Introduction
This chapter covers the following topics:
Overviews
This section provides overviews for the following:
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Oracle Field Service
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Oracle Mobile Field Service
Overview of Oracle Field Service
The Oracle Field Service suite supports an automated process used by service organizations to manage their field service operations. It assists in the entire service process from taking the customer call to fixing and reporting on the problem at a customer site. For a complete description of Oracle Field Service capabilities, see the Oracle Field Service Implementation Guide and the Oracle Field Service User Guide.
The following table lists all the applications in the suite.
| Suite Application | Description |
|---|---|
| Oracle Field Service | This application assists in assigning tasks to service technicians, creating and dispatching daily schedules, monitoring progress, and reporting on material, expense, and labor transactions. |
| Oracle Advanced Scheduler | This application enables optimization of scheduling capabilities of tasks to qualified resources. It takes into account driving time, distance, and part availability, and it creates part reservations. |
| Oracle Spares Management | This application is used to provide additional logistics and planning features to manage a service parts inventory in a multi-location environment. |
| Oracle Mobile Field Service Store and Forward - Multiplatform | This application is a disconnected application that mobilizes enterprise field service data on various mobile platforms like iOS, Android and various form factors such as smartphone, tablet, and laptop. This multiplatform application also runs in a hybrid model that allows technicians to access additional functionality when there is connectivity. |
| Oracle Mobile Field Service - Wireless | This application is a connected application for any wireless device. This application offers a complete, automated, and streamlined field service solution to field service technicians by providing real-time wireless access to the enterprise application. Using any wireless device, the field service technicians can remotely access the latest, most accurate and critical information to perform their job. |
The Oracle Mobile Field Service applications integrate with the following application modules:
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Oracle Install Base
Tracks the products installed at customer site.
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Oracle Application Foundation components
Oracle Application Foundation components such as Task Manager and Resource Manager manage various operations of Oracle Field Service.
Overview of Oracle Mobile Field Service
Oracle Mobile Field Service is part of the Oracle Field Service Suite of products. Oracle Mobile Field Service contains the following mobile applications:
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Oracle Mobile Field Service Store and Forward - Multiplatform
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Oracle Mobile Field Service - Wireless
Additionally, in the Oracle Field Service application there is the Field Service Technician Portal that can also be considered a mobile application. For information on the Field Service Technician Portal, see the Oracle Field Service User Guide.
The Oracle Mobile Field Service applications convert a portable computer device into a workbench for field service technicians. The Oracle Mobile Field Service applications are the ideal solution for many service markets such as, HVAC, utilities, copier machine maintenance, telecommunications, and office supply industries. These applications enable field service technicians the ability to print service reports, view or update install base records, and much more. For a complete description on how field service technicians may use the Oracle Mobile Field Service applications in their work day, see the individual mobile application chapters in the Oracle Mobile Field Service User Guide.
For all Oracle Mobile Field Service applications, the first screen or page describes the schedule for the day for the field service technician. This page or screen can also describe past and future responsibilities.
The following graphic depicts a typical technicians Task List screen of the Oracle Mobile Field Service Store and Forward - Multiplatform application.
The following graphic depicts a typical Oracle Mobile Field Service Store and Forward - Laptop - Field Service Technician Dashboard page.
Field Service Technician Dashboard Page
The following graphic depicts a typical Oracle Mobile Field Service - Wireless main menu. This is what the technicians see when they first enter the Wireless application:
Main Menu
The Main Menu includes the following links:
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Today's Task
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Task Search
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Offline Schedule
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Create Service Request
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Knowledge Base
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Parts Search
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Receive Parts
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Parts Return
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Transaction History
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Mobile Queries
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Get Direction
Using this link, you can view the driving directions between any two tasks.
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Preferences
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Change Password
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About
Using this link, you can view environment details such as, technician name, responsibility, database name, and browser information.
Technologies
This section discusses the technologies used for all of the Oracle Mobile Field Service applications.
Oracle Mobile Field Service Store and Forward - Multiplatform
Oracle Mobile Application Framework provides the development framework for designing the Mobile Field Service Store & Forward Multiplatform application that can then be deployed to Apple's iOS, Google's Android, and Microsoft Windows 10 platforms. The multiplatform application installs on-device, can work in both connected and disconnected mode, and can access device services such as phone, camera, GPS as well a local SQLite database. This technology supports both real-time and offline data access.
Oracle Mobile Field Service Store and Forward Multiplatform application is available on:
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Small form factor devices such as Smartphones (iPhone, Android)
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Medium form factor devices (Tablet) such as iPad, Galaxy, Android tablets
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Windows OS Laptops
It is a complete job-management application that helps field service technicians to complete their daily responsibilities. These applications are part of the Oracle Field Service suite of applications. Oracle Field Service in turn is part of the Oracle E-Business Suite, which is an integrated set of applications designed to work together. Oracle Mobile Field Service Store and Forward applications synchronize with the enterprise system to receive new data such as tasks and service requests. Synchronization is also important to send changes made in the Mobile Field Service Store and Forward applications such as newly created report items and updated task statuses. Synchronization supports both application and data download to the device. Additionally, it supports data upload to the enterprise. New version of the application and database schema changes are seamlessly downloaded during sync.
Oracle Mobile Field Service Wireless
Oracle Mobile Field Service Wireless provides the most flexible, scalable, and reliable mobile infrastructure. Oracle Mobile Field Service Wireless provides browser based internet access on mobile devices independent from the underlying wireless infrastructure including networks, protocols, devices, markups, and gateways.
Refer to Oracle E-Business Suite Installation Guide: Using Rapid Install for details about installing Oracle Mobile Field Service applications.
Oracle Mobile Field Service supports the following technology:
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Small Form Factor: This includes WAP-enabled phones, some smaller RIM pagers, and iMode.
MXML Transformation for WAP, iMode, and Tiny HTML
