Using the Dispatch Board

This chapter provides an overview of the dispatch board and discusses how to:

• Define dispatch board configuration settings.

• Work with the dispatch board.

Understanding the Dispatch Board

The dispatch board in PeopleSoft Integrated FieldService offers a graphical representation of the task assignments for technicians over a given period of time, together with a list of assigned and unassigned service orders in a business unit that have not been completed, closed, or canceled. With the dispatch board, dispatchers can manage the daily service order workload for field service business units, assign service orders to technicians, resolve scheduling conflicts, and escalate high-priority work.

A dispatcher can select a technician and enter the priority, status, and start dates and times for a service order activity without leaving the Dispatch Board page.

On the Dispatch Board page, you can view a bar graph that represents 24-hour work schedules and availability for a group of technicians, beginning with the date and start time that you enter on the page. On the bar graph header, click the Previous Day and Next Day links to scroll through days prior to or after the selected date.

You can also view all open service order activities for a selected business unit. Links provide access to each technician's daily work schedule calendars, where you can view details of scheduled tasks and events that are unrelated to service order assignments.

You can also change technician assignments, modify start and end times, and update current statuses directly from the Dispatch Board page through the grids. You can also access the Service Order page to complete these tasks as well as change technician assignments, modify start and end times, and update the current status for each assigned and unassigned service order activity in the business unit.

Before using the dispatch board, define a dispatch board configuration for each field service business unit on the Dispatch Board Setup page. Dispatch board configuration settings control the pattern that the system uses to represent the service order activity status, the number of technicians that are listed on each Dispatch Board page, the default start time of the dispatch board display, and the smallest increment of time that a task bar on the dispatch board represents.

See Also

Creating and Managing Service Orders

Defining Dispatch Board Configuration Settings

To define dispatch board configuration settings, use the Dispatch Board Setup (RF_DISP_SETUP) component.

This section discusses how to define dispatch board configuration settings.

Page Used to Define Dispatch Board Configuration Settings

Defining Dispatch Board Configuration Settings

Access the Dispatch Board Setup page (Set Up CRM, Product Related, FieldService, Dispatch Board, Dispatch Board Setup).

Display Options

Legend Setup

The system populates this grid with status values for available service order activities and the default color that is associated with each status.

Working with the Dispatch Board

Use the dispatch board to manage technician schedules and view and update service order statuses for a specified business unit.

This section discusses how to view and manage technician availability and service orders.

Page Used to View and Manage Technician Availability and Service Orders

Viewing and Managing Technician Availability and Service Orders

Access the Dispatch Board page (FieldService, Dispatch Board, Dispatch Board).

Dispatch Board

Enter criteria for the service orders that you want to work with and click the Update Dispatch Board button. The system populates the page with the service order activities that match your criteria. To minimize data-entry effort, the system saves the unit, region ID, provider group, and start time every time that you click the Update Dispatch Board button during the session, and it populates these fields (except for the Unit field) on the page the next time that you access the dispatch board. The system populates the Unit field on the Dispatch Board page with what you define for the user on the User Preferences - Overall Preferences page.

Note. If a service order task spans multiple days, or if it starts or finishes at a time that goes beyond the assigned technician's normal working hours, the system codes the entire task duration (from start time through end time) with the color that you select for the corresponding service order status as one block of time. The system treats any nonworking hours within this period of time as part of the task.

Dispatch Board Assignment Grid

At the top of the grid, the time zone of the database server appears. The left column of the grid lists, in alphabetical order, the name of each technician who is associated with the specified region or provider group. Use the navigation controls at the top of the Technician column to view additional pages. Click the Daily Calendar button next to the technician's name to access his or her work schedule.

The colored bars on each row of the assignment grid represent service order activity assignments and periods of unavailability that are recorded on the associated technician's work schedule calendar for the 24-hour period that appears. Place the cursor on a bar to see what the bar represents. The system uses a white bar to display a technician's available hours that you define on the worker's schedule page. A gray bar represents a technician's unavailable hours; these are nonworking hours, or when the technician is working on tasks that are unrelated to service orders (for example, appointments, meetings, and so on). Click the Daily Calendar button next to the technician's name to access the associated technician's daily work schedule on the Daily Calendar page, where you can view details about the technician's nonservice order task or event. You cannot click gray bars that represent a technician's nonworking hours.

Service order activity assignments for each technician appear in a color that indicates the status of the service order activity. The legend below the assignment grid explains each color. Click the Service Order ID link to access the Service Order page, where you can modify the status, priority, start and end dates and times, and technician assignment for service order activities.

You can also modify this information for the service order activity without leaving the Dispatch Board page by clicking the Expanded button for the service order activity.

Note. The Expanded button is used with the Assigned Service Orders and Unassigned Service Orders grid below the display graph.

Urgent service order activities appear as a broken red stripe taskbar on the Dispatch Board. Conflicts in a technician's schedule appear as an orange stripe. Click the orange stripe to access the Service Order page, where you can resolve the schedule conflict.

Schedule conflicts occur in the dispatch board when multiple service order activities from different service orders are assigned to a technician with overlapping times.

If two service order activities belong to different service orders and are both assigned to the 10:00 to 10:15 time segment, then this segment's link will take the user to the first of the two service orders.

Note. The system only displays conflicts if the actual start time of an activity overlaps with the end time of the previous activity.

Unassigned Service Orders and Assigned Service Orders

These grids list the open service orders that match the search criteria that you enter at the top of the page. To populate the Unassigned Service Orders tab, the system bases its search on the business unit and provider group or region. To populate the Assigned Service Orders page, the system finds matches based on the business unit, date (or planned dates), and provider group or region. Service order activities with a Completed, Closed, or Canceled status do not appear.

On both tabs, you can click the Service Order ID link or the Expanded button to access the service order information, where you can modify the status, priority, start and end dates and times, and technician assignments for the service order activities.

See Also

Setting Up and Maintaining Provider Groups and Group Members

Using Calendars

Creating and Managing Service Orders