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Mobile Inventory Transactions

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Siebel Field Service can record part movements in the field (mobile inventory) without synchronizing with the Field Service server. This allows field service engineers to record transfers of assets without having the asset number or serial number on their laptop computers.

Normally, recording transfers of assets without having asset numbers or serial numbers would cause a transaction to fail. However, with Field Service, the part movement is recorded but not applied to the inventory database.

If the mobile computer is disconnected, the local database is updated. When the mobile computer is synchronized with the Siebel server, the information about the part movement is transferred to the server. If the asset was identified in the database on the remote computer, the server records the change in inventory location in the database and then creates a transaction.

If a part movement was not validated on the remote computer (this includes all write-in assets), an uncommitted part movement appears in Service Administration >Parts Movement Administration (see Parts Movement Administration View). An administrator must review uncommitted part movements and reconcile write-in serial numbers with existing asset numbers. The Commit button then creates transactions (see To commit transactions reported by mobile clients). For information on the types of transactions created for specific combinations of source and destination locations, see Setting Up Service Inventory.

The next time the remote computer is synchronized, its database is updated from the server database.

Mechanism of the Commit Buttons

Commit buttons appear on the Activities screen's Expense Tracker, Part Tracker, and Time Tracker views; and on the Service Administration screen's Parts Movement Administration view. The commit step of a transaction begins when the record is saved with the Commit flag set. The field service engineer uses the Commit button on the Activities screen to perform the following validations:

Are source and destination inventories specified? This condition must be met first. If the asset does not belong to the source inventory level, leave it uncommitted.
Is the position of the owner of the activity associated with a trunk inventory (location type Trunk)?
If an asset number is provided, is it valid?
For each asset transaction, is the asset at the specified inventory source location? This validation is not performed for the External location or the Customer location (see Setting Up an External Location).
Is the item available? Availability and status are verified. This validation is not performed for the External location.
Does the source inventory have the quantity of assets specified? This quantity is 1 if the part is serialized.
If the product is serialized, does the total quantity for an inventory transaction equal the total number of asset entered for this transaction?

If these validation checks are successful, the Commit flag is set in Part Tracker records and records are generated to record inventory movements. In detail, the following steps are carried out:

Create a committed inventory transaction; for example, Receive Other.
Create assets for the inventory transaction.
Create new database records for the inventory location: source and destination.
Update the asset record (ID).
Create asset transactions; for example, Install.
Commit the part movement by updating the database.

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