This chapter covers the following topics:
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.
The Oracle Field Service suite offers a range of products to meet your organizations business needs. The following table lists all the products in the suite.
| Suite Product | Description |
|---|---|
| Advanced Scheduler | Advanced Scheduler enables optimization of scheduling capabilities of tasks to qualified resources. It takes into account driving time, distance, part availability, and creates part reservations. |
| Complex Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (CMRO) | CMRO functionality is used to support the Preventive Maintenance module. It enables you to create PM programs and activities to be used in a preventive maintenance operation. For the purposes of Preventive Maintenance, a profile option setting in CMRO enables it to run in a Preventive Maintenance mode, whereby PM-specific functionality is available to the user.
Important: It is not necessary to purchase a CMRO Application license. When you define Preventive Maintenance programs a few setup steps are required in the CMRO application. That CMRO functionality is delivered with Field Service. |
| CRM Gateway for Mobile Devices | The CRM Gateway for Mobile Devices consists of a mobile client and a central application. It provides data transport between the Oracle CRM enterprise database and the Oracle mobile client database. |
| Customer Care | Not really a product of the Field Service suite but the Service Request window is delivered along with the Field Service application to take the customers call for service and create a service request. |
| Field Service | The Field Service application assists in assigning tasks to service representatives, creating and dispatching daily schedules, monitoring progress, and reporting on material, expense, and labor transactions. |
| Field Service Administrator Portal | The HTML-based field service portal module enables administrators to track and close field service tasks assigned to technicians in their territories. Their activities include reviewing debrief and billing. |
| Field Service/Laptop | This is a remote application typically installed on a service representatives laptop to receive his daily schedule and report on progress, material, expense, and labor. |
| Field Service/Palm Devices | This is a remote application for a handheld device so a service representative can receive his daily schedule and report on progress, material, expense, and labor. |
| Field Service Technicians Portal | The HTML-based field service portal module enables your technicians to manage and report on their task-based customer calls from any computer with an internet connection. Third party technicians can also use this portal to manage and report on their tasks. |
| Field Service Third Party Administrator Portal | The HTML-based field service portal module enables third party administrators to track field service tasks assigned to technicians belonging to their third party organization. Their activities include manually managing third party technician schedules, assigned tasks, and third party technician trunk stock. |
| Oracle Common Application Components | The products in Oracle Common Application Components are essential to use Field Service. They are used to create tasks, territories, define resources, and help in the assignment of tasks to resources. Oracle Common Application Components is delivered with Field Service. |
| Preventive Maintenance | This module enables a Field Service operation to address service needs in a proactive manner, as well as reactively. The Preventive Maintenance solution provides the capability to log service requests and allocate tasks to the appropriate resources with the right parts and schedule them in anticipation of the service need. |
| Spares Management | Spares Management is a module of Field Service and is used to provide additional logistics and planning features to manage a service parts inventory in a multi-location environment. |
| Wireless Option for Service | This is a remote application for a WAP enabled device so a service representative can receive his daily schedule and report on progress, expense, and labor. |
To enable the Preventive Maintenance module in Oracle Field Service, you must also install the Oracle Contracts Family Suite. The following product is used for Preventive Maintenance:
| Suite Product | Description |
|---|---|
| Service Contracts | Service Contracts is used to author service contracts with coverages associated to a PM program, which can be sold against serviceable products. In Service Contracts, you can define coverage templates for PM programs and author and maintain service contracts with PM coverage. |
Oracle Field Service is an essential part of the Field Service application suite. At the core of Field Service is the Dispatch Center, which enables the Field Service dispatcher to plan, dispatch, and monitor all field service activities, ultimately ensuring that the right person is in the right place at the right time with the right parts. Field Service Debrief functionality enables you to report all activities performed out in the field.
Review the following to learn more about the Field Service application:
Reporting on parts, expenses, and labor for a task. Reporting on parts assigned for the task includes return routing for unused parts, defective parts recovered from the customer site, and parts received by the technician that were defective on arrival. Technicians can also post debrief manually at any time to update Inventory, Install Base, and Charges.
Reporting on counters. From Field Service Debrief you can easily access the Capture Counter Reading functionality from Oracle Service to capture counter readings.
Directly accessing specific Spares Management functionality such as View Move Order, Create Move Order, and View Onhand Quantity.
Directly accessing Notes, Calendar, or Interaction History. A technician can also view notes that were created with service requests or tasks.
Displaying of information for a selected task such as related service request, escalations, parts transactions, Install Base related information, resources assigned for a task, and customer address information.
Scheduling or task assignment, either automatically or manually, to one or more service representatives. The automatic process of scheduling tasks can be run as a background process.
Task assignment is assisted by the use of the Assignment Manager.
When Oracle Scheduler is installed, you can optimize your scheduling capabilities. Driving time and distance for the service representative is provided, and parts reservations are made.
Managing parts information. Locating, ordering, and monitoring parts for specific tasks.
When Oracle Scheduler is installed locating parts and creating reservations is done automatically.
Committing tasks and daily schedules to service technicians, either automatically or manually. When a parts reservation is created an order for the parts is initiated by this process.
The tasks or daily schedules are sent to the service technicians mobile application with information about the task, related service request, problem and resolution, customer address information, Install Base information when applicable, and counters.
Monitoring schedules, activities, and progress, of service representatives.
Use different grids to visualize the planning such as a daily view, view over a period of time (user definable), or a geographical representation.
Escalation notifications give you the ability to react to non-conforming tasks (tasks that for some reason have become non-conforming, for example parts aren't available anymore, contract response times can't be met).
Making a selection of tasks based on characteristics such as ready to be planned, planned for today, or escalated.
View service history for a customer or a product.
Manages resource availability for single or multiple technicians. Through the Schedule Management window, a dispatcher can easily block the trips of a single field technician or multiple technicians, temporarily freezing the schedule in the process. You can also unschedule the engineer's tasks.
Using robust skills management and assignment functionality to effectively assign tasks to appropriate technicians, based upon skill requirements and skill levels.
Using advanced color coding functionally, which makes the various tasks within the Plan Board and Gantt easily identifiable, depending upon a number of factors, including the tasks priority, status type, or plan option.
Based on role, Field Service provides separate portals for the administrator to track, manage, and close service requests and manage the technicians that work on these service requests, and for the technicians to track, manage, and close their tasks. Because some tasks may be outsourced to third party service providers, the Field Service Administrator Portal is customized for third party administrators to use the Third Party Administrator Portal to manage these tasks and their technicians. In the case of third party technicians, the Field Service Technician Portal is customized to provide the Third Party Technician Portal for their use.
Field Service Administrator Portal
Displays information for a selected task such as related service request, escalations, parts transactions, Install Base related information, resources assigned for a task, and customer address information
Displays all resources managed by the administrator
Enables manual rescheduling of tasks
Enables ordering and receiving of parts and management of resource trunk stocks
Enables monitoring of task activities
Enables debrief review and correction
Enables billing review
Enables the creation of new service requests
Enables the creation of new or follow-up tasks
Field Service Third Party Administrator Portal
Displays information for tasks assigned to the third party group of which the third party administrator is a member including links to related knowledge management solution details
Displays all third party technician resources who are members of the third party group
Enables the searching, viewing, and updating of tasks within the group
Enables the searching of tasks by task status, task number, and group resource
Enables manual scheduling and rescheduling of tasks to any member within the group
Enables viewing and ordering of parts from assigned subinventories
Enables return of excess and defective parts from the assigned subinventories
Enables debrief review and correction and billing review for tasks assigned to the group
Field Service Technician Portal
Provides a personalized dashboard for a field technician
Enables search capabilities on service request, task number, and customer information
Provides the ability to view and create service requests, tasks, and notes
Provides integration to Oracle Install Base for item instances.
Supports Knowledge Base integration
Provides access to spare parts information and enables a technician to order parts
Provides the ability to receive and return parts.
Note: Although third party technicians can use this technician portal, can neither view service request details nor create new service requests. In addition, they cannot update the Installed Base.
Field Service Third Party Technician Portal
Provides a personalized dashboard for the third party technician
Provides integration to Oracle Install Base for item instances
Supports Knowledge Base integration
Provides access to spare parts information and enables a technician to order parts
Provides for the ability to receive and return parts
Maintains and administers Preventive Maintenance programs, which includes authoring service contracts with Preventive Maintenance programs attached, by leveraging robust Oracle Service Contracts functionality.
Logs service requests and allocates tasks to the appropriate resources with the right parts and schedules them in anticipation of the service need. The Preventive Maintenance demand can be based on the usage of the relevant item (estimated or actual usage). Also, the demand can be based on the date interval calculated from historical information (such as the service fulfillment date) or on the calendar such as defined in the contract.
A concurrent program generates the Preventive Maintenance requests automatically (service requests and tasks). The tasks are created as a result of task templates, which are associated with the activities such as defined when recording the Preventive Maintenance demand.
Integrates with Oracle Advanced Scheduler to assign and schedule technicians based on the availability of technicians and the availability of parts.
Integrates with the Dispatch Center and provides the following functionality:
Point-and-click parts search tool
Create parts orders for the technician
View parts order status for the task
View parts required for the task
Tracks both usable and defective parts through the complete logistics cycle. Defective inventories are created when the technician recovers repairable parts from the customer site.
Uses order creation functionality specifically designed to handle the technician's parts orders. The user interface can be used to either create an internal order or a parts requirement for a specific task. This functionality allows the dispatcher to link an internal order to a service request or task; automatically enters parts linked to the task; displays a technician's inventory for parts being ordered; integrates with Available-to-Promise to determine source; and offers a view of substitute parts.
Uses robust excess return functionality to use business rules to focus on high impact parts excess. Excess parts are identified based on max levels and excess orders can be automatically created based on planner review.
Uses an Authorized Stock List (ASL) to define which parts should be stocked, where they should be stocked, and in what quantities. The ASL recommendation is based on usage history, planning parameters and planning method. The parameters can be uniquely applied to each technician or warehouse, or defaults can be applied which would help to avoid excessive data entry where many field technicians are involved. Advanced planning methods can be used to address the more complex scenarios typical in a field service environment.
Spares Management is tightly integrated with Oracle Depot Repair, which is an additional automated warehouse replenishment process, whereby parts are repaired at an internal depot and then circulated back into the supply chain for further use. In this scenario, defective parts are removed by a technician from a customer site and consolidated with other defective parts at an internal warehouse. From there, a planner creates an internal order, which ships the parts to an internal depot that is supported by the Oracle Depot Repair application while, at the same time, creating the repair order and the internal order that ships the repaired parts back to the central warehouse.