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Siebel Field Service Guide > Scheduling and Dispatch > Dispatch Board Screen >
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 do the reverse. Specific features of the Gantt chart and the Unscheduled Activities list can be used to improve activity scheduling. Unscheduled Activities List
By default, the Unscheduled Activities list displays all activities that have a status of Unscheduled. Table 40 shows selected items in the Unscheduled Activities list. The following additional lists can be viewed 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. For more information, see Setting User Preferences for the Dispatch Board. 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 40 describes selected items in the Gantt chart.
Table 40. Selected Items in the Gantt Chart
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Service Region, Time Zone, and Date Shown |
These are set in one of two ways (whichever occurred last):
- Choose Tools > User Preferences > Dispatch Board. A user makes the selections 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.
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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 afield 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. |
Selecting Data for the Gantt Chart
To select field service engineers and other items that appear on the Gantt chart, use the following options:
- Click the Select Service Region button. Select the service region from the Pick Service Region dialog box. The engineers that belong to the selected service region appear in the Gantt chart, replacing the previous list of engineers.
- In the Date fields, enter the date to display in the Gantt chart and click Go. The data for the selected date appears in the chart.
Notes on Using the Activities Gantt Chart
- An unlimited number of activities can overlap (be assigned to the same hours for a field service engineer), but only three appear in the chart. Adding more than one activity to a time slot reduces the height of the bar representing that activity and removes the description of the activity. To see the description of an activity bar and the properties of this activity, hold the cursor over the bar for a few seconds. A pop-up box appears.
- Activities may be assigned to available or unavailable hours in a field service engineer's schedule.
- Any activity in the Gantt chart can be reassigned or rescheduled.
- Place the mouse cursor on a scheduled activity to view activity details.
- Click an activity type to see more information about the activity. The Activities screen > Schedule view appears.
- Clicking on the name of an employee shows the Administration - User screen > Employees view, with information about the selected employee.
- Dragging an activity from the Gantt Chart back to the Unscheduled Activities list sets the activity status to Unscheduled and removes the value from the Employees field for this activity.
- The assignment of an activity and its duration may be changed from the Unscheduled Activities list or from the Activities view.
- The Dispatch Board can display instances of a repeated activity, with the following restrictions:
- Drag and drop the repeated activity from the Unscheduled Activities list to the Gantt Chart. This becomes the first scheduled instance of the activity.
- The repeated instances of this activity fill in automatically.
- The user cannot drag any instance of a repeated activity to another location on the Dispatch Board or back to the Unscheduled Activities list.
Using the Dispatch Board Queries with Legacy Data
If there is a large quantity of legacy data, older activities that were not scheduled using the Dispatch Board may also appear. It is advisable to limit the queries to show only records created after the Dispatch Board is installed, to make sure that extraneous data does not appear in the Activities view.
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