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Siebel Field Service Guide > Setting Up and Using the Dispatch Board >

Dispatch Board Screen Interface

The Dispatch Board provides a drag-and-drop interface for manual assignment and scheduling of service activities. The Dispatch Board has two sections:

  • Gantt chart (top)
  • Unscheduled Activities list (bottom)

To schedule activities, users drag-and-drop activities from the Unscheduled Activities list onto the Gantt chart. To unschedule activities, users drag the activity from the Gantt chart back to the Unscheduled Activities list.

Specific features of the Gantt chart and the Unscheduled Activities list can be used to improve activity scheduling.

About the Scheduling Information Displayed

The Dispatch Board queries the database for the schedule information—it does not show what is in the ABS and Optimizer caches. The Dispatch Board queries the database so that it can show any date and time range that the user wants to see. The Appointment Booking System (ABS) immediately writes any changes to the database so the activities in the database should reflect what is in the cache. The one exception to this is an activity that has been dragged and dropped across the Dispatch Board. These activities are not automatically loaded into the cache. See Setting Up and Using Scheduling and About Rescheduling Appointments in the Dispatch Board for more information.

Unscheduled Activities List

By default, the Unscheduled Activities list displays all activities that have a status of Unscheduled. Table 39 shows selected items in the Unscheduled Activities list.

You can view these additional lists using the Unscheduled Activities drop-down list:

  • Declined
  • Timed Out
  • Not Acknowledged

Gantt Chart

The Gantt chart shows the scheduled and unscheduled time periods for a group of field service engineers associated with a service region.

The chart is divided by a frames boundary into left and right frames. The left frame lists field service engineers and related information that helps users select engineers for activities. The right frame shows scheduled time periods.

To see all of the information in the left frame, drag the frames boundary to the right. To sort the list of field service engineers, click the title of a column. You can also narrow the list of field service engineers by performing a query by name.

The right frame of the Gantt chart appears in a calendar format. Scheduled time periods are shown with colors that represent activity priority, status, and type. See Setting User Preferences for the Dispatch Board for more information.

To zoom in or out on a particular time period, click a zoom interval (1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, or 4) on the current time bar.

Table 39 describes selected items in the Gantt chart.

Table 39. Selected Items in the Gantt Chart
Item
Description

Service Region, Time Zone, and Date Shown

These are set in one of two ways (whichever occurred last):

  • From the application-level menu, choose Tools > User Preferences. On the link bar, click Dispatch Board. The user selects the appropriate options using the drop-down lists.
  • Navigate to the Activities screen > Schedule view. A user arrives at the Dispatch Board by clicking an Activity Status link in the Activities screen > Schedule view. In this case, the items default to the choices made for the just-visited activity. If no service region is assigned to the just-visited activity, then the service region remains as is on the Gantt chart.

NOTE:  To accurately display an employee's schedule, the Time Zone selected on the Administration - User screen > Employees view must match the Service Region Time Zone displayed on the Gantt chart Current Time Bar.

Score

The score calculated by Assignment Manager. For more information, see Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide.

Distance

Distance = number of miles from source address to destination address

That is, the distance a field engineer needs to travel to get to the selected activity. A distance of -1 indicates an incomplete or incorrect source or destination address.

Source address. If the field engineer is at an activity or is in transit, the source address is the ZIP Code of the field engineer's current or previous activity, respectively. Otherwise, the source address is the ZIP Code of the field engineer's start depot address.

 

Destination address. The ZIP Code of the contact service location for the activity, unless there is more than one contact service location. If there is more than one contact service location, the ZIP Code of the account service location.

Wireless

When checked, the field engineer receives wireless notification of activities when they are scheduled.

    
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