This chapter covers the following topics:
Task Manager provides methods for quantifying, responding to, and managing units of work generated by Oracle E-Business Suite applications. The unit of work is defined in Task Manager in the form of a task. A given task may be defined and bound by units of time, may be assigned to one or more qualified resources or resource groups or teams (see Assignment Manager for further information when assigning resources to tasks in Forms), and can be tracked and statused by the application that the work was generated from.
Task Manager can be accessed through integration applications or as a standalone module. For example, Oracle Telesales uses Task Manager to assign tasks pertaining to individual consumers, organizations, and organizational contacts. You can also use standalone Task Manager to create personal tasks or todos. Using the Tasks features, you can create a single or a repeating task with specified repeating frequency, assign resources to a task, mass creating tasks, mass reassigned tasks to new owners or assignees, view tasks using personalized saved searches.
A task is defined as the lowest unit of work. It can be assigned to one or more resources. Tasks are managed by the Task Manager and are often scheduled events with defined dates of completion. For example, a support manager of a company can create a task for an employee resource stating,“Please call back customer by 9:00 am.”
A task includes information relating to actions such as resources, appointments, references, dates, contacts, recurrences, and events. You must assign a task to a resource or an object. Continuing from the previous example, once the support manager creates the task to call back the customer, he can:
Assign a specific resource to perform the task.
Reference source documentation such as a service request.
Define the task as repeating so the customer is called every month.
Task Manager roles provide security for a task by ensuring only those directly involved with the task can view it. The following table describes Task Manager Roles.
| Roles | Description | Rights |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | The person who is in charge of the task. | The owner can reassign the task to another resource. When the task is reassigned, the owner can no longer view it unless they are also an assignee. As an owner you can:
|
| Assignee | The person who is actually working on the task. | The assignee can reassign the task to other resource types. As an assignee you can:
|
The following table describes how task notifications are handled in Task Manager.
| Event | Notify |
|---|---|
| Task Creation | Owner and all assignees |
| Task Deletion | Owner and all assignees |
| Reassign Owner | Old and new owner |
| Reassign Assignee | Owner, the old and new assignee |
| Status Update of Owner | Owner and all assignees |
| Priority Update | Owner and all assignees |
| Type Update | Owner and all assignees |
| Add Assignee | Owner and new assignee |
| Delete Assignee | Owner and assignee |
| Planned, Scheduled, or Actual Start and End Dates Update | Owner and all assignees |
The following table describe terms associated with Task Manager.
Task Manager for Common Application Calendar adopts the Oracle Applications Framework, the standard HTML development and deployment platform for Oracle HTML Applications. It provides Tasks functionality for integrated applications such as Oracle Service Online, Oracle Customers Online, and Oracle Sales.
Task Manager for Common Application Calendar provides the following task features if integrated applications use these features:
Manage work assignment for service related tasks that have specific time requirements
Manage sales related tasks that do not have specific time requirements such as standalone tasks or personal to dos
Create a contextual task for a service request, lead or opportunity
Create a standalone task such as a personal to do for a sales agent from Sales
View all tasks created for a source document, such as a service request, lead, or an opportunity, from the task summary contextual page
View standalone tasks for a given source from the personalized task search and result page
Create personalized saved searches for standalone tasks
Provide customer contacts information for a contextual task
Provide repeating function for appointments
Provide "related to" or references information for appointments
Task Manager in Oracle Applications Framework is not fully compatible with the HTML Task Manager's user interface. For example, some HTML Tasks features of creating tasks by using task templates, mass creating tasks and reassignment, as well as viewing task hierarchy, are not available in the Oracle Applications Framework based Tasks.
Task Manager developed for Common Application Calendar can only be accessed through integrated applications, such as Oracle Service Online, Oracle Sales, or the Calendar module. Users of the integrated applications can access the tasks if they have appropriate access privileges.
Although Task Manager provides a standalone task page allowing you to perform a personalized task search, there is no standalone Oracle Applications Framework based Tasks user interface currently available for you to create personal tasks, such as to dos. The standalone tasks such as personal to dos for sales agents are created only through Oracle Sales and Oracle Customers Online.
All task features developed for Common Application Calendar can be integrated with Oracle Applications. However, depending on each individual application's needs, you might not see every task feature in your screens unless the integrated application has implemented them.
For example, when creating a task, you can see the customer contacts region only if the task is created for a sales related task. It will not be visible if the task is created for a sales agent as a personal to do. For Service Applications, when creating a service related task in Service Online, you might find the Dates region in the task screen specifically used to manage time sensitive work assignments for service engineers. This region allows entry of multiple dates (planned, scheduled, and actual) for tracking purposes. This dates region might not be used in Sales Applications.
Therefore, all task features provided in the Oracle Applications Framework based Tasks are documented based on each embeddable region or page as follows:
Personalized Task Search and Result Page
Task Summary Contextual Region
Task Header or General Region
Details Region
Owner and Assignee Region
Contacts Region
Schedule or Dates Region
Related Items Region
Repeating Region
The following tabs are available in Task Manager, once you've created a task and clicked the More button:
Task Resources
Use the Resources tab to assign personnel information to a task. This window defines resource requirements, assignments, and scheduling information. For example, a resource can be an employee, a group, or a party.
Task Dependencies
Use the Dependencies tab to determine the order among task templates and use the offset feature to separate the sequence between task templates with time-sensitive restrictions. This functionality of dependencies and offset field is enforced only during the tasks automated creation of a task using task templates.
Task References
Use the References tab to link tasks to different documents or pertinent background information.
Tasks Dates
Use the Dates tab to identify more dates in addition to the planned, scheduled, and actual dates types. Use this tab to track task progress by entering date information after each task milestone. Examples include task creation, resource reservation, or task completion.
Task Contacts
Use the Contacts tab to create and manage multiple customer contacts assigned to a task. Contact information is obtained from customer information. In order to enter this information, you must identify a customer in the main task window.
Task Recurrences
Use the Recurrences tab to schedule tasks to automatically repeat. Examples of intervals include daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly occurrences. To schedule a recurring task, you must either specify a start date and the number of times you want the task to repeat or the end date.
Other Task Information
Use the Others tab to identify additional task information. You can customize tasks by setting task flags. The Currency and Cost fields identify the currency of a task and if there is a cost associated with it. These fields are used by the Oracle Marketing applications. The following table describes flags in the Others tab.
Task Audit
Use the Audit tab to view changes made to your tasks. The task audit record documents the date and history of the task change. Each update to a task results in an entry to the task audit record. Each record provides a trail from the original task creation to the current task status. Each row documents the status of each task change every time the task is saved.
Use task templates to make task creation simple and quick. Once templates are defined, you can specify resource requirements, create dependencies and use the offset feature to separate the sequence between task templates with time-sensitive restrictions, and schedule repeating tasks.
Use task template groups to pre-define multiple commonly used tasks for different activities (document type), such as service requests, escalations, tasks, and sales opportunities. When creating tasks from a task template, you can select the appropriate template group to generate tasks simultaneously.
For example, A service department constantly receives requests to fix computer problems. Accomplishing this assignment usually involves three required tasks including customer appointment, computer repair, and progress update. John Smith, a service director, requests the creation of a task template group used specifically for a service request called PC Repair which covers all these three tasks defined in a template format with task information specified, such as the task type, priority, and status.
Task Manager uses the following to provide functionality:
Oracle Trading Community Architecture (TCA) to locate the customer contact information when creating a task in relation to a customer.
Resource Manager to locate resources (task owner and assignee) for a task.
Assignment Manager to assist in locating a qualified resource (task owner and assignee) for a task. Assignment Manager can use the Territory Assisted assignment option to locate the right resource assigned to a specific territory.
The Notes Module to create a note for a task.
Oracle Workflow to send a workflow notification to an owner, assignee, group, or team, about a new or updated task.
Escalation Manager to escalate a task. Escalation Manager also uses Oracle Workflow to send workflow notifications to appropriate resources when escalating a task, defect, or service request.
Task Manager is widely used by the following modules across Oracle E-Business Suite:
Escalation Manager uses Task Manager to create tasks associated with an escalation document.
Universal Work Queue (UWQ) uses the Task Manager to display tasks.
The HTML, OA, and Forms-based Calendars use Task Manager to display tasks and appointments on different calendar views, such as daily, weekly, and monthly views.
Assignment Manager uses the Forms-based Task Manager to determine task duration.
Service applications use Task Manager to create tasks associated with service requests.
Sales applications use Task Manager to create tasks associated with opportunities and leads.
Marketing uses Task Manager to create tasks associated with marketing campaigns.
Contract applications use Task Manager to create tasks associated with contracts.