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Field Service Activities

Using Siebel Field Service, field service engineers work from activities. Activities are either attached to a service request or stand-alone. Using an activity template, Field Service can automatically provide a set of activities to carry out a service request. Topics include:

• Field Service Activity Templates and Activity Plans
• Category Field

In Siebel Field Service there are common types of activities:

• Service activities that fall into these categories:
  • Installation
  • Preventive maintenance
• Repair activities, including shipping and receiving

Field Service provides activities to track the tasks done in response to a service request, a preventive maintenance request, the report of a change request, and the request for a repair. The Activities screen records activities that must be assigned to field service or call center personnel.

Field service and repair activities are accompanied by detailed information for field service personnel, which includes steps, items (recommended parts/tools), skills and instructions, field part movements, expense recording, and time recording.

NOTE:  Recommended parts and tools are called Items.

These are the major advantages of breaking down a service request into one or more activities:

• The ownership of the problem remains at the call management level, when required.
• The field service engineer looking at assigned activities can easily identify only the required information.
• Reporting is simplified.
• Activities can be assigned to more than one person.

NOTE:  Field service activities can be stand-alone (for example, preventive maintenance activities) or, more commonly, attached to service requests. For complex preventive maintenance activities, it may be convenient to formalize the activity by creating a service request.

Field engineer activities are an extension of the Siebel Activity object, with Field Service customizations that specifically meet the requirements of engineers reporting complex, standardized service activities.

Activity objects may be associated with the following Siebel objects:

• Accounts
• Agreements
• Assets
• Campaigns
• Change requests (Quality screen)
• Contacts
• Messages
• Opportunities
• Order Items
• Preventive maintenance
• Programs
• Projects
• Repairs
• References
• Service requests

Activities, once generated, are assigned to appropriate engineers. Assigned activities are displayed on the engineers' calendars and the engineers may receive automatic notification by way of their laptop computers, handheld computers, cell phones, or pagers. Engineers can accept or decline an activity and, once accepted, use the Activities screen to report on its execution.

Assigning activities can take place manually, one by one, on the Activities, Service Requests, and Dispatch Board screens. The person assigning can select engineers manually or use the Assignment Manager (Assign menu command). Automatic assignment uses a variety of criteria for assignments, including skills, role priorities, availability, location, and cost.

Scheduling of assigned engineers can take place manually on the Activities screen, on the drag-and-drop interface of the Dispatch Board screen, or automatically using Siebel Scheduler.

For a description of assigning and scheduling activities, see Setting Up and Using Scheduling and Setting Up and Using the Dispatch Board.