars outside of normal operation hours.
• Alternatively: edit a different calendar and switch to it once satisfied.

1. To define a new time period in your Opening Hours, simply click " Add Period ".
   Alternatively you can simply double click into the calendar to start creating a new item. The place where you click determines the start time (top row for "all-day" events).
   → A dialogue to configure the new time period opens

   The available fields change based on recurrence and are defined as follows:

   Title	Free Text, no functional effect aside from showing as period title in the Opening Hours calendar.	Edit Period - Calendar dialogue
   Type	The type of the period which also determines the branching path of your selected Workflow Template.  While editing your Workflow the " Check Opening Hours " step will determine which "type" of period currently applies and branches out accordingly. R efer to the  Check Activities > "Check Opening Hours" chapter.
   Time Zone	Used to specify a time offset for teams that work in different time zones. When configuring this for a remote team, set it to the time zone where the service team is situated to correctly offset the period.
   All Day	Toggle which deactivates the time selection. Best used for holidays or extended special opening hours.
   Start / End	Used to specify the time of a single event. Can also be used to span accross multiple days.
   Recurrence	Used to define recurring events.   If recurrence is set to "None" the event is one-time only. You may want to leave the "Start" and "End" date parameters as is. Otherwise the events in the series will be treated as a timespan, crossing over from the starting day to the end day in a long block. Especially in recurrence-situations this can cause periods conflicts and potential overlaps.  Show me an example... An example for extended special opening hours on every other weekend The Opening Hours calendar is default "closed" in this example: Define Start and End of your opening hours. The typical timespan would be on the same day (e.g. 10:00 to 16:30) Set the "weekly" Recurrence of your period. In this example we have a "weekly" occurrence for every 2 weeks. Define the days on which the recurrence applies.  Result: Our 3-day period on every 2nd weekend.
   Recur every	Based on → "Recurrence" setting "Daily", Allows to set an interval at which the period should reoccur: "Recur every X days" - allows to set an interval of days (including weekends) on which this should reoccur. "Weekday" - sets the event to reoccur ever business weekday (Mo-Fr) The "Days" counter will be ignored.
   Repeat On	Based on → "Recurrence" setting "Weekly" For Weekly recurrence you can set the weekdays where this period should reoccur.
   End After	Based on → "Recurrence" setting with either "End after" or "End by" specified.

2. Fill in all details as you require for your calendar period 

3. Create the new entry by pressing " Save & Apply "

Handling your Opening Hours