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Break/Fix Activities and Contract Scheduling

Most service businesses start the day with a schedule of activities to perform, such as maintenance, installations, and other booked repairs. During the day, customers may call for repairs (break/fix activities), requiring modification of schedules.

Customers with service contracts often have specific entitlements with a required response time. This response time may be tiered according to the level of the contract: standard contracts may promise engineers onsite within 24 hours, while premium contracts may specify response times as short as two hours.

Break/fix activities must be inserted into the schedule that the Optimizer has carefully optimized during the previous night. Optimizing the schedule again is usually not practical because optimization routines can run for an hour or two to determine good solutions. Customers want a service commitment immediately, often while they are on the phone. A balance must be achieved, trading optimized schedules for quick responses and customer satisfaction, while still enforcing business rules.

The ideal solution for the customer service representatives, in response to break/fix requests, is to click a button and receive a time for a service call that respects contractual agreements and other constraints. The Optimizer addresses this need.


 Siebel Field Service Guide 
 Published: 21 April 2003