Bookshelf v7.5: Service Requests Views

Siebel Field Service Guide > Service Support > Service Screen >

Service Requests Views

The Service Requests views create and track service requests. Table 4 describes items in service request records.

Table 4. Selected Items in the Service Requests View
Item	Description
Agent Closed	The date and time that the service request was actually closed, displayed in the user's time zone.
Agent Committed	The date and time that the service request is expected to be closed, displayed in the user's time zone. Choosing an entitlement automatically generates a value for this field, based on the response time in the service request metrics, the service calendar, and the date the service was requested. Activities associated with this service request inherit the Agent Committed value. The Agent Committed field value in the service request appears in the Activity Due fields in the activities. See also Calculating the Agent Committed Time for a Service Request.
Agent Opened	The date and time that the service request was created, displayed in the user's time zone.
Assign	This command produces a dialog box with a list of field service employees, ranked based on administrative criteria. Select the employee best suited to be the owner of a selected service request.
Billable	A check box that indicates to the Invoice Engine that the activities included in this service request are billable to the account.
Customer Closed	The date and time that the service request was actually closed, displayed in the customer's time zone.
Customer Committed	The date and time that the service request is expected to be closed, displayed in the customer's time zone.
Customer Opened	The date and time that the service request was created, displayed in the customer's time zone.
Entitlement	An entitlement that provides special terms for billing the labor, expenses, and parts used in this service request. It also provides the calendar and hours in which the customer is entitled to service.
Group	Division responsible for communications with the customer regarding this service request. Divisions available in the picklist are those whose Organization Type is Service. For information about setting up divisions, see Security Guide for Siebel eBusiness Applications.
Verify	This button produces a dialog box with the names of the entitlements to which a customer has subscribed. If no entitlements appear in the dialog box, the selected service request is not entitled to receive service. Note that this button appears only in the Service Request form. To see the form, choose the More Info view tab under the Service Requests list. For more information, see Verify Button.

Numbering Service Requests and Other BusComp Object Types

Each new BusComp (for example, service request, order, or activity) is automatically assigned a unique record ID (for example, SR #, Order #, Activity #, and so on).

By default, all Siebel applications use the ROW_ID for these values. The row ID is an alphanumeric value composed of a segment number followed by a sequential value. For example, the row ID 12-63Q0XT is composed of the segment number 12 and the sequential value 63Q0XT. To see the row ID for a selected record, click the view menu button and choose About Record. The dialog box that appears contains a value for Row #.

To display alternative values for the record ID, use one of these methods:

Use the Query function Expr: RowIdToRowIdNum ([ID]) to convert the alphanumeric value to a numeric value.

Use a Sequence Object to automatically generate the value from an RDBMS database.

Write a script on Buscomp_PreWriteRecord. (Do not use Buscomp_PreGetFieldValue.)

Verify Button

The Verify button finds the entitlements for a specified account, contact, product, and asset. Once the user selects an entitlement from the Pick Entitlement dialog box, the application computes the Commit Time for the service request from the Service Calendar associated with this entitlement and from the Response Time specified in the entitlement metrics. Verify searches the database for entitlements that match the following data supplied for the service request:

Account

Contact

Product

Asset (from the Service Details view)

Only entitlements that match this data appear in the Pick Entitlement dialog box. If no entitlements appear, the selected service request, service agreement, account, contact, product, or asset is not entitled to receive service.

For information on configuring the Verify button, see System Preferences for Verifying Entitlements.

Calculating the Agent Committed Time for a Service Request

Agent Committed represents the contractual response period for service. The Verify button determines the value of Agent Committed and stores this value on a service request. The Agent Committed date and time are calculated based on the Date Opened, the Response Time metric, and the Service Calendar (schedule hours and exception hours). The result appears in the Agent Committed field. The Agent Committed time from the service request populates the Due field for activities.

The Agent Committed time allows the agent either to schedule events that are within acceptable time frames, defined by the service calendar, or to tell the customer that a requested event is outside of his or her service calendar and is therefore, billable.

Activities associated both directly (in the Activities View) and indirectly (in the Activity Plans View) with a service request inherit the Agent Committed date and time. The Agent Committed field value in the service request appears in the Activity Due fields in the activities.

Entitlement Rules for the Verify Button

System Preferences has three settings (see Table 5) which determine the action of the Verify button (see Service Requests Views).

Table 5. System Preferences for Verifying Entitlements
System Preference Name	Description
Entitlement: Verify Consumer	This setting sets the conditions for checking the authorization of the contact requesting service. If TRUE, the entitlements displayed must meet one of these criteria: The contact for the entitlement matches the service request contact. The entitlement account is set to All Contacts, and the entitlement account matches the service request account or the account for the contact for the service request. If no contact is selected, Siebel Field Service tries to verify the entitlement using the other entitlement settings.
Entitlement: Verify Dates	This setting checks that the service request falls within the time span of the entitlement. If TRUE, the entitlements displayed are only those that provide coverage on the date the service request was opened, a date between the start and end dates for the entitlement. If the entitlement has no start or end date, it does not appear.
Entitlement: Verify Product	This setting checks that the asset or product is entitled to service. If TRUE, the agreements displayed must meet one of these criteria: The entitlement asset matches an asset in the service request. The entitlement product matches a product in the service request (no asset or serial number specified). The entitlement is set to All Products and the product or asset for the entitlement matches the product or asset for the service request. If no product is selected, Siebel Field Service tries to verify the entitlement using the other Entitlement settings.

Assign Command

The Assign menu command activates the Assignment Manager in interactive mode, to provide a ranked list of field service engineers who are qualified and available to carry out a service request. The Assignment Manger can also run in dynamic and batch modes for any Assignment objects, including Accounts, Opportunities, and Campaigns.

NOTE: For using the Assignment Manger in Mobile mode, for mobile users, see Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide.

The Assignment Manager scores employees for assignment based on the factors specified in the following rules:

Check calendar. If this option is enabled, an employee must have calendar availability to perform the task. This is based on the assignment rule, Earliest Start, Latest Start, and the Duration (of an activity). If the individual is not available, this employee is removed from the list of candidates.

Assignment availability. The Assignment Manager passes a list of potential employees to the Appointment Booking System (ABS), which checks the employees' service schedules (including their geographic service region assignments) and the activities already on their calendars. The ABS then returns the list of available employees to the Assignment Manger. In an optional step, the Assignment Manager may request that the ABS create and schedule a new activity for the chosen employee. For more information on the ABS, see Scheduling and Dispatch.

Workload. For each workload rule specified, the number of activities assigned to that employee that meet all of the workload criteria is calculated. This number is then reduced by the maximum workload. This result is used to generate a score that is inversely proportional to the workload rule weight [Workload score = Score * (1 - (current workload/maximum workload)]. For example, if the workload rule is for Unassigned and Critical Service Requests, and if the maximum load for this rule is 10 and the weight for this workload is 20, then an employee load of 10 or greater receives a score of zero, and an employee with a load of 2 receives a score of 16.

Attribute match. For each condition specified, the criteria are evaluated. If a condition is true, the score equals the weight specified; otherwise the score is zero. If the condition is not met and the condition is required, the total score for that employee or position is zero.

Expertise weighting. For each condition that uses advanced weighting, the score for that condition is adjusted, based on the advanced weighting criteria. For the employee column that is matched, the expertise for that attribute type must also be analyzed. For example, if a condition is specified for a product (product expertise) match, with a weighting of 15, and expertise weightings of Expert, Intermediate, and Novice are 3, 2, and 1, respectively, the resulting scores for this factor would be 15, 10, and 5, respectively.

The total score for an employee is a sum of the scores for each individual factor, modified by the factors that override the total score and set the score to zero (check calendar, required attribute matches, and so on). The highest score represents the most likely individual for assignment.

The Assignment Engine is configured for the Service Request object to either assign automatically the highest scoring employee (using SmartScript) or to run in interactive mode. In interactive mode, the user selects the Assign command and the Assignment Manager returns a ranked list of employees in the Assign Employees dialog box. The user can then select an assignee. For information about setting up interactive assignment for Siebel objects, see Assignment Manager Configuration in the Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide.

NOTE: All assignment rules can be accessed by navigating to the Site Map and clicking Assignment Administration. For more information, see Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide.