Examples of Field Service with Siebel PRM

Many brand owners use partners to provide field service and other types of service that require use of parts to service assets that customers have purchased. Siebel PRM provides the Inventory screen and the Assets screen to support this sort of service.

The following topics provide two typical examples for this sort of service:

• "Example of the Brand Owner and Partner Managing Inventory"

• "Example of the Partner Responding to Service Requests for Assets"

Example of the Brand Owner and Partner Managing Inventory

This topic gives one example of field service with Siebel PRM. You might use this feature differently, depending on your business model

Siebel PRM allows the brand owner and partners to work together to manage inventory, such as the spare parts that the partner needs to do repairs.

The brand owner can share inventory with the partner. The partner can locate inventory and use it to service customers. The brand owner can automatically warn the partner if the inventory of a given part is too low. For more information about working with inventory, see Siebel Field Service Guide.

This example consists of the following tasks:

• Setting up an Inventory Location for the Partner (Brand Owner)

• Transferring Products to the Inventory Location (Brand Owner)

• Finding Needed Parts (Partner)

• Monitoring Partner Inventory Level (Brand Owner)

Setting up an Inventory Location for the Partner (Brand Owner)

First, the brand owner sets up one primary inventory location for each partner who uses inventory. The organization for this inventory location must be the partner's organization, so other partners cannot see this inventory.

To set up an inventory location for a partner 

1. Navigate to the Inventory screen, then the Inventory Locations view.

2. In the Inventory Locations list, click New to create a new record.

3. Fill in the fields of the new record as follows:

   1. In the Organization field, select the partner organization.

   2. In the Owner field, select a partner position in the specified partner organization.

Transferring Products to the Inventory Location (Brand Owner)

Next, the brand owner associates products with the partner's inventory location. These can be transferred from the brand owner's inventory location, or they can be transferred from a virtual location that the brand owner created to hold products that are transferred to partners.

To transfer a product to the partner's inventory location 

1. Navigate to the Inventory Transaction screen.

2. In the Inventory Transactions list, click New to create a new record.

3. Fill in the fields of the new record as follows:

   1. In the Source Location field, choose either your own inventory location or the virtual location used to hold products for partners.

   2. In the Destination Location field, choose the inventory location you created for the partner.

   3. In the Commit field, click the field to add a check mark, completing the transaction.

Transferring Inventory to Inventory Sublocations (Partner)

The partner service administrator logs into the Siebel PRM Portal and sees that this inventory location has been assigned to him or her.

A small partner company with only one physical location for inventory could use this inventory location to represent its physical inventory location.

A larger partner company with several physical locations for inventory would create a subinventory location under this inventory location to represent each of its physical inventory locations. Then it would transfer the inventory from the inventory location that the brand owner created to these inventory locations.

To transfer inventory to product inventory locations 

1. The partner service administrator navigates to the Administration - Inventory screen, then the Inventory Locations view.

2. In the Inventory Locations list, the partner adds a new record representing each of the partner company's physical inventory locations.

3. The partner navigates to the Inventory Transactions screen.

4. In the Inventory Transactions list, the partner adds a new record and fills in its fields as follows:

   1. In the Source Location field, the partner chooses the inventory location that the brand owner created.

   2. In the Destination Location field, the partner chooses one of the inventory locations created to represent the partner's physical inventory locations.

5. The partner continues to create new Inventory Transaction records until all of the inventory is transferred to locations representing the partner's physical inventory locations.

Finding Needed Parts (Partner)

Now, when a partner service agent needs a spare part, the agent can use the part browser to find where the part is located. The part browser limits the agent to the partner company's inventory locations.

Then, when the partner service agent creates a service order, the partner associates it with the inventory location where this part was found.

Siebel PRM automatically adjusts the quantity of that part in inventory to reflect the fact that parts were used in service orders.

To find a needed part 

1. The partner service agent navigates to the Part Browser screen.

2. The partner searches for the part and finds its locations.

   Now, the partner can go to the nearest location that has the part in inventory to get it.

Monitoring Partner Inventory Level (Brand Owner)

The brand owner can monitor each partner's inventory for each part by navigating to the Part Browser screen and to the All Parts Across Organizations view.

The brand owner can monitor each partner's inventory locations by navigating to the Inventory screen and to the All Inventory Locations Across Organizations view. Then, the brand owner can click the Product Inventory view tab and see if the partner is short of inventory by looking at the following fields in the Product Inventory Record:

• Safety. When inventory reaches the amount in this field, it is time for the partner to reorder.

• Min. This is the absolute minimum inventory. If the partner orders correctly the inventory does not reach the amount in this field, because the partner is expected to reorder parts when the inventory reaches the safety level.

The brand owner can set up Siebel Business Process Designer to automatically send the partner a notification telling the partner to reorder a part when the inventory of that part reaches the level in the Safety field. If the inventory of a part reaches the level in the Min field, Siebel Business Process Designer can send a more urgent warning to the partner, or it can send email to one of the brand owner's sales representatives who contacts the partner personally.

Example of the Partner Responding to Service Requests for Assets

This topic gives one example of field service with Siebel PRM. You might use this feature differently, depending on your business model

In this example, the partner uses the Assets screen to work with service requests for assets that customers have purchased. The brand owner can monitor the service requests for each asset.

This example consists of the following tasks:

• "Assigning Assets to a Partner (Brand Owner)"

• "Logging a Service Request Against the Asset (Partner)"

• "Looking at the History of the Asset (Partner)"

• "Monitoring a Partner's Service of Assets (Brand Owner)"

Assigning Assets to a Partner (Brand Owner)

A partner who services assets must have a list of assets that have been sold to each customer.

If the partner sells and services the product, the partner would create the asset record when it sells the product.

In this example, the brand owner sells products and the partner services them. When a brand owner sells a product, it assigns the asset to a partner company to be serviced.

To assign an asset to a partner company manually 

1. Navigate to the Assets screen, then the List view.

2. In the Assets list, drill down on the name of the asset that you want to assign to the partner company.

3. In the More Info form, in the Organization field, click the Multiple Select button.

4. In the Pick Organization dialog box, select the organization of the partner company and click OK.

Logging a Service Request Against the Asset (Partner)

When a customer calls or comes in to request service on an asset, the partner service agent logs a service request against the asset.

The partner creates the service request record in the usual way, and associates it with an asset.

To log a service request against an asset 

1. The partner navigates to the Service screen, then the Service Request List, and the My Customer's Service Requests view.

2. The partner creates a new Service Request record and fills out its fields as follows.

   1. In the More Info form, the partner clicks the show more button.

   2. In the More Info form, in the Asset field, the partner clicks the Single Select button and chooses the Asset.

Looking at the History of the Asset (Partner)

To help in responding to the service request, the partner service agent uses the Assets screen to view all past service requests associated with the asset, see when the asset was installed, and look at other features of the asset's history.

To look at the history of the asset 

1. The partner navigates to the Assets screen.

2. In the Asset list, the partner drills down on the asset number for this asset.

3. The partner views information about the history of the asset in the Asset record and in the Activities, Notes, Service Requests, and Change Requests view tabs.

Monitoring a Partner's Service of Assets (Brand Owner)

At any time, the brand owner can use the Siebel PRM Manager to view all the assets of a partner and to view the service requests associated with these assets, to monitor the partner's service of each asset.

To monitor a partner's service of assets 

1. Navigate to the Assets screen, then the List, and the All Assets Across Organization view.

2. Drill down on the desired asset.

3. In the More Info form, click Query, select the partner organization in the organization field of the query form, and click Go.

   All assets for that partner company appear in the Assets list.

4. In the Assets list, select an asset.

5. Click the Service Request view tab.

   All service requests for that asset appear.