Field Activity Type - Main

You begin to define a field activity type by opening Admin > Field Work > Field Activity Type > Add.

Description of Page

Enter an easily recognizable Activity Type and Description for each field activity type.

Use Field Activity Priority to define the priority associated with field activity requests of a given type.

Note:

The values for this field are customizable using the Lookup table. This field name is FA_PRIORITY_FLG.

If this FA type is for activities that will be synced to service orders from an external system, specify the external system in Fieldwork Orchestration.

Use Field Service Class to define the field activity's category of service. Refer to Designing Field Service Classifications for information about the significance of this field.

Turn on Eligible for Dispatch if this type of field activity is dispatched to a field crew. This switch will be on for all field activities except the one used to indicate the system should use the next scheduled meter read as the initial or final read on a service agreement. If this switch is on you must set up the rules used by the system to default the dispatch group onto field activities of this type. You do this on Field Service Classification.

If your FA type is eligible for dispatch and the Appointments module is not turned off indicate if Appointment Booking for field activities of this type is Required for Dispatch, Optional or Not Applicable. If eligible for dispatch is checked, this value is defaulted to optional; otherwise it is defaulted to not applicable .

Turn on Display as Alert if Control Central should display an alert if its premise has a completed field activity of this type. If this switch is on,

Use Nbr Days Alert Active to define the number of days the alert should appear on Control Central. The field activity's scheduled date is used as the start date for the alert period.
Enter the Alert Information to appear on Control Central.

Note:

Recommendation. We recommend only using this feature on unusual field activity types (e.g., disconnect warnings, cut for non-payments) so that a CSR is not presented with an alert for every field activity type.

Enter the Business Object for this FA Type if the FA type will need access to the BO plug-in spots. If the FA type has a business object specified, the system applies the business object’s rules when the FA is added, changed, or deleted. This includes the business object’s validation algorithms (only executed after the "core validation" specified on the maintenance object is done), post-processing algorithms, and audit algorithms. The maintenance object for the FA should specify an algorithm that finds its business object using its FA Type. Refer to the base package Determine Standard Business Object algorithm for an example of this type of algorithm.

Use the Field Activity Step collection to define the discreet actions involved in the execution of the activity. Keep in mind that an activity type's steps are used to:

Provide guidance to the field staff in respect of the expected steps involved in the execution of the activity.
Simplify navigation to the page groups used to record what actually took place in the field.

The Step Sequence is system-assigned and may not be modified.

Enter the step's Description. This information is printed on the field order.

Indicate whether the step is Optional. This indicator is used when the user attempts to complete the field activity (after the fieldwork is complete). If an activity contains required steps, the system will not allow the activity to be completed unless every required step has an indication of what happened. For example, if an activity contains a step indicating the meter must be read, the activity cannot be completed until the meter read is referenced on the activity.

Use FA Step Type Action to define the activity associated with the step. The action determines the foreign key that must be referenced on the step in order to complete it. For example, the Read Meter action requires a meter read id to be linked to the step in order to complete the activity. The permissible values are defined in the following table.


Step Type Action	What it's used for
Change Item	Used when the activity changes attributes on an item (e.g., the date retired).
Change Meter	Used when the activity changes attributes on a meter (e.g., the date retired)
Change Meter's Configuration	Used when the activity changes attributes on a meter's registers (e.g., the constant)
Change Service Point	Used when the activity changes attributes on service point (e.g., the location)
Connect Service Point	Used when the activity connects a service point to its source (e.g., connecting an electric service point to the source of electricity)
Contact Customer	Used when the activity involves contact with a customer
Disconnect Service Point	Used when the activity disconnects a service point from its source (e.g., disconnecting an electric service point from the source of electricity)
Install Item	Used when the activity installs a badged item at a service point
Install Meter	Used when the activity installs a meter at a service point
Read Meter	Used when the activity reads a meter
Reconfigure Multi-Item	Used when the activity changes the number / type of unbadged items at a service point
Remove Item	Used when the activity removes a badged item from a service point
Remove Meter	Used when the activity removes a meter from a service point
Test Device	Used when the activity tests a meter or item.
Turn Off Item	Used when the activity turns off a badged item at a service point
Turn Off Meter	Used when the activity turns off a meter at a service point
Turn On Item	Used when the activity turns on a badged item at a service point
Turn On Meter	Used when the activity turns on a meter at a service point

Use the Characteristic collection to define Characteristic Types and their respective Characteristic Values to describe characteristics that are common to all field activities of this type.

Note:

You can only choose characteristic types defined as permissible on the field activity type record.