This chapter describes in detail and in the recommended order, the implementation tasks for Oracle E-Business Suite applications relevant to Oracle Field Service.
This chapter covers the following topics:
You can implement Oracle Field Service in many different ways, the following checklist describes the recommended order to implement the relevant applications in the Oracle E-Business Suite as they relate to Oracle Field Service. These setups are standard for the application unless Field Service-related steps are noted in the details.
Complete the following implementation steps in sequential order:
To fully implement Oracle Field Service, and set up the system across all applications, you need the System Administrator responsibility. Please see Oracle Applications System Administrator's Guide for more information.
The Oracle Field Service application is delivered with these seeded responsibilities:
| Responsibility | Description |
|---|---|
| Field Service Administrator | Can perform all administrative tasks within CRM Service, such as Setup. |
| Field Service Manager | Access to all applications and windows within CRM Service. Limited setup capability, such as creating task types. |
| Field Service Dispatcher | Access to all applications within CRM Service. |
| Field Service Representative | Access to a limited set of windows from the applications within Oracle Field Service. |
| Preventive Maintenance | Access to Preventive Maintenance setups. |
| Preventive Maintenance Reports | Provides access to Preventive Maintenance-related concurrent programs, which are used during the execution phase of the program. |
| Field Service Technician Portal | Provides access to the Field Service web-based module. |
You will need to create an Oracle Applications user with the appropriate responsibilities for performing implementation procedures. The user name you assign to the user can be used to log on to the Oracle Field Service suite of products.
You must use the System Administrator responsibility to create the user. The user you create must be specified as a Person by selecting the appropriate name in the Person field in the User window. The name of the person will be available in the list of values only if the person has already been defined as an employee.
Assign all of the following responsibilities to the user you are creating:
Spares Management
Field Service Manager
Order Management Super User
System Administrator
Inventory
Optionally, if you are using the Preventive Maintenance module, you must assign the following two responsibilities to the user:
Preventive Maintenance
Preventive Maintenance Reports
Use the Users window to define the Oracle Field Service user. This user will need to be uniquely identified by an application user name.
To define additional responsibilities, please see Oracle Applications System Administrator's Guide.
Set up printers (optional). For more information, see Setting Up Your Printers, Oracle Applications System Administrator's Guide.
The setup of key flexfields is required.
Be sure to coordinate with other applications such as Oracle Human Resource Management or Oracle General Ledger, those products' flexfield setup before defining the key flexfields here, as it is not recommended to change flexfields frequently. For more information, see Oracle Applications Flexfields Guide.
For each key flexfield, you perform the following tasks, some of which are optional for some flexfields:
Define the flexfield structure.
Define value sets.
Define flexfield segments.
Define flexfield segment values.
Define security rules.
Assign security rules.
Define roll–up groups.
Define cross–validation rules.
Set up the Accounting flexfield.
You may not need to perform this step if you have already installed and set up Oracle General Ledger or performed a common application setup. For more information, see Oracle General Ledger User's Guide.
Set up the following Human Resources key flexfields.
You may not need to set up these key flexfields if you have already installed and set up Oracle Human Resource Management Systems or performed a common applications setup:
Grade flexfield
Job flexfield
Position flexfield
People Group flexfield
For more information, see Oracle Human Resources User's Guide.
The setup of calendars, currencies, and a Set of Books is required.
If you have defined your calendars, currencies, and set of books while setting up a different Oracle Applications product, proceed with the next step. However, if you are performing a multi-organization implementation, see the note below.
Note: If you are performing a multi-organization implementation, you may optionally create more than one calendar, currency, or set of books. For more information, see Multiple Organizations in Oracle Applications.
To set up calendars, currencies, and a set of books perform these steps:
Carefully consider the type of calendar that you need for the organization, it can be difficult to change the calendar (for example, from a fiscal year to a calendar year) after you have used it to enter accounting data.
You must set up the following calenders:
Define period types. For more information, see Defining Period Types, Oracle General Ledger User's Guide.
Define accounting calendar. For more information, see Defining Calendars, Oracle General Ledger User's Guide.
Define transaction calendar. For more information, see Defining Transaction Calendars, Oracle General Ledger User's Guide. (Optional)
Define workday calendar. For more information, see Overview of Workday Calendar, Oracle Bills of Material User's Guide. (Optional)
Define exception templates. For more information, see Creating a Workday Exception Template, Oracle Bills of Material User's Guide.(Optional)
Use the Currencies window to define non-ISO (International Standards Organization) currencies and to enable or disable currencies. Oracle has predefined all currencies specified in ISO standard 4217. To use a currency other then U.S. dollars (USD), you must enable that currency. USD is the only currency that is enabled by default.
Perform these setups:
Define currencies.
Define conversion rate types.
For more information, see Defining Currencies and Defining Conversion Rate types in the Oracle General Ledger User's Guide.
A set of books determines the functional currency, account structure, and accounting calendar for each company or group of companies. If you need to report on the account balances in multiple currencies, you should set up one set of books for each reporting currency.
Your primary set of books should use your functional currency. Each reporting set of books should use one of your reporting currencies.
Proceed with these setups as you set up a Set of Books:
Assign your set of books to a responsibility.
Set up accounting code combinations.
For more information, see the Oracle General Ledger User's Guide.
It is necessary to open and close accounting periods. For more information, see Opening and Closing Accounting Periods, Oracle General Ledger User's Guide.
In Oracle Field Service, territories are used for three purposes:
You create territories for scheduling purposes based on qualifiers. These territories are used by the Assignment Manager and Oracle Scheduler (when installed) to assign a task to a service representative.
Note: To ensure that the Scheduler can schedule to the technicians from the appropriate territories, you can optionally enable the Time of the Day and Day of the Week territory qualifiers in Oracle Territory Manager. Additionally, you must define territory types with these qualifiers as the attributes prior to creating territories. See: Enabling Matching Attributes in Oracle Territory Manager Implementation Guide and Creating Territory Types in Oracle Territory Manager User Guide.
You create territories with resources (field service representatives) assigned to them. You will use these territories to assign them to one or more planner groups (created in Resource Manager). Once they are assigned to the planner groups this is the default group of field service representatives that is shown to a planner in the Oracle Field Service Dispatch Center.
Set up Territory Manager as described in the Oracle Territory Manager Implementation Guide. Create Territory Types as described in Oracle Territory Manager User Guide.
The creation of territories is also addressed in more detail in Setup Resource Relations as part of Confirming Setup of Resources
Field Service is provided to customers by technicians who are assigned to these tasks by dispatchers and managed by administrators. These resources of dispatchers, administrators, and technicians can be employees or suppliers or belong to third party organizations that provide the service.
Customer Model 11i is an architecture designed to support complex trading communities. The goal of the Customer Model is to provide the foundation for Oracle ERP, CRM, and E-Business applications. It strives to model all relationships within a given trading community. For example the trading community of an appliance manufacturer might include suppliers, distributors, re-sellers, retailers, and service providers.
To maintain consistency across all applications Oracle Field Service shares the new customer master information with other modules. Customers can be defined in Order Management, Oracle Receivables, and Customer Support.
Multiple addresses can be defined for one or more businesses, for example Ship-To address, Bill-To address, and installation address. To be able to assign tasks to field service representatives, the Installed-At address needs to be defined.
In both applications make sure the Installed At address is defined.
For setup details please refer to Oracle Customer Care Concepts and Procedures or Oracle Order Management User's Guide.
The setup of employees is required. You setup employees in Oracle Human Resources.
Please refer to the appropriate section in Oracle Human Resource Management Systems to enter and maintain employees.
The Setup of Employees is also addressed in more detail in Confirming Setup of Resources of the Field Service set up.
Make sure you implement Resource Manager as described in the Resource Manager section in the Oracle Trading Community Architecture Technical Implementation Guide.
The Oracle Field Service specific setup of Resource Manager involves the following:
Set up service technicians. In the Resource Manager assign the role of Field Service Representative or Field Service Third Party Technician to a resource to make the resource visible in the Dispatch Center.
A field service technician does not have to be defined as an employee and does not have to be an Oracle Applications User. A third party technician can be defined as a supplier contact or an employee who is not on the payroll.
Set up dispatchers. A dispatcher does not need a specific role assigned. You can assign the role of "Field Service Dispatcher" in the Resource Manager.
A dispatcher needs to be defined as an employee and assigned an Oracle Applications User. Define the dispatcher as an employee, create an application user ID for the dispatcher, and then import the employee into the Resource Manager to define it as a resource.
Create dispatcher groups by creating resource groups with only dispatchers assigned to it. The dispatcher groups are used to group service technicians assigned to the same territory.
Set up administrators. An administrator needs to be defined as an employee and assigned an Oracle Applications User ID. Define the administrator as an employee, create an application user ID for the dispatcher, and then import the employee into the Resource Manager to define it as a resource.
Note: You can set up third party administrators in the same way by assigning the role of Field Service Third Party Administrator to a not-on-the-payroll employee in the CRM Resource Manager.
Create administrator groups by creating a resource group with only an administrator assigned to it. You can then assign territories to these groups which in turn enables service technicians in these territories to be grouped under an administrator.
Optionally, if you are using Preventive Maintenance, you must create a resource group of type Preventive Maintenance. In this case, set the following values for this resource group:
Access Type set to Service Request
From the Members tab, choose Employee in the Category field and associate each employee that ought to be included in the group by choosing the employee identifier in the Number field.
From the Usage tab, choose Support in the Usage field.
If you are using Third Party Service Providers for greater and faster field service coverage, create a resource group of type Third Party. You can then create multiple resource groups of this type each group consisting of individual resources such as third party service provider or third party organization, third party administrator, and third party technician. For more information, see Setting up Third Party Field Service Resources.
The set up of Resources is also addressed in more detail in Setting Up Field Service Technicians and Dispatchers .
The setup of Calendar is required to define the availability and non-availability of resources (field service representatives). This information is used when scheduling a task for a resource. Especially the setup of shifts is very important because it is used to generate departure and arrival tasks for each service representative. These departure and arrival tasks show up in the Oracle Field Service Dispatch Center and are used for scheduling purposes. Make sure to perform the following setup steps:
Create a high level definition for a calendar for a particular group of resources.
Navigate to the Calendar window.
For details, see Oracle Common Application Calendar Implementation Guide.
Define the exceptions that could occur for a calendar, such as Christmas holidays.
Navigate to the Exceptions window.
For details, see Oracle Common Application Calendar Implementation Guide.
Define for each calendar for which resources it applies.
For information on defining an accounting calendar, see Defining a Calendar and Defining a Calendar.
Navigate to Assign Resources window.
For details, see Oracle Common Application Calendar Implementation Guide and Assigning the Resource to a Calendar.
Define the regular and stand by availability types (including working hours) for your resources.
Navigate to Define Shifts window.
For details, see the Oracle Common Application Calendar Implementation Guide.
Define what shifts and exceptions you want to associate with a calendar.
Navigate to Assign Shifts/Exceptions window.
For details, see Oracle Common Application Calendar Implementation Guide.
The implementation of Inventory is required for several purposes within the Field Service suite of products. These include:
To define the units of measurement (UOM) required by Oracle Field Service.
To report on items used, taken down on the Field Service Debrief. You update Inventory from the Field Service Debrief.
Field Service Debrief contains three tabbed pages: Material, Labor and Expense. The Item field in the Field Service Debrief for each tab displays the following items:
Material tab: All items defined in the Service tabbed page of Master Items having a billing type associated with a billing category of Material are displayed in the list of values for items in the Material tabbed page.
Labor tab: All items defined in the Service tabbed page of Master Items having the billing type with a billing category of Labor are displayed in the list of values for items in the Labor tabbed page.
Expenses tab: All items defined in the Service tabbed page of Master Items having the billing type with a billing category set to Expense are displayed in the list of values for items in the Expenses tabbed page.
Spares Management functionality requires Inventory setups to enable the following core functionality:
Inventory organizations are used to define warehouses and groups of field technicians.
Spares Management uses inventory organizations as a structure for subinventories that contain spare parts. Inventory organizations represent warehouses and groups of field engineers.
Subinventories are used to define parts inventory locations for defective and usable parts.
The Inventory Item Master is used to define spare parts. The additional features of serial number, lot, locator and revision control can optionally be implemented in Spares Management.
Items, or spare parts, are assigned to subinventory locations.
Inventory balance tracking is viewable in Spares Management.
Inventory accounting is used when a short receiving line is closed for parts.
The Inventory Min/Max Planning concurrent program is used to automatically replenish spares parts inventories.
Preventive Maintenance module uses items in Inventory to enable PM programs and the creation of coverage templates.
Refer to the following sections of the Oracle Inventory User's Guide for detailed instructions on how to set up and administer inventory organizations:
Overview of Inventory Structure
Creating an Organization
Defining Organization Parameters
In the Organization Classification section of the Define Organizations window, each Spares Management organization must include Inventory Organization as a classification. Otherwise the setup is standard.
The following Field Service-specific setup steps are necessary.
You should set up an organization for each warehouse that stores parts. You should also set up organizations for groups of field engineers, based on your organizational structure. The Spares Management logistics process can move parts within a single inventory organization and across multiple inventory organizations.
Spares Management provides for the management of both usable and defective inventories. If costing for the defective inventory is different than costing for the same items in usable inventory, separate organizations should be created for the defective subinventories.
Set up Inventory as described in Overview of Setting Up in Oracle Inventory User's Guide. Ensure that all the following required steps have been reviewed and completed as necessary:
Create items.
Make sure that on Master Item level the Serviceable Product flag is checked for the organization.
You need to define the unit of measure (UOM) for Hour and Minute. Two profile options in Field Service make use of these UOMs. It is used to define a planned start and end time when creating a task.
Note: The Unit of Measure for Hours is pre-defined for use on the Oracle Field Service Report.
Make sure the unit of measure for Hour and Minute is defined. For setup details please refer to Oracle Inventory User's Guide for more information.
Make sure the profile option MO: Operating Unit is set to the operating unit that represents your enterprise.
Navigate to the System Profile Values window.
To narrow your search, enter MO% at the Profile field.
Click Find.
Check if the following profile option is set to the appropriate operating unit:
MO: Operating Unit
Subinventories are unique physical or logical separations of material inventory. Spares Management uses subinventories for tracking usable and defective spare parts.
Standard setup is required in Oracle Inventory for subinventories. The setup of a subinventory in Oracle Inventory is a partial setup. The balance of the setup occurs in Spares Management where additional parameters for the subinventory are defined in either loops or hierarchies.
The minimum setup for subinventories to be used in Spares Management follows. For detailed information regarding subinventories, please refer to the Oracle Inventory User's Guide.
Navigate to the Subinventories window.
Enter a name for the subinventory.
Enter a description for the subinventory.
Check the following check boxes so the subinventory can be used by Spares Management:
Qty Tracked
Asset Subinventory
Allow Reservation
Save your work.
A special subinventory is required to track intransit between subinventories for each organization. This subinventory can be named, for example, INTRANSUB with a description of Intransit subinventory.
The following parameters should be checked:
Qty Tracked
Asset subinventory
The Locator Control field must be set to NONE. The Intransit subinventory does not use locators.
The Lead Times, Sourcing, and Items/subinventories fields should be left blank. These fields are either not used or are populated in the Authorized Stock List from the Spares Management windows.
Spares Management provides for the management of both usable and defective inventories. Subinventories for defective items should be set up along with the subinventories for usable items. The distinction between usable and defective subinventories will be made in the Spares Management setup window.
An account alias is used to identify the financial account to be used for over- and under-receiving in Spares Management. To use it, you must set up an account alias in the relevant organization. This also enables the Close Line button on the Receive Shipments window.
You must set up the specific alias outlined in the following steps.
Navigate to the Account Aliases window.
After choosing the Organization, in the Account Aliases window, enter the following name of the alias in the Alias field: CSP_RECEIPT.
Enter the following description:
Account for Spares Management over and under receipt.
Select the account to be used.
Enter the date on which this alias account is to be effective.
Save your work.
Standard setup in Oracle Inventory is required for items. Additionally, Field Service Debrief, Spares Management, and Preventive Maintenance all use items and require some specific settings to enable items to be properly displayed in the application.
For Debrief, you can set up items that are both trackable (those items associated with the billing category of Material) and items that are non-trackable, which includes those items that are of a billing category of Labor or Expense.
In addition to the standard item setup, the specific requirements for both trackable and non-trackable items to be used by Field Service Debrief, Spares Management, and Preventive Maintenance are as follows:
If the item is to be trackable, select the Serviceable Product check box. Additionally, the Install Base Tracking checkbox is automatically selected.
For trackable items, select a Billing Type that is associated to the Material Category.
For items that are set up as Labor, select the Billing Type of "Labor."
For Spares Management, in the Recovered Part Disposition field you can optionally choose a value. The Recovered Part Disposition field defines items as spares parts that will be active in Spares Management.
The Recovered Part Disposition field has three choices:
No Return. Indicates to the service representative that return of the recovered part is not required.
Fast return. An RMA is created and the recovered part is returned to Depot Repair.
Slow Return. The part is transacted into the service representative's designated defective subinventory.
The Inventory Item check box must be selected for items of type Material. This requirement applies to all items to be used by Spares Management as well.
For items of billing category of Material, select the Stockable check box. This automatically enables the Reservable and Transactable attributes.
For items with a billing category of Material, select the Customer Ordered check box. This automatically enables the Customer Orders Enabled checkbox
The following two attributes must be set to allow the item to be shipped on an internal order in Order Management:
Internal Ordered
Internal Orders enabled
For detailed information relating to setting up Items refer to the Oracle Inventory User's Guide.
Items with the associated billing category of Material must be associated with a price list. For details, see Setup of Price Lists.
Once you have set up an item in a master organization, you can assign it to all organizations by navigating to Tools > Organization Assignment and clicking Select All.
To set an on-hand quantity value for items of billing category Material for specific subinventories, you must set these up in Oracle Inventory.
Items and subinventories must be set up.
Navigate to the Miscellaneous Transaction window.
In the Transaction Type field, select Miscellaneous Receipt from the list of values.
Click the Transaction Lines button.
The Miscellaneous Receipt window appears.
Choose the Item you want to set an on-hand quantity for from the list of values.
Choose the Subinventory you want to associate to this Miscellaneous Receipt line from the list of values.
Enter a numeric value in the Quantity field.
This represents the on-hand quantity value for this item and subinventory.
If the Account field is enabled, select an Account from the list of values.
Save your work.
You must repeat the above steps for each subinventory that you want to set an on-hand quantity for a specific item.
You can verify these values by navigating to Inventory > On-Hand Availability > On-Hand Quantities and selecting the Item/Subinventory combination that you setup during this process. The Quantities will be displayed.
The setup of Counters is required to be able to report counter readings when performing a field service visit. You can access counters through the Field Service Debrief. Only items that are set up as trackable (the Stockable and Trackable check boxes are selected in the Inventory tab of the Master Item window) and have a billing type of Material or Component can be associated with a counter.
You must set up Counter Groups and individual counters that you associate with items.
Please refer to the appropriate section from Oracle Service Implementation Guide for Counters setup.
No additional Field Service specific setup steps are necessary.
Use this procedure to define planners. In Spares Management, inventory planners are required to be associated with parts loops.
The employee to be defined as a planner must have already been defined in Oracle Human Resources or Oracle Purchasing. Please refer to the Oracle Inventory User's Guide for additional information about planners.
Navigate to the Planners window.
In the Planners window, enter the name of the planner in the Name field.
Enter the user role in the Description field.
Select the employee name from the Employee list of values.
Save your work.
The Spares Management module provides functionality to specify estimated delivery times for the shipment methods and freight carriers that are used to deliver spare parts. Shipment methods must be defined in Oracle Inventory before delivery times can be set up in Spares Management.
An overview of the steps for defining shipment methods follows. For additional information about defining shipment methods, refer to the Defining Shipping Methods section in the Oracle Inventory User's Guide.
Navigate to the Shipping Methods window.
From the Ship Method Lookups window, enter a unique alphanumeric code describing the shipping method.
Enter the Meaning of the shipping method code.
Enter a Description of the shipping method.
Optionally, enter from and to effective dates.
Indicate whether the shipping method is enabled.
Save your work.
Spares Management provides functionality to specify estimated delivery times for the shipment methods and freight carriers that are used to deliver spare parts. Freight carries must be defined in Oracle Inventory before delivery times can be set up in Spares Management.
For additional information about defining freight carriers, refer to the Defining Freight Carriers section in the Oracle Inventory User's Guide.
Implement Order Management as described in the Overview of Setting Up section of the Oracle Order Management User's Guide.
Field Service Report requires specifically that you setup Price Lists, Units of Measure (UOM), and two Inventory Item Attributes in Order Management. Price Lists contain the list price for an item. Items could be material, but also labor and expenses like units of driving distance. Once material, expense and labor transactions for a task have been taken down on the Field Service Debrief, this information is updated to Charges. In Charges the list price for the item is received from Order Management and is used to generate an invoice for a customer.
Oracle Field Service requires a unit of measure (UOM) for measuring the item, for example, Each or Dozen. The UOM is displayed on the Field Service Debrief in accordance with the item that is selected. After setup of Unit of Measurement for an item, it is displayed automatically in the Field Service Debrief when the item is selected.
The Spares Management module uses Order Managment to process internal orders that move across inventory organizations, and pick, pack and shipping processes for internal orders. The two attributes are as follows:
Internal Ordered Item - Allows an item to be ordered on an internal requisition.
Internal Orders Enabled - Allows an item to be ordered internally.
Refer to the Item Attributes section of the Oracle Order Management User's Guide for additional information about setting these attributes.
Perform these steps to create price lists listing prices for items.
Navigate to the Price List Setup page.
From the Price List setup page, in the Name field, enter a name for the Price list.
At Description enter a description of the Price List.
The functional currency for your business unit defaults into the Currency field.
At Round To enter the rounding factor to be applied in the Price list.
A positive number indicates the number of digits to the right of the decimal point.
A negative number indicates the number of digits to the left of the decimal point.
The default setting is -2.
At Effective Dates enter the start and end date for the Price List to be effective.
Select Payment Terms from the list of values.
Examples of options include Collect, Prepaid, Third Party Billing, etc.
Select the default Freight Terms and Freight Carriers from the list of values.
Click on the List Lines tab.
In the Product Context field, select Item.
Select Item Number in the Product Attribute field from the list of values.
In the Product Value field, select the item number of the item you want to associate with the price list from the list of values.
Keep the default values for UOM.
Choose an Application Method for the price list for this item.
Acceptable values are as follows:
Unit Price or Percent Price for service items.
For inventory items or item categories only, Unit Price is used.
In the Value field, enter the list price for the item.
For service items enter a value at Dynamic Formula and leave Static Formula open.
At Start Date and End Date enter the effective date for this item line.
The dates entered should be within the Effective Dates entered for the Price List.
At Line Type select Price List Line from the list of values.
At Modifier Level select Line from the list of values.
Enter a value at Precedence.
This is the product precedence. When the pricing engine is trying to locate a price, it uses Precedence to resolve conflicts when it selects more then one list line from a Price List.
Check Primary UOM if this is the primary pricing UOM for this list line item on the price list.
Repeat steps 8-20 for each item you want to associate with this price list.
Save the Price List.
Click the Pricing Attributes button to define pricing attributes.
Enter a pricing context in the Product Context column and an attribute in the Product Attribute column.
At Operator select = or BETWEEN.
At Value:
When Operator is BETWEEN, enter To.
Otherwise enter From.
Save Pricing Attributes.
Please refer to the Oracle Order Management User's Guide for additional details in this procedure.
Set up Work in Process (WIP) as described in Overview of Setting Up, Oracle Work in Process User's Guide. Make sure that all of the steps described have been reviewed and completed as necessary.
WIP functionality is used along with BOM in Spares Management to create and manage repair orders. The repair order is a key piece of the total Loop Quantity. Without WIP or equivalent functionality, the Spares Management planning process is not complete.
This is an optional step for Spares Management functionality, which is required only if you have Oracle Bills of Material installed.
Set up Oracle Bills of Material (BOM) as described in Overview of Setting Up, Oracle Bills of Material User's Guide. Make sure that all of the steps described have been reviewed and completed as necessary.
This step is required only if you have Oracle Work in Process installed.
The Spares Management module is dependent on Oracle Purchasing for the following functionality:
Internal requisitions for processing internal orders for parts that move across inventory organizations.
Receiving functionality for parts on internal orders.
Set up Oracle Purchasing as described in Overview of Setting Up, Oracle Purchasing User's Guide.
Purchasing functionality in Spares Management is used to create and manage new-buy orders. The repair order is a key piece of the total Loop Quantity. Without Purchasing or equivalent functionality, the Spares Management planning process would not be complete.
Business Process setup is required to select the service activity codes in Field Service Debrief and to get the order type information for creating orders or returns against debrief lines.
Business processes are also used in the Preventive Maintenance module for service request generation.
A business process groups the service activity codes to restrict the service activity code availability. For example, Oracle has provided an out-of-box Field Service business group that enables the relevant service activity codes. You can update this group because it is not a seeded value.
Navigate to the Service Business Process window.
Enabling the Service Request flag enables the user to pick this business process when charges are invoked from Service Request.
Enabling the Depot Repair flag enables the user to pick this business process when charges are invoked from Depot Repair.
Enabling the Field Services flag shows service activity codes for all business processes that have this flag enabled in Field Service Debrief.
Please refer to the appropriate section from Oracle Service Implementation Guide for detailed Charges setup.
Save your work.
Field Service begins when customers who have purchased inventory items from an organization, require that the organization repair or replace the item bought as part of the warranty service.
The Install Base is a repository that contains vital information and details of a service provider's customers, products, and services. The service provider updates all data contained in the Install Base.
Install Base is a component of Oracle Service, it consolidates information for customer products in the Install Base. Each customer product includes the following:
Customer name and number
Bill-to location code, address, and contact
Ship-to location code, address, and contact
Installation location, address, and technical and administrative contact
Service Provider
Any other user-defined contacts
Use the Install Base to track your serviceable and customer products.
Make sure you set up Install Base as described in Oracle Service Implementation Guide:
Confirm the ERP setup
Confirm Customer Product Status setup
Confirm Customer Product Types (optional)
Confirm System Types setup
Confirm Transaction Billing Types setup
Confirm Split Product Reasons setup
Confirm Business Processes setup
Confirm Customer Product Configuration Types setup
Confirm profile options setup:
Many service options
Options to access HTML windows
Options for the Install Base Interface concurrent program
Confirm System Administration menu setup.
Confirm inventory item setup.
Test the Install Base Interface concurrent program.
Once the Install base has been set up you maintain it using the Field Service Debrief to report on install base transactions and update Install Base from it.
Make sure the following is setup correctly:
Confirm Setup of Business Processes
Field Service Debrief displays the transaction types for only those business processes that have the Field Service flag turned on. Oracle provides the following business processes out-of-the-box. (These are not seeded values and therefore the customer can update them.)
Field Service
Depot Repair
Confirm Setup of Transaction Billing Types
As mentioned above, transaction billing types with all business processes with the Field Service flag turned on are displayed in the list of values for transaction types on the Field Service Debrief page. This means you can have the same transaction types repeated in the list of values because they can belong to multiple business processes.
Confirm Setup of Billing Types
Currently three Billing Types are supported by Field Service Report: M (Material), L (Labor) and E (Expense). These are seeded.
Complete the following Oracle Field Service specific setup steps:
Oracle Service Contracts is not required. You can create a service request without any service coverage.
When you are using Service Contracts a service contract is associated with a service request. The service contract is associated with the:
Party
Account
System
Customer Product
Inventory Item
Select Service Contracts from the Product Coverage tabbed page on the service request window. You can drill down to contract details on the Product Coverage tabbed page.
Please refer to the Oracle Service Contracts Implementation Guide for Service Contracts setup.
No additional Field Service specific setup steps are necessary.
The set up of Contracts Core is optional, but when you have installed it, please refer to the Oracle Contracts Implementation and Administration Guide for Contracts setup.
No additional Field Service specific setup steps are necessary.
The set up of Assignment Manager is required because it is used to assign a service representative to a task. It can be used from the service request window and the Oracle Field Service Dispatch Center.
Please refer to the appropriate section from Oracle Common Application Calendar Implementation Guide for Assignment Manager setup.
Please ensure the following profile options are set before using Oracle Field Service. The profile options are set at the application level and are unique to Assignment Manager.
Navigate to the Personal Profile Values window.
Click the Find icon and enter AC% in the Find field.
At Profile Name enter AC%.
Click Find.
You can set these options in any sequence.
| Step | Profile Option | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Activate Auto Selection of Resources | To activate auto selection of resources. Default set to: Y (yes). |
| 2 | Activate Workflow Name | To activate the workflow plug-in. Default set to: None. |
| 3 | Activate Install Base Preferred Resource | To retrieve preferred resource information from the install base application. Default set to: Y (yes). |
| 4 | Activate Contracts Preferred Resources | To retrieve preferred resource information from the contracts application. Default set to: Y (yes). |
| 5 | Activate Install Base Preferred Engineers | To retrieve preferred engineer information from the install base application. Default set to: Y (yes). |
Save your work.
On the Service Request window all information for a field service visit is captured. Tasks are assigned to this service request and these tasks are assigned to field service technicians.
Make sure you set up the following:
Service Request Statuses
Request Severities
Request Types
Service Request Urgencies
Problem Codes
Resolution Codes
Message Action Requests
Call Types
Call Follow-up Types
Note: If you are using the Preventive Maintenance module, you must create a Request Type of "Preventive Maintenance" and relate it to a Business Process of type "Field Service."
For setup details please refer to the Oracle Support Implementation Guide. Also make sure the profile options for Service Request are set.
No additional Field Service specific setup steps are necessary.
Knowledge Management is used from the Service Request window.
Please refer to the appropriate section from Oracle Service Implementation Guide for Knowledge Management setup.
No additional Field Service specific setup steps are necessary.
The setup of tasks is required to be able to perform a field service visit. You create tasks for service requests that have been logged. In the Oracle Field Service Dispatch Center and Field Service Technician and Administrator Portals you schedule tasks.
Make sure you implement Task Manager as described in Implementing Task Manager as part of the Oracle Common Application Calendar Implementation Guide.
Perform the following Field Service specific setup steps:
Set up task statuses to define the task flow. Oracle Field Service comes with a pre-defined task status flow.
For the Preventive Maintenance module, you must define a Task Status of Confirm.
Navigate to the Task and Escalation Status window.
At the Status field enter the name of the Task Status you want to define.
At Description enter a brief description of the Task Status you are defining.
At From and To enter the date for the Task Status to be effective.
Check the task status flags you want to assign to the Task Status.
For more information on the task status flags, see the Defining Task Statuses and Status Transition Rules section of the Oracle Common Application Calendar Implementation Guide.
Note: Make sure to select the Schedulable check box to be able to schedule a task in Oracle Field Service.
Optionally, enter validation start and end dates for the status for which you want to set cross-task validations and check the Enforce Validation check box. For more information, see Cross-task Validation for Task Assignment Status Updates in the Oracle Field Service User Guide.
Optionally, define the transition values to determine user privileges for each status type by clicking Define Transition.
When the Status Transition window opens, from within the Rule tab, query the Applications field for Field Service.
In the Current State field, select the task status that you want to set a transition for. (For example, Open).
In the Next State field, select the task status that you want the Current State that you selected to transition to. (For example, Closed).
Repeat this process for each status you want to set a transition status for, such as Cancelled, Reject, Complete, Assigned, and so on.
Save the Task Status.
Set up task types to make a task qualify as a Field Service task so it can be scheduled.
Navigate to the Task Types window.
In the Task Types window, at the Type field enter the name of the Status Type you want to define.
At Rule select Dispatch from the list of values.
Note: For a task to qualify as a field service specific task the Rule has to be set to Dispatch.
At From and To enter the date for the Task Type to be effective.
Select an UOM (Unit of Measurement) to go with the Task Type.
Check the task type flags you want to assign to the Task Type.
For more information on the task types flags, see the Defining Task Types section of the Oracle Common Application Calendar Implementation Guide.
Save the Task Type.
Navigate to the Task Priority window.
In the Task Priority window, enter the name of the Status Priority you want to define in the Priority field.
At Importance enter a numerical value between 1 and 4.
In this field, 1 is highest priority and 4 is the lowest.
At Description enter a brief description of the Task Priority you are defining.
At From and To enter the date for the Task Priority to be effective.
Save the Task Priority.
Several Task Manager profile options need to be set before creating a task. It is not possible to save a task when the profile options aren't set.
Navigate to the Personal Profile Values window.
Open the Find Personal Profile Values window.
At Profile Name enter Task Manager%.
Click Find.
Enter User values for the following seven profile options returned from a list of 11:
Task Manager: Default Priority
Task Manager: Default Task Status
Task Manager: Default Task Type
Task Manager: Default task owner
Task Manager: Delete Any Task Privilege
Task Manager: Owner type for a task
Task Manager: View All Tasks
Please refer to the Oracle Common Application Calendar Implementation Guide for more information on the profile options.
An escalation management system enables an organization to identify, track, monitor, and manage situations that require increased awareness and swift action. Escalation Management is offered as an integrated part of the Field Service Dispatch Center.
Escalation Management features include:
Escalation situation tracking information
Service Request, Task, and Defect linking capability
Ownership assignment based on escalation territory
Resolution plan definition with associated tasks and notes
Automatic notification of escalation progress to identified contacts
De-escalation and closure
Please refer to the appropriate section from Oracle Common Application Calendar Implementation Guide for Escalation Manager setup.
No additional Field Service specific setup steps are necessary.
Notes provide a text area where you can enter information about a customer, product, service, or anything related to the service report that may be helpful for other service technicians or customers. After you create a note, it can be attached to a task, sent to the customer, or submitted to the Knowledge Base for reuse. You can access Notes from Field Service Debrief.
Please refer to the appropriate section from Oracle Common Application Calendar Implementation Guide for Notes setup and to define source types.
No additional Field Service specific setup steps are necessary.
Oracle Interaction History tracks all customer-agent interactions and serves as a repository for the interaction data. You can view the interaction data as well as the Oracle CRM application data associated to the interaction. You can access interactions from Field Service Debrief.
Please refer to the appropriate section from Oracle Customer Interaction History Implementation Guide for Interaction History setup.
No additional Field Service specific setup steps are necessary.
Setup for transaction billing types is required in Field Service to update the Install Base and Charges. It is used to determine:
How Service and Order Management transactions affect the Install Base.
What kinds of charges transactions taken down on the Field Service Debrief can be created.
The Transactions Billing Type window is used to define transaction types and associate billing types (labor, material, and expenses) to them.
The Oracle Field Service application comes with the following predefined transaction billing types. They are seeded values provided out of the box, and they cannot be deleted.
Autocreate System
Expense Transaction
Labor Transaction
Material Transaction
New
Product Upgrade
Replacement
Revision Update
For step-by-step details, see the Set Up Billing Types and Service Activity Codes section in the following chapter.
Oracle Field Service requires the setup of Charges to be able to create Orders and Return Material Authorizations for an Install Base product. Charges also consolidates the service billing information to generate the final invoice to the customer through Order Management. All this information is taken down on the Field Service Debrief. You update Charges from the Field Service Debrief.
Please refer to the appropriate section from Implementing Oracle Service for Charges setup. Make sure the following has been set up:
Set Up Order Type
Set Up Line Type
Define Currency
Define Currency Type
Define Currency Conversion Type
Define Coverage Template
Define Contracts
Profile Options for Order Capture and Order Management
No additional Field Service specific setup steps are necessary.