1. Field Service Integration to Oracle Real-Time Scheduler Implementation Guide
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2Overview of Siebel Field Service Integration to Oracle Real-Time Scheduler

Overview of Siebel Field Service Integration to Oracle Real-Time Scheduler

This chapter describes the direct process integration for Oracle’s Siebel Field Service Integration to Oracle Real-Time Scheduler. It includes the following topics:

Direct Process Integration Overview

The direct process integration for Siebel Field Service Integration to Oracle Real-Time Scheduler helps Siebel Field Service customers achieve their service goals by allowing them to use important Oracle Real-Time Scheduler features.

Note: The procedures in this guide assume that you do not use the Tree navigation control option to access screens and views. However, you can use the Tree navigation control if required. For more information about navigation controls, see Siebel Fundamentals Guide.

Oracle Real-Time Scheduler is a software package that enables real time scheduling. It includes scheduling features, such as cost optimized appointments, street level routing with integrated mapping, and continuous optimization until the point of dispatch. These features provide benefits, such as labor and vehicle cost savings, Service Level Agreement (SLA) adherence, and increased customer satisfaction.

Integrating Siebel Field Service with Oracle Real-Time Scheduler provides important appointment booking and scheduling capabilities to Siebel Field Service users, and reduces implementation effort and risk. Siebel field Service Integration to Oracle Real-Time Scheduler supports the following functionality:

  • Book, rebook, and cancel appointments.

  • Book appointments according to customer SLA.

  • Assign technicians according to the required job skill.

  • Allow the technician to receive and send updates.

  • Provide real-time synchronization of employee data.

  • Retrieve geocodes for addresses.

  • Perform a phased migration to Oracle Real-Time Scheduler if you currently use Siebel Scheduler.

Business Process Task Flow

The following illustrates a functional overview of the scheduling and dispatch task flow.

Functional Overview of the Scheduling and Dispatch Task Flow. This image is described in the surrounding text.

Explanation of Callouts

The scheduling and dispatch task flow includes the following tasks:

  1. Employee administration. Allows you to create and update employee data. You use the Siebel client to create and maintain the employee data that Field Service requires. Oracle Fusion Middleware synchronizes this information with Oracle Real-Time Scheduler. You then use the Oracle Real-Time Scheduler client to enter data that is specific to Oracle Real-Time Scheduler, such as employee cost profile mapping.

  2. Shift administration. A subprocess that maintains schedules and exceptions. You must do the following:

    • Manually create the schedule record in Siebel CRM.

    • Associate the Schedule with Employees or Service Region.

  3. Address administration. A subprocess that manages address data, including updating the latitude and longitude for each address that Oracle Real-Time Scheduler requires. This work includes retrieving geocodes for multiple existing addresses. It also includes creating new addresses and retrieving geocodes for these new addresses.

  4. Scheduling administration. A subprocess that includes administration tasks that are specific to the Oracle Real-Time Scheduler scheduling module. You use the Oracle Real-Time Scheduler client to perform these tasks. Example tasks include managing slot groups, cost profiles, and so forth.

  5. Dispatch and shift management. Includes tasks that are related to viewing and manually managing shifts and associated entities. You use the Oracle Real-Time Planner client to perform these tasks.

  6. User map management. Includes tasks that are associated with using a map to view and manage the location of a technician.

  7. Appointment booking. Includes tasks that are related to booking and canceling an appointment. You use the Siebel CRM client to perform these tasks.

  8. Mobile data management. A subprocess that handles data synchronization between the Mobile application that the technician uses, the Siebel Server, and Oracle Real-Time Scheduler.

    Application Process Flows That This Integration Supports

    The following illustrates the application process flows that this integration supports.

    Application Process Flows That This Integration Supports: This image is described in the surrounding text.

    Explanation of Callouts

    This integration supports the following application process flows:

    1. Appointment booking. Includes the following features:

      • Book an appointment

      • Confirm an appointment

      • Cancel an appointment

      • Schedule a contract

      • Rescheduling a contract

      • Book an appointment that occurs beyond the scheduling horizon

    2. Refresh activity. Gets the following items from Oracle Real-Time Scheduler:

      • Activity status

      • Activity owner

      • Planned start

      • Planned end

    3. Tech status updates. Handles status updates from the technician for the following items:

      • Activity

      • Shift

      • Breaks

      • Periods of unavailability (POUs). For example, if a team meeting is scheduled for a technician, then Oracle Real-Time Scheduler creates a POU to represent the team meeting.

    4. Employee synchronization. Handles real-time synchronization of administrative data. This synchronization includes the transfer of employee records along with employee addresses, and so forth.

    5. Single address geocoding. Uses the Oracle Real-Time Scheduler Geocode Server to retrieve a geocode for a single address from the Siebel database in real time. If the Geocode Server returns multiple geocodes, then Siebel CRM displays these multiple geocodes. Geocoding is the process of finding latitude and longitude coordinates from geographic data, such as street addresses or postal codes.

    6. Schedule Synchronization. Handles real-time synchronization of administrative data. This synchronization includes the transfer of schedule records, schedule hours, and schedule exceptions.

      Data Flows That This Integration Supports

      The following illustrates data flows that this integration supports.

      Data Flows That This Integration Supports: This image is described in the surrounding text.

      Explanation of Callouts

      This integration supports the following data flows:

      1. Service region data transfer. Transfers employees and activities associated with a service region from Siebel CRM to Oracle Real-Time Scheduler (ORS). If you currently use Siebel Scheduler, then you can use Service Region Data Transfer flow to do the following:

        • Perform a phased migration of service regions from the Siebel Scheduler to Oracle Real-Time Scheduler.

        • Migrate new service regions from Siebel CRM to Oracle Real-Time Scheduler.

      2. Service region rollback. Inactivates all crews and cancels activities for the chosen service region in Oracle Real-Time Scheduler. Siebel Scheduler then schedules activities for this service region.

        Siebel Scheduler refers to the existing Scheduling module in Siebel CRM that uses the iLog engine. For more information, see Siebel Field Service Guide.

      3. POU, shift, break, and activity synchronization. Synchronizes activity, shift, break, and POU data from Oracle Real-Time Scheduler to Siebel CRM.

      4. Multiple address geocoding. Retrieves geocodes for multiple Siebel addresses and writes geocodes directly back to the Siebel database.

      In this integration, a service region is a defined grouping of service engineers and the activities that they perform. For more information, see Siebel Field Service Guide.

      A service region data transfer is a process that transfers employee and activity data for a service region from Siebel CRM to Oracle Real-Time Scheduler. This capability provides a way for the Oracle Real-Time Scheduler engine to schedule the service region instead of the Siebel Scheduler.

        Benefits of Using This Integration

        The Oracle Fusion Middleware architecture supports the data flows described in Application Process Flows That This Integration Supports and Data Flows That This Integration Supports, and integrates Siebel CRM and Oracle Real-Time Scheduler. This integration makes Oracle Real-Time Scheduler Web services available as Oracle Fusion Middleware composites. The Siebel application uses these composites to call Oracle Real-Time Scheduler. This integration provides the following benefits:

        • Seamless integration between Siebel CRM and Oracle Real-Time Scheduler Scheduler

        • Loose coupling between components

        • High availability and scalability of the Siebel application

        • High error resilience and advanced fault handling mechanisms

        • Monitoring services

        Design Assumptions for Mastering Data

        Entity

        Operation

        Master

        Synchronization Direction

        Descriptions

        Activity

        Create

        Siebel CRM

        One way

        Not applicable

        Update

        Siebel CRM and Oracle Real-Time Scheduler

        Two way

        Not applicable

        Delete

        Not applicable

        Not applicable

        Not allowed

        Employee

        Create

        Siebel CRM

        One way

        Not applicable

        Update

        Not applicable

        Delete

        Not applicable

        Not applicable

        Not allowed

        Employee Addresses

        Link or unlink

        Siebel CRM

        One way

        Not applicable

        Employee Skills

        Link or unlink

        Not applicable

        Addresses

        Create

        Not applicable

        Update

        Not applicable

        Delete

        Not applicable

        Not applicable

        Not applicable

        POU

        Create

        Siebel CRM

        One way

        Not applicable

        Update

        Siebel CRM and Oracle Real-Time Scheduler

        Two way

        Delete

        Not applicable

        Not applicable

        Break

        Create

        Siebel CRM

        One way

        This integration sends the break actual start, actual end date, and break status from the mobile application to Oracle Real-Time Scheduler.

        Update

        Siebel CRM and Oracle Real-Time Scheduler

        Two way

        Not applicable

        Delete

        Not applicable

        Not applicable

        Shift Template

        Create

        Siebel CRM

        One way

        Not applicable

        Update

        Delete

        Not applicable

        Not applicable

        Leaves

        Create

        Siebel CRM

        Not applicable

        Not applicable

        Update

        Delete

        Slot Group

        Create

        Oracle Real-Time Scheduler

        Replication

        This integration does not synchronize slot groups to Siebel CRM. You must manually recreate the slot group in Siebel CRM as a LOV.

        Update

        Delete

        Slots

        Create

        No synchronization occurs.

        Siebel CRM does not require this data.

        Update

        Delete

        Cost Profile

        Create

        Update

        Delete

        Service Region

        Create

        Siebel CRM

        One Way

        Oracle Real-Time Scheduler does not require this data.

        Update

        Delete

        Documentation Sources for Configuring Oracle Real-Time Scheduler

        This topic describes documentation sources that provide information for Siebel Field Service Integration to Oracle Real-Time Scheduler.

          Oracle Real-Time Scheduler Documentation

          For more information about tasks that you perform in Oracle Real-Time Scheduler 2.3, see the documentation for Oracle Real-Time Scheduler 2.3. Go to Oracle Software Delivery Cloud, and click the Oracle Utilities Applications product pack.

          Related Books

          • Oracle Real-Time Scheduler V2.3.0 Release Notes

          • Oracle Real-Time Scheduler V2.3.0 Quick Install Guide

          • Oracle Real-Time Scheduler V2.3.0 Install Documentation

          • Oracle Real-Time Scheduler V2.3.0 User Documentation

          • See also the readme files and release notes for Oracle Real-Time Scheduler 2.3 products.

            Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle SOA Suite Documentation

            For more information about Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle SOA Suite, see the following documentation on Oracle Technology Network:

            • Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite

            • Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator’s Guide for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite

            • Oracle Fusion Middleware Introduction to Oracle WebLogic Server

            • Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle WebLogic Server

            • Enterprise Deployment Guide for Oracle SOA Suite

              More Resources

              The following resources are available on My Oracle Support:

              • Oracle Application Integration Architecture: Product-to-Guide Index

              • Known Issues and Workarounds

              • Release notes

              • Documentation updates