Siebel Field Service Guide

Version 8.0, Rev. B

November 2007
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 Contents

Siebel Field Service Guide 1

Chapter 1: What’s New in This Release

Chapter 2: Overview of Field Service

Field Service 27
Managing the Full Cycle of Field Service 28
Dispatch Board 29
Siebel Scheduler 30
Mobile Computing Support 30
Service Parts Information 31
Field Service Engineer Information 31
Field Service Engineer Activities 31
Service Inventory 31
Agreements and Contract Management 31
Preventive Maintenance and Asset Measurements 32
Shipping and Receiving 32
Oracle Business Intelligence 33
Siebel Wireless for Field Service 33
Field Service Application Design 33
Siebel Professional Services Automation 33
Field Service Engines 33
Administrative Tasks 34

Chapter 3: Service Support

Processing a Request for Service 37
Setting Up Service Support 38
Creating a Service Activity Template 38
Setting Up Service Metrics 39
Setting the Default Opened Date and Time for an SR 39
Process Flow for Logging Service Requests 40
Logging Service Requests 41
Generating a Service Charge Quote 43
Updating a Service Request 43
Generating Correspondence for a Service Request 45

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Resolving a Service Request 46

Accounts Screen 46
Accounts Across Organizations View 47
Accounts View 48
Contacts View 48
Agreements View 48
Entitlements View 48
Service Profile View 48
Account Reports 49
Service Screen 49
Service Requests Across Organizations 50
Service Requests Views 51
Activity Plans View 56
Activities View 56
Attachments View 56
Audit Trail View 56
Calendar View 56
Change Requests View 57
Decision Issues View 57
Messages View 57
Service Details View 57
Service Hours View 58
Survey View 58
Invoices View 58
Metrics View 58
Orders View 59
Solutions View 59
Charts View 59
Service Reports 61
Audit Trail Overview 61
Audit Trail Content 62
Audit Trail for Siebel Remote Users 62
Service Request Solutions 63
Setting Up Problem Resolutions 63
Setting Up Solutions 63
Editing Resolution Documents 64
Administration - Solution Screen 65
Solutions View 65
Resolution Documents View 66
Related Solutions View 66

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Service Requests View 66

Change Requests View 66
Solution Categories View 66
Solutions Screen 66
Solutions View 67
Resolution Documents View 67
Related Solutions View 67
Service Requests View 67
Change Requests View 67
Customer Satisfaction Survey View 67

Chapter 4: Field Service Activities

Field Service Activities 69
Field Service Activity Templates and Activity Plans 71
Category Field 72
Setting Up Field Service Activities 73
Setting Up Field Service Activity Templates 73
Alarms for Field Service Activities 74
Recording Field Service Activities 75
Monitoring Field Service Activities 78
Administration - Application Screen 78
Activity Templates View 79
Activities Screen 79
All Activities View 80
Charges View 82
Expense Tracker View 82
Part Tracker View 82
Instructions View 84
Invoices View 84
Readings View 84
Items View 85
Schedule View 85
Assignment Skills View 85
Steps View 86
Time Tracker View 86
Charts View 87
Activity Reports 87
Products Screen 88
Product Service Details View 88

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Part Browser Screen 89

Using the Task UI Application to Perform Field Service Activities 89
Scenario for Performing Field Service Activities with the Task UI Application 90
Activating and Registering Tasks for Field Service Activities 90
Example of Using the Task UI Application to Execute a Field Service Activity 90

Chapter 5: Setting Up and Using Scheduling

About Schedules in Siebel Field Service 94
About Siebel Scheduler 94
About the Appointment Booking System 96
Scenario for the Appointment Booking System 96
About the Scheduling Optimizer 96
About Schedule Horizons and Time Zones 98
About Scheduling Heuristic Methods 100
What Happens During Appointment Booking? 101
Guidelines for Setting Up Scheduling 102
Rules Enforced by the Appointment Booking System 103
Guidelines for Integrating Scheduling with Wireless Updates 103
Guidelines for Integrating Scheduling with a Service Inventory System 104
Guidelines for Integrating Preventive Maintenance with the Appointment Booking System
104
Guidelines for Optimizing Schedules 104
Process of Setting Up Scheduling 106
Defining Schedule Hours 107
Setting Hours of Availability 107
Setting Exception Hours 108
Defining Service Regions 109
Creating Service Regions 110
Associating Schedules with Service Regions 112
Specifying Parent Service Regions 112
Defining Service Region Geographic Areas for the Optimizer 113
Defining Employee Availability and Schedules 116
Defining Hours for Employees 117
Adding Employee Schedule Information 118
Specifying Employees as Unavailable 121
Creating Time Windows for Scheduling 121
Creating Constraint Sets for Scheduling 122

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Defining Constraints 126

Defining Constraint Sets 126
Creating Parameter Sets for Scheduling 127
Defining Cost Functions for the Optimizer 134
Setting Up Server Key Mappings 136
Setting Server Component Task Parameters 139
Reloading the ABS and Optimizer Caches 140
Loading Employee Data for Service Regions 142
Loading Activities for Service Regions 143
Reloading Service Regions to the Appointment Booking System Cache Manually 144
Overriding a Row Limit 144
Coalescing the Appointment Booking System 145
Reloading Service Regions to the Optimizer Cache Manually 145
Reloading the Appointment Booking System Cache Using Workflows 146
Process of Scheduling Activities 148
Adding Schedule Information for Activities (End User) 148
Booking Activity Appointments (End User) 150
Booking Appointments from the Activities Screen 151
Booking Appointments from the Service Screen 152
Canceling Appointments 152
Locking Schedules and Assignments (End User) 153
Optimizing Schedules (End User) 155
Optimizing Schedules Manually 156
Stopping the Optimization of a Service Region 157
About Optimization and Activity Status 157
Running Contract Scheduling (End User) 157
About Troubleshooting the Appointment Booking System and Optimizer 159
Troubleshooting the Appointment Booking System 160
Troubleshooting the Optimizer 163
About Configuring the Appointment Booking Display 165
About Enhancing the Performance of Siebel Scheduler 166
About the Relationship of Scheduler to the Server Request Broker 167
About Loading and Reloading Service Region Data 169
About Using Application Deployment Manager 171

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Chapter 6: Setting Up and Using the Dispatch Board

About the Dispatch Board 173
About Process Flows for Dispatch Board Scheduling 174
Dispatch Board Screen Interface 175
Process of Setting Up the Dispatch Board 177
Setting System Preferences for the Dispatch Board 178
Setting User Preferences for the Dispatch Board 178
Optimizing Display Speeds for the Dispatch Board 181
Setting Up Dispatcher Users 183
Displaying Additional Information on the Dispatch Board Y-Axis 183
Adding Drilldowns to the Dispatch Board 185
Adding Query Fields to the Dispatch Board 187
Changing the Label Information Displayed on the Dispatch Board 188
Changing the Time Zoom Intervals on the Dispatch Board 189
Changing the Days of the Week Displayed on the Dispatch Board 190
Enabling Applets for Drag and Drop onto the Dispatch Board 191
Adding User Preference Colors for the Dispatch Board 192
Optimizing Display Space on the Dispatch Board 193
Restricting the Employees that Display on the Dispatch Board 194
Process of Assigning Activities 195
Selecting Data to Display in the Dispatch Board’s Gantt Chart (End User) 195
Searching for Activities in the Dispatch Board’s Gantt Chart (End User) 196
Assigning Field Service Engineers for Activities (End User) 196
Creating Activities with the Dispatch Board (End User) 198
About Using the Dispatch Board Gantt Chart to Assign Activities 198
About Rescheduling Appointments in the Dispatch Board 199

Chapter 7: Agreements
Agreements Overview 201
Automatic Entitlements 202
Agreement Management 202
Agreement Charges and Invoicing 202
Process of Setting Up Agreements 202
Defining Pricing for Agreements 203
Setting Up Agreement Renewal 205
Setting Up Agreement Validation 207
Setting Up Agreement Approval 209
Creating Agreements from Orders and Quotes 210
Configuring Data Maps to Copy Specified Items 213

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Creating an Opportunity and Quote from an Agreement Line Item Renewal 214
Adding Assets to Agreement Line Items 215
Creating Revenue Plan Templates 216
Creating Term Templates 217
Running Charge Plans Using Workflows 217
Entitlements Overview 218
Process of Setting Up Entitlements 218
Setting System Preferences for Verifying Entitlements 219
Checking User Properties for Entitlements 220
Creating Entitlement Templates 220
Adding Schedule Information for Entitlements 222
Adding Escalation Times to Entitlements 222
Configuring Auto-Entitlement for Quotes and Orders 224
Process of Creating Agreements 225
Defining Agreements 225
Defining Charge Plans for Agreement Line Items 229
Defining Conditional Charge Plans for Agreement Line Items 231
Managing Agreement Line Item Revenue 232
Creating Documents for Agreements, Quotes, and Orders 234
Adding Agreement Terms to Agreements 235
Using Co-Terms 236
Process of Creating Entitlements 236
Defining Entitlements 237
Adding Service Request Information to Entitlements 238
Adding Preventive Maintenance Information to Entitlements 239
Workflows for Entitlement Creation and Verification 240
Workflow to Automatically Create Entitlements from an Entitlement Template 240
Workflow to Verify Entitlements on an Activity 241
Workflow to Verify Entitlements on an Order 242
Workflow to Verify Entitlements on a Quote 243
Workflow to Verify Entitlement on a Service Request 244
Workflow to Verify Entitlement with Best Response Time on a Service Request 244
Workflows for Agreement Renewal and Approval 244
Workflow to Automatically Renew Agreement Line Items 245
Workflow to Automatically Renew All Agreement Line Items 245
Workflow to Approve Agreements 246
Administration - Application Screen 246
Administration - Pricing Screen 246
Service Pricing View 247

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Administration - Contracts Screen 247

Entitlement Templates View 247
Administration - Product Screen 250
Entitlements View 251
Agreements Screen 251
Agreements List View 252
Line Items View 253
Entitlements View 255
Service Requests View 257
Financials View 257
Terms and Totals View 259
Activities View 259
Activity Plans View 259
Approval History View 259
Attachments View 259
Discounts View 260
Notes View 260
Orders View 260
Entitlements Screen 260
Agreements Charts 260
Agreements Reports 261

Chapter 8: Siebel Advanced Contracts

About Advanced Contracts 263
Scenario for Advanced Contracts 264
Process of Managing Advanced Contracts 265
Creating Benefit and Condition Templates 266
Adding Terms to Agreements 270
Adding Benefits to Agreements 271
Adding Conditions to Benefits 272
Verifying Compliance 272
About Workflows for Advanced Contracts 273
About Business Services for Advanced Contracts 274
Contracts Accumulator Service 274
Contracts Resolver Service 275
Condition Evaluator Service 278

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About Configuring the Revise Button 279

About Configuring the Add Benefits Button 279
About Configuring the Entitle Button 279
Using the Task UI Application to Add Assets to Agreements 280
Scenario for Adding Assets to Agreements with the Task UI Application 280
Activating and Registering Tasks for Adding Assets to Agreements 280
Example of Using the Task UI Application to Add Assets to Agreements 281

Chapter 9: Charges and Invoices

Charges and Invoices Overview 283
About Cost, Price, and Rate Lists 284
Invoice Logic 285
Logic for Service Requests 285
Logic for Activities 286
Logic for Agreements 286
Process of Setting Up Charging 288
Setting Up NRC Plans 288
Setting Up Use Plans 289
Setting Up Conditional Charge Plans 293
Defining Contract Schedules 294
Creating Charges 294
Recording Billable Expenses 295
Processes for Setting Up Invoicing 296
Process for Setting Up Auto-Invoice 297
Process for Setting Up Customized Invoices 297
Creating Charge Consolidation Plans 297
Creating Invoices 298
Creating Invoices Manually 298
Generating Invoices Using Auto-Invoice 299
Consolidating Charges to Create Invoices 300
Post-Generation Invoice Tasks 300
Workflows for Charges and Invoices 301
Workflow to Create Agreement Charges 302
Workflow to Generate All Agreement Charges 303
Workflow to Create Conditional Charges 304
Workflow to Consolidate Charges 304
Workflow to Batch Consolidate Charges 306

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Running Charges After Charge Consolidation Has Been Performed 307

Improving Workflow Performance and Scalability 307
Charges and Invoices Screens 308
Service Screen 308
Activities Screen 308
Administration - Contracts Screen 310
Agreements Screen 311
Contacts Screen 313
Accounts Screen 313
Invoices Screen 314
Invoice Report 317

Chapter 10: Using Third-Party Invoicing Applications

Invoicing Integration Overview 319
Invoicing Integration Terms 319
Required Setup Procedures 320
Configuring the Web Service 320
Optional Setup Procedures 320
Extending the Data Set 320
Turning Off Invoicing 321
Customizing Invoicing 321

Chapter 11: Fulfillment

Fulfillment Overview 323
Fulfillment Engine 323
Part Locator Engine 328
Parameters for the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines 328
Substitution and Allocation Flags 330
Parameters for the Fulfillment Engine 331
Setting Parameters for the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines 333
Invoking the Fulfillment Engine 334
Setting Up and Configuring Order Fulfillment 334
Setting Up Order Processes 334
Setting Up the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines 335
Fulfilling Orders 335
Administration - Product Screen 337
Products View 337
Product Service Details View 338

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Administration - Data Screen 340

Order Actions View 341
Order Types View 341
Service Order Screen 341
Line Items View 341
Fulfillment View 344

Chapter 12: Service Inventory

Service Inventory Overview 345
Inventory Structure 347
Inventory Locations 348
Inventory Relationships 351
Tracking an Inventory Location 352
Inventory and Product Serialization 354
Asset Transactions 354
Inventory Transactions 355
Bulk Inventory Transactions 359
Mobile Inventory Transactions 359
Setting Up Service Inventory 361
Defining Products for Field Service 361
Setting Up an Inventory 362
Setting Up Inventory Transactions 363
Synchronizing Remote and Local Databases 364
Tracking Inventory 364
Creating Inventory Transactions 365
Scrapping Inventory 366
Administration - Service Screen 366
Parts Movement Administration View 366
Inventory Administration View 367
Administration - Product Screen 368
Products View 368
Product Service Details View 368
Inventory Screen 368
Inventory Locations View 369
Product Inventory View 370
Generate Orders View 371
Pending Orders View 371
Vendors View 371
Relationships View 371

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Roles View 372

Cycle Counts View 372
Part Browser Screen 372
Parts View 372
Inventory Transactions Screen 372
Inventory Transactions View 373
Assets View 373
Activities Screen 373
Part Tracker View 373
Inventory Reports 374

Chapter 13: Shipping and Receiving

Shipping Orders 375
Process Shipment Button 376
Receiving Orders 376
Checks and Validations for Shipping and Receiving 377
Process Receipt Button 377
Shipping and Receiving Hierarchical Assets 378
Processing and Tracking Shipments 378
Processing and Tracking Receipts 379
Shipping Screen 381
Shipments View 381
Shipping Reports 385
Receiving Screen 385
All Pending Orders View 385
Receive Orders Views 386
Line Items Receipts View 386
All Unknown Receipts View 387

Chapter 14: Quality

Features of Siebel Quality 390
Quality and Release Manager 390
Example Process for Quality 391
Process for Setting Up and Maintaining Quality 392
Process for Logging Change Requests 393
Process for Assessing Change Requests 394
Process for Resolving Change Requests 395

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Process for Verifying Change Request Closures 397

Process for Creating Patch Requests 398
Setting Up Roles and Responsibilities 399
Setting Up Lists of Values 399
Mapping Area-Subarea Combinations 401
Adding Release Product Builds 402
Logging Change Requests (QA End User) 403
Assessing Change Requests (Product Marketing End User) 405
Resolving Change Requests (Engineering End User) 408
Verifying Change Request Closures (QA End User) 413
Creating Patch Requests (Release Management End User) 414

Chapter 15: Cycle Counting and Replenishment

Cycle Counting 417
Configuration of the Cycle Counting Engine 419
System Preferences for the Cycle Counting Engine 421
Parameters for the Cycle Counting Engine 422
Invoking the Cycle Counting Engine 422
Tracing Levels for the Cycle Counting Engine 423
Setting Up Cycle Counting 423
Running the Cycle Counting Engine 426
Replenishment Engine 427
Configuration Parameters of the Replenishment Engine 428
System Preferences for the Replenishment Engine 428
Parameters for the Replenishment Engine 430
Setting the Implementation Logic for the Replenishment Engine 430
Invoking the Replenishment Engine 431
Setting Up Replenishment 432
Replenishing Inventory 432
Administration - Service Screen 433
Inventory Location Types View 434
Products Screen 434
Service Details View 434
Inventory Screen 435
Inventory Locations View 436

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Cycle Counts Screen 439

Cycle Counts Views 439
Cycle Counting Report 440

Chapter 16: Release Manager

Release Manager 441
Release Manager Structure 442
Product Release Process 443
Business Scenario for Release Manager 444
Setup Scenario for Administrators 445
Scenario for Product Marketing 445
Scenario for Engineering 445
Scenario for Quality Assurance 445
Scenario for Technical Publications 446
Maintenance Scenario for Administrators 446
Example Process Flow for Release Manager 446
Administrator Setup Procedures 447
Product Marketing End-User Procedures 447
Engineering End-User Procedures 447
Quality Assurance End-User Procedures 447
Technical Publications End-User Procedures 448
Administrator Maintenance Procedures 448
Administrator Setup Procedures for Release Manager 448
Setting Up Releases 449
Setting Up the Access List 449
Setting Up Project Teams 449
Setting Up Lists of Values 450
Setting Up Activity Templates 452
Product Marketing End-User Procedures for Release Manager 452
Creating Features and Subfeatures 453
Adding MRDs 454
Monitoring Features and MRDs 454
Monitoring Release Items 454
Engineering End-User Procedures for Release Manager 455
Adding Engineering Tasks and Linking Features 456
Adding a Subtask to an Engineering Task 457
Monitoring Engineering Tasks 457
Quality Assurance End-User Procedures for Release Manager 457
Creating Test Plans and Linking Features 457

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Creating Test Strategies 459

Recording a Test Pass and Linking a Test Plan 460
Associating Change Requests with a Test Pass 461
Monitoring Test Results 461
Technical Publications End-User Procedures for Release Manager 462
Creating Technical Documents and Linking Features 462
Adding Activity Plans to Technical Documents 463
Administrator Maintenance Procedures for Release Manager 463
Adding Product Prototypes 464
Synchronizing with Microsoft Project 464
Adding New Area and Subarea Combinations 464
Updating Test Plans and Test Strategies 465

Chapter 17: Assets

Properties of Assets 467
Asset Serialization 468
Asset Registration 469
Hierarchical Assets 469
Asset Transactions 469
Asset Swaps 470
Setting Up Assets 470
Creating Transactions and Components 472
Creating a Hierarchical Asset from a Product Bundle 472
Defining Field Engineer Assignments 472
Asset Mapping 476
Defining Asset Measurements 476
Obtaining Asset Information 477
Calculating the Value and Cost of an Asset 478
Associating Measurements with Assets 479
Recording Readings from Assets 479
Asset Dispatch Board 480
Setting User Preferences for the Asset Dispatch Board 480
Asset Dispatch Board Screen Interface 481
Using the Information Display Controls in the Gantt Chart 481
Scheduling Asset Activities 483
Administration - Pricing Screen 483
Asset Mapping View 484
Assets Screen 484
Assets View 485

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Activities View 486

Employees View 486
Warranty View 486
Value View 486
Readings View 487
Charts View 487
Components View 487
Transactions View 487
Change Requests View 488
Repairs View 488
Relationships View 488
Measurements View 488
Preventive Maintenance View 489
Audit Trail View 489
Entitlements View 490
Uptime Data View 490
Attributes View 490
Explorer View 490
Explorer Across Organizations View 491

Chapter 18: Warranties

Warranties 493
Setting Up Warranties 494
Obtaining Information Warranties 496
Administration - Service Screen 498
Warranties View 498
Assets Screen 499
Warranty View 499
Service Order Screen 499
Warranty Subview 499
Products Screen 500
Warranties View 500
Repairs Screen 500
More Info View 500
Service Screen 500
Service Details View 500

Chapter 19: Preventive Maintenance

Preventive Maintenance 501

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Preventive Maintenance Triggers 502

Logic Governing Triggers 503
Prioritization of PM Plans for Date and Time Interval Triggers 504
Time Interval Triggers 505
Date Triggers 507
Usage Triggers 508
Threshold Triggers 508
Event Triggers 509
PM Plans and Actions 509
Service Request Templates 509
Preventive Maintenance Engine 510
Validating PM Plans for an Asset 510
Running the Preventive Maintenance Engine 511
System Preferences for the Preventive Maintenance Engine 512
Parameters for the Preventive Maintenance Engine 513
Setting Up the Preventive Maintenance Engine 515
Generating Preventive Maintenance Activities 517
Administration - Service Screen 518
Service Request Templates View 518
Service Request Template Activities View 518
Preventive Maintenance Screen 518
Plans View 519
Triggers View 520
Products View 521
Actions View 522
History View 523
Assets Screen 523
Plans Subview 523
History Subview 523
Agreements Screen 523
Preventive Maintenance Subview 523

Chapter 20: Repairs

Siebel Repair 525
How Items Are Received for Repair 527
Repair Numbers 527
Repair Activities 528
Repair Orders 528
Asset Repair Histories 528

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Process of Generating Inventory Transactions for Repairs 528

Setting Up and Configuring Repairs 531
Setting Up Repair Activities 531
Processing Defective Items for Repair 531
Repairs Screen 535
More Info View 536
Activity Plans View 536
Activities View 536
Repair Reports 536
Assets Screen 536
Repairs View 536

Chapter 21: Barcodes

Barcode Concepts and Terms 537
Barcode Reader Input 537
The Barcode Interface 538
The Barcode Toolbar 539
Printing Barcodes in Reports 541
Scanning Barcodes for Toolbar Actions 541
Entering Information from a Barcode Reader 542
Finding Information with a Barcode Reader 542
Setup and Configuration for Barcode Reading 543
Setting Up a Barcode Interface 543
Changing the Barcode Font for a Report 543

Appendix A: Engines Logging Levels

Business Service Engines for Siebel Field Service 545
Server Component Aliases 545
Logging Levels 546

Appendix B: Business Service Methods Reference for Field

Service
Agreements 548
FS Agreement Charge Business Service 548
CalculateRCAdjustAmount Method 549
GenerateAdjustmentCharge Method 549
GenerateNRCCharge Method 549
GenerateRCCharge Method 549
GenerateUsageCharge Method 550

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FS Agreement Renewal Business Service 550

RenewAgreement Method 550
RenewAllAgreements Method 551
FS Holiday API Service 551
GetElapsedBusinessTime Method 551
IsHoliday Method 551
ISS Copy Service Business Service 552
Asset Management 552
FS Asset Swap Service Business Service 552
SwapAssetEntitlements Method 553
SwapAssetWarranties Method 553
FS Asset Warranty Service Business Service 554
CheckAssetWarranty Method 554
CreateAssetWarranty Method 554
GetAssetWarranties Method 555
Charges 555
FS Generate Conditional Charge Process Business Service 555
GenerateCharge Method 556
GetCondCharge Method 556
FS Service Charge Business Service 556
CreateExpenseCharge Method 558
CreateExpenseEntitlementCharge Method 559
CreateOrderCharges Method 559
CreatePartsCharge Method 560
CreatePartsEntitlementCharge Method 560
CreateServiceCharges Method 560
CreateTimeCharge Method 561
CreateTimeEntitlementCharge Method 561
Cycle Counting 561
FS Cycle Counting Business Service 562
GenerateCounts Method 562
Dispatch Board 562
FS Dispatch Board Utils Business Service 562
AssetAssignActivity Method 563
AssetUnassignActivity Method 563
AssignActivity Method 564
CalculateFromToAddresses Method 564
CalculateDistanceVals Method 565
GetCalculatedDistanceVals Method 566
GetEmployeeScores Method 566
GetWirelessCoverage Method 566

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UnassignActivity Method 567

FS Service Region Business Service 567
GetServiceRegionId Method 567
FS Activity Cache Business Service 568
CleanUpCacheTable Method 568
Entitlements 568
FS Create Entitlement Business Service 568
CreateCoveredProds Method 569
CreateEntitlements Method 569
GetEntitlementTemplates Method 570
ValidateEntitlementTemplates Method 570
FS Verify Entitlement Business Service 570
GenerateList Method 571
GetBestPricedEntitlement Method 571
GetBestResponseTime Method 571
GetNextItem Method 572
GetPrice Method 572
GetResponseTime Method 572
GetTimeZone Method 573
ShowEntitlementPickList Method 573
UpdateEntitlementCounter Method 574
VerifyPricingEntitlement Method 574
VerifyServiceEntitlement Method 574
Fulfillment 574
FS Fulfillment Service Business Service 575
Fulfill Method 575
GenPickTickets Method 576
FS Part Locator Service Business Service 576
Locate Method 577
Inventory 577
FS Inventory Transaction Business Service 577
AddAssetsToTxn Method 577
AggrAssetsPerProdPerSource Method 578
BulkTransfer Method 578
CommitTxn Method 578
GetDetails Method 578
SetTxnDetails Method 579
SetTxnDetailsFromTxnSet Method 579
Invoices 579
FS Charge Consolidation Business Service 579
CancelInvoice Method 579

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ConsolidateCharge Method 580

Preventive Maintenance 580
FS Preventive Maintenance Business Service 580
GeneratePM Method 580
Replenishment 581
FS Replenish Business Service 581
GenerateOrder Method 581
UnlockAllInventories Method 581
Scheduling 582
Invoking the ABS and Optimization Engine Methods 582
ABS Methods 584
CancelAppointment Method 585
CancelRequest Method 585
ConfirmAppointment Method 586
DefragmentServiceRegion Method 587
GetAppointment Method 587
GetAppointments Method 588
GetConfirmedAppointment Method 590
LoadActivities Method 591
LoadEmployees Method 592
ReloadServiceRegion Method 592
UnloadEmployees Method 593
Optimization Engine Methods 593
CancelAppointment Method 594
GetConfirmedAppointment Method 594
LoadActivities Method 595
LoadEmployees Method 596
Optimize Method 596
ReloadServiceRegion Method 597
StopOptimize Method 598
UnloadEmployees Method 599

Index

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24 Siebel Field Service Guide Version 8.0, Rev. B

1 What’s New in This Release

What’s New in Siebel Field Service Guide, Version 8.0, Rev. B

Table 1 lists changes described in this version of the documentation to support release 8.0 of the
software.

Table 1. New Topics in Siebel Field Service Guide, Version 8.0, Rev.B

Topic Description

“Setting Up Dispatcher Users” on Corrected topic. New view in Views list.

page 183

“Optimizing Display Speeds for the Clarified topic.

Dispatch Board” on page 181

“Time Interval Triggers” on New user scenario and clarified the topic.
page 505

“Scheduling Parameters” on Clarification to Optimizer-Glued parameter and Optimizer -

page 128 Save Interval parameter in table.

“Optimizing Display Space on the New subtopic. Users can change the number of rows of
Dispatch Board” on page 193 employee information that is displayed, and also change the
height of the display area.

“Restricting the Employees that New subtopic. Users can determine the employees that
Display on the Dispatch Board” on display by selecting a service region and entering a date in
page 194 the Dispatch Board.

“About Optimization and Activity New subtopic. The Optimizer can change the status of
Status” on page 157 activities to obtain the best scheduling.

“Setting Up the Preventive New procedures for associating activity templates with a
Maintenance Engine” on page 515 preventive maintenance (PM) plan, and associating service
request templates with a PM plan.

“Actions View” on page 522 New information on the preventative maintenance trigger.

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What’s New in This Release n

What’s New in Siebel Field Service Guide, Version 8.0, Rev. A

Table 2 lists changes described in this version of the documentation to support release 8.0 of the
software.

Table 2. New Product Features in Siebel Field Service Guide, Version 8.0, Rev.A

Topic Description

“Bulk Inventory Transactions” on Describes how to transfer multiple assets to new inventory
page 359 locations.

“FS Inventory Transaction Business Describes the new business service for transferring assets.
Service” on page 577

What’s New in Siebel Field Service Guide, Version 8.0.

Table 3 lists changes described in this version of the documentation to support release 8.0 of the
software.

Table 3. New Product Features in Siebel Field Service Guide, Version 8.0.

Topic Description

Chapter 8, “Siebel Advanced This chapter has been moved from the 7.8 Siebel Life
Contracts” Sciences Guide and revised for this guide.

“Recommendation Field” on Describes the new Recommendation field for performing

page 53 actions on a service request.

“Audit Trail Overview” on page 61 Describes changes in the Audit Trail functionality.

“Using the Task UI Application to Describes the new Task UI task for executing field service
Perform Field Service Activities” on activities.
page 89

“Using the Task UI Application to Describes the new Task UI task for associating assets with
Add Assets to Agreements” on contracts.
page 280

“FS Holiday API Service” on Describes the new service for calculating business time,
page 551 committed time, and holidays.

26 Siebel Field Service Guide Version 8.0, Rev. B

2 Overview of Field Service

This chapter describes the field service process, the application design, and the administrative tasks
associated with Field Service. Topics include:

■ Field Service on page 27

■ Field Service Application Design on page 33

■ Siebel Professional Services Automation on page 33

■ Administrative Tasks on page 34

Field Service
The field service process begins with service requests and orders. A service request is a customer’s
request for information about or assistance with products or services. An order is a commitment on
the part of the customer to purchase products and services at a specific price. Service requests are
described in Chapter 3, “Service Support,” in this guide. Orders are described in Siebel Order
Management Guide. Topics include:

■ Managing the Full Cycle of Field Service on page 28

■ Dispatch Board on page 29

■ Siebel Scheduler on page 30

■ Mobile Computing Support on page 30

■ Service Parts Information on page 31

■ Field Service Engineer Information on page 31

■ Field Service Engineer Activities on page 31

■ Service Inventory on page 31

■ Agreements and Contract Management on page 31

■ Preventive Maintenance and Asset Measurements on page 32

■ Shipping and Receiving on page 32

■ Oracle Business Intelligence on page 33

■ Siebel Wireless for Field Service on page 33

The field service process typically consists of one of the following scenarios:

■ A customer reports a problem to a service center and field engineers are dispatched to repair the
item.

■ A customer places an order with a service center and field engineers are dispatched to install the
item.

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Separate functional groups such as the service center, dispatch, field engineers, and parts business
need to share information. Oracle’s Siebel Field Service integrates call center, dispatch, field
activities, and service parts information in a single application. Siebel Field Service provides service
center agents, warehouse staff, and field service engineers with the tools to respond to service
requests and orders. Siebel Field Service allows a variety of users to perform the following tasks:

■ Receive service calls

■ Verify service agreements and entitlements

■ Enter a service request

■ Search for solutions

■ Create activities for a service request

■ Assign and dispatch field service engineers

■ Provide parts inventories for parts depots and trunk stock

■ Provide detailed customer configuration

■ Track parts consumption and logistics

■ Manage inventory replenishment

■ Integrate return materials authorizations and service orders

■ Provide field service engineers with complete service details, including the required skills, tools,
and parts for all service activities
■ Manage repair of defective parts

■ Set up and manage preventive maintenance plans

■ Track and analyze service costs

■ Prepare invoices for service and track payments

■ Define characteristics of assets and records readings from equipment (assets) in the field for
preventive maintenance, billing, and service

NOTE: A Siebel implementation may not have all the features described in this guide, depending on
which software modules have been purchased.

Managing the Full Cycle of Field Service

Field service businesses use Siebel Field Service to manage the entire flow of field service operations.
Inbound service center calls are managed in this sequence:

1 Enter a service request. Service request activities are created throughout the life cycle of the
service request.

2 Verify the service level agreements for the caller.

3 Based on the diagnosis of the problem and the service level agreement, create a return material
authorization (RMA) or a service order, and link it to the service request, to allow prompt
resolution.

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 Overview of Field Service ■ Field Service

4 Fill the order and ship the replacement parts to the customer or the field engineer.

5 Dispatch activities to a field engineer with the right skill set, tools, time, and location.

When a call has been resolved, the engineer reports the details of the resolution from the field,
updates the customer relationship database to reflect possible cross-selling opportunities, and
updates and replenishes the service parts inventory on a just-in-time basis. An invoice can be issued
to the customer as proof of work. Pending return material authorizations from customers are tracked
from receiving the items and defective parts are managed through the repair cycle.

Siebel Field Service consists of the basic functions required by most service businesses, as well as
optional functions that can be added to fit most field service requirements:

■ Base Field Service modules:

■ Call Management

■ Account/Contact Management

■ Field Activities Management

■ Warranty Management

■ Asset Management

■ Service Order Management

■ On-Site Services Management

■ Knowledge Management

■ Dispatch Board

■ Service Inventory

■ Optional Field Service modules:

■ Contract Management

■ Siebel Scheduler
■ Repair

■ Preventive Maintenance

■ Logistics Management

■ Shipping and Receiving

■ Quality Management (includes Quality and Release screens)

■ Barcodes

■ Pricer

Dispatch Board
Dispatch Board is a graphical user interface that allows call center personnel and dispatchers to
select, schedule, and assign field service engineers to service activities.

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The Dispatch Board screen shows all unplanned activities and a list of the selected field service
engineers and their schedules. Dragging unplanned activities onto the schedules of field service
engineers automatically assigns and schedules these activities.

Siebel Scheduler
Siebel Scheduler provides automatic scheduling of activities and optimization of a service calendar.
Appointment booking and schedule optimization are based on service region data, employee data,
and constraints. Insertion of activities into optimized schedules accommodates immediate
scheduling needs; for example, service calls linked to contractual commitments (entitlements) and
emergency events. The application provides worldwide scheduling capability.

Siebel Scheduler includes the following features:

■ Appointment scheduling allows customer service representatives to automatically schedule

customer visits without exceeding current labor capacity. Appointments based on a window of
time can be given to the customer with granularity down to hours.

■ Siebel Scheduler optimizes deployment schedules based on business-defined constraints (for

example, minimizing travel and labor costs) while making sure that contractual commitments are
met. High-priority calls can be scheduled immediately, resulting in the reassignment of lower-
priority calls.

■ Siebel Scheduler can insert service activities that need immediate attention into an already-
optimized schedule. Siebel Scheduler can also respond to unplanned situations like a vehicle
breakdown or unavailable field service engineers.

■ Siebel Scheduler can use Siebel Assignment Manager to provide an optimized list of field service
engineers for assignment to each service request or activity. Siebel Scheduler also provides to
the Assignment Manager data on availability of employees.

■ Schedules are optimized in batch mode based on business-defined criteria.

Mobile Computing Support

Field service enginee rs in the field can access Siebel Field Service on their laptop computers,
handheld devices, or wireless devices. Later they can synchronize to send local changes to the Field
Service server and to retrieve new information from this server. Siebel applications support
synchronization over LANs, WANs, dial-up connections, wireless networks, and the Internet.

Siebel Field Service introduces uncommitted transactions for inventory transfers in the field. This
allows for tracking of part movements without immediate access to records in the corporate
computer. Upon synchronization with a Field Service server, these transactions may be committed
and recorded in the server database.

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 Overview of Field Service ■ Field Service

Service Parts Information

Siebel Field Service provides full information about parts availability, including installation
instructions, operational constraints, and warranty and manufacturing data. Siebel Field Service
allows the field engineer to graphically navigate through the base configuration of any complex
product and review the customer’s on-site configuration. Siebel Field Service supports parts
comparison and replacement information so that field service operations can quickly identify
alternative parts.

Field Service Engineer Information

Siebel Field Service tracks a wide variety of information for field service engineers such as skill sets,
product expertise, location, and business, and contact data like cellular phone and paging
information. Each field service engineer can define notification preferences so that a dispatcher or
customer can contact the engineer efficiently. Integrated calendar posting and scheduling allows
each field engineer to maintain a personal calendar.

Field Service Engineer Activities

When a service event is reported, Siebel Field Service defines the steps required to correct the
problem, necessary tools, and required parts and skills. Information such as safety data, schematics,
and technical notes on the products, may be linked to the service activities and parts data. Siebel
Field Service also allows the capture of billing information related to an activity at a customer site,
including parts, expenses, and labor charges.

Service Inventory
The Inventory module manages service parts inventory. Inventory is tracked in real time across
locations and businesses, including trunk inventories, and is accessible from anywhere in the
company. Siebel Service Inventory provides a Part Locator screen to find parts during the RMA/order
process or during a dispatch operation. The Part Locator Engine offers real-time access to inventory,
allowing end users to make accurate and informed decisions on parts shipments.

The Field Service Part Browser allows a field service engineer to investigate the availability of a
product in all inventory locations within a field service business.

Agreements and Contract Management

Siebel Contract Management supports the contract life cycle, from service opportunity identification,
service pricing, and proposal generation to service delivery on contractual commitments to contract
additions, cancellations, and renewals.

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With Siebel Contracts, end users can define the terms of an agreement between the customer and
the service provider. These terms can include the service provider’s contractual obligations such as
performance metrics, response time, equipment maintenance responsibilities, service pricing,
discounts, and service entitlements. Agreement entitlements allow end users to define service
offering details, specifying tiered pricing for offerings and determining customer assets’ levels of
coverage.

Additionally, Siebel Contracts allows end users to specify the terms of installment payments, renting,
leasing, financing, and use-based pricing. When a service contract is established, the contract’s
recurring, nonrecurring and usage-based charges can be automatically invoiced. End users can also
track and forecast financial and service revenue information resulting from the sale of service
offerings, individual service contracts, and across the service organization overall.

Service providers can use product warranty and off-warranty contract expiration data to reprioritize
service sales resources. Combined with Oracle Business Intelligence Applications, Siebel Contracts
allows end users to assess customer service needs, personalize service offers, and customize
coverages.

Preventive Maintenance and Asset Measurements

Preventive maintenance is often a critical revenue and cost-containment factor for a service
business. Siebel Field Service allows customers to generate preventive maintenance management
services automatically. The Preventive Maintenance module provides the ability to create
automatically predefined preventive maintenance service requests and related activities based on
usage or frequency.

Certain equipment (for example, photocopiers or printers) requires regular maintenance to remain
in good condition. Service businesses often provide preventive maintenance services as part of their
offerings. Those services are sometimes included in warranty agreements, or sold to the customer
as part of the service contract.

Monitoring systems can automatically request maintenance when certain conditions are met; for
example, a meter reading passes a threshold or a fixed time period has elapsed. These events trigger
the creation of a service request.

To facilitate preventive maintenance, Siebel Field Service provides for the collection and processing
of asset measurements. Readings taken either manually or automatically from equipment in the field
are recorded in Field Service. These readings can be from gauges, counters, or meters attached to
products. This data may be used to initiate service requests for repairs or preventive maintenance.
Usage readings can be used for billing on a fee-per-use basis.

Shipping and Receiving

Shipping and Receiving are integrated with Siebel Service Inventory, and track customer orders to
shipment. Siebel Shipping and Receiving manages internal orders to transfer stock among inventory
locations and receives RMAs and orders, closing the loop with each customer.

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 Overview of Field Service ■ Field Service Application Design

Oracle Business Intelligence

Oracle Business Intelligence Applications provide managers with a tool for analysis of large volumes
of records. The results of the analysis are displayed in charts and reports. See Oracle Business
Intelligence Infrastructure Installation and Configuration Guide, Oracle Business Intelligence
Applications Installation and Configuration Guide, and Oracle Business Intelligence Answers,
Delivers, and Interactive Dashboards User Guide.

Siebel Wireless for Field Service

Siebel Wireless provides real-time access to information through a wireless application protocol
(WAP)-enabled mobile phone or wireless handheld device. With Siebel Wireless for Field Service
professionals, users can update sales opportunities, review account and activity information, access
calendar and contact details, order and track parts, respond to service requests, and send
correspondence. See Siebel Wireless Administration Guide.

Field Service Application Design

Siebel Field Service operates as a single Windows NT service that runs components such as EIM,
Optimization Engine, Assignment Manager, and so on. Siebel Server operates components as
processes or threads based on the system preferences specified for each component. Thus, there
can be multiple components running at the same time and each component can run a specified
number of tasks at a given time.

Siebel Professional Services Automation

Siebel Field Service is integrated with Siebel Professional Services, allowing the two applications to
share resource management, cost tracking, and billing of longer-term service projects with milestone
achievement time lines. See Siebel Professional Services Automation Guide.

Field Service Engines

Siebel Field Service provides the following automated functions:

■ Renewal Engine. Automatically renews agreement line items.

■ Charge Engine. Automatically creates charges. These charges can then be consolidated using
the Charge Consolidation Engine.

■ Charge Consolidation Engine. Automatically generates invoices, based on defined charge

consolidation plans.

■ Fulfillment Engine. Analyzes orders, locates parts for each line item, returns the located parts
(products or substitute products) to the user, allocates parts, and generates pick tickets.

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■ Part Locator Engine. Analyzes orders, locates parts for each line item, and returns the located
parts (products or substitute products) to the user. The user can manually allocate these parts
and generate the pick tickets.

■ Replenishment Engine. Selects source and target inventories when restocking is needed and
generates the orders required to obtain materials from an external provider, an internal
inventory site, or an internal manufacturing facility.

■ Cycle Counting Engine. Generates cycle counting orders (parts lists).

■ Preventive Maintenance Engine. Generates service requests for the maintenance of assets,
based on predefined triggers.

■ Mobile Inventory Transaction Engine. Generates inventory and asset transactions when a
field service engineer reports part movements in the field.

To facilitate configuration, maintenance, and multilanguage support, these components are

implemented as business services. For information about business services, see the chapter on
business services in Integration Platform Technologies: Siebel Enterprise Application Integration. For
information about setting logging levels for these engines, see Appendix A, “Engines Logging Levels.”

Administrative Tasks
This section describes the types of administrative tasks required for Field Service. Instructions for
performing these tasks are provided in this guide and in other guides in the Siebel Business
Applications documentation set.

The following administrative tasks are required:

■ Implementation and application administration. You must define and structure a number
of elements that are used throughout the application. These include currencies, exchange rates,
organizations, divisions and positions in your organization, users and their responsibilities,
service territories, and so on. These tasks are described in Siebel Applications Administration
Guide.

■ Product management and administration. Field Service provides two tables for product
information: an internal product table and an external product table for competitive products. In
addition to populating these tables, you must define a product categorization hierarchy, specify
product features, and specify settings for products that will be tracked in inventory. You can also
define price lists and associate them with products. These tasks are described in Siebel
Applications Administration Guide and Siebel Pricing Administration Guide.

■ Marketing administration. All the various elements of marketing information must be defined
and set up for your implementation. These include accounts, contacts, and so on. These tasks
are described in Siebel Marketing User Guide.

■ Assignment administration. Siebel Assignment Manager allows you to automatically assign

the appropriate people to specific tasks. Instructions for using Siebel Assignment Manager can
be found in Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide.

■ Templates. Service and preventive maintenance plans use activity and service request
templates to define efficient service calls. These features are described in Chapter 3, “Service
Support” and Chapter 4, “Field Service Activities.”

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 Overview of Field Service ■ Administrative Tasks

■ Agreements and Entitlements. Service and preventive maintenance plans are based on
contracts and entitlements that customers purchase. Setting up service agreements and
entitlements is described in Chapter 7, “Agreements,” in this guide.

■ Inventory. Field Service includes the process of setting up a logical inventory structure and
maintaining a physical inventory. These tasks are described in Chapter 12, “Service Inventory”
and Chapter 15, “Cycle Counting and Replenishment” in this guide.

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36 Siebel Field Service Guide Version 8.0, Rev. B

3 Service Support

This chapter describes the way field service call centers process service calls from customers, set up
service requests, and attempt to find immediate solutions. Topics include:

■ Processing a Request for Service on page 37

■ Setting Up Service Support on page 38

■ Process Flow for Logging Service Requests on page 40

■ Updating a Service Request on page 43

■ Resolving a Service Request on page 46

■ Accounts Screen on page 46

■ Service Screen on page 49

■ Service Reports on page 61

■ Audit Trail Overview on page 61

■ Service Request Solutions on page 63

■ Setting Up Solutions on page 63

■ Administration - Solution Screen on page 65

■ Solutions Screen on page 66

Processing a Request for Service

The workflow for processing a customer’s request for service, shown in Figure 1 on page 38, includes
the following steps:

1 Receive a request for service.

2 Generate a service request.

3 Verify the request, by confirming:

■ The account

■ The caller (contact)

■ Assets

■ Entitlements for service

■ Warranties

4 Try to solve the problem using known solutions.

5 If known solutions do not solve the problem, generate activities for service.

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6 Order parts if needed.

7 Schedule a service engineer and assign activities to that service engineer, if needed.

8 Assign and schedule field service activities (see Chapter 5, “Setting Up and Using Scheduling” and
Chapter 6, “Setting Up and Using the Dispatch Board” for more information).

9 Perform the activities.

10 Close the service request.

Figure 1. Workflow for Processing a Service Request

Setting Up Service Support

This section describes the process for requesting service. Topics include:

■ Creating a Service Activity Template on page 38

■ Setting Up Service Metrics on page 39

■ Setting the Default Opened Date and Time for an SR on page 39

Creating a Service Activity Template

Follow these procedures to create a service activity template.

To create a service activity template

1 Navigate to the Administration - Data screen > Activity Templates view.

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 Service Support ■ Setting Up Service Support

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate. For information about creating
activity templates, see Chapter 4, “Field Service Activities.”

3 Click the Service Details view tab. Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

4 Click one of the four subview tabs, as needed:

■ Service Activity Steps

■ Assignment Skills

■ Service Activity Items

■ Service Activity Instructions

5 Create a record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Setting Up Service Metrics

Follow these procedures to set up service metrics.

To set up service metrics

1 Navigate to the Administration - Service screen > Service Metrics view.

2 Create a record.

NOTE: Service metrics are named in the Service Metrics list, but they are defined in detail in the
Entitlements screen. See “To define entitlement template metrics” on page 221. After entitlements and
service metrics have been defined, you can associate an entitlement with a service request. See “To
select an entitlement for a service request” on page 41.

Setting the Default Opened Date and Time for an SR

The Post Default Created Date To Date Saved user property in the Service Request business
component controls the behavior of the Opened field in new service request records. For information
about user properties, see Using Siebel Tools.

Possible values of the Post Default Created Date To Date Saved user property are as follows:

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■ TRUE (Default). Sets the value of a new service request’s Opened field (the creation date and
time) to the date and time when the record is first saved (in other words, the moment when the
record is committed to the database).

This setting can help your organization to meet its service level commitments. If a service
request’s Opened field displays the time and date it was opened, rather than the time and date
it was first saved, then the service request will have aged by however long it takes a user to enter
the service request data before a customer service representative (CSR) can see it in the system.
If the system counts the time when (and not before) the service request is completed and saved,
your service personnel can have the fully allotted time to respond to service requests.

For example, suppose a customer has a 24x7 entitlement with a 1-hour response time metric.
This customer enters a service request in the Siebel customer application. 30 minutes elapse
from the time this customer opens and begins entering a service request until the time it is
completed and saved. If the Opened time is when the SR record is first created, your company’s
CSRs have only 30 minutes to respond. If the Opened time is when the SR record is committed
to the database, they have 1 hour to respond.

This setting can, however, set the value of the Opened field later than the Last Updated field.
This is because the Last Updated field’s value is set when the record is created but not when it
is first saved.

■ FALSE. Sets the value of the Opened field on a new service request to the date and time when
the record is first created. If your company's business process mandates that the time on a SR
starts from when a CSR starts taking a customer call, then use this setting.

Follow these procedures to set up the default opened date and time for an SR.

To set the Post Default Created Date To Date Saved user property value
1 Log into Siebel Tools as an administrator.

2 Lock the appropriate project for editing.

3 In the Object Explorer, navigate to Business Component.

4 Query for the Service Request business component.

5 Navigate to Business Component > Business Component User Prop.

6 Query for the Post Default Created Date To Date Saved user property.

7 In the Value field, enter the desired value.

Process Flow for Logging Service

Requests
The first set of tasks the service representative performs in response to a request for service includes
recording the request and attempting to solve the problem. If the service representative cannot
resolve the problem, the agent may set up field service activities, select the engineers, schedule the
engineers, and, finally, inform the engineers of their assignments. Topics include:

■ Logging Service Requests on page 41

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■ Generating a Service Charge Quote on page 43

Logging Service Requests

The following procedures suggest a typical workflow that is initiated upon receiving a request for
service.

To verify an account, a contact, and an asset

1 Navigate to the Accounts screen > Accounts List view.

2 Query for the caller’s account.

The Contacts list appears, showing authorized contacts for that account.

3 Query for the caller’s name and click the Assets view tab.

The Assets list shows assets associated with the selected account.

4 Query for the caller’s asset and click the Service Profile view tab.

The Service Profile list shows products associated with the selected account. The Assets list
shows the assets associated with a selected product.

To log a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

NOTE: If the account has more than one address, choose the account using the select button to
the right of the account field. The Siebel state model controls the behavior of the Status and
Substatus fields. See Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide for a detailed
explanation of the state model.

To verify the service agreements and entitlements for an account

1 Navigate to the Accounts screen > Account List view.

2 Drill down on the Account Name field for a selected account record and click the Agreements tab.

The Agreements list shows agreements associated with this account. The Start, End, and Valid
fields show which agreements are in effect.

3 Click the Entitlements tab.

The Entitlements list shows agreements associated with this account. The Agreement field shows
the agreement with which the entitlement is associated.

To select an entitlement for a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

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2 Select a service request that has an associated account or contact.

3 In the menu bar, click Verify or Verify Best Time (see the following table).

Button Description

Verify Displays the Pick Entitlement dialog box showing only entitlements
that match the criteria for this service request. If no entitlements
appear, the selected service request is not entitled to receive service.

Clicking the Verify button invokes a workflow. For more information,

see “Workflows for Entitlement Creation and Verification” on page 240.

Verify Best Time Displays the Pick Entitlement dialog box showing, of the entitlements
that match the criteria for this service request, only the entitlement
with the earliest Date Committed. If no entitlement appears, the
selected service request is not entitled to receive service.

Clicking the Verify Best Time button invokes a workflow. For more
information, see “Workflows for Entitlement Creation and Verification”
on page 240.

4 In the Pick Entitlement dialog box, select an entitlement and click OK.

To verify the valid hours for completing a service request

1 For this procedure to work, you must first verify the entitlement. See “To verify the service
agreements and entitlements for an account” on page 41.

2 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

3 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request and click the Service Hours tab.

To verify the warranties for an asset

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request and click the Service Details view tab.

3 In the Warranty As Of field, enter the date on which to verify a valid warranty and click Check
Warranty.

To associate a change request to a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request and click the Change Requests view
tab.

3 In the menu bar, click Add. In the Add Change Request dialog box, select an existing change
request or create a new one.

For information about entering change requests, see Chapter 14, “Quality.”

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To associate an activity plan with a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request and click the Activity Plans view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

For information about activity plans and activity templates, see Chapter 4, “Field Service
Activities.”

To associate an activity with a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request and click the Activities view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Generating a Service Charge Quote

To get the estimated cost of completing a service request, you can create a quote. A quote lists the
costs to complete a service request, including labor hours and parts prices. The parts prices are
based on the recommended part items required to complete the activity (or activities) associated
with the service request.

To generate a quote for a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request and click the Service Details view tab.

3 Click the Auto Quote button. If the button is not available, make sure the Price List and Rate List
fields are completed in the Service Details view.

A quote line item appears in the Quotes view.

4 To view the quote, drill down on the Name field.

NOTE: In a quote, the line items for labor are not priced.

Updating a Service Request

After a service request is opened, the service center or field service agent can add the following
information to a service request.

To update activities for a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request and click the Activities view tab.

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3 Select an activity and enter new values in the fields, as needed.

To add an asset to a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request that is not associated with an asset
and click the Activities view tab.

3 Drill down on the Activity field for the associated service request and click the More Info view tab.

4 In the Asset # field, enter or select the number for the additional asset.

NOTE: A service request can be associated directly with only one asset. However, a service request
can be associated with multiple activities, and each activity can have one associated asset. To
associate multiple assets with a service request, create multiple activities, associate them with a
service request, and associate each of the assets with a different activity. For information on
managing defective assets, see Chapter 14, “Quality.”

To add additional assets to a service request

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

3 Drill down on the Type field for the associated service request and click the More Info view tab.

4 In the Asset # field, select the additional asset to associate with the service request.

To verify field part movements

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request and click the Activities view tab.

3 Drill down on the Type field for the selected activity and click the Part Tracker view tab.

To record a resolution for a service activity

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request and click the Activities view tab.

3 Drill down on the Type field for the selected activity and click the More Info view tab.

4 In the Resolution field, select a resolution.

To review orders associated with a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request and click the Orders view tab.

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To generate and print an invoice for a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request and click the Invoices view tab.

3 In the menu bar, click Auto Invoice.

4 Drill down on the Invoice # field and click the Invoices Line Items view tab.

5 Click Reports > Customer Invoice and then click Run Now.

The Siebel Report Viewer window appears with the invoice.

6 Click the Print button to print a standard invoice.

To view the performance measurements (metrics) for a service request

1 For this procedure to work, you must first verify the entitlement. See “To verify the service
agreements and entitlements for an account” on page 41.

2 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

3 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request and click the Metrics view tab.

The Metrics list contains read-only records of the metrics associated with this service request.
Service metrics are defined in the Administration - Service screen, in the Entitlement Templates
list on the Metrics view. See Chapter 7, “Agreements.”

To close a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Select the service request you want to close, then in the Status field, select Closed.

The system automatically changes the Substatus field to Resolved and sets the Closed field’s date
and time to the current date and time.

NOTE: After closing a service request, the record is read-only. The status of a service request
must be changed back to Open before the record can accept any further changes.

Generating Correspondence for a Service Request

You can generate correspondence for a selected service request.

To generate correspondence for a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List screen.

2 Select a service request for which you want to generate correspondence.

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3 Choose File > Send Email. In the Pick Recipients dialog box, choose the contact associated with
the selected service request and click OK.

NOTE: The selected service request does not become associated with any additional contacts
added to the Recipients list for service request-related correspondence.

For more information about correspondence, see the chapter on correspondence in Siebel
Applications Administration Guide.

Resolving a Service Request

The procedures in this section suggest a workflow for researching and resolving a service request.

To associate a service request with a related service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request and click the Related SRs view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To verify associated change requests for a product

1 Navigate to the Products screen > Internal Product List view.

2 Drill down on the Product field and click the Change Requests view tab.

To verify the repair history of a product

1 Navigate to the Repairs screen > FS Repairs List view.

2 Run a query on the Product field.

The Repairs list shows all repairs for the selected product.

To find explanations (decision issues) for a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request and click the Decision Issues view tab.

3 To see more information related to a decision issue (such as literature and attachments), select
the decision issue and drill down on the Name field.

4 Click the Attachments view tab to view files associated with this decision issue.

Accounts Screen
This section describes how to use the Accounts screen. Topics include:

■ Accounts Across Organizations View on page 47

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■ Accounts View on page 48

■ Contacts View on page 48

■ Agreements View on page 48

■ Entitlements View on page 48

■ Service Profile View on page 48

■ Account Reports on page 49

Using the Accounts screen, a customer service representative can verify the following information
for an incoming service call:

■ The customer’s account (Accounts list or Service Profile view).

■ The contact making the call (Contacts view or Service Profile view).

■ The assets at the customer site that are associated with this account (Assets view or Service
Profile view).

■ The service agreements for this account (Agreements view).

■ The entitlements for the service agreements belonging to this account (Entitlements view).

The customer service representative can automatically verify entitlements for specific service
agreements by clicking one of the Verify buttons on the Service Request screen (see “Service
Requests Views” on page 51).

■ The history of service requests logged to this account (Service Requests view).
■ Billing and shipping information for the account (Bill to/Ship to view).

■ Invoices previously prepared for the account (Invoices view).

For more information about using the Accounts screen, see the chapters on Accounts in Siebel
Applications Administration Guide.

Accounts Across Organizations View

An organization limits the visibility of data within a company. However, the All Accounts Across
Organizations view shows all accounts within a company.

An employee can belong to one organization and account records can belong to one organization.
The owner of an account record can see his or her account record in the My Accounts view, even if
the account record belongs to a different organization. However, the same employee using the same
login to Siebel Field Service, cannot see this account in the All Accounts view. The record is exposed
only to those people who belong to the same organization.

For more information about setting up organizations, see the chapter on access control in Siebel
Security Guide.

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Accounts View
The Accounts view provides information about all accounts that belong to a service business. Use
this list to verify the account for the individual placing a service request.

Contacts View
The customer service representative (CSR) uses the Contacts view to verify the person placing a
service call. For more information about using the Contacts view, see Siebel Fundamentals.

Agreements View
The Agreements view displays all of the agreements associated with an account and the status of
these agreements. Table 4 describes items in agreement records.

Table 4. Selected Items in the Service Agreements View

Item Description

Primary A check box that indicates this is a primary agreement for the selected account. This
check box is for information only.

Type The type of agreement; for example, Service Level Agreement or Price Protection.

Valid A check box that indicates this is an active agreement. When selected, an agreement
may appear in the list that clicking the Verify button produces. See “Verify Button” on
page 52.

For more information on using the Agreements view, see Chapter 7, “Agreements.”

Entitlements View
The Entitlements view shows all of the entitlements for service that are associated with this account.
The Quota fields indicate the number of service calls remaining for this entitlement. The Start and
End Date fields show the valid range of dates for this entitlement. This view is read-only.

Service Profile View

The Service Profile view shows the products and assets associated with an account. The user can
enter both new product and asset records in this view. The same Products and Assets subviews
appear in References > Profile.

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Account Reports
Account reports, listed in Table 5, are available from the Reports menu.

Table 5. Selected Account Reports for Service

Report Description

Current Account Describes details for products associated with the account, including
Service Profile product, product type, version, description, vendor and comment. This
report also describes a purchase history including product information,
implementation phase, and purchase date.

Smart Report Describes details of a selected account including account history, future
Account Summary revenue, satisfaction, organizational hierarchy, and service requests.

Smart Report Describes all service-related information for the selected account including
Account Service service requests, customer satisfaction, and the history of service request
Detail resolution.

Service Screen
When responding to a service call, a customer service representative can create a service request
on the Service screen. The service request tracks all activities connected with the call and records
the service business’s entire response to the service call (activities, orders, parts movements, and
assignments). Topics include:

■ Service Requests Across Organizations on page 50

■ Service Requests Views on page 51

■ Activity Plans View on page 56

■ Activities View on page 56

■ Attachments View on page 56

■ Audit Trail View on page 56

■ Calendar View on page 56

■ Change Requests View on page 57

■ Decision Issues View on page 57

■ Messages View on page 57

On the Service screen, the user can carry out the following tasks:

■ To verify the entitlements for the account requesting service, click the Verify button.

■ Find solutions that may resolve a service call (Solutions view).

■ Set up new service requests (All/My Service Requests view).

■ To show the current warranty coverage for an asset associated with a service request, choose
the Check Warranty menu command (Service Details view).

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■ Associate change requests with a service request (Change Requests view).

■ Provide activity plans for a service request (Activity Plans view).

■ Provide individual activities for a service request (Activities view).

■ Assign activities to field service engineers using the Siebel Scheduler, Assignment Manager, or
Dispatch Board (most Service Request views).

■ Attach documents to a service request (Attachments view).

■ Review orders for a service request (Orders view).

■ To prepare an invoice for all billable activities and expenses for a service request, click the Auto
Invoice button (Invoices view).

Service Requests Across Organizations

Service requests, like many other Siebel objects, have organizational visibility. This means:

■ The All Service Requests view shows only service requests for the organizations to which the user
has permission.

■ The All Service Requests Across Organizations view shows the service requests for all
organizations within a company.

■ The My Service Requests view shows all service request records belonging to the user, even if
the user is in a different organization.

For more information about setting up organizations, see the chapter on access control in Siebel
Security Guide.

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Service Requests Views

The Service Requests views create and track service requests. Table 6 describes items in service
request records.

Table 6. Selected Items in the Service Requests View

Item Description

Agent The date and time that the service request was actually closed, displayed in the
Closed user’s time zone.

Agent The date and time that the service request is expected to be closed, displayed in the
Committed user’s time zone. Choosing an entitlement automatically generates a value for this
field, based on the response time in the service request metrics, the service
calendar, and the date the service was requested.

Activities associated with this service request inherit the Agent Committed value.
The Agent Committed field value in the service request appears in the Activity Due
fields in the activities.

See also “Agent Committed Time for a Service Request” on page 53.

Agent The date and time that the service request was created, displayed in the user’s time
Opened zone. Depending on how the Post Default Created Date to Date Saved user property
is set, this is when the SR is first saved or when it is first opened. See “Setting the
Default Opened Date and Time for an SR” on page 39.

Assign This command produces a dialog box with a list of field service employees, ranked
based on administrative criteria. Select the employee best suited to be the owner of
a selected service request.

Billable A check box that indicates that the activities included in this service request are
billable to the account.

Customer The date and time that the service request was actually closed, displayed in the
Closed customer’s time zone.

Customer The date and time that the service request is expected to be closed, displayed in the
Committed customer’s time zone.

Customer The date and time that the service request was created, displayed in the customer’s
Opened time zone. Depending on how the Post Default Created Date to Date Saved user
property is set, this is when the SR is first saved or when it is first opened. See
“Setting the Default Opened Date and Time for an SR” on page 39.

Entitlement An entitlement that provides special terms for billing the labor, expenses, and parts
used in this service request. It also provides the calendar and hours in which the
customer is entitled to service.

Group Division responsible for communications with the customer regarding this service
request.

Divisions available in the picklist are those whose Organization Type is Service. For
information about setting up divisions, see Siebel Security Guide.

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Table 6. Selected Items in the Service Requests View

Item Description

Verify This button displays the Pick Entitlement dialog box showing only entitlements that
match the criteria for this service request. If no entitlements appear, the selected
service request is not entitled to receive service.

For more information, see “Verify Button” on page 52.

Recommend The next action to take on the service request. Choices are Dispatch, Escalate, and
ation Return.

For more information, see “Recommendation Field” on page 53.

Verify Best This button displays the Pick Entitlement dialog box showing, of the entitlements
Time that match the criteria for this service request, only the entitlement with the earliest
Date Committed. If no entitlement appears, the selected service request is not
entitled to receive service.

How Service Requests and Other Business Component Object Types Are Numbered
Each new Business Component record (for example, service request, order, or activity) is
automatically assigned a unique record ID (for example, SR #, Order #, Activity #, and so on).

By default, all Siebel applications use the ROW_ID for these values. The row ID is an alphanumeric
value composed of a segment number followed by a sequential value. For example, the row ID 12-
63Q0XT is composed of the segment number 12 and the sequential value 63Q0XT. To see the row ID
for a selected record, choose View > Record. The dialog box that appears contains a value for Row #.

To display alternative values for the record ID, use one of the following methods:

■ Use the Query function Expr: RowIdToRowIdNum ([ID]) to convert the alphanumeric value to a
numeric value.

■ Use a Sequence Object to automatically generate the value from an RDBMS database.

■ Write a script on Buscomp_PreWriteRecord. (Do not use Buscomp_PreGetFieldValue.)

Verify Button
The Verify button finds the entitlements for a specified account, contact, product, and asset. Once
the user selects an entitlement from the Pick Entitlement dialog box, the application computes the
Commit Time for the service request from the Service Calendar associated with this entitlement and
from the Response Time specified in the entitlement metrics. Verify searches the database for
entitlements that match the following data supplied for the service request:

■ Account

■ Contact

■ Product

■ Asset (from the Service Details view)

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Only entitlements that match this data appear in the Pick Entitlement dialog box. If no entitlements
appear, the selected service request, service agreement, account, contact, product, or asset is not
entitled to receive service.

For information about configuring the Verify button, see “Setting System Preferences for Verifying
Entitlements” on page 219.

NOTE: The FS Holiday API Service provides APIs to calculate the Commit Time for a service request
according to a specific schedule. For example, if an SR is logged for a customer call at 4:30 pm EST
on Friday and the business rules mandate a 4-hour response time, the GetResponseTime method
can be called from the FS Holiday API Service to set the Commit Time to 12:30 pm EST on Monday.
See “FS Holiday API Service” on page 551 for more information.

Recommendation Field
The Recommendation field performs one of three actions on the service request. Choices are
Dispatch, Escalate, and Return:

■ Choosing Dispatch creates service activities by associating an activity plan template with the SR.
The activity plan name is configurable on the SR Recommendation workflow.

■ Choosing Escalate creates a new Repair order that inherits values from the following SR fields:
Product, Asset, Return to Account, Price List, and Rate List.

■ Choosing Return creates a new order line item and a new Repair order with the type, RMA Return,
that inherits the values from the following SR fields: Account, Contact, Price List, Entitlement,
and Order ID.

NOTE: You must activate the SR Recommendation workflow to use the Recommendation field.

Agent Committed Time for a Service Request

Agent Committed represents the contractual response period for service. Clicking the Verify button
determines the value of Agent Committed and stores this value for a service request. The Agent
Committed date and time are calculated based on the Date Opened, the Response Time metric, and
the Service Calendar (schedule hours and exception hours). The result appears in the Agent
Committed field. The Agent Committed time from the service request populates the Due field for
activities.

The Agent Committed time allows the agent either to schedule events that are within acceptable time
frames, defined by the service calendar, or to tell the customer that a requested event is outside of
his or her service calendar and is therefore, billable.

Activities associated both directly (in the “Activities View” on page 56) and indirectly (in the “Activity
Plans View” on page 56) with a service request inherit the Agent Committed date and time. The Agent
Committed field value in the service request appears in the Activity Due fields in the activities.

NOTE: If the response time metric used to calculate the Agent Committed Time is not correctly
defined in the Entitlements screen > Metrics view, the Agent Committed Time cannot be calculated.
For more information, see “To manually add performance measurements (metrics) for an entitlement”
on page 238.

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Entitlement Rules for the Verify Button

System Preferences has three settings, listed in Table 7, which determine the action of the Verify
button. For more information about the Verify button, see “Verify Button” on page 52.

Table 7. System Preferences for Verifying Entitlements

System
Preference
Name Description

Entitlement: This setting sets the conditions for checking the authorization of the contact
Verify Consumer requesting service. If TRUE, the entitlements displayed must meet one of
these criteria:

■ The contact for the entitlement matches the service request contact.

■ The entitlement account is set to All Contacts, and the entitlement account
matches the service request account or the account for the contact for the
service request.

If no contact is selected, Siebel Field Service tries to verify the entitlement

using the other entitlement settings.

Entitlement: This setting checks that the service request falls within the time span of the
Verify Dates entitlement. If TRUE, the entitlements displayed are only those that provide
coverage on the date the service request was opened, a date between the start
and end dates for the entitlement.

If the entitlement has no start or end date, it does not appear.

Entitlement: This setting checks that the asset or product is entitled to service. If TRUE, the
Verify Product agreements displayed must meet one of these criteria:

■ The entitlement asset matches an asset in the service request.

■ The entitlement product matches a product in the service request (no asset
or serial number specified).

■ The entitlement is set to All Products and the product or asset for the
entitlement matches the product or asset for the service request.

If no product is selected, Siebel Field Service tries to verify the entitlement

using the other Entitlement settings.

Assign Command
The Assign menu command activates the Assignment Manager in interactive mode to provide a
ranked list of field service engineers who are qualified and available to carry out a service request.
The Assignment Manager can also run in dynamic and batch modes for any Assignment objects,
including Accounts, Opportunities, and Campaigns.

NOTE: For using the Assignment Manager in Mobile mode, for mobile users, see Siebel Assignment
Manager Administration Guide.

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The Assignment Manager scores employees for assignment based on the factors specified in the
following rules:

■ Check calendar. If this option is enabled, an employee must have calendar availability to
perform the task. This is based on the assignment rule, Earliest Start, Latest Start, and the
Duration (of an activity). If the individual is not available, this employee is removed from the list
of candidates.

■ Assignment availability. The Assignment Manager passes a list of potential employees to the
Appointment Booking System (ABS), which checks the employees’ service schedules (including
their geographic service region assignments) and the activities already on their calendars. The
ABS then returns the list of available employees to the Assignment Manager. In an optional step,
the Assignment Manager may request that the ABS create and schedule a new activity for the
chosen employee. For more information about the ABS, see Chapter 5, “Setting Up and Using
Scheduling.”

■ Workload. For each workload rule specified, the number of activities assigned to that employee
that meet all of the workload criteria is calculated. This number is then reduced by the maximum
workload. This result is used to generate a score that is inversely proportional to the workload
rule weight [Workload score = Score * (1 – (current workload/maximum workload)]. For
example, if the workload rule is for Unassigned and Critical Service Requests, and if the
maximum load for this rule is 10 and the weight for this workload is 20, then an employee load
of 10 or greater receives a score of zero, and an employee with a load of 2 receives a score of 16.

■ Attribute match. For each condition specified, the criteria are evaluated. If a condition is true,
the score equals the weight specified; otherwise the score is zero. If the condition is not met and
the condition is required, the total score for that employee or position is zero.

■ Expertise weighting. For each condition that uses advanced weighting, the score for that
condition is adjusted, based on the advanced weighting criteria. For the employee column that
is matched, the expertise for that attribute type must also be analyzed. For example, if a
condition is specified for a product (product expertise) match, with a weighting of 15, and
expertise weightings of Expert, Intermediate, and Novice are 3, 2, and 1, respectively, the
resulting scores for this factor would be 15, 10, and 5, respectively.

The total score for an employee is a sum of the scores for each individual factor, modified by the
factors that override the total score and set the score to zero (check calendar, required attribute
matches, and so on). The highest score represents the most likely individual for assignment.

The Assignment Engine is configured for the Service Request object to either assign automatically
the highest scoring employee (using SmartScript) or to run in interactive mode. In interactive mode,
the user selects the Assign command and the Assignment Manager returns a ranked list of employees
in the Assign Employees dialog box. The user can then select an assignee. For information about
setting up interactive assignment for Siebel objects, see Assignment Manager Configuration in the
Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide.

NOTE: All assignment rules can be accessed by navigating to the Administration - Assignment
screen. For more information, see Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide.

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Activity Plans View

In the Activity Plans view, a field service agent can select a template to define the activities required
to resolve a service request. Table 8 describes two fields and a check box in activity plan records.

Table 8. Selected Items in the Activity Plans View

Item Description

Lock Assignment A check box that, when selected, instructs the Siebel Assignment Manager
not to assign activities created as part of this activity plan.

Planned Start The date and time to begin the activities that resolve a service request. The
default is the date and time that the record is created.

Template A set of activities for recurring tasks, selected from a drop-down list.

Activities View
In the Activities view, a field service agent can view activities for a service request, and add stand-
alone activities. An administrator or dispatcher can manually assign field service engineers to each
activity.

NOTE: To see the details of an activity, including its items, steps for completion, and instructions,
drill down on the Type field. The Attachments view appears for this activity. Click, for example, the
Items, Steps, or Instructions tab to see information related to the selected activity.

Attachments View
Use the Attachments view to add files created in another program (for example, spreadsheet files)
to service requests. These files are stored in the Siebel file system in compressed form.

Audit Trail View

The Audit Trail view shows the history of changes that have been made to specific service request
records. This view is read-only. For more information about the Audit Trail utility, see Siebel
Applications Administration Guide.

Calendar View
The Calendar view displays the scheduled service activities for a selected service request over the
next month, starting on a specified day. The user can select the Calendar view to view scheduled
activities. For more information, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

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Change Requests View

The Change Requests view describes manufacturing defects in components that are associated with
a service request.

Decision Issues View

The Decision Issues view displays explanations that may be used internally or provided to the
customer to solve a service request. The user can also add new decision issues to a selected service
request.

Messages View
The Messages view records a message concerning the selected service request and sends a screen
alert or an email to the person selected in the Employees field. For more information, see Siebel
Applications Administration Guide.

Service Details View

The Service Details view shows the warranties covering an asset, the symptom reported for the
asset, and the resolution code for a service request. Table 9 describes buttons, check boxes, and
selected fields in Service Details records.

Table 9. Selected Items in the Service Details View

Item Description
Check Clicking this button displays the warranties in effect for an asset on the date in
Warranty the Warranty As of field. Check marks appear next to the types of warranty that
apply: Product, Components, or Manufacturer. To verify the warranties active on
another date, change the date in the Warranty As of field and select Check
Warranty.

For more information about warranties, see Chapter 18, “Warranties.”

Product A check box that indicates this type of warranty is in effect on the specified date.
Warranty This check box is for information only.

Component A check box that indicates this type of warranty is in effect on the specified date.
Warranty This check box is for information only.

Manufacturer A check box that indicates this type of warranty is in effect on the specified date.
Warranty This check box is for information only.

Warranty As of The date on which Check Warranty validates the coverage under warranties.

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Table 9. Selected Items in the Service Details View

Item Description

Service Region The service region associated with this service request. Activities for this service
request inherit this service region. The Appointment Booking System and
Optimizer Engine (see Chapter 5, “Setting Up and Using Scheduling”) require a
service region.

Symptoms A description of the symptom that triggered this service request, chosen from a
dialog box. See “Symptoms Codes for a Service Request” on page 58.

Symptoms Codes for a Service Request

There can be one or more symptom codes for any problem description. A customer can report some
symptoms during a service request, while the field service engineer may find other symptoms and
report them on site as part of an activity, and the repair technician may report other symptoms in a
repair station as part of a repair activity. All the symptoms reported appear in the dialog box available
in the Symptoms field from the Service details view. This is possible because the symptoms are
stored in an intersection table that also stores the activity and the service request ID.

Service Hours View

The Service Hours view shows the hours during which service is provided under the specified
entitlement. Shaded areas represent service times. Service hours appear only if an entitlement is
specified for the service request and has been verified.

Survey View
The Survey view records customer responses concerning the level of service received. After a
customer service representative enters responses to the questions and saves the record, the survey
calculates a customer satisfaction score.

Invoices View
The Invoices view shows the invoices billed against a service request. Select the Auto Invoice
command (see “About the Auto Invoice Command” on page 299) in the Invoices view to generate new
invoices using orders and activities that have a billable flag set. For more information about
invoicing, see Chapter 9, “Charges and Invoices.”

Metrics View
The Metrics view provides benchmarks of performance for a service request. All fields are read-only.

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Orders View
The Orders view presents the orders related to selected service requests. Table 10 shows the check
box in order records.

Table 10. Selected Item in the Orders View

Item Description

Approved A check box that indicates this order was approved. This check box is
for information only. It does not have associated code.

Solutions View
The Solutions view associates existing solutions and related, frequently asked questions (FAQs) to a
service request. Click on the name of the solution to go to the Solutions screen and the Resolution
Documents view, which displays the names of files containing information supporting a solution.

Charts View
The Charts view provides the analysis of activities, listed in Table 11.

Table 11. Service Analysis Charts

Chart Analysis

Aging Analysis by Product The duration of a service request as a function of

product.

Aging Analysis by Product Area The duration of a service request as a function of field
service product area.

Aging Analysis by Severity The duration of a service request as a function of

severity.

Aging Analysis by Status The duration of a service request as a function of status

(Open, Assigned, Pending, and so on).

Priority Analysis by Owner The priority of service requests assigned to each field
service engineer.

Status Analysis by Owner The status of service requests assigned to each field
service engineer.

Closed Service Requests by Owner The history of closed service requests assigned to each
field service engineer.

Closed Service Requests by Product The history of closed service requests for each product.

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Table 11. Service Analysis Charts

Chart Analysis

Customer Analysis The number of service requests for each customer

account.

New Service Requests The number of new service requests per calendar period.

New Service Requests by Owner The number of new service requests assigned to a field
service engineer per calendar period or per product.

New Service Requests by Product The number of new service requests for each product per
calendar period.

Product Analysis The number of new service requests for each product.

Product Version Analysis The number of new service requests for each version of
a product.

Severity and Priority Analysis Two graphs:

■ The number of service requests as a function of

severity.

■ The number of service requests as a function of

priority.

Status and Area Analysis Two graphs:

■ The number of service requests as a function of

status.

■ The number of service requests as a function of field

service product area.

Symptom and Resolution Analysis Two graphs:

■ The number of service requests as a function of

symptom.

■ The number of service requests as a function of

resolution.

Trend Analysis by Product The number of service requests for each product as a
function of calendar period.

Aging Analysis by Priority The duration of a service request as a function of priority.

Trend Analysis by Product Area The number of service requests for each field service
product as a function of calendar period.

Trend Analysis by Severity The number of service requests for each severity level as
a function of calendar period.

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Table 11. Service Analysis Charts

Chart Analysis

Trend Analysis by Source The number of service requests logged in by a given

route (email, phone, and so on) as a function of calendar
period.

Trend Analysis by Status The number of service requests with a given status as a
function of calendar period.

Service Reports
Service reports, listed in Table 12, are available by clicking the Reports button.

Table 12. Service Reports

Report Description

Service Request Activity (All) Displays a page for each service request, with
information about the service request and each of
the associated activities.

Service Request Activity (Public) Displays a page for each service request, with
information about the service request and each of
the associated activities.

Service Request Detail (Barcode) Provides detailed information about each service
request.

Service Request Detail (No Barcode) Provides detailed information about each service
request.

Service Request Summary Provides a summary of each service request.

Smart Report Service Request Performance Analyzes the aging of open service requests using
three metrics: number of open service requests, call
volume, and resolution time, each over the last six
months.

NOTE: Use a query to limit the reports to service requests of interest.

Audit Trail Overview

Audit Trail creates a history of the changes that have been made to service requests. An audit trail
is a record showing which operation was performed, when it was performed, and how the value was
changed. Therefore, it is useful for examining the history of a particular service request. Audit Trail
logs information without requiring any interaction with, or input from, your users. Topics include:

■ Audit Trail Content on page 62

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■ Audit Trail for Siebel Remote Users on page 62

By using Audit Trail, your users can track which employee modified a certain field and what data has
been changed. An audit trail is created for each status change, along with a time stamp and the ID
of the user who made the change.

For Siebel Remote users making changes to records, Audit Trail works for every Siebel Web
deployment and configuration option, including synchronization. Audit Trail records not only show
successfully committed transactions, but also transactions that did not get synchronized to the
server because of conflicts.

An audit trail is written directly into the database, supporting both remote users and replicated
databases. Changes to an audit trail field are cached in the application. Exiting from the Siebel
Application and restarting it writes all cached changes to the database. Alternatively, when the cache
size is reached, all cached entries are automatically written to the database even when a user has
not exited from the application.

NOTE: Audit Trail supports the Service Requests and Asset Mgmt - Asset business components.

Audit Trail Content

Audit Trail will record the following information:

■ Field

■ Row ID of the record being changed

■ Operation being performed (Update/New/Delete/Copy)

■ Original value

■ Changed value

■ User ID performing the operation

■ Date and time the operation was performed

Audit Trail for Siebel Remote Users

The following information applies to remote users:

■ Disconnected users cannot view the audit trail. However, when they synchronize with the server,
audit trail records are created on the server, which reflect the transactions the disconnected
users made.

■ Information that will be used to create audit trails is synchronized, but the trails themselves are
not synchronized.

■ If the transaction is rejected during the conflict resolution, the corresponding audit trail record
is also rejected.

NOTE: It is recommended that you do not change the Audit Trail business service.

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Service Request Solutions

Customer service organizations estimate that approximately 85 percent of incoming service requests
have been previously resolved by other customer service representatives. To minimize costs and
maximize the effectiveness of a call center, an organization can reuse the solutions for previously
resolved problems.

The Solutions module allows you to store, organize, associate, and search the knowledge base for
resolutions successfully used for similar problems or even published solutions for potential problems.

After a problem is successfully resolved, you can associate the solution with the service request for
reference, in case the service request is reopened by the customer at a later date. Recording the
solution also makes it possible for you to resolve similar service requests without doing extensive
research. You can find an existing service request, solution, or resolution document that may provide
information relevant for the current service request or product defect under investigation. You can
quickly review the information and associate it with the current service request or product defect.

NOTE: Full text search of service requests is configurable. To configure the search engine for service
requests, see Siebel Search Administration Guide.

Setting Up Problem Resolutions

Use the Administration - Solution screen to find and add information that can provide immediate
resolutions to requests for service. For more information, see Table 13.

Table 13. Views on the Administration - Solution Screen

View Role in Setup

Resolution Documents Associates with solutions document files that describe a problem and its
solution.

Related Solutions Associates related solutions with specific solutions.

Service Requests Specifies service requests related to a specified solution.
Change Requests Specifies change requests related to a specified solution.

Solution Categories Associates solution categories with a solution.

For more information about setting up solutions, see “Setting Up Solutions” on page 63.

Setting Up Solutions
Use the Administration - Solution screen to provide the information that can provide immediate
solutions to requests for service.

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To add a solution
1 Navigate to the Administration - Solution screen > Solutions view.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To add a resolution document to a solution

1 Navigate to the Administration - Solution screen > Solutions view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected solution and click the Resolution Documents view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

NOTE: You can only choose a resolution document from the available list. To create a new resolution
document, see “Resolution Documents View” on page 66.

To associate solutions with each other

1 Navigate to the Administration - Solution screen > Solutions view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected solution and click the Related Solutions view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To associate a service request with a solution

1 Navigate to the Administration - Solution screen > Solutions view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected solution and click the Service Requests view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To associate a change request with a solution

1 Navigate to the Administration - Solution screen > Solutions view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected solution and click the Change Requests view tab.

3 Create a new record, and complete the fields as appropriate.

Editing Resolution Documents

Resolution documents are, by default, read-only. Use the following procedure to edit these
documents in the Administration - Solution screen.

To allow editing of resolution documents

1 Start Siebel Tools.

2 Choose the SR Resolution Item list frame.

3 Choose the list column ResFileName.

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4 Change the read-only property from TRUE to FALSE.

5 Compile and test the change.

Administration - Solution Screen

The Administration - Solution screen defines solutions to service requests and associated resolution
documents, solutions, service requests, and change requests. It also provides predefined solution
categories that add information to a solution.

The information provided in these views appears in the Solutions screen (see “Solutions Screen” on
page 66). Descriptions of the views for this screen follow.

■ Solutions View on page 67

■ Resolution Documents View on page 66

■ Related Solutions View on page 66

■ Service Requests View on page 67

■ Change Requests View on page 66

■ Solution Categories View on page 66

Solutions View
The Solutions view records the name and description of a solution, plus the frequently asked
questions (FAQs) to which the solution might respond. Table 14 shows the items in solutions records.

Table 14. Selected Items in the Solutions View

Item Description
Publish Internal A check box that indicates this information is available to internal users.
The check box indicates this solution will not appear in solution lists
exposed to customers over the Web, but appears on internal solution lists.

Publish External A check box that indicates this information is available to external users.
The check box indicates that this solution appears both in solution lists
exposed to customers over the Web and on internal solution lists.

The More Info view for the Solutions list displays Solution Categories that provide additional
predetermined pieces of information that add to this solution.

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Resolution Documents View

The Resolution Documents view allows you to associate files with a service request. These files can
contain information that contributes to solving the service request. Use the following procedure to
create these documents in the Administration - Resolution Documents view.

To create a resolution document

1 Navigate to the Administration - Resolution Documents view.

2 In the Resolution Documents list, create a new record.

3 In the File Name field, navigate to an electronic document on your computer or on your network.

Related Solutions View

The Related Solutions view associates solutions records that may contribute to the resolution of a
selected solution.

Service Requests View

The Service Requests view associates service requests that may contribute to a solution.

Change Requests View

The Change Requests view associates change requests that may contribute to a solution.

Solution Categories View

The Solution Categories view associates predefined solutions that may contribute to an overall
solution.

Solutions Screen
The Solutions screen provides predefined solutions with associated resolution documents, solutions,
service requests, and change requests. This information is defined in the “Administration - Solution
Screen” on page 65. Most of the views in the Solutions screen are identical to those in the
Administration - Solution screen, with the exception of Solution Categories, which is unavailable in
the Solutions screen.

Most views in the Solutions screen allow users to add records. Descriptions of the views for this
screen follow.

■ Solutions View on page 67

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■ Resolution Documents View on page 66

■ Related Solutions View on page 66

■ Service Requests View on page 67

■ Change Requests View on page 66

■ Customer Satisfaction Survey View on page 67

Solutions View
The Solutions view displays the name and description of a solution, the FAQ to which the solution
might respond, and an answer to the FAQ. These records are read-only.

Resolution Documents View

The Resolution Documents view associates a selected solution with files containing information that
contributes to solving a service request.

Related Solutions View

The Related Solutions view associates a selected solution with solutions records that may contribute
to the resolution of a selected solution.

Service Requests View

The Service Requests view associates a selected solution with a service requests that may contribute
to this solution.

Change Requests View

The Change Requests view associates a selected solution with change requests that may contribute
to a solution.

Customer Satisfaction Survey View

The Customer Satisfaction Survey view records the responses from customers on the effectiveness
of service. The answers to predetermined questions contribute to a customer satisfaction score
(Satisfaction Level). This survey is associated with a selected solution.

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f

4 Field Service Activities

This chapter shows how Field Service uses activities. For general information about activities, see
the Activities chapter of Siebel Applications Administration Guide. Topics include:

■ Field Service Activities on page 69

■ Setting Up Field Service Activities on page 73

■ Recording Field Service Activities on page 75

■ Administration - Application Screen on page 78

■ Activities Screen on page 79

■ Activity Reports on page 87

■ Products Screen on page 88

■ Part Browser Screen on page 89

■ Using the Task UI Application to Perform Field Service Activities on page 89

Field Service Activities

Using Siebel Field Service, field service engineers work from activities. Activities are either attached
to a service request or stand-alone. Using an activity template, Field Service can automatically
provide a set of activities to carry out a service request. Topics include:

■ Field Service Activity Templates and Activity Plans on page 71

■ Category Field on page 72

In Siebel Field Service there are common types of activities:

■ Service activities that fall into these categories:

■ Installation

■ Preventive maintenance

■ Repair activities, including shipping and receiving

Field Service provides activities to track the tasks done in response to a service request, a preventive
maintenance request, the report of a change request, and the request for a repair. The Activities
screen records activities that must be assigned to field service or call center personnel.

Field service and repair activities are accompanied by detailed information for field service personnel,
which includes steps, items (recommended parts/tools), skills and instructions, field part
movements, expense recording, and time recording.

NOTE: Recommended parts and tools are called Items.

These are the major advantages of breaking down a service request into one or more activities:

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■ The ownership of the problem remains at the call management level, when required.

■ The field service engineer looking at assigned activities can easily identify only the required
information.

■ Reporting is simplified.

■ Activities can be assigned to more than one person.

NOTE: Field service activities can be stand-alone (for example, preventive maintenance activities)
or, more commonly, attached to service requests. For complex preventive maintenance activities, it
may be convenient to formalize the activity by creating a service request.

Field engineer activities are an extension of the Siebel Activity object, with Field Service
customizations that specifically meet the requirements of engineers reporting complex, standardized
service activities.

Activity objects may be associated with the following Siebel objects:

■ Accounts

■ Agreements

■ Assets

■ Campaigns

■ Change requests (Quality screen)

■ Contacts

■ Messages

■ Opportunities

■ Order Items

■ Preventive maintenance

■ Programs

■ Projects

■ Repairs

■ References

■ Service requests

Activities, once generated, are assigned to appropriate engineers. Assigned activities are displayed
on the engineers’ calendars and the engineers may receive automatic notification by way of their
laptop computers, handheld computers, cell phones, or pagers. Engineers can accept or decline an
activity and, once accepted, use the Activities screen to report on its execution.

Assigning activities can take place manually, one by one, on the Activities, Service Requests, and
Dispatch Board screens. The person assigning can select engineers manually or use the Assignment
Manager (Assign menu command). Automatic assignment uses a variety of criteria for assignments,
including skills, role priorities, availability, location, and cost.

Scheduling of assigned engineers can take place manually on the Activities screen, on the drag-and-
drop interface of the Dispatch Board screen, or automatically using Siebel Scheduler.

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For a description of assigning and scheduling activities, see Chapter 5, “Setting Up and Using
Scheduling” and Chapter 6, “Setting Up and Using the Dispatch Board.”

Field Service Activity Templates and Activity Plans

Activity plans are created using activity templates. Activity templates are collections of predefined
activities. Activity plans may include schedule requirements for carrying out these activities.

In the Activity Plans views on the Service Requests, Accounts, and Repairs screens, only the activity
templates for specific types of activity are visible. For example, when you generate an activity plan
for opportunities, only activity plans of the type Opportunity are visible. When you select a template
all the activities in that template and the child records of those activities (for example, Service
Details, Items, Skills, and so on) are selected.

Fields Copied from Activity Templates

The following fields are copied from activity templates to an activity plan:

■ Activity type

■ Alarm

■ Category

■ Comments

■ Cost Estimate

■ Description

■ Display In

■ Duration

■ Employee

NOTE: If Employee is defined in the Activity Template, then it is copied. Otherwise, the value in
the Employee field depends on the activity category. If the activity category is not Field Engineer
Activity, Repair Activity, Preventive Maintenance, or Other, then the Employee field is populated
with the current login ID.

■ Lock Assignment

■ Priority

■ Status

Child records associated with the template are copied to the following views on the Activities screen:

■ Steps view

■ Instructions view

■ Items view

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■ Skills view

NOTE: To copy the child records from the template, set the activity Category field to Field Service
Activity, Preventive Maintenance, Repair Activity, or Other. See “All Activities View” on page 80.

For more information about views on the Activities screen, see “Activities Screen” on page 79.

Category Field
The Category field on the Service Details subview determines the following for activities generated
from the activity template:

■ Whether child records of the activities are created when the template is applied
■ Whether assignment of the activity is locked

■ How the activity is assigned

For more information about this subview, see “Service Details Subview” on page 79.

Child Records
If the Category field is set to Field Engineer Activity, Repair Activity, Preventive Maintenance, or
Other, then any child records such as service activity steps or assignment skills will be created when
the activity template is applied.

If the Category field is left blank or set to a value other than those listed in the previous paragraph,
the activity records will be created when the template is applied, but no child records will be
associated with the activities.

Lock Assignment
If the Category field is left blank, the Lock Assignment check box for the created activity is selected.

Field Service Activity Assignment

An activity created with activity templates can be assigned to any one of the following users:

■ The employee specified in the template

■ The employee who created the activity by applying an activity template (for example, in a sales
situation)

■ No employee

NOTE: This setting is recommended when Siebel Assignment Manager is to be used to assign
the activity.

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The assignment is determined by the values in the Employee and Category fields of the activity
record in the Activity Template Details list. Table 15 shows how the assignment is determined.

Table 15. Employees and Category Values Determine Activity Assignment

Employees
Field Value Category Field Value Assignment

NOT NULL Any value (NULL or NOT NULL) Assigned to the employee specified in the
Employee field of the activity template.

NULL Field Engineer Activity, Repair Activity, Not assigned. The Employee and Owner
Preventive Maintenance, or Other fields are blank in the created activity.

NULL Not Field Engineer Activity, Repair Assigned to the employee who created the
Activity, Preventive Maintenance, or activity by applying the activity template.
Other

Setting Up Field Service Activities

This section provides the procedures for setting up field service activities, which include defining
activity templates and supplying information for carrying out each activity. Topics include:

■ Setting Up Field Service Activity Templates on page 73

■ Alarms for Field Service Activities on page 74

Setting Up Field Service Activity Templates

Follow these procedures to set up activities.

To define activity templates

1 Navigate to the Administration - Data screen > Activity Templates view.
2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To associate activities with activity templates

1 Navigate to the Administration - Data screen > Activity Templates view.

2 Drill down on a selected activity template and click the Activity Template Details view tab or the
Service Details view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To associate steps, skills, parts and tools, and instructions with an activity
1 Navigate to the Administration - Data screen > Activity Templates view.

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2 Select an activity template and click the Service Details view tab.

3 Select an activity record and click the Service Activity Steps view tab.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

5 Click the Assignment Skills view tab.

6 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

7 Click the Service Activity Items view tab.

8 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

9 Click the Service Activity Instructions view tab.

10 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Alarms for Field Service Activities

Activities are attached to many Siebel business objects; for example, Service Requests and
Opportunities. Siebel applications can notify the user of the start time for a pending activity.
Selecting the Alarm check box in each Activity record turns on this notification.

Alarm notification displays a dialog box or pop-up window in the Siebel user interface at a
predetermined interval before the start of each activity. The Alarm dialog box appears only once for
each activity, unless the activity is repeated (the Repeat box is selected in the activity record). If the
activity is repeated, the alarm appears at the specified time before the start of each instance of the
activity.

Alarms work only through the user interface; they cannot trigger workflow processes. Because
alarms require high interactivity, they are available only for Siebel Enterprise Applications that have
high interactivity selected.

Setting Alarms for Field Service Activities

Alarms notify users of upcoming activities. One setting configures the time at which the notification
takes place.

To set the time that alarms appear

1 From the application-level menu, choose Tools > User Preferences.

The User Preferences screen appears.

2 On the link bar, click Calendar.

The Calendar form appears.

3 In the Alarm Lead Time field, select a time from 5 to 120 minutes before the value of Planned
Start for each activity.

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Turning On Alarms for Field Service Activities

To set the alarm for an activity, select the Alarm box in an activity record on any screen that provides
an Activities view or in the Calendar screen (see the following procedure).

To turn on alarms for a calendar activity

1 Navigate to the Calendar screen.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

3 In the Calendar Detail view, select the Alarm check box.

4 Click Save This One.

Recording Field Service Activities

The following procedures suggest a typical workflow for a field service engineer who is working from
a set of activities.

To log expenses for an activity

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.

2 Select an activity and drill down on the Type field.

3 Click the Expense Tracker view tab.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To log hours spent on an activity

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.
2 Select an activity and drill down on the Type field.

3 Click the Time Tracker view tab. To create a time tracker record, click Start.

The Start field is automatically filled in with the time you create the record.

4 To record the end time for an activity, click Stop.

NOTE: Instead of logging hours at the start and stop times of an activity, you can log hours anytime
after the activity is completed. To do so, click the New button instead of the Start button, and then
complete the necessary fields. If an entitlement is associated with the activity, enter only one record
for all hours, even if they are a combination of regular, overtime, and extended overtime hours.
Because there is an entitlement with metrics and a schedule, the Auto Charge feature will
automatically determine regular, overtime, and extended overtime charges. However, if there is not
an entitlement with metrics and a schedule, create separate records for each time period—regular,
overtime, and extended overtime—spent on the activity. For more information, see “Process of
Setting Up Entitlements” on page 218.

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To verify the availability and order status of materials for an activity

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.

2 Select an activity and click the Items view tab.

The associated parts and tools appear in the Items list. The Order #, Order Type, and Line Status
fields show the status for receiving an ordered part.

NOTE: A field service engineer can create an order from the Items list by clicking the menu button
and selecting the type of order needed (Service or Sales). To verify the order or to view order details,
save the record and click the hyperlink in the Order field.

To order materials for a field service activity

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.

2 Select an activity and click the Items view tab.

3 Select a record. Then from the menu drop-down list, choose Service Order.

4 To order all items that have not yet been ordered, choose Service Order All.

A new, unique order number appears in the Order # field as a hyperlink and the Order Type field
shows Service Order. The order also appears in the Service Order screen.

To verify on-hand inventory using the Part Browser

1 Navigate to the Part Browser screen.

2 Select a part, then do the following:

a Check the Inventory Level subview for the part’s availability, status, and quantity at that
inventory location.
b Check the Substitutes subview to see if there are any alternatives for a part.

To verify on-hand inventory using Check Trunk

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.
2 Select an activity record and drill down on the Type field.

3 Click the Items view tab.

4 Select the activity item and then click Check Trunk.

The Available Qty field is updated according to the current user’s trunk inventory.

To record the movement of service parts in the field

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.

2 Select an activity and click the Part Tracker view tab.

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3 Add a part movement record and complete the fields as appropriate. If the part movement is an
asset swap, see “To record the swapping of one asset for another” on page 77.

This creates an inventory transaction, an asset transaction, or both (depending on the source or
destination) in the Field Service server.

NOTE: Part movements recorded in the field appear here only after the field service engineer has
synchronized the mobile computer. If the engineer described the part with an add-in serial number,
the part transfer appears here only after processing by an administrator.

To record the swapping of one asset for another

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.

2 Select an activity and click the Part Tracker view tab.

3 Create a new record for the uninstalled asset and complete the fields as appropriate.

Do not enter anything in the Swap Part Mvmt # field.

4 Add another record for the installed asset and complete the fields as appropriate. Select the
uninstalled asset in the Swap Part Mvmt # field.

For more information on asset swapping, see “Asset Swaps” on page 470.

To generate an invoice automatically for a field service activity

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.

2 Drill down on a selected activity and click the Invoices view tab.

3 Click Auto Invoice. The activity must be billable in order to generate an invoice.

To enter a new activity for a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Requests List view.

2 Select a service request and drill down on the SR # field.

3 Click the Activities view tab.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To record additional recommended steps for a service request

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.

2 Select an activity and drill down on the Type field.

3 Click the Steps view tab.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

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To record additional skills required to complete a service request

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.

2 Select an activity and drill down on the Type field.

3 Click the Assignment Skills view tab.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

5 Select the newly created record.

6 In the Service Activity Skill Item subview, create a new record and complete the fields as
appropriate.

To record additional instructions for a service request

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.

2 Select an activity and drill down on the Type field.

3 Click the Instructions view tab.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Monitoring Field Service Activities

A service center agent can use the following procedures to monitor the progress of a service request.

To review a field service engineer’s activities

1 Navigate to the Calendar screen.

2 From the Owner drop-down list, select the name of the field service engineer.
3 Click the Daily, Weekly, or Monthly view tab.

To verify part movements in the field

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.

2 Select an activity and drill down on the Type field.

3 Click the Part Tracker tab.

A record of part movements appears in the Part Tracker list.

Administration - Application Screen

The Administration - Application Screen has a view and a subview that are suitable for defining Field
Service-related activity plan templates.

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Activity Templates View

The Activity Templates view creates activity plan templates for all Siebel applications. Any number
of activities may be associated with these templates. Table 16 describes items in activity templates
records.

Table 16. Selected Item in the Activity Templates View

Item Description

Public When selected, this check box indicates that the information can be accessed
by customer and partner applications, as well as by employee applications.

Auto Trigger When selected this check box moves the activities from this template to a sales
stage, when the sales stage is selected for an opportunity.

Service Details Subview

The Service Details subview associates multiple activities with each activity template. This subview
has tabs for associating steps, skills, parts and tools, and instructions with an activity.

Table 17 describes items in activity template detail records.

Table 17. Selected Item in the Service Details Subview

Item Description

Breakable When selected, allows Optimizer to insert a break into an activity.

For information about Optimizer, see Chapter 5, “Setting Up and Using

Scheduling.”

Category Category under which the activities will fall. For information about the effects
of selections in field, see “Category Field” on page 72.

Duration Complete duration of the activity, expressed in minutes, and calculated as work
time + break time.

Lead Time Duration of travel to, or other preparation for, the activity.

Lock When selected, prevents reassignment of the activities.

Assignment

Units Units of measure for Lead Time field.

Work Time Duration of work.

Activities Screen
The Activities screen manages all activities that a field service engineer carries out in response to a
service call. Topics include:

■ All Activities View on page 80

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■ Charges View on page 82

■ Expense Tracker View on page 82

■ Part Tracker View on page 82

■ Instructions View on page 84

■ Invoices View on page 84

■ Readings View on page 84

■ Items View on page 85

■ Schedule View on page 85

■ Assignment Skills View on page 85

■ Steps View on page 86

■ Time Tracker View on page 86

■ Charts View on page 87

All Activities View

The All Activities view shows all activities, both active and closed, assigned to field service engineers.
A field service engineer can add activities or modify existing activities; for example, change the
status of an activity. The Activities view changes from a list to a form after you drill down on an
activities record.

NOTE: The child records of activities (for example, Steps) may be available only for activities of
certain types (for example, Service).

Table 18 describes items in Activities records.

Table 18. Selected Items in the Activities View

Item Description

Alarm When selected, a check box that turns on a warning if the activity does not
begin by the planned start date.

Billable When selected, a check box that indicates that this activity is billable to the
customer.

Category Determines the type of child records that are inherited from the activity
template. For more information, see “Fields Copied from Activity Templates”
on page 71. It also determines the behavior of the Lock Assignment flag. For
more information, see “Rules for Assigning Activities” on page 81.

Change The defect number for a product associated with this activity, chosen from a
Request # dialog box.

Defective Tag The defective tag number (repair number) associated with this activity,
chosen from a dialog box. Displayed in the form only.

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Table 18. Selected Items in the Activities View

Item Description

Due This is the last time and date for an activity, usually used to indicate
contractual commitments or deadlines. This field is automatically populated
with the value from the Agent Committed field for the service request (see
“Agent Committed Time for a Service Request” on page 53). Due is the same
as the Latest Start field in the Schedules view on this screen.

Duration The time required to carry out an activity, including breaks and travel time.
The value is = Planned End – Planned Start. Displayed in the form only.

Employees The names of the employees assigned to carrying out a selected activity. One
employee may be identified as primary.

Repeat Frequency The interval at which to repeat this activity: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly,
or yearly. The repeated activity appears multiple times in the service
engineer’s calendar. The Dispatch Board cannot schedule repeated activities.

Private When selected, a check box that indicates this activity is only visible to its
owner. Displayed by clicking the menu button and selecting Columns
Displayed.

Lock Assignment When selected, a check box that instructs the Assignment Manager not to
assign this activity. For more information, see “Rules for Assigning Activities”
on page 81.

Repeat Until End date for repeating this activity.

Resolution Code The solution code for an activity, chosen from a drop-down list. Also applies
to a service request, and is labeled Resolution in the Service Requests view.

SR # The service request associated with a selected activity.

Status The state of an activity; for example, Approved, Unassigned, or Done.

Clicking the hyperlink for the value Unscheduled in the Status field presents
the Dispatch Board screen.

Rules for Assigning Activities

When an activity is created with the Category field set to Field Engineer Activity, Repair Activity,
Preventive Maintenance, or Other, the following occurs:

■ No owner is assigned.

■ The Lock Assignment flag is set to False—meaning that the Assignment Manager automatically
assigns this activity.

After the record is saved, changing the Category value does not have these effects.

Use Siebel Tools to change the default for activity categories (set ASGN_USR_EXCLD_FLG to N; the
default is Y).

Use the Lock Assignment flag in the “All Activities View” on page 80, the “Schedule View” on page 85,
and the “Activity Templates View” on page 79 to change this assignment for individual activities. If
this flag is selected, the Assignment Manager excludes this activity.

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Charges View
The Charges view displays charges created for this activity. Field service engineers can generate
charges manually or automatically, using the Auto Charge button, for any activities that are marked
as billable and with the rate list specified.

When Auto Charge is used for an activity and the Entitlement field is populated, charge amounts are
calculated based on:

■ Time Tracker records (except for the Rate field)

■ The Rate list and Price list

■ The entitlement’s service hours and metrics (service details definitions and exceptions) set by
the administrator in the Administration - Contracts screen

■ The Schedule Hours and Exception Hours set by the administrator in the Administration - Service
screen

When Auto Charge is used for an activity with the Entitlement field empty, charge amounts are
calculated based on:

■ Time Tracker records

■ The Rate list and Price list

Expense Tracker View

The Expense Tracker view allows a field service engineer to record expenses related to an activity.
Table 19 describes the Billable check box in Expense Tracker records.

In the Expense Tracker view, a Complete button appears at the top of the Activity form. Clicking this
button updates the Cost and Price fields for all the current activity’s parts, time, and expense
records, and changes the value in the Activity record's % Complete field to 100. (Additionally, when
the % Complete field reaches 100, the Status field value changes to Done.)

Table 19. Selected Item in the Expense Tracker View

Item Description

Billable When selected, a check box that indicates this expense is billable to the customer.
When this flag is set, this record is used to create an invoice.

Part Tracker View

The Part Tracker view describes the transfer of parts in the field between the client, a service order,
and the field service engineer’s trunk inventory. Table 20 describes items in Part Tracker records.

NOTE: Transactions between inventories and between inventories and customers are recorded on
the Inventory Transactions screen. For more information, see “Inventory Transactions View” on
page 373.

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In the Part Tracker view, a Complete button appears at the top of the Activity form. Clicking this
button updates the Cost and Price fields for all the current activity’s parts, time, and expense
records, and changes the value in the Activity record's % Complete field to 100. (Additionally, when
the % Complete field reaches 100, the Status field value changes to Done.)

Table 20. Selected Item in the Part Tracker View

Item Description

Billable When selected, a check box that indicates this labor is billable to the
customer. When this flag is set, this record is used to create an invoice.
The service business can define expenses that are not billable; for
example, a coffee break.

Commit When selected, a check box that indicates this transaction was
committed. This check box is set automatically after clicking the
Commit button, if all validations are completed. For more information,
see “Commit Button” on page 84.

Commit and Commit All The Commit button creates a transaction for a selected, uncommitted
buttons record. The Commit All button creates transactions for all
uncommitted records.

Once committed, a record becomes read-only. Committed records

cannot be uncommitted. For more information, see “Commit Buttons”
on page 360.

Source This field describes the location from which the part originated.

Destination This field describes the final customer location for this part.

Swap Part Mvmt # The Swap Part Mvmt # creates a one-for-one swap relationship
between an uninstalled asset and an installed asset. In the record of
the uninstalled asset, the Swap Part Mvmt # field is left blank. In the
record of the installed asset, the uninstalled asset is selected in the
Swap Part Mvmt # field. For more information about asset swaps, see
“Asset Swaps” on page 470.

Write-In Asset When selected, a check box that indicates the serial number for an
asset is not in the local database. The user selects this check box, and
then enters a write-in serial number. This setting is for information
only.

Write-In Serial Number A field for entering a serial number. This is for an asset that is not yet
in the Field Service database on the local computer. An administrator
generates the inventory transaction for the asset after the user
synchronizes.

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Commit Button
The Commit buttons validate the movement of serialized and nonserialized assets that are already
recorded in the local database. For the validation mechanism, see “Commit Buttons” on page 360. If
these validations are successful, the Commit flag is set in Part Tracker records and inventory
movements are recorded by transactions in the database. If an asset is defined in the part movement
record, as asset transaction is also recorded.

A user can create a part movement record without changing the inventory levels in the database. To
change inventory levels, select the Commit check box or click the Commit button.

If the mobile computer is disconnected, the local database is updated. When the mobile computer is
synchronized with the Siebel server, the information about the part movement is transferred to the
server. If the asset was identified in the database on the remote computer, the server records the
change in inventory location in the database and then creates a transaction.

Once committed, a field part movement record is read-only.

Instructions View
The Instructions view records instructions for carrying out an activity. These instructions may be
specific to a customer’s site.

Invoices View
The Invoices view displays invoices created for an activity and allows manual or automatic
generation (using the Auto Invoice command) of invoices for any activities that are marked as
billable. For more information, see “Invoices View” on page 310 and “About the Auto Invoice
Command” on page 299.

Readings View
The Readings view displays key characteristics of an asset, defined in the Activities form, that may
be recorded and tracked. The upper list describes measurements that are described for this product.
The Readings form records data for the selected measurement collected from the asset. The
Readings view collects information used to trigger preventive maintenance activities and use-based
invoicing.

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Items View
The Items view shows the recommended parts and tools that a field service engineer must have to
complete an activity. An activity template can populate these records, and the owner of the activity
can add records. Table 21 describes items in Items records.

Table 21. Selected Items in the Items View

Item Description

Check Trunk Clicking this button displays a pop-up window with the product name, part number,
inventory location, quantity requested, and quantity available for the selected
activity item. The quantity available is a calculated quantity.

Order # The number of a sales or service order, if this part or tool is on order, which the field
technician selects from a dialog box.

Tool When selected, a check box that indicates this is a tool rather than a part. This is
for information only; there is no associated code.

Note that product records are created in the Administration - Product screen.
The Products form view contains a Tools check box, which when selected, indicates
that the product is a service tool and not a part that a customer would buy. Selecting
this check box has other effects; for example, the customer cannot order this
product.

Schedule View
The Schedule view provides an extended description of the schedule and the scheduling process for
a selected activity, plus controls for booking or cancelling future appointments and for inserting an
activity in an optimized schedule. Some of the fields in this view also appear in “All Activities View”
on page 80. See “Adding Schedule Information for Activities (End User)” for more information about
using this view.

Assignment Skills View

The Assignment Skills view describes the skills needed to complete an activity. This view contains
lists of Service Activity Skills and Service Activity Skill Items. Various skills, such as product or
language skills, are required for a field service engineer to carry out an activity. Add skill types
(which appear in the drop-down list for the Item field) using the Administration - Assignment screen
(see Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide). The Assignment Manager uses these
attributes in assigning an activity to the right employee.

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Steps View
The Steps view describes the recommended procedures for carrying out an activity. Table 22
describes an item in Steps view.

Table 22. Selected Items in the Steps View

Item Description

Done When selected, a check box that indicates this step was completed. This setting is
for record keeping; it has no effect on other functions in Field Service.

Time Tracker View

The Time Tracker view allows a field service engineer to record the hours spent on each field service
activity. Table 23 describes items in Time Tracker records.

In the Time Tracker view, a Complete button appears at the top of the Activity form. Clicking this
button updates the Cost and Price fields for all the current activity’s parts, time, and expense
records, and changes the value in the Activity record's % Complete field to 100. (Additionally, when
the % Complete field reaches 100, the Status field value changes to Done.)

Table 23. Selected Items in the Time Tracker View

Item Description

Billable When selected, a check box that indicates this labor is billable to the customer. When
this flag is set, the Charge Engine uses this record to create an charge. The service
business can define expenses that are not billable; for example, a coffee break.

Start Clicking this button creates a new Time Tracker record, records the date and time, and
defaults the Type field to Work.

Stop Clicking this button records the stop date and time for the activity in the Time Tracker
record. To resume an activity, the field service engineer must click Start to create a
new record.

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Charts View
The Charts view provides the charts listed in Table 24 for the analysis of activities.

Table 24. Activities Analyses

Chart Analysis

Account and Type Analysis Two graphs:

■ The number of activities for each account.

■ The number of activities for each type of account.

Contact Analysis The number of activities for each contact.

New Activities Analysis The number of new activities as a function of

a calendar period.

Status Analysis by Owner The number of activities for each owner.

Status and Priority Analysis Two graphs:

■ The number of activities for each status category.

■ The number of activities for each priority

category.

Symptom and Resolution Analysis Two graphs:

■ The number of activities of each symptom type.

■ The number of activities for each resolution code.

Trend Analysis by Activity Type The number of activities of each type as a function
of calendar period.

Trend Analysis by Product The number of activities for each product as a

function of calendar period.

Activity Reports
The Reports menu provides the reports, listed in Table 25, for activities.

Table 25. Activities Reports

Report Description

Activity List A summary of all activities.

Field Engineer Activity Summary A summary of all activities for field service engineers.

Field Engineer Activity Detail A full report of each field service activity, printed
one per page.

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Products Screen
The Products screen has one view, Product Service Details, that is useful for field service activities.

Product Service Details View

The Product Service Details view provides information about service products and possible substitute
products. The values are defined in the “Administration - Product Screen” on page 337. All fields are
read-only. Table 26 describes items in Product Service Details records.

Table 26. Selected Items in the Product Service Details View

Item Description

Allocate Below When selected, a check box that indicates the Fulfillment and Part Locator
Safety Engines can allocate this product when its level in inventory is below the
safety level.

Auto Substitute When selected, a check box that indicates the Fulfillment and Part Locator
Engines can automatically substitute a product.

Auto Allocate When selected, a check box that indicates the Fulfillment and Part Locator
Engines can allocate this product. If this box is cleared, the engines do not
allocate this product.

Field Replaceable When selected, a check box that indicates this item may be replaced at the
customer site. This is informational only.

Lead Time The wait time for the product to arrive. Allows the user to order the part with
enough lead time to serve the customer.

MTBF Mean time between failures; a measure of dependability of the product.

MTTR Mean time to repair; a measure of the time required to repair the product.
Return Defective When selected, a check box that indicates this item, if defective, should be
returned to the service center. This is informational and has no effect on other
fields or functions.

Serialized A check box that indicates this product and all of its assets are serialized.
Serialized products are treated in a different way. Whenever a serialized
product is shipped or received, Field Service expects the right number of
assets with serial numbers.

Tool A check box that indicates this item is a tool used in service procedures. This
is informational and has no effect on other fields or functions.

NOTE: Serialized products are treated differently from nonserialized products. Whenever a serialized
product is shipped or received, Field Service expects the right number of assets. For example, if four
serialized hard drives are shipped or received, Field Service expects that four separate assets have
been entered.

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Substitute Products Subview

The Substitute Products subview specifies the product that the Fulfillment Engine may use to fill an
order when the specified product is unavailable from inventory. All fields are read-only.

NOTE: Multiple substitute products can be established in the Administration - Product Screen.

The user chooses from products that are specified in the “Products View” on page 337. The Fulfillment
Engine can choose this product if the specified product is unavailable and the Auto Substitute flag is
selected.

NOTE: Substitutions are unidirectional. Product A may substitute for Product B, but Product B
cannot substitute for Product A unless that substitution is explicitly defined.

Part Browser Screen

The Part Browser view allows a field service engineer to investigate the availability of products and
substitute products in all inventory locations within the field service business, or only those inventory
locations associated with that field service engineer. All fields are read-only.

Depending on the visibility of the user, the Part Browser can show the inventory across Organizations
(see “All Inventory Locations Across Organizations” on page 369).

NOTE: Do not confuse the Part Browser view with the Part Locator. The Part Locator is a semi-
automated mechanism that Field Service provides to find products among various inventory locations
when fulfilling orders (see the “Part Locator Engine” on page 328). The Part Browser simply displays
products and their inventory locations.

Using the Task UI Application to Perform

Field Service Activities
Siebel Field Service includes the Execute Field Task Start to Finish task to streamline the process of
starting and completing field repair activities. This repeatable task navigates through screens and
views where you can enter multiple records in a way that is easier and faster than manually
navigating through individual screens. As you change status (En Route, In Process, Done, and so
on), the task framework captures the time that the status changed and records it as a variable that
corresponds to a Time Tracker Type field LOV entry. As the status is updated, a Time Tracker entry
is generated behind the scenes.

For information on using the Task UI application, see Siebel Fundamentals. For details on
customizing, activating, and assigning access privileges for tasks, see Siebel Business Process
Framework: Task UI Guide.

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Scenario for Performing Field Service Activities with the

Task UI Application
A field engineer must complete a Field Repair assignment. He uses the Task UI application for this
activity by clicking Execute Field Task Start to Finish in the Task UI pane. He uses the Next button
to move from screen to screen in the task.

He first reviews details for the activity, then checks his trunk inventory. He updates the status to
Scheduled and views a map of the account service location. He updates the status to En Route and
drives to the site. When he arrives, he sets the status to In Progress. Behind the scenes, the Task
UI creates a Time Tracker record for the time he was en route. For more information on the Time
Tracker feature, see Time Tracker View on page 86.

On site, the field engineer looks at the Review Instructions screen, reviews and records steps and
takes readings. He records the asset transactions that he performed while doing the repair, and logs
his time and expenses. Finally, he prints an invoice for the customer to sign.

Activating and Registering Tasks for Field Service

Activities
To use the Execute Field Task Start to Finish task in the Task UI application, you must activate and
assign access privileges for the following tasks:

■ Execute Field Task Start to Finish

■ Field Activity Execution

■ Field Activity En Route

■ Field Activity Invoicing

■ Field Activity Preparation

■ Replace Asset

For information about activating and assigning access privileges for tasks, see Siebel Business
Process Framework: Task UI Guide.

Example of Using the Task UI Application to Execute a

Field Service Activity
The following example lists the steps that an end user performs to use the Execute Field Task Start
to Finish task.

To execute a Field Service Activity from Start to Finish

1 Navigate to Activities > Activity List.

2 Click the Task button.

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3 In the Task UI pane, click Execute Field Task Start to Finish.

4 In the Review Address and Details screen, review and adjust any necessary fields, and click Next.

5 In the Check Trunk for Recommended Inventory screen, review the inventory information. The
following options are available:

■ Check Trunk

■ Create Order for Selected Parts

■ Service Order All

Click Next.

6 In the Update Status screen, choose an action for the activity, such as Mark as In Progress. Click
Next.

7 In the Review and Submit screen, review the information for the activity, and click Submit.

8 In the Review and Record Steps screen, record the steps for this activity. You can choose from
the options such as Automated Diagnostic Test, Customer Approval, Install New Parts, Customer
Satisfaction Survey, or query for another step.

9 In the Choose Part Transaction screen, choose a part transaction for the activity or choose
Continue.

10 In the Parts Transaction Summary screen, click the Commit or Commit All buttons to commit the
part transactions in inventory.

11 In the Update Time Sheet screen, enter or update the time records for the selected activity.
12 In the Activity Expenses screen, enter or update the expense records for the selected activity.
13 In the Select Invoice Option screen, choose to generate an invoice, generate charges and review,
or continue.

14 In the Review and Submit screen, review the activity, and click Submit.

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5 Setting Up and Using Scheduling

This chapter describes the various aspects of scheduling. Topics include:

■ About Schedules in Siebel Field Service on page 94

■ About Siebel Scheduler on page 94

■ About the Appointment Booking System on page 96

■ Scenario for the Appointment Booking System on page 96

■ About the Scheduling Optimizer on page 96

■ About Schedule Horizons and Time Zones on page 98

■ About Scheduling Heuristic Methods on page 100

■ What Happens During Appointment Booking? on page 101

■ Guidelines for Setting Up Scheduling on page 102

■ Process of Setting Up Scheduling on page 106

■ Defining Schedule Hours on page 107

■ Defining Service Regions on page 109

■ Defining Employee Availability and Schedules on page 116

■ Creating Time Windows for Scheduling on page 121

■ Creating Constraint Sets for Scheduling on page 122

■ Creating Parameter Sets for Scheduling on page 127

■ Defining Cost Functions for the Optimizer on page 134

■ Setting Up Server Key Mappings on page 136

■ Setting Server Component Task Parameters on page 139

■ Reloading the ABS and Optimizer Caches on page 140

■ Process of Scheduling Activities on page 148

■ Adding Schedule Information for Activities (End User) on page 148

■ Booking Activity Appointments (End User) on page 150

■ Locking Schedules and Assignments (End User) on page 153

■ Optimizing Schedules (End User) on page 155

■ Running Contract Scheduling (End User) on page 157

■ About Troubleshooting the Appointment Booking System and Optimizer on page 159

■ About Configuring the Appointment Booking Display on page 165

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■ About Enhancing the Performance of Siebel Scheduler on page 166

■ About the Relationship of Scheduler to the Server Request Broker on page 167

■ About Loading and Reloading Service Region Data on page 169

■ “About Using Application Deployment Manager” on page 171

About Schedules in Siebel Field Service

A schedule describes the hours in a week for which the customer is entitled to receive service.

NOTE: Depending on the Siebel application and screen, Schedule means the same as Service Hours
or Service Calendar.

Schedules are based on a typical work week. For each schedule, an administrator can also specify
holidays and excluded days for which contractually covered service is not offered to a customer.

About Siebel Scheduler

This section describes how users can assign and schedule personnel to carry out field service
activities.

NOTE: In Siebel Field Service, the term users can include any of the following: dispatchers, who
review one or many region schedules and manually rearrange them; call or service center
representatives, who handle the customer calls and make appointments for service activities;
automated processes (for example, workflows) which identify an activity and then perform automatic
scheduling.

The process of scheduling field service engineers must take into account a wide range of factors,
including availability of personnel, proximity to the customer site, skills, availability of parts,
efficiency of scheduling, and optimizing costs to the service provider.

Field Service provides these tools for assigning and scheduling activities:

■ Manual assignment. Manual assignment is available in any Activities view, where a dispatcher
or customer service representative can fill in the Employees field. For procedures, see “Assigning
Field Service Engineers for Activities (End User)” on page 196.

■ Dispatch Board. This screen lets a dispatcher or customer service representative manually
assign and schedule individual activities by dragging and dropping an activity onto a Gantt chart.
See Chapter 6, “Setting Up and Using the Dispatch Board” for more information.

■ Assignment Manager. This function provides a list of personnel who are qualified to carry out
a service activity or service request. The list, based on a set of rules, is ranked by a score that
indicates the engineer’s suitability. The dispatcher or customer service representative chooses a
field service engineer from this list. See Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide for
more information.

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■ Appointment Booking System (ABS). Using the ABS, a customer service representative can
schedule future appointments, with a choice of time periods from which a customer can select,
and book appointments. The output of the ABS is the assignment of specific field service
engineers to service activities on specific dates and times. See “About the Appointment Booking
System” on page 96 for more information.

■ Optimization Engine. The main purpose of the Optimization Engine, or Optimizer, is to

reorganize and reassign a schedule to reduce the cost of the schedule. The Optimizer uses a
flexible set of constraints, availability, and cost considerations. See “Defining Cost Functions for
the Optimizer” on page 134 for more information.

The Optimizer can reorganize schedules to meet contractual commitments for service,
accommodate emergency service calls, and meet unforeseen events in the service organization
(for example, sick days for field service engineers). These functions of the Optimizer are known
as Contract Scheduling.

Contract Scheduling inserts high-priority service activities into a schedule with minimal
disruption of the schedule and without significant increase in the cost of the schedule. Contract
scheduling requires an immediate response. For contract commitments, the Optimizer can either
fit the service activity into a free spot in a schedule or reschedule and reoptimize an entire
schedule to accommodate a new activity. See “About the Scheduling Optimizer” on page 96 for
more information.

After an activity is assigned and scheduled, the Workflow Manager can notify a field service engineer
by sending, for example, an email or a notification to a wireless device. The engineer can then
synchronize a mobile PC or handheld computer to obtain details about an activity.

Business Requirements for Scheduling

Typically, businesses that schedule personnel have the following needs:

■ Match the right person to an activity, depending, for example, on the skills required for that
activity.

■ Minimize the cost of service. This usually means minimizing overtime, down time, and travel.

■ Respect contractual commitments (for example, service personnel must be onsite within 24
hours).

Businesses have to schedule service for three different time spans:

■ For emergencies today, making sure that the best person can respond in the promised time
frame.

■ For the jobs occurring over the next week or two, ensuring that the appropriate people are
efficiently utilized and not spending excess time traveling from site to site.

■ For the weeks and months ahead, booking future jobs such as preventive maintenance and
installations, using available resources efficiently.

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About the Appointment Booking System

A significant portion of a service business is concerned with activities happening in the future, such
as installations or preventive maintenance. The Siebel Appointment Booking System (ABS) is
designed to automate the process of offering appointments to customers. The ABS operates in real
time.

The ABS provides a list of available time slots for future appointments, and then reserves a selected
appointment slot. Customers may prefer a shorter time slot, but the window should be large enough
that there is a high probability that the engineer can meet a commitment.

Scenario for the Appointment Booking

System
A cable service company employs customer service representatives who handle calls from customers
wanting to have cable installed. The cable installation requires that customers be present to let the
field service engineer into their residence. Customers generally do not want to spend the entire day
waiting for the engineer to arrive, which means that they are much happier if the service
representative can give them a time range.

When the customer calls to schedule the cable installation, the service representative asks the
customer for a general time when he or she expects to be at home. The customer service
representative then attempts to book an appointment for this approximate time. During this process,
the ABS returns a time window during which the field service engineer can arrive. The customer
service representative can then book appropriately skilled field service engineers for a particular time
range. Installing the cable takes approximately one hour, so the service representative may give the
customer a time slot from 8 A.M. to 12 P.M. Booking field service engineers for a time range rather
than a specific time allows some leeway in case problems occur—for example, traffic jams or jobs
that run for longer than anticipated.

About the Scheduling Optimizer

The Optimizer uses a number of complex algorithms to meet the following objectives:

■ Assign field service engineers to service activities

■ Schedule these activities

■ Maximize the efficiency and the quality of service

■ Minimize cost to the service organization

The Optimizer can also respond to immediate scheduling demands to provide break/fix activities that
meet the requirements of service entitlements (for example, a response within four hours),
emergencies (for example, breakdown of service vehicles), and changes in service personnel.

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Schedule Optimization
Because most service costs are derived from labor, efficient use of labor is one of the primary goals
of a service organization. Efficiency encompasses a broad array of objectives, some of which may
conflict:

■ Solving a service request the first time, which requires assigning a field service engineer with
the right skills and parts.

■ Skilled engineers can finish a task faster; however, they should also be assigned to more
challenging work so their time is not wasted on trivial tasks.

■ Where possible, travel between jobs should be minimized by grouping jobs in a particular area.

■ Engineers should appear on site within contractually committed times.

The Optimizer provides automated, background optimization of the schedule for field service
activities and optimal use of resources in each service region.

Business Priorities
Every business has a different definition of efficiency in delivering service. Businesses that have
requirements for critical responses (for example, a utility company may have downed power lines)
define efficiency as placing someone on site within the shortest time. In this case, response is more
important than full utilization. Other businesses do not have stringent response requirements but
require higher utilization to preserve profits. In either case, a service business needs to set priorities
when scheduling and dispatching personnel.

Break/Fix Activities and Contract Scheduling

Most service businesses start the day with a schedule of activities to perform, such as maintenance,
installations, and other booked repairs. During the day, customers may call for repairs (break/fix
activities), requiring modification of schedules.

Customers with service contracts often have specific entitlements with a required response time. This
response time may be tiered based on the level of the contract: standard contracts may promise
engineers will be onsite within 24 hours, while premium contracts may specify response times as
short as two hours.

Break/fix activities must be inserted into the schedule that the Optimizer has carefully optimized
during the previous night. Optimizing the schedule again is usually not practical because optimization
routines can run for an hour or two to determine good solutions. Customers want a service
commitment immediately, often while they are on the phone. You must achieve a balance between
trading optimized schedules for quick responses and customer satisfaction while still enforcing
business rules.

The ideal solution for the customer service representatives, in response to break/fix requests, is to
click a button and receive a time for a service call that respects contractual agreements and other
constraints. The Optimizer addresses this need.

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About Schedule Horizons and Time

Zones
The ABS and Optimizer define the following time periods for scheduling of activities:

■ Glued period. A time period, starting from today, when no scheduling of activities is permitted.
This period is required to prevent changes to schedules and assignments that are already sent
to field service engineers. A glued period is not required; you can set it to 0.

■ Contract Scheduling period. The period of time in days for scheduling immediately pending
activities for a specific service region. Typically, this period covers days 2 to 8 (starting from the
end of the Glued period to a week from today).

■ Optimizer horizon. A period of time that includes the Contract Scheduling period. This is the
time period within which the Optimizer operates.

■ ABS horizon. The period of time in days for scheduling future activities extending from the end
of the Optimizer horizon to some time in the future. The ABS horizon is the length of time that
is available to book appointments for a service region. Typically, this is from days 8 to 56 (starting
a week from now to eight weeks).

Both the ABS and the Optimizer horizons are represented by a single time line (Figure 2), because
both are measured from a current time (that is, the time for loading data—see “About Loading and
Reloading Service Region Data” on page 169).

Figure 2 shows an example of how these time periods are typically defined. The Glued period is day
1. The Contract Scheduling period is days 2 through 7. The Optimizer horizon, which spans the
Contract Scheduling period, is days 2 through 7. The ABS horizon is days 8 through 21, and
appointment booking is done for that period of time.

Figure 2. Scheduling Horizons

Activities move from right to left along this time line. For example, a service activity may follow this
scenario:

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■ An appointment to perform an activity is booked into a time slot some time 8 to 15 days from
now. The ABS assigns the activity to an employee during the ABS horizon.

■ As the days go by, the scheduled activity moves closer to today. On day 8, it moves from the ABS
horizon to the Optimizer horizon. In the Optimizer horizon, the Optimizer evaluates the schedule
and determines the best time and person to carry out the service activity while trying to minimize
the costs of a schedule.

■ The activity remains in the Optimizer horizon for 6 days, where the Optimizer may adjust the
schedule at regular intervals, at least once each day. This readjustment may be necessary
because of changes in personnel, emergency service calls, or service activities that are regulated
by contractual commitments (for example, a warranty repair required within 12 hours).

■ On day 1, the Glued period begins and the schedule for the activities in a service region is locked.

About Using Long-Range ABS Horizons

You do not need to use the ABS to schedule items that are far into the future, such as six months
ahead. This question can arise particularly with companies that schedule preventive maintenance
activities months ahead of time. Usually, the ABS is not required because the activities are
automatically scheduled when they are loaded into the ABS as soon as they enter the ABS horizon.

For example, assume today is March 1st and the ABS horizon is 14 days. A preventive maintenance
activity can be set for May 1st (Earliest Start/Latest Start is May 1st 9 A.M./May 1st 12P.M.). This
activity will remain unscheduled until April 17th. When the ABS is reloaded that evening, it queries
and finds the activity. Because the activity is unscheduled, the ABS attempts to schedule it
automatically using the Earliest Start/Latest Start values.

The only case where you might want to use the ABS to schedule long-range appointments is when
you anticipate being so close to capacity that you are concerned about overbooking.

NOTE: Longer horizons require more memory; also, note the 10,000 query limit on activities for
each service region.

Schedule Time Zones

Siebel Field Service stores all times using the UTC (Universal Time Coordinate). To display the local
time in the user interface, the application converts the UTC to the appropriate local time zone.
Service Calendars use Universal Time Coordinate conversions. For more information, see the chapter
on ongoing application administration tasks in Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

CAUTION: UTC is not the same as GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). UTC does not observe daylight
savings time, whereas GMT observes daylight savings time.

Scheduling uses the following time zones:

■ The customer’s time zone. Appointments are booked in the customer’s time zone, which is
assumed to be the same as the service region’s time zone.

■ The service center’s time zone.

■ The service region’s time zone. Activities displayed in the Gantt chart on the Dispatch Board
are in the service region’s time zone.

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■ The employee’s (field service engineer’s) time zone. Scheduler ignores the employee’s
time zone and uses the service region time zone.

CAUTION: Activity times (for example, Earliest Start and Latest Start) must be specified in the
service region time zone. If the dispatcher or service administrator is in a different time zone,
you must manually convert to the service region time zone.

About Scheduling Heuristic Methods

Both the ABS and the Optimizer use heuristic methods to schedule appointments. These heuristic
methods are specified as part of the parameter set configuration—see “Creating Parameter Sets for
Scheduling” on page 127 for more information.

Heuristics for the Appointment Booking System

There are three possible heuristic methods that the ABS can use to schedule appointments:

■ Earliest First. The earliest available time slots are included in the set. The ABS examines each
person in the schedule to find the first open slots after the Earliest Start date. This method may
provide the fastest possible response for the activity. Companies that are booking activities for
the same day prefer this method because it maximizes the amount of work people are
performing.

■ Resource Loading. Time slots are selected so that the schedules for employees are filled to the
extent possible, one employee at a time. If two or more qualified employees are available, the
time slots for the employee with the most complete (filled-up) schedule are selected for inclusion
in the set. This heuristic method is primarily used for scheduling partners or on-call resources
where the company wants to use as few resources as possible to meet the service needs.

TIP: The number of time slots returned in response to the request is configurable through the
parameter ABS - Default Number of Slots.

■ Resource Leveling. Time slots are selected so that the schedules for qualified employees are
evenly loaded, to the extent possible. This heuristic method is useful in situations where
companies have salaried field service engineers who should be used when on schedule.

NOTE: Selecting this heuristic method does not mean that the time slots for all employees in the
schedule will be displayed. Multiple slots from the same employee might be shown if that
employee is more lightly loaded.

Heuristics for the Optimizer

The Optimizer provides a choice of methods for obtaining solutions for a service region’s schedule.
Each of these methods involves a different strategy to improve the schedule. All methods use
operations to move two or a few appointments and activities in a schedule and then verify
improvements in the overall cost of the schedule. For example, the Optimizer may try to swap a pair
of activities between two field service engineers. This can change the cost of the schedule by
changing the cost of travel, the amount and cost of overtime, and the rate billed by the field service
engineer. Any reduction in cost is an improvement in the schedule. For more information, see
“Defining Cost Functions for the Optimizer” on page 134.

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There are five different classes of operations for moving appointments and activities in a schedule.
Each optimization method uses all of these scheduling heuristics.

There are two basic optimization methods, which can be used alone, and three methods that can be
used in combination with the basic methods. The following basic methods consistently search for and
accept only improvements (lower cost) in the schedule:

■ Greedy search. This method starts with an existing schedule and finds the first move that
improves the schedule, accepts the move, and then uses this solution to find the next
improvement. A Greedy search repeats this process until there is no more improvement or it
reaches a time limit. This method is relatively fast, but the result solution is not as good as other
methods.

■ Steepest search. This method starts with an existing schedule, tries all moves, accepts the
move that provides the greatest improvement in the schedule, and then uses this solution to find
the next improvement. A Steepest search repeats this process until there is no more
improvement or it reaches a time limit. This method takes longer, but generally produces lower-
cost schedules.

The following methods, combined with either the Greedy search or the Steepest search, allow moves
that temporarily increase the cost of a schedule to arrive at significant, overall improvements in the
schedule. In all cases, the Greedy search or the Steepest search quickly finds an improved schedule,
and then one of the following methods takes over and searches for improvements:

■ Tabu search. This method accepts the next best solution even if it is not an improvement over
the previous schedule. It keeps a tabu list of finite length that contains the results of previous
moves. The Optimizer cannot repeat a move until a move drops off the list.

■ Fast Guided Local search. This method adjusts the cost of a solution to reflect the number of
times the Optimizer tried a move. This allows the Optimizer to try a wider range of changes.

■ Fast Guided Tabu search. This method combines the Tabu search and the Fast Guided Local
search. It often finds good solutions faster than either the Tabu or Fast Guided Local searches.

What Happens During Appointment

Booking?
This section describes the business and technical process flows that are followed when a customer
service representative tries to book an appointment. See “Booking Activity Appointments (End User)”
on page 150 for information about how to book appointments.

Appointment Booking Business Process Flow

The following describes a typical customer service center business process.

1 A request for service arrives from a customer.

2 The customer service representative opens a service request and selects an activity plan to
generate activities for this request.

3 The agent clicks the Book Appt button in the Service screen or the Activities screen to get a list
of appointment choices for the selected activity.

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4 The customer service representative, who sees these choices in a dialog box, selects a time slot
and clicks Confirm.

If none of the time slots work for the customer, the customer service representative clicks Cancel.

Appointment Booking Technical Process Flow

The following describes what happens within the ABS when the business process in “Appointment
Booking Business Process Flow” on page 101 takes place.

1 When the customer service representative clicks the Book Appt button, the ABS searches for
available time slots using the Earliest Start field and Latest Start field (if a value is supplied) to
limit the search.

2 If the earliest and latest start are not specified, the ABS chooses from all of the time slots within
the ABS horizon.

The ABS returns time slots and reserves these with a timed lock.

NOTE: The ABS returns possible time slots for the Earliest Start Time only.

3 If the customer service representative confirms a time slot, the ABS marks the selected slot as
permanently used. The ABS then frees the other reserved time slots, writes the details of the
selected slot to the activity record, and returns control to the client.

If the customer service representative cancels the time slot, the ABS frees all of the time slots
reserved for this activity and returns control to the client.

NOTE: If the representative does not cancel these time slots, the time-out releases the slots.

Guidelines for Setting Up Scheduling

Consider the following when setting up scheduling:

■ Business model. What is your business model? What part does scheduling play? Which Siebel
application modules are you using?

■ Service regions. Plan service regions so that movement of service personnel between regions
is the exception. Geographic areas that define service regions may overlap. In addition, service
regions can have parent regions that effectively widen the primary service region when manually
assigning activities using the Dispatch Board. Thus, resources can be shared across areas by
setting up regional hierarchies. See “Defining Service Regions” on page 109 for more information.

■ Server mapping. Set up servers and processors to distribute the scheduling tasks efficiently.
See “Setting Up Server Key Mappings” on page 136 and “Setting Server Component Task
Parameters” on page 139 for more information.

■ Employees. Assign employees to service regions.

NOTE: Employees can be assigned to only one service region. See “Loading Employee Data for
Service Regions” on page 142 for more information.

■ ZIP or Postal Codes. Load ZIP Code and geocode data. See “Defining Service Region Geographic
Areas for the Optimizer” on page 113 for more information.

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■ Constraints. Set up hard constraints for the ABS and both hard and soft constraints for the
Optimizer. The ABS uses only hard constraints. The Optimizer can use either hard or soft
constraints. See “Creating Constraint Sets for Scheduling” on page 122 for more information.

■ Cost functions. The Optimizer calculates a cost function for each proposed schedule. This
function is the sum of factors that drive the optimization of a schedule; for example, the cost of
overtime, travel distance, and penalties for violating soft constraints. For more information, see
“Defining Cost Functions for the Optimizer” on page 134.

Rules Enforced by the Appointment Booking System

When preparing a list of possible time slots, the ABS enforces the following rules:

■ The time slots offered must equal the availability of the personnel for a service region.

■ The time slots offered must match the personnel who have the required skills. You can enforce
this rule the Use Assignment Manager scheduling parameter.

NOTE: Assignment Manager scores do not affect the order or ranking of the time slots returned.
They only determine whether an employee is eligible to own a particular activity.

■ Time slots must meet other constraints; for example, never have an engineer do more than four
installations per day. Other limits on field service activities can meet business or union
requirements.

■ The ABS can have activities that extend over more than one day.

■ Activities that cross between the end of the Optimizer horizon and the beginning of the ABS
period are treated as locked by both of these engines.

Guidelines for Integrating Scheduling with Wireless

Updates
Schedules constantly change in a service region, because a service engineer calls in sick, a customer
cancels an appointment, or a repair takes longer than scheduled. Service businesses must
continuously change to accommodate unexpected occurrences.

Wireless communications allow service resources to respond flexibly to change. For example, an
engineer calls in sick. Using a solution provided by the ABS or Optimizer, Field Service can send pages
or Short Message Service (SMS) messages to cell phones (mobile phones) to reschedule
appointments. SMS can send messages up to 160 characters and request confirmation of message
delivery.

In another example, when time is available unexpectedly, break or fix activities can be slotted into
those times. The critical step is to reach the engineer through a wireless device and obtain
acceptance. The wireless device can also provide basic information about the customer and the
problem, preparing the engineer to enter the customer site informed and to fix the problem without
assistance from the service center.

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If a job runs over the scheduled time, an engineer can use a wireless device to send a message to
a dispatcher or customer service representative; the customer service representative can then
proactively inform the customer of the process.

Guidelines for Integrating Scheduling with a Service

Inventory System
Approximately 70 percent of all break/fix calls require a part. Because most break/fix calls occur
during the day, service engineers may not have the parts in their trunk inventories or the time to
pick up replacement parts from a local depot. One solution is to schedule a service engineer who has
the parts already available. When choosing appropriate personnel, you can use this option as one of
the constraints.

If the response can wait until the next day, another solution is to reschedule the service call and
drop-ship the parts to the customer overnight. Tight integration with the inventory system (which
must track down to the trunk level) is critical to any scheduling system. Part utilization is set up using
parameters. See “Creating Parameter Sets for Scheduling” on page 127 for more information.

Guidelines for Integrating Preventive Maintenance with

the Appointment Booking System
The optional Preventive Maintenance module lets users to set triggers on assets that, when tripped,
automatically create service requests and activities for these assets. There are two types of
triggers—time-based and threshold-based.

Threshold-based preventive maintenance depends on asset readings (such as the number of copies
made on a copier) and is reactive (taking a reading results in creating a service request). The service
requests that the Preventive Maintenance Engine creates usually require immediate, not future
action. Immediate actions use the Siebel Contract Scheduling module. The ABS is involved only if
the service call can be delayed more than a specified number of days. See “Running Contract
Scheduling (End User)” on page 157 for more information.

Time-based preventive maintenance triggers, for legal or contractual reasons, require periodic,
proactive checks on equipment. The Preventive Maintenance Engine generates service requests and
future activities. One of the activities could be an outbound call from the dispatcher or customer
service representative to schedule a time for service. When the customer service representative calls
the customer, the representative can use the ABS to negotiate a time.

Guidelines for Optimizing Schedules

The Optimizer is appropriate for field service businesses that have a large number of engineers within
a concentrated area. Generally, if over 30 percent of a service force is located in the top ten areas,
then optimization is appropriate. However, businesses that have the following needs should consider
optimization.

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Centralized Dispatch Model

A centralized dispatch model, in which a team of dispatchers handles most dispatching for the full
service business, is often driven by a follow-the-sun support. Customers can call twenty-four hours
a day and are routed to an open call center somewhere in the world.

Customer support representatives need to assign engineers to a call even though they do not know
the local requirements and rules. The Optimizer has constraints so that when central dispatchers
submit the activity, it is optimized to be consistent with local priorities. Most activities can be
scheduled automatically at a central location; any exceptions can be handled manually by a local
service manager, eliminating the need for dedicated dispatch personnel.

Enforcing Contractual or Legal Constraints

Many companies must comply with strict limits on work hours and hazardous work. Union
agreements may stipulate special conditions, such as fairness in work assignments. Having a system
that can automatically track these constraints significantly decreases the burden on service
businesses.

Working in High-Traffic Areas

The majority of wasted time in a service business is usually spent getting to customer sites. Many
service businesses find that their employees are either spending too much time in the office or are
on the road needlessly, driving back and forth between engagements.

By handling two calls in one area, traveling time is decreased significantly and performance is
increased by over 10 percent. As service businesses move to a revenue base, a 10 percent increase
in revenue can yield an even higher gain in profits.

Amount of Optimization
Is it possible for a schedule to be too optimized? A schedule with high utilization (little free time) is
usually a good thing. However, past a certain point, further optimization may bring diminished cost
savings. Furthermore, highly optimized schedules are easily corrupted; minor changes can cause
problems to ripple throughout a schedule.

For example, consider a day’s schedule for one engineer who is booked from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. with no
free time. If just one appointment runs over, the engineer will not be able to complete all activities,
leaving at least one (or more) to overtime or the next day. Plus, unexpected events such as a vehicle
breakdown can completely disrupt this fully booked schedule.

The goal is to create a schedule that is optimized but still flexible enough to accommodate change.
There are two ways to do this:

■ Create constraints limiting the percentage of hours booked.

■ Extend the duration of activities to leave extra time.

The first method is preferable as it allows managers to set up a dependable level of work. With the
second method, managers are not sure of the true workload for their region.

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The balance of working time and available time depends on the business needs. Businesses that
require more flexibility (and therefore lower utilization percentages) have the some or all of the
following business requirements:

■ High break/fix volume

■ Critical response (for example, a power line down)

■ Highly variable times for service delivery

■ Many short activities (especially in a high-traffic areas)

■ Tight contractual requirements

Service businesses with a need for higher utilization usually have the following business
requirements:

■ Longer activities (and therefore less travel)

■ Preventive maintenance as the main type of service

■ Lower break/fix occurrences

■ Longer contractual response time

When determining the best level of utilization, consider your service needs and then set an
approximate level. Then, adjust the optimization parameters to give the best results.

Process of Setting Up Scheduling

The following list shows the procedures that administrators typically perform to set up scheduling
within Siebel Field Service. Your company may follow a different process according to its business
requirements.

To set up and maintain scheduling, perform the following tasks:

■ Defining Schedule Hours on page 107

■ Defining Service Regions on page 109

■ Defining Employee Availability and Schedules on page 116

■ Creating Time Windows for Scheduling on page 121

■ Creating Constraint Sets for Scheduling on page 122

■ Creating Parameter Sets for Scheduling on page 127

■ Defining Cost Functions for the Optimizer on page 134

■ Setting Up Server Key Mappings on page 136

■ Setting Server Component Task Parameters on page 139

■ Reloading the ABS and Optimizer Caches on page 140

See also “About Troubleshooting the Appointment Booking System and Optimizer” on page 159 for
more information about checks that you should carry out after performing the setup configuration.

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Defining Schedule Hours

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

For each schedule, you set schedule hours that define the hours of availability. The schedule may
also include a set of exceptions (in the Exception Name field), which are defined in the All Exceptions
view and the Exception Hours view.

To enter the hours for a schedule, perform the following tasks:

■ Define the hours during which employees can be scheduled for activities. See “Setting Hours of
Availability” on page 107 for more information.

■ Define the hours during which employees cannot be scheduled for activities. See “Setting
Exception Hours” on page 108 for more information.
See also “About Schedule Horizons and Time Zones” on page 98 for more information about how
Scheduler uses schedule periods and time zones.

Setting Hours of Availability

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

For each schedule, you set schedule hours that define the hours of availability (days of week, hours
per day, and holidays) for service-providing entities (employees, partners, or business units).
Exception hours are specific days or hours in a schedule for working (for example, Saturday morning
in a 12xM-F schedule) or not working (for example, a midweek holiday in a 12xM-F schedule).

To create a schedule and set schedule hours

1 Navigate to the Administration - Service screen > Schedules view.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

3 Click the Schedule Hours view tab.

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4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

End Time Indicates the end of a time period on the selected day.

Shift Start Flag Indicates a time period that begins a work shift. Anything before the next
flagged time period is considered to be in the same shift. This flag helps the
Optimizer handle swing shifts that start on one day and finish on another.

The Shift Start flag is required for each shift in the schedule. Usually, this
means that you have one Shift Start flag per day, except for the last day of
a swing shift.

See “Rules for Defining Employee Schedules” on page 116 for more
information about setting shift starts.

Start Day A day of the week that is included in the schedule.

Start Time Start of a time period on the selected day.

Type Can have a value of Normal, Overtime, or Extended Overtime. The

Appointment Booking System and Optimizer both use this value.

The Schedule Hours view defines the days and time periods in each day that are included in a
schedule. For example, an 8x5 schedule defines time periods within eight hours on five days—
for example, 9 A.M. until 5 P.M. Monday through Friday. However, each day could have more than
one record, each with a separate time period—for example, 9-12 A.M. Monday and 2-5 P.M.
Monday.

NOTE: An Extended Overtime period must be preceded by an Overtime period.

5 Repeat Step 2 through Step 4 for each day of the week on which you want to provide support in
this schedule.

NOTE: Schedule hour records can reflect different time periods on the same day of the week.
However, only one of these records can contain the start of a shift.

Setting Exception Hours

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

Exceptions represent special nonworking days or working days. Different exception records may
define exceptions for different sites—for example, U.S. holidays for one site and Canadian holidays
for another. You can define a day or continuous blocks of days as an exception to a schedule. In some
cases, exception hours can define working and nonworking periods—for example, no work on Sunday
from 6 A.M. to 12 A.M. in a 7x12 schedule. For other schedules, exception hours can define work
periods on days that are not normal work hours—for example, Saturday morning for a 5x8 schedule.

To associate an exception with a schedule, define the exception and include this exception in the
definition of a schedule.

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You can also use exception hours to block the scheduled time slot for the owner of an activity, in
order to allow another employee to be assigned to the activity in the same time slot. For information
about defining the exception hours for an employee, see “Defining Hours for Employees” on page 117.
If the defined exception hours block a time slot in which an activity was scheduled for the employee,
the activity is rescheduled when you reload the service region.

To add exceptions and exception hours to a schedule

1 Navigate to the Administration - Service screen > Schedules view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected schedule and click the All Exceptions view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

The All Exceptions view names a set of exceptions to the hours defined in the Schedule Hours
view. The Exception Hours view contains the definition of these exceptions.

4 Click the Exception Hours view tab.

5 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Start Date A range of calendar days or hours within a specific day that define the
End Date exception hours.

Name Reason for the exception to the schedule. Values may include, for example,
Appointment, Deadline, Sick Time, and Vacation.

Type Type of billing rate. Can have a value of Normal, Overtime, or Extended
Overtime. Overtime and Extended Overtime apply to exception hours that
are marked as Working. The Appointment Booking System and the Optimizer
use this value. For more information, see “About the Appointment Booking
System” on page 96 and “About the Scheduling Optimizer” on page 96.

Working Indicates that the record defines a work period.

NOTE: Extended Overtime hours must be preceded by Overtime hours.

Defining Service Regions

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

From a service management perspective, a service region is a grouping of service engineers in a

geographical area for a particular purpose, usually the support of a certain set of products. Service
managers try to manage the load within a service region by balancing proactive calls (installations,
preventive or scheduled maintenance) with reactive calls. Service regions ease administrative
burdens by allowing service managers to set consistent schedules, constraints, and costs for a large
number of employees.

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From a systems perspective, a service region is a defined grouping of service engineers and the
activities that they perform. This definition allows Siebel Scheduler to create a bounded solution set,
which has a finite solution space, as well as a finite number of activities to schedule. One of the
assumptions of a service region is that two employees with the same skill set are both capable of
performing a job. If the system were to deal in employees alone, there would be little binding the
employees together; the rules regarding interchangeability would be too vague to effectively
determine.

Every employee and service region has a predefined schedule that includes the days and hours that
work may take place (normal work hours), plus exceptions that deviate from normal work hours.

To define a service region, perform the following tasks:

1 Create a service region record. See “Creating Service Regions” on page 110.

2 Associate a schedule with the service region. See “Associating Schedules with Service Regions” on
page 112 for more information.

3 Specify any regions that will function as parent service regions. See “Specifying Parent Service
Regions” on page 112 for more information.

4 Define the geographic area of the service region. See “Defining Service Region Geographic Areas
for the Optimizer” on page 113 for more information.

About Service Region Caches

The information relating to each service region (for example, the employees assigned to the service
region) is cached in memory. Instead of allowing the ABS and the Optimizer to operate directly on
the database, the server copies data from the database into memory caches, one for the ABS and
one for the Optimizer. The ABS cache holds the time slots in the future, and the Optimizer cache
holds the activities occurring over the next few days. This approach allows scheduling to be
performed quickly and efficiently, reducing traffic and database CPU load.

Each service region has its own cache, which allows the Scheduler processes to be serviced
independently. Siebel Scheduler can be run on separate CPUs within one server or separate boxes
as required. The ABS (like the Optimizer) is also multithreaded, which means that each service
region can accept multiple requests at the same time.

See “Reloading the ABS and Optimizer Caches” on page 140 and “About Loading and Reloading Service
Region Data” on page 169 for more information.

Creating Service Regions

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

A service region is a geographic area defined by ZIP Codes and a service team. The ABS and the
Optimizer handle service regions and their associated data when scheduling activities.

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To create a service region

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Regions List view.

The Service Regions view defines service regions in terms of the employees assigned to each
region, geographic coordinates (in terms of geocode and ZIP Codes or postal codes), and the
operation of the ABS and Optimizer for the selected service region.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Average The average travel speed for field service engineers in the service region, used
Travel Speed when the Optimizer calculates costs. See “Defining Cost Functions for the
Per Hour Optimizer” on page 134 for more information.

Average The amount of travel time that the ABS adds to an activity when calculating
Travel Time the duration of an activity (work time + average travel time).
(Minutes)

Constraint Set The constraint set that the ABS and Optimizer use in optimizing the schedule
for the selected service region, defined in the Administration - Scheduling
screen > Constraint Sets view and the Administration - Scheduling screen >
Constraints view.

Cost Function The cost function that the Optimizer uses in optimizing the schedule for the
selected service region. See “Defining Cost Functions for the Optimizer” on
page 134 for more information.

Cost List A cost list for labor, used for calculating overtime costs. Costs Lists are defined
in the Administration - Pricing screen > Cost List view. See the Siebel Pricing
Administration Guide for more information.

Minimum If the calculated travel time between two activities is less than this time, the
Travel Time Optimizer uses this time.

Parent Region Select an existing service region as the parent region for the current record.
See “Specifying Parent Service Regions” on page 112 for more information.

Parameter Set The set of parameters that the ABS and Optimizer use. See “Creating
Parameter Sets for Scheduling” on page 127 for more information.

Schedule The name of a schedule that the ABS uses. See “Defining Schedule Hours”
on page 107 for more information.
Time Window The name of a set of time windows that the ABS uses. See “Creating Time
Windows for Scheduling” on page 121.

Time Zone The name of a time zone used by the ABS and Optimizer. Time zones are
defined in the Administration - Data screen > Time Zone Administration view.
See the Siebel Applications Administration Guide for more information.

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Field Comments

Travel Cost The cost of travel per unit of travel. The Optimizer uses this value when
calculating the Cost Function for a schedule.

Travel Unit of The unit of travel (miles or KM) that the Optimizer uses when calculating the
Measure Cost Function for a schedule.

Associating Schedules with Service Regions

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

A service region can have only one schedule. Each service region is assigned a schedule that the ABS
and Optimizer use. This may be different than the schedule associated with each employee.
Schedules are defined in the Administration - Service screen > Schedules view. See “Defining
Schedule Hours” on page 107 for more information.

The ABS uses the service region schedule as a base, and then refines its choices of time slots based
on the employee schedules. See “Defining Employee Availability and Schedules” on page 116 for more
information. The Optimizer uses the field service engineers’ schedules, not the service region
schedule, when calculating the best deployment of personnel.

To associate a schedule with a service region

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Regions List view.

2 Select a service region record and in the Schedule field, select a schedule.

Specifying Parent Service Regions

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

A parent region can be set for any service region. Parent regions affect the list of available employees
on the Dispatch Board screen (see “Searching for Activities in the Dispatch Board’s Gantt Chart (End
User)” on page 196) but do not have any effect on how scheduling is carried out.

NOTE: Selecting a parent region does not impact scheduling with the ABS or the Optimizer.

To specify a parent service region

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Regions List view.

2 Select a service region record and in the Parent Service Region field, select a service region.

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Defining Service Region Geographic Areas for the

Optimizer
This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

The geographic area of a service region is defined by ZIP Codes and geocodes. The Optimizer uses
geocode data and ZIP Codes (or postal codes for international users) to identify addresses.

ZIP Codes are not used by the ABS directly—they are only used to default the service region to an
activity. However, ZIP Codes are critical to Optimizer, as they, along with country codes, are used to
lookup the underlying geocodes (latitude and longitude). These geocodes are in turn used to
calculate the distance from activity to activity. If an activity is missing zip or country code, it is not
loaded into the cache, as it cannot be calculated as part of a solution.

The Optimizer follows these rules for ZIP Codes:

■ A service region can include more than one ZIP Code.

CAUTION: It is recommended that no more than 150 ZIP Codes be used for each service region,
particularly if your company is using optimization. This is because optimization routines store the
solutions in memory for speed; past iterations are stored to prevent the same solutions from
being examined again. If your service regions are going to exceed 150 ZIP Codes, you must test
performance and scalability carefully. Very large service regions can cause the process memory
to grow extremely large, sometimes reaching the limit inherent in Microsoft Windows. In such
cases, consider using UNIX.

■ More than one service region can include the same ZIP Code; this means that service regions
can have geographic overlap.

NOTE: Automatic assigning to a service region by ZIP Code is performed using a workflow.

Geocode data contains longitude and latitude coordinates for physical locations (for example, a
customer site), down to minutes and seconds. The Optimizer can use data at any level of detail; for
example, ZIP Codes or ZIP + 4 codes.

As a ZIP Code can cover several square miles, it is preferable to use ZIP + 4, which generally brings
the accuracy to the level of buildings for businesses or to within a block or two for residential
addresses.

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The Optimizer requires, at minimum, ZIP or Postal Codes, country, longitude, and latitude. Five-digit
ZIP Codes for the United States are shipped with your Siebel application’s seed data. ZIP Code
information resides in the data model table (S_ZIPCODE). Table 27 shows the six columns in this
table.

Table 27. S_ZIPCODE Data Model Table

Column Description

ZIP Code Postal ZIP Code in alphanumeric text

City Name of the city

State Name of the state or province

Country Name of the country

Longitude Longitude number (0 to +/– 180, + for the eastern hemisphere and – for the western
hemisphere) up to six decimal places

Latitude Latitude number (0 to +/– 90, + for the northern hemisphere and – for the southern
hemisphere) up to six decimal places

NOTE: Where longitude and latitude values are the same for two locations, the Optimizer uses the
Minimum Travel Time. For more information about this field, see “Creating Service Regions” on
page 110.

There are two ways to load data into the S_ZIPCODE table:

■ Use the Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager. For more information, see Siebel Enterprise
Integration Manager Administration Guide.

■ Import data from the Administration - Data screen > ZIP Code Administration view.

To add ZIP Codes for a service region

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Region List view.

2 Select a service region record and drill down on the Name field hyperlink.

3 Click the Zip Codes view tab.

The Zip Codes view lists the ZIP Codes or Postal Codes that are included in a service region, plus
city, state, country, longitude, and latitude for each ZIP Code.

For the Optimizer to schedule an activity, the address of the activity must have valid ZIP Codes
and country specified. ZIP Codes must have the corresponding Geocodes specified. The Zip Code
value can be a ZIP Code or a ZIP + 4 code.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To import geocode data

1 Navigate to the Administration - Data screen > ZIP Code Administration view.

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2 Click the menu button and select Import from the drop-down list.

The Import wizard appears.

3 Specify the filename containing the data to import and click Next.

4 Complete the information, including field mapping for the data records.

Specifications for Geocode Data

There are several vendors of geocode information. Be sure to specify the following information in
geocode data:

■ Latitude format. North of the equator is positive; south of the equator is negative. The data is
interpreted to six decimal places.

■ Longitude format. East of the prime meridian (Greenwich, UK) is positive; west of the prime
meridian is negative. The data is interpreted to six decimal places.

The Siebel application stores its latitude and longitude in the decimal degrees format because this
format is the most widely used and is easy to use for distance calculations, as shown in the following
example.

Decimal Degrees Deg:Min:Sec

Latitude 37.830354 37:49:49.274N

Longitude –122.284076 122:17:2.674W

Most data sets are in decimal degrees; if not, use the following formula to convert it from the
degrees, minutes, seconds to decimal degrees:

Decimal degrees = Degrees + (Minutes/60) + (Seconds/3600)

Example:

37 Degrees, 25 Minutes, 40.5 Seconds

= 37. + (25/60) + (40.5/3600)

= 37. +.416666 +.01125

= 37.427916 degrees

Data Cleansing
Address and ZIP Code accuracy are critical for a schedule optimization. It is highly recommended
that you use a data cleansing application, such as the Siebel Data Quality module. For more
information, see Siebel Data Quality Administration Guide.

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About Using ZIP Codes in Multiple Service Regions

The Activity business object code associates an activity with a service region, based on the ZIP code.
You may need to override this behavior by inserting your own logic if ZIP Codes are being used with
more than one service region.

In general, it is recommended that you keep one service region for each ZIP Code, using skills on
the employees to differentiate between products. The service manager can then simply redistribute
employees by changing their skills and reloading the skills into Assignment Manager. If you use
separate regions, employees must be unloaded from one service region and into another.

NOTE: More service regions mean a higher load time.

Service regions are not validated against the ZIP Code by Scheduler once it has been set on the
activity. This allows activities to be moved to other service regions as required—for example, to cover
additional activities caused by a marketing campaign in that service region. The ZIP Code should
always be validated up front, preferably when the record is created.

CAUTION: Field Service assigns a service activity to a service region according to the ZIP Code of
its account’s address. However, if a ZIP Code is in more than one service region, a service request
is not automatically assigned to a service region and a customer service agent must manually select
a service region for it.

Defining Employee Availability and

Schedules
This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

Employee schedules (available and unavailable hours) are controlled by the Schedule field in the
Administration - User screen > Employees > Service Details view and the exception records in the
Administration - User screen > Employees > Employee Exception Hours view. The definition of the
schedules that appear in the Schedule field are set in the Administration - Service screen >
Schedules view.

The ABS uses the service region schedule as a base, and then refines its choices of time slots based
on the employee schedules. See “Defining Schedule Hours” on page 107 for more information. The
Optimizer uses the employee schedules only.

To define employee availability and schedules, perform the following tasks:

■ Defining Hours for Employees on page 117

■ Adding Employee Schedule Information on page 118

■ Specifying Employees as Unavailable on page 121

Rules for Defining Employee Schedules

When setting schedules for field service engineers, you must follow these rules:

■ A schedule must have only one shift start per day.

To set up multiple shift start times, use multiple schedules, each for a separate shift.

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■ The Shift Start flag should be set on the first time period in a day (the exception being when a
shift extends over two days).

If a shift spans more than one day (for example, Monday 9–11:59 P.M. and Tuesday 12–4 A.M.)
the first day should include the start of the shift.

■ The ABS, but not the Optimizer, can have activities that span more than one day.

■ It is recommended that no more than 150 employees be used for each service region, particularly
if your company is using optimization.

■ You can schedule one or more breaks in a day.

■ The ABS does not consider overtime for a field service engineer.

■ The Optimizer can schedule activities in overtime and extended overtime.

CAUTION: Do not define breaks during overtime. The Optimizer ignores breaks that are scheduled
during overtime and treats them as working time. This introduces inaccuracies into cost calculations.

Defining Hours for Employees

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

Perform the following procedures to associate a schedule with an employee and define exception
hours for employees.

To associate a schedule with an employee

1 Navigate to the Administration - User screen > Employees view.

2 Drill down on the Last Name field for a selected employee and click the More Info view tab.

3 In the Schedule field, select a schedule.

To define exception hours for an employee

1 Navigate to the Administration - User screen > Employees view.
2 Drill down on the Last Name field for a selected employee and click the Employee Exception Hours
view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Start Time at which the employee starts being unavailable for scheduling.
End Time at which the employees exception hours end and the employee is once
more available for scheduling.

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Field Comments

Working Select this check box to indicate whether the hours specified are for a working
or non-working exception.

For example, you specify a Saturday morning exception for an employee who
normally only works Monday to Friday. You then select the Working check box.
This indicates that the service engineer is working for those additional hours
and can be scheduled for activities during these hours. However, if you specify
exceptions hours for a midweek holiday for the same employee and do not
select the check box, this indicates to Scheduler that the employee is not
working that particular day and cannot be scheduled for activities.

Reason The reason for which exception hours are being defined for the employee. For
example, the employee may be on vacation or taking sick leave.

Type Select the appropriate rate type for the shift. This can be normal, overtime, or
extended overtime. See “Shifts” on page 118 for more information.

Adding Employee Schedule Information

The following must be taken into account when defining employee schedules:

■ Shifts. See “Shifts” on page 118 for more information.

■ Skills. See “Skills” on page 119 for more information.

■ Role priorities. See “Role Priorities” on page 119 for more information.

■ Breaks. See “Breaks” on page 119 for more information.

■ Travel. See “Travel” on page 121 for more information.

See “Creating Constraint Sets for Scheduling” on page 122 for more information about constraints that
can be set up to limit employee working hours, types of activities that can be performed, and so on.

Shifts
One employee can have only one shift per day, which can include rate types of normal time (RT),
overtime (OT), and extended overtime (EOT), as defined for each employee. A shift must use rate
types in the following order:

1 EOT

2 OT

3 RT

4 OT
5 EOT

Any of these rate types can be missing from the definition of a shift, but the remaining types must
be in this order. For example:

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6 OT

7 RT

8 OT

The rates for overtime and extended overtime are configured in the Administration - Pricing screen
> Cost List > Cost List Line Items view as a percentage increase over regular time (Standard Cost).
Standard Cost is set in the Administration - User screen > Employees > Service Details view.

Skills
Siebel Scheduler is capable of performing skill-based routing (that is, assigning only people with a
particular skill set to a job). The engines use Assignment Manager to evaluate skills and return a list
of appropriate employees, as follows:

1 Each activity is submitted to Assignment Manager.

2 Assignment Manager returns the appropriate people based on assignment rules.

3 The Optimizer uses only these people when it tries to schedule that job.

For more information about how to set up skills and evaluation rules, see Siebel Assignment Manager
Administration Guide.

Role Priorities
For the purpose of assigning field service engineers to activities, administrators can add a role
priority to each field service engineer who is a member of the asset service team. When Assignment
Manager schedules field service engineers, it considers the role priority of the associated engineers.
For example, Assignment Manager first tries to assign the primary engineer. If the primary engineer
is not available, it tries to assign the secondary engineer and so on. The role priority for a field service
engineer can be either primary, secondary, or tertiary.

NOTE: Employees can also be associated with an account to form an account service team. These
team members can then have role priorities assigned to them. See “Account Service Team
Configuration” on page 474 for more information.

Breaks
Schedules can include any number of breaks. Breaks are defined as employee breaks or activity
breaks:

■ Employee breaks are defined in the employee’s schedule or as exceptions to this schedule.

■ Activity breaks are defined in Activities > Time Tracker as time periods with the Type field set to
Break.

The following rules apply to the way the Optimizer uses breaks:

■ Breaks can have their start time = Start Time +1 second. This means that a break from 12 to 1
P.M. is the same as a break from 12:00:01 to 1:00:01.

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■ Break times during OT or EOT are paid.

NOTE: Because breaks during overtime are considered paid time, it is recommended that you do
not define breaks during overtime. Calculating these breaks may slow the Optimizer’s
calculations.

■ Breaks can be allowed during activities or excluded from specific activities.

See “About the Breakable Flag” on page 120 for more information.

To define different break types

1 Navigate to the Administration - Data screen > Work Types view.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To set the name of the break type

1 Navigate to the Administration - Application screen > System Preferences view.

2 Query for the system preference Sch:Break Time Id.

3 In the System Preference Value field, enter the row ID for the break.

To record break time

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.

2 Drill down on the Type field for a selected activity and click the Time Tracker view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

See “Time Tracker View” on page 86 for more information.

About the Breakable Flag

The Breakable flag indicates that it is acceptable for an activity to stop and resume. For example, if
a schedule is 9 A.M. to 1 P.M. and 2 P.M. to 6 P.M., the appointments need to be six hours long to
accommodate the length of the activities. In this case, appointments could never be scheduled
without the Breakable flag as there are no contiguous six-hour time slots available.

This flag is optional because there are some circumstances where the activity should be allowed to
break—for example, turning the water or the power off during a weekend. The ability for activities
to be breakable is why the activity duration is separate from the activity work time.

NOTE: The ABS is not designed to handle activities longer than a day. However, it does support
breakable activities.

To allow breaks for activities

1 Navigate to the Administration - Data screen > Activity Templates > Service Details view.

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2 Select the Breakable check box.

If this flag is not set, a break is not allowed during an activity.

NOTE: Users can set breaks for a selected activity by selecting the Allow Breaks check box in
the Activities screen > Schedule view. See “Schedule View” on page 85 for more information.

Travel
The Optimizer uses employee travel conditions and travel time when obtaining the lowest-cost
solution for a schedule. These values are set in the Administration - User screen > Employees >
Service Details view. The fields Start Shift From and End Shift At define the starting and ending
conditions for travel to and from service calls. These are the possible values of these fields:

■ Home (Travel incl.).The employee travels from home directly to the first job. The Optimizer
includes the cost of this travel when calculating schedules.

■ Home (Travel Not incl.). The employee travels from home directly to the first job. The cost of
travel is not included.

■ Depot. The employee starts each day by going to a service depot or office. Travel costs are
tracked starting from the depot.

Specifying Employees as Unavailable

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

Use the Unavailable button to instruct the Optimizer that the selected employee is unavailable for a
particular period. For example, the employee’s vehicle may have broken down. Clicking this button
sends an asynchronous request to the Optimizer to load the data for the selected employee,
including exception hours, and reassigns or reschedules activities.

To specify employees as unavailable

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Region List view.
2 Select a service region record and drill down on the Name field hyperlink.

3 Click the Employees view tab.

4 Select an employee record and click Unavailable.

TIP: Before using the Unavailable button, you may have to add a new record to the
Administration - User screen > Employees > Employee Exception Hours view, describing the time
for which the selected engineer is unavailable. If you do not have at least one exception hour
defined for the employee, the Optimizer displays an error message. See “Defining Hours for
Employees” on page 117 for more information.

Creating Time Windows for Scheduling

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

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Time windows are used to define the interval of time that should be allocated for starting an activity.
The ABS uses time windows. Time windows are associated with a service region in the Administration
- Scheduling screen > Service Region List view. See “Defining Service Regions” on page 109 for more
information.

To define time windows

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Time Window List view.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Name The name of the set of time window mappings.

Default Time The time window applied to activities of any duration, if the Time Windows
Window Details view does not have a mapping for an activity of a specific duration.

3 Scroll down to the Time Window Details list and create a new record for each activity duration
range.

The Time Windows Details view defines specific mappings that make up each time window
record. To accommodate activities that vary in duration, this view maps each range of durations
to a time window. For example, a work time of 1 to 60 minutes may require a time window of
120 minutes to provide Optimizer with the flexibility to change the schedule for optimization.

To view the service regions associated with a time window

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Time Window List view.

2 Select a record in the Time Windows list.

3 Click the Service Regions view tab.

The Service Regions view contains read-only records listing the service regions that use a
selected time window.

Creating Constraint Sets for Scheduling

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

Service businesses have a number of union, legal, or business constraints under which they must
operate. “Examples of Constraints” lists a few examples of constraints. These constraints can be
described as hard or soft, depending on whether or not they can be violated to meet scheduling
requirements. The ABS uses only hard constraints while the Optimizer uses both hard and soft
constraints.

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■ Hard constraints. The ABS and Optimizer cannot violate hard constraints. Activities that do not
fit these constraints are not scheduled. As a result, the engines are faster in finding solutions,
but fewer solutions are obtained. The solutions result in higher costs for service.

■ Soft constraints. The Optimizer can weight the cost of using or violating a soft constraint when
calculating solutions for a schedule. Soft constraints result in longer optimization times (lower
performance of the Optimizer), more solutions, and lower costs for service. Violating soft
constraints may result in a more costly schedule.

■ Schedules that violate hard constraints are discarded even though they may be better than other
solutions. The Optimizer may use solutions that violate soft constraints, but it assigns a penalty
to these violations that could make one solution less favorable than another solution. The cost
function calculated for each solution includes the penalties for violating soft constraints. For more
information, see “Defining Cost Functions for the Optimizer” on page 134.

To create constraint sets, perform the following tasks:

■ Defining Constraints on page 126

■ Defining Constraint Sets on page 126

Examples of Constraints
The following constraints limit work hours:

■ Union contracts stipulate that no worker does more than ten hours of overtime in a week.

■ Laws regulating worker safety restrict employees from working more than twelve hours a day.

■ To keep costs down, management specifies that no service manager should authorize more than
forty hours of overtime per week for all of their employees.

■ An engineer cannot work more than 45 hours per week.

■ An engineer cannot engage in an activity type (for example, working with hazardous materials)
more than four hours per day.

■ Total workload must be less than 95 percent.

■ Total workload must be greater than 60 percent.

■ An engineer cannot travel more than four hours a day, for safety reasons.

The following constraint limits timing of an activity: All waste disposal activities must start before 8
P.M.

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Predefined Constraints
Constraints fall into the categories shown in Table 28.

Table 28. Constraints for the ABS and Optimizer

Item Description

Appointment Booking Limits the time of day an activity of a specified type or priority can start
Activity Time or end.

Appointment Booking Limits the number of activities of any type or of a specified type, or time
FSE Limit spent on activities by any employee or a specific employee. Or, limits the
number of activities or time spent on activities that have a specified
service role (for example, Installation or Preventive Maintenance).

Appointment Booking Limits the number of activities of any type, or time spent on activities of
Schedule Activity Type a specified type for a whole schedule.

Optimizer Activity Time Limits when an activity of a specified type or priority must begin or end.
Hard This is a hard constraint.

Optimizer Activity Time Limits when an activity of a specified type or priority may begin or end.
Soft Also, specifies the penalty for violating this soft constraint.

Optimizer FSE Limit Limits the following values for any employee or a specific employee
Hard during a specified period:

■ % workload

■ Number of activities of any type or of a specified type

■ Total hours of travel time

■ Total work hours

This is a hard constraint.

Optimizer FSE Limit Soft Limits the following values for any employee, a specific employee, or a
specified service role (for example, Installation or Preventive
Maintenance) during a specified period:

■ % workload

■ Number of activities of any type or of a specified type

■ Total hours of overtime

■ Total hours of travel time

■ Total work hours

Also, specifies the penalty for violating this soft constraint.

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Table 28. Constraints for the ABS and Optimizer

Item Description

Optimizer Fairness Ensures the equal distribution of the following values for workload,
specified as a percentage, for all employees or for a specified service
role (for example, Installation or Preventive Maintenance):

■ Number of activities of any type or of a specified type

■ Total hours of overtime

■ Total hours of travel time

■ Total work hours

Also, specifies the penalty for violating this soft constraint.

NOTE: Optimizer Fairness is called a leeway constraint because it is

based on a percentage rather than an absolute value. As this is an
approximate number, it allows the Optimizer to achieve acceptable
schedule assignments within acceptable times.

Optimizer Schedule Limits the following values for a whole schedule in a specified period:
Activity Type Hard
■ Hours of work time for activities of a certain type

■ Number of activities of a certain type

■ Percentage count of activities of a certain type1

■ Percentage hours for activities of a certain type1

This is a hard constraint.

Optimizer Schedule Limits the following values for a whole schedule:

Activity Type Soft
■ Hours of work time for activities of a certain type

■ Number of activities of a certain type

■ Percentage count of activities of a certain type

■ Percentage hours for activities of a certain type

Also, specifies the penalty for violating this soft constraint.

Optimizer Schedule Limits the hours of overtime in a specified period for a whole schedule.
Overtime Soft
Also, specifies the penalty for violating this soft constraint.

Optimizer Travel Time Limits the travel time between activities for all employees, specific
employees, or a specified service role (for example, Installation or
Preventive Maintenance).

This can be a hard or soft constraint.

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Defining Constraints
This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

Constraints are created using the Constraint Wizard, which walks you through this process step-by-
step. You choose a constraint template and then either select or fill in the appropriate values.

CAUTION: Do not define contradictory constraints. For example, the following two constraints
conflict if both are hard constraints and the duration for the activities is less than two hours:

A field service engineer must work a minimum of four hours per day.

A field service engineer can have no more than two activities per day.

If both are hard constraints, the Optimizer cannot find a solution and fails to schedule these
activities.

Be sure to test new constraints before releasing them into a production environment; leaving them
as soft constraints may help to avoid problems. However, too many soft constraints hamper
performance, so there must be a balance.

To create constraints
1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Constraints view.

2 Create a new record and follow the Constraint Wizard steps.

See “Predefined Constraints” on page 124 for more information about the constraints from which
you can choose.

3 When the constraint is complete, click Save.

The Save a Constraint dialog box appears.

4 Enter a name for the constraint and click Save.

The Constraints list reappears. You can now define constraint sets that can be associated with a
service region. See “Defining Constraint Sets” for more information.

Defining Constraint Sets

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

Constraint sets provide the basic definition of a predefined set of constraints that a service region
uses for running the Optimizer. A constraint set is associated with a constraint set in the
Administration - Scheduling > Service Region List view. See “Creating Service Regions” on page 110
for more information.

To define constraint sets

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Constraint Sets view.

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2 Create a new record and complete the field as appropriate.

3 Scroll down to the Constraints list.

4 Create a new record, selecting a predefined constraint from the Add Constraint dialog box that
appears.

5 Enter a start and end date for the constraint if applicable.

To view the service regions associated with a constraint set

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Constraints Sets view.

2 Select a record in the Constraint Sets list.

3 Click the Service Regions view tab.

The Service Regions view contains read-only records listing the service regions that use a
constraint set.

Creating Parameter Sets for Scheduling

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

Parameter sets hold key information that determines how the ABS and Optimizer operate. Parameter
sets are associated with service regions in the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Region
List view. See “Defining Service Regions” on page 109 for more information. Each service region uses
one parameter set.

If the scheduling server starts without Optimizer or ABS parameters (see Table 29), the service
region is not loaded for the Optimizer or the ABS, respectively. The log files (ApptBook_xxx.log and
Optimizer_xxx.log in the log directory on the Siebel Server) specify which parameters are missing.

NOTE: If a service region fails to load, you must restart the ABS or Optimizer. This does not require
rebooting the computer.

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Schedule Parameters
Table 29 lists the various scheduling parameters that can be used to specify a parameter set.

Table 29. Scheduling Parameters

Parameter Required? Value Description

Month Start Number, 1–28 Determines what day the month starts on. Used
Date for constraints that are defined in terms of
months. Most users will set this to 1. The default
value is 1.

Use Assignment 1/0 Whether to submit the activity to Siebel

Manager Assignment Manager to receive a list of
engineers capable of performing this work. This
should be set to 1 to use the AM, unless all
employees in a service region have the same
skills or all are eligible to do all the jobs. The
default value is 1.

Week Start Day Number, 1–7 Determines what day the week starts on. Used
for constraints that are defined in terms of
weeks. Most users will set this to 1 (Sunday) or
2 (Monday). The default value is 1.

ABS – Activity Order number When loading in activities into the ABS, only
Category for the those with the specified category will be loaded.
Activity The default value is all categories. For example,
Category LOV. to only load activities with a category of Repair
Activity, do the following in the order shown:

■ Navigate to the Administration - Application

screen > List of Values view.

■ Query for the LOV type,

FS_ACTIVITY_CLASS.

■ Record the order number for the category

you want to exclude (that is, Repair Activity).

■ Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling

screen > Parameter Sets view.

■ Select the parameter set for the specified

Service Region and add the Variable value,
ABS - Activity Category. This value is taken
from the Order field of the Repair Activity
LOV. The value can be comma-separated if
there is more than one category listed. As a
result, the ABS only loads activities with the
category Repair Activity and ignores
activities with other categories.

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Table 29. Scheduling Parameters

Parameter Required? Value Description

ABS – Activity Order number When loading activities into the ABS, those with
Status for the the specified status are excluded. Recommended
Activity default: Cancelled. For example, to exclude
Status LOV. activities with a Cancelled status, do the
following in the order shown:

■ Find the order number of activities with a

Cancelled status (the LOV type is
EVENT_STATUS).

■ Add the parameter, ABS - Activity Status.

This value is taken from the Order field of
Cancelled Status LOV. The value can be
comma separated if there is more than one
status listed. As a result, the ABS does not
load activities with a Cancelled status.

ABS – Days to Yes Number When starting the ABS process, specifies how
End many days out the ABS should be booking
appointments. It is always measured in number
of days (not an absolute date) showing how far
the schedule runs. Required for ABS.

ABS – Days to Yes Number When starting the ABS process, this number
Start specifies how many days out the ABS should
start booking appointments. It is always
measured in number of days, not an absolute
date. Required for ABS.

This parameter activates at 12 A.M., which

means that if ABS - Days to Start is set to 1, the
ABS starts booking appointments from midnight
after the region was loaded (subject to the
schedule used).

NOTE: Activities that start in the past but end

after the ABS - Days to Start value are still
loaded to the ABS.

ABS – Default Number Specifies how many choices (maximum number

Number of Slots of appointment slots) are returned to the user. A
higher number of slots gives more flexibility, but
may slow the ABS, as it takes longer to search
for more slots. The default value is 5.

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Table 29. Scheduling Parameters

Parameter Required? Value Description

ABS – Logging Number, 1–4 Controls how much information is written to the
Level ABS log stored on the server
(ApptBook_xxx.log). The lowest level, 1, writes
only basic information about the server
activities, while the highest level, 4, writes
detailed logs, showing all actions that occurred.

NOTE: You must set the Appointment Booking

and Optimization Execution event for the
ApptBook component to 4 to generate log files
when the ABS is loaded.

ABS – Range of Number, 1–3 Determines the time range that the selection
Heuristic heuristic uses:

1 – day

2 – week

3 – month

ABS – Selection Determines the logic used when finding time

Heuristic slots:

1 – Earliest First method.

2 – Resource Loading method.

3 – Resource Leveling method.

See “Heuristics for the Appointment Booking

System” on page 100 for more information about
these methods.

ABS – Timeout Number Sets how long time slots are locked (in minutes)
(minutes) after the user requests them, but has not chosen
one. After this time, the slots are released and
made available for booking by other users. This
is important if the user closes the browser or
loses a connection, so that the slots are again
available.

CAUTION: Do not set this parameter to zero

(0).

Optimizer – Yes Sequence When loading in activities into the Optimizer,

Activity number for only those with the specified category will be
Category the Activity loaded. The default value is all categories.
Category LOV.

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Table 29. Scheduling Parameters

Parameter Required? Value Description

Optimizer – Sequence When loading in activities into the Optimizer,

Activity Status number for those with the specified status are excluded.
the Activity Recommended default: Cancelled.
Status LOV.

Optimizer – Yes Sequence Priority used if no priority is set for an activity.

Default Priority number for
the Activity
Priority LOV.

Optimizer – Yes Number The period, in hours, in which the Optimizer does
Glued (hours) not change the assigned employees (and
schedules) for activities. This period extends
from the time when the optimization task begins
until the time that this value designates. The
optimization task begins when you click the
Optimize button on the Administration -
Scheduling screen > Service Region List view.

For example, if you click the Optimize button at

10:00 A.M. and if you set this value to 4 (4
hours), the Optimizer does not reassign
employees for activities (and does not
reschedule activities) that are scheduled to take
place between 10:00 A.M and 2:00 P.M.

Optimizer – Hard 1/0 Whether the Latest Start value is considered a

Latest Start hard or soft constraint:

0 – Soft constraint

1 – Hard constraint

The default is 0.

Optimizer – Number, 1–4 This field controls how much information is

Logging Level written to the Optimizer log (Optimizer_xxx.log)
stored on the server. The lowest level, 1, writes
only basic information about the server
activities, while the highest level, 4, writes
detailed logs, showing all actions that occurred.

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Table 29. Scheduling Parameters

Parameter Required? Value Description

Optimizer – Number, 1–8 The heuristic used to improve the optimization

Optimize solution:
Heuristic
1 – Greedy search

2 – Steepest search

3 – Greedy search followed by a Tabu search

4 – Steepest search followed by Tabu

5 – Greedy search followed by Fast GLS

6 – Steepest search followed by Fast GLS

7 – Greedy search followed by GTS

8 – Steepest search followed by GTS

where:

GLS = Guided Local search

GTS = Guided Tabu search

See “Heuristics for the Optimizer” on page 100 for

more information about these methods.

Optimizer – 0/1 Whether the Optimizer should consider parts in

Consider Parts an engineer’s trunk inventory when considering
the engineer for assignment to an activity:

0 - No
1 - Yes

Optimizer – Integer If the Optimizer considers that a service

Parts Period (hours) engineer has the parts required to solve a
problem, this parameter tells the Optimizer how
far in advance to consider parts.

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Table 29. Scheduling Parameters

Parameter Required? Value Description

Optimizer – Yes Integer The frequency with which the Optimizer saves
Save Interval (Minutes) results during optimization.

Because of this parameter, if an overall system

failure occurs during optimization, some
optimized results are not lost. For example, if the
optimization time is 3 hours, and the save
interval is 1 hour, the Optimizer saves results
every hour during the 3 hour run. If the system
fails 2.5 hours after the Optimizer starts, the
first 2 hours of the optimization results are
saved. When you restart optimization, the
Optimizer uses the 2 hours of results from the
previous run.

The time the Optimizer uses to save the results

at the save interval is part of the optimization
time. Saving the optimized results at the save
interval uses extra resources and time. You need
to consider both the importance of saving
partially optimized results and the efficiency of
optimization time usage. If losing partially
optimized results because of a system failure is
not an important consideration, set the save
interval parameter to a time that is the same as
or longer than the optimization time.
Consequently, the Optimizer saves results only
when optimization is complete. If losing partially
optimized data because of a system failure is an
important consideration, do not set the save
interval parameter to less than 1 hour.
Consequently, the Optimizer saves results
infrequently and uses optimization time
efficiently.

Optimizer – Yes Number The cash value, in $/hour, of violating the

Tardiness Cost (Float) Optimizer – Hard Latest Start soft constraint.

Optimizer – Task Yes Number Penalty used in calculating the cost function if
Excl Cost an activity is unscheduled.

Optimizer – Yes Minutes The maximum time in minutes for each

Timeout (Integer) optimization.

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To define parameter sets

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Parameter Sets view.

The Parameter Sets view provides the basic definition of the parameters that the ABS and the
Optimizer use.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Make sure that you give the parameter set a meaningful name—for example, East Coast
Parameters.

3 Scroll down to the Parameters list and create a new record.

The Parameters view defines each parameter in a parameter set.

4 In the Variable Code field, select the appropriate parameter from the drop-down list.

See “Schedule Parameters” on page 128 for more information about the parameters that you can
choose from.

5 In the Variable Value field, enter a value for the parameter.

To view the service regions associated with a parameter set

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Parameter Sets view.

2 Select a record in the Parameter Sets list.

3 Click the Service Regions view tab.

The Service Regions view contains read-only records listing the service regions that use a
selected parameter set.

Defining Cost Functions for the

Optimizer
This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

The cost function is the sum of factors that drive the optimization of a schedule. For each activity in
the schedule, the Optimizer minimizes the value of the cost function while optimizing the schedule.
The cost function indirectly calculates the monetary cost of carrying out a schedule.

There is only one cost function for each service region. However, many service regions can use the
same cost function. Cost functions are associated with service regions in the Administration -
Scheduling screen > Service Region List view. See “Defining Service Regions” on page 109 for more
information.

To define cost functions

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Cost Functions view.

The Cost Functions view is used to define the function that the Optimizer uses for assessing the
success of each iteration of a schedule.

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2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Function Type This drop-down list offers two options: Normal and Emergency. For Field
Service scheduling purposes, select Normal.

Function Area This drop-down list offers three options: Field Service, Workforce
Management, and Professional Services. For Field Service scheduling
purposes, select Field Service.

3 Scroll down to the Details list.

The Cost Function Details view defines each variable in a cost function.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Active Select this check box to indicate that the variable is active.

Variable The variable to be used for the cost function. See “Cost Function Variables”
on page 136 for more information.

Weight The weighting value to be allocated to the cost function variable. For all
weights in the cost function, start with values of one (which approximate
the real cost of scheduling an activity), then change these values as needed.

To view the service regions associated with a cost function

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Cost Functions view.
2 Select a record in the Cost Functions list.

3 Click the Service Regions view tab.

The Service Regions view contains read-only records listing the service regions that use a
selected cost function.

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Cost Function Variables

The cost function is the sum of the factors shown in Table 30.

Table 30. Factors in the Optimizer Cost Function

Factor Calculation of the Factor

Constraint Violation Σ RuleViolationCost x Weight

This is the sum of Rule Violation Costs for each soft constraint violated.

A violation is proportional to the degree of the violation. The units for the
amount of the violation are the same as defined for the constraint. Time
units are in hours; all other cases use the activity.

FSE Overtime FSEOTCost x (EndtimeoflastactivityinOT - Endofnormalshift) x Weight

Where,

FSEOTCost = (StdCost x StdOTpercent) + (StdCost x ExtOTpercent)

Tardiness TardinessCost x Amountofdelay x Weight

Task Exclusion Penalty

1
TaskExclusionPenalty × --------------------------------------- × Weight
TaskPriority

Task priority allows higher priority tasks to take precedence over low
priority ones. This is important when there are not enough resources to
schedule all activities.

The Task Priority term uses the numeric value from the Order column in
the Administration - Data screen > List of Values view (see Siebel
Applications Administration Guide). This is the value that also appears in
the Activities screen > More Info view, Priority field.

Task Exclusion Penalty and Weight cannot be zero. If they are zero, no
activities are scheduled.

Travel Distance TravelDistance x TravelCost x Weight

Setting Up Server Key Mappings

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

Service regions are designed to be self-contained so that they can run on separate CPUs and even
separate servers. Server key mappings are used to specify the location and routing of requests to
these service regions. Server key mappings also assign the service regions to different processes,
which determines whether they are processed in parallel or serially by the servers. There are two
server key mappings, one for the ABS and one for the Optimizer.

When the user clicks the Book Appointment button, the request is sent to the enterprise server. The
enterprise server then looks at a map of the service regions and routes the request to the appropriate
Siebel Server that stores that service region.

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Multiple Processor Support

If the underlying operating system can support multiple processors on one computer, Siebel
Scheduler can take advantage of those processors by running different service regions for the ABS
and Optimizer on different processors. This is accomplished by setting different process numbers in
a server key map. A server with a single processor can run multiple processes, but this may reduce
performance. Service regions in different processes in different processes are run in parallel, while
service regions in the same process are run serially.

NOTE: The number of processes running on a server computer are not related to the number of
processors in that computer.

Because the ABS and Optimizer are different modules, they are already running as separate
processes, even though the process number is the same. One module for one service region can run
in only one process at a time

For example, consider a four-processor computer, with only two of the processors in use. If one
service region runs with both the ABS and Optimizer, the key map would look like the example shown
in Table 31. Note that process refers to the number of processes for that component, not the
processor number on the server.

Table 31. Server Key Mapping: Example 1

Server Service Region Process Module

AppServer1 West Coast Region 1 ABS

AppServer1 West Coast Region 1 Optimizer

NOTE: You cannot run one module for a service region as two processes.

If two service regions run on a four-processor computer, you can use all four processors, as in
Table 32. Note that process refers to the number of processes for that component, not the processor
number on the server.

Table 32. Server Key Mapping: Example 2

Server Service Region Process Module

AppServer1 West Coast Region 1 ApptBook

AppServer1 East Coast Region 2 ApptBook

AppServer1 West Coast Region 1 Optimizer

AppServer1 East Coast Region 2 Optimizer

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If there are more than two service regions on a four-processor machine, you can run them as
different processes. For example, if the West Coast Region is very large and the Central and East
Coast regions are smaller, the scheme shown in Table 33 might be the best use of the processors on
a server. Note that process refers to the number of processes for that component, not the processor
number on the server.

Table 33. Server Key Mapping: Example 3

Server Service Region Process Module

AppServer1 West Coast Region 1 ApptBook

AppServer1 East Coast Region 2 ApptBook

AppServer1 Central Region 2 ApptBook

AppServer1 West Coast Region 1 Optimizer

AppServer1 East Coast Region 2 Optimizer

AppServer1 Central Region 2 Optimizer

The West Coast region, which requires more computation, uses two processors. The East Coast and
Central regions run in the same processes and on the same two processors.

Each server component is multithreaded and can load schedules for multiple service regions. These
schedules are shared by multiple threads. Each request to the Optimizer runs on a new thread.

A request identifies the schedule for one service region that it requires and locks it. Requests for
schedules for other service regions can continue while requests for the same schedule are queued.
As the response time for the ABS is quite fast, this should not result in high latency for the booking
times being returned. Generally, this is true because the think time between ABS transactions is
usually several minutes.

To set up server key mappings

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Server Key Mappings view.

The Server Key Mappings screen assigns servers to processes and associated service regions.

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2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Server The name of a Siebel Server.

Process # The number of a process running on the server. This number is used
primarily to group service regions into the same process.

Leaf Service The name of a service region selected from the Pick Service Region
Region dialog box.

Component The name of a component, either ABS or Optimizer, selected from the Pick
Component dialog box.

After modifying server key mappings, you must restart the relevant server component (for
example, Appointment Booking Engine or Optimization Engine) for the changes to take effect.
You must also restart the relevant server if you have added or removed a key value.

CAUTION: If you specify more than one process on a server, you must set the Maximum MT
Servers server component parameter to the same number of processes so that multiple
processes can be spawned. If you do not, only the first process is created and not all regions are
loaded.

It is recommended that you set the Minimum MT Servers server component parameter to the
number of processes needed and Maximum MT Servers to a value greater than or equal to
Minimum MT Servers. For more information about these parameters, see the chapter on tuning
the performance of the Application Object Manager in the Siebel Performance Tuning Guide and
“Setting Server Component Task Parameters” on page 139.

NOTE: If the Server Key Mappings - Optimizer Component is missing from the drop-down list for
the Component field, the server installation was incomplete. To correct this, use the Synchronize
button on the Administration - Server Configuration screen > Enterprises > Synchronize view.
See the complete procedure in Siebel System Administration Guide.

Setting Server Component Task

Parameters
This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

The parameters that configure shell (process) startup for the Server Request Broker and the
Appointment Booking Engine server components should be set in accordance with the number of
service regions and the number of users.

See Siebel System Administration Guide for more information on changing these parameters for
server components.

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Setting the Number of Server Request Broker Tasks

Each service region used keeps a Server Request Broker (alias SRBroker) task permanently running.
This means that the default MaxTasks setting of 100 for the server component SRBroker may need
to be increased when using more than approximately 70 service regions. This precaution prevents
errors such as the following from appearing in the SRBroker log:

SBL-SMI-00114: The Multithreaded Server has reached the maximum number of concurrent
tasks (100)

Setting the Number of Appointment Booking System Tasks

The server component parameters for the Appointment Booking Engine (alias ApptBook) should be
set in accordance with the recommendations listed in Table 34.

Table 34. Recommended Task Values for the ApptBook Server Component

Server Component Parameter Alias Recommended Value

Maximum Tasks MaxTasks The value should be 10-20% of the total

number of users who access the ABS.

Minimum MT Servers MinMTServers The value should be the same as the number
of servers entered in the Administration -
Scheduling screen > Server Key Mapping
view.

Maximum MT Servers MaxMTServers The value should be the same as the value
for the Minimum MT Servers parameter.

Reloading the ABS and Optimizer Caches

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

Dispatchers and field service engineers may change the following specifications for service activities:

■ Planned Start date for an activity

■ Planned End date for an activity

■ Engineer assigned to an activity (in the Employees field)

NOTE: Planned End, Planned Completion, and End are all the same. All these terms appear in the
user interface.

All changes require updating an in-memory cache of the activities. If a user changes an activity in
the database, it becomes out of sync with the cache in memory. You can reload activity data manually
into memory by clicking the Load button in the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Region
List > Activities view. See “Loading Activities for Service Regions” on page 143 for more information.

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Users can also freeze an activity’s scheduled time or assignment. See “Locking Schedules and
Assignments (End User)” on page 153 for more information.

CAUTION: Keep manual changes to a minimum. because the Optimizer works on the principles of
constraint propagation and domain reduction, which are critical to solving complex schedules quickly.
This means that no activity that violates a hard constraint can be loaded into the memory cache.
(This includes implicit constraints—for example, using the employees’ work schedules or excluding
double-booking.)

Therefore, the Optimizer might reject a manual change when it loads the activity. Even if the activity
is loaded successfully, the Optimizer may later change the schedule for this activity.

Reloading the ABS cache daily accomplishes the following:

■ Old activities are released from the cache.

■ Manual activity changes are loaded to the cache.

■ Days in the future become available for booking (with any currently existing appointments loaded
into them).

To load employee and activity data for the service regions and reload the ABS and Optimizer caches,
perform the following tasks:

■ Loading Employee Data for Service Regions on page 142

■ Loading Activities for Service Regions on page 143

■ Reloading Service Regions to the Appointment Booking System Cache Manually on page 144

■ Overriding a Row Limit on page 144

■ Coalescing the Appointment Booking System on page 145

■ Reloading Service Regions to the Optimizer Cache Manually on page 145

■ Reloading the Appointment Booking System Cache Using Workflows on page 146

Guidelines for Reloading Service Region Data

It is recommended that you follow these guidelines when reloading service region data:

■ Reload the caches daily, preferably after hours.

The ABS - Days to End parameter controls the length of time in the ABS horizon. If this parameter
is set to 14 and you do not reload the caches for three days, then you can only book
appointments for 11 of the 14 days.

■ Reload the ABS before the Optimizer, so that there are no conflicts in scheduling between the
ABS and the Optimizer.

■ Carry out both reloads in the same day.

See “About Loading and Reloading Service Region Data” on page 169 for more background information.

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Loading Employee Data for Service Regions

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

A field service engineer can belong to only one service region. This rule applies because employee
information is cached in memory for performance reasons. Also, if each Siebel Scheduler process has
its own cache, employees cannot be in more than one cache at a time—otherwise, each instance of
Scheduler would produce conflicting schedules for the employee. Attempting to keep two service
regions synchronized around common employees would consume heavy amounts of resources and
would be difficult to manage.

Employee data is loaded with service region data into the ABS or Optimizer cache. You can do this
manually or with the Workflow Manager. When activities are loaded, Assignment Manager retrieves
the list of eligible employees and the ABS or Optimizer loads this data.

When you load the data for a new employee, the list of employees eligible for existing activities is
not updated. The result is that the new employee may not be eligible to carry out any of the existing
activities, but is eligible for new activities. At the next reload of the service region and its employee
data, the new employee is eligible for all activities.

Service regions are specified for employees using the Service Region field on the Administration -
User screen > Employees > Service Details view. All the employees for a particular service region
are then listed on the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Region List > Employees view.

To manually load employee data

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Region List view.

2 Select a service region record and drill down on the Name field hyperlink.

3 Click the Employees view tab.

The Employees view lists the employees assigned to a service region. This view is read-only.

4 Select the employees who should be loaded for the service region.
5 Click the Load ABS button.

Clicking this button sends an asynchronous request to the Optimizer to refresh the data for one
or more selected employees in the ABS cache. This command must be initiated manually or by
the Workflow Manager; do not use a repeating component job.

To remove data for an employee from the ABS cache

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Region List view.

2 Select a service region record and drill down on the Name field hyperlink.

3 Click the Employees view tab.

4 Select an employee record and click Unload ABS.

Clicking this button sends an asynchronous request to the Optimizer to remove the data. This
command must be initiated manually; do not use a repeating component job.

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Loading Activities for Service Regions

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

Activity data for each service region must be loaded into the ABS or Optimizer cache. You can do this
manually or with the Workflow Manager.

Service regions are specified for an activity using the Service Region field on the Activities screen >
Activity List > Schedule view. See “Schedule View” on page 85 for more information. All the activities
for a particular service region are then listed on the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service
Region List > Activities view.

Use the Load button on the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Region List > Activities
view to manually load activities for a selected service region. You can also use this button for contract
scheduling purposes—see “Running Contract Scheduling (End User)” on page 157 for more
information.

Clicking the Load button sends an asynchronous request to the Siebel Server to load the selected
activities into the ABS or Optimizer cache. Based on the values of the Planned Start and Planned End
field for an activity and the start and end times for the ABS and Optimizer horizons, the data goes
either to the ABS or Optimizer cache.

NOTE: Normally, use the Workflow Manager instead of the Load button to load activities.

Before clicking the Load button, make sure that the following conditions are met:

■ The activity is not repeating.

■ If Lock Schedule is set to TRUE, there are values for Planned Start and Planned End.
■ If Lock Assignment is set to TRUE, there is an employee assigned to the activity.

See “Locking Schedules and Assignments (End User)” on page 153 for more information on using the
Lock Schedule and Lock Assignment flags.

To manually load activities for a service region

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Regions List view.

2 Select a service region record and drill down on the Name field hyperlink.

3 Click the Activities view tab to view the activities.

The Activities view displays all activities for the selected service region. This view is read-only.

4 Select the activities that you want to load for the service region.

5 Click the Load button.

Employee data also needs to be loaded to the ABS or Optimizer cache. See “Loading Employee Data
for Service Regions” on page 142 for more information.

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Moving Activities Between Service Regions

An employee can only belong to one service region. However, this does not prevent an employee
from performing activities in other service regions. For example, Sue Nelson is an engineer based in
the San Francisco service region. Today is a light day for her, but the San Jose service region is
completely booked. In most cases, this case would be handled by manually scheduling activities for
Nelson using the Dispatch Board. However, the Optimizer can schedule Nelson in the San Jose service
region. This requires switching the service region for the activity.

To move activities between service regions

1 Cancel the activity from Service Region 1 (San Francisco).

2 Set the activity to Service Region 2 (San Jose).

3 Load the activity in to Service Region 2 (San Jose).

You can create a button or workflow that carries out these steps. Alternatively, the Workflow
Manager can trigger this process upon rejection of an activity from Service Region 1.

Reloading Service Regions to the Appointment Booking

System Cache Manually
This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

Perform the following procedure to reload information to the ABS cache.

To reload all data to the ABS for a service region

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Region List view.

2 In the Service Regions list, select a service region.

3 Click Load ABS.

Clicking this button erases all data for a service region in the ABS cache and reloads this data
from the database. For each service region, this is an asynchronous request to the Siebel server.

NOTE: If a row limit has been imposed, all the data may not be loaded into the ABS cache. See
“Overriding a Row Limit” for more information.

Overriding a Row Limit

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

When you restart the ApptBook component or click the Load ABS button, all the data in the service
region must be loaded into the ABS cache. If a limit of 10,000 rows has been imposed and there are
more than 10,000 activity records in the service region, then all the required activity data will not
be loaded. To resolve this, perform the following procedure.

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To override a data row limit

1 Create a new Named Subsystem for the ABS.

2 Set the parameter DSMaxFetchArraySize to -1.

Setting the parameter to this value does not impose any limits on the number of records allowed.

Coalescing the Appointment Booking System

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

You can improve appointment schedules by coalescing the ABS; time gaps are removed from
between booked appointments. This asynchronous request is carried out for one service region at a
time.

To coalesce the ABS

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Region List view.

2 In the Service Regions list, select a service region.

3 Click Coalesce ABS.

Reloading Service Regions to the Optimizer Cache

Manually
This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

Perform the following procedure to reload the Optimizer cache with all data for a selected service
region.

To reload all data to the Optimizer for a service region

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Region List view.

2 In the Service Regions list, select a service region.

3 Click Load Optimizer.

Clicking this button erases all data for a service region in the Optimizer cache and reloads this
data from the database. For each service region, this is an asynchronous request.

When an optimization is in progress, this request is not sent to the server. The user receives an
error message.

NOTE: See “Optimizing Schedules (End User)” on page 155 for more information about running
the Optimizer on service region schedules.

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Reloading the Appointment Booking System Cache

Using Workflows
This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up Scheduling” on page 106.

You can reload service regions automatically using the predefined Server Requests business service
to call the Appointment Booking Engine server component (alias ApptBook). You can set up a
workflow process to submit the server job to ApptBook.

You can also set up workflows to specifically handle the following:

■ Unscheduled activities. During a reload, if the capacity in a service region has changed (due
to personnel changes or manual changes), some activities may become unscheduled. One way
to handle this is to create a workflow that emails the service region manager about the
unscheduled activities—or alternatively, creates an activity to do a reschedule with a customer.

NOTE: You can also set up a predefined query (PDQ) to look for those activities where Status =
Unscheduled, particularly if this occurs frequently.

■ Manual changes. If the users are making manual changes to activities, and these changes need
to be reflected in the cache immediately (without waiting for the next reload), you can create a
workflow that calls LoadActivity as soon as a change is made to the Owner, Planned Start, or
Planned End values.

See Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide for more information on setting up
workflows. See Siebel System Administration Guide for more information on creating repeating
component jobs.

CAUTION: When loading the ABS, use either eScript or a workflow process—do not use the business
service Appointment Booking Service for this purpose.

Appointment Booking System Methods

For more information on the various inputs and outputs used with the ABS methods, see “ABS
Methods” on page 584 and “Invoking the ABS and Optimization Engine Methods” on page 582.

To create a workflow to automatically reload service region data

1 Create a workflow process with the following steps:

Start > Business Service > End

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2 When defining the Business Service step, specify the Server Requests business service and
Submit Requests method.

CAUTION: You can use the business services Server Requests, Asynchronous Server Requests,
or Synchronous Server Requests to submit a request to the Appointment Booking Engine.
However when using any of these in eScript or as part of a workflow, you must provide an
appropriate value for the SubmitRequest method’s input argument Request Key. The Request Key
input argument's value is the activity's Service Region Id value. Each service region can be
mapped to a different process number; the business service must use the Request Key value to
identify the correct ABS process to which each request should be sent. Without the Request Key
input argument, the request can be sent to the wrong ABS process, causing the Appointment
Booking Engine to return an error message. See “Setting Up Server Key Mappings” on page 136
for more information.

3 Define the following input arguments.

Input Argument Type Value

ApptBook.ServiceRegionId Literal The required service region’s ROW_ID

Request Key Literal The required service region’s ROW_ID

Component Literal ApptBook

Method Literal ReloadServiceRegion

Mode Literal Sync/Async

■ Use Sync if you want the workflow process to

wait for the ABS to finish.

■ Use Async if you want the workflow process

to submit requests to the ABS and then end
the workflow without determining whether or
not the ABS successfully reloaded the service
region.

4 Deploy and activate the workflow process.

5 Create a new repeating component job, selecting Workflow Process Manager as the Component/
Job field value.

6 Create a new job parameter, specifying Workflow Process Name in the Name field and the name
of the workflow process (ReloadServiceRegion) in the Value field.

7 Start the job.

A new instance of the job is created with a Queued status. Once the start date arrives, the
queued instance is executed.

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Process of Scheduling Activities

The following list shows the procedures that end users typically perform to use scheduling within
Siebel Field Service. Your company may follow a different process according to its business
requirements.

To schedule activities, perform the following tasks:

1 Add required schedule information to the activity record. See “Adding Schedule Information for
Activities (End User)” on page 148 for more information.

NOTE: You must add the schedule information before booking appointments because this
information is used by the ABS and the Optimizer when running.

2 Select the appropriate appointments for the activities. See “Booking Activity Appointments (End
User)” on page 150.

3 Lock any assignments or schedules that should not change. See “Locking Schedules and
Assignments (End User)” on page 153 for more information.

4 Make sure that schedules are optimized as required. See “Optimizing Schedules (End User)” on
page 155 for more information.

5 Use the Optimizer’s Contract Scheduling feature if required. See “Running Contract Scheduling
(End User)” on page 157 for more information.

Adding Schedule Information for

Activities (End User)
This task is a step of “Process of Scheduling Activities” on page 148.

Use the Activities screen > Activity List > Schedule view to add schedule information required by the
Optimizer and ABS. See Chapter 4, “Field Service Activities” for more general information about
setting up and recording activities.

To add schedule information for activities

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List > Schedule view.

2 Select an activity record in the Service Activities list.

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3 Complete the fields as appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Account This button provides a hyperlink to the MapQuest Web site. Siebel does not
Address Map guarantee the availability or accuracy of any content or service provided by
MapQuest.

Book Clicking this button sends a request to Scheduler to find the possible time
Appointment slots for scheduling this activity. See “Booking Appointments from the
Activities Screen” on page 151 for more information.

Cancel Clicking this button sends a request to the Scheduler to remove this activity
Appointment from the schedule. For more information, see “Canceling Appointments” on
page 152

Contract Selecting this command sends a request to the Optimizer to insert a priority
Schedule service activity into a schedule with minimal disruption of the schedule and
without significant increase in the cost of the schedule. See “Running
Contract Scheduling (End User)” on page 157 for more information.

Earliest Start The earliest time and date an activity may begin, usually used to indicate
contractual commitments or deadlines. In some configuration settings this
value is described as NST (No sooner than).

Latest Start The latest time and date for an activity, usually used to indicate contractual
commitments or deadlines. It is the same as the Due field in the form. In
some configuration settings, this value is described as NLT (No later than).

For reactive calls, Earliest Start and Latest Start represent both the
contractually committed date and time for service. For proactive calls, these
dates and times represent when a customer can be present for service.

Planned Start The time in which a call is actually planned to take place. These times are
usually known to the service organization and the field service engineer.
Depending on the service business model, these times may or may not be
communicated to the customer.

If you specify values for Earliest Start or Latest Start, then Planned Start
must be later than Earliest Start and earlier than Latest Start.

Planned End The proposed date for completing an activity. Also appears as Planned
Completion in the user interface.

Duration The time required to carry out an activity, including breaks and travel time.

The value is set to Planned End - Planned Start by the ABS or Optimizer.

Service Region The service region to which this activity is assigned.

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Field Comments

Work Time The time required to work on an activity, not including, for example, travel
and breaks.

To show the difference between work time and duration, it may be useful to
describe an example. A company’s schedule is from 9 A.M. to 1 P.M. and 2
P.M. to 6 P.M. The activities being scheduled last for six hours and are
breakable (see “About the Breakable Flag” on page 120 for more
information). If a dispatcher starts an appointment at 4 P.M. this means that
the activity finishes at 1 P.M. the next day. The work time is six hours but
the duration is 21 hours.

Lock Select this check box to ensure that the Optimizer cannot change the
Assignment assignment.

NOTE: If the Lock Assignment flag is not set (FALSE), manually specify the
employee for an activity. See “Locking Schedules and Assignments (End
User)” on page 153 for more information.

Allow Breaks Select this check box to allow scheduling of an activity around breaks. See
“Breaks” on page 119 for more information.

Lock Schedule Select this check box to prevent the ABS and the Optimizer from changing
the values of Planned Start and Planned End.

NOTE: If the Lock Schedule flag is set (TRUE), provide values in the Planned
Start and Planned End fields. In this case, no time slots are required and the
Book Appointment dialog box does not appear. See “Locking Schedules and
Assignments (End User)” on page 153 for more information.

Booking Activity Appointments (End

User)
This task is a step of “Process of Scheduling Activities” on page 148.

Customer service representatives use the Book Appointment button on the Activities and Service
screens to obtain a list of appointment choices for a selected activity. Clicking the button runs the
ABS.

Before booking an appointment, make sure that the work time and the service region are specified
for an activity and that the activity is not repeating.

NOTE: Do not use the ABS to schedule appointments that are far into the future—for example,
preventive maintenance activities six months ahead. See “About Using Long-Range ABS Horizons” on
page 99 for more information.

Booking appointments and optimizing the schedule for activities requires the following data:

■ Schedules for service regions and employees

■ Existing activities and appointments

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■ Service activities

■ Service regions

■ Employees

■ Parts available to employees

■ Scheduling parameters

■ Service region parameters

■ System parameters

■ Constraints

■ Time windows

■ A cost function

To book or cancel appointments, perform the following tasks:

■ Booking Appointments from the Activities Screen on page 151

■ Booking Appointments from the Service Screen on page 152

■ Canceling Appointments on page 152

Booking Appointments from the Activities Screen

This task is a step of “Process of Scheduling Activities” on page 148.

The Activities screen’s Schedule view provides the Book Appointment and Cancel Appointment
buttons for running the ABS and Optimizer interactively. See “Canceling Appointments” on page 152
for more information about canceling a booked appointment.

To book appointments from the Activities screen

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List > Schedule view.

2 Select an activity record in the Service Activities list.

3 Click the Book Appointment button.

Clicking this button sends a synchronous request to the ABS for time slots in which to book the
selected activity. The available appointments are returned in a dialog box.

NOTE: If you do not specify Earliest Start or Latest Start times for the activity, the ABS - Days
to Start and ABS - Days to End parameter values, as well as the schedule for the service region,
are used. For example, if today is March 16th and the ABS - Days to End parameter is set to 1
and the service region opening hour is 8 A.M., the assumed earliest start is 8 A.M. on March 17th.
Unless the service region is extremely full, the value of the ABS - Days to End parameter does
not apply.

You should also note that the activity does not need to end before the Latest Start time—it must
simply start before that time.

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4 Using the dialog box, select and confirm an appointment or cancel if none are appropriate.

■ To confirm an appointment, select an appropriate record and click Confirm.

Clicking this button in the Book Appointment dialog box sends a server request to confirm
the selected appointment and release the lock on the remaining slots.

■ If you do not want to select any of the available appointments, click Cancel.

Clicking this button in the Book Appointment dialog box sends a server request to reject all
proposed appointment slots and to release the lock on these slots.

TIP: There is no need to cancel an activity before rebooking it for another time. Instead, you can
simply click the Book Appointment button. When you confirm a time slot, the old time slot is
automatically released within the ABS. The Cancel Appointment button is used when you want to
cancel an appointment and not rebook it.

Booking Appointments from the Service Screen

This task is a step of “Process of Scheduling Activities” on page 148.

The Service screen > Service Request List > Activities view provides the Book Appt and Cancel Appt
buttons for running the ABS. The Activities view displays the activities associated with service
requests.

To book appointments from the Service screen

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List > Activities view.

2 In the Activities list, select an activity record.

3 Click the Book Appt button.

4 Using the dialog box, select and confirm an appointment or cancel if none are appropriate.

See Step 4 in “Booking Appointments from the Activities Screen” for more information about using
the Book Appointments dialog box.

Canceling Appointments
This task is a step of “Process of Scheduling Activities” on page 148.

To cancel an appointment, set the service region, make sure the activity is not repeating and the
activity (Planned Start – Planned End) is not in the Glued period. If the Cancel Appt request is
successful, the fields that define an activity are unchanged except for the activity Status, which is
set to Cancelled.

The choice of sending the Cancel Appt request to the ABS or Optimizer depends on these conditions:

■ If the Planned Start and Planned End values are less than the start time for the ABS horizon,
then send a request to the Optimizer.

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■ If the Planned Start value is less than the start time for the ABS horizon, and the Planned End
value is greater than the start time for the ABS horizon, then send a request to the Optimizer
and the ABS.

■ If the Planned Start value is greater than or equal to the start time for the ABS horizon and the
Planned End value is less than the end of the ABS horizon, then send a request to the ABS.

To cancel an appointment
1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List > Activities view or the Activities screen
> Activity List > Schedule view.

2 Select an activity record.

3 Click Cancel Appointment.

Clicking this button sends a synchronous request to the ABS or the Optimizer to cancel an
appointment, release the appointment for other schedules, and set the status of the selected
activity to Cancelled.

The request is sent to the ABS or Optimizer, depending on the horizon that contains this activity.
If the activity (Planned Start and Planned End) overlaps the ABS and the Optimizer horizons, the
request goes to both the ABS and Optimizer.

Locking Schedules and Assignments

(End User)
This task is a step of “Process of Scheduling Activities” on page 148.

Users can set two flags for an activity to freeze (lock) its scheduled time or assignment:

■ Lock Assignment flag ensures that the Optimizer cannot change the assignment (Employees
field). However, this value can be changed manually.

■ Lock Schedule flag ensures that the ABS or the Optimizer cannot change the values of Planned
Start and Planned End. However, these values can be changed manually.

Even if these flags are set, an activity can be rejected from the schedule if it violates a hard
constraint. However, the Optimizer does not attempt to change the activity’s Planned Start, Planned
End, or Employees fields, so that it remains on the user’s calendar. Reducing the number of hard
constraints used in the schedule can minimize the possibility of rejecting an activity.

NOTE: It is recommended that activities with a status of Done should have the Lock Assignment and
Lock Schedule flags set to TRUE.

Where an activity violates a hard constraint, the Lock Assignment and the Lock Schedule flags are
both set to TRUE, and the activity is not loaded into memory or updated.

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Table 35 describes the general behavior of the ABS and the Optimizer when the Lock Assignment and
Lock Schedule flags are used.

Table 35. Behavior of ABS and Optimizer Using Lock Assignment and Lock Schedule Flags

Lock Assignment Lock Schedule Behavior

No No The ABS can change both the time and owner on load.
The Optimizer can change both the time and owner
when optimizing.

Yes No The ABS can change the time but not the owner on load.
The Optimizer can change the time but not the owner
when optimizing.

No Yes The ABS can change the owner but not the time on load.
The Optimizer can change the owner but not the time
when optimizing.

Yes Yes The ABS cannot change the time or owner on load. The
Optimizer cannot change the time or owner when
optimizing.

Table 36 describes the effects of the Lock Assignment and Lock Schedule flags on appointment
booking.

Table 36. Effects of Lock Assignment and Lock Schedule Flags on Booking Appointments

Lock Assignment Lock Schedule Behavior

No No The ABS returns multiple time slots for multiple

employees.

Yes No The ABS only checks the activity owner’s calendar to find
a list of available time slots.

No Yes Clicking the Book Appointment button does not return a

list of time slots. Instead, the Insert Activity method
(Contract Scheduling) is called internally to insert the
activity at its originally scheduled planned start/end. If
the activity cannot be scheduled at that time, a No
Appointment message is returned to the user.

Yes Yes Clicking the Book Appointment button does not return a
list of time slots. Instead, the Insert Activity method
(Contract Scheduling) is called internally to insert the
activity at its originally scheduled Planned Start/End. If
the activity cannot be scheduled at that time, a No
Appointment message is returned to the user.

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The ABS performs validation before scheduling an activity. If the activity has the Lock Assignment
flag set without having an owner, the ABS generates a validation error and the activity is not loaded
into the cache. The user must correct the error and retry. Similarly, with the Lock Schedule flag set,
the Planned Start/End must be set before the user clicks the Book Appointment button. Otherwise,
the ABS cannot find an appointment.

NOTE: During loading or when the Insert Activity method is called (this method is the same as the
GetConfirmedAppointment method—see “GetConfirmedAppointment Method” on page 594 for more
information), if an activity with both flags set cannot be scheduled, the ABS does not reset the
activity’s status to Unscheduled. The activity status remains unchanged. However, the activity is not
present in the ABS cache; it only appears as scheduled in the system.

To freeze assignments
1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List > Schedule view.

2 Select an activity record in the Service Activities list.

3 Select the Lock Assignment check box.

To freeze planned start and end times

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List > Schedule view.

2 Select an activity record in the Service Activities list.

3 Select the Lock Schedule check box.

Optimizing Schedules (End User)

This task is a step of “Process of Scheduling Activities” on page 148.

There are two ways in which a service region’s schedule can be optimized:

■ Using the Workflow Manager to launch the Optimizer. See “About Using the Workflow
Manager to Optimize Schedules” on page 156 for more information.

■ Manually launching the Optimizer. See “Optimizing Schedules Manually” on page 156 for more
information.

NOTE: Stopping the optimization of a service region is a manual process. See “Stopping the
Optimization of a Service Region” on page 157 for more information.

Availability of Parts
Availability of parts is a constraint only for the Optimizer, not the ABS. Data loaded into the Optimizer
cache includes all trunk inventories for all field service engineers in a service region.

The Optimizer parameter Consider Parts includes the availability of parts in an engineer’s trunk
inventory when considering the engineer for assignment to an activity. The parameter Parts Period
sets the number of hours that the loaded parts list is valid for an optimization. For more information,
see “Defining Cost Functions for the Optimizer” on page 134 and “Schedule Parameters” on page 128.

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If parts are considered, and the activity includes a part with an Order Item number, and then the
product can be drop-shipped for the service call; the Optimizer does not consider this part as a
constraint in scheduling. For more information, see the “Part Tracker View” on page 82.

NOTE: To be considered for a service call, parts in a trunk inventory must have a status of Good and
an availability of On Hand.

About Using the Workflow Manager to Optimize Schedules

Scheduling is best considered as a business process. For the Optimizer to be useful, it must be fully
integrated into the normal process of delivering service. The Workflow Manager is the primary vehicle
for ensuring this integration. Most Siebel customers using the Optimizer would use the Workflow
Manager to accomplish the following tasks:

■ Manually updating a schedule

■ Locking in manual changes

■ Synchronizing a schedule with manual changes

■ Updating a schedule for contractual commitments

■ Notifying a manager by email of rejected activities

■ Moving activities to a secondary service region

■ Verifying a declined assignment through wireless and reassignment

Optimization Engine Methods

For more information on the various inputs and outputs used with the Optimization Engine methods,
see “Optimization Engine Methods” on page 593 and “Invoking the ABS and Optimization Engine
Methods” on page 582.

Optimizing Schedules Manually

This task is a step of “Process of Scheduling Activities” on page 148.

Perform the following procedure to optimize a service region schedule.

To optimize a service region’s schedule

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Region List view.

2 In the Service Regions list, select a service region.

3 Click Optimize.

Clicking this button sends a request to the Optimizer to run an optimization on the selected
service region. The Workflow Manager or repeat component jobs can start an optimization.

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Stopping the Optimization of a Service Region

This task is a step of “Process of Scheduling Activities” on page 148.

Perform the following procedure to stop an ongoing optimization of a selected service region.
Stopping an optimization may not be immediate because the Optimizer completes the solution that
is in process and saves this solution in the database.

NOTE: Stopping an optimization is a manual process; the Workflow Manager or repeat component
jobs cannot send this command.

To stop the optimization of a service region

1 Navigate to the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Region List view.

2 In the Service Regions list, select a service region.

3 Click the menu button and select Stop Optimization.

About Optimization and Activity Status

The Optimizer can change the status of activities to obtain the best scheduling.

When you click the Load Optimizer button on the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service
Region List view, the Optimizer loads activities (with associated statuses) from the database.
Likewise, when you click the Load button on the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Region
List > Activities view, the Optimizer loads the activity (with the associated status) from the database.

If you change the status of an activity, immediately click the Load Optimizer button or the Load
button, and then click the Optimize button on the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service
Region List view, your changed activity status is in effect after the Optimizer runs.

However, the Optimizer can change the status of activities. So if you change the status of an activity
and do not click the Load Optimizer button or the Load button, your changed activity status can
revert to the status value in the Optimizer cache if the Optimizer runs again.

Running Contract Scheduling (End User)

This task is a step of “Process of Scheduling Activities” on page 148.

Contract Scheduling is a feature of the Optimizer that is designed for rapid scheduling of service
appointments while maintaining the critical Optimizer requirements: enforcement of contractual
deadlines and use of constraints when searching for solutions.

When Contract Scheduling is invoked, the Optimizer does not unschedule any other activities.
However, it does attempt to see if it can create any slack before inserting an activity. For example,
if there are two half-hour spaces within an employee’s schedule and a user attempts to contract
schedule a 45-minute appointment, the Optimizer attempts to slide the other appointments around
to create a contiguous 45-minute space where the appointment can be placed.

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The Optimizer is multithreaded, which means that it can take multiple requests at the same time.
For example, two users can invoke Contract Scheduling at the same time. However, because the
Optimizer can only process one request at a time, simultaneous requests are queued so that multiple
users can submit requests to the Optimizer without any problems. When the Optimizer is performing
optimization, users can still submit requests. The Optimizer queues those requests and processes
them at the level set by the Optimizer – Save interval parameter or when optimization completes.

Companies with the following needs may use Contract Scheduling:

■ Same-day break/fix calls are a higher percentage of service calls.

■ Service contracts specify penalties for failing to meet response times (for example, free labor or
free parts).

■ A large number of constraints must be respected.

Users can run Contract Scheduling from three locations in Field Service:

■ Insert Activity button in the Dispatch Board screen > Unscheduled Activities view. This sends
a request to either the ABS or the Optimizer to schedule an appointment or insert the selected
activity into the optimized schedule, depending on times relative to the horizons. See “Insert
Activity Button” on page 158 for more information.

■ Contract Schedule button in the Activities screen > Schedule view. This sends a request for
scheduling the selected activity. See “Contract Schedule Button” on page 159 for more
information.

■ Load button in the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service Regions > Activities view.
This is similar to the Insert Activity button in the Dispatch Board screen. See “Load Button” on
page 159 for more information.

Insert Activity Button

The Insert Activity button obtains, for a selected activity, either a confirmed appointment from the
ABS or runs the Optimizer to schedule the activity. The Insert Activity button is similar to the
Contract Schedule button in the Activities screen > Schedule view.

Before using this button, make sure the following conditions are met:

■ The service region is set in the Dispatch Board Gantt chart.

■ The activity is not repeating.

■ If the Lock Schedule flag is set (TRUE), then the Planned Start and Planned End values are not
null.

■ If the Lock Assignment flag is set (TRUE), then the activity assignee is not null.

The choice of sending the Insert Activity request to the ABS or Optimizer depends on the Earliest
Start and the Latest Start values. These values determine whether the activity falls within the ABS
or the Optimizer horizon:

■ If the Latest Start value is null, sends the request to the ABS.

■ If the Latest Start value is in the Glued period, does not insert the activity, but returns an error
message.

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■ If the Latest Start value is less than the ABS start, sends the request to the Optimizer.

Contract Schedule Button

The Contract Schedule button has the same function as the Insert Activity button. See “Insert Activity
Button” and “Schedule View” on page 85 for more information.

Load Button
The Load button for activities is intended for synchronizing data in the cache if there have been
manual changes to an activity.

The choice of sending the activity to the ABS or the Optimizer cache depends on these conditions:

■ If Planned Start and Planned End are specified, then the choice of the ABS or Optimizer depends
on matching these values to the dates for either the ABS or the Optimizer horizon.

■ If Planned Start and Planned End are not specified, then the values for Earliest Start and Earliest
End are used. If these values fall within the Optimizer horizon, then the activity goes to the
Optimizer cache.

■ If neither of these conditions succeeds, an error message is returned.

See “Loading Activities for Service Regions” on page 143 for more information.

About Troubleshooting the Appointment

Booking System and Optimizer
Typically, there are two main types of problems that can occur when using the ABS:

■ Schedules and the associated activities will not load into the ABS on startup.

■ An error stating that no appointments were found is returned when you try to book
appointments.

It is recommended that you check the items described in “Troubleshooting the Appointment Booking
System” on page 160 to analyze the problem encountered.

Also, any company using the Optimizer should see “Troubleshooting the Optimizer” on page 163 for
recommendations on how to extract the best possible solutions in the least amount of time.

TIP: It is recommended that you have distinct administrator users for running the ABS and
Optimizer processes. It is far easier to trace and understand Scheduler operations if the ABS and the
Optimizer have different users—for example, ABSAdmin and OptAdmin. If the user is left as SADMIN,
it may be unclear as to whether other workflows have affected the activity. Knowing whether a user,
a workflow, or Scheduler was responsible for an action can be critical for diagnosing any problems.

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Troubleshooting the Appointment Booking System

This section provides some recommended values for the various setup configurations as well as
providing a checklist that you can run through if problems occur when using the ABS.

Before beginning the checks, note that all of the following settings are required for running the ABS:

■ Service region for each activity

■ Earliest Start and Latest Start values for each activity

■ Server key mappings

■ Time windows

■ Parameter set

■ Parameters:

■ Month Start Date

■ Week Start Day

■ ABS - Days to Start

■ ABS - Days to End

■ Optimizer - Default Priority

Service Region Configuration

Service regions should have the following items:

■ A defined schedule

■ A defined time window

■ A defined parameter set

■ Employees who are assigned to a service region and have a schedule defined for them.

■ ZIP codes that are associated with the service region. This configuration allows service regions
to be automatically associated with activities.

Activity Configuration
Activities that need to be scheduled should have the following items:

■ A defined service region

■ A specified duration and work time. For testing purposes, set the duration and work time to 30
minutes.

NOTE: Work time can be less than or equal to the duration of the activity.

■ A cleared Lock Schedule check box on the Activities screen > Activity List > Schedule view. If
you are using Assignment Manager, clear the Lock Assignment check box also.

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■ A selected Allow Breaks check box if the activities are long (they span more than a day, or the
schedules have breaks in them).

Appointment Booking System Parameter Set Configuration

The parameter values for the ABS should be set as described in Table 37.

Table 37. Recommended ABS Scheduling Parameter Values

Parameter Recommended Value

Month Start Date This value should generally be set to 1. This is primarily relevant if you are
using constraints around monthly capacity.

Week Start Date This value should generally be set to 1. This is primarily relevant if you are
using constraints around weekly capacity.

ABS - Days to Start This value should be set to at least 1. You can also set this 0, which allows
booking on the same day.

ABS - Days to End This value should be greater than ABS - Days to Start, but less than 60.
Setting this to a higher value will result in longer loading times and may run
over the 10,000 record limit.

ABS - Logging Level This value is the logging level for ABS, which is separate from the general
logging level. Typically this is set to 3, but when problems are encountered,
set it to 4.

ABS - Default This value should generally be between 5 to 10.

Number of Slots

ABS - Timeout This value should generally be set to 5.

Use Assignment If Assignment Manager is being used, this value is set to 1. For debugging
Manager purposes it can be set to 0, in which case, all employees in the service region
who are on duty will be considered.

Schedule Configuration
For testing purposes, create a simple 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. schedule for both employees and the service
region.

NOTE: The service region schedule overrides the employee schedule. If the service region schedule
indicates that there should be no work carried out over weekends, then employees will not be
scheduled, even if their schedules indicate weekend work.

Employee Configuration
All employees in the service region should have defined schedules. For those employees who do not
currently have a defined schedule, use a schedule that has no times defined. You could call this
Empty Schedule, for example.

NOTE: If Assignment Manager is being used, the employees should have the appropriate skills.

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Time Window Configuration

Time windows should be set up contiguously, large enough to cover the maximum activity duration
attempting to be scheduled.

Server Key Mapping Configuration

■ Verify that the Appointment Booking Engine server component (ApptBook) for the service region
is mapped to the correct Siebel Server.

■ Check the total number of unique servers being used as this information is used when setting
the ABS Server Parameters. See “Appointment Booking System Server Component Parameter
Configuration.”

Appointment Booking System Server Component Parameter

Configuration
The server component task parameters should be set as described in Table 34.

Assignment Rule Configuration

This section applies if you are using Assignment Manager.

■ Check all assignment rules. In each of them, the Check Employee Calendar check box should be
cleared. It is not used for the ABS.

■ Try to assign the activity by using Assignment Manager in interactive assignment mode. You
perform this assignment by selecting an activity record (on the Activities screen > List view),
clicking the menu button on the Activity form and selecting the Assign option. The result returned
should be a list of candidates for that activity, if the Assignment Manager rules are set up
correctly.

■ For debugging purposes, it is recommended that you disable the Assignment Manager. This can
be done by setting the Use Assignment Manager parameter to 0. See “Appointment Booking
System Parameter Set Configuration” on page 161 for more information.

Appointment Booking System Constraint Set Configuration

Constraint sets can be a cause of loading or booking problems if the constraints are contradictory.
For testing purposes, set the constraint set in the service region to blank and then check whether
the problems are fixed.

Disabling Scripting on the Activity Business Object

If you have checked all the configuration values listed in the preceding sections and the problem still
exists, try disabling the scripting on the Activity business objects.

CAUTION: The Action business component has a number of data integrity checks on it. Overriding
or removing these checks can introduce subtle errors into the scheduling process.

The following recommendations should be noted when changing the Activity business objects,
particularly the Action business component:

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■ Do not change the code around work time and duration.

■ Be careful not to disable calculated field logic.

Troubleshooting the Optimizer

Before beginning the checks, note that all of the following settings are required for running the
Optimizer:

■ A service region

■ Server key mapping

■ Cost function

■ Cost list

■ Travel cost

■ Minimum travel time

■ Travel U/M

■ Parameter set

■ Parameters:

■ Optimizer - Activity Category

■ Optimizer - Default Priority

■ Optimizer – Glued

■ Optimizer – Save Interval

■ Optimizer – Tardiness Cost

■ Optimizer – Task Excl Cost

■ Optimizer – Timeout
NOTE: See “Creating Parameter Sets for Scheduling” on page 127 for more information about setting
the values for these parameters.

The Optimizer has the following additional requirements:

■ An activity cannot span more than one day; multiday activities are not scheduled. The Optimizer
can schedule other activities during the time intended for multiday activities. However, the
penalties for not scheduling these activities still contribute to evaluating the potential success of
an optimized schedule. See “Defining Cost Functions for the Optimizer” on page 134 for more
information.

■ Activities that cross between the end of the Optimizer horizon and the ABS horizon are treated
as locked by both the ABS and the Optimizer.

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When loading activities into the Optimizer cache for the first time, the Optimizer produces an initial
solution to the schedule by accepting the existing order and assignment of appointments. While
finding the initial solution, the Optimizer first processes the activities that have Lock Assignment and
Lock Schedule flags set to TRUE. This helps to ensure that these requests are honored in the
optimized schedule. See “Locking Schedules and Assignments (End User)” on page 153 for more
information.

While the schedule for a service region is being optimized, only Insert Activity and Stop Optimization
requests are accepted. These are queued, and the queue is processed when the optimization finds
the next solution. Any other request is returned. See “Running Contract Scheduling (End User)” on
page 157 and “Stopping the Optimization of a Service Region” on page 157 for more information.

Guidelines for Obtaining Good Optimization Results

The following recommendations can help you to obtain good optimization results at the best speed:

■ The most important way to return good results from the Optimizer is to make sure that it is on
its own process within the server key mappings.

Run the Optimizer when the server is under a light load, preferably overnight. See “Setting Up
Server Key Mappings” on page 136 for more information.

■ Examine the schedule parameters’ Optimizer heuristic settings.

In general, a higher number produces a better result quality, but it takes longer to find a solution.
Most companies find that setting the Optimizer heuristic parameters to 5 or 6 and running the
Optimizer for three to four hours (determined by the Optimizer - Timeout parameter) to be
sufficient. See “Creating Parameter Sets for Scheduling” on page 127 and “Heuristics for the
Optimizer” on page 100 for more information.

■ Check the service region setup as more constraints lead to a faster solution.

Optimizer frames the scheduling problem as a solution space to explore and find the best answer.
More constraints mean that the solution space is smaller, therefore the Optimizer has to explore
fewer permutations to arrive at the best solution. See “Defining Service Regions” on page 109 for
more information.

■ Subdividing your field service engineers into types also helps to speed up optimization.

For example, a cable company had several different activity types (cable install, cable problems,
cable modem install, and cable modem problems), with service engineers keyed to those types.
Even within a large service region of over 50 people, the company could receive optimum
solutions quickly because the engineers were divided in this way. This was because the Optimizer
was solving several small problems instead of one large one.

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Optimizer Parameter Set Configuration

The parameter values for the Optimizer should be set as described in Table 38.

Table 38. Recommended Optimizer Parameter Values

Parameter Recommended Value

Optimizer - Save This value should generally be set to 15

Interval

Optimizer - Logging This value should generally be set to 3, unless diagnosing a problem.
Level

Optimizer - Optimize This value should generally be set to 5. Set this higher for more accurate
Heuristic results, lower for faster results.

Optimizer - Timeout This value should generally be set to 180. Three hours should be enough to
find a good solution.

ABS - Days to Start This value should generally be set to 1. This controls how many days out
the schedule is optimized. Setting this to higher than 5 will greatly increase
memory usage, and is not recommended.

Month Start Date This value should generally be set to 1. This is primarily relevant if you are
using constraints around monthly capacity.

Week Start Day This value should generally be set to 1. This is primarily relevant if you are
using constraints around weekly capacity.

Optimizer - Glued This value should generally be set to 120. This is primarily relevant if you
are doing Contract Scheduling during the day instead of batch scheduling
overnight.

Optimizer - Default This value should generally be set to 3.

Priority

Optimizer - Consider This value should generally be set to 0.

Parts

Optimizer - Task This value should generally be set to 500. This ensures that tasks are not
Excl Cost dropped from the schedule unless absolutely necessary.

Optimizer - Hard This value should generally be set to 0.

Latest Start

Use Assignment This value should be set 1 if using skills to restrict candidates.
Manager

About Configuring the Appointment

Booking Display
You can change the information displayed in the Book Appointment dialog box, as well as the format
in which this information is displayed, to suit your company requirements.

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The following are some suggestions on changing the displayed information:

■ By default, the employee is not shown together with the available time slots. This is because
many service companies, particularly those scheduling partners or people working on
commission, do not want to allow employees to see the names of the field service engineers
being scheduled. This can help avoid favoritism. If a company does want to display the employee
names together with the available time slots, the administrator must expose employees within
the Abs Result Pick Applet.

■ By default, the Book Appointment dialog box displays the start and end times of the time window.
The time windows are generally longer than the actual duration of the activity. Set the time
window to equal the length of the activity if you want to allow customer service representatives
to view the exact times for the activities instead of the time window ranges.

TIP: Planned Start and Planned End are available in the Abs Result Pick Applet’s list columns.
However for these to be displayed on the user interface, the corresponding applet Web template
items (Planned End, Planned End - SR Time Zone, Planned Start, and Planned Start - SR Time
Zone) must be activated. These Web template items are inactive by default.

NOTE: You can change the time window values in the Administration - Scheduling screen > Time
Windows List view. See “Creating Time Windows for Scheduling” on page 121 for more information.

■ To force the return of only one time slot per employee, set the Earliest Start and Latest Start for
the activity to less than the time window (see “Adding Schedule Information for Activities (End
User)” on page 148 for more information). For example, if the time window is 40 minutes, setting
the Earliest Start to 11 A.M. and the Latest Start to 11:30 A.M. will ensure that only one slot is
returned for each employee with the available time and appropriate skills.

Why Would Time Slots Not Be Displayed to Users?

Occasionally, users may state that they are not seeing time slots when they know some are available.
Assuming that time slots are definitely available and the skills required are correct, this situation can
occur because the time slots are being held. Time slots are held for the customer service
representative viewing them until the representative clicks Cancel or the ABS timeout limit has been
reached (see Table 29 on page 128 for more information about the ABS - Timeout parameter). When
only a few time slots are left, one user may hold them all.

To mitigate this, in high-volume call centers, it may be more appropriate to set the ABS - Timeout
parameter to a low value—for example, one minute. Alternatively, you can also reduce the value of
the ABS – Default Number of Slots parameter so that fewer slots are offered to each user.

About Enhancing the Performance of

Siebel Scheduler
Every Siebel server can run one or more service regions. Large service regions can run on a
dedicated server.

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Each service region can run on only one application server. This allows the information for one service
region to be cached within memory instead of being continually read from the database, reducing
the load placed on the database during schedule optimization.

CAUTION: It is recommended that you place no more than 400 service regions on one physical
server. This is due to the limitations on the Server Request Broker scalability. See “About the
Relationship of Scheduler to the Server Request Broker” on page 167 for more information. If your
service regions are going to exceed that amount for the ABS or Optimizer, you must test performance
and scalability carefully.

The ABS and Optimizer interact with the database only at these times:

■ Data loading. The ABS and Optimizer read large amounts of information from the database on
start up, or when the service region is reloaded. For more information, see “About Loading and
Reloading Service Region Data” on page 169. For this reason, it is best to avoid reloading during
a busy time.

■ Saving schedules. The Optimizer can save its result sets to the database at specified time
intervals, but unless this is a very large data set, it should not noticeably affect database
performance. For more information, see the parameter, Optimizer – Save Interval in Table 29.

CAUTION: Although it is acceptable for testing, it is recommended that you keep the Object
Manager and the Scheduler components on separate machines in a production environment. This
prevents spikes in user activity from interfering with the Scheduler operations.

Guidelines for Balancing the Service Region CPU Load

In general, you should have a number of processes up to or equal to the number of CPUs on the
server, as the operating system (OS) generally farms the work out on each process to a separate
CPU. If you have a small number of service regions, it is recommended that you have each service
region on a separate process number within a server. When you have more service regions than
CPUs, and when each service region is approximately the same size, divide them equally across the
processes. If the service regions are not equal, balance them according to size. For example, put a
50-person service region on Process 1 and two 25-person service regions on Process 2. Another way
to load balance is to look at the amount of time to load and aim for an equivalent amount of load
time on each process.

NOTE: You cannot specify which CPU a process works on. The OS does this specification; it generally
has its own algorithms to maximize performance in a multi-CPU environment.

About the Relationship of Scheduler to

the Server Request Broker
When a request is made to Scheduler (through the user interface or the application program interface
[API]), the call is routed to the correct server by the Server Request Broker (SRB) in the following
way:

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1 When the ABS server is started, it loads all the activities into the cache. It registers all the unique
service region keys in the Siebel Server's shared memory file. SRB uses the information stored
in shared memory to determine which components are up and running. No SRB threads are
established at that time.

2 At the first attempt to connect to a service region (for example, a Book Appt request from a
client), the Object Manager contacts the SRB on the Object Manager machine. That SRB sends
the BookAppt request to the SRB on the ABS server. After the first request is submitted to the
particular region, the SRB on that server establishes a connection to the local ABS.

3 The response is sent from Scheduler to the SRB on the service region machine. The SRB then
sends the response to the SRB on the Object Manager machine. Then, the SRB on the Object
Manager machine relays that response to the Object Manager.

4 Subsequent connections from any Object Manager are made by each local SRB connecting to the
SRB on the service region's machine. Responses are similarly passed back through the two SRBs.
The Object Manager connects to the Server Request Broker only; if there is a connection between
the SRB and the ABS on the local machine, then it does not open another connection to the ABS.

5 Assignment Manager, if used, is contacted by the ABS using the SRB mechanism. Having multiple
rule sets does not affect the routing. Assignment Manager has a default rule set that is always
used whenever no rule set is defined.

The only persistent SRB threads are on the machine containing the SRB and the service regions on
that machine.

For example, assume you have three servers in the enterprise. The Object Manager and an SRB are
running on Machine 1. Machines 2 and 3 have SRBs and four processes of ABS running on them with
16 separate service regions (two for each ABS process). The user connects and books an
appointment on each of the service regions. At this point, the environment should look like the
following:

■ All SRBs on all machines should have the server key maps for all 16 service regions within their
cache.

■ Machine 2's SRB has eight open threads to the four ABS processes (two each). Each ABS service
region is listening on a unique port for calls from the Machine 2 SRB. Because there is unique
port per service region in the ABS process, there is one connection (thread) from the Machine 2
SRB to that port on ABS.

■ Machine 3 should appear the same as Machine 2.

■ Machine 1 only has connections to the SRBs on Machines 2 and 3. The SRB on Machine 1 does
not connect directly to the ABS on other machines, as that would defeat the purpose of brokering.
When Scheduler shuts down, the keys are deregistered in shared memory and the connection
between SRB and Scheduler is lost. If there are any Sync requests for Scheduler it fails and the user
receives an error. If the request is an Async request stored in the database, it remains in QUEUED
state until Scheduler is brought back up and the Service Request Processor (SRP) or the SRB then
routes it accordingly.

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About Loading and Reloading Service

Region Data
Because the service region information is cached, it must be loaded into the caches from the
database when the service is started periodically to synchronize updates. Initial loading and
reloading of data are automatic processes. The data for a service region is copied automatically to
the caches each time the server is restarted, and manually by clicking the Load buttons. Repeat
component jobs can also load service region data automatically, using the Appointment Booking
System business service. See “Reloading the Appointment Booking System Cache Using Workflows” on
page 146 and “About Troubleshooting the Appointment Booking System and Optimizer” on page 159 for
more information.

Every night, information needs to move from the ABS (future) cache into the Optimizer (present)
cache. For example, if today is July 1st, then the Optimizer horizon holds all activities from July 1st
to July 7th. The ABS horizon is defined as 14 days, so the ABS cache holds from July 8th to July 15th.
Note that both horizons are measured from the beginning of the Glued period. The end of the
Optimizer horizon is set to the same calendar day (at midnight) as the start of the ABS horizon.

After it becomes July 2nd, the old July 1st data is no longer necessary; it is in the past and is
discarded. At the same time, the Optimizer horizon is still looking seven days out, so it needs to load
the July 9th data into the Optimizer cache. However, before the data can be loaded into the Optimizer
cache, it must be unloaded from the ABS cache. If it is in both caches at the same time, it could be
changed in both engines simultaneously. Therefore, the activities and data for July 9th are released
from the ABS cache, and then loaded into the Optimizer cache.

When a service region is being loaded, it is not available for requests. The request is returned with
a return code.

At the first load of data from a service region, the Optimizer assumes that the data coming from the
database was previously optimized. So while generating an initial solution, it tries to keep the
assignee as well as the sequence of activities for each field service engineer. It also keeps the time
stamp of this load in the cache.

What Happens When a Service Region is Reloaded to the Appointment

Booking System?
When a service region is reloaded, the ABS does the following:

1 Queries for employees currently in the service region

2 Pulls the schedule for both the service region and each employee

3 Queries for any exceptions for employees

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4 Constructs a master schedule

First, the ABS applies the service region schedule for all employees. It then applies a schedule
for each employee.

NOTE: The service region schedule overrules both employee schedules and employee
exceptions. For example, if the service region schedule does not indicate that the company
operates on Sundays, activities are never scheduled for this day. This is an advantage of setting
a liberal service region (24 hours): you can set exceptions like employees being able to work on
Sundays.

5 Reads in any constraints

6 Queries for any activities in the next 15 days—the horizon is usually set at the start time of the
day (00:00:00 A.M.).

The ABS does not load historical activities unless a weekly or monthly constraint is defined for
the service region. If only weekly constraints are defined, the ABS loads one more week of data;
if monthly constraints are defined, it loads one more month of data. However, when no weekly
or monthly constraints are defined, the ABS only loads activities within the ABS horizon.

The query appears as follows:

Planned Start > ABS Load Range End and Planned End < ABS Load Rang Start

The ABS attempts to place the activities in the schedule in the following order:

■ Activities with the Locked Schedule and Lock Assignment flags set to TRUE

■ Activities with the Locked Schedule flag set to TRUE

■ Activities with the Locked Assignment flag set to TRUE

■ Activities with the Locked Schedule and Lock Assignment flags set to FALSE

If two activities that are both locked for schedule and assignment overlap, only the first activity
attempted is scheduled. The second is set as unscheduled.

On loading, the ABS generally attempts to insert the activities exactly as they were stored in the
database. If nothing has changed (same employees, same schedules, no manual changes). the
activities in the cache are exactly the same. However, if changes have occurred, the ABS will
attempt to reschedule activities to counteract this. After the initial load completes, the ABS
follows the rules below to reschedule any remaining appointments:

■ Earliest Start/Latest Start must be respected.

■ Locked Schedule/Locked Assignment flags must be respected.

If the ABS can find an open spot for an activity, the Owner, Planned Start, and Planned End are
updated within the cache and written to the database. If an activity cannot be inserted, its status
is set to unscheduled but the Owner, Planned Start, and Planned End remain unchanged. This
allows a service manager to see the original time committed to the customer. The new status is
written to the database and recorded in the log if the logging level is set to level 3 or above. The
activity is not kept in the ABS cache.

Unless an activity is changed during the load, it is not modified within the database by the ABS.
This means that if the ABS goes down, the version in the database should be consistent with the
version in the cache. The exceptions to this are any manual changes made on the database side.

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About Reloading Migrated Activity Data

If migrating activity data to a new system, you should use Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager
(EIM). See Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager Administration Guide for more information.

The fields listed in Table 39 are critical for migrating the activity data.

Table 39. Fields Required for Migrating Activity Data

Field Field

Earliest Start Travel Time

Latest Start Status

Planned Start Owner

Planned End Lock Assignment

Duration Lock Schedule

Work Time Service Region

When you load the ABS after migration, activities are scheduled according to the employee and
service region schedule. If an activity can be scheduled to its original owner, at the original Planned
Start and Planned End, no change is made to the activity data and the employee is scheduled for the
particular activity. If the activity cannot be scheduled in this way, the activity is rescheduled, based
on its Earliest Start and Latest Start constraints. The new Planned Start and Planned End, Owner (if
such a change is required) and Status are updated on the activity.

To make sure that the migrated activities can be loaded into ABS and scheduled to their original
Planned Start, Planned End, and Owner, the following conditions must be met:

■ Planned End - Planned Start = Duration

■ Work Time + Travel Time = Duration

Here travel time is the average travel time defined on Service Region, no on Activity.

■ No doublebooking of the original activities occurs

If there is doublebooking, one of the overbooked activities is rescheduled—unless both the Lock
Assignment and Lock Schedule flags are set to TRUE for the activity.

■ Original activities do not violate any of the constraints for the service region

■ Original activities can be fit into the service region schedule and employee schedule (Working
Hours)

About Using Application Deployment

Manager
For information on Field Service customization using the Application Deployment Manager (ADM),
see Siebel Application Deployment Manager Guide.

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6 Setting Up and Using the

Dispatch Board

This chapter provides details about using the Dispatch Board. Topics include:

■ About the Dispatch Board on page 173

■ About Process Flows for Dispatch Board Scheduling on page 174

■ Dispatch Board Screen Interface on page 175

■ Process of Setting Up the Dispatch Board on page 177

■ Process of Assigning Activities on page 195

■ About Using the Dispatch Board Gantt Chart to Assign Activities on page 198

■ About Rescheduling Appointments in the Dispatch Board on page 199

About the Dispatch Board

The Dispatch Board screen provides a drag-and-drop interface for selecting field service engineers
to carry out activities and manual scheduling of these activities.

Generally, businesses use the Dispatch Board for:

■ Local dispatch. The Dispatch Board is used by a local business to enable the manual scheduling
of activities by a local service manager. In this case, the dispatcher is familiar with the territory
(or territories) as well as the employees.

■ Centralized dispatch. The Dispatch Board is used by a geographically disperse business with a
centralized, dedicated dispatch team. The dispatch personnel search for and schedule employees
based on their skill and proximity to activities.

See About Process Flows for Dispatch Board Scheduling on page 174 for more information about the
two methods of dispatch.

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About Process Flows for Dispatch Board

Scheduling
Figure 3 shows two process flows: one for a local dispatch business scenario and one for a centralized
dispatch business scenario. In a local dispatch scenario, the dispatcher creates an activity, creates
an activity plan, and then schedules an activity. In the centralized dispatch scenario, the dispatcher
searches for activities and then assigns activities. This section provides details about each procedure
in the two processes.

Figure 3. Process Flows for Dispatch Board Scheduling

Scheduling Activities (Local Dispatch)

Local dispatchers can schedule an activity by performing the following procedures:

1 Creating an activity. See “Recording Field Service Activities” on page 75 for more information.
2 Creating an activity plan. See “Field Service Activities” on page 69.

3 Scheduling an activity. See “Assigning Field Service Engineers for Activities (End User)” on
page 196.

Scheduling Activities (Central Dispatch)

Activities can be scheduled in the following manner by central dispatchers:

1 Searching for activities. See “Searching for Activities in the Dispatch Board’s Gantt Chart (End
User)” on page 196 for more information.

2 Assigning activities. See “Assigning Field Service Engineers with the Dispatch Board” on page 197
for more information.

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Dispatch Board Screen Interface

The Dispatch Board provides a drag-and-drop interface for manual assignment and scheduling of
service activities. The Dispatch Board has two sections:

■ Gantt chart (top)

■ Unscheduled Activities list (bottom)

To schedule activities, users drag-and-drop activities from the Unscheduled Activities list onto the
Gantt chart. To unschedule activities, users drag the activity from the Gantt chart back to the
Unscheduled Activities list.

Specific features of the Gantt chart and the Unscheduled Activities list can be used to improve activity
scheduling.

About the Scheduling Information Displayed

The Dispatch Board queries the database for the schedule information—it does not show what is in
the ABS and Optimizer caches. The Dispatch Board queries the database so that it can show any date
and time range that the user wants to see. The Appointment Booking System (ABS) immediately
writes any changes to the database so the activities in the database should reflect what is in the
cache. The one exception to this is an activity that has been dragged and dropped across the
Dispatch Board. These activities are not automatically loaded into the cache. See “Setting Up and
Using Scheduling” on page 93 and “About Rescheduling Appointments in the Dispatch Board” on
page 199 for more information.

Unscheduled Activities List

By default, the Unscheduled Activities list displays all activities that have a status of Unscheduled.
Table 40 shows selected items in the Unscheduled Activities list.

You can view these additional lists using the Unscheduled Activities drop-down list:

■ Declined

■ Timed Out

■ Not Acknowledged

Gantt Chart
The Gantt chart shows the scheduled and unscheduled time periods for a group of field service
engineers associated with a service region.

The chart is divided by a frames boundary into left and right frames. The left frame lists field service
engineers and related information that helps users select engineers for activities. The right frame
shows scheduled time periods.

To see all of the information in the left frame, drag the frames boundary to the right. To sort the list
of field service engineers, click the title of a column. You can also narrow the list of field service
engineers by performing a query by name.

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The right frame of the Gantt chart appears in a calendar format. Scheduled time periods are shown
with colors that represent activity priority, status, and type. See “Setting User Preferences for the
Dispatch Board” on page 178 for more information.

To zoom in or out on a particular time period, click a zoom interval (1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, or 4) on the
current time bar.

Table 40 describes selected items in the Gantt chart.

Table 40. Selected Items in the Gantt Chart

Item Description

Service Region, Time Zone, and Date Shown These are set in one of two ways (whichever
occurred last):

■ From the application-level menu, choose Tools

> User Preferences. On the link bar, click
Dispatch Board. The user selects the
appropriate options using the drop-down lists.

■ Navigate to the Activities screen > Schedule

view. A user arrives at the Dispatch Board by
clicking an Activity Status link in the Activities
screen > Schedule view. In this case, the items
default to the choices made for the just-visited
activity. If no service region is assigned to the
just-visited activity, then the service region
remains as is on the Gantt chart.

NOTE: To accurately display an employee’s

schedule, the Time Zone selected on the
Administration - User screen > Employees view
must match the Service Region Time Zone
displayed on the Gantt chart Current Time Bar.

Score The score calculated by Assignment Manager. For

more information, see Siebel Assignment Manager
Administration Guide.

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Table 40. Selected Items in the Gantt Chart

Item Description

Distance Distance = number of miles from source address to

destination address

That is, the distance a field engineer needs to

travel to get to the selected activity. A distance of
-1 indicates an incomplete or incorrect source or
destination address.

Source address. If the field engineer is at an

activity or is in transit, the source address is the
ZIP Code of the field engineer’s current or previous
activity, respectively. Otherwise, the source
address is the ZIP Code of the field engineer’s start
depot address.

Destination address. The ZIP Code of the

contact service location for the activity, unless
there is more than one contact service location. If
there is more than one contact service location,
the ZIP Code of the account service location.

Process of Setting Up the Dispatch Board

The following list shows the procedures that administrators typically perform to set up the Dispatch
Board within Siebel Field Service. Your company may follow a different process according to its
business requirements.

To set up the Dispatch Board for use by dispatchers and customer service representatives, perform
the following tasks:

■ Set up rules for Assignment Manager. See the chapter on assignment rules in Siebel Assignment
Manager Administration Guide.

■ Associate service regions and schedules with employees. See “Defining Employee Availability and
Schedules” on page 116 for more information.

■ Define employee exception hours. See “Setting Exception Hours” on page 108 for more
information.

■ Assign responsibilities to employees. See Siebel Applications Administration Guide for more
information.

■ Set system preferences for the Dispatch Board. See “Setting System Preferences for the Dispatch
Board” on page 178 for more information.

■ Set user preferences for the Dispatch Board. See “Setting User Preferences for the Dispatch Board”
on page 178 for more information.

■ Make any required adjustments to the cache size to optimize the display speed of the Dispatch
Board. See “Optimizing Display Speeds for the Dispatch Board” on page 181 for more information.

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■ Add users with dispatcher responsibility. See “Setting Up Dispatcher Users” on page 183 for more
information.

■ Configure any enhancements required for the dispatchers to efficiently perform their job. See the
following sections for more information:

■ Displaying Additional Information on the Dispatch Board Y-Axis on page 183

■ Adding Drilldowns to the Dispatch Board on page 185

■ Adding Query Fields to the Dispatch Board on page 187

■ Changing the Label Information Displayed on the Dispatch Board on page 188

■ Changing the Time Zoom Intervals on the Dispatch Board on page 189

■ Changing the Days of the Week Displayed on the Dispatch Board on page 190

■ Enabling Applets for Drag and Drop onto the Dispatch Board on page 191

■ Adding User Preference Colors for the Dispatch Board on page 192

■ Optimizing Display Space on the Dispatch Board on page 193

■ Restricting the Employees that Display on the Dispatch Board on page 194

Setting System Preferences for the Dispatch Board

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up the Dispatch Board” on page 177.

The Dispatch Board allows a dispatcher or customer service representative to drag an activity from
the Unscheduled Activities list to a block of time and employee in the Gantt chart. If the service
region of the activity is different from the service region selected for the Gantt chart, the result
depends on the setting of the system preference FSDB:Override Service Region:

■ If the value of the system preference is TRUE, then the dispatcher can drop the activity on the
Gantt chart and the service region for the activity is automatically changed to the service region
selected for the Gantt chart.
■ If the value is FALSE, then the dispatcher cannot drop the activity on the Gantt chart and an error
is returned.

Setting User Preferences for the Dispatch Board

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up the Dispatch Board” on page 177.

Field Service provides control over many aspects of the Gantt chart. To change these settings, on
the Dispatch Board screen, click the menu button and then choose User Preferences.

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Table 41 describes the settings for the Gantt chart.

Table 41. Options for the Gantt Chart

Group/Field Description

Major Time Value Sets the timespan (for example, one day) that can be viewed
without scrolling:

■ Year

■ Month

■ Week

■ Day
■ 6 Hours

■ 4 Hours

■ 2 Hours
■ Half Hour

■ Quarter Hour

Minor Time Value Sets the time increments (for example, 24 one-hour slots) of the
Major Time Value:

■ Year

■ Month

■ Week

■ Day

■ 6 Hours

■ 4 Hours

■ 2 Hours

■ Hour

■ Half Hour

■ Quarter Hour

Start Day at The start time for a workday. The default is 7 A.M. The format is
09:00:00 A.M. If you display the time in hour (or shorter)
increments on the Dispatch Board, the Start Day at and End Day
at fields determine the time period that displays on the Dispatch
Board and thus the time period in which you can schedule
activities. If you display time in longer time increments, this field
has no effect. For example, if you display day time increments, you
can schedule activities only at the beginning of the day (12:00
A.M.)

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Table 41. Options for the Gantt Chart

Group/Field Description

End Day at The end time for a workday. The default is 7 P.M. The format is
05:00:00 P.M.

Service Region and Date These are set in one of two ways (whichever occurred last):
Shown
■ From the application-level menu, choose Tools > User
Preferences. On the link bar, click Dispatch Board. The user
selects the appropriate options using the drop-down lists.

■ Activities screen > Schedule view. A user arrives at the

Dispatch Board by clicking an Activity Status link in the
Activities screen > Schedule view. In this case, the items
default to the choices made for the just-visited activity.

Color Scheme Sets the colors of the time bars representing scheduled activities.
To apply a color scheme, select the values in the activity fields
(Activity Priority, Activity Status, and Activity Type) and select a
color for each value. To designate the color of the body of the bar,
select an activity field as the Major Color Scheme. To designate the
color of the border of the bar, select an activity field as the Minor
Color Scheme.

NOTE: When you select the values in the activity fields and the
corresponding colors, your selections are automatically saved.

Enable Default Colors When selected, the default color scheme overrides the user
preferences and the Grid Object defaults to the account name.

Activity Priority For each activity priority value, select a corresponding color.

Activity Status For each activity status value, select a corresponding color.

Activity Type For each activity type value, select a corresponding color.

Major Color Scheme Determines the body color of the time bars for the selected activity
field.

Minor Color Scheme Determines the border color of the time bars for the selected
activity field.

Grid Object Determines the text displayed on the time bars for the selected
activity field. When Enable Default Colors is selected, the Grid
Object displays the account name by default.

Display Current Time Displays a vertical line in the Gantt chart representing the service
region’s current time.

Display Earliest/Latest Start When selected, highlights (in yellow) the start time range for an
unscheduled activity on the Minor Time Value bar of the Gantt
chart.

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Table 41. Options for the Gantt Chart

Group/Field Description

Auto-Update Service Region Selecting this check box determines whether the last service
region displayed in the Activities Gantt chart appears the next time
the user goes to the Dispatch Board screen.

Enable Service Region When selected, only activities for the selected service region are
Constraint on Unplan Activity displayed in the Unscheduled Activities list (instead of all
unscheduled activities).

Enable Earliest/Latest Start When this check box is selected, the Dispatch Board - Generic
Violation workflow determines whether the current time is earlier than the
earliest start time for the selected activity, or if the current time is
later than the latest start time for the activity. If the current time
violates the earliest or latest times, the workflow stops. For more
information about this workflow, see Siebel Store-and-Forward
Messaging Guide for Mobile Web Client.

Load Activity into ABS When this check box is selected, the Dispatch Board - Generic
workflow loads the activity into the Appointment Booking Cache.
For more information about this workflow, see Siebel Store-and-
Forward Messaging Guide for Mobile Web Client.

Enable Travel Time Display When selected, the Dispatch Board displays the travel time
between appointments.

Optimizing Display Speeds for the Dispatch Board

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up the Dispatch Board” on page 177.

To speed up display of the Dispatch Board, the Dispatch Board user interface component gets activity
data from a cache rather than from the database. You can further improve the Dispatch Board’s
display speed by changing the cache size.

With a large cache, a user can retrieve more data without accessing the database. Thus, a large
cache size increases the display speed of the Dispatch Board. However, a larger cache also requires
more server memory.

Therefore, to determine the optimal cache size, consider the following factors:

■ Cache size is the number of entries in the cache. The default is 300, the maximum is 2000
entries, and the minimum is 200 entries.
■ Dispatch Board uses a session (or per user) cache, so that each user has an individual activity
cache.

■ An entry stores a list of the activities for an employee on a particular day. Thus, as the number
of employees and viewable days in the Gantt chart increases, the cache size needs to be
increased to avoid a slowdown in display speed. You can calculate an appropriate cache size
(before adjusting for memory considerations) as follows:

(10 Employees x 14 Viewable days) + 60 Redundancy= 200 entries

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■ Memory required by the cache is a function of the number of entries, the number of activities per
entry, and the number and data type of ToolTip fields.

To change the cache size

1 Log into Siebel Tools as an administrator.

2 Navigate to Object Explorer > Siebel Objects > Business Service.

3 Query for the name FS Activity Cache.

4 Go to the child object Business Service User Prop.

5 Query for the name Cache Size.

6 Change the default value for cache size and then click Save.

Clearing Cached Activity Data

To speed up display of the Dispatch Board, the Dispatch Board user interface component gets activity
data from a cache rather than from the database. The activity data in the cache table is duplicate
data created during a user session.

You can clear the data manually at any time by invoking the clean up service, the FS Activity Cache
business service. The FS Activity Cache business service uses a CleanUpCacheTable method, which
takes no input or output arguments. This method clears the contents of the cache table. To clear the
cache table, it is recommended that you call this method nightly during operations downtime or
during low usage periods.

There are two common ways in which an administrator can invoke this business service:

■ Set up a repeating component job. See Siebel System Administration Guide for more information
on creating repeating component jobs.

■ Use the business service simulator. See “Using the Business Service Simulator to Clear the Cache”
for more information.

Using the Business Service Simulator to Clear the Cache

Perform the following procedure to clear the Dispatch Board cache from the business service
simulator.

To clear the Dispatch Board cache from the business service simulator
1 Navigate to the Administration - Business Service screen > Simulator view.

2 In the Simulator list, create a new record.

3 In the Service Name field, click the select button and choose FS Activity Cache.

NOTE: The display name for this service is Field Service Activity Cache Service.

4 In the Method Name field, click the select button and choose CleanUpCacheTable.

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5 Click Run.

The business service method runs, clearing the data from the Dispatch Board cache table.

Setting Up Dispatcher Users

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up the Dispatch Board” on page 177.

Field Service provides responsibilities for employees, showing only the views needed to complete
their job. There is a responsibility for a dispatcher, who can assign activities to service engineers.
See Siebel Applications Administration Guide for more information about responsibilities and
visibility.

To add a user with the responsibility of a dispatcher

1 Navigate to the Administration - Application screen > Responsibilities view.

2 In the Responsibilities list, select the Dispatcher record. If this record is not in the list, create a
new record with the responsibility of Dispatcher.

3 To add the name of the employee who will take the Dispatcher’s role, add a new record on the
Users list.

4 In the Views list, make sure that the selected user has access to the following views:

■ FS AxGanttChart View

■ FS AxGanttChart Declined View

■ FS AxGanttChart Timed Out View

■ FS AxGanttChart Not Acknowledged View

Displaying Additional Information on the Dispatch

Board Y-Axis
This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up the Dispatch Board” on page 177.

Generally, employee names are displayed on the y-axis of the Dispatch Board. If dispatchers want
to see additional information displayed here, the administrator must configure the Dispatch Board.

The following example procedures describe how a new work phone number field is added to the
Dispatch Board’s y-axis information.

See Using Siebel Tools for more information on performing configuration tasks with Siebel Tools.

To display phone number information on the Dispatch Board y-axis, perform the following tasks:

1 Creating a New Field on the Business Component on page 184

2 Creating the Applet User Property on page 184

3 Creating the Applet Controls on page 185

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4 Compiling and Viewing the New Field on page 185

Creating a New Field on the Business Component

Perform the following procedure to create a new field on the Employee business component.

To create a new field on the business component

1 Log into Siebel Tools as an administrator.

2 Lock the Employee project for editing.

3 Navigate to Object Explorer > Business Component.

4 Query for the Employee business component.

5 Navigate to Business Component > Field and query for the Phone # field.

6 Copy the record and name the new record Phone.

CAUTION: The hash symbol (#) is used as a special character in the Dispatch Board user
properties, so do not include it in the name of any new fields created for use with the Dispatch
Board.

Creating the Applet User Property

Perform the following procedure to create a new applet user property called Y-Column7.

To create the applet user property

1 Lock the FS Dispatch Board project for editing.

2 Navigate to Object Explorer > Applet.

3 Query for the FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

4 Navigate to Applet > Applet User Prop.

NOTE: If Applet User Prop is not visible, go to View > Options, select the Object Explorer tab
and then select the Applet User Prop object definition.

5 Query for Y-Column*, making sure to include the wildcard asterisk symbol (*).

All the Employee business component Y-columns currently displayed in the Dispatch Board are
listed in order.

6 Copy the Y-Column3 record and update the new record’s fields as follows:

a Enter Y-Column7 as the name for the record.

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b Enter #YC-Phone#Phone#Y#Phone#N#50# in the Value field.

The information mappings for the Value field are as follows:

#Control Name#Field Name#Sortable(Y/N)#Sort Field Name#Drilldownable(Y/N)#Pixel

Width(a number)#)

The value field's information mappings are also described in the Comments field.

Creating the Applet Controls

Perform the following procedure to create new applet controls called YC-Phone and Phone.

To create the applet controls

1 Query again for the FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

2 Navigate to Applet > Control.

3 Create a new record and update the fields with the following information:

a Enter YC-Phone as the name for the record.

b Enter Phone as the value for the Caption - String Override field.

4 Create another new record and update the fields with the following information:

a Enter Phone as the name for the record.

b Enter Phone as the value for the Caption - String Override field.

c Enter Phone # as the value for the Field field.

Compiling and Viewing the New Field

Perform the following procedure to compile and view the new field on the Dispatch Board.

To compile and view the new field on the Dispatch Board

1 Compile the objects that were edited (the Employee business component and the FS DB Planned
GanttChart AX Applet).

2 Replace the Siebel Repository File (SRF).

3 Restart the client and navigate to the Dispatch Board screen.

4 Drag the Dispatch Board divider bar to the right to display the new field on the y-axis.

Adding Drilldowns to the Dispatch Board

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up the Dispatch Board” on page 177.

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Drilldowns can be added to the Dispatch Board to help streamline navigation to and from this screen.
In the following example procedures, a drilldown is configured for the Phone field added in
“Displaying Additional Information on the Dispatch Board Y-Axis” on page 183.

See Using Siebel Tools for more information on performing configuration tasks with Siebel Tools.

To allow users to drilldown on the new Phone field, perform the following tasks:

1 Allowing Drilling Down on the Applet User Property on page 186

2 Creating the Drilldown Object on page 186

3 Compiling and Viewing the New Drilldown Object on page 187

Allowing Drilling Down on the Applet User Property

Perform the following procedure to allow drilling down on the Y-Column7 applet user property.

To allow drilling down on the applet user property

1 Log into Siebel Tools as an administrator.

2 Lock the FS Dispatch Board project for editing.

3 In the Object Explorer, navigate to Applet.

4 Query for the FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

5 Navigate to Applet > Applet User Prop.

6 Query for Y-Column7. This record was added in “Creating the Applet User Property” on page 184.

7 In the Value field of this record, change the text so that it reads as follows:

#YC-Phone#Phone#Y#Phone#Y#50#

The information mappings for the Value field are as follows:

#Control Name#Field Name#Sortable(Y/N)#Sort Field Name#Drilldownable(Y/N)#Pixel Width(a

number)#

The Value field's information mappings are also described in the Comments field.

Creating the Drilldown Object

Perform the following procedure to create a new Phone drilldown object.

To create the drilldown object

1 Navigate to Applet > Drilldown Object.
2 Create a new record and update the fields with the following information:

a Enter Phone as the name of the record.

b Enter Phone as the Hyperlink Field value.

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c Enter Employee List More Info View as the View value.

d Enter Id as the Source Field value.

e Enter Employee as the Business Component value.

f Enter Id as the Destination field value.

NOTE: In the applet control, the control name and the field name must match so that users can
successfully drill down from the Dispatch Board.

Compiling and Viewing the New Drilldown Object

Perform the following procedure to compile and view the new Phone drilldown object on the Dispatch
Board.

To compile and view the new drilldown on the Dispatch Board

1 Compile the FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

2 Replace the SRF.

3 Restart the client and view the changes on the Dispatch Board screen by drilling down on the
Phone field. You are brought to the Employee List More Info view.

Adding Query Fields to the Dispatch Board

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up the Dispatch Board” on page 177.

A dispatcher needs to enter specific query parameters to search for the right employee or set of
employees. If the Dispatch Board’s query assistant does not include a parameter that the dispatchers
need, you can add this using the following example procedures.

See Using Siebel Tools for more information on performing configuration tasks with Siebel Tools.

To add a query field to the Dispatch Board’s query assistant, perform the following tasks:

1 Creating the Applet Web Template Item on page 187

2 Compiling and Using the New Query Field on page 188

Creating the Applet Web Template Item

Perform the following procedure to create a new Phone Web template item.

To create the applet Web template item

1 Log into Siebel Tools as an administrator.

2 Lock the FS Dispatch Board project for editing.

3 In the Object Explorer, navigate to Applet.

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4 Query for the FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

5 Navigate to Applet > Applet Web Template > Applet Web Template Item.

6 Create a new record and update the fields with the following information:

a Enter Phone as the name of the record.

b Enter Phone as the value for the Control field.

c Enter a numeric value in the Item Identifier field.

TIP: Controls are assigned unique numbers by Siebel Tools. It is recommended that you
enter a high numeric value here to prevent identifiers from overlapping and causing conflict.

Compiling and Using the New Query Field

Perform the following procedure to compile and test the new Phone Number query field.

To compile and use the new query field on the Dispatch Board
1 Compile the FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

2 Replace the SRF.

3 Restart the client and navigate to the Dispatch Board screen.

4 Click the menu button and select New Query.

5 Click the Query Assistant button that appears.

6 Enter a query using Phone Number.

A successful query demonstrates that the phone number can now be used as an additional search
parameter in the query assistant.

Changing the Label Information Displayed on the

Dispatch Board
This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up the Dispatch Board” on page 177.

By default, activities are displayed in the Dispatch Board Gantt chart. You may need to change the
text to show other information needed for decision-making.

In the following example procedure, the Gantt chart is configured to display account names instead
of activities.

See Using Siebel Tools for more information on performing configuration tasks with Siebel Tools.

To change the information displayed in the Gantt chart

1 Log into Siebel Tools as an administrator.

2 Lock the FS Dispatch Board project for editing.

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3 In the Object Explorer, navigate to Applet.

4 Query for FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

5 Navigate to Applet > Applet User Prop.

6 Query for X-Foreground Text Field.

7 Change the Value field to the value that you require.

In this example, the value is Account Name.

TIP: Priority and Type are other possible values that you can enter.

8 Compile the FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

9 Replace the SRF.

10 Restart the client and view the changes on the Dispatch Board screen.
The names of the accounts rather than the names of the activities should now appear in the Gantt
chart.

Changing the Time Zoom Intervals on the Dispatch

Board
This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up the Dispatch Board” on page 177.

By default, the zoom intervals on the Dispatch Board are 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, and 4. However, dispatchers
may need to work with time frames that are larger than these defaults. You can configure the zoom
intervals to different time spans, making the information display more compact. See “Setting User
Preferences for the Dispatch Board” on page 178 for more information on using the time zoom
intervals with the Gantt chart.

In the following example procedure, the fifth zoom interval value is configured to include a weekly
zoom interval.

See Using Siebel Tools for more information on performing configuration tasks with Siebel Tools.

To change the time values displayed on the Gantt chart

1 Log into Siebel Tools as an administrator.

2 Lock the FS Dispatch Board project for editing.

3 In the Object Explorer, navigate to Applet.

4 Query for FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

5 Navigate to Applet > Applet User Prop.

6 Query for Zoom Interval* making sure to include the wildcard asterisk symbol (*).

The query returns a series of records starting with Zoom Interval 1 to Zoom Interval 5.

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7 Select the Zoom Interval 5 record, and update the Value field as follows:

#WEEK#DAY# WK#

The format for this field is:

#Major Unit Value#Minor Unit Value#3 Character Label#

The valid zoom interval values are: QUARTER HOUR, HALF HOUR, HOUR, 2 HOUR, 4 HOUR, 6
HOUR, DAY, WEEK, MONTH, YEAR

8 Select the Zoom Interval Default record and update the Value field to 5.

The valid values for Zoom Interval Default Setting are 1 to 5.

9 Compile FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

10 Replace the SRF.

11 Restart the client and view the new time intervals on the Dispatch Board screen.
Note that the fifth time interval has changed from 4 to Wk. When you click this button, the Gantt
chart updates to show the information in a week and day timespan.

Changing the Days of the Week Displayed on the

Dispatch Board
This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up the Dispatch Board” on page 177.

By default the Dispatch Board Gantt chart displays Monday to Friday as the days on which activities
can be scheduled; Saturday and Sunday are typically excluded.

Some companies require that activities can be scheduled for employees on any day of the week,
including Saturday and Sunday.

In the following example procedure, the Dispatch Board is configured to display all seven days of the
week.

See Using Siebel Tools for more information on performing configuration tasks with Siebel Tools.

To display seven days of the week on the Gantt chart

1 Log into Siebel Tools as an administrator.

2 Lock the FS Dispatch Board project for editing.

3 In the Object Explorer, navigate to Applet.

4 Query for FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

5 Navigate to Applet > Applet User Prop.

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6 Query for X-Display Constraint Map.

The default value for this user property is #0#0#1#5#. This indicates that five days of the week,
Monday (indicated by the number 1) to Friday (indicated by the number 5) are shown on the
Gantt chart.

7 Update the Value field as follows:

#0#0#0#6#

These values allow the display of the 24-hour day, starting on Sunday (indicated by the last
number 0) and ending on Saturday (indicated by the number 6).

8 Compile FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

9 Replace the SRF.

10 Restart the client and view the full week displayed on the Dispatch Board Gantt chart.

Enabling Applets for Drag and Drop onto the Dispatch

Board
This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up the Dispatch Board” on page 177.

By default, only activities in the Unscheduled Activities list can be dropped onto the Dispatch Board.
However, it is possible to configure additional applets so that activities on the other lists can also be
dropped onto the Dispatch Board. The Dispatch Board applets can have multiple applets defined as
sources for the drag-and-drop transaction in the applet's user properties.

In the following example procedure, the FS DB Timed Out Activity List Ax Applet is configured to
allow users to drag and drop activities from the Timed Out Activities list onto the Dispatch Board.

See Using Siebel Tools for more information on performing configuration tasks with Siebel Tools.

To enable applets for drag and drop

1 Log into Siebel Tools as an administrator.
2 Lock the FS Dispatch Board project for editing.

3 In the Object Explorer, navigate to Applet.

4 Query for FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

5 Navigate to Applet > Applet User Prop.

6 Query for Drop Source Applet Name*, making sure to include the wildcard asterisk symbol (*).

The query returns a series of records with user property names beginning with Drop Source
Applet Name, for example, Drop Source Applet Name 1.

7 Create a new applet user property, the name of which starts with Drop Applet Name X, where X
is the next increment.

For example, Drop Applet Name 2.

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8 In the Value field, enter the name of the applet that will be the source of the drag-and-drop
event.

In this example, the value is FS DB Timed Out Activity List Ax Applet.

9 Compile FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

10 Replace the SRF.

11 Restart the client, navigate to the Dispatch Board, and select Timed Out Activities from the
visibility filter.

You should now be able to drag and drop activities from this list onto the Dispatch Board.

Adding User Preference Colors for the Dispatch Board

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up the Dispatch Board” on page 177.

The colors used in the Dispatch Board are defined as applet user properties. The color definitions are
specified using Blue Green Red (BGR) decimal format.

Though you can add new colors for user selection on the Dispatch Board, do not change or inactivate
the existing colors. The following activity fields determine the colors that display on the Dispatch
Board:

■ Priority (LOV type: ACTIVITY_PRIORITY)

■ Status (LOV type: EVENT_STATUS)

■ Type (LOV type: TODO_TYPE)

NOTE: Do not change or deactivate the values in the LOV types for these activity fields.

See Using Siebel Tools for more information on performing configuration tasks with Siebel Tools.

To add a new color to the user preferences

1 Log into Siebel Tools as an administrator.

2 Lock the FS Dispatch Board project for editing.

3 In the Object Explorer, navigate to Applet.

4 Query for FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

5 Navigate to Applet > Applet User Prop.

6 Create a new applet user property record and enter an appropriate value in the Name field.

For example, to add a color called Blue Royal, enter the following in the Name field:

#Color#Blue Royal#

7 In the Value field, enter the value that corresponds to the decimal value for that color.

To get the decimal value for a color:

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a Look up the hexadecimal value of the color—for example, #800000 is the HEX number for a dark
blue written in BGR format.
b Convert the hexadecimal number to a decimal value—for example, the #800000 HEX number
for the dark blue can be written as 128 0 0 in decimal BGR format.

8 Compile FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

9 Replace the SRF.

10 Restart the client and navigate to the Dispatch Board.

11 Click the menu button and select User Preferences.
You should now be able to select Blue Royal as one of the color options.

Optimizing Display Space on the Dispatch Board

This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up the Dispatch Board” on page 177.

To display the optimal amount of information in the display space on the Dispatch Board, complete
the following tasks:

■ Change the number of rows of employee information that is displayed.

■ Change the height of the display area.

After you change the number of rows that is displayed, you must change the height of the display
area to accommodate all of the rows. To determine the proper height, use the following formula:

(23 times the number of rows) plus 84

For example, if you change the number of rows to 20, you must change the height of the display
area to 544 ([23 times 20] plus 84).

See Using Siebel Tools for more information on performing configuration tasks with Siebel Tools.

To change the number of rows that display on the Dispatch Board

1 Log in to Siebel Tools as an administrator.

2 Lock the FS Dispatch Board project for editing.

3 Navigate to Object Explorer > Siebel Objects > Applet.

4 Query for the FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

5 Navigate to Applet > Applet User Prop.

NOTE: If Applet User Prop is not visible, go to View > Options, select the Object Explorer tab,
and select the Applet User Prop object definition.

6 Query for the Y-BC ViewSet Size user property.

7 Change the number in the Value field to the number of rows that you want to display.

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To change the height of the display area on the Dispatch Board

1 Log in to Siebel Tools as an administrator.

2 Lock the FS Dispatch Board project for editing.

3 Navigate to Object Explorer > Siebel Objects > Applet.

4 Query for the FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.

5 Navigate to Applet > Control.

6 Query for the GanttCtrl control

7 Change the number in the HTML Height field to the number that you calculate using the revised
number of rows to display.

Restricting the Employees that Display on the Dispatch

Board
This task is a step in “Process of Setting Up the Dispatch Board” on page 177.

Users can determine the employees that are displayed by selecting a service region and entering a
date in the Dispatch Board. They can also query to filter the list of displayed employees.
Administrators can use Siebel Tools to further restrict the employees that users can view on the
Dispatch Board.

See Using Siebel Tools for more information on performing configuration tasks with Siebel Tools.

To restrict the employees that display on the Dispatch Board

1 Log in to Siebel Tools as an administrator.

2 Lock the FS Dispatch Board project for editing.

3 Navigate to Object Explorer > Siebel Objects > Applet.

4 Query for the FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.
5 Navigate to Applet > Applet User Prop.

NOTE: If Applet User Prop is not visible, go to View > Options, select the Object Explorer tab,
and select the Applet User Prop object definition.

6 Query for the Y-SearchSpec user property.

7 Define the search specification in the Value field of this user property.

8 Compile the changed applet definition.

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Process of Assigning Activities

The following list shows the procedures that end users typically perform to assign activities within
Siebel Field Service. Your company may follow a different process according to its business
requirements.

To assign activities, perform the following tasks:

■ Selecting Data to Display in the Dispatch Board’s Gantt Chart (End User) on page 195

■ Searching for Activities in the Dispatch Board’s Gantt Chart (End User) on page 196

■ Assigning Field Service Engineers for Activities (End User) on page 196

■ Creating Activities with the Dispatch Board (End User) on page 198

Selecting Data to Display in the Dispatch Board’s Gantt

Chart (End User)
This task is a step in “Process of Assigning Activities” on page 195.

To select field service engineers and other items that appear on the Gantt chart, use any of the
following options:

■ Select a service region to display the appropriate engineers.

■ If needed, query to filter the display list of engineers.

■ Enter an appropriate date.

About Displaying Parent Service Regions in the Gantt Chart

When you select a service region that is a parent region on the Dispatch Board, the list of available
employees on the Gantt chart includes:

■ Employees of the selected service region

■ Employees of the child service region and all its descendants

See “Specifying Parent Service Regions” on page 112 for more information.

Using the Dispatch Board Queries with Legacy Data

If there is a large quantity of legacy data, older activities that were not scheduled using the Dispatch
Board may also appear. It is advisable to limit the queries to show only records created after the
Dispatch Board is installed, to make sure that extraneous data does not appear in the Activities view.

To display information relating to a specific service region

1 Navigate to the Dispatch Board screen.

2 Click Select Service Region.

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3 In the Pick Service Region dialog box, select a service region and click OK.

The field service engineers associated with the selected service region and descendant service
regions (child service regions and their children) appear in the left column of the Gantt chart.

NOTE: Available hours are shown in the Gantt chart with colors that represent rate types.
Nonworking periods are grey, working periods are white, overtime periods are orange, and
extended overtime periods are brown. If no colors are specified for activities, yellow boxes are
the default to indicate activities that are assigned and scheduled.

To display information relating to a specific date

1 Navigate to the Dispatch Board screen.

2 In the Date fields, enter the date to display in the Gantt chart and click Go.

The data for the selected date appears in the chart.

Searching for Activities in the Dispatch Board’s Gantt

Chart (End User)
This task is a step in “Process of Assigning Activities” on page 195.

Perform the following procedure to search for activities in the Gantt chart.

To search for activities

1 Navigate to the Dispatch Board screen.

2 Search for unscheduled activities by doing one of the following:

■ Clicking the Select Service Region button on the Gantt chart.

■ Clicking the Query button on the Unscheduled Activities view.

Assigning Field Service Engineers for Activities (End

User)
This task is a step in “Process of Assigning Activities” on page 195.

After creating activities and activity plans, local dispatchers familiar with their territory and
employees can assign and schedule activities manually. This can be done using one of the following
screens:

■ Service screen. See “Assigning Field Service Engineers from the Service Screen” on page 197 for
more information.

■ Activities screen (using Assignment Manager). See “Assigning Field Service Engineers with
Assignment Manager” on page 197 for more information.

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■ Dispatch Board. See “Assigning Field Service Engineers with the Dispatch Board” on page 197 for
more information.

Assigning Field Service Engineers from the Service Screen

Perform the following procedure to assign and schedule engineers from the Service screen.

To assign and schedule field service engineers from the Service screen
1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request and click the Activities view tab.

3 Drill down on the Status field for the selected activity you want to schedule.

The Dispatch Board screen appears. The unscheduled activity is listed below the Gantt chart. The
Gantt chart displays employee names and their scheduled activities, if any.

NOTE: The Gantt chart displays only employees pertaining to a selected service region or a
service region hierarchy.

4 If no names are listed in the Gantt chart, select a service region for the activity in the
Unscheduled Activities list, and drag and drop the activity onto the Gantt chart.

Assigning Field Service Engineers with Assignment Manager

Perform the following procedure to assign engineers from the Activities screen.

To assign field service engineers with Assignment Manager

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activities List view.

2 Drill down on the Type field for a selected activity and click the More Info view tab.
3 Click the menu button and choose Assign.

A dialog box appears with names of field service employees ranked in order of preference.

The suggested assignments are based on a variety of criteria including workload and skills, which
are set up using the Assignment Manager. For instructions on configuring the Assignment
Manager, see Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide.

4 Select the employee assigned to perform this activity and click OK.

Assigning Field Service Engineers with the Dispatch Board

Perform the following procedure to assign and schedule engineers from the Dispatch Board screen.
See “About Using the Dispatch Board Gantt Chart to Assign Activities” on page 198 for more
information.

NOTE: Users can also invoke Contract Scheduling from the Dispatch Board’s Unscheduled Activities
view by using the Insert Activity button. See “Running Contract Scheduling (End User)” on page 157
for more information.

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to Assign Activities

To assign and schedule field service engineers with the Dispatch Board
1 Navigate to the Dispatch Board screen.

The Gantt chart appears.

2 In the Unscheduled Activities view, select an activity.

NOTE: To assign an activity, it must have a type.

3 Drag and drop the selected activity onto a field service engineer’s schedule in the Gantt chart.

The activity appears as a horizontal bar. Holding the cursor over this bar displays a pop-up
window, which provides a description of the activity.

4 To remove an activity, drag it back to the Drag/Drop column in the Unscheduled Activities view.

Creating Activities with the Dispatch Board (End User)

This task is a step in “Process of Assigning Activities” on page 195.

Perform the following procedure to create a new activity using the Dispatch Board.

To create a new activity with the Dispatch Board

1 Navigate to the Dispatch Board screen.

The Gantt chart appears.

2 In the Unscheduled Activities view, create a new record and complete the appropriate fields.

Centralized dispatchers can assign and schedule activities after searching for activities in a
service region.

About Using the Dispatch Board Gantt

Chart to Assign Activities
Note the following when using the Gantt chart in the Dispatch Board:

■ An unlimited number of activities can overlap (be assigned to the same hours for a field service
engineer), but only three appear in the chart. Adding more than one activity to a time slot
reduces the height of the bar representing that activity and removes the description of the
activity. To see the description of an activity bar and the properties of this activity, hold the
cursor over the bar for a few seconds. A ToolTip appears.

■ Any activity in the Gantt chart can be reassigned or rescheduled.

It is recommended that you use the Book Appointment button if you need to reschedule an
appointment (see “Booking Activity Appointments (End User)” on page 150 for more information)
rather than dragging the appointment to a different time on the Gantt chart. See also “About
Rescheduling Appointments in the Dispatch Board” on page 199 for more information.

■ Activities may be assigned to available or unavailable hours in a field service engineer’s schedule.

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Dispatch Board

■ Mouse over a scheduled activity to view activity details.

■ Click an activity type to see more information about the activity. The Activities screen > Schedule
view appears.

■ Clicking on the name of an employee shows the Administration - User screen > Employees view,
with information about the selected employee.

■ Dragging an activity from the Gantt chart back to the Unscheduled Activities list sets the activity
status to Unscheduled and removes the value from the Employees field for this activity.

■ The assignment of an activity and its duration may be changed from the Unscheduled Activities
list or from the Activities view.

■ The Dispatch Board can display instances of a repeated activity, with the following restrictions:

■ Drag and drop the repeated activity from the Unscheduled Activities list to the Gantt chart.
This becomes the first scheduled instance of the activity.

■ The repeated instances of this activity fill in automatically.

■ The user cannot drag any instance of a repeated activity to another location on the Dispatch
Board or back to the Unscheduled Activities list.

About Rescheduling Appointments in the

Dispatch Board
You can reassign or reschedule any activity in the Gantt chart using drag-and-drop, but note that
these activities are not automatically loaded into the Appointment Booking System (ABS).

You can override the drag-and-drop business service to attempt a Load Activity and provide real-
time feedback but manual and automated scheduling do not combine well. When loading activities
into an existing schedule, Siebel Scheduler does not attempt to drop activities currently in the same
time slot because the coding logic for these types of decisions can be done only on a case-by-case
basis. Large numbers of users attempting to manually schedule activities simultaneously (by setting
the Lock Assignment or Lock Schedule flags) are going to create conflicts, as well as a brittle
schedule that cannot be easily changed if people are moved around. See “Locking Schedules and
Assignments (End User)” on page 153 for more information about these flags.

TIP: In most cases, for appointments in the future, it is recommended that users rebook
appointments using the Book Appointment button. For appointments occurring today, it is
recommended that appointments be changed manually to allow dispatchers to use their discretion.
This can be done by changing the ABS - Days to Start parameter to 1. See “Defining Cost Functions
for the Optimizer” on page 134 for more information.

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7 Agreements

This chapter describes how to create and manage contracts (agreements) and their specific levels of
service (entitlements). It also describes the screens and views that contain information relating to
agreements and entitlements. Topics include:

■ Agreements Overview on page 201

■ Process of Setting Up Agreements on page 202

■ Entitlements Overview on page 218

■ Process of Setting Up Entitlements on page 218

■ Process of Creating Agreements on page 225

■ Process of Creating Entitlements on page 236

■ Workflows for Entitlement Creation and Verification on page 240

■ Workflows for Agreement Renewal and Approval on page 244

■ Administration - Application Screen on page 246

■ Administration - Pricing Screen on page 246

■ Administration - Contracts Screen on page 247

■ Administration - Product Screen on page 250

■ Agreements Screen on page 251

■ Entitlements Screen on page 260

■ Agreements Charts on page 260

■ Agreements Reports on page 261

Agreements Overview
An agreement describes a product or service provided to the customer and the financial relationship
between parties. In the context of your Siebel application, contracts and agreements are
synonymous. In your Siebel application’s user interface, contracts are referred to as agreements.
Consequently, this chapter usually uses the term agreements in reference to contracts.

Many different types of agreements can be created manually in the Agreements screen or
automatically from a quote in the Quotes screen. Agreements can have a hierarchical relationship;
that is, a master agreement can have multiple child agreements.

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Automatic Entitlements
Entitlements can be applied automatically to agreement line items using entitlement templates that
are associated with specific products. Each line item in an agreement can have multiple entitlements
that cover specific costs, contacts, and accounts, metrics, service hours, responsiveness, and
preventive maintenance plans.

Agreement Management
Siebel Agreements provides for renting, leasing, financing, and usage. Renting, leasing, and
financing are set up in terms of nonrecurring charges, recurring charges, and schedules for
agreement invoicing. Usage is set up in terms of use plans, asset measurements, and readings.

This chapter refers to nonrecurring charges (NRCs; for example, the one-time fee for a service
agreement) and recurring charges (RCs; for example, a monthly service fee) as they apply to
agreements. Use-based agreements are also referred to here because these may include service
components.

Agreement Charges and Invoicing

The Field Service Charge Engine creates charges and the Field Service Charge Consolidation business
service creates invoices. Associated workflows can be configured as needed. For more information
about agreement charges and invoicing, see Chapter 9, “Charges and Invoices.”

Process of Setting Up Agreements

The following list shows the procedures that administrators typically perform to set up agreements
using Siebel Field Service. Your company may follow a different process according to its business
requirements.

Administrator Procedures
To set up agreements, perform the following procedures:

1 Defining Pricing for Agreements on page 203

2 Setting Up Agreement Renewal on page 205

3 Setting Up Agreement Validation on page 207

4 Setting Up Agreement Approval on page 209

5 Creating Agreements from Orders and Quotes on page 210

6 Configuring Data Maps to Copy Specified Items on page 213

7 Creating an Opportunity and Quote from an Agreement Line Item Renewal on page 214

8 Adding Assets to Agreement Line Items on page 215

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9 Creating Revenue Plan Templates on page 216

10 Creating Term Templates on page 217

11 Running Charge Plans Using Workflows on page 217

Defining Pricing for Agreements

Several types of pricing can be defined for agreements:

■ Asset-based pricing. See “Defining Asset-Based Pricing” on page 203.

■ Service-based pricing. See “Defining Service-Based Pricing” on page 204.

■ Order or quote entitlement-based pricing. See “Defining Order or Quote Entitlement-Based

Pricing” on page 204.

NOTE: See “Agreements” on page 548 for information on how pricing has changed since version 7.8.
When a product is added to an agreement line item or another asset is added, the Product Selection
and Pricing (PSP) Engine is now selected to ascertain the price of the selected product.

Defining Asset-Based Pricing

For an agreement line item, the combination of a product (typically a service product, specified in
the Product field) and an asset (specified in the Asset # field) determines a unique price. This
capability is named asset-based pricing. For more information, see “Line Items View” on page 253.

Asset-based pricing is used for pricing products related to assets that a customer has already
purchased. Clicking the Reprice and Reprice All buttons activates the Pricing Engine, which calculates
the price of the product and asset combination, retrieving the price from the price list, or price list
entry, and supply information on volume discounts.

NOTE: The Pricer module is required if you wish to perform special pricing on products based on
assets.

To enable asset-based pricing

1 Navigate to the Administration - Business process screen > Workflow Deployment view.

2 Enable the Dynamic Pricing Procedure workflow.

Asset-based pricing is managed using the Dynamic Pricing Procedure workflow. This workflow
must be enabled in the application instead of the Pricing Procedure - Default workflow. See Siebel
Pricing Administration Guide for more information about pricing procedures and the Product
Selection and Pricing (PSP) engine.

To use asset-based pricing

1 Navigate to the Administration - Pricing screen > Price List view.

2 Select a price list and click the Service Pricing view tab.

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3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

The combination of the service product in the Service Pricing view and an asset in the Service
Price Details subview defines a unique price.

Defining Service-Based Pricing

Customers often require an after-sales service package for the products they are purchasing. This
requirement is included in the quote or order. As an administrator, you can define a service package
to cover a set of products with the price of the service package, either as a percentage of the product
being covered or as a fixed price. The combination of the service package and the product being
covered allows the price to be calculated. This practice is known as service-based pricing.

Service pricing on covered assets is managed using the Pricing Procedure - Calculate Net Price
workflow. See Siebel Pricing Administration Guide for more information about pricing procedures and
setting up service pricing.

To create a service package for service-based pricing

1 Navigate to the Administration - Products screen.

2 In the Products list, create a record, complete the required fields, and save the record.

The service package should be given a suitable name such as Platinum Service Package, Gold
Service Package, and so on.

3 Drill down on the Product field hyperlink.

The More Info view appears.

4 Select the Service Product check box.

5 Navigate to the Administration - Pricing screen > Price List view.

6 Set up service pricing for the new service product, adding the required information, including:
■ An appropriate price as either a fixed price or as a percentage of the product being covered

■ Products to be covered by the service package

■ Adjustments necessary to the price of the service package

Defining Order or Quote Entitlement-Based Pricing

Orders and quotes can have associated entitlements that provides special pricing for all line items in
the order and quote. This capability is also known as contract-based pricing.

NOTE: By default, entitlement-based pricing is not enabled in Field Service. The Pricer module is
required if you wish to perform special pricing on products based on their entitlements.

Order and quote entitlement-based pricing is managed through the Pricing Procedure - Calculate Net
Price workflow. See Siebel Pricing Administration Guide for more information about pricing
procedures and the Product Selection and Pricing (PSP) engine.

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To generate contract-based pricing of orders

1 Navigate to the Service Order screen > List view.

2 Drill down on a selected order and click the Line Items view tab.

3 Make sure that an entitlement has been selected.

4 From the menu drop-down list, select Reprice.

5 In the Totals view, from the menu drop-down list, select Save.

The Reprice command sends the order, line items, and the selected entitlement to the Pricing
Engine. The engine prices each line item and includes any special pricing defined under the
entitlement.

To generate entitlement-based quote pricing

1 Navigate to the Quotes screen > Quotes List view.

2 Select a quote record and then scroll down to the Quotes form.

3 Click the show more button to display additional fields.

4 In the Entitlement field, enter an entitlement.

5 Drill down on the Name field and click the Line Items view tab.

6 Click the menu button and select the Reprice All option.

Reprice All returns a price list for all line items and provides information on volume discounts.

Setting Up Agreement Renewal

Users can manually renew line items by entering a current or previous day in the Start Date field and
then clicking the Renewal button. For more information, see “To manually renew a line item of an
agreement” on page 229.

Workflows can be used to automatically renew agreement line items. The FS - Agreement Renewal
Item workflow and the FS - Agreement Renewal All workflow can be used to set up a repeating
component job to renew agreement line items automatically for predefined time periods. For
example, a workflow process could be run daily to find any start dates equal to the current date, and
then renew those line items automatically. See “Workflow to Automatically Renew Agreement Line
Items” on page 245 and “Workflow to Automatically Renew All Agreement Line Items” on page 245 for
more information.

Renewal terms for a line item are as follows:

■ Start date (required)

■ End date (required)

■ Price adjustments

■ Charge adjustments

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■ Use plan

NOTE: Agreement line items are renewed using the Line Items view > Renewal Escalator subview
only, and are not affected by fields in the Financials view.

To automatically renew agreement line items using a repeating component job

1 Navigate to the Administration - Server Management screen > Jobs view.

2 In the Jobs list, create a new Job record.

3 In the Component/Job field, select Workflow Process Manager.

4 Enter the desired Repeat Interval and Repeat Unit in the Job Detail view.

For example, a Repeat Unit of Weeks and a Repeat Interval of 1 would run the renewal process
on a weekly basis.

5 Scroll down to the Job Parameters list and create a new parameter record.

6 In the Name field, select Workflow Process Name, and in the Value field, enter FS - Agreement
Renewal Item or FS - Agreement Renewal All.

7 Click the Start button in the Jobs list.

TIP: It is recommended that you set up the schedule to first query for all agreements that are
about to expire in 15, 30, or 60 days. Then, run the renewal workflow for that agreement line
item with the current day specified. It is also recommended that an activity should be created
for the sales or service team to follow up with the account for renewal.

To define the renewal terms of a line item

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > Line Items view.

2 Drill down on a selected line item record and click the Renewal Escalator view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate. See “Renewal Escalator Subview” on
page 254 for more information.

Adjustment types are described in the following table.

Adjustment Type Description

Discount Amount Decreases the price (or charge) of the renewed line
item by the amount entered in the corresponding
Adjustment Amount fields.

% Discount Decreases the price (or charge) of the renewed line

item by the percentage amount entered in the
corresponding Adjustment Amount field.

Markup Amount Increases the price (or charge) of the renewed line
item by the amount entered in the corresponding
Adjustment Amount field.

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Adjustment Type Description

% Markup Increases the price (or charge) of the renewed line

item by the percentage amount entered in the
corresponding Adjustment Amount field.

Price Override Preserves the price (or charge) of the renewed line
item regardless of the amount entered in the
corresponding Adjustment Amount field.

Setting Up Agreement Validation

Users can verify an agreement to validate that the correct data has been entered. Agreement
validation helps to make sure that agreement details are in accordance with company policies
regarding contract creation, updating, and renewal.

Process of Setting Up Agreement Validation

To set up agreement validation, perform the following tasks:

1 Creating Agreement Validation Rule Sets on page 207

2 Creating Agreement Validation Messages on page 208

3 Creating Agreement Validation Rules on page 208

NOTE: See Siebel Order Management Guide for more information on setting up data validation.

Creating Agreement Validation Rule Sets

Typically, a validation rule set called Agreement Validation is provided out of the box for Field Service.
However, if no such rule set exists in your installation, perform the steps in the following procedure.

To create an agreement validation rule set

1 Navigate to the Administration - Data Validation screen > Rule Sets view.

2 In the Validation Rule Set list, create a new rule set and enter a suitable name for the validation
rule—for example, Agreement Validation.

3 In the Business Component field, select the appropriate component.

Typically, the value for this is Service Agreement.

4 In the Business Object field, select the appropriate object.

Typically, the value for this is also Service Agreement.

5 Click the Activate button to release the rule set.

NOTE: To revise an agreement validation rule set, click the Revise button and update the rule
set. Click Activate to release it when you are finished.

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Creating Agreement Validation Messages

Before defining rules for the rule set, you should create the error messages that are used for data
validation. These error messages and codes are referenced during the rule creation process.

To create a validation message for agreement line item validation

1 Navigate to the Administration - Data Validation screen > Validation Messages view.

2 In the Validation Messages list, create a new record.

3 Enter an appropriate message code.

4 In the Message Level field, select the appropriate level (for example, Agreement) for the
message.

5 In the Message Source field, select the appropriate source of the message.

In this case, it is typically Agreement Validation.

6 Enter text to describe the error—for example, Account is Null.

You can also enter different message text translations in the Translations view for the various
languages supported.

Creating Agreement Validation Rules

When the agreement rule set and data validation error messages have been created, the next task
is to create the rules governed by the rule set. The following procedure assumes that you have not
yet released the rule set.

To create validation rules for agreement line items

1 Navigate to the Administration - Data Validation screen > Rule Sets view.

2 Select the agreement validation rule set.

3 Drill down on the Name field.

The Rules view appears.

4 In the Rule list, create a new rule record.

5 Check the sequence of the rules to make sure that the new rule is evaluated in the correct order.

6 Add a suitable name for the rule—for example, Price list is Null.

7 In the Expression field, use the Expression Designer to create sophisticated validation
expressions for verification.

A suitable expression for this example would be [Price List] IS NOT NULL. This data validation
rule checks that a correct price list has been entered into the agreement. The field of the business
component against which you wish to validate should be contained in [ ].

8 In the Business Component field, enter the name of the business component being referenced.

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9 In the Apply To field, select either Current Record or All Records to specify the records against
which the rule should be validated.

10 In the Return Code field, select the validation message and error code you created previously.
See “Creating Agreement Validation Messages” on page 208 for more information.

Setting Up Agreement Approval

Agreement approvals can be set up to make sure that once an agreement is worth more than a
specified sum, approval is sought from the appropriate employee.

By default, an agreement is submitted for approval if the agreement total exceeds $50,000. The user
can change this validation rule or add additional rules for further validation before submitting the
agreement for approval. See “Creating Agreement Validation Rules” on page 208 and “To submit an
agreement for approval” on page 228 for more information.

To review the workflows called by the agreement approval signal

1 Navigate to the Administration - Order Management screen > Signals view.

2 In the Signals list, select the ApproveItem record.

3 In the Versions list, drill down on the latest workspace.

The Actions view appears.

4 Note the following information in the Actions list:

■ The Sequence field shows the order in which the calls to the business services are made.

■ The Service Name field shows the names of the workflows called from the signal.

The signal updates the process for the order, quote, or agreement before the agreement is
submitted for approval. See “Workflow to Approve Agreements” on page 246 for more information.

TIP: If you want the approver to receive an email in addition to placing the agreement in their
Inbox, change the parameter in the signal ApproveItem for SendMail to TRUE.

To review the agreement approval validation

1 Navigate to the Administration - Data Validation screen > Rule Sets view.

2 In the Validation Rule Set list, select the Agreement Approval record.

3 Click the Rules view tab.

The Rules view appears, showing the expression, business component, and return code used with
this particular rule.

4 (Optional) If you want to change the default amount of 50,000 or make any other changes to the
rule, use this view.

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Defining the Agreement Approvals List

You must define a list of approvers so that the agreement is moved to the appropriate Approval Inbox
for approval or rejection.

To define a list of agreement approvers

1 Navigate to the Administration - Application screen > Approval Admin view.

2 In the Approval Item list, select the Agreement Approval record.

3 In the Approval Flow Type, make sure that the correct option is selected.

■ Select Sequential to distribute the agreement approval to approvers one after another in the
sequence specified using the Sequence # field. Field Service routes the approval to the next
approver only if the current approver approves the request. If any one approver in the
approval chain declines the request, the approval is rejected and no further routing is
conducted.

■ Select Parallel to distribute the agreement approval to all approvers simultaneously for
approval. The approval is rejected if at least one approver declines the approval request.

4 In the Approval Stage list, create a new record for each user required to approve the agreement,
completing the fields as appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Sequence # Identifies the numeric sequence of this approval stage in the current
agreement approval. Field Service executes approval stages in numerical
order based on this number.

Approval Type Specifies whether the approver is a position or an employee.

Owner Login Indicates the login name tied to this Approval Stage. Relevant only if
Name Approval Type is Employee.

Owner Position Indicates the position tied to this Approval Stage. Relevant only if Approval
Type is Position.

TIP: To view a list of the agreements for approval, approvers can navigate to the Inbox screen
> Inbox Items view. See Siebel Applications Administration Guide for more information on using
the Inbox.

Creating Agreements from Orders and Quotes

When a user clicks the Auto Contract button from either a quote or an order, the agreement created
contains a large amount of information taken from the original record. This data is carried from the
quote or order to the new agreement.

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The process for copying information from orders and quotes to agreements uses signals and data
maps. See Siebel Order Management Infrastructure Guide for more information on signals and data
maps.

Data Copying Process Flow

Data mapping and signals work together to call the ISS Copy business service, allowing the copying
of appropriate data to be performed. The following is a description of what occurs in this process.

1 An administrator makes sure that the signals are set up appropriately.

2 An administrator defines a data map. This definition is stored in the Siebel database.

3 A user makes a request (for example, by clicking the Revise button). The request triggers a signal
(ReviseCopyAgreement), which then launches the ISS Copy Service business service.

4 The ISS Copy Service business service retrieves the variable map definition, either from the
database or from the cache.

5 The ISS Copy Service business service issues the required queries and business service calls to
construct a property set.

6 The controller workflow invokes the ISS Copy Service business service’s Copy method, passing
the ReviseAgreement data map as a parameter.

7 The ISS Copy Service business service writes the updated field values back to the Siebel
database.

See “ISS Copy Service Business Service” on page 552 for more information about this business
service.

Using Signals to Control Data Copying

In earlier Siebel releases, Order Management and Agreement functions were hard-coded. However,
as of version 7.8, every interaction between order management and agreement components occurs
through an application protocol interface (API) invocation. These API invocations are called signals.
A signal is a request to perform a business function.

Signals can be configured or redirected. A signal action property specifies the business service or
workflow to invoke when the signal is raised. Signal action parameters are the configurable input
arguments used to signal action workflows or business service methods. The business service
methods and workflows are defined using the Administration - Order Management screen > Signals
view.

To review the signals which control the copying of data from quotes and orders to
agreements
1 Navigate to the Administration - Order Management screen > Signals view.

2 In the Signals list, query for the following three signal names:

■ AutoAgreeFromOrder. This signal is invoked when the user clicks the Auto Contract button
on the Service Order screen > List > Agreements view. It instructs Field Service to copy the
current order to an agreement using the ISS Copy Service business service.

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■ AutoAgreement. This signal is invoked when the user clicks the Auto Contract button on the
Quotes screen. It instructs Field Service to copy the current quote to an agreement using the
ISS Copy Service business service.

■ ReviseCopyAgreement. This signal is invoked when the user clicks the Revise button on
the Agreements screen > Line Items form. It instructs Field Service to copy the agreement
record and the fields on the agreement, and then lock the original agreement object.

3 In the Versions list, drill down on the latest workspace for each of the above signals.

The Actions view appears.

4 Note the following information in the Actions list:

■ The Sequence field shows the order in which the calls to the business services are made.

■ The Service Name field shows the names of the workflows called from the signal.

5 (Optional) If you wish to change the sequence of calls by adding additional signal actions, make
the required changes in the Actions list.

Using Data Maps to Define the Data for Copying

Data maps align the fields from the source object to the destination object. The process that maps
the fields copied between objects is called MapName.

AutoAgreeFromOrder and AutoAgreement are the two data maps that map the quote and order data
to the agreement when the ISS Copy business service is called. These data maps are passed into the
business service as a parameter. They can be extended if it is required that more data from the quote
or order be passed to the agreement.

Alternatively, if users want to create an order or quote from an agreement, administrators can create
a new signal calling the ISS Copy business service and then map between the agreement and the
quote or order. For example, this could be done to create a quote for a renewal. The signal could
then be called from behind the Renewal button to automatically create the quote or order.

To review the data mapping behind the copying of data from quotes and orders to
agreements
1 Navigate to the Administration - Application screen > Data Map Administration view.

2 In the Data Map Object list, query for the following data maps:

■ AutoAgreeFromOrder. This data map is used for mapping order data to the agreement.

■ AutoAgreement. This data map is used for mapping quote data to the agreement.

3 Note the following information in the Data Map Component list:

■ The Source Business Component field shows the source business components for the order
or quote.

■ The Destination Business Component field shows the destination business component for the
agreement.

For example, in the AutoAgreeFromOrder data map, the Order Entry - Line Items source
business component maps to the FS Agreement Item destination business component.

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4 (Optional) If you want to make any changes to the mapping, select the new source and
destination business components in the Data Map Component list.

Configuring Data Maps to Copy Specified Items

Field Service provides conditional data mapping capabilities which can be used to specify that only
certain information be copied to the agreement. To accomplish this, you can add a source search
specification to the data map. The ISS Copy business service then copies a source expression to a
destination field.

To add a search specification to a data map

1 Navigate to the Administration - Application screen > Data Map Administration view.

2 In the Data Map Object list, select the appropriate data map record.

3 Scroll down to the Data Map Component list, and select the appropriate component record.

4 In the Advanced Options field, add a source search specification as follows:

a Click New to create a new search specification.

b From the Name drop-down list, select Source Search Specification.

c In the Value field, add a source expression in the CSSQuery language used for calculated fields
using the following format:

IIf ([Flag] = 'Y', [Field], "")

This expression copies the field if the flag is set—otherwise it copies the null string over.

Example: Copying Service Products from Orders to Agreements

The following example uses a search specification to specify that only service products should be
copied from an order to an agreement.

To copy only service products from orders to agreements

1 Navigate to the Administration - Application screen > Data Map Administration view.

2 In the Data Map Object list, select the AutoAgreeFromOrder data map record.

3 Scroll down to the Data Map Component list, and select the Line Items record.

4 In the Advanced Options field, add a source search specification using the following expression:

IIF ([Sales Service Flag] = 'Y', ([Sales Service Flag], "").

The data map should now only copy service products from the order.

TIP: You can make similar changes to the AutoAgreement data map (used for mapping data
from the quote to the agreement) if you only want to quote service products.

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Example: User Scenario

From the order, the user creates assets, using asset-based ordering to do so. When you have asset-
based ordering turned on in Siebel Order Management, end users can use the Accounts screen >
Installed Assets view to create orders based on a customer’s existing assets. Installed assets can
include both products and services. When these views are used with the automated asset-based
order workflows, the amount of time to create quotes, orders, and agreements covering those asset
records is reduced because many tasks are automated.

The user covers the assets with the service product on the order and clicks Auto Contract on the
Service Order screen > List > Agreements view.

The agreement is created with only the service product for the agreement line item and the assets
added as covered assets. Product line items that are not service items are not added to the service
agreement.

Creating an Opportunity and Quote from an Agreement

Line Item Renewal
When a contract is 90, 60, or 30 days prior to expiring, a company typically wants to contact the
customer about a possible renewal. Quite often, this is a good opportunity for the appropriate
salesperson to reacquaint themselves with the customer and to deliver a quote for renewing their
maintenance agreement. Such customer contact can help avoid costly expiration of maintenance
contracts and the revenue leakage associated them.

This agreement renewal process can be automated for agreements and entitlements by:

■ Renewing the agreement line item and all the assets related to it

■ Creating an opportunity for the account

■ Creating a quote for the agreement renewal and associating the opportunity and the agreement
with the quote

Adding Opportunities and Quotes to Agreement Renewal

Out-of-the-box, the automated renewal process only creates another agreement line item for the
agreement. Typically, there is a requirement to create a new opportunity and corresponding quote
for the renewal.

Automating the creation of an opportunity and quote can ensure that renewal terms are always
current, as is the renewal schedule. This automation can produce renewal quotes well in advance of
the renewal date so customers can be prepared to adjust their purchase orders and payables to
accommodate their new invoice. As a result, renewal dates are not missed avoiding revenue leakage
and lapse in service coverage for customers.

To allow automatic creation of renewal quotes or opportunities

1 Add steps to the following workflows to set up the source object (Agreement Item) and the
destination object (Quote or Opportunity):

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■ FS - Agreement Renewal Item

■ FS - Agreement Renewal All

See “Workflow to Automatically Renew Agreement Line Items” on page 245 and “Workflow to
Automatically Renew All Agreement Line Items” on page 245 for more information.

2 Create a data map setup to copy the correct fields to the destination objects.

See “Configuring Data Maps to Copy Specified Items” on page 213 for more information.

When the renewal process runs, it creates the corresponding agreement item records, quote item
and opportunity.

Adding Assets to Agreement Line Items

In versions previous to Field Service 7.8, each agreement line item could have only one associated
asset. Since Field Service 7.8, however, the intersection table between Line Items and Asset is used
to allow multiple assets to be covered by the same line item.

NOTE: The original Foreign Key to Asset, Covered Asset Id, is used to define the primary asset.

Any additional assets that are added to the agreement line item have no effect on the agreement
line item overall price—this is only affected by the primary asset. To allow the pricing to change based
on all agreement line item assets, some additional configuration is needed. See “Enabling Asset-
Based Pricing in Orders, Quotes, and Agreements” on page 216 for more information.

To add multiple assets to an agreement line item

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record.

The Line Items view appears.

3 Click the Pricing view tab.

4 On the link bar, click Assets.

5 In the Line Items list, select the record to which you want to add the assets.

6 Scroll down to the Assets list and create new records for each asset, completing the fields as
appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Primary Select the check box to indicate that the current asset is the primary
asset for this line item.

Asset # Number of the asset. Select the appropriate asset from the dialog box
that appears. When you do so, the rest of the fields in this view are
populated with the related asset information.

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Asset Process Flow from Quotes and Orders to Agreements

The following is a description of what typically occurs when a customer seeks a quote.

1 The user creates a quote for a number of products. This quote contains an aftersales service
component to cover the quoted products.

2 When the customer agrees with the quote, the order is placed for the products and their service
coverage.

3 On the Sales Order screen > List > Catalog > Assets view, the user selects the Auto-Asset option
from the menu button. Field Service creates an instance of the asset from the quoted products
and associates it with the quote.

4 On the Quotes screen > List > Agreements view, the user clicks the Auto Contract button. This
creates an agreement with the header level information corresponding to the order. The
agreement line item is now the service product and the assets created from the quote are
associated with the agreement line item. Assets can be added to or removed from this list as
required.

NOTE: The pricing of the service agreement is a combination of the price of the service product
and the asset covered by the service product.

Enabling Asset-Based Pricing in Orders, Quotes, and Agreements

Typically, the pricing on agreement line items is only affected by the primary asset. However, if
required, you can configure the pricing so that it is based on all agreement line item assets.

To enable asset-based pricing

1 Navigate to the Administration - Business Process screen > Workflow Deployment view.

2 Activate the Dynamic Pricing Procedure rather than the Basic Pricing Procedure, which is
normally used.

Unlike the Basic Pricing Procedure, the Dynamic Pricing Procedure workflow includes covered
asset details. See Siebel Pricing Administration Guide for more information on switching pricing
procedures.

Creating Revenue Plan Templates

Revenue plan templates must be set up by the administrator before users can add them to
agreement line items. In the template, you can assign the units to be used—for example, days,
weeks, or months. You must also specify the product associated with the revenue template. See
“Managing Agreement Line Item Revenue” on page 232 for more information on adding the plans to
line items.

To create revenue templates

1 Navigate to the Administration - Forecast screen > Revenue Templates view.

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2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

See Siebel Forecasting Guide for more information about creating revenue plan templates.

Creating Term Templates

Term templates are used to create standard terms which can be added to contracts, for example,
Force Majeure. Force Majeure is a special term used to protect against events beyond the control of
the service company. The description of this could be similar to the following:

Each party will be excused from performance for any period during which it is prevented
from performing any obligation, in whole or in part, as a result of socioeconomic, global
or natural causes beyond its control, and without its fault or negligence including acts
of God, strikes, lockouts, riots, acts of war, epidemics, terrorism, and power failures.

To create a term template

1 Navigate to the Administration - Contracts screen > Term Templates view.

2 Create a new record and complete the necessary fields.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Term # The number of the term.

Term Name A representative description for the term; for example, Term Length.

Type The legal type of the term: standard, nonstandard, or special.

Description The actual term as it is used in the agreement.

See “Adding Agreement Terms to Agreements” on page 235 for more information on adding
defined terms to agreements.

Running Charge Plans Using Workflows

Workflows can be used to automatically run charge plans and create charges for agreement line
items. The FS - Generate Agreement Charge workflow and the FS - Generate All Agreement Charges
workflow can be used to set up a repeating component job to run charges. See “Workflow to Create
Agreement Charges” on page 302 and “Workflow to Generate All Agreement Charges” on page 303 and
for more information.

To generate multiple charges for an agreement line item using a repeating

component job
1 Navigate to the Administration - Server Management screen > Jobs view.

2 In the Jobs list, create a new Job record.

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3 In the Component/Job field, select Workflow Process Manager.

4 Enter the desired Repeat Interval and Repeat Unit in the Job Detail view.

For example, a Repeat Unit of Weeks and a Repeat Interval of 1 would run the charge generation
process on a weekly basis.

5 Scroll down to the Job Parameters list and create a new parameter record.

6 In the Name field, select Workflow Process Name, and in the Value field, enter FS - Generate
Agreement Charge or FS - Generate All Agreement Charges.

7 Click the Start button in the Jobs list.

Related Topic
“Defining Charge Plans for Agreement Line Items” on page 229

Entitlements Overview
Charges can be adjusted based on an entitlement associated with a service call. An agreement can
have many entitlements associated with it. One agreement typically encompasses several products
or assets. These products and assets can be covered by multiple service packages. Each service
package can then include different entitlements. Complex pieces of machinery may have many
associated components. The service package associated with each product can then have different
entitlements for the various components and labor.

For example, a certain key machine part breaks down and a field engineer is required to fix the part.
This fix requires three hours of the engineer’s time. If the engineer is billed at a rate of $50 an hour,
the final charge for the customer would be $150. However, if the customer is covered by a service-
level agreement with entitlements that cover all time and material for that particular part, the charge
would have an additional charge adjustment added to subtract the ($150) leaving an outstanding
balance of $0. Field Service can inform the customer of the charge adjustment and why the
adjustment has been performed.

Process of Setting Up Entitlements

The following list shows the procedures that administrators typically perform to set up entitlements
using Siebel Field Service. Your company may follow a different process according to its business
requirements.

Administrator Procedures
To set up entitlements, perform the following procedures:

1 Setting System Preferences for Verifying Entitlements on page 219

2 Checking User Properties for Entitlements on page 220

3 Creating Entitlement Templates on page 220

4 Adding Schedule Information for Entitlements on page 222

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5 Adding Escalation Times to Entitlements on page 222

6 Configuring Auto-Entitlement for Quotes and Orders on page 224

Setting System Preferences for Verifying Entitlements

System Preferences have three settings (see Table 42) that determine the action of the Verify
button. For more information, see “Service Requests Views” on page 51.

Table 42. System Preferences for Verifying Entitlements

System Preference
Name Description

Entitlement: Verify Sets the conditions for checking the authorization of the contact
Consumer requesting service. If TRUE, the entitlements displayed must meet
one of these criteria:

■ The contact for the entitlement matches the service request

contact.

■ The entitlement account is set to All Contacts, and the

entitlement account matches the service request account or the
account for the contact for the service request.

Entitlement: Verify Dates Checks that the service request falls within the time span of the
entitlement. If TRUE, the entitlements displayed are only those that
provide coverage on the date the service request was opened: a date
between the start and end dates for the entitlement.

If the entitlement has no start or end date, it does not appear.

Entitlement: Verify Product Checks that the asset or product is entitled to service. If TRUE, the
agreements displayed must meet one of these criteria:

■ The entitlement asset matches an asset in the service request.

■ The entitlement product matches a product in the service request

(no asset or serial number specified).

■ The entitlement is set to All Products and the product or asset for
the entitlement matches the product or asset for the service
request.

To set system preferences for entitlements

1 Navigate to the Administration - Application screen > System Preferences view.

2 Query for entitlements. For more information about system preferences, see “Setting System
Preferences for Verifying Entitlements” on page 219.

3 Enter TRUE or FALSE in the System Preferences Value field.

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Checking User Properties for Entitlements

Setting the Post Default Created Date to Date Saved user property in the Service Request business
component controls the behavior of the Opened field in new service request records. This setting can
affect how your Siebel application handles entitlements.

To check the user properties for entitlements

1 Log into Siebel Tools as an administrator.

2 In the Object Explorer, navigate to Business Component.

3 Query for the Service Request business component.

4 Navigate to Business Component > Business Component User Prop.

5 Query for the Post Default Created Date To Date Saved user property.

6 Compare the value for the user property with the descriptions in “Setting the Default Opened Date
and Time for an SR” on page 39.

Creating Entitlement Templates

Entitlement templates allow you to predefine entitlements and specify the type of service provided.
An entitlement template specifies the default coverage for the accounts, contacts, preventive
maintenance, billing, products, and pricing.

NOTE: Entitlement templates are not limited to service products. They can also be used with sales
products to allow entitlement-based pricing in quotes and orders. See “Configuring Auto-Entitlement
for Quotes and Orders” on page 224 for more information.

For example, an organization sells a range of products and their associated service products for after-
sales service. A service product such as Bronze Service can be created as an entitlement template
and associated with a service product with a price for the after-sales service package. The package
can denote the availability of technical support, a preventive maintenance schedule and whether
parts and labor are additional costs under the service package.

Using automated entitlement, (by clicking the Entitle button on the Agreements screen > Line Items
view) the correct entitlements are automatically located from the entitlement templates which
correspond to the service products in an agreement. For more information, see “Line Items View” on
page 253 and “Products Subview” on page 250.

This topic contains the following related procedures:

■ To create entitlement templates on page 221.

■ To define entitlement template metrics on page 221.

■ To define products covered in an entitlement template on page 221.

■ To define service billing details for entitlement templates on page 221.

■ To define special pricing for entitlement templates on page 221

■ To define preventive maintenance plans covered by entitlement templates on page 221

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■ To define exceptions for a service activity on page 222

To create entitlement templates

1 Navigate to the Administration - Contracts screen > Entitlement Templates view.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

The Name field displays an automatically assigned template number, which you should change
to an identifiable name for the template, as needed.

The check boxes automatically associate data with the new template. For a description of these
check boxes, see “Entitlement Templates View” on page 247.

To define entitlement template metrics

1 Navigate to the Administration - Contracts screen > Entitlement Templates view.

2 Select an entitlement template record and click the Metrics view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To define products covered in an entitlement template

1 Navigate to the Administration - Contracts screen > Entitlement Templates view.

2 Select an entitlement template record and click the Products view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To define service billing details for entitlement templates

1 Navigate to the Administration - Contracts screen > Entitlement Templates view.
2 Select an entitlement template record and click the Service Details view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To define special pricing for entitlement templates

1 Navigate to the Administration - Contracts screen > Entitlement Templates view.

2 Select an entitlement template record and click the Pricing Details view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

For information about the role of Pricing Details records, see “Pricing Details Subview” on
page 250.

To define preventive maintenance plans covered by entitlement templates

1 Navigate to the Administration - Contracts screen > Entitlement Templates view.

2 Select an entitlement template record and click the Preventive Maintenance view tab.

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3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To define exceptions for a service activity

1 Navigate to the Administration - Contracts screen > Entitlement Templates view.

2 Select an entitlement template record and click the Service Details view tab.

3 Select a record.

4 In the Time Exceptions subview, create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

5 From the drop-down list at the top of the Time Exceptions list, select Expense Exceptions.

6 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

7 From the drop-down list at the top of the Expense Exceptions list, select Product Exceptions.

8 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Adding Schedule Information for Entitlements

The service schedule for the entitlement must be defined. Exceptions also need to be specified so
that holidays and other nonwork days are taken into account.

See “Defining Schedule Hours” on page 107 for more information on how to define hours of availability
and exception hours for a schedule.

Adding Escalation Times to Entitlements

Escalation times are deadlines that can be added to entitlements to ensure that events are escalated
to the appropriate parties at the appropriate intervals. You can use the Siebel Business Process
Designer to manage such business processes. For example, you can automate the following: event
escalation; notification of appropriate employees; work routing, assignment, and processing;
enforcement of authorization and transition rules.

Escalation times differ from committed times in that they allow proactive rather than reactive
notification. Escalation warnings are signalled before a contractual commitment has been breached,
rather than afterwards like the committed times.

Using a Service Request Workflow for Escalation

You can activate a workflow process to automatically alert a predetermined manager when the
following apply:

■ An incident or problem record has reached the escalation date and time.

■ The status is still Open.

An email should be sent to the manager when an incident or problem record has breached the
committed date or time. The email should include the following information:

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■ A list of all incidents and problems that have reached their escalation date and time

■ A list of all the incidents and problems that have breached their committed date time and by how
much

These lists should include the SR number, Type, Priority, Title, Escalation Date Time, Committed Date
Time, and the Owner for each record.

Process for Activating the Workflow

To enable service request email notification, you must perform the following tasks:

1 Set the communications profile argument called CommProfile on the workflow to the account
name of the POP3 email server—for example, [email protected]. This populates the
From line on the email. See “To set the communications profiles for the AlertEscalation Email
workflow” on page 223 and “To configure the AlertsEscalation Email workflow using Siebel Tools” on
page 223.

2 Using eScript, change the business service to enter the manager who receives the email and the
polling period, during which the workflow checks for all the incident and problems records that
have breached their Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and the ones that are in risk of breaching
their SLAs.

To set the communications profiles for the AlertEscalation Email workflow

1 Navigate to the Administration - Communications screen > Communications Drivers and Profiles
view.

2 In the Communications Drivers list, select the Internet SMTP/POP3 Server record.

3 Scroll down to the Profiles list to review the profiles you can use—for example, [email protected]
or [email protected].

4 Set the AlertEscalation Email workflow’s communications profile argument (CommProfile) to the
account name of the POP3 email server by completing the following steps:

a In the Profile Parameters Overrides list, click New.

b In the Name field, select POP3 Server.

c In the Value field, enter the value for the communications driver, for example, [email protected].

After you have found the correct communications profile, change the AlertsEscalation Email workflow
using Siebel Tools, as described in the following procedure.

To configure the AlertsEscalation Email workflow using Siebel Tools

1 Log into Siebel Tools as an administrator.

2 In the Object Explorer, navigate to Workflow Process.

3 Query for the AlertEscalation Email workflow.

4 the Workflow Processes list, right-click and select Edit Workflow Process.

5 In the Process Designer, select Call Send SR Escalation Alert Email.

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6 Right-click and select Show Input Arguments.

7 Note that the first parameter in the Input Arguments list is called CommProfile.

8 Change the literal parameter for CommProfile to the name of the profile you wish to use.

For example, this could be [email protected].

NOTE: See Siebel Communications Server Administration Guide for more information on
creating a new profile for SR Escalation messages.

9 Deploy and activate the workflow.

TIP: If you want to change the format of the email or the subject line, select the Send SR
Escalation Alert Email business service and change the eScript through the Edit Server Script
option on the business service. When the changes are complete, recompile the business service.

Configuring Auto-Entitlement for Quotes and Orders

Entitlements are part of a contract, enabling a set of prenegotiated prices to be used in transactions
(quotes and orders).

Within the quote (and orders), the user can select an entitlement to apply at the header level. In
addition, the user can also use the Entitle button functionality to determine the best entitlement at
a line item level. It is also possible to configure Field Service so that a suitable entitlement can be
determined at the quote or order header level. This is described in “Adding Auto-Entitlement Buttons.”

NOTE: In terms of price execution, line item level entitlements (if any) override the quote or order
level entitlement.

Adding Auto-Entitlement Buttons

To allow entitlement-based pricing, developers can add an Auto-Entitlement button to the Quote
Detail View and Order Entry - Line Items Detail View (Sales). Users can then click this button to
automatically associate an entitlement with a quote and order.

Adding these buttons allows entitlement-based pricing for quotes and orders. The prices of the
products on the order and quote line item are adjusted, based on the entitlement.

See Configuring Siebel Business Applications for more information on how to add buttons to Siebel
applications.

To configure an Auto-Entitlement button

1 Add a button to the following quote and order applets:

■ Quote Item List Applet—used by the FS - Verify Entitlement Quote Best Price workflow

■ Order Entry - Line Item List Applet (Sales)—used by the FS - Verify Entitlement Order Best
Price workflow

2 Behind each button, invoke the VerifyEntitlement method.

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3 Change the FS - Verify Entitlement Order Best Price workflow’s event object to point to the Order
Entry - Line Item List Applet (Sales). Typically, this condition event object points to the Order
Entry - Line Item List Applet.

See “FS Create Entitlement Business Service” on page 568 for more information.

For more information on generating charges and invoices from agreements, see Chapter 9, “Charges
and Invoices.”

Process of Creating Agreements

The following list shows the procedures that end users typically perform when creating and defining
agreements using Siebel Field Service.

End-User Procedures
To create and define agreements, perform the following procedures:

1 Defining Agreements on page 225

2 Defining Charge Plans for Agreement Line Items on page 229

3 Defining Conditional Charge Plans for Agreement Line Items on page 231

4 Managing Agreement Line Item Revenue on page 232

5 Creating Documents for Agreements, Quotes, and Orders on page 234

6 Adding Agreement Terms to Agreements on page 235

7 Using Co-Terms on page 236

Defining Agreements
This topic contains procedures for common tasks, such as creating agreements, entering line items,
and defining them.

This topic contains the following related procedures:

■ To create a new agreement on page 226

■ To verify an agreement on page 226

■ To revise an agreement on page 226

■ To view the entitlements for an agreement on page 226

■ To view the products covered by agreements on page 226

■ To verify agreements for a contact on page 227

■ To view the agreements for a contact on page 227

■ To associate primary contacts with an agreement on page 227

■ To associate activity plans with an agreement on page 227

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■ To add activities to an agreement on page 227

■ To submit an agreement for approval on page 228

■ To add financial details for an agreement on page 228

■ To define terms and shipping information for agreements on page 228

■ To add products sold under an agreement on page 228

■ To attach files to agreements on page 228

■ To manually renew a line item of an agreement on page 229

To create a new agreement

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 In the Agreements list, create a new record, and complete the fields as appropriate.

To verify an agreement
1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record.

3 In the Agreements form, click Verify.

Alternatively, click the form’s menu button and select Verify.

The agreement details in the form are validated against a set of rules. The results of the
validation process then appear in a dialog box.

To revise an agreement
1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.
2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record.

3 In the Agreements form, click the Revise button.

This copies the agreement and increments the revision number. The revision number is suffixed
to the original agreement name—for example, Agreement (002).

To view the entitlements for an agreement

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Select an agreement record and click the Entitlements view tab.

The start and end dates indicate whether the entitlement is active.

To view the products covered by agreements

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

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2 Drill down on the Name field for an agreement record, and click the Entitlements view tab.

3 Select an entitlement record and click the Products view tab.

4 Repeat Step 3 for each entitlement in the list.

To verify agreements for a contact

1 Navigate to the Contacts screen > Contacts List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for an agreement record, and click the Agreements view tab.

To view the agreements for a contact

1 Navigate to the Contacts screen > Agreements view.

2 Select a contact.

The Agreement # field shows the agreements for this contact.

To associate primary contacts with an agreement

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record and click the Primary Contacts view
tab.

On the Primary Contacts form, the fields for the Legal Contact, Billing Contact, and Shipping
Contact are automatically filled with the primary contact for the selected account.

3 If you want to change a primary contact, select an agreement record and drill down on the
Account field.

4 In the Last Name field, select another contact.

The list of available contacts is limited to the contacts that are associated with the selected
account.

To associate activity plans with an agreement

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record and click the Activity Plans view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

4 In the More Info view tab, select Lock to prevent the Assignment Manager from assigning
activities that are already in this activity plan.

To add activities to an agreement

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record and click the Activities view tab.

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3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To submit an agreement for approval

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record.

3 In the Agreements form, click the menu button and select Generate Approvals.

The list of approvers is updated with the approvers for that approval group. As the approver
changes the status of the approval to Approved or Rejected, the list will be updated.

To add financial details for an agreement

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record and click the Financials view tab.

3 In the Financials form, complete the fields as appropriate.

NOTE: Some fields are calculated and filled in using data from the Line Items view and its
subviews. For example, Terms = (Agreement End Date - Agreement Start Date) / 30, and Months
Left = (Agreement End Date - Today) / 30.

To define terms and shipping information for agreements

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record and click the Terms & Totals view
tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To add products sold under an agreement

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record and click the Line Items view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

4 Click the Line Detail subview tab.

5 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To attach files to agreements

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.
2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record and click the Attachments view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

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To manually renew a line item of an agreement

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record and click the Line Items view tab.

3 Select a line item record and click the Renewal Escalator subview tab.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

The start date can be the current date or a prior date.

5 In the Line Items view, click the Renewal button.

See “Workflows for Agreement Renewal and Approval” on page 244 for more information on how
to automate the agreement line item renewal process.

Defining Charge Plans for Agreement Line Items

For payment of a contract, charges must be set up. Most contracts include two types of charges:

■ An initial payment to establish the contract, referred to as a nonrecurring charge (NRC)

■ A recurring charge (RC), which is usually a monthly charge for the service package

NOTE: There is also a third kind of charge, which is used to handle usage charges.

Scenario for Charge Plans

A company has a service package with a price of $15,000. There is an initial charge of $3000 to
activate the service package, followed by 12 further monthly charges of $1000. The charges are to
be made on the first day of each month. To manage this scenario, a Field Service user would need
to set up a contract schedule, NRCs, and RCs for the charge plan. If the NRCs are to be broken up
into installments, an NRC plan may also need to be set up.

Process for Defining and Running a Charge Plan

To define and run a charge plan, perform the following tasks:

1 Create a contract schedule for creating the charges. The schedule can be daily, weekly, or
monthly. See “Defining Contract Schedules” on page 294 for more information.

2 Set up any required NRC, RC, or use plans. See “Setting Up NRC Plans” on page 288 for more
information.

3 Add NRC, RC, and any charges, adjustments, and use plan details to the agreement line items.
See “To define charge plans for agreement line items” for more information. This information
should include the following:

■ A schedule plan for the first charge to be created

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■ The start time for the first charge

NOTE: If you are adding a use plan to the agreement line item, make sure that you select
the appropriate product and asset for association with the line item. You must select an asset
that has measurements to allow usage to be recorded.

4 Run the charge plan to create charges for the agreement line item using either of the following
methods:

■ Use the Charge button on the Agreements screen > List > Line Items view. See “Running
Charge Plans Using the Charge Button” on page 230 for more information.

■ Set up workflows to run the charges automatically. See “Running Charge Plans Using
Workflows” on page 217 for more information.

To define charge plans for agreement line items

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field of a selected agreement.

The Line Items view appears.

3 Select a line item.

4 On the link bar, click Charge Plan.

5 In the Charge Plan form, complete the fields as appropriate. For more information, see “Charge
Plan Subview” on page 312.

NOTE: If a product measurement record is defined for this line item (product), the RC Schedule
frequency must match the Frequency value in the Administration - Products screen > Service
Information > Measurements view.

6 (Optional) If you are adding a use plan to the agreement line item, make sure that the
appropriate product and asset are added to the agreement line item so that the measurements
can be recorded for usage. To do this, perform the following steps.

a Click the Line Detail view tab.

b In the Service Asset # field, select the assets which were created to track usage.

Multiple assets can be added to an agreement line item using the Agreements screen > List
> Line Items > Pricing > Assets view.

Running Charge Plans Using the Charge Button

When a charge plan has been defined, users can then run the plan to create the charges. All the
charges for the RC and NRC schedules are created with the correct amounts and adjustments as
indicated in the charge plans.

To run the charge plan using the Charge button

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

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2 Drill down on the Name field of a selected agreement.

The Line Items view appears.

3 Select a line item and enter a value in the Advance To field.

4 Click the Charge button.

You can generate multiple charges for an agreement line item by configuring the FS - Generate
Agreement Charge workflow to run on a periodic basis. See “Running Charge Plans Using
Workflows” on page 217 for more information.

Defining Conditional Charge Plans for Agreement Line

Items
When conditional charge plans have been set up using the Administration - Contracts screen >
Conditional Charge Plan view, users can then select the appropriate conditional charge plans for
agreement line items. See “Setting Up Conditional Charge Plans” on page 293 for more information on
how to set up a conditional charge plan.

NOTE: The day on which the agreement is terminated by the customer is the day on which the
conditional charge is created. Also, if no conditional charge plan is associated with the agreement
line item, the penalty is simply charged.

Scenario for Conditional Charge Plans

The administrator creates a conditional charge plan called Termination Plan. This plan specifies that
if a customer arranges an early cancellation of their agreement, they must pay 8.33% (100% spread
over 12 months of the year) of the agreed penalty charges for each remaining month until the end
of the period covered by the agreement. A user setting up a photocopier maintenance agreement for
a customer associates the Termination Plan with the photocopier agreement line item. The user then
specifies that a total penalty of $150 applies for this line item if the agreement is canceled before a
year has expired.

The customer with the maintenance agreement calls to cancel the 12-month contract after just six
months have passed. According to the Termination Plan, the customer must now pay 8.33% of the
total cancellation fee ($150) for each of the remaining six months. In total, the customer must pay
8.33% x $150 x 6 months, which is $74.97.

To define a conditional charge plan for an agreement line item

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field of a selected agreement.

The Line Items view appears.

3 On the link bar, click Conditional Charges.

The Conditional Charges view appears.

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4 In the Conditional Charges list, create a new record.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Type The type of conditional charge—for example, Penalty, Refund, and so on.

Start Date The date on which the conditional charge starts unless an effective date is
specified.

End Date The date on which the conditional charge ends is no longer applied. For
example, cancellation fees may only be applied if the agreement is canceled
before a 12-months period has elapsed. After this period, the company may
choose not to charge the customer if they cancel.

Effective Date The date on which the conditional charge becomes effective.

Plan Select the conditional charge plan which should control the conditional charge.

Amount The total fee that the customer must pay for this conditional charge.

Reason A description of the reason for creating this charge.

5 In the Advance To field, enter a date which is greater than the specified Effective Date and less
than the End Date values.

The Advance To date should represent the remaining time left for the contract.

6 Click Charge.

Field Service calculates the total charges that must be applied to the customer in accordance
with the conditional charge values. For example, if the customer has canceled their 12-month
agreement after just six months, 50% of the cancellation fee must be paid over the next six
months.

7 (Optional) On the link bar, click Charges to view the calculated charges for the line item.

Managing Agreement Line Item Revenue

Agreement line item revenue consists of the amounts invoiced to a customer according to the terms
agreed to in the agreement. Customer payments may be periodic, paid up front, disbursed by
account, or include additional service charges such as Time and Material (T&M).

Part of the opportunity management process for a customer is to track contracts after an opportunity
has been won. This is done by forecasting the revenue expected to be generated for each year of the
agreement term, and tracking the revenue for each year on a monthly basis. You can perform
revenue forecasting by using revenue plans in conjunction with the Siebel Forecasting module.

Forecasting is one of the most important aspects of tracking. It is important not only to track the
sales of products, but also the revenue generated by the sale of aftersales services. Using revenue
plans, an organization can track the revenue associated with the agreement line items. See Siebel
Forecasting Guide for more information about forecasting.

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Adding Revenue Line Items to Agreement Line Items

The Agreements screen > List > Line Item Revenue view displays all revenue records associated with
an agreement line item.

To add revenue line items to agreement line items

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record.

The Line Items view appears.

3 Click the Line Item Revenue view tab.

4 Scroll down to the Revenue list.

The Revenue view contains a list of all the revenue for the selected agreement line item. For
example, if the service contract is for $15,000 with an NRC of $3000 and a further 12 charges
of $1000 per month, then 13 revenue line items should be created for the 13 payments.

5 Create a new record, completing the fields as appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

(drop-down lists) The two drop-down lists at the top of the Revenue list direct a query
of existing revenue records in this list. One field allows selection of
records for specific products, the other for specific users.

Amount Amount of revenue expected on the specified date.

Revenue Date Date for expected revenue.

Revenue Wizard Button. Runs a script wizard (Revenue Schedule Script) that helps
users enter multiple revenue records over time.

The Revenue Schedule Script can be customized if required.

Alternatively, you can click the Revenue Wizard button. The wizard walks you through questions
such as number of payments, account, opportunity information, and so on.

6 (Optional) View the information in different formats by clicking the Chart or the Spreadsheet view
tabs.

■ The Spreadsheet view shows the service product associated with the agreement line item and
the revenue associated with the line item. The revenue item is shown in its own column for
each item with a total as the last item.

■ The Chart view allows the revenue records to be viewed in a chart.

Adding Revenue Plans to Agreement Line Items

Once the administrator has created the revenue plan templates, users can then add them to
agreement line items. See “Creating Revenue Plan Templates” on page 216 for more information.

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When the user selects a revenue plan and enters an amount, the revenue items are then added. For
example, a revenue template is created for 12 months. The user selects this template and enters an
amount of $100. When the user saves the record, 12 revenue items are automatically created for
$100 each.

To add a revenue line item plan

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record.

The Line Items view appears.

3 Click the Line Item Revenue view tab.

4 Scroll down and click the Revenue Plans view tab.

5 From the Template drop-down list, select a revenue template and complete the rest of the fields
as appropriate.

Creating Documents for Agreements, Quotes, and

Orders
Field Service can automatically generate documents required to implement a service agreement; for
example, subcontractor agreements and work orders. For information about how to create document
templates using Siebel Proposals see Siebel Correspondence, Proposals, and Presentations Guide.

To generate an agreement document

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record.

3 Click the Documents view tab.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Some fields and buttons are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Auto Document Command and button. Creates a new record from the default document
template.

Generate Draft Command. Creates a draft document and opens it in Microsoft Word or Lotus
WordPro.

Local Indicates this document is stored locally. This field is for information only;
there is no associated code.

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5 Click Generate Draft.

The system launches Microsoft Word or Lotus WordPro and displays a draft agreement.

Alternatively, you can click Auto Document to create a standard document from the default
template.

To generate an order document

1 Navigate to the Service Order or Sales Order screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Order # field for a selected order record.

3 Click the Documents view tab.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

5 Click Generate Draft.

Alternatively, you can click Auto Document to create a standard document from the default
template.

To generate a quote document

1 Navigate to the Quotes screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected quote record.

3 Click the Documents view tab.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

5 Click Generate Draft.

Alternatively, you can click Auto Document to create a standard document from the default
template.

Adding Agreement Terms to Agreements

Agreement terms are terms that relate specifically to agreements. There are two ways in which
agreement terms can be added to agreements:

■ Agreement administrators can create agreement term templates using the Administration -
Contracts screen > Term Templates view. See “Creating Term Templates” on page 217 for more
information. Users can then select these terms and add them to the agreement using the
Agreements screen > List > Terms view.

■ Users can create terms directly from the Agreements screen > List > Terms view.

When the proposal is generated, these terms are then included as a part of the final document.

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To add predefined agreement terms to an agreement

1 Make sure that the appropriate administrator has defined term templates for all the required
terms that you need to add to the agreement.

2 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

3 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record.

The Line Items view appears.

4 Click the Terms view tab.

5 Create a new record.

6 In the Section field, enter the document section number for the term.

For example, this could be 1.1, 1.2 and so on.

7 Complete the rest of the fields as appropriate.

To create new agreement terms for an agreement

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record.

The Line Items view appears.

3 Click the Terms view tab.

4 Click Add and select the appropriate term from the predefined list.

Using Co-Terms
Co-terms refer to the consolidation of the terms for multiple line items. Typically, an agreement has
multiple line items for different service products. These service products may have different start
and end dates, resulting in different payment schedules. Customers can ask for the consolidation of
these terms into one start and end date. Equally, if a new product is being added to an existing
service contract and the term is already partially complete, a customer may ask to prorate the
charges, based on the remaining term of the contract.

The Agreements screen > List > Financials view can help you to better understand the co-term and
prorate choices that are required for an agreement based on its term and the months left. See
“Financials View” on page 257 for more information.

Process of Creating Entitlements

The following list shows the procedures that end users typically perform when creating and defining
entitlements using Siebel Field Service.

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End-User Procedures
To create and define entitlements, you can perform the following procedures:

1 Defining Entitlements on page 237

2 Adding Service Request Information to Entitlements on page 238

3 Adding Preventive Maintenance Information to Entitlements on page 239

Defining Entitlements
This topic contains procedures for common tasks, such as creating entitlements, and associating
them with products, assets, and accounts.

This topic contains the following related procedures:

■ To automatically create entitlements for an agreement line item on page 237

■ To manually add entitlements to an agreement on page 237

■ To manually associate accounts with entitlements on page 237

■ To manually associate contacts with entitlements on page 238

■ To manually associate products and assets with entitlements on page 238

To automatically create entitlements for an agreement line item

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record and click the Line Items view tab.

3 Select a line item (product record) and click Entitle.

NOTE: Entitlement templates must already be associated with the product on the agreement line
item before you attempt to automatically create entitlements using the Entitle button.

To manually add entitlements to an agreement

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record and click the Entitlements view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To manually associate accounts with entitlements

1 Navigate to the Entitlements screen > Agreement Entitlements view.
2 Select an entitlement and click the Accounts view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

4 (Optional) To provide complete coverage under the selected entitlement, select the All Products
field.

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To manually associate contacts with entitlements

1 Navigate to the Entitlements screen > Agreement Entitlements view.

2 Select an entitlement and click the Contacts view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

4 (Optional) To provide complete coverage under the selected entitlement, select the All Products
field.

To manually associate products and assets with entitlements

1 Navigate to the Entitlements screen > Agreement Entitlements view.

2 Select an entitlement and click the Products view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Adding Service Request Information to Entitlements

To allow service requests to be carried out in accordance with customer expectations, you must
associate a service calendar with an entitlement. Performance measurements should also be added
to make sure that the response time is appropriate.

To associate a service calendar with an entitlement

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record and click the Entitlements view tab.

3 Select an entitlement and scroll down to the Entitlement Details form.

4 In the Service Hours field, enter a service calendar record.

To manually add performance measurements (metrics) for an entitlement

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement record and click the Entitlements view tab.

3 Select an entitlement and click the Metrics view tab.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

TIP: The calculation of the Agent Committed Time for a Service Request takes, as input, a
response time according to the service request priority. By defining a series of different response
times and priority levels, the Agent Committed Time can adjust according to the service request
priority. To do this, add several metrics records of the Response Time type. For each response
time record, choose a different Priority value. Then enter values in the other fields that make
sense for the corresponding priority. For example, you might enter one hour for priority 1-ASAP,
four hours for priority 2-High, and so on. Now, when the Agent Committed Time is calculated,
the resulting time correlates to the service request priority.

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To verify entitlements for a service request and select an entitlement

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Select a service request, and then in the service request form, click Verify.

The Pick Entitlement dialog box appears, with a list of the active entitlements for this service
request. If no entitlements appear, the selected service request is not entitled to receive service.

3 Select an entitlement record from the Pick Entitlement dialog box, and then click OK.

Selecting an entitlement from the Pick Entitlement dialog box computes the Agent Committed
time for the service request from the Service Calendar associated with this entitlement and from
the Response Time specified in the entitlement metrics. The name of the selected entitlement
appears in the Entitlement field. For more information, see “Service Requests Views” on page 51.

Adding Preventive Maintenance Information to

Entitlements
Preventive maintenance (PM) plans can be added to entitlements. Actions can then be generated for
agreements and entitlements on the basis of these PM plans.

To manually associate preventive maintenance plans with entitlements

1 Navigate to the Entitlements screen > Agreement Entitlements view.

2 Select an entitlement and click the Preventive Maintenance view tab.

3 In the drop-down list at the top of the Preventive Maintenance view, make sure PM Plans is
selected.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To generate preventive maintenance actions for an agreement and entitlement

1 Follow Step 1 and Step 2 of “To manually associate preventive maintenance plans with
entitlements” on page 239.

2 Select a preventive maintenance plan record and click Run PM.

To view preventive maintenance actions associated with a PM Plan

1 Follow Step 1 through Step 3 of “To manually associate preventive maintenance plans with
entitlements” on page 239.

2 Select a preventive maintenance plan record.

3 From the drop-down list at the top of the Preventive Maintenance subview, select PM Actions.

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Workflows for Entitlement Creation and

Verification
This section explains the Siebel workflows used for entitlement creation and verification. Workflows
are used to automate the business processes associated with verifying and creating entitlements.

You can modify these workflows to suit your own business model using Siebel Business Process
Designer. For more information, see Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide.

NOTE: Some workflows in the following sections may not be relevant to your application services.

In this section, the workflows are grouped in subsections that correspond to the business processes
that they automate. Each subsection describes a workflow process.

This section includes the following subsections:

■ Workflow to Automatically Create Entitlements from an Entitlement Template on page 240

■ Workflow to Verify Entitlements on an Activity on page 241

■ Workflow to Verify Entitlements on an Order on page 242

■ Workflow to Verify Entitlements on a Quote on page 243

■ Workflow to Verify Entitlement on a Service Request on page 244

■ Workflow to Verify Entitlement with Best Response Time on a Service Request on page 244

The methods used by these verification workflows belong to the FS Verify Entitlement business
service. For more information on the individual methods and for a general description of the business
service, see “FS Verify Entitlement Business Service” on page 570.

Workflow to Automatically Create Entitlements from an

Entitlement Template
Entitlements can be automatically created from entitlement templates. The FS - Create Entitlement
workflow automates the process of associating an entitlement template with a service product. The
workflow is called when the user clicks the Auto-Entitlement button. See “Configuring Auto-
Entitlement for Quotes and Orders” on page 224 for more information on configuring this button.

The three workflow processes call the following methods in the FS Create Entitlement business
service:

■ GetEntitlementTemplates

■ ValidateEntitlementTemplates

■ CreateEntitlements

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The workflow calls the FS Agreement Renewal business service, passing in the date and the ID for
the agreement. Figure 4 illustrates this workflow.

Figure 4. FS - Create Entitlement

Related Topics
■ FS Create Entitlement Business Service on page 568

■ FS Create Entitlement Business Service on page 568

Workflow to Verify Entitlements on an Activity

This workflow automates the process of verifying entitlements on an activity. The workflow is called
FS - Verify Entitlement Activity. The workflow searches for a list of qualifying entitlements and
displays them to the user in a pick applet. Figure 5 illustrates this workflow.

Figure 5. FS - Verify Entitlement Activity

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Workflow to Verify Entitlements on an Order

This workflow automates the process of verifying entitlements on an order. The workflow is called FS
- Verify Entitlement Order. The workflow cycles through all the entitlements for product line items of
an order and identifies the best-priced entitlement for each line item, and then the workflow stamps
the ID of the best entitlement on each line item. Figure 6 illustrates this workflow.

Figure 6. FS - Verify Entitlement Order

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 Agreements ■ Workflows for Entitlement Creation and Verification

Workflow to Verify Entitlements on a Quote

This workflow automates the process of verifying entitlements on a quote. The workflow is called FS
- Verify Entitlement Quote Best Price. The workflow cycles through all the entitlements for product
line items of a quote and identifies the best-priced entitlement for each line item, and then the
workflow stamps the ID of the best entitlement on each line item. Figure 7 illustrates this workflow.

Figure 7. FS - Verify Entitlement Quote Best Price

Workflow Requirements
Some data setup is required to allow this workflow to function:

■ The quote account must have an agreement with a pricing-type entitlement.

■ Values for Products, Type of Calculation and Adjustment Value must be defined on the
Agreements screen > Entitlements > Price Details view.

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Workflow to Verify Entitlement on a Service Request

This is one of two workflows that automate the process of verifying entitlements on a Service
Request. The workflow is called FS - Verify Entitlement SR; the other is FS - Verify Entitlement SR
Best Response Time. The workflow shows a list of entitlements to the user and requests that the user
choose an entitlement, and then the workflow stamps the commit time on the Service Request.
Figure 8 illustrates this workflow.

Figure 8. FS - Verify Entitlement SR

Workflow to Verify Entitlement with Best Response

Time on a Service Request
This is one of two workflows that automate the process of verifying entitlements on a Service
Request. The workflow is called FS - Verify Entitlement SR Best Response Time; the other is FS -
Verify Entitlement SR. The workflow automatically chooses the entitlement with the best response
time, and then it stamps the commit time on the Service Request. Figure 9 illustrates this workflow.

Figure 9. FS - Verify Entitlement SR Best Response Time

Workflows for Agreement Renewal and

Approval
Workflows can be configured so that agreement line items can be automatically renewed.

This section contains the following related subsections:

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■ Workflow to Automatically Renew Agreement Line Items on page 245

■ Workflow to Automatically Renew All Agreement Line Items on page 245

■ Workflow to Approve Agreements on page 246

Workflow to Automatically Renew Agreement Line

Items
The FS - Agreement Renewal Item workflow is used to automate the process of renewing an
agreement line item. This workflow is called when the user clicks the Renewal button.

The workflow calls the FS Agreement Renewal business service, passing in the date and the ID for
the agreement. Figure 10 illustrates this workflow.

Figure 10. FS - Agreement Renewal

Related Topics
■ Setting Up Agreement Renewal on page 205

■ FS Agreement Renewal Business Service on page 550

Workflow to Automatically Renew All Agreement Line

Items
The FS - Agreement Renewal All workflow is used to automate the process of renewing all appropriate
agreement line items at once. This workflow can be run as a batch process. Figure 11 illustrates this
workflow.

Figure 11. FS - Agreement Renewal All

NOTE: It is recommended that you run the renewal process every night to create renewal line items
for your agreement.

To renew agreement line items using a repeating component job

1 Navigate to the Administration - Server Management screen > Jobs view.

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2 In the Jobs list, create a new Job record.

3 In the Component/Job field, select Workflow Process Manager.

4 Enter the desired Repeat Interval and Repeat Unit in the Job Detail view.

5 Scroll down to the Job Parameters list and create a new parameter record.

6 In the Name field, select Workflow Process Name, and in the Value field, enter FS - Agreement
Renewal All.

7 Click the Start button in the Jobs list.

Workflow to Approve Agreements

The following workflow is called for the approval process ISS Approval (Agreement).

Figure 12. ISS Approval (Agreement)

You can review the rule set used with this workflow. These rules must be met so that the rest of the
workflow can run. See “Setting Up Agreement Approval” on page 209 for more information.

The ISS Approval Bus Service approval business service is called with the method
CreateNewApprovalTasks. This places the agreement in the approval Inbox for approval or rejection
by the appropriate contract approval managers.

Administration - Application Screen

The Administration - Application screen’s System Preferences view determines the behavior of the
Verify (entitlements) button. For information about this view, see the Siebel Applications
Administration Guide.

Administration - Pricing Screen

The Administration - Pricing screen provides a view for configuring asset-, contract- and entitlement-
based pricing. See “Defining Pricing for Agreements” on page 203

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Service Pricing View

The Service Pricing view allows users to associate multiple products that together define a unique
price. (This is used for asset-based pricing.)

Service Price Details Subview

The Service Pricing Details subview specifies products that represent the targeted installed base of
assets covered by a service product. In an agreement line item, specifying a service product (for
example, Platinum Coverage) and selecting an asset that is covered by asset-based pricing (for
example, component G with serial number XYZ) return a line item price based on the combination
of service product and part. For more information, see “Line Items View” on page 253.

Administration - Contracts Screen

The Administration - Contracts screen has views for defining entitlement templates and billing plans
based on one-time (nonrecurring) charges and asset usage. It also provides views for creating
contract schedules and charge consolidation plans.

Entitlement Templates View

Table 43 describes fields in the Entitlement Templates view.

Table 43. Selected Fields on the Entitlement Templates View

Item Description

Account All Contacts Indicates the entitlement should cover all contacts associated with the
account. The effect is to select the All Contacts box in the Agreements
screen > Entitlements view > Accounts subview.

Account All Products Indicates all products associated with the account under this entitlement
should be covered. The effect is to select the All Products box in
Agreements screen > Entitlements view > Accounts subview.

Activity Override Determines whether the rate and price lists specified for the entitlement
override the rate and price lists for a service request. For contract-based
invoicing, check this box.

Billable Indicates one or more services provided by this entitlement are billable
to the customer.

Contact All Products Indicates the entitlement should automatically cover all products for the
contact. The effect is to check the All Products box in the Agreements
screen > Entitlements view > Contacts subview.

Include Account Indicates the entitlement should automatically cover the account on the
agreement header.

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Table 43. Selected Fields on the Entitlement Templates View

Item Description

Include Contact Indicates the entitlement should automatically cover the contact from
the agreement header.

Initial Quantity Number of services covered in the entitlement.

Service Hours The hours of service that the entitlement covers. For example, the
service package only covers 5 days a week between the hours of 9 A.M.
to 5 P.M. The service hours influence the committed date time for
responding to the service request.

Service hours schedules can be added from the Administration - Service

screen > Schedules view.

Units Unit of measure for the initial quantity covered; for example, service
requests.

Metrics Subview
In the Metrics subview, add performance requirements for the entitlement template; for example,
response time. These metrics are usually associated with a corresponding service level agreement
within an agreement. The agreement often indicates the target metrics for response time and
resolution time. The response and resolution times are quite often associated with the priority of the
service request.

For example, the response time value sets the Date Committed field on the service request. This
metric indicates that the service organization has committed to responding to issues by a certain
date and time. The resolution time value can be used interchangeably with response time. However,
the two metrics do indicate different values to be tracked. The resolution time indicates the time by
which the service organization has committed to resolve the issue.

Another example of a metric that can be set is the escalation time. This metric will set the Agent
Escalation Time field (Service screen > Service Requests -HelpDesk view) on the service request.
This metric indicates that if no action has occurred on the service request by the escalation time, an
email should be sent to the manager warning that a key metric in a service level agreement is about
to be broken. Such breaches of service agreements can have both financial and legal repercussions
for a service department.

Additional metrics can be added for monitoring through the Administration - Service screen > Service
Metrics view.

NOTE: Each requirement must be in a separate record.

Preventive Maintenance Subview

In the Preventive Maintenance subview, add a record for each Preventive Maintenance plan included
in the entitlement template. When selecting a plan from the Add Preventive Maintenance Plan dialog
box, check the box in the second column to select a plan; selecting a record without checking this
box fails to select one or more plans.

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Service Details Subview

The Service Details subview defines each type of service covered by the entitlement and the billing
terms for each service. Terms may include a fixed service charge and specific billable time, expenses,
and parts. Table 44 on page 249 describes some items on this view.

Table 44. Selected Items on the Service Details Subview

Item Description

Expenses Billable Indicates the service expenses under this entitlement are billable to the
customer.

Parts Billable Indicates the parts provided under this entitlement are billable to the
customer.

Time Billable Indicates time (labor) under this entitlement is billable to the customer.

Type Defines the type of activity to which a Service Details record applies. This
required value determines the other fields that appear in the Service Details
view.

Note the following effects of a service detail record:

■ Service Details apply to the selected activity type rather than to a specific entitlement template.

■ No additional charges or discounts are applied to a service request activity if no corresponding

service detail record is defined for the service request’s associated entitlement.

■ No additional charges or discounts are applied to a billable item in a service request activity if no
corresponding exception record is defined for the service detail record in the service request’s
associated entitlement. For more information, see the “Time Exceptions Subview,” “Expense
Exceptions Subview,” and “Product Exceptions Subview” sections that follow.

The subviews of Service Details define exceptions for time, expenses, and products. For example, if
labor (time) is generally not billable, only the exceptions are billed. Conversely, if time is generally
billable, the exceptions are not billed. You access these subviews by selecting from the drop-down
list in the tab at the bottom of the screen.

Time Exceptions Subview

Time exceptions define the pricing of time associated with an activity type that is different than
standard pricing. Time exceptions include a fixed service charge, discounts, and a limit on the billable
amount.

NOTE: Exception records for time are associated with activity types and specific projects (specified
in the Type field). For information about projects, see the chapter on project management in Siebel
Professional Services Automation Guide.

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Expense Exceptions Subview

Expense exceptions define pricing of expenses associated with an activity type that is different from
standard pricing. Expense exceptions include a fixed service charge, discounts, and a limit on the
billable amount.

Product Exceptions Subview

Product exceptions define pricing of products associated with an activity type that is different from
standard service pricing. Product exceptions include discounts, markups, and overrides.

Products Subview
The Products subview defines specific products or assets covered by the entitlement. You can copy
these products to an entitlement by selecting the Entitlement Template Products check box in the
“Entitlement Templates View” on page 247.

Pricing Details Subview

The Pricing Details subview allows contract-based pricing for quotes and orders. Using this tab, you
can discount products purchased under the agreement. This discounting is done so that when a
product part becomes faulty and must be replaced under the agreement, the full list price does not
have to be paid.

When creating a sales or service order, the user can select an entitlement which applies special
pricing. Table 45 describes the items in this view.

Table 45. Selected Items on the Pricing Details Subview

Item Description

Type of Calculation Type of price adjustment; for example, a discount or markup.

Adjustment Value Amount of price adjustment described in the Type of Calculation field.

Administration - Product Screen

The Administration - Product screen includes the Service Information view which allows users to
associate entitlements, measurements, and fulfillment information with the appropriate products.

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Entitlements View
The Product Entitlements view associates entitlements with a product. You access this view by
selecting Product Entitlements from the visibility filter on the More Info tab. Clicking the
Entitle button on the Agreements screen automatically associates the entitlements with the products
described in selected line items. This view contains three check boxes, described in Table 46. For
more information, see “Line Items View” on page 253.

Table 46. Selected Items on the Product Entitlement Templates View

Item Description

Agree Line Item Products Copies all products from the agreement line item to an
automatically generated entitlement (produced by clicking the
Entitle button).

Entitlement Template Products Copies all products associated with the entitlement template to
an automatically generated entitlement (produced by clicking
the Entitle button).

All Contract Line Product Flag Copies the products from all agreement line items to an
automatically generated entitlement (produced by clicking the
Entitle button).

Agreements Screen
The Agreements screen defines agreement of all types. It also includes views for the history of
approvals for each agreement, entitlements, associated service requests, and activities.

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Agreements List View

The Agreements List view displays all agreements that are visible to the user. Table 47 describes
some items in Agreements records.

Table 47. Selected Items in the All Agreements View

Item Description

Currency Code for the type of currency; for example, USD for U.S. dollars.

For agreement-based invoicing, this value is used as the target, or overriding,

currency. Before performing invoice calculations, all the input currency values,
such as the ones in the NPR Plan and the Usage Plan, are converted to the target
currency. Calculations are then performed in the target currency. After the
calculations are completed, these values are written back as Invoices, Invoice Line
Items, and Invoice Line Item Details, all in the target currency.

Effective Actual date the agreement is effective. Can be later than, earlier than, or the same
as the Start date.

End Date the agreement will end.

Start Date the agreement is planned to start.

Valid Indicates the agreement is valid. Must be selected for consideration of the
entitlements when verifying coverage with “Verify Button” on page 52. Also,
preventive maintenance actions for assets are only initiated if this box is selected
and the selected entitlement is active, based on its start and end dates.

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Line Items View

The Line Items view records a description of each product sold or provided under a selected service
agreement. Table 48 describes items in this view.

Table 48. Selected Items in the Line Items View

Item Description

Asset # Number of an asset associated with the product described in this line item record, or
the number of an asset for a different product, used for asset-based pricing. For more
information, see “Defining Asset-Based Pricing” on page 203.

Specifying an asset of the product described in the line item is appropriate, for
example, when specifying a trade-in. This case can include a discount available only for
trade-ins.

Entitle Menu command and button. Automatically associates entitlements (from entitlement
templates) with the product described in the selected line item. Selecting a second time
associates any new entitlements, but does not update entitlements that are already
associated. For more information, see “Entitlement Templates View” on page 247 and
“Products Subview” on page 250.

Product Product for this line item. Can be a service product.

Reprice Menu command. Calculates the price for the selected line item, based on the associated
price list and pricing procedure.

Reprice Menu command and button. Calculates the price for all line items, based on the
All associated price list and pricing procedure.

Renewal Button that displays when the Renewal Escalator subview is selected. For more
information, see “Setting Up Agreement Renewal” on page 205.

Totals Subview
The Totals subview displays the total price, before tax and shipping charges, for the agreement line
items and applied discounts. To see this subview, click the Totals subview tab.

Line Item Attributes Subview

If the product is customizable, the product attributes appear in this subview. To see this subview,
click the drop-down list in the Totals subview and select Line Item Attributes.

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Line Detail Subview

The Line Detail subview contains additional fields that define an agreement line item. Some fields
are filled in automatically with the product selected in the Line Items view. Table 49 describes items
on the Line Detail subview.

Table 49. Selected Items in the Line Detail Subview

Item Description

Asset # The number of an asset to use. For more information, see “Process of Setting
Up Agreements” on page 202.

Discount % A discount percentage applied directly to the selected line item.

Net Discount % A calculated field whose value is equal to (Start Price - Discount Amount) /
Start Price.

Discount Amount A discount amount applied directly to the selected line item.

Usage Asset # Number of the asset to use for billing of usage. For more information, see
“Charge Consolidation Plans View” on page 310.

Line # Number assigned to each line item in the Line Items view, starting with 1.

Sequence Indicates the hierarchical relationship of line items.

Renewal Escalator Subview

The Renewal Escalator subview is used to create and modify renewal terms of agreement line items.
When the Renewal Escalator subview tab is selected, a Renewal button is available in the Line Items
view for manual renewal of line items. Alternatively, you can automate the renewal process using
the FS - Agreement Renewal workflow. See “Workflow to Automatically Renew Agreement Line Items”
on page 245 for more information. Table 50 describes items on the Line Detail subview.

Table 50. Selected Items in the Renewal Escalator Subview

Item Description
Start Date The start of agreement line item renewal.

End Date The end of the agreement line item renewal.

Status The status of the renewed agreement when it is created.

Line Price The adjustment type of the main agreement line item.
Adjustment Type

Line Price The amount by which the line item price should be adjusted.
Adjustment
Amount

NRC Adjustment The adjustment type of the NRC for the main agreement line item.
Type

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Table 50. Selected Items in the Renewal Escalator Subview

Item Description

NRC Adjustment The amount by which the line item NRC should be adjusted.
Amount

RC Adjustment The adjustment type of the RC for the main agreement line item.
Type

RC Adjustment The amount by which the line item RC should be adjusted.

Amount

Use Plan The new use plan to be used for the renewed line item.

Invoice Subview
The Invoice subview displays all of the invoices associated with a line item. These records are
automatically produced by the Charge Consolidation Engine (Invoice Engine) when the user clicks
the Auto Invoice button or when the engine is invoked using a workflow.

Entitlements View
The Entitlements view displays entitlements and associates them with specific agreements.

NOTE: End users should use the Entitlements view on the Agreements screen. The Entitlements
screen (“Entitlements Screen” on page 260) is used for general administrative work across
agreements.

Accounts Subview
The Accounts subview associates accounts with specific entitlements. Table 51 describes the items
in accounts records.

Table 51. Selected Items in the Accounts Subview

Items Function

All Contacts Indicates all contacts associated with this account are covered by this entitlement.
Entitlement verification uses this information. For more information, see “Verify
Button” on page 52.

All Products Indicates all products are covered by this entitlement. Entitlement verification
uses this information.

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Entitlement Details Subview

The Entitlement Details subview displays additional details for a selected entitlement. Table 52
describes items in entitlement detail records.

Table 52. Selected Item in the Entitlement Details Subview

Item Description

Current Qty Enter the current quantity covered by the entitlement.

Your Siebel application does not automatically update the current

quantity. You must update it manually each time it changes.

Initial Qty Enter the initial quantity covered by the entitlement.

Activity Override Flag Determines whether the billable flag, rate list, and price list specified in
this entitlement override the billable flag, rate list, and price list specified
for a service request.

Products Subview
The Products subview associates assets and products with entitlements. The records in this view
provide a list of products covered by the selected entitlement. These records are used when the All
Products check box in the Accounts subview is not selected, and the entitlement is valid only for
specific products or assets.

NOTE: The Agreements screen > Line Items view specifies the products purchased or provided
under this agreement. The Agreements screen > Entitlements view > Products subview defines the
level of service provided for each product and asset associated with the agreement. For more
information, see “Line Items View” on page 253.

Contacts Subview
The Contacts subview associates contacts at an account with a specific entitlement. The records in
this view are used when the All Contacts check box (in the Accounts subview) is not selected and the
entitlement is valid only for specific individuals.

Metrics Subview
The Metrics subview records performance measurements for an entitlement; for example, response
time for a service call and customer satisfaction rating. The Response Time metric is required for
calculating Agent Committed time in the Service Request view. This is the only entitlement metric
that is used directly to determine a level of service. For more information, see “Service Requests
View” on page 257.

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Service Details Subview

The Service Details subview defines the billing terms for service activities covered by the
entitlements. Table 53 describes items in Service Detail records.

Table 53. Selected Items in the Service Detail Subview

Item Description

Expenses Billable Indicates the service expenses under this entitlement are billable
to the customer.

Maximum Expense Discount Limit of expense discounts that a customer may receive for a
selected activity type.

Maximum Time Billable Limit of time charges that a customer may receive for a selected
activity type.

Parts Billable Indicates the parts provided under this entitlement are billable to
the customer.

Service Charge Fixed charge included in the invoice. This may be the only charge
if service is based on a flat rate.

Time Billable Indicates time (labor) under this entitlement is billable to the
customer.

Price Details Subview

The Price Details subview records special pricing considerations for products covered by the
entitlement; for example, discounts or markups. This special pricing is used only for pricing order
line items. See “Defining Pricing for Agreements” on page 203 for more information.

Service Requests View

The Service Request view displays new or existing service requests for a selected agreement. Service
request records appear automatically in this view when a user verifies coverage and selects an
entitlement.

For more information about service requests, see Chapter 3, “Service Support.”

Financials View
The Financials view for the agreement references the quotes and orders corresponding to the
agreement. From the Quotes screen > List > Agreements view and the Service Order screen > List
> Agreements view, users can click the Auto Contract button to automatically create an agreement
based on the quote and order contract. The data mapping will determine what fields are copied into
the agreement. See “Configuring Data Maps to Copy Specified Items” on page 213 for more
information.

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The Origin and Renewal Details section contains the origins of the agreement—the order and quote
information. Renewals are done at the level of the agreement line items.

The Total Amounts section contains the revenue totals for the agreement including net discounts,
adjustments, taxes, and shipping.

NOTE: The Total Amounts section should ideally be synchronized with the Accounts Receivable
system to provide suitable visibility for contract revenue.

The Estimated and Actual Revenue section contains the following information:

■ The possible revenue potential and cost of that revenue

■ The actual revenue and the actual cost of that contract revenue

This information is particularly useful for contract renewals. For example, a contract may have a
possible revenue of $700,000 based on all the products which have a service agreement up for
renewal. However, when the negotiation of the contract renewal takes place, support for some of the
products is dropped because the product is not being used any more, the products are obsolete, or
because they are bundled differently.

The revenue should be based on the following:

■ The price of the product being supported

■ The percentage of that price that the support costs

Both of these are defined in the price list and the cost list, using the Administration - Pricing screen.

Finally, the Revenue Recognition and Invoice Details section contains information about the amount
invoiced, the date of the invoice and the invoice schedule. This information is supplied by the Charge
and Invoice module. Table 54 describes items in the Financials view.

Table 54. Selected Items in the Financials View

Item Description
Term Months A calculated field, which displays the term of the agreement header.

Months Left A calculated field, which displays the number of months left for the
term.

Renewal Term The duration of the next term should the customer chooses to renew.

Renewal % The percentage likelihood of the customer renewing.

Actual Margin A calculated field, which uses the preceding actual cost and actual
revenue figures to calculate and display the margin between both.

Est Margin A calculated field, which uses the preceding estimated cost and
estimated revenue figures to calculate and display the margin between
both.

Rev Recognition Revenue recognition is based on the months left of the term. This is a
drop-down list with the following options that the user can select from:
Annually, As Received, Daily Monthly, Quarterly, and so on.

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This view is also useful for co-term information. See “Using Co-Terms” on page 236 for more
information.

Terms and Totals View

The Terms and Totals view displays the payment, taxes, and shipping information for an agreement.

Terms and Totals Subview

The Terms and Totals subview displays the totals of service, parts, shipping, and tax billed to an
agreement. Table 55 describes items in totals records.

Table 55. Selected Items in the Terms and Totals Subview

Item Description

Adjustment Value entered in this field is subtracted from the value in the Total field.

Products Sum of agreement line items that have the Service field set to No minus discounts.
For more information, see “Line Items View” on page 253.

Services Sum of agreement line items that have the Service field set to Yes, minus discounts.
For more information, see “Line Items View” on page 253.

Shipping Cost of shipping. Copied from the Shipping Charges field in the Terms and Totals
view.

Activities View
The Activities view associates activities with agreements.

Activity Plans View

The Activity Plans view associates activity plans with agreements.

Approval History View

The Approval History view shows who approved this agreement. The Workflow Manager
automatically creates these records as people approve an agreement.

Attachments View
The Attachments view displays files related to selected agreements.

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Discounts View
The Discounts view displays the invoices that are associated with this agreement. These records are
automatically generated for service requests that are related to a selected agreement based on a
selected entitlement. The discounts reflected here are based on special pricing defined under the
entitlement.

Notes View
The Notes view allows you to add notes to an agreement. You can add a private note (visible only
for the logon ID under which it was created) on the Private tab or a public note (visible to all users)
on the Public tab.

Orders View
The Orders view displays a list of all orders associated with an agreement. This view allows you to
create orders directly from a selected agreement.

For information about orders, see Siebel Order Management Guide.

Entitlements Screen
The Entitlements screen displays the accounts, contacts, entitlement metrics, preventive
maintenance plans, and products associated with entitlements across all agreements.

The Transferable Flag field, when selected, transfers the entitlement from an uninstalled asset to an
installed asset upon recording an asset swap. For more information, see “Asset Swaps” on page 470.

Agreements Charts
The Agreements screen (Agreements screen > Charts view) provides charts for analysis, listed in
Table 56.

Table 56. Agreements Analysis

Chart Description

Trend Analysis by Effective Date Number of agreements beginning as a function of effective

date.

Trend Analysis by Expiration Date Number of agreements ending as a function of expiration

date.

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Agreements Reports
The Reports menu (Reports button) provides reports for Agreements, listed in Table 57.

Table 57. Agreements Reports

Report Description

Agreement Summary Summary of each agreement, printing three agreements per page.

Current Agreement Detail All information about each agreement and associated line items.

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8 Siebel Advanced Contracts

This chapter describes Siebel Advanced Contracts. It includes the following topics:

■ About Advanced Contracts on page 263

■ Scenario for Advanced Contracts on page 264

■ Process of Managing Advanced Contracts on page 265

■ Creating Benefit and Condition Templates on page 266

■ Adding Terms to Agreements on page 270

■ Adding Benefits to Agreements on page 271

■ Adding Conditions to Benefits on page 272

■ Verifying Compliance on page 272

■ About Workflows for Advanced Contracts on page 273

■ About Business Services for Advanced Contracts on page 274

■ About Configuring the Revise Button on page 279

■ About Configuring the Add Benefits Button on page 279

■ About Configuring the Entitle Button on page 279

■ Using the Task UI Application to Add Assets to Agreements on page 280

About Advanced Contracts

Siebel Advanced Contracts may be used by Contract administrators, account managers, and
customer service representatives. Agreement data is stored in Agreement records which may be
created, revised, examined, and printed.

Important features in Siebel Advanced Contracts are:

■ Benefits

■ Conditions

■ Compliance History

■ Terms

■ Benefit, Condition, and Term Templates

Contracts Terms Defined

This section defines agreements and related terms as used in the Siebel interface.

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■ Agreements (used interchangeably with the term Contracts). A document that defines
the business relationship between two parties, including obligations to offer, provide, or produce
specific products or services over a set period of time for a specific amount of money.

■ Entitlements. Define coverage available to the customer under the terms and conditions of the
agreement.

■ Benefits. Define the services or products available to the customer under the terms and
conditions of the agreement.

■ Conditions. Are criteria determining whether the parties are entitled to the benefits defined by
the contract.

■ Terms. Are language terms not already included in the agreement.

■ Compliance. Is the history of adherence to the terms and conditions of the agreement.

Common Agreement Types

The two most common types of agreements are:

■ Service agreement

A service agreement is a contract for service. For example, a customer purchases a product from
an equipment manufacturer, who might negotiate a service agreement with the customer
providing a special discounted rate for service over a predetermined period of time.

■ Sales Agreement

A sales agreement is a contract that provides for special pricing and other benefits when products
are purchased. For example, a supply company negotiates a sales agreement with a customer
for a rebate, based on volume purchases.

Scenario for Advanced Contracts

The following scenario is designed to illustrate the functionality of Siebel Advanced Contracts. It
shows a sample business process performed by the Contract administrator and the customer service
representative or account manager.

Your company may follow a different business process according to its business requirements.

Roles and Responsibilities

This section describes the responsibilities of the people involved in contract management.

Contract Administrator
The Contract administrator sets up the agreement templates (Entitlements, Benefits, Conditions, and
Terms), administers the contract during its term, and manages its renewal.

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Customer Service Representative or Account Manager

The customer service representative or account manager sells, documents, or sells and documents
the contract. The customer service representative or account manager will create the draft
agreement to represent the negotiated terms and conditions using entitlement, benefit, condition,
and term templates created by the administrator. When appropriate, after the contract has been
negotiated, updated in Siebel Field Service, and approved by all parties, the contract manager makes
it active.

Scenario
A hardware company has signed an agreement with a purchasing department (PD) of a multinational
company. This agreement entitles the PD to a 10% rebate on purchases of a specific product made
by its divisions each quarter when the volume of purchases of the product exceeds 3000 units.

Independent from this contract, the administrator creates new term templates, for example, a term
template stating that arbitration will be used to resolve disputes. The administrator also creates new
benefit and condition templates. One benefit template, which might be used when creating the
contract for this customer, defines a 10% rebate. The benefit template can be defined with associated
conditions. In the case of this benefit template for the 10% rebate, the administrator might add a
condition that the benefit is delivered only when more than 3000 units of the product are purchased
within a given quarter.

The account manager creates a new Agreement in Siebel Field Service and adds the appropriate
data. The account manager adds terms, benefits, and conditions to the agreement using templates
or manually as described by the procedures in this chapter.

After the agreement becomes active, the conditions governing the benefit will be evaluated, the
compliance recorded, and, if appropriate, the benefit will be delivered.

The following topics describe the individual procedures for completing these tasks.

Process of Managing Advanced

Contracts
This sample process represents the tasks that are carried out in the “Scenario for Advanced Contracts”
on page 264.

Administrator Procedures
See Chapter 7, “Agreements” for procedures specific to administrator tasks. In addition, the following
procedure is specific to Advanced Contracts: Creating Benefit and Condition Templates on page 266.

The Contracts administrator is also responsible for setting up workflows. For more information about
workflows, see “About Workflows for Advanced Contracts” on page 273.

End-User Procedures
Refer to Chapter 7, “Agreements” for procedures specific to End-User tasks. In addition, the following
procedures are specific to Advanced Contracts:

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■ Adding Terms to Agreements on page 270

■ Adding Benefits to Agreements on page 271

■ Adding Conditions to Benefits on page 272

■ Verifying Compliance on page 272

Creating Benefit and Condition

Templates
In this section, the Contract administrator will create templates for new benefits and conditions.

To create a new benefit template

1 Navigate to the Contracts Administration screen.

2 Select Entitlement Templates in the Contracts Administration screen.

3 Select an existing entitlement template or create a new entitlement template.

4 Select the Benefits tab to view Benefit templates associated with the selected entitlement
template.

5 Create a new record and complete the necessary fields.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Priority The priority of the benefit in relation to other benefits.

Name The name of the benefit; for example, Rebate on a product.

Type The type of benefit; for example, Credit or Rebate.

Schedule The benefit schedule; for example, Quarterly.
Amount The total amount of the benefit in the unit defined in the U/M field.

U/M The unit in which the benefit is measured; for example, Percent.

Status The current status of the benefit; for example, Active or On Hold.

Action Basis The basis for evaluating or delivering the benefit; for example, if the Benefit
is triggered by an invoice for a particular quantity of products, Action
Basis=Invoice.

Action Method The action produced by the Action Basis; for example, if an allowance is
administered by adjusting the invoice, Action Method = Adjustment.

Current The existing amount of the benefit including any adjustments already made,
Amount or the current liability for the benefit.

Description A brief description of the benefit.

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Field Comments

Benefit Basis Used when the Benefit Amount is variable and is calculated based on another
value; for example, 10% of Invoice Amount, Benefit Basis = Invoice Amount.

Benefit Price Used when the Benefit Amount is variable and is calculated based on another
value; for example, for a 5% discount, the Benefit Price specifies the starting
price for Siebel Pricer.

Benefit Indicates the maximum or minimum amount of the Benefit when it is

Constraint calculated using Benefit Basis and/or Benefit Price.

Tier Enables benefits to be defined differently for different tiers; for example 10%
discount for Tier 1, 15% discount for Tier 2, where the volume of purchases
determines the appropriate tier.

Division Defines the division to which the benefit applies.

Product Indicates the product category associated with the benefit.

Category

Product Indicates the product associated with the benefit.

Product Line Indicates the product line associated with the benefit.

Product Class Indicates the product class associated with the benefit.

All Products Indicates that All Products are associated with the benefit.

Level Indicates the level at which the benefit applies; for example, Account,
Agreement, Entitlement.

Comments Used to capture additional comments related to the benefit.

Reset Can be used to indicate that the benefit should be reset; for example, the
benefit should be reset if exhausted, when the agreement is renewed or
annually.

Conditions Indicates all conditions must be met (“and”) or only one condition must be met
Relationship (“or”) in order to deliver the benefit.

Adjustment Used when Action Method = Adjustment to indicate the amount of the
Amount adjustment.

Adjustment Indicates the currency associated with the Adjustment Amount.

Currency

Adjustment Specifies the Exchange Date for the Adjustment Currency.

Exchange
Date

Amount Specifies the currency when U/M = Currency.

Currency

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Field Comments

Amount Specifies the exchange date for the Currency indicated by Amount Currency.
Exchange
Date

Count Method Indicates whether the Current Amount should be incremented (to track the
amount of benefit delivered) or decremented (to track remaining liability)
when the benefit is delivered.

Creating a new condition template

1 Navigate to the Contracts Administration screen.

2 Select Entitlement Templates in the Contracts Administration screen.

3 Select an existing entitlement template or create a new one.

4 Select the Benefits tab to view Benefit templates.

When you select the Benefits tab, the Conditions applet is also displayed.

5 Select a Benefit Template record, and in the Conditions list, create a new record and complete
the necessary fields.

NOTE: There must be a benefit template selected in order to create a new condition.
You may use AND, OR, and other expressions to define the condition.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Order The sequence of conditions.

Type The condition type; for example Volume.

Subtype The condition subtype; for example Product Line.

Operator The logical operator used to define the condition; for example, when more
than 3000 parts have been ordered (operator is >), or if membership = Gold
(operator is =).

Target The target amount to be reached to satisfy the condition.

Amount

Target U/M The unit in which the target amount is measured; for example Units.

Enforceable Indicates that the condition should be enforced when determining benefit
delivery.

You might set this value to N (by clearing the check box) to learn more about
the customer so that you could negotiate better contracts in the future without
affecting benefit delivery.

Description A brief description of the condition.

Status The status of the condition; for example, Active or Exhausted.

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Field Comments

Timing The timing of the condition; for example, if Quarterly is chosen, the condition
should be satisfied in one quarter.

Comments Additional comments the sales representative, customer service

representative, or Contract administrator may want to add to the condition.

Current The existing amount used to evaluate the condition; for example for this
Amount condition: revenue > $40,000, current amount is used to track the current
revenue.

Range Specifies a range around the target amount; for example +/- 10%.

Range U/M Indicates the unit of measure for the Range amount.

Expression Used to define complex conditions such as those with logical complexities or
complex field combinations.

Adjustment Used to adjust the benefit based on the condition; for example adjust benefit
Value to 0% discount.

Adjustment Defines the unit of measure for the Adjustment Value.

U/M

Mix % Can be used to track expected purchases; for example, 20% Product A, 15%
Product B, and so on.

Type of Used to adjust benefit amount.

Calculation

Tier Used to associate a condition with a specific tier, enabling you to define
different conditions to different tiers of customers.

Product Used with Subtype = Product to specify the product associated with the
condition.

Product Line Used with Subtype = Product Line to specify the product line associated with
the condition.

Product Class Used with Subtype = Product Class to specify the product class associated with
the condition.

Product Used with Subtype = Product Category to specify the product category
Category associated with the condition.

Target Defines the currency for the target amount when the target U/M is currency.
Currency

Target Specifies the exchange date for the target currency when target U/M is
Exchange currency.
Date

Range Defines the currency for the range amount when Range U/M is currency.
Currency

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Field Comments

Range Specifies the exchange date for the range currency when Range U/M is
Exchange currency.
Date

Adjustment Defines the currency for the adjustment amount when the Adjustment
Currency U/M is currency.

Adjustment Specifies the exchange date for the adjustment currency when Adjustment U/
Exchange M is currency.
Date

Condition Specifies a business object containing the field used in evaluating the
Object Name condition.

Condition Specifies the field within the business object identified by the Condition Object
Object Field Name to be used in evaluating the condition.

Count Method Indicates whether the condition current amount should be incremented or
decremented.

Adding Terms to Agreements

This topic assumes that the agreement has already been entered in Siebel Field Service. The example
is based on information provided in the section “Scenario for Advanced Contracts” on page 264.

The following procedure describes how to create terms for an agreement.

To create terms for an agreement

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen, and select your agreement.
2 Click the Terms view tab.

If it does not appear, click the down arrow next to the third-level view tabs to select it.

3 In the Terms view, you can either create a new term or add an existing term from a template:

a Click the Add button to add an existing term to the agreement.

❏ Select a term to add to the agreement.

❏ Use Ctrl+Click to select multiple terms in the list.

❏ Use Ctrl+A to select all terms in the list.

b Click OK to add the selected Term(s) to the agreement.

Alternatively:

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■ Click the New button to create a new term, which does not exist in the current library of term
templates, to the agreement and complete the appropriate fields.

Field Comments

Section The section number for the term.

Term Name A representative description for the term; for example, Term Length.

Type The legal type of the term: Standard, Non-Standard, or Special.

Description The actual term as it is used in the agreement.

NOTE: Once terms are inserted into the agreement from Term Templates, they may be manually
edited.

Adding Benefits to Agreements

Once the agreement has been created, the account manager creates specific benefits for the
agreement.

To create a benefit for an agreement

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen, and select the agreement.

2 Click the Entitlements view tab.

3 Select an Entitlement or create a new Entitlement.

NOTE: Benefits and conditions are instantiated with entitlements.

4 Click the Benefits view tab.

5 In the Benefits view, you can either add a benefit from existing benefit templates or create a new
benefit.

■ Click the Add Benefits button to add a benefit from an existing benefit template.

NOTE: You can use the Apply Template button to constrain the list of benefits based on the
selected parent entitlement template.

■ Click the New button to create a new benefit and complete the appropriate fields.

The fields available in the Benefits applet are described in “Creating Benefit and Condition
Templates” on page 266.

NOTE: Adding an existing Benefit from a template with Conditions defined will instantiate both
the Benefit and related Conditions.

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Adding Conditions to Benefits

Once the benefit has been created, the sales representative may need to add conditions to the
benefits. You can design many different types of benefits and conditions, such as a rebate when the
customer purchases a certain number of products for each quarter. Until that condition is met, the
customer will not receive the benefit.

To add a condition to a benefit

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen, and select your agreement.

2 Click the Entitlements view tab.

3 Select your Entitlement or add a new Entitlement.

4 Click the Benefits view tab.

5 Select your Benefit or add a new Benefit.

The Conditions list is displayed below the Benefits list.

NOTE: Adding an existing Benefit from a template with Conditions defined will instantiate both
the Benefit and related Conditions. See “Adding Benefits to Agreements” on page 271.

6 Click the New button to create a new condition, and complete the appropriate fields.

NOTE: You may use AND, OR, and other expressions to define the condition.

The fields available in the Condition applet are described in “Creating Benefit and Condition
Templates” on page 266.

Verifying Compliance
Once conditions have been added to the benefits, you can use Siebel Workflow to automatically
evaluate compliance, or you can verify compliance manually. Use the Compliance applet to track
compliance to the conditions over time.

To manually verify compliance

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen, and select your agreement.

2 Click the Entitlements view tab.

3 Click the Benefits view tab.

4 Select the Agreement, Entitlement, Benefit, and Condition being evaluated.

The Compliance applet is displayed next to the Conditions applet.

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5 Click the New button in the Compliance applet to create a new compliance record and complete
the fields.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Verified The date that compliance was verified. This field is automatically
populated with the current date when you insert a new record.

Verified By The username of the person verifying compliance. This field is

automatically populated with the username of the person creating
the record. You can use the pick applet to locate a different name.

Actual The actual value used to evaluate the condition; for example, the
number of items ordered this quarter (3002), the value compared to
the Target amount.

Achieved A Yes or No field indicating if the condition has been achieved.

Comments Additional comments you may want to add.

There are additional fields in the Compliance applet. They are described in Table 58.

Table 58. Additional Fields in the Compliance Applet

Field Comments

Start Date Used to track the start of the period over which the condition has been
evaluated.

End Date Used to track the end date of the period over which the condition has
been evaluated.

About Workflows for Advanced

Contracts
You can create workflows to suit your business model using Siebel Business Process Designer. For
more information, see Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide.

Siebel workflows are especially helpful in automating the following agreement-related business
processes:

■ Routing an agreement for approval.

■ Evaluating agreement conditions in real time, for example, when an order is invoiced, and at
scheduled intervals, for example, at the end of quarter.

■ Delivering contract benefits if appropriate, for example, create invoice for a rebate or place an
order for a give-away.

■ Tracking condition compliance.

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■ Automating agreement renewal.

About Business Services for Advanced

Contracts
To support automation of business processes related to the agreements, there are three new
business services:

■ Contracts Accumulator Service on page 274

■ Contracts Resolver Service on page 275

■ Condition Evaluator Service on page 278

Contracts Accumulator Service

This business service can be used in workflows to manage incrementing or decrementing an
allowance pool.

Manage Running Total Method

Table 59 details the input arguments for the Manage Running Total method.

Table 59. Input Arguments for Manage Running Total Method

Input Argument Name Description

Input 1 Count Method Indicates whether the counter is incrementing or

decrementing.

Possible values are Increment or Decrement.

Input 2 Current Amount Indicates the current value of the counter before the
benefit amount is applied for this transaction.

Input 3 Valid Transaction Represents the amount of benefit to be applied and

Amount reflected in the running total. This may be calculated by
the Contracts Resolver Service; see “Contracts Resolver
Service” on page 275.

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Table 60 details the output arguments for the Manage Running Total method.

Table 60. Output Arguments for Manage Running Total Method

Output Argument Name Description

Output 1 Adjusted Current Amount The updated running total, adjusted by

Accumulator to reflect the amount of benefit
applied (Valid Transaction Amount)

Figure 13 illustrates the Accumulator business service flow.

Figure 13. Accumlator Business Service Flow

Contracts Resolver Service

This business service can be used in workflows to resolve issues associated with managing an
allowance or pool when the amount to be decremented is larger than the remaining allowance or
pool.

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Resolve Transaction Amount Method

Table 61 details the input arguments for the Resolve Transaction Amount method.

Table 61. Input Arguments for Resolve Transaction Amount Method

Input Argument Name Description

Input 1 Current Amount Indicates the current value of the counter

before the benefit amount is applied for this
transaction.

Input 2 Requested Transaction The amount of the transaction to be

Amount considered for the benefit. This value can be
calculated by a user-defined Business Service
or Workflow.

Example: For a Benefit of 2% credit on all

invoices, the actual dollar amount calculated
by taking 2% of the total invoices is the
Requested Transaction Amount.

Input 3 Amount This argument represents the amount of the

benefit or the threshold for the condition. For
example, if you wanted to use the business
service to manage a benefit, you set this input
equal to the Benefit Amount field. If you want
to use this business service to manage a
condition, you set this input equal to the
Condition Target Amount field.

Input 4 Count Method Indicates whether the counter is incrementing

or decrementing.

Possible values are Increment or Decrement.

Table 62 details the output arguments for the Resolve Transaction Amount method.

Table 62. Output Arguments for Resolve Transaction Amount Method

Output Argument Name Description

Output 1 Valid Transaction Amount Resolver determines what portion of the

requested benefit (Requested Transaction
Amount) can be applied (Valid Transaction
Amount).

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Table 62. Output Arguments for Resolve Transaction Amount Method

Output Argument Name Description

Output 2 Remaining Transaction Resolver determines what portion of the

Amount requested benefit (Requested Transaction
Amount) cannot be applied (Remaining
Transaction Amount).

Output 3 Exhausted Flag Indicates whether the amount of the benefit

or the terms of the condition have been
exhausted.

You can use this setting to update the Status

in either the Benefit or the Condition.

Figure 14 illustrates the Resolver business service flow.

Figure 14. Resolver Business Service Flow

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Condition Evaluator Service

This business service can be used in workflows to compare two values in order to determine if a
condition has been met.

Evaluate Condition Method

Table 63 details the input arguments for the Evaluate Condition method.

Table 63. Input Arguments for Evaluate Condition Method

Input Argument Name Description

Input 1 Current Amount Indicates the value used to evaluate if the condition
has been met.

Input 2 Operator The operator used for the calculation. Possible values
are:

=
>
<
<=
>=
BETWEEN (< and >)
BETWEEN (<= and >=)

Input 3 Target Amount This is the value to which the Current Amount is
compared.

May specify minimum and maximum bounds separated

by a colon (Min:Max) for BETWEEN operator. This may
be used to compare to the Benefit Amount, the
Condition Amount, or the Target Amount.

Table 63 details the output arguments for the Evaluate Condition method.

Table 64. Output Arguments for Evaluate Condition Method

Output Argument Name Description

Output 1 Compliance Flag Indicates whether Condition has been met.

This business service compares the Current Amount to the Target Amount using the specified
operator and sets the compliance flag.

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About Configuring the Revise Button

When a user clicks the Revise button for an agreement:

■ The agreement is revised, deep copied, and its version is incremented.

■ Fields in the original agreement become read-only, according to the Read Only Upon Revise user
property. See Table 65.

The read-only field behavior of the Revise button in the Agreements screen can be configured by
editing the Read Only Upon Revise user property.

Table 65. How Read Only Upon Revise Determines Read-Only Behavior after Revision

Read Only
Upon Revise = Field Behavior of Original Agreement Record after Revise is Clicked

All All fields are read-only

Partial All fields except End Date, Valid, and Status are read-only

None No fields are read-only

For information about editing user properties, see Configuring Siebel Business Applications.

NOTE: Do not edit the Read Only Upon Revise Field user property.

About Configuring the Add Benefits

Button
You can configure the Add Benefits button so that the available benefit templates are constrained by
the parent entitlement record. This button is located in Agreements > Entitlements > Benefits. If you
configure the Add Benefits button, only templates associated with the parent entitlement record will
be displayed in the Benefit Template Popup Applet.

If you do not configure this button, the Benefit Template Popup Applet will display all available benefit
templates instead of constraining the list to those associated with the parent entitlement template.

Set the following options to activate this user property:

■ Name: Apply Template

■ Value: Y

About Configuring the Entitle Button

The Entitle button is located in the Line Items view for Agreements. When you add a line item, you
click the Entitle button to automatically associate entitlements with the line item based on the
entitlement template associated with the product. See Chapter 7, “Agreements” for more information
on the Entitle button.

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You can edit the user property for the Entitle button so that it associates entitlements as well as the
benefits and conditions associated with the Entitlement.

There are three possible values for the Method Invoked when the user clicks the Entitle button:

Value Description

GetEntitlements This associates the Entitlement with the line item.

GetBenefits This associates the Benefits and Conditions with the line item.

AutoEntitle This associates both the Entitlement and its child Benefits and Conditions
with the Line Item.

Using the Task UI Application to Add

Assets to Agreements
Siebel Field Service includes the Assets to Agreement task to streamline the process of associating
assets to a contract. This is a common task for salespeople who sell service contracts that cover
existing assets. This repeatable task navigates through screens and views where you can enter
multiple records in a way that is easier and faster than manually navigating through individual
screens. For information on using the Task UI, see Siebel Fundamentals. For details on customizing,
activating, and assigning access privileges for tasks, see Siebel Business Process Framework: Task
UI Guide.

Scenario for Adding Assets to Agreements with the Task

UI Application
A contract manager for a printer manufacturing company is in communication with a customer for a
new support contract to cover 250 printer assets. The customer is concerned about the ongoing
maintenance and repair of their printers, the responsiveness of service calls, and how quickly field
repairs can be carried out. Not only does the customer require a high availability for their printers,
but also a competitive price. While the contract manager understands that he wants to deliver a high
quality service contract for the company to make sure the printers are kept working, he also needs
to deliver a profitable service for his own company. Using the Assets to Contracts Task, he creates a
service package, adds several printers to it, quotes a price for the contract, and creates a charge
plan and promotional price discount for the first six months. Finally, he submits the contract for
approval before printing it.

Activating and Registering Tasks for Adding Assets to

Agreements
■ To use the Assets to Agreements task in the Task UI application, you must activate and assign
access privileges for the following tasks: FS Asset To Contract Task

■ FS Cover Asset SubTask

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■ FS Submit Agreement SubTask

For information about activating and assigning access privileges for tasks, see Siebel Business
Process Framework: Task UI Guide.

Example of Using the Task UI Application to Add Assets

to Agreements
The following example lists the steps that an end user performs to execute the Assets to Agreements
task.

To execute an Assets to Agreement task

1 Navigate to Assets > List.

2 Click the Task button.

3 In the Task UI pane, click Assets to Agreement.

4 In the Review Address and Details screen, review and adjust any necessary fields.

5 In the Identify Agreement screen, choose to create a new agreement.

6 In the Agreement Details screen, complete or verify the information for the agreement. Click
Next.

7 Select a service package to add to the agreement.

8 Verify or change the service agreement details.

9 Choose whether to add or remove assets to the service package:

■ If yes, click Next to add or remove assets to be covered under the service package.

■ If no, click Next to continue in the task.

10 Choose whether to add a charge plan to the agreement:

■ If yes, click Next to enter charge plan details.
■ If no, click Next to continue in the task.

11 In the Service Package Summary screen, review the details of the package.
12 In the Add Service Package screen, choose from the following options:
■ Create new line item

■ Use an existing line item

■ Continue

13 In the Add Agreement Terms screen, add a new record and query for the desired term.

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14 In the Submit Agreement for Approval screen, choose to submit the agreement for approval or
to continue.

If you submit an agreement for approval, verify the information on the Agreement Approval
History screen.

15 In the Generate Agreement Document screen, click Submit.

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9 Charges and Invoices

This chapter describes how to set up and generate charges and invoices for service requests,
activities, and agreements. Topics include:

■ Charges and Invoices Overview on page 283

■ About Cost, Price, and Rate Lists on page 284

■ Invoice Logic on page 285

■ Process of Setting Up Charging on page 288

■ Creating Charges on page 294

■ Recording Billable Expenses on page 295

■ Processes for Setting Up Invoicing on page 296

■ Creating Invoices on page 298

■ Post-Generation Invoice Tasks on page 300

■ Workflows for Charges and Invoices on page 301

■ Charges and Invoices Screens on page 308

Charges and Invoices Overview

In Siebel Field Service, you can manually or automatically create charges and invoices for service
requests, activities, and agreements. A charge is an expense line item. An invoice is a bill that
consolidates a group of charges incurred, or to be incurred, during a specific time period. The ability
to create charges allows consolidation of all the charges for an individual account into one single
invoice. An invoice can then be sent to each account.

Charges need to be generated before an invoice can be generated automatically, but not before an
invoice can be generated manually. The parameters for consolidating charges into invoices are
defined using a charge consolidation plan. Once the charge consolidation plan is defined, invoices
can be automatically generated based on the charge consolidation plan. Invoices can also be
manually generated.

Invoices for activities can include charges for parts, labor, and expenses. Invoices for service
requests incorporate orders, plus the charges for all of the activities related to those particular
service requests. Only records that have the Billable flag set are added to the invoice automatically.

Pro forma invoices can be printed onsite for customers and sent to an accounting system to track
accounts receivable and revenue. An invoice can also be marked as delinquent, then tracked by the
Workflow Manager, which can send automatic reminders to customers or employees.

Each invoice can include these line items:

■ Time and materials

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■ Miscellaneous expenses and tax

■ Nonrecurring charges

■ Recurring charges

■ Use charges

■ Project charges

■ Credits or other adjustments

Siebel Invoices can be integrated with third-party software to manage taxation for entire invoices or
for invoice line items. Without tax integration, Siebel Invoices prepares pro forma invoices,
statements of work, or quick reports to customers. The collection of applicable charges and activities
is also an efficient way to pass this information to a financial system.

Related Topics
■ Agreements Overview on page 201

■ Entitlements Overview on page 218

About Cost, Price, and Rate Lists

Cost, price, and rate lists must be set up for charges and invoices to be created correctly. Each list
type is described in the following sections. For more information about cost lists, price lists, and rate
lists, see Siebel Pricing Administration Guide.

Cost Lists
Field Service contains a costing infrastructure that allows users to track the costs as they are
performed, and then export these costs to financial systems for posting to the general ledger.
Previously, service organizations could only estimate the costs of performing service. Now they can
associate costs of service calls at the time the service is performed.

In Field Service, price lists play an important part in charging and invoicing. The price list provides
information to the Charge Engine on the price of parts and materials used in the activity associated
with a service request. The price may be adjusted based on a service package.

Most companies have product cost information in their financial systems. Incorporating this
information into Field Service has the following advantages:

■ Costs can be associated with service requests and activities at the time they are performed.

■ Costs can be associated with orders for analysis of profitability.

■ Cost lists can have time limits, so that they provide an accurate record of costs at the time they
occurred.

■ Service inventory can be created at any time.

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Price Lists
Price lists link cost lists to service requests, orders, and activities. For example, one cost list, North
American Costs, describes the costs of products and resources in North America. When a field
engineer chooses a price list for a service request, the associated cost list is automatically linked to
the service request.

Rate Lists
Rate lists show the billable rate for a company’s employees. When creating a rate list, there are two
main tasks that must be performed:

1 Create and release a new product with the resource name you require, for example, Field
Engineer. Make sure the Project Resource flag is selected. Then, add the resource to your rate
list with the corresponding rate.

2 Create a new position for the resource product you created and associate the position with the
billing product. You can then enter the users to be billed at the newly created rate.

TIP: The service calendar is used to calculate regular, overtime, and extended overtime
charges. To set up schedule hours for employees, use the Administration - Service screen >
Schedules > Schedule Hours view. You can then associate the appropriate service calendar with
an entitlement using the Agreements > List > Entitlements > Entitlement Details view. See
“Defining Schedule Hours” on page 107 and “To associate a service calendar with an entitlement”
on page 238 for more information.

NOTE: The entitlement schedule will take precedence over the schedule set at the employee level.

Invoice Logic
This section describes the business logic for generating invoices for service requests, activities, and
agreements. See “FS Generate Conditional Charge Process Business Service” on page 555 for more
information on the business service used to consolidate charges for invoice generation.

Logic for Service Requests

The charge consolidation business service uses the following process logic for service requests:

1 For a selected service request, find all records with the Billable flag set.

2 Find the rate and price lists for the items described in these records.

3 Calculate the price for each item.

4 If an entitlement covers the service request:

a Find the price and rate lists associated with the entitlement.

b If the Activity Override flag is set, recalculate the billable cost for the items using the price and
rate lists for the entitlement instead of the lists for the activity and the entitlement service price
details for the activity types covered.

5 If there is no entitlement, go to the next billable item.

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6 If there are no more billable items, create an invoice.

Logic for Activities

The charge consolidation business service uses the following process logic for activities:

1 For a selected activity, find all expense, time, and part records with the Billable Flag set.

2 Find the rate and price list for the activity.

3 Calculate the price for each record.

4 Create an invoice.

Logic for Agreements

To automate the consolidation of agreement charges into invoices, the FS - All Charge Consolidation
and FS - Charge Consolidation workflow processes invoke the FS Charge Consolidation business
service methods. The following logic is used to:

1 Generate a list of the charge consolidation plans.

2 For the first charge consolidation plan, if the Next Invoice Date is before today, proceed.

3 Search for charges based on the consolidation rules.

4 Consolidate the charges, and create and generate the invoice.

5 Set the Last Invoice Date to today and get the new Next Invoice Date.

6 Check for additional charge consolidation plans to process.

7 If there is another plan, repeat Step 1 through Step 6.

The charge consolidation business service can generate periodic invoices that include these types
of charges:

■ NRC. Installment payments for one-time (nonrecurring) charges; for example, a one-time fee
for service billed in one or more installments.

■ RC. Payment of periodic (recurring) charges; for example, a monthly service charge.

■ Usage. Payments based on the use of an asset; for example, the number of copies produced on
a color copier each month.

■ Adjustments. Credits or charges for the selected period.

NOTE: To increase flexibility, invoicing for agreements is implemented as a business service. See
“FS Agreement Charge Business Service” on page 548 for more information on this business service.

Logic for NRC Line Items

The charge consolidation business service uses the following logic to process NRC line items:

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1 If there is a previous charge, find the NRC Charged amount. If the nonrecurring amount is
greater than or equal to the NRC charged amount plus the next amount to be invoiced, proceed.

2 If this is the first charge and if the NRC amount for the line item is greater than zero, proceed.

3 Calculate the NRC amount for the next charge, using the NRC plan, if selected.

4 Create an NRC line item on the charge.

Logic for RC Line Items

The charge consolidation business service uses the following process logic for recurring cost line
items:

1 If the recurring charge on the invoice is greater than zero, proceed.

2 Calculate the RC amount.

3 Create an RC line item.

Logic for Usage Line Items

To generate charges from usage line items, you must first define the asset on which the usage is
measured. You specify this asset in the Usage Asset # field in the Agreements screen, Line Items
view, Line Detail subview. For accurate billing, the charge schedule must match the measurement
frequency of the asset.

If you want to charge on estimated usage, you must define certain fields in the product measurement
record of the asset's product. See “Setting Up Use Plans” on page 289 for more information.

The charge consolidation business service uses the following logic for usage line items:

1 If there was a previous charge for this agreement line item’s use plan, find the reading on the
last charge.

2 If this is the first charge for the use plan, find the reading closest to the Use Start date.

3 Find the reading closest to the current date or the Advance Invoice date.

4 If there is no new reading since the last charge or the Use Start date, and if the Estimate check
box is selected (on the Administration - Service screen > Use Plans view), use the calculated
average use defined in the Usage field (Assets screen > Measurements view) as the estimated
reading.

5 If a reading is found, verify these values on the reading:

■ Is the Complete check box selected?

■ Is the Counter Type (defined in the Administration - Product screen > Service Information >
Measurements view) set to Incremental or Absolute?

6 If the conditions in Step 5 are satisfied, calculate the usage.

Logic for Adjustment Line Items

The charge consolidation business service uses the following process logic for adjustment line items:

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1 For the charge period and agreement, if any value exists in the Adjustment field, add a new line
item of this amount to the Charges subview.

2 Create an adjustment line item on the Charges subview.

3 Clear the Adjustment and the Adjustment Reason fields.

Process of Setting Up Charging

The following list shows the procedures that administrators typically perform to set up charging using
Siebel Field Service. Your company may follow a different process according to its business
requirements.

Administrator Procedures
To set up the data required to generate charges automatically, perform the following procedures, in
the following order:

1 Setting Up NRC Plans on page 288

2 Setting Up Use Plans on page 289

3 Setting Up Conditional Charge Plans on page 293

4 Defining Contract Schedules on page 294

5 Defining Charge Plans for Agreement Line Items on page 229

Setting Up NRC Plans

Nonrecurring (NRC) plans are used to define installment plans for payment of one-time charges. A
good example is a service package, which may have an initial payment to start the service, followed
by twelve monthly charges. These charges are billed on the first of the month. Field Service enables
a service organization to define this type of charge plan and create invoices for the monthly billing
charges.

See “Defining Charge Plans for Agreement Line Items” on page 229 for more information on how NRC
plans are associated with agreement line items.

To create nonrecurring charge (NRC) plans

1 Navigate to the Administration - Contracts screen > Non-Recurring Plans view.

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2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Active Select this check box to display this NRC plan as an option in the Agreements
screen > Line Items > Charge Plan view.

Commit Select this check box to convert this record and child records to read-only
status.

Selecting this check box also makes the Plan Details view read-only.

NOTE: To use an NRC plan, it must be active and committed.

You must now add plan detail information to show the division of charges into installments, the
percentage of the nonrecurring charge to bill at each schedule interval (monthly, quarterly, or
annually) and any additional fee to add to each installment (as a percentage, a fixed amount, or
both).

3 Click the Plan Details view tab.

Each record in the Plan Details view describes the amount to charge for each payment.

4 Create a new record for each installment and complete the fields as appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Number This is the installment number (for example, if 4 is entered, that line describes
details about the fourth installment of the nonrecurring charge.)

NRC % Percentage of the NRC total amount to charge on that installment.

Additional % Any additional percentage amount to charge on that installment, such as an
interest charge.

Additional Any additional fixed fee to charge on the installment, such as a service fee.
Charge

Setting Up Use Plans

Use plans can be defined to create usage-based charges for equipment. For example, a usage charge
could be based on the number of photos printed from one of the printers sold by the company.

To set up use plans and their corresponding charges, you must first create a product and asset with
associated measurements. The setup process includes creating a serialized product, creating a
measurement type for the product, and creating a service product. A service product can be defined
as a product sold as a service, which can be sold independently, packaged, or combined with the
physical product.

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When the asset is created with the correct measurement, measurement information can either be
entered manually (for example, a gas company employee reading a gas meter) or automatically,
using some type of electronic feed.

Upper and lower limits for readings may indicate threshold or trigger values for an asset. For
example, exceeding an upper limit could trigger a preventive maintenance action.

See “Defining Charge Plans for Agreement Line Items” on page 229 for more information on how use
plans are associated with agreement line items.

To add measurements to a service product

1 Navigate to the Administration - Product screen > List view.

2 Create or select a service product record.

See “Defining Service-Based Pricing” on page 204 for more information on how to create a service
product.

3 Click the Service Information view tab.

4 On the link bar, click Measurements.

5 Measurements associated with a product are not automatically associated with assets of the
product.

6 Create a new record, and complete the fields as appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Type The type of measurement—for example, Depth, Wear, and so on.

Name The name for the measurement.

Method The manner in which the measurement is collected. For example, the
measurement could be collected manually or remotely.

Location The location of the product.

Frequency The schedule for obtaining readings of the specified measurement, chosen
from a list.

Units The units in which the measurement is kept.

Use Plan Bill Method of accumulating data from readings:

Method
■ Incremental. Counter increments continuously with each reading (10,
20, 30, 40, and so on).

■ Absolute. Counter is reset after each reading (10, 10, 10, 10, and so on).

Maximum The largest possible value for the measurement device.

Minimum The smallest possible value for the measurement device.

Upper Limit The upper control limit for readings. This is less than or equal to the Maximum.

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Field Comments

Lower Limit The lower control limit for readings. This is greater than or equal to the
Minimum.

Expected Numeric value for the expected use, which is used to bill for usage if readings
Usage of usage are unavailable and if the Estimate check box on the Administration
- Contracts screen > Use Plans view is selected.

Use Basis Time period, in days, over which the expected use is to occur. This value must
(Days) match the value in the Frequency field.

NOTE: A read-only version of the Measurements view is available in the Products screen.

To add measurements to a service product asset

■ See “Defining Asset Measurements” on page 476 and “Associating Measurements with Assets” on
page 479 for more information.

To create use plans

1 Navigate to the Administration - Contracts screen > Use Plans view.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Estimate Allows for an estimate of use if the readings do not cover the specified billing
period. If selected, the information in the Expected Usage and Use Basis
(Days) fields is used. If cleared and incomplete data is found for this billing
period, this period is not billed.

3 Click the Plan Details view tab.

4 In the Plan Details view, create a new record, and complete the fields as appropriate.

The usage charge is based on asset readings or estimates for this product.

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5 Scroll down to the Pricing list, create a new record, and complete the fields as appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

From Lowest value of a measurement for this pricing record.

Rollback Provides discounted pricing for higher usage. Selecting Rollback on a specific
tier causes the record’s price to override the prices for all lower tiers. A
Rollback flag set for the tier labeled Over 1,000 would result in all miles billed
at the rate of $0.40 per mile, if the usage reaches this tier during the specified
time period. For more information, see “Adding Use Plan Pricing Information” on
page 292.

Units Provides the following selections:

■ Per Count. Charges the amount specified in the Amount field for each unit
of measure; for example, $0.50 per mile.

■ Total. Charges the amount specified in the Amount field for the total
measurement interval (From and To fields); for example, $15 for 0 to 100
miles (100 miles total).

6 Repeat Step 4 and Step 5 for each product included in the use plan.

7 Return to the Plan Detail view and select the Commit check box.

All records should now be read-only. Selecting this check box also makes the Pricing view’s fields
read-only.

Adding Use Plan Pricing Information

The Pricing list on the Administration - Contracts screen > Use Plans > Plan Details view defines the
price structure of each product in the selected use plan. Enter a record for each range of
measurement. The Pricing subview allows tiered pricing. See Table 66 for some examples.

Table 66. Example of Tiered Pricing Based on Amount

Measurement Range Price

0-100 $0.25

101-500 $0.30

501-1,000 $0.35

Over 1,000 $0.40

NOTE: To set up aggregate rather than tiered pricing, choose Absolute for the Use Plan Bill Method
field. This setting supplies a cumulative reading, starting from the beginning of the plan.

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Setting Up Conditional Charge Plans

Field Service supports terminations of a contract, specifically, the charges involved in such an event
like the return of products, overflow, and so on. These types of charges (typically covered by a
termination or prorated plan) are handled using conditional charge plans in Field Service.

See “Defining Conditional Charge Plans for Agreement Line Items” on page 231 for more information
on associating conditional charge plans with agreement line items. See “FS Generate Conditional
Charge Process Business Service” on page 555 for more information on the business service used with
conditional charges.

To create a conditional charge plan

1 Navigate to the Administration - Contracts screen > Conditional Charge Plan view.

2 Create a new record and complete the necessary fields.

Use a meaningful name for the conditional charge plan—for example, Termination Plan.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Name The name of the conditional charge plan.

Schedule Select a schedule for the conditional charge plan. See “Defining Contract
Schedules” on page 294 for more information on creating these schedules.

Commit Flag Converts this record to read-only status.

3 Scroll down to the lower Conditional Charge Plan list.

4 Create a new record for each charge installment and complete the necessary fields.

For example, create 12 different installments of 8.33% for each month of a 12-month agreement.
If the customer cancels or changes the agreement before this 12-month period has expired, they
must pay 8.33% of the total penalty charge each month until the year is up.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Sequence # Number to indicate the order in which the charge installments are applied. For
example, you may wish to charge more the earlier a customer cancels or
changes an agreement.

Percentage Percentage amount to charge on that installment.

Additional % Any additional percentage amount to charge on that installment, such as an

interest charge.

Additional Any additional fixed fee to charge on the installment, such as a service fee.
Charge

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Defining Contract Schedules

You can automatically generate charges according to a fixed schedule by defining one or more
contract schedules. Then, when defining a charge plan for an agreement line item, you can select
the schedule you want. On a particular day, on a recurring schedule, an invoice is created from the
consolidation of charges. For example, you can schedule charges for a product to be generated on
the last day of each month or every Sunday.

To define contract schedules

1 Navigate to the Administration - Contracts screen > Contract Schedule view.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Comments

Repeat Type This field determines how often an event occurs:

■ Daily. For example, every 30 days.

■ Monthly By Day. For example, the 5th of the month every 6 months.

■ Monthly By Week. For example, the 3rd Wednesday every 7 months.

■ Weekly. For example, every Monday and Wednesday every 2 weeks.

Released Flag When selected, the schedule is available for use.

Creating Charges
No setup is required to create charges manually. This topic contains the following related procedures
for creating charges:

■ To manually create a charge on page 294

■ To manually create a charge for an agreement line item on page 294

■ To automatically generate charges for a service request on page 295

■ To automatically generate a charge for an activity on page 295

■ To automatically generate a charge for an agreement line item on page 295

To manually create a charge

1 Navigate to the Charges screen.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To manually create a charge for an agreement line item

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

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2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement and click the Line Items view tab.

3 Select a product and click the Charges subview tab.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To automatically generate charges for a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Requests List view.

2 Drill down on the SR# field for a selected service request and click the Charges view tab.

3 Click the Auto Charge button.

To automatically generate a charge for an activity

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.

2 Drill down on the Type field for a selected activity and click the Charges view tab.

3 Click the Auto Charge button.

To automatically generate a charge for an agreement line item

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement and click the Line Items view tab.

3 Select a line item and click the Charges subview tab.

4 In the Line Items view, click the Charge button.

Recording Billable Expenses

This topic contains the following related procedures for recording billable expenses:

■ To record billable activities for a service request on page 295

■ To record billable orders for a service request on page 296

■ To record billable expenses for an activity on page 296

■ To record billable time for an activity on page 296

■ To record billable part movements for an activity on page 296

To record billable activities for a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Drill down on the SR# field for a selected service request and click the Activities view tab.

3 Select an activity or create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

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To record billable orders for a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request and click the Orders view tab.

3 Select an order or create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To record billable expenses for an activity

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.

2 Drill down on the Type field for a selected activity and click the Expense Tracker view tab.

3 Select an expense or create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To record billable time for an activity

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.

2 Drill down on the Type field for a selected activity and click the Time Tracker view tab.

3 Select a time record or create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To record billable part movements for an activity

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.

2 Drill down on the Type field for a selected activity and click the Part Tracker view tab.

3 Select a part movement record or create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Processes for Setting Up Invoicing

There are three ways to create an invoice:

■ Create an invoice manually. Create a new invoice by entering expenses and other invoice
information directly on the Invoices screen. See “Creating Invoices” on page 298 for more
information.

■ Generate an invoice using Auto-Invoice. Generate a new invoice for a service request or
activity record.

■ Generate a customized invoice. Generate a new invoice based on predefined rules for how
and when charges are consolidated into an invoice.

Administrator Procedures
No setup is required to create an invoice manually. Setup processes to generate invoices using Auto-
Invoice and to generate customized invoices are as follows:

■ Process for Setting Up Auto-Invoice on page 297

■ Process for Setting Up Customized Invoices on page 297

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Process for Setting Up Auto-Invoice

You can use the Auto-Invoice feature to quickly generate invoices for service requests and activities.

To set up Auto-Invoice
1 Specify a price list for all of the product items determined as billable for an activity. The products
must be listed as line items in the selected price list (Pricing screen > Price Lists view > Price
List Line Items subview).

2 Ensure that there is a rate list line item for each type of resource (also known as a billing product;
for example, a field engineer) used for an activity. The activities rate list is specified in the
Activities screen > More Info view. In the Pricing screen > Rate List view > Rate List Line Items
subview, the resource, rates, and markups are defined.

3 Ensure that the rate types (in the Type field) are identified for billable expenses and labor
(Activities screen > Expense Tracker view and Time Tracker view).

4 Ensure that each user has a position that is associated with a billing product (Administration -
Group screen > Positions view, Billing Product field).

5 Ensure that Activities have price and rate lists defined, and that Orders have a price list defined.
Auto-invoicing uses these lists to determine the total amount billed to a customer.

Process for Setting Up Customized Invoices

You can create customized invoices by creating a charge consolidation plan that searches for and
consolidates charges based on predefined criteria, such as account and currency. For the automatic
generation of customized invoices, perform the following setup tasks:

1 “Process for Setting Up Auto-Invoice” on page 297

2 “Creating Charge Consolidation Plans” on page 297

Creating Charge Consolidation Plans

To consolidate charges onto one single invoice, use a charge consolidation plan. A charge
consolidation plan consolidates all charges for a given charge schedule into a single invoice. These
plans can be used to define what charges are included on an invoice and the invoiced period. Ideally,
when a service package has a charge plan associated with it, a monthly invoice would be issued for
the recurring and nonrecurring charges.

To define what charges are to be included on an invoice for the invoice period the following should
be defined:

■ A schedule that determines when consolidation occurs

■ Rules that determine what charges appear on invoices

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In order to use the charge consolidation plan, you need to activate the FS - Charge Consolidation
workflow. For information about activating workflows, see the Siebel Business Process Framework:
Workflow Guide.

To define a charge consolidation schedule

1 Navigate to the Administration - Contracts screen > Charge Consolidation Plans view.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

For more information, see “Charge Consolidation Plans View” on page 310.

To define charge consolidation rules

1 Navigate to the Administration - Contracts screen > Charge Consolidation Plans view.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

3 Click the Consolidation Rule view tab.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

For more information, see “Charge Consolidation Plans View” on page 310.

Related Topics
■ Invoice Logic on page 285

■ FS Generate Conditional Charge Process Business Service on page 555

Creating Invoices
This section describes the three ways to create invoices:

■ Creating Invoices Manually on page 298

■ Generating Invoices Using Auto-Invoice on page 299

■ Consolidating Charges to Create Invoices on page 300

Creating Invoices Manually

Follow these procedures to create invoices manually.

To create an invoice manually

1 Navigate to the Invoices screen.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

3 Drill down on the Invoice # field for the selected invoice and click the Line Items view tab.

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4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

CAUTION: If the amounts recorded for the activity and order do not match the amounts
recorded for the invoice line item, then associating manually entered line items with activities or
orders could cause data quality issues.

5 Click the Line Item Details view tab.

6 In the Details subview, create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To manually create an invoice for an agreement line item

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field of the selected agreement and click the Line Items view tab.

3 Select a product and click the Invoices subview tab.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Generating Invoices Using Auto-Invoice

Follow these procedures to generate invoices using the Auto-Invoice feature.

To automatically generate an invoice for a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Drill down on the SR # field for a selected service request and click the Invoices view tab.

3 Click the Auto Invoice button.

To automatically generate an invoice for an activity

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List view.

2 Drill down on the Type field for the selected activity and click the Invoices view tab.
3 Click the Auto Invoice button.

About the Auto Invoice Command

The charge consolidation business service requires the following information to generate an invoice
automatically:

■ Billable flags. Only records that have Billable flags set are included in the invoice.

■ Price list. The price list must be specified.

■ Product prices. In the Administration - Pricing screen > Price Lists view > Price List Line Items
subview, billable products must belong to the selected price list.

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■ Rate list. The rate list for field service activities must be specified in the Activities screen > More
Info view.

■ Activity prices. In the Administration - Pricing screen > Rate Lists view > Rate List Line Items
subview, the position that performs billable service activities, known as the resource, must be
related to the selected rate list.

■ Positions. In the Administration - Group screen > Positions view, the Billing Product field for the
person (known as the Resource on the rate list) providing service must be specified. This position
applies to the employee who is associated with the billable service recorded in the time tracker
for the activity and does not apply to the owner of the activity.

■ Rate types. In the Activities screen > Expense Tracker view and in the Activities screen > Time
Tracker view, the rate types (Rate field) must be identified for billable expenses and labor.

NOTE: The Rate field is not displayed by default. You must right-click the mouse to display the
Columns Displayed command and select the Rate field.

Consolidating Charges to Create Invoices

Follow these procedures to generate customized invoices.

To automatically generate customized invoices

1 Navigate to the Administration - Contracts screen > Charge Consolidation Plans.

2 Select a charge consolidation plan. In the More Info view, click the Execute Now button.

To generate customized invoices using a repeating component job

1 Navigate to the Administration - Server Management screen > Jobs view.
2 Add a Job record.

3 In the Component/Job field, select Workflow Process Manager.

4 Enter the desired Repeat Interval and Repeat Unit in the Job Details view.

5 Scroll down to the Job Parameters list and create a new parameter record.

6 In the Name field, select Workflow Process Name and in the Value field, enter FS - Charge
Consolidation.

7 Click the Start button in the Job view.

Post-Generation Invoice Tasks

This section describes tasks that can be performed after an invoice is generated.

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To print an invoice
1 Navigate to the Invoices screen.

2 Select an invoice record.

3 Select Reports > Customer Invoice. In the Siebel Report Viewer window, click the Print button.

To associate a payment with an invoice

1 Navigate to the Invoices screen.

2 Drill down on the Invoice # field for a selected invoice and click the Payments view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To cancel an invoice
1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Name field for a selected agreement and click the Line Items view tab.

3 Select a line item and click the Invoices subview tab.

4 Change the Status of the invoice to Cancelled.

Workflows for Charges and Invoices

This section explains the Siebel workflows used for charges and invoices. Workflows automate the
business processes associated with charges and invoices.

You can modify these workflows to suit your own business model using Siebel Business Process
Designer. For more information, see Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide.

TIP: The Field Service Invoice Engine Service was deactivated in Field Service version 7.7.
Workflows which reference the Invoice Engine should be updated to reflect this change. For more
information on the new business services, see “Invoices” on page 579.

In this section, the workflows are grouped in subsections that correspond to the business processes
that they automate. Each subsection describes a workflow process.

This topic includes the following related subtopics:

■ Workflow to Create Agreement Charges on page 302

■ Workflow to Generate All Agreement Charges on page 303

■ Workflow to Create Conditional Charges on page 304

■ Workflow to Consolidate Charges on page 304

■ Workflow to Batch Consolidate Charges on page 306

■ Running Charges After Charge Consolidation Has Been Performed on page 307

■ Improving Workflow Performance and Scalability on page 307

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Workflow to Create Agreement Charges

This workflow automates the process of creating agreement charges. The workflow is called FS -
Generate Agreement Charge. Figure 15 illustrates this workflow.

Figure 15. FS - Generate Agreement Charge

The workflow is a parent process that sequentially runs the following child workflows when the
Charge button is clicked:

1 FS - Generate NRC Charge. This child workflow generates NRC charges for an agreement line
item. The input date for this process should be in the local time format, which the process
converts to ODBC format (YY-MM-DD). Once the NRC charge is generated, the process also
updates the NRC last-charged date on the charge plan. This means updating the NRC Last
Charged Date field on the FS Agreement Item business component.

2 FS - Generate RC Charge. This child workflow generates RC charges for an agreement line
item. The workflow retrieves and converts the asset readings to charge amounts. The input date
for this process should be in the local time format, which the process converts to the ODBC
format (YY-MM-DD). Once the RC charge is generated, the process also updates the RC last-
charged date on the charge plan. This means updating the RC Last Charged Date field on the FS
Agreement Item business component.

3 FS - Generate Usage Charge. This child workflow generates charges for an agreement line item
based on asset usage. The workflow retrieves and converts the asset readings to charge
amounts. The input date for this process should be in the local time format, which the process
converts to ODBC format (YY-MM-DD). Once the Usage charge is generated the process also
updates the usage last-charged date on the charge plan. This means updating the Usage Last
Charged Date on the FS Agreement Item business component.

4 FS - Generate Adjustment Charge. This child workflow generates adjustment charges for an
agreement line item.

These child workflows process all the items in the charge plan, including recurring charges,
nonrecurring charges, usage plan charges, and adjustments.

NOTE: The user interface steps shown in Figure 15 simply redirect the user to the Agreements
screen > List > Line Items > Charges view. See “Workflow to Generate All Agreement Charges” on
page 303 for more information on running the workflow as a batch process, without these steps.

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Workflow to Generate All Agreement Charges

This FS - Generate All Agreement Charges workflow automates the process of generating charges
from all agreement line items. This workflow can be run as a batch process. Figure 16 illustrates this
workflow.

Figure 16. FS - Generate All Agreement Charges

This workflow calls a subprocess named FS - Generate Agreement Charge wo Goto Charges View.
The FS - Generate Agreement Charge wo Goto Charges View workflow is the same as the FS -
Generate Agreement Charge workflow, except that the final two user interface steps are removed so
that the workflow can run as a batch process. Figure 17 illustrates the FS - Generate Agreement
Charge wo Goto Charges View workflow.

Figure 17. FS - Generate Agreement Charge wo Goto Charges View

NOTE: It is recommended that you run the charge process on the same repeating schedule as the
contract schedule created for the charge plans.

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To run all the charges for agreement line items using a repeating component job
1 Navigate to the Administration - Server Management screen > Jobs view.

2 In the Jobs list, create a new Job record.

3 In the Component/Job field, select Workflow Process Manager.

4 Enter the desired Repeat Interval and Repeat Unit in the Job Detail view.

For example, a Repeat Unit of Month and a Repeat Interval of 1 would run the renewal process
on a monthly basis.

5 Scroll down to the Job Parameters list and create a new parameter record.

6 In the Name field, select Workflow Process Name, and in the Value field, enter FS - Generate All
Agreement Charges.

7 Click the Start button in the Jobs list.

Setting the Advance To Date in the Workflow

The workflow retrieves the Advance To date from the FS Agreement Item business component's
Object Id, which is passed into the workflow. The Advance To field on the business component is a
calculated field that will default to Today(). Typically, this is not a problem, as most administrators
run the job using the job scheduler.

However, if you want to set a different Advance To date, you can change the business component’s
calculated field or alternatively, edit the input parameters for the workflow so that the Advance To
date is changed when calling the business services.

Workflow to Create Conditional Charges

The FS - Generate Conditional Charge Process workflow generates conditional charges, on the basis
of the rules defined in the conditional charge plan. Figure 18 illustrates this workflow.

Figure 18. FS - Generate Conditional Charge Process

Related Topic
“FS Generate Conditional Charge Process Business Service” on page 555

Workflow to Consolidate Charges

This workflow consolidates the charges in the Charge table based on a set of rules that are defined
in the consolidation plans. Figure 19 illustrates this workflow. The process follows these steps:

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1 The process creates a search specification for the FS Charge business component based on the
consolidation rules.

2 After the targeted charges have been found, they are consolidated into one or more invoices. By
default, only a single invoice is created. However, if the Bill To Account Flag is set for the
consolidation plan, then one or more invoices are generated for each bill-to account for the
charges. In addition, the charges are consolidated based on a schedule. At the end of each
invoice run, the Next Invoice Date is stamped on the invoice based on the schedule and the last
invoice date.

NOTE: By default, the first invoice run on a consolidation sets the last invoice date to the start
date of the consolidation plan.

3 The process brings the user to the Invoices Screen, which displays only those records that were
just created.

Figure 19. FS - Charge Consolidation

Related Topic
“FS Generate Conditional Charge Process Business Service” on page 555

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Workflow to Batch Consolidate Charges

The FS - All Charge Consolidation workflow can be used to consolidate charges on a batch basis.
Figure 20 illustrates this workflow.

Figure 20. FS - All Charge Consolidation

The process follows these steps:

1 The first step, GenerateConsolidationPlanList, generates a list of consolidation plans that the
subsequent subprocesses process. The list is generated from the FS Invoice Consolidation Plan
business component where the Release Flag field is set to Y and the Next Invoice Date is less
than or equal to today's date.

2 The second step, GetNextPlan, retrieves the first consolidation plan from the list. Once it is
retrieved, it then passes the Consolidation Plan Id to the subprocess Set Next Consolidation Date.
This in turn calls the FS - Charge Consolidation wo Goto Invoice View workflow.

In this subprocess, all the user interface steps are removed because the workflow is expected to
be run as a batch process with little or no intervention on the part of the end user. The first step
of this subprocess retrieves the consolidation rule from the consolidation plan with the correct
Plan Id.

CAUTION: In the repository, the FS - Charge Consolidation wo Goto Invoice View workflow’s
business object property is set to FS Invoice Consolidation. Clear this business object property,
redeploy the workflow, and test it. There may be performance implications if this object property
is left as is.

3 The third step, ProcessOnePlan, actually runs the consolidate plan. The process then updates the
Next Invoice Date field on the FS Invoice Consolidation Plan business component. This is done
so that the charge consolidation workflow can determine when it should next run the plan.

NOTE: It is recommended that you run the charge consolidation process on the same repeating
schedule as the contract schedule created for the charge plans.

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To run charge consolidation using a repeating component job

1 Set up the charge consolidation plans with the correct consolidation rule.

2 Set the correct start and end dates.

3 Set up a repeating component job as follows:

a Enter Workflow Process Manager as the component.

b For the job parameters, enter Workflow Process Name with FS - All Charge Consolidation as the
value.
c Enter the appropriate repeat interval and number of repetitions information to run the process
daily, weekly, or monthly.

See “Workflow to Generate All Agreement Charges” on page 303 for a detailed example of how
to set up a repeating component job.

NOTE: FS - Generate All Agreement Charges and FS - All Charge Consolidation can be run in
parallel to improve performance. See “Improving Workflow Performance and Scalability” on
page 307 for more information.

Running Charges After Charge Consolidation Has Been

Performed
Once the charge consolidation plan has been run, and the corresponding invoice created, you may
need to rerun the charge consolidation because of errors and so on. It is not sufficient to just rerun
the charge consolidation plan. The original charges, created from the charge consolidation, must be
canceled.

To cancel charges after charge consolidation has been performed

1 Using Siebel Tools, expose the FS Charge business component’s Consolidate Flag on the FS
Charge Form Applet.

2 Compile and replace the Siebel Repository File (.srf).

3 Restart the client.

4 In the client application, clear the Consolidate Flag in the Charge screen.

5 Change the charge item's status to Pending.

6 On the Charge Consolidation Plan, reset the Next Invoice Date to the previous schedule date.

Improving Workflow Performance and Scalability

The performance of the workflows depends on many variables—for example, the complexity of the
RC, NRC, and Usage Plans, the number of line items per agreement, the number of charges being
consolidated, and so on. However, you can improve the performance of the workflows and the Charge
Engine in the following ways:

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■ For the FS - Generate Agreement Charge workflow, remove the steps for some of the charge
steps. For example, if you are only running charges for agreements based on NRC and RC, you
can remove the usage plan sub process.

■ Switch off logging.

■ Run the processes in parallel. You can run the workflows on different machines or on a multiple
processor machine. The performance of the workflows will show a linear performance
improvement, based on the number of processes running.

■ Run the search spec of a consolidation rule on an indexed field.

■ Make sure that the consolidation rules are not too complex.

Charges and Invoices Screens

This section describes views, subviews, and fields on the following screens used to complete tasks
related to charges and invoices.

Service Screen
The charge consolidation business service automatically creates invoices based on the information
provided in a service request. The user activates this engine by choosing the Auto Invoice command
in the Invoices view in the Service Requests screen.

The charge consolidation business service searches for any billable orders or activities related to the
service request, applies the designated price and rate lists, then creates a new invoice. Only records
that have billable flags set in the Orders and Activities views are included in the invoice calculation.

The billable flag in the Service Requests form defines the default settings for the billable flags in
associated activities and orders. If the flag is set for a service request, but not for the associated
orders or activities records, the activities or orders are not billed, unless the entitlement overrides
the activity’s billable flag.

A user may select an entitlement by clicking Verify in the Service Requests form, More Info view or
by completing the Entitlement field in the Service Details view.

Activities Screen
The Activities screen has four views that are related to invoices.

Time Tracker View

The Time Tracker view lists the labor charges associated with an activity. The Start and Stop buttons
in the Time Tracker view provide convenient recording of time spent on an activity. Table 67
describes items in the Time Tracker view.

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Auto Time Sheet (selected from the application-level Tools menu) produces new records in the
Expense Tracker view. For more information about setting up and using Auto Time Sheet, also known
as Auto Gen, see the chapters on time reporting and expense reporting in Siebel Professional
Services Automation Guide.

Table 67. Selected Items in the Time Tracker View

Item Description

Billable A check box that indicates the charge consolidation business service should include in
an invoice the price of this labor, based on the rate list for the activity, in an invoice for
the associated activity. By default, this flag is set if the Billable flag is set for the activity.

Start Clicking this button creates a new time record and sets the start time and date.

Stop Clicking this button sets the end time for the activity and calculates the elapsed time.

Type Identifies the specific category of time for the selected record. The types displayed are
project records called Work Types. Work Types are defined in the Administration - Data
screen > Work Types view.

Expense Tracker View

The Expense Tracker view records the expenses associated with an activity. Setting the Billable flag
for an expense record makes this information available to the charge consolidation business service.
By default, this flag is set if the Billable flag is set for the activity.

Auto Expense Report (selected from the application-level Tools menu) produces new records in the
Expense Tracker view. For more information about setting up and using Auto Expense Report, also
known as Auto Gen, see the chapter on expense reporting in Siebel Professional Services Automation
Guide.

Part Tracker View

The Part Tracker view records products or assets used in the field for an activity. If the Billable flag
is set in a record, the charge consolidation business service includes this part in an invoice. By
default, this flag is set if the Billable flag is set for the activity.

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Invoices View
The Invoices view displays all invoices associated with an activity. Table 68 describes items in the
Invoices view.

Table 68. Selected Item in the Invoices View

Item Description

Auto Invoice Clicking this button requests that the system look for any billable expenses, time,
or parts related to the an activity, applies the associated price and rate lists, then
generates invoices for the selected activity.

When the charge consolidation business service runs from this view, it does not
consider entitlements for service.

Administration - Contracts Screen

The Administration - Contracts screen provides views for creating charge plans and charge
consolidation plans, and for defining contract schedules.

Charge Consolidation Plans View

The Charge Consolidation Plans view shows existing charge consolidation plans and allows users to
create or modify charge consolidation plans. Table 69 lists some of the fields and their descriptions
for this view.

Table 69. Selected Items in the Charge Consolidation Plans View

Item Description

Advance To Executes the consolidation plan through this date. For

example, you can create invoices on the 10th of the month
that include charges through the 20th of the month by entering
the 20th in the Advance To field.

Currency Code The currency code of the invoice to be created through the
consolidation plan.

Last Invoiced Date When a consolidation plan is released, the Last Invoice Date is
set to the Start Date.

Next Invoice Date The date on the next invoice. When a consolidation plan is
released or an invoice is created, the Next Invoice Date is re-
calculated based on the schedule.

Payment Terms The payment terms for the plan, for example, Net 30 and so
on.

Start and End Date Charges dated after the start date and before the end date are
included on an invoice under the charge consolidation plan.

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Table 69. Selected Items in the Charge Consolidation Plans View

Item Description

Released Flag Select this check box to release the charge consolidation plan
and make it active and available for use.

Use Bill To Account Select this check box to create a new invoice for each unique
bill-to account on the service request or agreement. This is
done instead of invoicing the account address.

Consolidation Rule Subview

Consolidation rules specify which charges are consolidated into an invoice. You can restrict the
charges included to those which meet the specified rule criteria on invoices. The charges can be
consolidated by Account Name, Activity Type, Agreement, Currency code, Organization ID, or Service
Request ID. All the charges derived from either the activities or the recurring and nonrecurring
charges for the agreement are consolidated into one single invoice for presentment. This
consolidation reduces the requirement for presenting multiple invoices to the customer at possibly
different billing addresses over a time period.

Table 70 describes some of the fields in this subview.

Table 70. Fields in the Consolidation Rule Subview

Item Description

Name The name of the consolidation rule. Typically, this name is the same as
the charge field which is used for comparison purposes in the rule. You
can also select SearchSpec from the drop-down list to define a search
specification in the Value field.

Operand The criteria on the field specified in Name. If the rule operand is =, LIKE,
or NOT LIKE, you must enter a value in the Value field.

Sequence Number The sequence number is not important in this process because if the
consolidation rule contains multiple criteria records, the criteria are
treated with the AND relationship.

Value The value to be compared with the field specified in Name. If the rule
operand is =, LIKE, or NOT LIKE, you must enter a value in this field.

Agreements Screen
The Agreements screen provides subviews (under the Line Items view) for contract-based invoicing.

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Line Items View

The Line Items view provides controls and subviews for invoicing agreement line items. Controls are
listed in Table 71.

Table 71. Selected Items in the Line Items View

Item Description

Charge This button triggers the FS - Generate Agreement workflow. See “Workflow to
Create Agreement Charges” on page 302 for more information.

Advance To This field is located in the Line Items menu bar. Charges can be created no later
than the date specified in this field, or until the date specified in the Charge End
field on the Charge Plan Subview, whichever is earlier.

Charge Plan Subview

The Charge Plan subview records the billing details for the selected agreement line item. Table 72
describes items on the Charge Plan subview.

Table 72. Selected Items in the Charge Plan Subview

Item Description

Adjust Charge Positive or negative adjustment to the amount of a charge. The Charge
Engine clears this field after generating a charge.

Commit When selected, activates the Charge button.

Charge Basis Method of charging. Make a choice from the drop-down list:

■ Advance. Advance charges are generated one period in advance.

■ Schedule. Generates the charge according to the Contract Schedule.

Charge End Last possible date to generate a charge.

Non-Recurring Total amount of the nonrecurring charge of which payments will be spread
out per the NRC schedule. The nonrecurring charge can include a service
charge or a discount.

NOTE: If an NRC plan is not specified, the default behavior is to divide the
NRC amount by the NRC Qty and generate the resulting amount each
period.

NRC Plan Predefined NRC billing plan, chosen from a dialog box. If this field is blank,
the NRC amount is divided equally among the total payment installments
shown in NRC Qty.

NRC Qty Number of installments for paying the nonrecurring charge.

NRC Schedule Defines how frequently and when the charges are generated. The NRC
schedule can be different than the invoice schedule.

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Table 72. Selected Items in the Charge Plan Subview

Item Description

NRC Start The start date for nonrecurring charges.

RC Adjust Amount to charge for partial periods as defined in RC Schedule. For

example, if charges are generated monthly, this field defines the dollars per
unit of time that the Charge Engine uses to calculate the RC charge line
item.

RC Adjust U/M The length of time for which the adjustment amount applies.

RC Schedule Defines how frequently and when the charges are generated.

NOTE: If a product measurement record is defined for this line item

(product), the RC Schedule frequency must match the Frequency value in
the Administration - Products screen > Service Information >
Measurements view.

RC Start Recurring charges are only created after this date.

Recurring Amount of a recurring charge.

Use Plan Predefined use plan, chosen from a dialog box that displays only the plans
that apply to the product in the selected line item.

Use Start The start date for usage charges.

Invoices View
The Invoices view displays all invoices associated with an agreement line item and allows
modification of these invoices or creation of additional invoices. Table 73 describes a check box in
this view.

Table 73. Selected Items in the Invoices View

Item Description
Late A check box that is set automatically if the current date is past the due date.

Contacts Screen
The Contacts screen has an Invoices view that displays invoices for the selected contact. A user can
also enter invoice records manually.

Accounts Screen
The Accounts screen has an Invoices view that displays invoices for the selected account. A user can
also enter invoice records manually.

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Invoices Screen
The Invoices screen shows all invoices generated automatically, and allows users to manually enter
invoices and invoice line items, record payments, attach files, and add notes.

Invoices View
The Invoices view shows existing invoices and allows users to create or modify invoices. Table 74
describes items in Invoices records.

Table 74. Selected Items in the Invoices View

Item Description

Late A check box that is set automatically if the current date is past the due date. The
due date is determined by the values of the Invoice Date and the Payment Term
fields in the Invoices view.

Refresh Total This command uses the data in the Payments, Line Items, and Line Items Details
views to update the Total Due field in the Invoices view (More Info).

State A color-coded indicator that represents the status of each invoice, based on the
Status and Late fields.

State Indicators
Each record in the Invoices list has a bar that indicates the status of the invoice. If the invoice is late,
the indicator has the appearance described in Table 75.

Table 75. Invoice Late—Indicator Appearance

Status Color Amount of Fill

Closed Yellow 100%
Cancelled
Written-Off
Submitted

New Red 50%

Draft
In-Process
Consolidated
Paid

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Table 75. Invoice Late—Indicator Appearance

Status Color Amount of Fill

Prepared Red 75%

Partially Paid
Open
Billed

Partially Written-Off Red 100%

On-Hold
Pending
Rejected

If the invoice is not late, the indicator has the appearance described in Table 76.

Table 76. Invoice Not-Late—Indicator Appearance

Status Color Amount of Fill

Closed Gray 100%

Cancelled
Written-Off
Submitted

Partially Written- Green 50%

Off
On-Hold
Pending
Rejected

Prepared Green 75%

Partially Paid
Open
Billed

New Green 100%

Draft
In-Process
Consolidated
Paid

NOTE: A ToolTip is provided for each indicator. Move the cursor over the indicator bar to see its
description.

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Line Items View

The Line Items view shows the billable items for an invoice. Line items can be added manually.
Table 77 describes items in Line Item records.

Table 77. Selected Items in the Invoices Line Items View

Item Description

Order # The order reference number associated with this invoice, supplied by the
charge consolidation business service or chosen from a dialog box. The
charge consolidation business service supplies this number if the invoice
is produced by Auto Gen (see “Expense Tracker View” on page 309).

If an order is associated with a service request and the user activates the
Auto Invoice command for a service request (Service screen, Invoice
view), the order number is entered into the invoice line item.

Activity # The reference number of the activity associated with this invoice, supplied
by the charge consolidation business service or chosen from a dialog box.

Agreement Line Item The ID of an agreement line item associated with this invoice. This ID is
supplied by the charge consolidation business service or chosen from a
dialog box.

Project Role This field contains the project team associated with the current line item.

Line Item Details View

The Line Item Details view provides details of the current invoice line item.

Details Subview
The Details subview provides additional information about the items in the line item of an invoice:
time, expenses, and parts. Table 78 describes items in the Invoice Line Item records.

Table 78. Selected Items in the Details Subview

Item Description

Activity Expense Item # The ID of an expense associated with this invoice line item, supplied by
the charge consolidation business service or chosen from a dialog box.

Activity Time Item # The ID of a record in Time Tracker associated with this invoice line item,
supplied by the charge consolidation business service or chosen from a
dialog box.

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 Charges and Invoices ■ Charges and Invoices Screens

Table 78. Selected Items in the Details Subview

Item Description

Order Line Item ID The ID of an order associated with this invoice, supplied by the charge
consolidation business service or chosen from a dialog box.

Part Movement # The ID number of a part movement related to this invoice line item,
supplied by the charge consolidation business service or chosen from a
dialog box.

Line item details are used by the charge consolidation business service; a manual invoice does not
have to use this data.

Payments View
The Payments view records the payments applied against the invoice. Table 79 describes items in
the Payments records.

Table 79. Selected Items in the Payments View

Item Description

Payment # The ID of the payment associated with this invoice, chosen from the Pick Payment
dialog box. The payment records originate from a back-office application, or the
user can create them in this dialog box (by using the New button).

Reference A reference number that a customer assigns to a payment record.

Invoice Report
The Customer Invoice report, from the Reports menu, prints an invoice for the selected invoice
record.

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Charges and Invoices ■ Charges and Invoices Screens

Figure 21 shows an example of an invoice generated from your Siebel application. The header shows
information that uniquely identifies this invoice, such as Invoice # and Date. A Description line
follows, then Account and Bill To information. The body of the invoice contains a list of line items and
their charges. Below and at the right is the Invoice Amount total.

Figure 21. Customer Invoice Report

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10 Using Third-Party Invoicing
Applications

This chapter describes how to set up the Siebel application to obtain invoice information from your
company’s third-party invoicing system. Topics include:

■ Invoicing Integration Overview on page 319

■ Required Setup Procedures on page 320

■ Optional Setup Procedures on page 320

Invoicing Integration Overview

Siebel invoice integration is designed for companies that rely on back-office billing and accounting
applications to generate invoices for products sold and services rendered. The invoice retrieval
business process assumes that the billable source data (billable time, expenses, and materials) has
been sent from the Siebel application to a billing application for invoice processing.

After generating a final customer invoice, the third-party invoicing application can publish the invoice
data as an XML file. This XML file is then passed to the Siebel application, which updates the Invoice
business object, populates the base tables with the invoice data, and then displays the invoice in the
Invoices views.

This functionality assists Siebel users with answering inquiries from customers about their invoices.
An end user can view a customer invoice in the Siebel application, without needing to access the
third-party invoicing application.

To integrate with an invoicing application, you use the Siebel Invoice business service, of type Data
Synchronization, and the prebuilt Siebel Invoice Application Services Interface (ASI).

For more information about how to configure, use, and modify integrations based on ASIs, see
Application Services Interface Reference.

Invoicing Integration Terms

The following terms are used when referring to invoicing data:

■ Bill. An instance of accumulated charges over a defined period of time for one or more products
or services that a customer has received and for which the customer owes your company.

■ Invoice. A document that displays a balance the customer owes to your company and to other
involved parties, such as third-party shippers and government tax bureaus. Consists of billing
information plus taxes plus incidentals. Contains account balance information and displays
transactions against a balance. Can be associated with one bill or can consolidate multiple bills.

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Using Third-Party Invoicing Applications ■ Required Setup Procedures

Required Setup Procedures

To set up the use of third-party invoicing systems, you must configure the Web service.

Configuring the Web Service

Web services are used to direct the inbound messages from the third-party invoicing application. You
must make sure that the Web services are correctly configured and activated. For more information
about configuring Web Services, see Application Services Interface Reference.

To configure the Web service

1 Navigate to the Administration - Web Services screen > Inbound Web Services view.

2 Make sure that the values of the selected record for the Namespace, Name, and Status fields
match those in the following table.

Namespace Name Status

http://siebel.com/asi/ Siebel Invoice Active

3 In the Comments field, enter the type of protocol used for making the Web Service call, and then
enter the location of the Web server and the user who is authorized to call this Web service.

Optional Setup Procedures

When you configure third-party invoicing systems, you may want to do the following:

■ Extend the data set.

■ Turn off invoicing.

■ Customize invoicing.

Extending the Data Set

The data set can be extended by adding more fields to the relevant integration objects, provided that
the fields are supported by the Siebel data model. For information about how to extend the data that
is received from the third-party inventory management system, see Application Services Interface
Reference.

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 Using Third-Party Invoicing Applications ■ Optional Setup Procedures

Turning Off Invoicing

You may want to turn off the third-party invoicing function if, for example, your company does not
have a third-party billing system. In this case, do not publish the ASI. For information about
publishing ASIs, see Application Services Interface Reference.

Customizing Invoicing
You may want to customize the third-party invoicing function to add special functions or additional
business processes. For information about extending the data that is received from the third-party
invoicing system, see Application Services Interface Reference.

Defining Service Ports

You may want to define service ports different from, or in addition to, the ones provided with your
Siebel application. For information about defining customized service ports, see Application Services
Interface Reference.

Creating Workflow Processes

You may want to define workflow processes to automate certain functions associated with third-party
invoicing. For information about creating workflow processes, see Siebel Business Process
Framework: Workflow Guide.

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11 Fulfillment
This chapter describes the process flows for orders supported by the Siebel Order Entry module and
the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines (components of the Field Service Logistics Manager). Topics
include:

■ Fulfillment Overview on page 323

■ Parameters for the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines on page 328

■ Parameters for the Fulfillment Engine on page 331

■ Setting Up and Configuring Order Fulfillment on page 334

■ Fulfilling Orders on page 335

■ Administration - Product Screen on page 337

■ Administration - Data Screen on page 340

■ Service Order Screen on page 341

Fulfillment Overview
Siebel Field Service provides two methods for filling an order automatically:

■ The Fulfillment Engine automatically locates in inventory the ordered items (or substitutes for
these items), allocates these items, and generates a pick ticket.

■ The Part Locator is a semi-automated version of the Fulfillment Engine. It gives the user control
over fulfillment of individual line items in an order. The user can select the line items and choose
to carry out these automatic procedures for the selected items:

■ Find products or substitutes in inventory.

■ Allocate these items.
■ Generate pick tickets.

Fulfillment Engine
The Fulfillment Engine automatically finds and allocates products for selected service orders, and
produces pick tickets to use for the orders. The engine uses the following information to find a
product:

■ Distances of source inventory locations to the order address.

■ Priority of an order, which can influence fulfillment relationships. For more information, see the
Order Priority field in “Relationships View” on page 371.

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■ Types of inventory locations.

■ Customer’s preferred inventory location. Each account has a default inventory location.

■ Relationships among inventory locations (to determine which location to query next if the product
cannot be found in a location).

■ Product information (for example, available substitutes).

The engine can run from the Field Service user interface, in batch mode using the Repeat Interval,
or by Siebel Business Process Designer. As a batch process, fulfillment can be initiated at regular
intervals (for example, twice a day for pending high-priority orders or once a day for other orders)
or according to conditions (for example, high-priority orders might be fulfilled immediately).

The Fulfillment Engine uses information entered elsewhere in Field Service to decide how to fulfill an
order. For example, it considers account information to select the default source inventory location
if no source inventory location is specified at the order and the order line item level. Where
substitution of products is necessary, the engine uses substitutes specified for a product. If the
product is out of stock at the warehouse of first choice, it reads the fulfillment relationships between
inventory locations to determine from which other warehouse to fulfill the order. For more
information, see “Inventory Relationships” on page 351.

The Fulfillment Engine produces this output:

■ Allocated parts for each order.

■ Pick tickets to be used by picker to pick, pack, and ship each order.

■ Inventory transactions for part allocation.

NOTE: For the Fulfillment or Part Locator Engines to allocate a line item from inventory, the line item
must have a status of On-Hand for Inventory Level.

How the Fulfillment Engine Finds Fulfillment Inventory Locations

When fulfilling an order, the Fulfillment Engine looks for parts in this order:

1 The source inventory location, if any, defined in the Line Details subview. For more information,
see “Line Detail Subview” on page 343.

2 The source inventory location defined in the Fulfillment view. This may be different from the
source location in the Line Details subview. For more information, see “Fulfillment View” on
page 344.

3 The inventory location, if any, defined in the Accounts screen. For more information, see
“Accounts View” on page 48.

4 The server component parameter for DefaultFulfillInvLoc. For more information, see “Parameters
for the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines” on page 328.

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Fulfill Command
The Fulfill command on the Service Order screen finds the order line items, allocates these items,
and generates a pick ticket record for the item. (The Shipping screen > PickTickets view processes
pick ticket records.) The Part Locator carries out each of these tasks separately, controlled by the
Locate, Allocate, and Generate PickTickets commands.

Locate Button
The Locate button on the Service Order screen > Line Items > Part Locator view finds in inventory
the product specified in an order line item. It also finds substitutes if the product is unavailable. For
more information about this function, see “Fulfillment Engine” on page 323.

Allocate Button
The Allocate button on the Service Order screen > Line Items > Part Locator view creates an
inventory transaction of the type Allocate (see Table 91 on page 356) that reserves the product.

Generate PickTickets Command

The Generate PickTickets command on the Service Order screen produces a pick ticket record. The
logic for the command follows:

■ For each line item action of the type Allocate, where the item is not on a pick ticket (the Shipment
number field in the Line Items view, Actions subview is blank), the Generate PickTickets function
tries to create a valid pick ticket (a new row in table S_SHIPMENT). In doing so, it looks at the
source inventory where the allocation is done.

If this inventory is not of the type defined for the InventoryTypeForPT system preference, then
it tries to find a parent inventory for the source inventory with the type defined in the
InventoryTypeForPT system preference (the default for this is Warehouse). If one is found, then
it generates a pick ticket record for this location. For other line item actions that have same
source, the same pick ticket is used. A new pick ticket is generated only when source warehouses
are different.

■ Associates the line item action to that pick ticket by updating the Shipment number field.

Figure 22 on page 327 shows how the Fulfillment Engine works for an order. For each line item to be
fulfilled, it does the following:

1 Sets the source as the default source for the line item or the customer site.

2 Generates a prioritized list of inventory locations based on distance to the order address, order
priority, and warehouse type.

3 If the prioritized list of inventory locations is not empty, populates inventory from the list and
sets the source as the inventory location.

4 Allocates the lesser of the quantity available for this product and the order quantity pending.

5 If the quantity allocated does not equal the quantity pending, reviews possible substitutes for
the product and allocates as appropriate.

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6 If the quantity allocated still does not equal the quantity pending, sets the source as the next
source for this order priority.

7 If there is a next source, repeat Step 2 through Step 6. If there is no next source, starts again
at Step 1.

8 When no line items remain to be fulfilled, generates a pick ticket per selected inventory location.

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 Fulfillment ■ Fulfillment Overview

Figure 22. Logic for Fulfillment Engine

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Fulfillment ■ Parameters for the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines

Part Locator Engine

The Part Locator provides semi-automated fulfillment of line items in an order. The Part Locator
Engine analyzes orders, locates parts for each line item, and returns the located parts (products or
substitute products) to the user. The user can manually allocate these parts and generate the pick
tickets.

For example, a customer service representative (CSR) receives a service request that requires
shipping a product. The CSR creates an order, selects a line item in the order, and clicks Locate from
a line item of the service order. Using the configuration parameters, the Part Locator browses various
inventory locations and proposes sources from which to fulfill the order.

The Locate, Allocate, and Generate PickTickets commands that run the Fulfillment Engine in semi-
automatic mode are available from the Service Order screen. For more information, see “Line Items
View” on page 341 and “Part Locator Subview” on page 343.

The Part Locator follows the fulfillment logic specified in Figure 22 on page 327, and uses the same
parameters for the fulfillment logic.

The Part Locator, unlike the Fulfillment Engine, cannot run asynchronously, which means that when
the Locate button initiates a product search, the Siebel application is unavailable for other
operations.

Parameters for the Fulfillment and Part

Locator Engines
The Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines use the parameters shown in Table 80 on page 329.

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Changing the values of these parameters changes the default behavior of each engine.

NOTE: To activate changes to parameters, restart the Siebel Server.

Table 80. Parameters for the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines

Parameter Default Value Comments

SysPref_DefaultFulfillInvloc SFO Specifies the default inventory location to use as

a source inventory location for the Fulfillment
Engine and Part Locator. This is used as the
Source Inventory Location if the user does not
specify the Source Inventory Location at run
time.

The value must be the Row ID of the service

inventory location. To find this ID, use the
following procedure:

1 In any Service Inventory view, select an

inventory location.

2 From the Help menu, select About Record.

3 In the dialog box, click Details.

SysPref_InventoryTypeForPT Warehouse Specifies the Inventory location type from which

pick tickets are generated. The values should be
from the Inventory location type LOV and
individual values should be any of the LIVs.

SysPref_AllocationRule 1 Specifies the rules for substitution. The possible

values are 1,2,3 where:

1 Always allocate a substitute before going to

the next inventory location.

2 Allocate a substitute only if it allows shipment

from a single inventory location.

3 Never allocate a substitute if the exact

product can be found in another inventory
location.

SysPref_Fulfill- TRUE Specifies whether to search child locations.

SearchAllSublevels Possible values are TRUE and FALSE.

TRUE - Search the specified inventory location

and all its child inventory locations specified by
Sublevel relationships.

FALSE - Search the specified inventory location

and all its fulfillment hierarchy locations, but not
the child inventory locations specified by Sublevel
relationships.

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Table 80. Parameters for the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines

Parameter Default Value Comments

SysPref_OrderTypeToBeFulfill Service Order, Specifies the valid values for Order Type. The
ed Internal Order, values should be from the Order Type LOV and
RMA Advance individual values can be any of the LIVs.
Exchange

SysPref_OrderStatusToBeFulf Open, New, Specifies the valid values for Order Status. The
illed Pending values should be from the Order Status LOV and
individual values can be any of the LIVs.

SysPref_OrderItemStatusToB Open, New, Specifies the valid values for Order Item Status.
eFulfilled Pending The values are from the Order Item Status LOV
and the individual values are LIVs.

Substitution and Allocation Flags

The Fulfillment Engine uses the following inventory-specific attributes in its logic:

■ Auto Allocate. If this flag is set, the Fulfillment Engine can allocate this product.

■ Auto Substitute. If this flag is set, the Fulfillment Engine can allocate substitute parts in lieu of
this product.

■ Allocate Below Safety. If this flag is set, the Fulfillment Engine allocates from available
quantity even if this allocation takes the available stock to below safety level. If the value is No,
then any allocation that can take the level to below safety is not carried out.

Allocation and substitution options are set at three levels in Field Service:

■ Products. For more information, see “Products View” on page 337.

■ Inventory types. For more information, see “Inventory Options Subview” on page 340.

■ Inventory locations. For more information, see “Product Inventory View” on page 370.

At the product level, these attributes are binary values, either Yes or No. But at the inventory
type level or inventory location, they may be Yes, No, or Default. A Yes or No value means
override the value defined at the product level and use this value. A Default value means use the
value defined at the product level.

Conditions for Auto-Substitution

If the Fulfillment Engine is running and any one of the following conditions is met, the Fulfillment
Engine attempts to allocate a substitute from the inventory's sublevel, then from the parent
inventory, and then from the fulfillment center (based on order priority), assuming there are no exact
products at any of these locations.

All of these conditions must be met for substitution to take place automatically during fulfillment:

■ The Inventory Location and Product Level are set to Yes.

■ The Inventory Location is set to Default and Product Inventory Types are set to Yes.

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■ The Inventory Location and the Product Inventory Type are set to Default and the Product is set
to Yes.

■ The Inventory Location, the Product Inventory Type, and the Product are set to Yes.

■ A substitute product for the specified line item exists.

■ AllocationRule = 1. For more information, see “Parameters for the Fulfillment and Part Locator
Engines” on page 328.

NOTE: FS_PROD_ALLOC_RULES can have the values Yes, No, and Default. These values can be
specified in the Administration - Application screen > List of Values view. These values are not related
to the AllocationRule values.

Parameters for the Fulfillment Engine

The Field Service engines have parameters, listed in Table 81, which determine the behavior of each
engine.

Table 81. Parameters for the Fulfillment Engine

Parameter Default Value Comments

SysPref_DefaultFulfillInvLoc SFO Accepts the ROW_ID of the default

inventory location; for example, the
ROW_ID for Warehouse 32.

SysPref_OrderItemStatusToBeFul Open, New, Pending Specifies the valid values for the
filled existing order item status. The values
should be from the Order Item Status
LOV and individual values should be
LIVs.

SysPref_OrderStatusToBeFulfilled Open, New, Pending Specifies the valid values for the
existing order status. The values
should be from the Order Status LOV
and individual values should be LIVs.

SysPref_OrderTypeToBeFulfilled Service Order, Specifies the valid values for the

Internal Order, RMA existing order type. The values should
Advance Exchange be from the Order Type LOV and
individual values should be LIVs.

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Table 81. Parameters for the Fulfillment Engine

Parameter Default Value Comments

SysPref_Fulfill- TRUE Specifies whether to search child

SearchAllSublevels locations. Possible values are TRUE and
FALSE.

TRUE - Search the specified inventory

location and all its child inventory
locations specified by Sublevel
relationships.

FALSE - Search the specified inventory

location and all its fulfillment hierarchy
locations, but not the child inventory
locations specified by Sublevel
relationships.

SysPref_InventoryTypeForPT Warehouse Specifies the Inventory location type

from which pick tickets are generated.
The values should be from the
Inventory location type LOV and
individual values should be any of the
LIVs.

NOTE: To register changes to parameters, restart the Field Service server.

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Setting Parameters for the Fulfillment and Part Locator

Engines
By specifying input parameters to the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines, an administrator can
define the logic for a specific set of orders (using Order Search Specifications), for a single order
(using Order ID), and for a single line item (using Line Item ID). Table 82 contains the parameters
for the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines that are set in the Server Jobs screen for the server
components FSFulfill and FSLocate.

Table 82. Parameters for the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines

Parameter Value Comments

InputMode ORDERSEARCHSPEC Specifies the WHERE clause for the orders and the
engine will fulfill the orders based on the criteria.

ORDERID Specifies the Single Order ID to be fulfilled and the

engine will fulfill the specified Order.

LINEITEMID Specifies the Single Order line item ID to be fulfilled

and the engine will fulfill the specified Order line item.

TEMPTABLE Places all required values into a temporary table with

a particular Client Request ID and passes that ID to
the server to retrieve the parameters from Temp
Table.

ClientReqId ROW_ID for retrieving Required when InputMode = TEMPTABLE.

line items input from
the temporary table

RowId ROW_ID of a single Required when InputMode = ORDERID or

order to fulfill or InputMode = LINEITEMID.
ROW_ID of a single
line item to fulfill

OrderSearchSpec A Where clause Required when InputMode = ORDERSEARCHSPEC.

To set Fulfillment and Part Locator Engine parameters

1 Identify the predefined parameters to determine the defaults for the Fulfillment Engine.

2 Read all the input parameters and identify all the line items from parameters or the Temp Table
based on mode.

3 Fulfill each line item.

a Find the product or substitute product to fulfill the line item.

b Allocate the product.

Generate the inventory transaction for all the products of type Allocate, and generate the
inventory transaction for all the substitute products of types Substitute and Allocate.

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c Generate the pick ticket.

Invoking the Fulfillment Engine

Start the Fulfillment Engine by the following methods:

■ Use the Workflow Manager.

■ Use Siebel component jobs.

■ Invoke the engine for orders by clicking the Fulfill or Fulfill All command after selecting one or
more Order line items.

■ Use the Locate or Locate All command.

Related Topics
■ FS Fulfillment Service Business Service on page 575

■ FS Part Locator Service Business Service on page 576

Setting Up and Configuring Order

Fulfillment
This section includes procedures for setting up order fulfillment.

Setting Up Order Processes

Follow these procedures to define order types.

This procedure makes available from a predefined list the types of orders that appear in order-related
views.

To define order actions

1 Navigate to the Administration - Data screen > Order Actions view.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To define types of orders

1 Navigate to the Administration - Data screen > Order Types view.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

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Setting Up the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines

Follow these procedures to set up the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines.

To set the component job parameters for the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines
1 Insert or edit a component job for one of the following server components:

■ Service Order Fulfillment Engine

■ Service Order Part Locator Engine

2 Add or modify the server component parameters as needed.

For information about server components and component parameters, see Siebel System
Administration Guide.

For information about synchronous and asynchronous processing, see Siebel Application Services
Interface Reference.

CAUTION: In synchronous processing, the client screen can lock. Consequently, the user sees a
blank screen.

To set asynchronous or synchronous operation of the Fulfillment and Part Locator

Engines
1 From the application-level menu, choose Tools > User Preferences.

The User Preferences screen appears.

2 On the link bar, click Service.

The Field Service form appears.

3 In the Asynchronous Fulfillment of section, do one of the following:

■ To set asynchronous operation, select Orders.

■ To set synchronous operation, clear Orders.

Fulfilling Orders
Follow these procedures to fulfill service orders, which includes identifying and reserving items
specified in an order.

To allocate parts for a service or internal order manually

1 Navigate to the Service Order screen > List > view.

2 Drill down on a selected order record.

3 Click the Line Items view tab, and then select the line item to allocate.

4 On the link bar, click Actions.

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5 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

NOTE: If the Logistics Manager and its Fulfillment Engine are installed, the Fulfillment Engine
automatically specifies Allocate actions.

To generate a pick ticket for an order

1 Navigate to the Service Order screen > List view.

2 Drill down on a selected order and click the More Info tab.

3 Click the menu button and choose Generate Pick Tickets.

To locate order line items

1 Navigate to the Service Order screen List view.

2 Drill down on a selected order and click the Line Items tab.

3 Select a line item, scroll down and click the Part Locator tab.

4 In the Line Items list, click one of the following buttons:

■ Locate - Searches for the product through inventory locations, and then loads the list of
available and substitute parts in the Part Locator subview.

■ Locate All - Finds inventory locations for all line items.

NOTE: Before clicking either of these buttons, make sure that the Service Product flag on
the Administration - Product screen > More Info view is cleared. If this flag is not cleared,
the Parts Locator engine will not find any products.

To allocate order line items using the Part Locator

1 Follow the procedure “To locate order line items” on page 336.

2 In the Part Locator view, select a product/inventory location record in the Available Substitute
subview or the Line Allocation subview.

3 In the Qty field, enter the number of items to allocate. If no quantity is specified, the total
available quantity is allocated.

4 If the selected record is in the Available Substitute list, click the appropriate button:

■ Allocate All. Allocates available parts automatically, starting with the first listed inventory
location, up to the value in the Qty field.

■ Allocate. Allocates the selected line item from a selected product/inventory location record.

To fulfill orders using the Fulfillment Engine

1 Navigate to the Service Order screen > List view.

2 Select an order and from the menu drop-down list, choose Fulfill.

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To fulfill order line items

1 Navigate to the Service Order screen > List view.

2 Drill down on a selected order and click the Line Items view tab.

3 Select an order line item, and then do one of the following:

■ From the menu drop-down list, choose Fulfill to fulfill the selected order line item.

■ Click Fulfill All to fulfill all order line items.

To de-allocate order line items

1 Navigate to the Service Order screen.

2 Drill down on a selected order, and click the Line Items view tab.

3 Select an order line item.

4 On the link bar, click Actions.

5 Select the action item (of type Allocate) to de-allocate. Then from the menu drop-down list,
choose De-Allocate.

Administration - Product Screen

The Administration - Product screen includes a view for configuring inventory locations, allocation,
and cycle counting for products. For more information, see Siebel Product Administration Guide.

Products View
The Products view records basic information about each product; for example, product name, part
number, and revision. Table 83 on page 337 describes items in Product records.

Table 83. Selected Items in the Products View

Item Description

Allocate Below Safety A check box that indicates the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines can
allocate this product when its level in inventory is below the safety level,
which is set in the “Product Inventory View” on page 370.

Auto Allocate A check box that indicates the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines can
allocate this product. If this box is not selected, the engines do not
allocate this product.

Auto Substitute A check box that indicates the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines can
allocate a substitute for this product.

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Table 83. Selected Items in the Products View

Item Description

Equivalent Product The Fulfillment Engine uses this information if the specified product is
unavailable. This setting is the same as the specified substitutes. For
more information, see “Substitute Products Subview” on page 340.

Field Replaceable A check box that indicates this item may be replaced at the customer
site. This is informational and has no effect on other fields or functions.

Orderable A check box that indicates the product may be obtained by ordering from
any specified source. If the product is not orderable, it does not appear
in the Pick Product dialog box, which presents choices for the Product
field in the Service Order screen > List > Line Items view.

Return if Defective A check box that indicates this item, if defective, should be returned to
the service center. This is informational only.

Serialized A check box that indicates this product and all of its assets are serialized.
Serialized products are treated in a different way. Whenever a serialized
product is shipped or received, Field Service expects the right number
of assets with serial numbers.

Service Product A check box that indicates this product is used for service and may have
special pricing. See Siebel Pricing Administration Guide for information
on pricing administration and Siebel Product Administration Guide for
information on product administration.

When selected, prevents the Part Locator Engine from allocating parts
for the product. To allow the Part Locator Engine to allocate parts for the
product, clear this check box.

Tool A check box that indicates this item is a tool used in service procedures.
This is informational only.

Product Service Details View

The Product Service Details view provides the information used in locating and allocating products
for use in field service activities.

NOTE: To navigate to the Product Service Details view, use the link bar on the More Info tab.

This view has two subviews, Inventory Options and Substitute Products. For more information, see
“Inventory Options Subview” on page 340 and “Substitute Products Subview” on page 340.

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Table 84 describes items in Product Service Details records.

Table 84. Selected Items in the Product Service Details View

Item Description

Allocate Below A check box that indicates the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines can allocate
Safety this part when its level in inventory is below the safety level. For more
information, see “Product Inventory View” on page 370. This check box also
appears in the Products view. For more information, see “Products View” on
page 337.

Auto Allocate A check box that indicates the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines can allocate
this part. If this box is not selected, the engines do not allocate this product.
This check box also appears in the Products view. For more information, see
“Products View” on page 337.

Field Replaceable A check box that indicates this item may be replaced at the customer site. This
is informational and has no effect on other fields or functions.

Lead Time The vendor’s response time in minutes.

MTBF Mean time between failures; a measure of dependability of the product.

MTTR Mean time to repair; a measure of the time required to repair the product.

Return Defective A check box that indicates this item, if defective, should be returned to the
service center. This is informational only.

Revision The current version of the product, which is copied to new asset records.

Serialized A check box that indicates this product is serialized. Serialized products are
treated in a different way. Whenever a serialized product is shipped or
received, the application expects the right number of assets with serial
numbers.

Ship carrier The default carrier for the selected product; for example, UPS or FedEx.
Ship Via The default mode of transportation; for example, Air, Ground, or Sea.
Status The status of a product (for example, production, obsolete, or prototype),
which is copied to new asset records.

Tool A check box that indicates this item is a tool used in service procedures. This
is informational and has no effect on other fields or functions.

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Inventory Options Subview

The Inventory Options subview sets the inventory locations for a product and determines how the
Fulfillment Engine allocates a product from inventory or chooses a substitute when filling an order.
It also sets the cycle counting default parameters for each product in inventory. For more
information, see Chapter 15, “Cycle Counting and Replenishment.” Table 85 describes items in
Inventory Options records.

Table 85. Selected Items in the Inventory Options Subview

Item Description

Auto Allocate When this field is set to Yes, the Fulfillment Engine can automatically
allocate a product from this location. When set to Default, the engine uses
the Auto Allocate setting for the product at all inventory locations, which is
set in the Product view. This setting does not affect replenishment.

Allocate Below Safety When this field is set to Yes, the Fulfillment Engine can automatically
allocate a product from this location when the quantity falls below the safe
level. When set to Default, the engine uses the Allocate Below Safety
setting for the product at all inventory locations, set in the Product view.
This setting does not affect replenishment.

Auto Substitute When this field is set to Yes, the Fulfillment Engine can automatically
substitute a product. When set to Default, the engine uses the Allocate
Below Safety setting for the product at all inventory locations, set in the
Product view. This setting does not affect replenishment.

Substitute Products Subview

The Substitute Products subview specifies the products that the Fulfillment Engine may use to fill an
order when the specified product is unavailable from inventory. The user chooses from products that
are specified in the Products view.For more information, see “Products View” on page 337. The
Fulfillment Engine can choose this product if the Auto Substitute flag is selected.

NOTE: Substitutions are unidirectional. Product A may substitute for product B, but B cannot
substitute for A unless that substitution is explicitly defined.

Administration - Data Screen

The Administration - Data screen has two fulfillment-related views for configuring orders: Order
Actions and Order Types.

Actions process orders. These actions indicate that the product has been reserved for a line item
(Allocate action), it has been substituted by another product (Substitute action), it has been shipped
(Ship action), and so on.

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Order types define the classes of orders that Field Service processes; for example, Internal Order,
Service Order, RMA Return, and so on. Each Order Type has associated Order Action Types; for
example, a Purchase Order typically has a Receive Order Action Type.

NOTE: New order types and order action types can be added through these views. However, the
processing that must occur when users select these new actions and action types must be
customized.

Order Actions View

The Order Actions view defines the actions that may be associated with an order type. An
administrator chooses action types from a drop-down list. The choices available in this menu are set
in the Administration - Data screen > List of Values view.

CAUTION: Never delete order types or order action types, as their ROW_IDs provide values for
tables elsewhere in Orders. To change or replace an order type or an order action type, modify the
List of Values and then update (do not delete and re-enter) the Type entry.

Order Types View

The Order Types view defines the types of orders that are available. The administrator chooses order
types from a drop-down list. The choices available in this menu are set in the Administration - Data
screen > List of Values view.

The Type Code field determines whether an order is a sales or service order.

Service Order Screen

The Service Order screen includes views that relate to fulfillment of orders.

Line Items View

The Line Items view records all items included in an order. Table 86 describes items in Line Item
records.

Table 86. Selected Items in the Line Items View

Item Description

Customize Clicking this button invokes Siebel Configurator for products categorized
as customizable. For more information, see Siebel Product Administration
Guide.

Fulfill Use this command to create an inventory transaction that allocates parts from
inventory and creates pick tickets for the selected line item.

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Table 86. Selected Items in the Line Items View

Item Description

Fulfill All Clicking this button creates an inventory transaction that allocates parts from
inventory and creates pick tickets for all the line items in a selected order.

Locate/Locate All These buttons appear in the view only when the Part Locator subview tab is
selected. For more information, see “Part Locator Subview” on page 343.

Reprice This command activates the Pricing Engine to calculate the price for the
selected line item based on the associated price list and pricing procedure.

Reprice All This button activates the Pricing Engine to calculate the price for all line items
based on the associated price list and pricing procedure.

Qty The quantity of the item in an order. This must be an integer.

NOTE: You can change the unit of measure for your product, so that you get
an integer number of units. For example, you can add a value definition for
Milliliter to LOV Type UNIT_OF_MEASURE, and then use this unit of measure
for liquid products.

Verify This button causes the FS - Verify Entitlement Order workflow to cycle through
all entitlements for the selected line item and pick the best priced entitlement.
The best priced entitlement appears in the Entitlement Name field.

Configuration Note
Because of the special behavior of the Line Items business component (based on special class
CSSBCLineItem), a Line Item record can be updated only if its parent Order record is exposed
(present and active) in the Service Order screen.

Totals Subview
The Totals subview provides a breakdown of products and services sold in terms of the price for a
selected line item, a discount, and a price adjustment. The result is the total for the selected line
item before adding tax and shipping.

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Line Detail Subview

The Line Detail subview contains more information about a selected order line item, including details
specific to service products, shipping and billing information, and pricing. Table 87 describes items
in Line Detail records.

Table 87. Selected Item in the Line Detail Subview

Item Description

Billable When selected, indicates that this order line item is billable to the customer.
The engine adds this item to the invoice. Can be selected regardless of the
order’s type or status.

Loaner When selected, indicates that a line item is on loan.

Ship Complete When cleared, this check box indicates that a service center may ship only
some of the line items, as needed. This is for information only.

Related Activity Associates parts and tools, selected from the Pick Related Activity dialog box.

Warranty Recovery When selected, indicates that a warranty credit is being requested for this
line item.

Qty Shipped Updated with the sum of the line item action Quantity for records of type
Ship, where the line item action Status is Complete.

Attributes Subview
If the selected product is customizable with attributes, users can use the Attributes view to select
specific attributes or to view the default attributes. For information about customizable products, see
Siebel Product Administration Guide.

Activity Plans Subview

The Activity Plans subview associates activity templates with order line items. The activities that
belong to this plan appear in Activities subview. For more information, see “Activity Plans View” on
page 56.

Part Locator Subview

The Part Locator subview finds the product to allocate to a line item in an order. The Locate buttons
that appear in the Line Items view activate the Part Locator Engine to determine the inventory
locations for line items.

After the products have been located, the Allocate command (in the menu drop-down list in the Part
Locator view) reserves products for the order and the Generate PickTickets button (in the Service
Order view) creates pick ticket records for the allocated line items.

The Part Locator view has these subviews:

■ Available/Substitute. This subview lists the inventory locations at which the selected line item
or a substitute for the selected line item is available.

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■ Line Allocation. This subview lists the quantities of the selected line item that are allocated to
each inventory location.

Actions Subview
The Actions subview records all transactions created for the selected line item (for example, Allocate,
De-Allocate, Ship, and Receive). The Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines automatically create
Allocate transactions. The shipping process can automatically create De-Allocate transactions. For
more information, see “Process Shipment Button” on page 376.

This subview also records manual transactions for selected line items. The De-Allocate command in
the menu drop-down list creates a transaction of the type De-allocate.

For each line item action recorded, the values available in the Type field’s picklist vary according to
the transactions that have occurred previously. For example, the picklist does not offer the choice
De-Allocate if no Allocate action has been performed previously on the line item.

Warranty Subview
The Warranty subview shows the warranties associated with a product. Pre-existing warranties can
also be associated with the selected line item. For more information about warranties, see
Chapter 18, “Warranties.”

Repair Subview
The Repairs view shows the repair numbers associated with a line item. Repair # is the same as
Defective Tag. This view is read-only.

Fulfillment View
The Fulfillment view has an Auto Receive flag that applies to Internal Orders. Selecting this flag
automatically generates line items receipt and processes their receipt for the field engineer trunk
inventory location when Process Shipment is done at the source inventory location. If the order is an
Internal Order and the destination inventory location type is Trunk, then the flag is selected by
default.

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12 Service Inventory
This chapter describes how a field service business sets up and maintains a service inventory. Topics
include:

■ Service Inventory Overview on page 345

■ Setting Up Service Inventory on page 361

■ Tracking Inventory on page 364

■ Creating Inventory Transactions on page 365

■ Scrapping Inventory on page 366

■ Administration - Service Screen on page 366

■ Administration - Product Screen on page 368

■ Inventory Screen on page 368

■ Part Browser Screen on page 372

■ Inventory Transactions Screen on page 372

■ Activities Screen on page 373

■ Inventory Reports on page 374

Service Inventory Overview

Service businesses use the Service Inventory module to manage parts throughout their life cycles
and to monitor parts consumption during order fulfillment and field engineer activities. Service
Inventory also allows mobile field engineers to manage their trunk inventories using a disconnected
client.

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Figure 23 on page 346 shows the flow of goods through a service inventory. At the center of the flow
is the service parts life cycle, a closed-loop process. The service parts life cycle consists of the
following stages: receiving (good), order placement, picking and shipping, in-transit, customer,
receive, test and sort, repair, restock to good, back again to receiving (good), and so on. Incoming
goods from the manufacturer arrive at the receiving (good) stage. Goods go out to field engineers
during the in-transit and receive stages. Through the field engineers, these goods go to customer
sites through an in-transit stage for on-site repairs or replacements. Goods also leave the service
parts life cycle during the repair stage, where the goods may be tested, repaired, scrapped, recycled
or replaced by the outsource vendor.

Figure 23. Flow of Goods in Service Inventory

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A materials manager can automate all of these tasks using the Fulfillment or Part Locator Engines.
The Replenishment Engine automates the production of orders to restock inventory locations. For
more information, see Chapter 15, “Cycle Counting and Replenishment”.

Inventory Structure
A primary objective of Service Inventory is to record the organization of inventory.

Figure 24 on page 348 shows an example of an inventory structure, which is hierarchical. At the top
level is US Inventory. At the next level, the structure is divided into California Field Service
Engineers, Dallas (warehouse), Boston Repair Center (warehouse), and Field Offices.

California Field Service Engineers is divided into Fred Roberts’ trunk and Chris Smith’s trunk. Fred
Roberts’ trunk has product inventory levels classified as On-Hand and Reserved. Dallas (warehouse)
is divided into Aisle A, Aisle B, and Aisle C. Aisle A has Shelf 1 and Shelf 2. Shelf 1 is divided into
Bin A and Bin B. Bin B has product inventory levels for Disk Drives and CD-ROM drives. Boston Repair
Center (warehouse) is also divided into Aisle A and Aisle B. Field Offices are divided into Boston, Los
Angeles, and San Francisco (warehouse).

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Figure 24. Sample of a Service Inventory Structure

Inventory Locations
Inventory locations consolidate and manage all records pertaining to service inventory. For more
information, see “Inventory Locations View” on page 369. An inventory location can be a field
engineer’s trunk, a warehouse, or a portion of a warehouse, such as a shelf or an aisle. An inventory
level, which specifies availability and status of an item, may be added to any location in an inventory
structure.

NOTE: Inventory levels were called product buckets in previous releases of Siebel Field Service.

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Building an inventory requires answers to the following questions:

■ Which inventory locations does Service Inventory track, and which are tracked by other means,
such as an external back-office inventory system?

■ How many hierarchical levels are appropriate for each inventory location?

Different types of inventory locations can be defined. The following locations are basic to Service
Inventory:

■ Warehouse. Default inventory location where the inventory fulfillment and replenishment
relationships are defined. Also, pick tickets are generated at this level. All other inventory
locations may be defined as subcategories of the warehouse.

■ Trunk. Mobile inventory that is assigned to a field service engineer. Each engineer has one trunk
inventory.

■ Field Office. May supply several field service engineers. It is intermediate between a warehouse
and a trunk inventory.

■ Virtual. A logical, rather than a physical, inventory location. One virtual inventory location
named External is essential for proper functioning of inventory transactions. The External
location is part of the seed data, with the ROW_ID value, VIRTUAL_INVLOC. This location allows
an inventory system to receive items from the outside: a virtual inventory location is the source,
while the destination is one of the physical inventory locations (for example, a shelf).

Figure 25 shows the sequence of tasks for setting up a service inventory. The steps are as follows:

1 Create inventory locations and inventory types.

2 Define relationships between inventory locations.

3 Define inventory transactions.

4 Define inventory levels.

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5 Configure cycle counting.

Figure 25. Setting Up a Service Inventory

Trunk Inventory
Managing a trunk inventory location requires recording part movements on the field service
engineer’s laptop computer. Field service engineers periodically connect their laptop computers to a
Siebel server and synchronize data.

To maximize performance during synchronization to and from the field service engineer’s local
database, docking rules control the number and context of the records that are extracted, initialized,
and synchronized. Because of these rules, an engineer may not have visibility to asset records
required to commit a field part movement involving a serialized product. To solve this problem, the
Field Service application allows the engineer to add in asset numbers. After synchronization, an
administrator reconciles the add-in asset number with the corresponding database record, and the
administrator commits the transaction. After the administrator commits the transaction, the field
service engineer must synchronize again to update the local database.

After the field service engineer has synchronized the laptop in the field, an administrator can use the
Parts Movement Administration view. For more information about reviewing and committing
transactions, see “Parts Movement Administration View” on page 366.

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Inventory Relationships
An inventory location is linked to other locations by relationships that define physical spaces,
replenishment sources, fulfillment sources, and cycle counting lists. An inventory structure consists
of a network of relationships.

Siebel Field Service can implement an inventory structure in several ways:

■ Create one inventory location (for example, a warehouse), maintain the products at this location
(in inventory levels), and then attach the physical location to the inventory level.

■ Assign locator numbers to logically divide an inventory location. Locators have values like
A1S3B7, meaning Aisle1, Shelf3, and Bin7. A locator number does not imply an inventory type
(for example, a bin). The locator numbers should be used, along with the locator order, to
optimize shipping and cycle counting.

■ Define each aisle, shelf, and bin as a separate inventory location. Only bin-level inventory has
products; typically only one or two products reside in each bin. The inventory name can reflect
the combination of location and product. These different inventory locations can be linked to each
other with the relationship type Sub-level, which indicates, for example, that Aisle1 is a sublevel
inventory location of Warehouse.

While considering fulfillment, generating cycle counting lists, or running the Replenishment Engine
at the warehouse level, all inventories below the Warehouse level (and connected using sublevels)
are automatically considered.

To improve performance (for example, to avoid traversing a tree every time it is necessary to find
all sublevels of inventory for a warehouse), Field Service uses a denormalized table. This table stores
every child, direct child, or grandchild (to any number of levels deep) of a parent inventory. If an
inventory hierarchy is defined as follows:

■ Inventory A is a parent of Inventories B, C, and D

■ Inventory B is a parent of inventories E and F

Then Table 88 summarizes the entries in the denormalized table.

Table 88. S_INVLOC_ROLLUP

Parent Invloc Invloc

A B

A C

A D

A E

A F

B E

B F

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Inventory locations may also be related through replenishment. However, replenishment

relationships should be defined for inventory locations of type Warehouse only. For example,
configuring the replenishment relationship, Oakland field office replenishes trunk, may result in the
trunk inventory being overstocked if the trunk location is already a sublevel of a parent inventory.

NOTE: Fulfillment and replenishment relationships between inventory locations should be set at the
warehouse level, and not at lower levels; for example, aisles, bins, or shelves. When using
relationships, the Fulfillment, Replenishment, and Part Locator Engines automatically search for
parts at lower levels by using sublevel relationships.

Tracking an Inventory Location

There are two methods for tracking a part’s physical location in an inventory:

■ If inventory locations are defined down to the shelf or bin level, attach the inventory level to a
bin or shelf, whose fixed location identifies the part.

■ Enter a description of the part’s inventory location in the Locator fields of the Product Inventory
view. This view provides three Locator fields to allow for multiple possible locations; for example,
a part called Defective 1 GB HD might be found first in the northeast corner of the San Francisco
field office, second on shelf A in the supplies room, and third on shelf B in the supplies room.

Inventory Levels
Inventory levels are categories of products defined by a combination of availability and status.
Both availability and status can have a variety of values. Availability values are Customer Owned, In
Transit, On Hand, On Order, and Reserved. Status values are Good and Defective.

Table 89 shows some examples of inventory levels for one product.

Table 89. Sample Product Inventory Levels

Availability Status

On Order Good

On Hand Good

Reserved Good

In Transit Defective

The Inventory screen records inventory levels and asset numbers for each product in inventory. New
products and inventory levels can be added to an inventory in this view, but it is not necessary to
create these records manually. When an inventory transaction occurs, products and inventory levels
are automatically created if they do not exist. However, products created this way are not assigned
Min, Max, and Safety values or a cycle counting class (A, B, or C; X, Y, or Z), so product records may
need updating on the Service Inventory screen. For more information, see “Inventory Screen” on
page 368.

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You can create or update inventory levels by loading them through the EIM_PRODINVLOC table. You
can also create or update inventory transactions by loading them through the EIM_INV_TXN table.

Negative Inventory Levels

Negative inventory levels may result from certain inventory transactions. Negative inventory levels
are possible only for nonserialized products. Inventory levels may acquire negative values under the
following circumstances:

■ When the logical inventory does not match the physical inventory (in other words, if the item is
on the shelf but the database does not show that it is available).

■ When reconciling transactions to or from an External Location. The External Location must have
negative quantities so that it can receive inventory from an external source.

Best Practice: Managing Inventory Levels

If the Inventory levels do not exist, they are automatically created by inventory transactions.
However, it is recommended that inventory levels be initiated as part of the Authorized Stock List for
an inventory location. As part of the Authorized Stock List, the default inventory levels (for example,
On Hand - Good) should be created when an inventory location is created or when a new product is
added to an inventory location. If your company plans to stock a particular inventory level, then you
should not rely on an inventory transaction to create it.

Creating an inventory level when a product is added to an inventory location can be automated by
setting up a workflow process. For more information about Siebel workflows and how to set them up,
see Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide.

Location Order
Service Inventory can specify a preferred order for using inventory at several different locations. By
specifying which location to use first, Service Inventory minimizes the time required for a warehouse
clerk to find an item for shipping (pick tickets), to stock inventory (replenishment), or for cycle
counting. Location order can suggest order management strategies, like First-In-First-Out (FIFO).
However, allocation takes the place of inventory levels and does not follow plans like FIFO or LIFO.

NOTE: Location Order is for information only. It has no effect on the Fulfillment or Cycle Counting
Engines.

Location order is represented by locator numbers (1, 2, and 3). Each locator number is defined by a
locator code that applies to a specific warehouse or inventory system. Table 90 shows examples
where part H3 may occur at three different inventory locations with different locator codes.

Table 90. Sample Locations Using Locator Numbers

Locator Example of a
Number Locator Code Meaning of Code

1 A3S1B1 Aisle 3, shelf 1, bin 1

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Table 90. Sample Locations Using Locator Numbers

Locator Example of a
Number Locator Code Meaning of Code

2 A3S2B6 Aisle 3, shelf 2, bin 6

3 A15S3B1 Aisle 15, shelf 3, bin 1

The location order can be any sequence of locator numbers; for example, 123 or 213. Make sure that
the location order represents the optimized path through the warehouse.

Inventory locations 1, 2, and 3 (or Locators) are specified for inventory levels in the Inventory
screen, Product Inventory view, Inventory Level subview. For more information, see “Inventory Level
Subview” on page 370. Location Order appears as a read-only field in the Products screen, Inventory
Locations view. Locations (1, 2, and 3) appear as read-only fields in the Cycle Counts screen, Part
List view.

Inventory and Product Serialization

If a product is serialized by selecting the Serialized check box in the Product Service Details view (for
more information, see “Product Service Details View” on page 338), then a serial number is required
for all movements and transactions of assets of this product, including the following:

■ Inventory transactions

■ Field part movements

■ Cycle counts

■ Shipments

■ Receipts

Serialized products are treated differently from nonserialized ones. If a product is serialized, the user
needs to enter assets for the product. Whenever a serialized product is shipped or received, Field
Service expects the right number of assets with serial numbers. For example, if four serialized hard
drives are shipped or received, Field Service expects that four separate serial numbers are entered.

NOTE: When a serialized asset is allocated through a manual order, the system allocates the product
quantity specified in the order, not the asset itself. Consequently, the asset remains in the On Hand
- Good/Defective inventory level.

For more information, see Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager Administration Guide.

Asset Transactions
The asset transactions that maintain an install base are Install, Uninstall, Upgrade, and Downgrade.
These transactions do not directly update quantities in inventory levels.

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When a field service engineer reports part movements in the field, inventory and asset transactions
are generated automatically. For example, a record in the Part Movement list with a source of
Customer and a destination of Trunk means that the field service engineer has taken a part out of
the customer’s installed base and has put it in the trunk. The Mobile Inventory Transaction Engine
reflects this transfer by creating an inventory transaction (to receive the part into a trunk) and an
asset transaction (to change the installed base).

When a field service engineer is repairing, updating, or replacing items referenced in a service order,
the engineer selects Service Order as a source and specifies Customer as the destination. Since the
item is added to the customer’s installed base, only an asset transaction is generated.

You can create asset transactions manually in the Assets screen’s Transactions view.

If you perform any inventory transaction on a hierarchical asset, then only the Inventory Location
field of the parent component will show the correct location. The Inventory Location field of the child
subcomponents will be blank or will have a value of External Location.

Changes can occur in some other fields of the asset’s parent component according to the type of
inventory transaction. Whether these effects occur on the fields of the hierarchical asset's child
subcomponents depends on whether the fields are set to cascade their values from the parent to the
child. For more information about hierarchical assets, see “Hierarchical Assets” on page 469.

Inventory Transactions
The Service Inventory module is transaction-based. Field Service uses inventory transactions to
update inventory levels in response to parts movements between two locations or whenever there is
change in an inventory level. Each inventory transaction has a product, a quantity, a source, and a
destination.

Here are some examples of business activities that create inventory transactions:

■ Perform a part movement by installing or removing a part and move it into or out of the service
engineer’s trunk.

■ Allocate or de-allocate a part according to a line item on an order, either manually or through the
Fulfillment engine.

■ Ship an order and click the Process Shipment button on the Shipping screen.

■ Receive an order and click the Generate Transaction button on the Receiving screen.

■ Create a transaction manually in the Inventory Transactions screen.

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Table 91 summarizes the types of inventory transactions.

Table 91. Summary of Types of Inventory Transactions

Type Description

Adjustment Adjusts inventory levels; for example, if after a cycle count there is a
variance between original inventory and counted inventory. Manually
generated in the Inventory Transactions screen, or automatically in the Cycle
Counts screen > Variance view. For more information, see “Cycle Counts
Screen” on page 439.

Allocate Adds inventory to an inventory level with an availability of Reserved.

Automatically generated when an Allocate action is called for an order line
item.

De-Allocate Clears inventory from an inventory level with an availability of Reserved.

Automatically generated when a De-Allocate action is called for an order line
item.

Exchange Between Moves inventory from one trunk inventory to another. Intended to move
FSEs inventory between field service engineers. Manually generated in the
Inventory Transactions screen.

Over-the-counter Moves inventory from one inventory location or level to another. Intended to
move inventory from warehouses to field service engineers’ trunks. Manually
generated in the Inventory Transactions screen.

Receive from TP Moves inventory from a third-party location that is defined in the inventory
system (in the Service Order screen > Fulfillment view) to the inventory
location defined in the Receiving screen, Line Item Receipts view.

Receive Internal Moves inventory from an inventory level with the availability of In Transit to
a defined physical inventory level, such as a shelf in a warehouse. A stock
transfer, automatically generated in the Receiving screen.

Receive Other Enters inventory, on receipt, into an inventory level. Part of a transaction
with a customer, which uses a virtual inventory location called External
Location or Customer. These locations come as seed data with Field Service.
Received from the Customer location to the location specified in the
Receiving screen, Line Item Receipts view.

Ship Internal For internal orders, moves inventory from a physical inventory level to an
inventory level with the availability of In Transit. A stock transfer,
automatically generated in the Shipping screen.

Ship Other For outside orders, moves inventory from a physical inventory level to an
inventory level with the availability of In Transit. Part of a transaction with a
customer that uses a virtual inventory location called Customer. The
Customer location is included as seed data with Field Service.

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Table 91. Summary of Types of Inventory Transactions

Type Description

Ship to TP Moves inventory from the location from which the item was allocated and the
pick ticket generated to the destination location defined in the Service Order
screen > Fulfillment view.

Stock Transfer Moves inventory from one inventory level or location to another, whether the
inventory levels or locations are in the same warehouse or in different
warehouses. Manually generated in the Inventory Transactions screen.

Conditions for Generating Transactions

Table 92 defines the types of inventory transactions created for combinations of source and
destination locations, inventory levels, and serialized versus nonserialized assets.

Table 92. Conditions for Generating Transactions Types

Source Destination

Inventory Inventory Inventory Inventory

Transaction Txn Type Inventory Level Assets Inventory Level Assets

Part Ship Other Trunk of FE On Hand Yes Customer On Hand Yes

movement
Receive Customer On Hand Yes Trunk of FSE On Hand Yes
on activity
Other

Allocate Allocate Customer On Order No Ord Part Reserved No

action Movement
Insertion on Source
order entry Invloc ID

De-allocate De- Ord Part Reserved No Customer On Order No

action allocate Movement
Insertion on Source
order entry Invloc ID

Ship other Ship Other Ord Part On Hand Yes Customer On Hand Yes
Movement
Source Inv

De- Ord Part Reserved Yes Customer On Order Yes

allocate Movement
Source Inv

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Table 92. Conditions for Generating Transactions Types

Source Destination

Inventory Inventory Inventory Inventory

Transaction Txn Type Inventory Level Assets Inventory Level Assets

Ship internal Ship Ord Part On Hand Yes Order In Transit Yes
Internal Movement header.
Source Inv Destination
Invloc ID

De- Ord Part Reserved Yes Customer On Order Yes

allocate Movement
Source
Invloc ID

Receive Receive Customer On Hand Yes Ord Part Ord Part Yes
RMA/PO Other Movement Movement
Dest Inv Avail/
Status

Receive Receive Order Hdr In Transit Yes Ord Part On Hand Yes
internal Internal Destination Movement
Inv Dest Inv

Ship RO Ship to TP Ord Part On Hand Yes Order On Hand Yes

Movement header.
Source Inv Destination
Invloc ID

De- Ord Part Reserved Yes Customer On Order Yes

allocate Movement
Source
Invloc ID

Receive RO Receive Order Hdr On Hand Yes Ord Part On Hand Yes
from TP Destination Movement
Inv Dest Inv

NOTE: In the preceding table, the assets rows are included in the transaction validation if the
product is serialized. Also, TP represents third-party provider.

The following rules regulate the generation of inventory and asset transactions:

■ If a product is serialized:

■ The asset for the part movement must be specified.

■ The quantity of the part movement must be 1.

■ The asset must belong to the source inventory.

When these conditions are met, the inventory transaction is validated and the inventory database
is updated.

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■ If the product is not serialized and no asset number is specified, a committed inventory
transaction is generated without validation and committed successfully.

■ If the product is not serialized and no asset number is specified, neither an asset validation nor
an asset transaction takes place. The inventory location is not stamped on the asset.

Bulk Inventory Transactions

Bulk inventory transactions allow multiple assets to be simultaneously moved to a new inventory
location. This can be useful in bulk stock transfers and receiving dock scenarios.

To perform a bulk inventory transaction

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.

2 Select the assets to transfer, and click Transfer.

3 In the Inventory Transactions applet, complete the fields as appropriate. In the Selection Type
field, choose Selected Items to transfer only the assets selected in the list, or choose Entire
Document to transfer all assets in the list. Click Transfer.

NOTE: You can transfer only the assets of the serialized products. For each product that you want
to transfer, the Serialized check box must be checked on the Products screen. For more information
on the Serialized check box, see “Product Service Details View” on page 88.

Workflows to Perform Bulk Inventory Transactions

The Bulk Inventory Transaction - Asset List - Default workflow uses the FS Inventory Transaction
business service and the Inventory Transaction - Asset List - Default workflow to move all assets
from their current inventory locations to the specified destination. In the background, separate
inventory transactions are created and can be reviewed on the Inventory Transaction screen. The
workflow is called when the user clicks the Transfer button on the Inventory Transactions applet. For
information on the methods used in this business service, see “FS Inventory Transaction Business
Service” on page 577.

The Bulk Inventory Transaction - Asset List - Default workflow gets the asset-related details and
source details, then organizes the asset list according to location, product, source, and availability.
The workflow then invokes the Inventory Transaction - Asset List - Default workflow, which creates
the inventory transaction headers, adds the asset details to the transaction headers, and commits
the transaction.

Mobile Inventory Transactions

Siebel Field Service can record part movements in the field (mobile inventory) without synchronizing
with the Field Service server. This allows field service engineers to record transfers of assets without
having the asset number or serial number on their laptop computers.

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Normally, recording transfers of assets without having asset numbers or serial numbers would cause
a transaction to fail. However, with Field Service, the part movement is recorded but not applied to
the inventory database.

If the mobile computer is disconnected, the local database is updated. When the mobile computer is
synchronized with the Siebel server, the information about the part movement is transferred to the
server. If the asset was identified in the database on the remote computer, the server records the
change in inventory location in the database and then creates a transaction.

If a part movement was not validated on the remote computer (this includes all add-in assets), an
uncommitted part movement appears in the Administration - Service screen > Parts Movement
Administration view. For more information, see “Parts Movement Administration View” on page 366.
An administrator must review uncommitted part movements and reconcile add-in serial numbers
with existing asset numbers. The Commit button then creates transactions. For more information,
see “To commit transactions reported by mobile clients” on page 365. For information about the types
of transactions created for specific combinations of source and destination locations, see “Setting Up
Service Inventory” on page 361.

The next time the remote computer is synchronized, its local database is updated to match the server
database.

Commit Buttons
Commit buttons appear on the Activities screen’s Expense Tracker, Part Tracker, and Time Tracker
views; and on the Administration - Service screen’s Parts Movement Administration view. The commit
step of a transaction begins when the record is saved with the Commit flag set. The field service
engineer uses the Commit button on the Activities screen to perform validations as described in the
following procedure.

To perform validation checks using the Commit button

1 Are source and destination inventories specified? This condition must be met first. If the asset
does not belong to the source inventory level, leave it uncommitted.

2 Is the position of the owner of the activity associated with a trunk inventory (location type
Trunk)?

3 If an asset number is provided, is it valid?

4 For each asset transaction, is the asset at the specified inventory source location? This validation
is not performed for the External location or the Customer location. For more information, see
“Setting Up External Locations” on page 369.

5 Is the item available? Availability and status are verified. This validation is not performed for the
External location.

6 Does the source inventory have the quantity of assets specified? This quantity is 1 if the part is
serialized.

7 If the product is serialized, does the total quantity for an inventory transaction equal the total
number of assets entered for this transaction?

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If these validation checks are successful, the Commit flag is set in Part Tracker records and records
are generated to record inventory movements. See the following procedure for more information.

To generate records to record inventory movements

1 Create a committed inventory transaction; for example, Receive Other.

2 Create assets for the inventory transaction.

3 Create new database records for the inventory location: source and destination.

4 Update the asset record (ID).

5 Create asset transactions; for example, Install.

6 Commit the part movement by updating the database.

Setting Up Service Inventory

These are procedures for setting up the structure and operation of an inventory system using Siebel
Field Service. The procedures may require administrative access.

Defining Products for Field Service

Before you set up an inventory system, you must define the products that the inventory system will
track. For more information on defining products, see Siebel Product Administration Guide.

To specify an asset for a product

1 Navigate to the Assets screen.

2 Add a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To specify allocation of products

1 Navigate to the Administration - Product screen > Products view.

2 Select a product, and then drill down on the Product field.

3 Click the Product Service Details link in the link bar, and then select the desired allocation modes:
Auto Allocate, Auto Substitute, or Allocate Below Safety.

For more information, see “Product Service Details View” on page 338.

CAUTION: If you change the Allocate Below Safety, Auto Allocate, or Auto Substitute flags, you
must restart the Parts Locator and Fulfillment Server components. (You do not need to restart
the entire server.) If you do not restart these components, the system will not reset the product
attribute settings in the Part Locator Engine and the Fulfillment Engine. For information about
how to restart server components, see Siebel System Administration Guide.

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4 In the Inventory Options subview, add records for each type of inventory location from which this
product may be allocated. Complete the fields as appropriate.

This subview inherits Allocate Below Safety, Auto Allocate, and Auto Substitute values from the
More Info view.

For information about cycle counting, see “Configuration of the Cycle Counting Engine” on
page 419.

Setting Up an Inventory
Follow these procedures to set up an inventory.

To define inventory types

1 Navigate to the Administration - Service screen > Inventory Administration view.

2 In the Inventory Location Types view, create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

For information about this subview and cycle counting, see “Inventory Location Types Subview”
on page 367 and “Configuration of the Cycle Counting Engine” on page 419.

To create an inventory location

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To add a product to inventory

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen.

2 Drill down on the selected inventory location, add a record, and complete the fields as
appropriate.

For more information, see “Configuration of the Cycle Counting Engine” on page 419.

To create an inventory level

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen.

2 Drill down on the selected inventory location and select a product.

3 In the Inventory Level subview, create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To associate an employee with an inventory location

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen.

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2 Select an inventory location. Then in the Ownership field, select Owned and in the Position field,
select a position.

The inventory location appears in the My Inventory Locations view for the employee associated
with the selected position.

To associate a vendor with an inventory location

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen > Vendors view.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To associate an inventory location with an organization

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen > Inventory Locations view.

2 Select an inventory location. Then, in the Organization field, select an organization or add one if
none appears.

The organization marked as primary appears in the Organization field.

To define inventory levels

1 Navigate to the Administration - Service screen > Inventory Administration view.

2 Click the Inventory Level Categories view tab, and then add a record. Complete the fields as
appropriate.

To define the relationships between inventory locations

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen.

2 Drill down on a selected inventory location, and then click the Relationships view tab.
3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Setting Up Inventory Transactions

Follow these procedures to define inventory transactions.

To define types of inventory transactions

1 Navigate to Administration - Service screen > Inventory Administration view.

2 Click the Inventory Transaction Types view tab and add a record.

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Synchronizing Remote and Local Databases

Siebel Remote allows mobile or remote clients (typically laptop computers) to connect to a Siebel
Server and exchange updated data and files, a process known as synchronization. For information
about setting up and using Siebel Remote, see Siebel Remote and Replication Manager
Administration Guide.

Tracking Inventory
Follow these procedures to verify inventory.

To verify inventory status using the Inventory screen

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen.

2 Drill down on a selected inventory location, and then click the Product Inventory view tab.

3 Select a product.

The Inventory Level subview shows the inventory status for all products at the selected location.

To verify inventory status using the Part Browser

1 Navigate to the Part Browser screen.

2 Select a product.

The Inventory Level subview shows the inventory status for the selected product.

To generate inventory status reports

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen.
2 Select an inventory location, and then choose Reports > Product List by Location or Products
Below Minimum Level by Location.

To view cycle counting parameters for a selected location

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen.

2 Drill down on a selected inventory location.

Cycle counting parameters appear on the More Info tab.

To view all inventory transactions

■ Navigate to the Inventory Transactions screen.

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Creating Inventory Transactions

Follow these procedures to process inventory transactions.

To create inventory transactions manually

1 Navigate to the Inventory Transactions screen.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To add an asset to an inventory transaction

1 Navigate to the Inventory Transactions screen.

2 Drill down on the selected inventory transaction.

3 In the Assets view, create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

Available assets vary dynamically according to the Source Location in the inventory transaction
record. The assets available to select are only those at that Source Location. If the Source
Location is External Location, Field Service shows all assets not currently assigned to any
location.

To receive a product as a stock transfer or over-the-counter transaction

1 Navigate to the Inventory Transactions screen.

2 Add a record. In the Type field, select Over-the-counter and complete other fields as appropriate

3 (Optional) If the product is serialized, in the Assets view, create a new record for the transaction.

To move an item from one trunk to another: source mobile client

1 Navigate to the Inventory Transactions screen.

2 Add a record. In the Type field, select Exchange Between FSEs and complete other fields as
appropriate.

To move an item from one trunk to another: destination mobile client

1 Navigate to the Activities screen.

2 Drill down on a selected activity, and then click the Part Tracker view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To commit transactions reported by mobile clients

1 Navigate to the Administration - Service screen > Parts Movement Administration view.

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2 Select an uncommitted part movement record. In the Asset # field, select an asset.

The asset should correspond to the add-in serial number entered by the mobile field service
engineer.

3 Select the Commit check box to generate an inventory transaction that decrements the source
inventory location and increments the destination location.

Scrapping Inventory
If you need to create inventory transactions to scrap or write off inventory of a product, follow this
procedure.

To scrap or write off inventory

1 Assign one of the following inventory transaction types:

■ The existing type, Ship Other

■ A new type that you create; for example, Scrap

For information about assigning a transaction type, see “To create inventory transactions
manually” on page 365. For information about creating a transaction type, see “To define types of
inventory transactions” on page 363.

2 Send the inventory to one of the following inventory locations:

■ The existing virtual location, External Location

■ A new virtual location that you create; for example, Scrap Location

For information about assigning an inventory location, see “To add a product to inventory” on
page 362. For information about creating a virtual inventory location, see “To create an inventory
location” on page 362.

Administration - Service Screen

The Administration - Service screen has views for managing inventory transactions that have taken
place in the field, for defining inventory transaction types, and for defining inventory level
categories.

Parts Movement Administration View

A field service administrator uses the Parts Movement Administration view to commit transactions
that have occurred in the field, but are not yet committed. These transactions can be the result of
the movement of parts between trunks, customer sites, and service orders.

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The administrator commits each part movement record by entering an asset number that is already
in the database and clicking Commit. The Commit button creates the appropriate transactions in the
database. After synchronizing with mobile computers, the changes are transferred to the local
databases on the mobile clients. For more information, see “Mobile Inventory Transactions” on
page 359.

Inventory Administration View

The Inventory Administration view contains subviews for setting the types of inventory locations,
inventory transactions, and inventory categories that appear in this view.

Inventory Location Types Subview

The Inventory Location Types subview defines the inventory locations that are available in the Type
field in Inventory > Inventory Locations. For more information, see “Inventory Locations View” on
page 369. Examples of location types are Aisle, Trunk, and Virtual.

CAUTION: Do not delete Inventory Types, Inventory Level Categories, or Inventory Transaction
Types. Their Row_IDs provide values for tables elsewhere in Inventory. To change or replace an
Inventory Type, Inventory Transaction Type, or Inventory Level Category, modify the List of Values
and then update (do not delete and re-enter) the Type entry.

Also, do not delete the Inventory table row with the name External Location and the type Virtual,
which is shipped as seed data with Field Service. Inventory transactions use this row, and cannot
process without it. Changing the name is acceptable.

Inventory Transaction Types Subview

The Inventory Transaction Types subview defines the transaction types that are available in the Type
field of the “Inventory Transactions View” on page 373. For more information about these transaction
types, see “Inventory Transactions” on page 355.

Inventory Level Categories Subview

The Inventory Level Categories subview defines the inventory levels that are available in Inventory
> Product Inventory. For more information, see “Inventory Level Subview” on page 370. An inventory
category consists of a pairing of two values, availability and status. Examples of availability are On
Hand, On Order, and Reserved. Examples of Status are Good and Defective.

NOTE: It is not necessary to create products and inventory levels manually. When an inventory
transaction occurs, products and inventory levels are automatically created in the database if they
do not exist. However, products created automatically in this way are not assigned specific levels,
allocation values, substitution values, or cycle counting classes. It might be necessary to go to the
Inventory Administration view and update newly created records in the Inventory Location Types and
Inventory Level Categories subviews.

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Administration - Product Screen

The Administration - Product screen defines products. For more information, see Siebel Product
Administration Guide. You can select the following views from the link bar on the More Info tab.

Products View
The Products view records basic information about each product; for example, product name, part
number, and revision.

Product Service Details View

The Product Service Details view provides the information used in locating and allocating products
for use in field service activities. For more information, see “Product Service Details View” on
page 338.

NOTE: This view has two subviews, Inventory Options and Substitute Products.

Inventory Options Subview

The Inventory Options subview sets the inventory locations for a product. It determines how the
Fulfillment Engine allocates a product from inventory or chooses a substitute when filling an order.
It also sets the cycle counting parameters for each product at a specific location. For more
information, see Chapter 15, “Cycle Counting and Replenishment.” For details, see “Inventory Options
Subview” on page 340.

Substitute Products Subview

The Substitute Products subview specifies the products that the Fulfillment Engine can use to fill an
order when the specified product is unavailable from inventory. The user chooses from products that
are specified in the Products view. For more information, see “Products View” on page 368. The
Fulfillment Engine can choose this product if the Auto Substitute flag is selected. For details, see
“Substitute Products Subview” on page 340.

Inventory Screen
The Inventory screen sets up and manages inventory locations and the products stored at these
locations. For each product, it defines the inventory levels and records information about assets of
these products. For replenishing inventory, it generates orders, displays the authorized vendors, and
displays pending orders. For more information, see “Replenishment Engine” on page 427. For cycle
counting of inventory, parameters are defined and cycle counting lists are generated. For more
information, see “Cycle Counts Screen” on page 439.

In addition, the Inventory screen defines the roles of personnel at each inventory location.

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Inventory Locations View

The Inventory Locations view defines the inventory locations in a service business. The drop-down
list below the view bar provides these choices for inventory locations: My Inventory Locations, All
Inventory Locations, and All Inventory Locations Across Organizations.

All Inventory Locations Across Organizations

An organization is a category that limits the visibility of data within a company. The All Inventory
Locations Across Organizations view shows the inventory locations for all organizations within a
company. Inventory transactions can take place only between locations within the same organization
(set in the Inventory Locations list). For more information about setting up organizations, see the
chapter on access control in Siebel Security Guide.

The person who owns a record can see this record in the My Inventory Locations view, even if it is
in a different organization. However, for the same person, this record does not appear in the All
Inventory Locations view.

CAUTION: Improper configuration of organizations and inventory locations can lead to unintended
results. It may not be possible to carry out inventory transactions between certain locations.

Setting Up External Locations

The seed data supplied with Field Service contains an External Location with the type, Virtual. This
location is used as the default in the absence of a source or destination location. The seed data also
allows inventory transactions between locations in different organizations. For more information, see
“Inventory Transactions Across Organizations View” on page 373.

The administrator cannot delete the External Location record. The ROW_ID (for example,
VIRTUAL_INVLOC) makes this value unique. Certain C++ code in Field Service references this value.
If the administrator were to delete this row and re-create it, the record would be assigned a new
ROW_ID and certain transactions would fail. The administrator can rename the location.

To assure that all field service engineers in any organization within the company can use the External
Location, using the Organization field, associate all organizations in the company with the External
Location.

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Product Inventory View

The Product Inventory view associates inventory locations with products, sets quantities of each
product, and sets cycle counting parameters for the product at the selected location. Products are
specified in the Administration - Product screen. For more information, see “Administration - Product
Screen” on page 368. Table 93 describes items in Product Inventory records.

Table 93. Selected Items in the Product Inventory View

Item Description

Min Minimum acceptable quantity of inventory at this location and product.

Max Maximum acceptable quantity of inventory at this location and product.

Safety Safe quantity of inventory for the selected location and product. The safe quantity
(≤ Min) is the quantity below which the Fulfillment Engine should not allocate a
product.

Serialized Indicates whether instances of this product must have serial numbers recorded in
the database.

Inventory Level Subview

The Inventory Level subview associates inventory levels (availability and status) with products and
defines the Location Order. For more information, see “Location Order” on page 353 for each
inventory level. Table 94 describes items in Inventory Level records.

Table 94. Selected Items in the Inventory Level View

Item Description

Location Order Indicates the preferred order for use of Locators 1 through 3. For example, 213
means that the item is best obtained from location 2, then 1, and finally 3. This
order is used for the physical process of shipping and cycle counting. It has no
effect on the Fulfillment or Cycle Counting Engines.

Locator 1-3 Description of the physical location of a product at an inventory level.

Assets Subview
The Assets subview describes all of the assets of the selected product at an inventory location. Fields
in this subview indicate both asset numbers and serial numbers.

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Generate Orders View

The Generate Orders view automatically produces orders to restock products in inventory, either by
internal transfer between inventory locations or by purchase from an outside vendor. For
replenishment, an inventory level must be defined for a product. For replenishment from a vendor,
the authorized vendor must also be defined.

The Order button runs the Replenishment Engine to replenish all items that are below minimum at
the selected location.

The replenishment process describes either a source inventory location to replenish a selected
location or a target location to be replenished from the selected location. Specific relationships
between locations are defined in the Relationships view. For more information, see “Relationships
View” on page 371. For more information about replenishment, see Chapter 15, “Cycle Counting and
Replenishment.”

Pending Orders View

The Pending Orders view lists orders that have been placed to replenish a location, either by part
movement between inventory locations or by purchases from vendors. This view is read-only.

For more information about replenishment, see Chapter 15, “Cycle Counting and Replenishment.”

Vendors View
The Vendors view records vendors who may supply products for a selected inventory location.

Relationships View
The Relationships view records the relationships between a selected inventory location and other
inventory locations. If a business uses more than one inventory location, relationships among
inventory locations are useful for automating inventory replenishment and order fulfillment. A
relationship may be physical (for example, a shelf belongs to an aisle) or logistical (replenishment
of inventory or fulfillment of orders). Table 95 shows items in relationships records.

Table 95. Items in the Relationships View

Field Description

Type Type of location; for example, Warehouse or Trunk.

Relationship Relationship of this inventory location to the location selected in the Inventory
Locations tab. The choices are Fulfills, Replenishes, and Sublevel.

Order Priority Priority of an order to be fulfilled from the inventory location, if the relationship
type is Fulfills (for example, Low, Medium, or High).

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Roles View
The Roles view sets the roles of personnel associated with a selected inventory location.

Cycle Counts View

The Cycle Counts view shows the parameters for cycle counting at a selected inventory location and
the status of cycle counts for this location. Cycle counts and cycle count periods are described in
“Cycle Counts View” on page 438.

Part Browser Screen

The Part Browser screen presents a catalog of all parts in a service inventory. The fields in this screen
are read-only.

Parts View
The Parts view presents a summary of products at every inventory location in a service business.
Any product may be in more than one location.

Inventory Level Subview

The Inventory Level subview shows the quantity, availability, and status of products at each selected
inventory location.

Substitutes Subview
The Substitutes subview shows the quantity, availability, status, and part number of every substitute
for a selected product and inventory location.

Inventory Transactions Screen

The Inventory Transactions screen contains views that record the movement of products through
inventory.

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Inventory Transactions View

The Inventory Transactions view lists all inventory transactions created automatically (in other
screens and views) to allocate, ship, receive, transfer, or adjust the quantity and inventory levels for
a product. The same transactions can be created manually in this view. Table 96 shows items in
inventory transaction records.

Table 96. Button in the All Inventory Transactions View

Field Description

Commit Clicking the button records a transaction in the database. Once committed, the record
is read-only. Clicking this button performs all of the validations for an inventory
transaction. For more information, see “Commit Buttons” on page 360.

Inventory Transactions Across Organizations View

Inventory transactions can take place between organizations by using two transactions and the
virtual location named External Location:

■ The first transaction is from the source location (Inv1) in one organization to the External
Location. This transaction is committed by a user who can see Inv1 and the External Location.

■ The second transaction is from the External Location to the destination location (Inv2) in a
different organization. This transaction is committed by a user who can see Inv2 and the External
Location.

For more information, see “Setting Up External Locations” on page 369.

Assets View
The Assets view shows the asset number of the product associated with the selected transaction. If
the part is serialized, the view shows its serial number.

Activities Screen
The Activities screen has a view for recording movement of parts in the field, between two trunks,
or between a trunk and a customer site.

Part Tracker View

The Part Tracker view records the movement of parts used to carry out a selected activity. This view
records the movements of parts that have an asset or serial number registered in the database on
the mobile computer and parts that do not correspond to a registered asset. For more information,
see “Part Tracker View” on page 82.

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Clicking the Commit button in this view checks that the appropriate information is provided, then
creates a record that triggers an inventory transaction when you are connected to the Siebel Server.
Once committed, a record becomes read-only.

Inventory Reports
The Inventory screen provides the reports listed in Table 97.

Table 97. Inventory Reports

Report Description

Products Below Minimum Level A list of products of good quality and below the minimum stock
by Location level at a selected inventory location.

Product List by Location A list of stock levels for products of good quality at a selected
inventory location.

Inventory Cost Detail A list of all products at a selected inventory location with
itemized and total costs.

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13 Shipping and Receiving
This chapter describes the shipping and receiving of orders and the records that Field Service creates
to track orders. Topics include:

■ Shipping Orders on page 375

■ Receiving Orders on page 376

■ Checks and Validations for Shipping and Receiving on page 377

■ Shipping and Receiving Hierarchical Assets on page 378

■ Processing and Tracking Shipments on page 378

■ Processing and Tracking Receipts on page 379

■ Shipping Screen on page 381

■ Shipping Reports on page 385

■ Receiving Screen on page 385

Shipping Orders
Shipments may be to a customer or to another inventory location belonging to the service business.
Internal shipments may be triggered by the replenishment process.

Shipping activities focus on two documents, the pick ticket and the waybill. The pick ticket provides
detailed information about the items required to fill orders. The waybill, which records data related
to the shipment, normally travels with the shipment and mediates between shipping and receiving.

Shipping begins where fulfillment ends; with the generation of a pick ticket. Figure 26 illustrates the
shipping process, which consists of the following steps:

1 Get pick ticket.

2 Pick parts.

3 Update pick ticket with parts shipped.

4 Choose carrier and update waybill.

5 Process shipment.

Figure 26. Shipping Process

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Process Shipment Button

The Process Shipment button is located on the Shipping screen’s Pick Ticket form (navigate to the
Shipping screen > Shipments view and drill down on the Pick Ticket field). This button produces the
following processes:

1 Examines all the records for allocated lines (in the table S_ORDPART_MVMT) for the selected pick
ticket, validating the Ship transaction for each allocated line. If one of the validation constraints
(for example, Product, Source Inventory Location, Source Availability, or Source Status) fails, the
entire transaction is rolled back.

2 For each shipped record against an allocated record, generates an inventory transaction with a
type of Ship and another type of De-Allocate. Process Shipment generates inventory transactions
(for example, Ship Internal or Ship Other) based on the order type of the pick ticket. For a
description of these inventory transactions, see Table 91 on page 356.

3 If the shipped quantity is less than the allocated quantity, then inserts a De-Allocate action for
this line item for any extra items and generates an inventory transaction of type De-Allocate.
This transaction is in addition to the De-Allocate transaction in Step 2.

4 Checks whether the Auto Receive flag is selected in the Order Fulfillment view. For more
information, see “Fulfillment View” on page 344. If this condition is met, generates the receiving
line item corresponding to the shipping line items being processed and processes receipt of the
order. For more information, see “Process Receipt Button” on page 377.

NOTE: Step 2 and Step 3 are independent processes, so they generate separate De-Allocate
transactions. This is useful for auditing.

Receiving Orders
Receiving applies to all types of orders:

■ Replenishment of internal orders or internal transfers received by a field office, a repair center,
or a field service engineer.

■ RMAs (returns from a customer).

■ Purchase orders and repair orders (receipt from an external vendor).

■ For convenience, another receipt type, Unknown, is included to encompasses any other items
received.

When an item is received, a receipt is generated as proof that the item arrived. Figure 27 illustrates
the receiving process, which consists of the following steps:

1 If the order is unidentified, generate unknown receipt. If the order is identified, create a receipt
(Internal, Purchase/Repair Order, or RMA).

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2 Generate transactions.

Figure 27. Receiving Process

Field Service performs the necessary inventory transactions and creates the necessary line item
actions on received orders.

Checks and Validations for Shipping and

Receiving
Siebel Field Service provides these automatic validations for shipping and receiving transactions:

■ Quantity to ship should be less than or equal to the quantity allocated.

■ Quantity to receive should be less than or equal to the quantity shipped.

■ Total number of assets should be equal to the total quantity of a serialized product.

■ While generating inventory transactions, validates the source location of serialized asset.

After an inventory transaction is generated, no update is allowed for the shipped or received line
item. However, it is possible to receive partial shipments for all order types except internal orders.
New receive actions may be added as long as the quantity of items received does not exceed the
quantity in the order.

Process Receipt Button

The Process Receipt button is located in the Receive Internal Order, Receive Purchase Order, and
Receive RMA views in the Receiving screen. This button generates the following processes within
Siebel Field Service:

■ Verifies that the asset physically exists at the source inventory location.

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■ Based on an Order Type of Internal/Other, generates the appropriate inventory transactions (for
example, Receive Internal, Receive Other, and Receive from TP) affecting inventory levels. Refer
to Table 91 on page 356.

■ If the product received was serialized, checks that the total number of assets received matches
the product quantity.

Shipping and Receiving Hierarchical

Assets
When you ship or receive a hierarchical asset, changes occur in certain fields of the asset’s parent
component according to the type of shipping or receiving transaction that occurs. Whether these
effects occur on the fields of the hierarchical asset's child sub-components depends on whether the
fields are set to cascade their values from the parent to the child. For more information about
hierarchical assets, see “Hierarchical Assets” on page 469.

Processing and Tracking Shipments

Follow these procedures to process the shipping of orders.

To ship an order
1 Navigate to the Shipping screen > Shipments view.

2 Select a pick ticket record.

3 Drill down on the Pick Ticket field hyperlink.

4 In the Allocated Lines list, select a line item.

5 If the selected line item is a serialized product, add a new record for it in the Serial Numbers list.

6 In the Allocated Lines list, click Ship to ship one or more selected line items, or click Ship All to
ship all line items.
This generates a shipped quantity in the Pick Ticket subview that is equal to the allocated
quantity for the line items.

7 In the upper Pick Ticket form, click Process Shipment to create inventory transactions for the line
items selected in the Allocated Lines list and for the quantities specified in the Shipped Line form.

NOTE: If the Qty field on the Shipped Line form does not contain a value, clicking Process
Shipment will not create inventory transactions.

To find a pick ticket for a line item

1 Navigate to the Service Order screen > List view.

2 Drill down on a selected order record.

3 In the Line Items subview, select an order line item record.

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4 Click the Actions view tab.

5 In the Actions list, select an Action record and copy the number in the Pick Ticket field.

6 Navigate to the Shipping screen.

7 In the Pick Tickets list, query the pick ticket number.

To consolidate pick tickets

1 Navigate to the Shipping screen > Consolidation view.

2 In the Pick Ticket form, select a pick ticket record.

3 In the Qualified Lines tab, select one or more other pick tickets to add to the consolidation.

4 Click Consolidate.

Line items move from the Qualified Lines applet to the Consolidated Lines applet.

To fill in waybills for pick tickets

1 Navigate to the Shipping screen > Waybill view.

2 In the Pick Ticket form, select a pick ticket record.

3 In the Waybill form, complete the fields as needed to ship the items in the selected pick ticket.

Pick Tickets and Orders

Pick tickets and orders have the following relationship:

1 Orders have one or many line items.

2 Line Items may have one or many records (actions) in the database.

3 One or many records (of type Allocate) can be associated with one pick ticket.
While Order ID and Order Item ID do not appear in the Pick Tickets view, these values reside in the
database:

■ S_SHIPMENT_ID and S_ORDER_ITEM_ID in the S_ORDPART_MVMT table

■ S_ORDER_ID in the S_ORDER_ITEM table

Processing and Tracking Receipts

Follow these procedures to process the receiving of orders.

To receive an order
1 Navigate to the Receiving screen.

2 Select an order record in the Pending Internal Orders list or in the Pending POs/ROs/RMAs list.

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3 Drill down on the Receive Type field hyperlink.

Either the Receive Internal Order, Receive PO, Receive Repair Order, Receive RMA, or Receive
Unknown view appears.

4 In the Line Items list, select a line item record to receive.

5 In the Received Line Item subview, create new records and enter details of the line items
received.

6 For serialized line items, in the Serial Numbers subview, create new records and enter details of
the line items received.

7 In the Receive Order form, click Process Receipt.

This generates the appropriate inventory transactions. For more information, see “Process
Receipt Button” on page 377.

To receive repaired items from a third-party vendor

1 Navigate to the Receiving screen.

2 Select a repair order record in the Pending POs/ROs/RMAs list.

3 Drill down on the Receive Type field hyperlink.

4 In the Line Items list, select a line item record to receive.

5 In the Received Line Item subview, create a record that defines the conditions of receipt for the
selected line item.

6 In the Repairs subview, create a repair record for the selected line item.

7 In the Receive Order form, click Process Receipt.

This records the movement of inventory from the third-party repair vendor to the specified
inventory location.

To review all line items for all orders

1 Navigate to the Receiving screen.
2 From the visibility filter, select Line Item Receipts.

3 Select a line item record and do one or more of the following:

■ Drill down on the Type field hyperlink.

The receipt form for the selected order type shows the status of the receipt and the line items
received.

■ Drill down on the Order # field hyperlink.

The receipt form for the selected order number shows details of the original order.

■ Drill down on the Waybill # field hyperlink.

The receipt form for the selected waybill number shows the shipping waybill for this order.

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To add Unknown Receipt records

1 Navigate to the Receiving screen.

2 From the visibility filter, select All Unknown Receipts.

3 In the Unknown Receipts list, select an item.

4 Drill down on the Shipment # field hyperlink.

5 If the order number is unknown, you can select a possible order number in the Match Order #
field.

6 If the receipt has line items with serial numbers, do the following:

a Select a serialized line item.

b In the Received Serial Numbers list, create a new record for the selected line item and enter the
serial number.

To review all line items received with incomplete documentation

1 Navigate to the Receiving screen.

2 From the visibility filter, select All Unknown Receipts.

3 In the Unknown Receipts list, select a record and do one or more of the following:

■ If a value is present in the Shipment # field, click the hyperlink.

The Receive Unknown form shows the status of the receipt and the line items received.

■ If a value is present in the Match Order # field, click the hyperlink.

The Order form shows information about this order.

■ If a value is present in the Waybill # field, click the hyperlink.

The Waybill Information form shows the shipping waybill for this order.

Shipping Screen
The Shipping screen provides information for processing shipments.

Shipments View
The Shipments view displays pick ticket records generated for specific orders. Pick tickets are
generated automatically, by the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines, or interactively by using the
Generate Pick Tickets command on the Service Order screen. For more information, see the
“Generate PickTickets Command” on page 325. The user can also create pick ticket records in this
view.

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The Pending Pick Ticket views, selected from the visibility filter, display only pick ticket records with
a status of Open. The user can create records in this view with any status, but only records of status
Open appear on return to this view. Table 98 describes items in the Shipments view.

Table 98. Selected Items in the Shipments View

Item Description

Shipment # A type-in field for a shipping number. The default is the pick ticket number.

Waybill # A type-in field for a waybill number. This field is linked to the Waybill # field in the
Waybill view.

Pick Ticket Subview

The Pick Ticket subview records the allocated parts that appear in a pick ticket record and allows the
user to generate inventory transactions (see Table 91 on page 356) affecting shipping and allocation
of inventory. Table 99 describes a button in the Pick Ticket subview.

Table 99. Selected Item in the Pick Ticket Subview

Item Description

Process Button and command. Generates Ship and De-Allocate inventory transactions,
Shipment when appropriate, for the allocated pick ticket line items (that appear in the
Allocated Lines subview). For the mechanism of this button, see “Process Shipment
Button” on page 376. After this button is activated, the Pick Ticket Status field in the
Pick Tickets view is set automatically to Closed. For more information, see
“Shipments View” on page 381.

Note that for orders of type Internal, the status becomes Shipped instead of Closed.

Allocated Lines Subview

The Allocated Lines subview shows the allocated line items associated with a pick ticket. It also shows
the preferred locations in inventory to obtain each line item. This view is read-only. Table 100
describes items in the Allocated Lines subview.

Table 100. Selected Items in the Allocated Lines Subview

Item Description

Ship/Ship All These buttons create a record or records in the Shipped Line subview with the
same quantity as the Qty field in the Allocated Lines subview. These buttons do
not create inventory transactions.

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Table 100. Selected Items in the Allocated Lines Subview

Item Description

Qty The number of items (of this product) shipped. This number matches the quantity
processed for shipping, displayed in the Shipped Line subview. The Process
Shipment button determines this value.

Location 1/2/3 These fields may be used to optimize the pick-pack-ship process. They are
informational only.

Shipped Line Subview

The Shipped Line subview shows the number of items allocated in the database for shipment by the
Ship button. For more information, see the “Allocated Lines Subview” on page 382. The Qty field is
read-write and accepts values less than the value in the Qty field in the Shipped Lines subview.
Table 101 describes items in the Shipped Lines subview.

Table 101. Selected Items in the Shipped Line Subview

Item Description

New This button allows the user to enter the shipped quantity (in the Qty field) when that
quantity is less than the allocated quantity. This creates a record of the type Ship.

Qty The number of items shipped.

NOTE: If the Shipped Line quantity is less than the quantity in a selected record in the Allocated
Lines list, the excess is de-allocated through a De-Allocate transaction. The De-Allocate transaction
(and any other transaction) takes place when the user clicks the Process Shipment button.

Serial Numbers Subview

The Serial Numbers subview accepts serial numbers for the selected Allocated line items. Serial
numbers for items available in inventory are selected from a dialog box. The number of records
cannot exceed the quantity in the Shipped Line subview. The quantity in the Shipped Lines subview
cannot be greater than the quantity in the Allocated Lines subview.

This view is active only if the Shipped Lines subview displays a number of shipped items. The New
command for adding records is available only if the selected, allocated line references a serialized
product.

NOTE: If a product is serialized by checking the Serialized check box in the Product Field Service
Details view, then a serial number is required for all movements and transactions of assets of
this product. For more information, see “Product Service Details View” on page 338.

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Repair Pick Ticket Subview

The Repair Pick Ticket subview processes the shipment of line items allocated for a repair order. The
Pick Ticket, Allocated Lines, and Shipped Line views are identical to those in the Pick Ticket view. For
more information, see “Pick Ticket Subview” on page 382. Instead of associating serial numbers with
shipped products, this view uses the Repair # subview to associate repair numbers.

The number of repair numbers records must match the Qty field in the Shipped Lines subview. This
validation constraint is enforced both for selected products that are serialized and nonserialized.

Waybill View
The Waybill view associates waybill records with pick tickets. Table 102 describes items in the Waybill
view.

Table 102. Selected Items in the Waybill View

Item Description

Shipment # A type-in field for a shipping number. The default is the pick ticket number.

Waybill # A type-in field for a waybill number. This field is linked to the Waybill # field
in the Waybill view.

Consolidation View
The Consolidation view is a variation of the Pick Ticket view, selected from the visibility filter, that
combines line items from existing pick tickets into a single pick ticket. The purpose is to reduce
shipping costs. The line items must have the same Ship To address, be shipped from the same
inventory location, and have the same order type. All order types, except for Repair Orders, are
processed in the this view.

The Consolidation view has two subviews, Qualified Lines and Consolidated Lines.

Qualified Lines Subview

The Qualified Lines subview displays lines allocated for pick tickets that have the following attributes:

■ Open or pending status

■ Same Ship To address

■ Same source inventory location

■ Same order type

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Table 103 describes a button in the Qualified Lines subview.

Table 103. Selected Item in the Qualified Lines View

Item Description

Consolidate Button and command. Copies the qualified line to the selected pick ticket.
The result of this consolidation appears in the Consolidated Lines subview.
The donor pick ticket no longer appears in the All Pick Tickets view.

Consolidated Lines Subview

The Consolidated Lines subview shows the products and quantities combined into one pick ticket.
The consolidated lines are processed as though they were part of the original order.

Shipping Reports
Shipping provides the Pick Ticket Details (Barcode) report and the Pick Ticket Details (No Barcode)
report. These reports describe each pick ticket and its associated products.

Receiving Screen
The Receiving screen tracks incoming orders and their line items. These orders originate on the
Service Order screen. For information about service orders, see Siebel Order Management Guide.

All Pending Orders View

The All Pending Orders view, selected from the visibility filter, shows all orders not yet received. The
view contains two subviews: Pending Internal Orders and Pending POs/ROs/RMAs.

NOTE: All fields in this view are read-only.

Pending Internal Orders Subview

The Pending Internal Orders view shows all orders arriving from internal inventory locations. The line
items that appear have a Receive Type of Internal and a status of Shipped. The data in this subview
originates on the Shipping screen. For more information, see “Shipping Screen” on page 381.

Pending POs/ROs/RMAs Subview

The Pending POs/ROs/RMAs view shows all orders arriving from external locations and resulting from
purchase orders, repair orders, and return material authorizations of all types.

The line items that appear here are from orders that do not have a Receive Type of Sales Order, Web
Order, Service Order, or Internal Order and do not have a status of Cancelled or Closed.

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Receive Orders Views

Clicking on any Receive Type value in the All Pending Orders view exposes a corresponding Receive
Order view:

■ Receive Internal Order

■ Receive PO

■ Receive Repair Order

■ Receive RMA

NOTE: The Receive Unknown view is available only from the All Unknown Receipts view. For the
procedure, see “To add Unknown Receipt records” on page 381.

The Receive Orders views have a Process Receipt button that carries out validations for the selected
receipt and creates the appropriate inventory transaction. For more information, see “Process Receipt
Button” on page 377.

Line Items Subview

The Line Items subview lists the items received in the selected receipt. The Qty field shows the
number of each line item in the received order. The records are read-only.

Received Line Item Subview

The Received Line Item subview records the inventory level (availability and status) and destination
inventory location of received line items. The total quantity cannot exceed the Qty value in the
selected Line Items record.

Serial Numbers Subview

The Serial Numbers subview records the serial/asset number for each serialized asset received as
part of the selected line item. This view accepts only as many records as the total quantity in the
Received Line Item view.

NOTE: The Serial Number subview does not verify the uniqueness of serial numbers.

Line Items Receipts View

The Line Items Receipts view, selected from the visibility filter, shows all line items, pending,
processed, and closed, for all orders. This view is useful for auditing receipts. For example, a Query
by Example (QBE) could return all line items received at a location during a specific time interval. All
fields in this view are read-only.

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All Unknown Receipts View

The All Unknown Receipts view, selected from the visibility filter, shows received items that arrive
with incomplete documentation. Users create this data and an administrator matches records with
existing orders. All fields in this view are read-only.

Receive Unknown View

The Receive Unknown view is available only from the All Unknown Receipts view. For the procedure,
see “To add Unknown Receipt records” on page 381.

The Match Order # field in this view lets the user choose an order, from the Pick Order dialog box,
to which this unknown receipt might belong.

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14 Quality
This chapter describes Quality Management, the Quality screen, change requests, and patch
requests.

Siebel Quality supports the product development and maintenance life cycle by managing change
requests, or CRs. A change request (CR) is a formal report or recommendation aimed at correcting
a defect in or adding an improvement to a product. Such products can include hardware, software,
manufactured goods, and capital equipment. Siebel Quality can manage multiple types of change
requests, including enhancement requests and product defect reports.

Siebel Quality supports the work of the various groups that use the change management process,
such as quality assurance, development engineering, and product marketing.

Siebel Quality provides tools for creating, responding to, and tracking CRs. Siebel Quality manages
CRs by doing the following:

■ Managing CRs from creation through resolution

■ Tracking and analyzing details about CRs

■ Coordinating and integrating CR management activities across multiple departments

■ Displaying status information on product stability

If a customer has an urgent need to resolve a CR and cannot wait for the next product release, Siebel
Quality can generate a patch request, or PR. A patch request (PR) is a recommendation to create a
maintenance release to implement a product defect fix or improvement.

This chapter includes the following topics:

■ Features of Siebel Quality on page 390

■ Example Process for Quality on page 391

■ Setting Up Roles and Responsibilities on page 399

■ Setting Up Lists of Values on page 399

■ Mapping Area-Subarea Combinations on page 401

■ Adding Release Product Builds on page 402

■ Logging Change Requests (QA End User) on page 403

■ Assessing Change Requests (Product Marketing End User) on page 405

■ Resolving Change Requests (Engineering End User) on page 408

■ Verifying Change Request Closures (QA End User) on page 413

■ Creating Patch Requests (Release Management End User) on page 414

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Features of Siebel Quality

Siebel Quality operates through the Quality screen in your Siebel application. This section
summarizes some features of Siebel Quality.

■ Create, track, and close the various types of CRs. These features allow an organization to
manage a CR from beginning to the end, and also allow different process owners to manage
specific phases of the CR life cycle.

■ Log, track, and resolve multiple occurrences of a CR. When an issue is found in one product, it
sometimes occurs in other, related products. In such cases, end users can create child CRs, or
multiple occurrence CRs, from a primary CR and link them together so that they can be managed
as a single unit through resolution.

Siebel Quality also allows end users to designate other types of relationships, such as CRs that
are dependent upon each other or are duplicates of each other.

■ Analyze and report on product issues. Because reports and charts are run on demand,
organizations can gauge the overall health and stability of products in development.

■ Track the history of a CR. Siebel Quality displays information about who the CR was assigned to,
whether ownership has been reassigned, and whether the product area associated with the CR
has been modified.

Quality and Release Manager

Siebel Quality is packaged with Siebel Release Manager, a tool that allows an organization to manage
product development through functions such as feature tracking, engineering allocation, test plan
management, and test pass management.

Together, Quality and Release Manager support the product life cycle management process from
beginning to end. For more information, see Chapter 16, “Release Manager.”

Best Practices: Administering and Using Quality

The following section provides some best practices for administering and using the Quality
functionality.

■ Assign CRs automatically. As a productivity aid, you can automate the CR assignment process.
Use Siebel Business Process Designer to detect the creation of a new CR and invoke the Siebel
Assignment Manager to assign this CR to the appropriate person.

For information about Siebel Business Process Designer, see Siebel Business Process Framework:
Workflow Guide. For information about Siebel Assignment Manager, see Siebel Assignment
Manager Administration Guide.

■ Link multiple occurrences. When the same issue occurs in different builds, testing
environments, or platforms, you can link the CR records as multiple occurrences of each other.
When you do this, it is possible to track multiple CRs together and close them together.

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■ Appoint multiple owners. To help make sure of follow-up, assign at least two people to be
involved in processing each CR. For example, one person may log, prioritize, and assign the CR
while another person implements a solution.

■ Write descriptively. End users can help make the CR life cycle more efficient by writing clear
and descriptive CRs that can be understood by everyone involved in CR processing.

■ Query frequently. Because the system does not automatically alert owners when a new CR has
been logged or an existing one updated, end-users in all teams that work with CRs should query
often for their CRs.

■ Add comments. To help the people involved in processing a CR to trace what has gone before
and to understand what the current status is, make sure that everyone who updates a CR writes
a comment describing the update.

Example Process for Quality

This section provides a summary of the Siebel Quality CR life cycle. The stages of the Quality process
are described in the following sections, in the order listed.

1 Set Up and Maintain (Administrator). See “Process for Setting Up and Maintaining Quality” on
page 392.

2 Log CRs (Quality Assurance). See “Process for Logging Change Requests” on page 393.

3 Assess CRs (Product Marketing). See “Process for Assessing Change Requests” on page 394.

4 Resolve CRs (Engineering). See “Process for Resolving Change Requests” on page 395.

5 Verify CR Closures (Quality Assurance). See “Process for Verifying Change Request Closures”
on page 397.

6 Create Patch Requests (Release Management). See “Process for Creating Patch Requests” on
page 398.

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Figure 28 illustrates this overall process for Siebel Quality. Each cross-reference in a box refers to
the title of another figure that illustrates its details.

“Administrator Setup and Maintenance

Process”

“Quality Assurance Logging Process”

“Product Marketing Assessment Process”

“Engineering Resolution Process”

“Quality Assurance Verification Process”

“Release Management PR Process”

Figure 28. Overall Quality Process

Details of each of these operations are depicted by the descriptions and diagrams in the sections that
follow.

Process for Setting Up and Maintaining Quality

Before end users can begin working with Quality, the administrator must set it up. The tasks
applications administrators perform to set up Quality are listed below. It is recommended that you
do them in the order shown.

1 Set Up Roles and Responsibilities. Set up roles and responsibilities to allow the employees
who will use Siebel Quality to access the Quality screen and its views. See “Setting Up Roles and
Responsibilities” on page 399.

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2 Set Up Lists of Values. Set up lists of values (LOVs) for the fields in the Quality screen. See
“Setting Up Lists of Values” on page 399.

3 Map Area-Subarea Combinations. After field value LOVs are entered, map Area and Subarea
field values to one another. Link each Area-Subarea combination to Product Line, Engineering
Group, and QA Owner field values. See “Mapping Area-Subarea Combinations” on page 401.

4 Add Release Product Builds. Add product builds that can be linked to CRs. See “Adding Release
Product Builds” on page 402.

These tasks are illustrated in Figure 29. They are part of ongoing maintenance as well as setup.

Figure 29. Administrator Setup and Maintenance Process

Process for Logging Change Requests

After you have set up Siebel Quality, Quality Assurance testers and others can log CRs.

1 Query for Existing CRs. After identifying a product issue, but before logging a new CR, the CR
creator queries to see whether a duplicate issue already exists. See “Querying for Existing Change
Requests” on page 403.

■ Update Existing CR Comments. If the search reveals an existing CR for the issue, the CR
creator enters a comment with relevant information that may not already be recorded.

■ Log New CR. If the CR creator cannot find an existing issue, she then creates a new CR. See
“Logging Change Requests” on page 403 and “Generating Change Requests from Service
Requests” on page 404.

2 Add Attachment. Optionally, the CR creator can add attachments such as screen captures and
configuration files to clarify the issue. See “The new CR appears in the Quality screen’s Customer
Change Requests view.” on page 405.

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These tasks are illustrated in Figure 30.

Figure 30. Quality Assurance Logging Process

Process for Assessing Change Requests

After CRs are entered in the system, product marketing managers assess the CRs to determine how
important they are and who should resolve the issues.

1 Query for Unassigned CRs. The product manager queries for new CRs in his area of
responsibility. See “Querying for Unassigned Change Requests” on page 406.

■ Close CR. If the product manager decides the CR is not a real issue, he closes it. See “Closing
Unassigned Change Requests” on page 406.

■ Reassign CR. If the product manager decides that the CR is a real issue, he determines
whether it can be resolved by his team. If he finds that the CR’s functional area was
incorrectly set, he assigns it to a new owner. See “Reassigning Change Requests” on page 406.

■ Close CR. The product manager investigates whether the CR is a duplicate of an existing
issue. If it is, he closes the new CR as a duplicate. See “Closing Unassigned Change Requests”
on page 406.

2 Prioritize and Assign CR. If the product manager determines that the CR represents a real
issue in his area of responsibility and is not a duplicate of another CR, he prioritizes the CR and
assigns it to an engineering manager. See “Prioritizing and Assigning Change Requests” on
page 407.

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 Quality ■ Example Process for Quality

These tasks are illustrated in Figure 31.

Figure 31. Product Marketing Assessment Process

Process for Resolving Change Requests

After Product Management has assigned CRs to Engineering, Engineering can proceed to resolve the
CRs.

1 Assign CRs (Manager). The engineering team manager to whom the product manager assigned
the CR, in turn assigns it to an engineer on her team. See “Assigning Change Request to Engineers
(Manager)” on page 408.

2 Query for My CRs. The engineer performs a query to find CRs assigned to him.

3 Reproduce the Issue. Upon receiving a newly assigned CR, the engineer tries to reproduce the
issue in the CR.

4 Close CR. At this point, the engineer may close the CR for the following reasons:
■ The engineer cannot reproduce the issue.

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Quality ■ Example Process for Quality

■ The engineer can reproduce the issue, but it is not an issue with your company’s current
product.

See “Closing Resolved Change Requests” on page 411.

5 Create Multiple Occurrence CR. If the engineer determines that the CR contains a real issue
with your company’s current product, he checks whether the same issue occurs in multiple
versions of the same product. If it does, he creates a multiple occurrence CR for each product
variant or version that has the same issue. See “Creating Multiple Occurrence Change Requests”
on page 408.

6 Break Multiple Occurrence Link. If subsequent investigation shows that the issue does not
occur in one of the other product versions, or occurs differently, the engineer breaks the multiple
occurrence link. See “Breaking Multiple Occurrence Links” on page 409.

7 Define Relationship. If the CR is not a multiple occurrence, the engineer tries to determine
whether it is related to other CRs in some other way. For example, correcting the issue in one
CR might depend on first correcting the issue in another. If this is the case, he determines the
relationship. See “Linking Related Change Requests” on page 410.

8 Fix Issue. The engineer then applies the appropriate fix and closes the CR. See “Closing Resolved
Change Requests” on page 411.

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 Quality ■ Example Process for Quality

These tasks are illustrated in Figure 32.

Figure 32. Engineering Resolution Process

Process for Verifying Change Request Closures

After engineers resolve CRs, the CR creator attempts to verify the resolutions.

1 Query for Closed CRs. The creator queries for CRs that she has logged that are now closed.
See “Querying for Closed Change Requests” on page 413.

2 Verify Resolution. The creator tries to verify the resolution.

■ Reopen CR. If she determines that the issue is not resolved, she reopens the CR. This sends
the CR back to engineering for further review. See “Reopening Change Requests” on page 413.

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Quality ■ Example Process for Quality

■ Close CR as Verified. If she determines that the CR is correctly resolved as stated, she
closes the CR as verified. See “Closing Change Requests as Verified” on page 413.

At this point, the CR life cycle is complete.

These tasks are illustrated in Figure 33.

Figure 33. Quality Assurance Verification Process

Process for Creating Patch Requests

After CRs have been closed as verified, the Release Management group may determine that a
particular CR fix needs to go to a customer immediately rather than in the next release of the
product.

1 Find Verified CRs with Urgent Customer Need for Fix. A member of the Release
Management group identifies a closed and verified CR that represents a fix for which a customer
cannot wait until the next scheduled release.

2 Generate PR from CR. A release manager generates a PR from a CR. See “Generating Patch
Requests from Change Requests” on page 414.

3 Enter Approvals. The release manager obtains the approvals necessary for shipping the patch
and records the approvals in the PR record. See “Approving and Shipping Patch Requests” on
page 414.

4 Retest. If all approvers do not agree that the patch is ready to ship, the patch is sent back for
further development, testing, and another approval cycle.

5 Ship Maintenance Release. After all approvals are gathered for the PR, the maintenance
release is ready to go to the customer. See “Approving and Shipping Patch Requests” on page 414.

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 Quality ■ Setting Up Roles and Responsibilities

These tasks are illustrated in Figure 34.

Figure 34. Release Management PR Process

Setting Up Roles and Responsibilities

You are typically responsible for setting up access to your Siebel application’s screens and views by
assigning roles and responsibilities. This includes access to the Quality screen and its associated
views.

For information about setting up roles and responsibilities and associating screens and views with
them, see Siebel Security Guide.

Setting Up Lists of Values

You are typically responsible for setting up lists of values (LOVs) for use in Siebel Business
Applications. This includes LOVs that are specific to Siebel Quality. For information about setting up
LOVs, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

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Table 104 lists the LOVs to be set up before using Siebel Quality.

Table 104. Quality LOVs

Example LOV
Field Type Value for LOV Items Description Items

Area PROD_DEFECT_AREA Functional product area Accounts

Orders
Browser PSTASK_CLIENT_BROWSER Type of Web browser running in IE 5.5
the test environment
NS 6.2

Client OS PSTASK_CLIENT_OS Type of operating system running Win 2000

on the client computer
Mac OS

Database PSTASK_CLIENT_DB Type of database running in the IBM DB2

test environment
MS SQL Svr 7.0
Priority PROD_DEFECT_PRIORITY Relative importance of the issue P1-Critical

P3-Medium

Server OS PSTASK_SERVER_OS Type of operating system running HP-UX 11i

on the server
Solaris 8

Severity PROD_DEFECT_SEVERITY How severe the issue is 3-Wrong

Behavior

4-Minor Error

Special Tag PD_SPEC_TAG Statuses or actions that are not BETA3

identified by the other fields, for
HIGH RISK
reporting, querying, exporting, or
localization purposes

Status PROD_DEFECT_SUB_STATUS Implementation or development Open-Disagree

stage
Closed-Verified

Subarea PROD_DEFECT_SUB_AREA Functional product area Expenses

subdivision
Fulfillment

Substatus PROD_DEFECT_SUB_STATUS Implementation or development Unassigned

substage
Approved

Type PROD_DEFECT_TYPE Type or classification for the CR Product Defect

Enhancement
Web Server PSTASK_SERVER_OS Type of operating system running AIX 4.3.3
OS on the Web server
Win NT 4.0

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Mapping Area-Subarea Combinations

When an end user navigates to the Quality screen and selects any combination of Area and Subarea
field values, the Product Line, Engineering Group, and QA Owner fields are automatically populated.
You activate this process by setting up mappings for Area and Subarea combinations. After defining
the lists of values, or LOVs, for Area and Subarea, you define each Area-Subarea combination. Then
you designate the Product Line, Engineering Group, and QA Owner field values for each Area-Subarea
combination.

As product parameters change in the course of development, you may need to map new Area-
Subarea combinations.

To add an Area-Subarea combination

1 Navigate to the Quality screen > Quality Administration view.

2 Create a new record for each Area-Subarea combination.

For example, if you want a selection of Inventory in the Area field to constrain the choices in the
Subarea field to Shipping, Receiving, and Cycle Counting, then create three records with the Area
and Subarea fields completed as shown in the following table.

Area Subarea

Inventory Shipping

Inventory Receiving

Inventory Cycle Counting

3 Complete the other fields.

These fields are described in the following table.

Field Description

Engineering Group Engineering team with which this Area-

Subarea combination is associated.

Product Line Grouping of products with which this Area-

Subarea combination is associated.

QA Owner Quality Assurance team owner with which this

Area-Subarea combination is associated.

When these mappings are set up, the pick list values available in the Subarea field on the Quality
screen’s views change dynamically according to the value an end user selects in the Area field.
When the end user then selects a value in the Subarea field, the system automatically populates
the Product Line, Engineering Group, and QA Owner fields.

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Adding Release Product Builds

You control product version information for the organization by setting up release product builds.
Because every Release Manager and Quality record must be associated with a specific release
product build, you must set these up before end users enter any records.

As a product progresses through the release cycle, increasingly advanced product prototypes are
created. (In the case of software development, these prototypes are known as builds.) As each new
prototype becomes available, you are responsible for entering it into Quality. This allows end users
of Quality and Release Manager to record each record against the appropriate build.

There are two types of releases:

■ Future Releases. Though only one active release may be in progress, you must set up records
for future releases as well. That way, if a feature or fix is deferred from the current release, an
end user can target it to a specific future release.

■ Unspecified Releases. Sometimes the appropriate future release for a given feature or fix may
be unknown. For this contingency, you must set up at least one artificial release called
Unspecified Release or some similar term. Orphan items can be linked to this release. When the
appropriate future release has been determined, an item can then be retargeted to that release.

To add a release product build

1 Navigate to the Quality screen > Release Product Administration view.

2 In the Release Product Administration list, create a new record for a build and complete the
fields.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Description

Build Number or code that identifies this build.

End Date To cause this build to disappear from the Build and Target
fields of the Change Requests view after a certain time,
enter a date after which it should not appear.

Language Three-letter language code.

Product Product of which this build is a prototype.

Target Version Select to make this build available as a choice in the

Target field of the Change Requests view.

Version Version number of the product.

When you create a record in the Release Product Administration screen, the information in the
Build, Language, Product, and Version fields becomes available to end users in the Build field in
the Release screen’s QA Tests view and Quality screen’s Change Requests view. If you selected
the Target Version check box, this information also becomes available in the Target field in the
Quality screen’s Change Requests view.

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 Quality ■ Logging Change Requests (QA End User)

Logging Change Requests (QA End User)

Anyone can log a CR. The Quality Assurance organization, however, creates the vast majority of CRs.
Quality Assurance discovers most product issues during testing. When a QA tester discovers a
product issue, she creates a new CR.

To add CR records and fill them out with necessary information, follow the procedures in this section.

Querying for Existing Change Requests

Before logging a new CR, a CR creator should query to see whether a duplicate issue is already
recorded in an existing CR. She can do this by searching on various combinations of key words used
to describe the problem.

To query for existing change requests

1 Navigate to the Quality screen.

2 In the Change Request form, initiate a query.

3 In the Summary field, enter a phrase that might describe the issue in other CRs.

For example, if you find a problem with attaching documents to a record, you might query on
phrases such as the following:

■ Attachment not working

■ Attachment function broken

4 Run the query.

5 If the query reveals that a CR record already exists for the issue, in the My Change Requests list,
drill down on the CR # field hyperlink.

6 In the More Info form, update the Comments field with relevant information that is not already
recorded.

Logging Change Requests

If the CR creator cannot find an existing CR that describes the issue, then the creator enters a new
CR. The CR creator must enter all relevant details including the functional area in which the problem
was found, the environment (operating system, server type, and so on) where the problem occurred,
and the precise steps for reproducing the issue.

Most of this information is entered in the left side of the Change Requests form, labeled Change
Request Description.

To log a change request

1 Navigate to the Quality screen.

2 Create a new CR record.

3 In the My Change Requests list, drill down on the CR # field hyperlink.

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4 In the More Info form, enter values for the fields, as needed.

Some fields are listed in the following table.

Field Description

Area Functional product area to which the CR pertains.

Comments Enter a comment describing what was done with this CR, and any additional
information that may be needed by other users to understand, track, or
resolve the issue.

Description/How Detailed description of the issue. If the CR describes a product defect, write
to Reproduce complete step-by-step directions for reproducing the issue.

Build Product build in which the issue occurs.

Product Line Product line affected by the CR. Automatically filled in when the Subarea
value is set.

QA Owner Quality Assurance team owner of the CR. Automatically filled in when the
Subarea value is set.

Severity Creator’s assessment of the seriousness of the issue.

Special Tag Allows you to select statuses or actions that are not identified by the other
fields. Special tags may be used for purposes such as reporting, tracking,
querying, exporting, and localization. You can select one or more values.

Subarea Functional product area subdivision is related to the Area you selected.
When you make a selection in this field, the Product Line, QA Owner, and
Engineering Group fields are populated automatically.

Summary Brief description of the CR. Should be concise enough so a reader can
immediately understand the overall issue.

Tag Summary Displays all the tags selected in the Special Tag field.
Type CR type. Accept the default Product Defect, or select another value to
identify the CR as an enhancement request, a user interface issue, and so
on.

Generating Change Requests from Service Requests

Occasionally, a CR originates from a customer by way of a service request. If the technical support
person who receives the customer’s service request decides that it represents a product issue, she
can log a CR for the service request.

For more information about service requests, see Chapter 3, “Service Support.”

To log a change request for a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Requests - Help Desk view.

2 Select a service request record.

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 Quality ■ Assessing Change Requests (Product Marketing End User)

3 In the My Service Requests - HelpDesk list, drill down on the SR # field hyperlink.

4 Click the Change Requests view tab

5 In the Change Requests list, add a new CR record.

NOTE: As well as adding existing records in the Change Request list, the user can also create a
new record. To do this the required fields will first have to be added to the list applet. Click Menu
and choose Columns Displayed. In the Columns Displayed dialogue box, move the required fields
from the Available Columns list to the Selected Columns list and click Save.

Additional required fields are listed in the following table.

Field Description

Area Functional product area to which the CR pertains.

Subarea Functional product area subdivision is related to the Area you selected.
When you make a selection in this field, the Product Line, QA Owner, and
Engineering Group fields are populated automatically.

Severity Creator’s assessment of the seriousness of the issue.

Special Tag Allows you to select statuses or actions that are not identified by the other
fields. Special tags may be used for purposes such as reporting, tracking,
querying, exporting, and localization. You can select one or more values.

Status Brief description of the CR.

Substatus Value which describes the state of the CR.

Database Type of database running in the environment.

6 Complete the fields, as needed, from the information in the service request.

For a description of CR fields, see Table 105 on page 412.

7 In the Change Requests list, drill down on the CR # field hyperlink.

8 On the More Info form, in the Comments field, note that this CR originated from a service
request, and add any additional information that may be relevant.
The new CR appears in the Quality screen’s Customer Change Requests view.

Assessing Change Requests (Product

Marketing End User)
After CRs have been logged, the Product Marketing team assesses the new CRs in its functional
areas.

Product managers assess and assign CRs. A product manager reviews each new CR logged in the
assigned area of responsibility. If the product manager determines that an issue is a real one, then
the product manager defines the priority and assigns the CR to the appropriate engineering manager.

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Querying for Unassigned Change Requests

The product manager queries for unassigned CRs in his functional area.

To query for unassigned change requests

1 Navigate to the Quality screen.

2 Create a query with the appropriate field values. Some values you can use in the query are listed
in the following table.

Field Value

Area (your product area)

Owner IS NULL

Priority IS NULL

Status Open

Subarea (your product subarea)

Substatus Open

3 Run the query.

Reassigning Change Requests

If the product manager decides that the CR describes a real issue, he first confirms that the CR is in
his functional area. If he determines that the CR’s functional area was incorrectly set, he reassigns
the CR to the appropriate area.

To reassign a change request

1 Navigate to the Quality screen.

2 Select a CR record.
3 In the Change Request form, change the values in the Area and Subarea fields, as needed.

4 In the My Change Requests list, drill down on the CR # field hyperlink.

5 In the More Info form, in the Comments field, add a brief explanation of why you reassigned the
CR.

Closing Unassigned Change Requests

If the product manager decides the CR is not a real issue, he closes it with various possible reasons.
For example, he may determine that the issue is not a product defect, or he may decide to decline
an enhancement request.

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To close an unassigned change request

1 Navigate to the Quality screen.

2 Select a CR record.

3 In the Change Request form, in the Status field, select Closed.

4 In the Substatus field, do one of the following:

■ If the CR does not reflect a real issue in the current product, select a value such as Not a Bug
or No Longer Applicable.

■ If the CR is an enhancement request and you decide that the request cannot be
accommodated, select Enhancement Declined.

■ If the CR is a duplicate of an existing issue, select Dup-Double Entry. Enter the existing
issue’s CR number in the Primary Occurrence field

5 In the My Change Requests list, drill down on the CR # field hyperlink.

6 In the More Info form, in the Comments field, add a note explaining the reason for closing the CR.

Prioritizing and Assigning Change Requests

If the assessment of a CR is complete and the product manager determines this is a new issue that
needs to be resolved, he assigns a priority, a target release, and an owner to the CR. The product
manager usually assigns the CR to the engineering manager who is in charge of the product area
where the issue occurs.

The product manager enters priority and assignment information on the right side of the Change
Requests form, labeled Resolution.

To prioritize and assign a change request

1 Navigate to the Quality screen.

2 Select a CR record.
3 In the My Change Requests list, drill down on the CR # field hyperlink.
4 In the More Info form, in the Comments field, add a comment summarizing why you prioritized
and assigned this CR as you did.

5 Complete the other fields as needed. Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Description

Engineering Group Displays the group responsible for delivering the fix. Automatically filled
in when the Subarea value is set.

Owner Select the engineering manager responsible for resolving the issue
reported in the CR.

Priority How urgent it is to resolve the issue compared to other issues at hand.
Does not have to be the same as the value in the Severity field.

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Field Description

Special Tag Allows you to select statuses or actions that are not identified by the
other fields. Special tags may be used for purposes such as reporting,
tracking, querying, exporting, and localization. You can select one or
more values.

Tag Summary Displays all the tags selected in the Special Tag field.

Target Release in which the CR issue is to be fixed.

Resolving Change Requests

(Engineering End User)
The engineering manager who owns an open CR assigns the CR to an engineer on her team. The
engineer first tries to re-create the issue by following the description entered by the CR creator. He
debugs the issue and isolates its cause. He then makes the appropriate fix, updates the CR with all
relevant details, and closes the CR.

Assigning Change Request to Engineers (Manager)

After the product manager assigns the CR to an engineering manager, the engineering manager
assigns the CR to an engineer who has the right expertise to resolve the issue.

To assign a change request to an engineer

1 Navigate to the Quality screen.

2 Select a CR record.

3 In the My Change Requests list, in the Owner field, select the engineer you want to assign to
resolve the issue.

4 Drill down on the CR # field hyperlink.

5 On the More Info form, in the Comments field, enter any comment or explanation that might be
necessary for the engineer to understand the issue.

Creating Multiple Occurrence Change Requests

In the course of resolving a CR, an engineer might find the same problem in another testing
environment, another language version, or another product release version. For this situation, your
Siebel application allows end users to create parent-child relationships between CRs. With this
functionality, end users can create multiple occurrence CRs and link them to a parent CR.

CRs are multiple occurrences when they have the same functional description but are logged against
more than one critical factor such as environment, language, or product. Alternatively, multiple
occurrence CRs can describe different symptoms that originate from the same problem and require
the same resolution. Multiple occurrence CRs must have the same owner, and the files or other
components to be fixed must be the same.

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The ability to create multiple occurrence CRs allows end users to manage related issues from one
source, eliminate double-counting of product issues, and track the linked CRs together.

To create a new multiple occurrence CR (child) for an existing primary occurrence CR (parent), use
the following procedure.

To create a multiple occurrence change request

1 Navigate to the Quality screen.

2 In the My Change Requests list, select a CR record that will be the parent to multiple occurrences.

3 In the Change Request form, click Menu and choose Create Multiple Occurrence.

The system creates a copy of the original record with a new CR number. The number of the
original CR (the parent) appears in the Primary Occurrence field.

4 In the new CR record, change the field values for information that is different from the original
CR. Some fields in the Change Requests view are listed in Table 105 on page 412.

5 In the My Change Requests list, drill down on the CR # field hyperlink.

6 In the More Info form, in the Comments field, record the action you have taken and note any
additional information that may be relevant.

The parent and child CRs are linked and the new CR becomes a multiple occurrence CR.

Breaking Multiple Occurrence Links

In some cases, links between multiple occurrence CRs need to be removed. For example, further
investigation may reveal that multiple occurrence CRs are not related to each other.

You can break a multiple occurrence link either from a parent CR or from a child CR. To break Multiple
Occurrence links, use the following procedures.

To break a multiple occurrence link from the parent change request

1 Navigate to the Quality screen.

2 In the My Change Requests list, select a CR record for a parent multiple occurrence CR.

3 Drill down on the CR # field hyperlink.

4 Click the Related CRs view tab.

The Related CRs list displays the CRs with child relationships to the selected primary CR.

5 In the Related CRs list, select the multiple occurrence CR you want to remove.

NOTE: Child multiple occurrence CRs are identified by a value of Multiple Occurrence in the
Relationship Type field.

6 In the Related CRs list, click Menu and select Delete Relationship.

7 In the confirmation window, click OK.

The CR is removed from the Related CRs list.

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To break a multiple occurrence link from the child change request

1 Navigate to the Quality screen.

2 In the My Change Requests list, select a CR record for a child multiple occurrence CR.

3 Delete the value in the Primary Occurrence field. (The value in this field is the parent CR.)

4 Drill down on the CR # field hyperlink.

5 On the More Info form, in the Comments field, record the action you have taken and note any
additional information that may be relevant.

6 Click Menu.

If the link was broken successfully, the Go To Primary Occurrence option is unavailable.

Linking Related Change Requests

In addition to multiple occurrence, Siebel Quality uses several other designations to define the
relationships that can occur among CRs. Related CRs are useful when investigating a solution for a
CR that may be similar to others.

■ Duplicate (Dup-Double Entry). The same CR entered more than once. Not only is the
functional description the same, but other critical factors such as environment, language, or
product are also the same.

■ Dependent Upon. A CR that cannot be resolved until it receives a fix from another CR.

■ Miscellaneous (Misc). An arbitrary relationship between CRs. Allows you to track multiple CRs
together, though they may not be dependent on one another or match one another.

This section contains procedures for creating and managing the related CRs. To create a relationship
between two existing CRs, use the following procedures.

To link a related change request from a parent change request

1 Navigate to the Quality screen.
2 In the My Change Requests list, select the primary CR to which you want to relate another CR.
3 Drill down on the CR # field hyperlink.

4 Click the Related CRs view tab.

5 In the Related CRs list, create a new record.

6 In the Add Change Request dialog box, select the CR you want to relate to the primary CR as a
child and click OK.

7 In the Relationship Type field, select the type of relationship the related CR has to the parent CR.

8 In the Comments field, record the action you have taken and note any additional information that
may be relevant.

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To link a related change request from a child change request

1 Navigate to the Quality screen.

2 In the My Change Requests list, select the CR record you want to link to another CR record as a
child.

NOTE: The child CR cannot have any related child CRs of its own. To verify this drill down on the
CR # field hyperlink, and check the Related CRs view tab.

3 In the Primary Occurrence field, select the CR number of the parent CR.

4 Drill down on the CR # field hyperlink.

5 On the More Info form, in the Comments field, record the action you have taken and note any
additional information that may be relevant.

6 Click Menu and choose Go to Primary Occurrence.

The Change Request form displays the CR record you just designated as the parent (primary
occurrence).

7 Click the Related CRs view tab.

8 In the Related CRs list, select the child CR record you just linked to the parent as related.

9 In the Relationship Type field, select the type of relationship the child CR record has to the parent
CR record.

Closing Resolved Change Requests

Upon receiving a newly assigned CR, the engineer tries to reproduce the issue. At this point, the CR
may be closed for several reasons, such as the issue being with a third-party product, no longer
applicable to the current release, or the engineer being unable to reproduce it.

If the engineer determines that the CR is a real issue, he investigates further, makes the appropriate
fix, and tests the fix. When the fix is complete, he closes the CR and enters relevant information
about the fix.

When closing a primary occurrence CR, an engineer can close a parent CR and all its child CRs at
once, close the parent CR only, or close a child CR independently of its parent.

When closing a CR, the engineer enters information in the right side of the Change Requests form,
labeled Resolution. Use the following procedures to close CRs that have been fixed or otherwise
resolved.

To close a resolved change request

1 Navigate to the Quality screen.

2 In the My Change Requests list, select a CR record that you want to close as fixed.

3 In the Change Request form, set the Status field to Closed.

4 Set the Substatus field to the appropriate value.

5 In the My Change Requests list, drill down on the CR # field hyperlink.

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6 On the More Info form, in the Comments field, add a comment explaining the resolution.

Complete the other fields as needed. Some fields in the Change Requests view are listed in Table 105.

Table 105. Fields in the Change Requests View

Field Comments

Approvals Allows the employees involved in processing the CR to mark and track
approvals for the stages of the fix.

Files Fixed Filename and archiving system location of each electronic file modified
for the fix. Becomes a required field when the Substatus or Integration
Status changes to Fixed.

Fixed Build Product version where the resolution is implemented.

Integration Fixed Build Integration branch build number in which the fix was made.

Integration Fixed Date Date when the fix was made in the integration branch.

Integration Status Status of the CR on the integration branch. When the Integration Status
field is set to Closed, the Integration Fixed Date field is automatically
populated and the Integration Fixed Build field becomes required.

Special Tag Allows you to select statuses or actions that are not identified by the
other fields. Special tags may be used for purposes such as reporting,
tracking, querying, exporting, and localization. You can select one or
more values.

Substatus Reason for closing the CR. Some values are as follows:

■ FOL. Fact of Life. Because of a limitation such as dependency on a

third-party product, your company’s development team has no
control over the issue.

■ No Longer Applicable. The issue applies to an older or different

version of the product, but not to the current version or the version
under development.

■ Not Reproducible. The issue cannot be reproduced as described.

(In cases where the CR issue cannot be reproduced, it is
recommended that before closing the CR, you contact the CR creator
directly to obtain clarification.)

■ Fixed. The issue has been corrected.

Tag Summary Displays all the tags selected in the Special Tag field.

To close a resolved parent multiple occurrence change request

1 Follow the steps of “To close a resolved change request” on page 411 for a parent CR.

When you save the record, a message box appears.

2 Do one of the following:

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 Quality ■ Verifying Change Request Closures (QA End User)

■ Click OK to close all the associated multiple occurrence CRs with the same resolution
information as the primary CR.

■ Click Cancel to close only the primary CR.

Verifying Change Request Closures (QA

End User)
After the engineer resolves a CR, the QA tester or other CR creator who reported the issue verifies
that the resolution is correct.

Querying for Closed Change Requests

The CR creator queries for closed CRs in her functional area.

To query for closed change requests

1 Navigate to the Quality screen.

2 In the My Change Request form, create a query with Status = Closed.

3 Run the query.

Reopening Change Requests

The CR creator tries to verify the resolution on the version identified by the engineer. If she
determines that the issue is not resolved, she reopens the CR, which sends it back to the engineer
for further review.

To reopen a change request

1 Navigate to the Quality screen.

2 Select a CR record.
3 In the Change Request form, in the Status field, select Open-Disagree.

4 In the My Change Requests list, drill down on the CR # field hyperlink.

5 On the More Info form, in the Comments field, enter an explanation of why you disagree with the
resolution.

Closing Change Requests as Verified

If the creator determines that the CR is correctly resolved, she closes out the CR as verified. At this
point, the CR life cycle is complete.

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Quality ■ Creating Patch Requests (Release Management End User)

To close a change request as Verified

1 Navigate to the Quality screen.

2 Select a CR record.

3 In the Change Request form, in the Status field, select Closed-Verified.

4 In the My Change Requests list, drill down on the CR # field hyperlink.

5 On the More Info form, in the Comments field, enter a note that you agree with the resolution.

Creating Patch Requests (Release

Management End User)
The release management team, which may consist of representatives from the major functional
groups, tracks the overall health of the product release. They monitor product status and stability.
They monitor the development effort’s progress through Siebel Quality’s reports and charts. They
then provide the final recommendations for shipment of the product.

The release management group also manages patch requests (PRs). A patch request (PR) is a
resolved product issue whose fix must be delivered to a customer prior to the next scheduled release,
through a maintenance release. The release management group makes sure that critical issues for
which customers need fixes immediately get resolved as maintenance releases.

Generating Patch Requests from Change Requests

A member of the release management team generates a PR from a CR. The PR then forms the basis
of a maintenance release. To generate a PR, use the procedure that follows.

To generate a patch request from a change request

1 Navigate to the Quality screen.

2 In the My Change Requests list, select the closed and verified CR record from which you want to
generate a PR.

3 In the Change Requests form, click the view menu button and choose Copy To Patch.

The Patch Requests view appears with the new PR record generated from the CR. Most fields are
filled in from the CR.

4 In the Account field, select the customer that is to receive the patch.

5 In the Date Required field, enter the date on which the PR fix must be delivered to the customer.

Approving and Shipping Patch Requests

A PR is approved for shipping as a maintenance release in the Patch Requests view, which is used by
the release management team. The main groups involved in product development must approve a
patch before it can be delivered to a customer.

To record approvals and clear a patch for shipping, use the procedure that follows.

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To approve and ship a patch request

1 Navigate to the Quality screen > Patch Request List view.

2 Find the patch record you want to ship.

3 In the All Patch Requests list, drill down on the Patch Request # field hyperlink.

4 As you receive approvals for the patch to be shipped, complete the Technical Services, Product
Marketing, Engineering, and QA fields.

5 When all teams have approved the PR, in the Patch Status field, select Approved to Ship.

6 When the patch is shipped, in the Patch Status field, select Closed-Shipped.

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15 Cycle Counting and
Replenishment

This chapter presents the features of Siebel Field Service for maintaining inventory: cycle counting
and replenishment. These functions are part of the Logistics Management module. Topics include:

■ Cycle Counting on page 417

■ Setting Up Cycle Counting on page 423

■ Running the Cycle Counting Engine on page 426

■ Replenishment Engine on page 427

■ Setting Up Replenishment on page 432

■ Replenishing Inventory on page 432

■ Administration - Service Screen on page 433

■ Products Screen on page 434

■ Inventory Screen on page 435

■ Cycle Counts Screen on page 439

■ Cycle Counting Report on page 440

Cycle Counting
Cycle counting is a method of counting inventory by grouping products into classes and counting the
products in each class at designated intervals over a period of time. Only part of the products are
counted at one time, but over the designated time period all products are counted. Products of class
A, for instance, might be counted once every three months, products of class B once every six
months, and products of class C once a year.

Since assets are moving in and out of inventory, cycle counting creates a dynamic, statistical view
of inventory. To enhance statistical accuracy, cycle counting uses two methods of product
classification (the cycle count basis): ABC and XYZ.

■ The ABC cycle count basis ranks products according to their financial value. The Cycle Counting
Engine counts the items with a larger dollar value more often than those with a lower value.

■ The XYZ cycle count basis ranks products according to their turnover. Higher-turnover products
are counted more often, resulting in a higher accuracy of counting.

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Cycle Counting and Replenishment ■ Cycle Counting

Cycle counting is configured for inventory location types, inventory locations, and products.

NOTE: If a configuration parameter for cycle counting can be set at different levels, the parameter
for the more specific level takes precedence. For example, the cycle count basis (ABC or XYZ,
meaning cycle counting based on the value of items versus their turnover rate) for an inventory
location takes precedence over that for an inventory type. The cycle count class, A, B, or C; X, Y, or
Z (meaning that it has high, medium, or low relative value or turnover rate), for an inventory type
takes precedence over that for a product.

The Cycle Counting Engine requires this input:

■ One or more inventory locations

■ A start date for creating inventory lists for cycle counting

■ An end date for creating inventory lists for cycle counting

Whenever the Cycle Counting Engine runs, it produces the following output:

■ Cycle counting periods, which define the calendar dates covered by a cycle count.

■ Cycle counting records (headers).

■ Part lists for each cycle counting record. The part list provides instructions for the next physical
count of inventory.

The Cycle Counts screen, Part List view accepts manual input of the count data. The Cycle Counting
Engine compares this to the inventory records in its database, and, if there is a variance, allows for
an adjustment of inventory.

Figure 35 on page 419 illustrates the decision path that the Cycle Counting Engine uses to generate
a parts lists. In following the decision path, the Cycle Counting Engine goes through the following
steps:

1 Identifies the cycle-counting basis (ABC or XYZ) for the specified inventory location or location
type.

2 If any remaining product category is to be handled, calculates the number of products to count
today. If no remaining product category is to be handled, prints a parts list.

3 If there are any remaining uncounted products in the category, selects a product category that
has not been counted in this counting period.

4 Adds the selected product to the parts list (or cycle counting order); flags the product counted.

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 Cycle Counting and Replenishment ■ Cycle Counting

5 If the products to be counted today have been selected, returns to Step 2. If the products to be
counted today have not been selected yet, returns to Step 3.

Figure 35. Logic of the Cycle Counting Engine

Configuration of the Cycle Counting Engine

The Cycle Counting Engine generates cycle counting headers and cycle counting part lists by using
the configuration information from the Cycle Counts view. For more information, see “Cycle Counts
View” on page 438.

Cycle counting uses these configuration parameters:

■ ABC or XYZ count basis. The method used for cycle counting of an inventory location: ABC =
financial value basis, XYZ = turnover basis.

■ A, B, or C classification. The classification of products based on the financial value of an

item, where A > B > C.

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■ X, Y, or Z classification. The classification of products based on the turnover of an item,

where X >Y >Z.

A product receives any combination of class A, B, or C and X, Y, or Z; for example, AY. However,
cycle counting is based on either ABC or XYZ, not both.

■ Frequency. The interval in days between physical counts of inventory at a location; for example,
if counting frequency is 7 days, inventory is counted every seven days.

■ Period. The time period in days allotted to counting all A or X, B or Y, or C or Z class items at
this location. For example, if the counting period for class A or X products is 90 days, the Cycle
Counting Engine makes sure that all the products in this class are included in the part list at least
once every 90 days.

■ Start Date and End Date. The time span in calendar days during which the Cycle Counting
Engine will create cycle count records.

Here is an example of a cycle counting scenario:

An inventory location is configured to count on a financial value basis (ABC). There are approximately
100 A-class products in inventory. Every five days (Frequency = 5 days) someone spends as much
time as needed to count one-quarter (5/20) of the A-class items, with the goal of counting all of the
A-class items within 20 days (Counting Period A/X = 20 days). Counting periods do not have to be
even multiples of frequency.

Configuration Information for the Cycle Counting Engine

Configuration of cycle counting takes place at several levels, on different screens (see Table 106).

Table 106. Configuration of Cycle Counting

Configuration Parameter Applies to View

Cycle count basis: Inventory locations See “Inventory Locations View” on

ABC or XYZ page 436.

Inventory location types See “Inventory Location Types View”

on page 434.

Cycle count class: Products associated with a See “Inventory Options Subview” on
A, B, or C and X, Y, or Z specific inventory types page 435.

Products associated with See “Product Inventory View” on

specific inventory locations page 436.

Frequency Inventory locations See “Inventory Locations View” on

page 436.

Inventory location types See “Inventory Location Types View”

on page 434.

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Table 106. Configuration of Cycle Counting

Configuration Parameter Applies to View

Count period for A/X, B/Y, Inventory locations See the “Inventory Locations View” on
and C/Z page 436.

Inventory location types See the “Inventory Location Types

View” on page 434.

Start date and end date Inventory locations See the “Cycle Counts Views” on
page 439 (on the Cycle Counts
screen).

NOTE: If a configuration parameter can be set at different aspects of inventory, the parameter for
the more specific aspect takes precedence. For example, the count basis (ABC or XYZ) at an
inventory location takes precedence over the basis specified for an inventory type. The cycle count
class (A, B, or C; X, Y, or Z) for an inventory type takes precedence over that for a product.

System Preferences for the Cycle Counting Engine

The Field Service engines have system preferences (see Table 107 on page 421) that determine the
behavior of each engine. These system preferences are stored in the table S_SYS_PREF. The
BusComp is System Preferences. These are the columns of main interest:

■ SYS_PREF_CD. Name of the System Preference.

■ VAL. Value of the System Preference.

Changing the values of these preferences changes the default behavior of the engine.

NOTE: To register changes to System Preferences, restart the Field Service server.

Table 107. System Preferences for the Cycle Counting Engine

Parameter Default Value Comments

BucketAvailCDtobeCounted OnHand, Customer-Owned Specifies the valid values for the

inventory level’s availability code.
The values should be from the
Bucket Availability Code LOV, and
individual values should be LIVs.

BucketStatusCDtobeCounted Good Specifies the valid values for the

buckets’ status code. The values
should be from the Bucket Status
Code LOV and individual values
should be LIVs.

Only the inventory levels (buckets) whose Availability and Status match the values defined by the
above two parameters are included in the cycle counting process.

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Parameters for the Cycle Counting Engine

All engines can be invoked from the Workflow Manager or from the client. The engines require certain
parameters to be passed. Set the component job parameters using the Administration - Server
Management screen > Jobs > Job Detail view when creating a component job for the server
component Field Service Cycle Counting Engine (alias FSCyccnt).

Table 108 describes the parameters for the Cycle Counting Engine.

Table 108. Parameters for the Cycle Counting Engine

Parameter Value Comments

Mode SQL Specify the WHERE clause to set up criteria and count
the parts which meet that criteria.

Id Specify the ID of the inventory location or the

inventory type and only the parts related to that loc/
type will be counted.

TempTbl Put all the required parameters into a temporary table

with a temporary Client Request ID and pass that ID
to the server to retrieve the parameters from Temp
Table.

ClientId A row ID for retrieving Required when Mode = TempTbl.

params from the temp table

RowID Row ID of an Inventory Required when Mode = ID.

location or Inventory type

StartDT Start Date Required. The proposed start date of cycle counting.

EndDT End Date Required. The proposed end date of cycle counting.

Where Where Clause Business Component Search Spec mode. Required

when Mode = SQL.

Loc/Type Inventory Location or Required when Mode = ID or TempTbl.

Inventory Type

Invoking the Cycle Counting Engine

Use these methods to invoke the Cycle Counting Engine:

■ Invoke the engine by starting a single or repeating component job from the Administration -
Server Management screen > Jobs view.

■ Invoke the engine by clicking the Generate Counts or the Generate Counts (All Locations) button
in the Inventory screen, Cycle Counts view.

■ Invoke the engine from the command-line interface server manager program.

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Related Topic
“FS Cycle Counting Business Service” on page 562

Tracing Levels for the Cycle Counting Engine

You can set different tracing levels for the Cycle Counting Engine, depending on the type and quantity
of information you want to collect. For information about this functionality, see Appendix A, “Engines
Logging Levels.”

Setting Up Cycle Counting

Follow these procedures to set up cycle counting.

For information about synchronous and asynchronous processing, see Siebel Application Services
Interface Reference.

CAUTION: In synchronous processing, the client screen can lock. Consequently, the user sees a
blank screen.

To specify asynchronous operation of the Cycle Counting Engine for a specific user
1 From the application-level menu, choose Tools > User Preferences.

The User Preferences screen appears.

2 On the link bar, click Service.

The Field Service form appears.

3 Select the Cycle Counts check box.

To set component job parameters for the Cycle Counting Engine

1 Create or edit a component job for the server component Field Service Cycle Counting Engine
(alias FSCyccnt).

2 Add or modify the server component parameters as needed.

For information about server components, component parameters, and setting repeating
component jobs, see Siebel System Administration Guide.

To change system preferences for the Cycle Counting Engine

1 Navigate to Administration - Application screen > System Preferences view.

2 In the System Preference Name column, locate the system preference whose value you want to
change.

NOTE: For cycle counting engine-related system preferences, see Table 107 on page 421.

3 In the System Preference Value field, enter a new value.

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4 To register changes to system preferences, restart the Field Service server.

To set up cycle counts for specific inventory locations

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen.

2 Select an inventory location record.

3 In the My Inventory Locations list, drill down on the Name field hyperlink.

4 Click the More Info view tab.

5 In the More Info form, enter values for the Count Basis, Frequency, and Period fields.

To define the start date and end date for cycle counting
1 Navigate to the Cycle Counts screen.

2 From the visibility filter, select All Cycle Counts.

3 In the All Cycle Counts list, select an inventory location record.

4 Enter values for the Start and End dates.

To define the cycle count basis for inventory locations

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen.

2 Select an inventory location record.

3 In the My Inventory Locations list, drill down on the Name field hyperlink.

4 Click the More Info view tab.

5 In the More Info form, in the Count Basis field, select ABC or XYZ.

To define the cycle count basis for inventory location types

1 Navigate to the Administration - Service screen > Inventory Administration view.

2 In the Inventory Location Types list, select an existing inventory type record or add a new one.

3 In the Count Basis field, select ABC or XYZ.

To define cycle count classes for products at specific inventory locations

1 Navigate to Administration - Product Screen.

2 Select a product record.

3 In the Products list, drill down on the Product field hyperlink.

4 In the More Info link bar, click the Product Service Details link.

5 In the Inventory Options subview tab, select an existing inventory type or add a new type.

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6 In the ABC Class and XYZ Class fields, select the relevant cycle counting classes (A, B, or C; X,
Y, or Z).

To define the cycle count class for products associated with specific inventory types
1 Navigate to Administration - Product Screen.

2 Select a product record.

3 In the Products list, drill down on the product field hyperlink.

4 In the More Info link bar, click the Product Service Details link.

5 On the Inventory Options subview tab, select an existing inventory type or add a new type.

6 In the Class ABC and Class XYZ fields, select the relevant cycle counting classes (A, B, or C; X,
Y, or Z).

To define cycle counting frequency and periods for an inventory location

1 Navigate to the Administration - Service screen > Inventory Administration view.

2 In the Inventory Location Types list, select an existing inventory location type or add a new
inventory location type.

3 In the Frequency field, enter the number of days.

4 In the Period A/X, Period B/Y, and Period C/Z fields, enter the relevant numbers of days.

To define cycle counting frequency and periods for an inventory location type
1 Navigate to the Administration - Service screen > Inventory Administration view.

2 In the Inventory Location Types list, select an existing inventory location type or add a new
inventory location type.

3 In the Frequency field, enter the number of days.

4 In the Period A/X, Period B/Y, and Period C/Z fields, enter the relevant numbers of days.

To configure tracing for the Cycle Counting Engine

1 Navigate to the Administration - Server Configuration screen > Servers view.

2 Click the Parameters view tab.

3 In the Server Parameters list, locate the Trace Flags parameter.

4 Set the appropriate values for the fields in the Trace Flags parameter record.

To manually specify parts for a cycle count

1 Navigate to Inventory screen.

2 Select an inventory location record.

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3 In the My Inventory Locations list, drill down on the Name field hyperlink.

4 On the Cycle Counts subview tab, select a cycle count.

5 Drill down on the Status field hyperlink.

6 In the Part List tab, add a new record.

7 In the Product field, select a product.

8 Complete the other fields as needed.

Running the Cycle Counting Engine

Follow these procedures to carry out cycle counts of inventory.

To run the Cycle Counting Engine interactively

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen > Cycle Counts view.

2 In the Inventory Locations list, select an inventory location record for cycle counting.

3 Do one of the following:

■ Click Generate Counts to produce cycle count lists for the selected inventory location.

■ Click Menu and select Generate Counts (All Locations) to produce count lists for all inventory
locations.

The cycle counts appear on the Cycle Counts subview tab.

To review pending cycle counts and parts lists for cycle counting
1 Navigate to the Inventory screen > Cycle Counts view.
2 In the Inventory Locations list, select an inventory location record.

The Cycle Counts subview shows records describing each instance of a cycle count. Pending cycle
counts have a status of Open or Assigned.

3 Select a cycle count record.

4 Drill down on the Status field hyperlink.

The Part List tab shows all items included in the selected cycle count.

To record the results of a cycle count

1 Navigate to the Cycle Counts screen > Cycle count List view.

2 Select a cycle count record.

3 In the My Pending Cycle Counts list, drill down on the Status field hyperlink.

4 In the Part List list, In the Count field of each product record, enter the quantity counted.

5 If a counted item is serialized:

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a Select the product record.

b Enter a value in the Count field.

c Click the Counted Serial Numbers subview tab.

d In the Counted Serial Numbers list, create a record for each serialized asset that is an instance
of that product.

To complete a cycle count

1 Navigate to the Cycle Counts screen > Cycle Count List view.

2 Select a cycle count record.

3 In the My Pending Cycle Counts list, drill down on the Status field hyperlink.

4 In the Part List list, click Count Complete.

This populates the records in the Variance view and the Counted Serial Numbers subview.

To review a cycle count

1 Navigate to the Cycle Counts screen > Cycle Count list view

2 Select a cycle count record.

3 In the My Pending Cycle Counts list, drill down on the Status field hyperlink.

4 Click the Variance view tab.

5 Review the results (Original, Count, and Variance) of the product count and counted serial
numbers, if applicable.

6 To adjust the inventory, click Adjust.

Replenishment Engine
Replenishment is the process of generating orders to restock depleted parts in an inventory location.
The Replenishment Engine generates internal orders to other inventory locations or purchase orders
to outside vendors using the following information about a product in inventory:

■ Minimum and maximum stock levels, plus a safety level

■ Replenishment relationships with other inventories

There are three sources for replenishment:

■ Another service inventory location. The Replenishment Engine generates an internal order.
For example, the main service warehouse replenishes a subsidiary warehouse.

■ External provider. The product is purchased from an external vendor. In this case, the
Replenishment Engine generates a purchase order.

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■ Manufacturing inventory. The product is provided by an internal manufacturing division. Such

replenishments are usually handled as if from an external provider; a purchase order is
generated.

NOTE: Replenishment is different from fulfillment. For more information, see “Fulfillment Overview”
on page 323. The replenishment process creates orders to restock inventory; the fulfillment process
allocates items to fill outgoing orders and generates pick tickets.

The Replenishment Engine requires as input one or more inventory locations.

Configuration Parameters of the Replenishment Engine

The Replenishment Engine uses the configuration parameters listed in Table 109.

Table 109. Configuration of Replenishment

Configuration Parameter Applies to View

Minimum quantity of product to Product See the “Product Inventory View” on

keep in stock page 370.

Maximum quantity of product to Product See the “Product Inventory View” on

keep in stock page 370.

Relationships among inventory Inventory location See the “Relationships View” on

locations page 371.

Vendor Product See the Administration - Product

screen > Product Service Details view.

Vendors for an inventory location Inventory location See the “Vendors View” on page 371.

System Preferences for the Replenishment Engine

The Field Service engines have system preferences, listed in Table 110 on page 429, that determine
the behavior of each engine. These system preferences are stored in the table S_SYS_PREF. The
BusComp is System Preferences. These are the columns of main interest:

■ SYS_PREF_CD. Name of the system preference.

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■ VAL. Value of the system preference.

Table 110. System Preferences for the Replenishment Engine

Parameter Default Value Comments

InvLocTypeForReplenishRelation Warehouse Specifies the default replenishment level.

Orders to replenish any level of an inventory
location have this value as their Destination.

ReplenishOrderPriority Medium Specifies the default order priority for newly

created orders. The values should be from
the Order Priority LOV and individual values
should be LIVs.

OrderItemStatusForOnOrderQty Open, New, Specifies the valid values for the existing
Pending order item status. The values should be from
the Order Item Status LOV and individual
values should be LIVs.

OrderStatusForOnOrderQty Open, New, Specifies the valid values for the existing
Pending order status. The values should be from the
Order Status LOV and individual values
should be LIVs.

OrderTypeForOnOrderQty Internal Order, Specifies the valid values for the existing
Purchase Order order type. The values should be from the
Order Type LOV and individual values should
be LIVs.

The last three parameters specify what kind of orders, order items, and order types to look for when
searching for an existing order, to avoid creating duplicate orders.

CAUTION: The Order Status List of Values should have Open as its Language Independent Value. If
it does not, the Replenishment Engine will not work.

NOTE: To register changes to System Preferences, restart the Field Service server.

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Parameters for the Replenishment Engine

All engines can be invoked from the Workflow Manager or from the client. These engines require
certain parameters to be passed. Set the component job parameters using the Administration -
Server Management screen > Jobs > Job Detail view when creating a component job for the server
component Field Service Replenishment Engine (alias FSRepl). Table 111 lists the parameters for the
Replenishment Engine, and what they mean.

Table 111. Parameters for the Replenishment Engine

Parameter Value Comments

InvokeMode Id In this mode, specify the inventory location to be

replenished and the engine will replenish the specified
location.

SQL In this mode, specify the WHERE clause, meaning

specify some criteria and replenish the inventory
locations which meet that criteria.

TEMP In this mode, put all the required parameters into a

temporary table with a particular Client Request ID and
pass that ID to the server to retrieve the parameters
from Temp Table.

ClientId A row ID for retrieving Required when InvokeMode = TEMP.

parameters from the
temp table

SourceType I (Inventory Location) Required when InvokeMode = TEMP. Defaults to I when

V (Vendor) InvokeMode = Id or SQL.

DestId Destination Inventory ID Required when InvokeMode = Id.

WhereClause SQL Where Clause Business Component Search Spec. Required when
InvokeMode = SQL.

Setting the Implementation Logic for the

Replenishment Engine
Use the following procedure to set the Implementation Logic for the Replenishment Engine.

To set the Implementation Logic for the Replenishment Engine

1 Obtain the system preferences from the system table.

Obtain the user defined parameters to determine the defaults for the Replenishment Engine.

2 Obtain the destination inventory location.

Obtain the value of the destination inventory location based on the InvokeMode from one of the
following sources:

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■ Input Parameter - DestId

■ Input Parameter - Where Clause

■ Temp Table

3 Generate Internal Orders for all the Destination Inventory Locations.

If the InvokeMode is Id/SQL, get the Source Inventory Location for the current Destination
Inventory location.

Get the On Hand, Min, and Max Qty for all the products in the Destination inventory location and
the child locations whose On Hand Qty < Min Qty.

For each product do the following:

Calculate the EffectiveQty:

Search existing orders and find the Qty on order.
EffectiveQty = Qty + Qty on order.
If EffectiveQty is less than the Min Qty:
If the order header does not exist (first time only), generate the order
header of type Internal order.
Add a line item to the order header for the ReqQty =
Max Qty − Effective Qty.

4 Generate Purchase Order.

Get the On Hand, Min, and Max Qty for all the products in the Destination inventory location and
the child locations whose On Hand Qty < Min Qty.

For each product do the following:

Calculate the EffectiveQty:

Search existing orders and find the Qty on order.
EffectiveQty = Qty + Qty on order.
If EffectiveQty is less than the Min Qty:
Get the Vendor for this product.
If Vendor exists in the user supplied Vendor list, then:
If the order header does not exists (first time only), generate the
order header of type Purchase order.
Add a line item to the order header for the
ReqQty = Max Qty − Effective Qty.

Invoking the Replenishment Engine

Use these methods to invoke the Replenishment Engine:

■ Invoke the engine using the Workflow Manager to generate internal and purchase orders, based
on stock levels.

■ Invoke the engine by clicking the Orders button in the Inventory screen, Generate Orders view.

■ Invoke the engine through the Server Manager on the application server.

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Related Topic
“FS Replenish Business Service” on page 581

Setting Up Replenishment
Follow these procedures to set up replenishment.

Some procedures for setting up replenishment are the same as for setting up cycle counting. When
beginning to set up replenishment, use the following procedures, substituting cycle counting for
replenishment.

To set the maximum and minimum quantity of products to keep in stock

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen.

2 Select an inventory location record.

3 In the My Inventory Locations list, drill down on the Name field hyperlink.

4 For the selected product, enter values in the Max, Min, and Safety fields.

To set up replenishment relationships between inventory locations

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen.

2 Select an inventory location record.

3 In the My Inventory Locations list, drill down on the Name field hyperlink.

4 Click the Relationships view tab.

5 Create a new relationship record.

6 In the Name field, select another inventory location.

7 In the Relationship field, select Replenishes.

To set up a vendor for a product

1 Navigate to the Products screen.

2 Select a product record.

3 In the All Products list, drill down on the Product field hyperlink.

4 Click the Product Service Details hyperlink on the link bar.

5 In the Product Service Details form’s Replenishment Options section, select a vendor from the
Primary Vendor field.

Replenishing Inventory
Follow these procedures to replenish inventory.

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To replenish inventory by placing orders

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen.

2 Select an inventory location record.

3 In the My Inventory Locations list, drill down on the Name field hyperlink.

4 Click the Generate Orders view tab.

This view displays a read-only list of authorized vendors for this inventory location. The subviews
show the source and target locations.

5 In the Generate Orders list, click Order.

This generates orders to replenish every product at the selected inventory location that is under
the minimum level.

To verify pending replenishment orders

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen.

2 Select an inventory location record.

3 In the My Inventory Locations list, drill down on the Name field hyperlink.

4 Click the Pending Orders view tab.

This view displays the numbers and types of pending orders for this location.

To set a vendor for an inventory location

1 Navigate to the Inventory screen.

2 Select an inventory location record.

3 In the My Inventory Locations list, drill down on the Name field hyperlink.
4 Click the Vendors view tab.

5 In the Vendors list, create a new vendor record.

6 In the Account field, select a vendor.

7 In the Type field, select Vendor or Primary Vendor.

Administration - Service Screen

The Administration - Service screen contains one view that allows assignment of cycle counting
parameters to types of inventory locations.

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Inventory Location Types View

You access the Inventory Location Types view by navigating to the Administration - Service screen
and selecting Service Inventory from the visibility filter. The Inventory Location Types view assigns
the following cycle counting parameters to all inventory locations of a specific type (see Table 112).

Table 112. Selected Items in the Inventory Location Types View

Item Description

Count Basis A method of inventory classification that determines how often to count a product
during cycle counting; ABC or XYZ chosen from a list. Inventory locations with the
inventory type ABC are counted based on their relative value and locations with
XYZ are counted based on their relative turnover.

Frequency The interval in days between physical counts of inventory at any location with this
inventory type.

Period A/X The time period in days allotted to counting all A or X class items at any location
with this inventory type.

Period B/Y The time period in days allotted to counting all B or Y class items at any location
with this inventory type.

Period C/Z The time period in days allotted to counting all C or Z class items at any location
with this inventory type.

Products Screen
The Products screen has one view, Service Details, that displays information for cycle counting and
replenishment. All fields are read-only.

Service Details View

The Service Details view provides the information used in locating and allocating products. The
Allocate Below Safety, Auto Allocate, and Auto Substitute check boxes in this view do not apply to
cycle counting or replenishment. This view has two subviews, Inventory Options and Substitutes.

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Inventory Options Subview

The Inventory Options subview sets the inventory locations for a product and determines the cycle
counting parameters for each product at a specific location. The Allocate Below Safety, Auto Allocate,
and Auto Substitute fields in this view do not apply to cycle counting or replenishment. Table 113
describes items in Inventory Options records.

Table 113. Selected Items in the Inventory Options View

Item Description

Class ABC The classification of a product, A, B, or C, that indicates its value. Class A has the
greatest financial value.

Class XYZ The classification of a product, X, Y, or Z, that indicates its turnover rate. Class X
has the greatest turnover rate.

NOTE: A product can receive any combination of class ABC and XYZ; for example, AY. However, cycle
counting must be based on either ABC or XYZ, not both.

Substitutes Subview
The Substitutes subview specifies the products that the Fulfillment Engine may use to fill an order
when the specified product is unavailable from inventory. The user chooses from products that are
specified in the Products view. For more information, see “Products View” on page 337.

NOTE: Substitutions are unidirectional. Product A may substitute for product B, but B cannot
substitute for A unless that substitution is explicitly defined.

Inventory Screen
The Inventory screen contains two views for managing cycle counting at inventory locations and for
inventory replenishment.

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Inventory Locations View

The Inventory Locations view sets the cycle counting parameters for each location. Table 114
describes items in Inventory Locations records. To see these fields, click the More Info view tab.

Table 114. Selected Items in the Inventory Location Views

Item Description

Count Basis A method of inventory classification that determines how often to count a product
during cycle counting: ABC or XYZ chosen from a list. Products with ABC are
counted based on their relative value and products with XYZ are counted based on
their relative turnover.

Frequency The interval in days between physical counts of inventory at a location.

Period A/X The time period in days allotted to counting all A or X class items at this location.

Period B/Y The time period in days allotted to counting all B or Y class items at this location.

Period C/Z The time period in days allotted to counting all C or Z class items at this location.

Product Inventory View

The Product Inventory view associates inventory locations with products and sets quantities of
product, whether the product is serialized, and cycle counting parameters for the product at this
location. Products are specified in the Administration - Product screen. For more information, see
“Administration - Product Screen” on page 337. Table 115 describes items in Product Inventory
records.

Table 115. Selected Items in the Product Inventory View

Item Description
ABC Class The classification of a product, A, B, or C, that indicates its value. Class A
has the greatest financial value. This value overrides the Class ABC on the
Product Administration screen.

Max A type-in field for the maximum acceptable quantity of inventory at this
location and product.

Min A type-in field for the minimum acceptable quantity of inventory at this
location and product.

Safety A type-in field for the safe quantity of inventory at this location and product.
This quantity (≤ Min) is the quantity below which the Fulfillment Engine a
product should not allocate. The user can override this value.

Serialized Indicates that instances of this product must have serial numbers recorded.

XYZ Class The classification of a product, X, Y, or Z, that indicates its turnover rate.
Class X has the greatest turnover rate. This value overrides the Class XYZ
on the Product Administration screen.

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Generate Orders View

The Generate Orders view automatically produces orders to restock products in inventory, by either
an internal transfer between inventory locations or by purchase from an outside vendor. For
replenishment, an inventory level must be defined for a product. For replenishment from a vendor,
the authorized vendor must also be defined. These read-only records are derived from data in the
Inventory screen. For more information, see “Inventory Screen” on page 368.

The Order button and command runs the Replenishment Engine and create purchase and internal
orders to replenish all items at the selected location that are below minimum.

The replenishment process describes a source inventory location to replenish a selected location and
a target location to be replenished from the selected location. Specific relationships between
locations are defined in the Relationships view. For more information, see “Relationships View” on
page 437.

Source Locations Subview

The Source Locations subview lists valid replenishment sources for the related target locations. The
Order button creates internal orders to replenish the related target locations (in the Target Locations
subview).

Target Locations Subview

The Target Locations subview lists target locations lists locations to be replenished from a related
source location. The Order button creates internal orders to replenish the target locations.

Pending Orders View

The Pending Orders view lists internal orders or purchase orders that have been placed to replenish
a location. The records in this view, generated by the Replenishment Engine, are read-only.

For a discussion of replenishment, see “Replenishment Engine” on page 427.

Vendors View
The Vendors view records vendors who may supply products for a selected inventory location. For
replenishing a location from an outside source, vendors must be specified.

Relationships View
The Relationships view records the relationships of a selected inventory location with other inventory
locations. If a business uses more than one inventory location, relationships among inventory
locations are useful for automating inventory replenishment and order fulfillment. A relationship may
be physical, hierarchical (for example, a shelf belongs to an aisle), or logistical (for example, Fulfills
or Replenishes).

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Cycle Counts View

The Cycle Counts view sets specifications that the Cycle Counting Engine uses to automatically
generate the cycle count lists. To reach this view, choose Cycle Counts from the visibility filter.

The Inventory Locations view is the same as previously described, with the addition of a Generate
Counts button and a Generate Counts (All Locations) command. For more information, see “Inventory
Locations View” on page 436. Table 116 describes commands and buttons in the Inventory Locations
view for Cycle Count records.

Table 116. Selected Items in the Inventory Locations View for Cycle Counts

Item Description

Generate Counts This button produces a list of products to count for the selected inventory
location. The list appears in the Parts List view. For more information, see
“Part List View” on page 440.

Generate Counts This command produces a list of products to count for all inventory location.
(All Locations) The list appears in the Parts List view. For more information, see “Part List
View” on page 440.

More Info Subview

The Cycle Counts view has a More Info subview containing the following items specific to cycle
counting (Table 117). These fields are read-only.

Table 117. Selected Items in the More Info Subview for Cycle Counts

Item Description

ABC Class The classification of product, A, B, or C, that indicates its value. Class A has the
greatest value.

Ended The actual end date for a cycle count.

Started The date for the actual start of a cycle count.

Status The status of a cycle count; for example, Assigned, Closed, or Open.

XYZ Class The classification of product, X, Y, or Z, that indicates its turnover rate. Class X has
the greatest turnover rate.

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Cycle Counts Subview

The Cycle Counts subview contains read-only records that are derived from the data recorded in the
Cycle Counts view. For more information, see “Cycle Counts View” on page 438. Table 118 describes
fields in the Cycle Counts subview.

Table 118. Fields in the Cycle Counts Subview

Field Description

Assigned To The employee assigned to carry out this cycle count.

Due The date on which the counts of products specified in the Parts List view
should be completed. For more information, see “Part List View” on page 440.

End The date the cycle count period ends, which is inherited from the Cycle
Counts screen.

Inventory Location The name of the inventory location for this cycle count.

Start The date the cycle count period starts.

Status The status of a cycle count; for example, Assigned, Closed, or Open.

Cycle Counts Screen

The Cycle Counts screen contains views for defining cycle counts at specific inventory locations,
providing lists that direct the physical counting of inventory, recording the results of cycle counts,
and adjusting inventory levels.

Cycle Counts Views

The Cycle Counts views define cycle counts at specific inventory locations and specify the timing of
these counts. Table 119 describes items in Cycle Count records.

Table 119. Selected Items in the Cycle Count Views

Item Description

Due A type-in field containing the date on which the counting cycle should be completed. This
field is for information only; the Cycle Counting Engine does not use the date.

End A type-in field containing the actual date that the cycle count was completed. This date
is used when generating Cycle Count Detail reports.

Start A type-in field containing the date on which the cycle count should start. This date is used
when generating Cycle Count Detail reports.

Status The status of a cycle count; for example, Assigned, Closed, or Open.

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Part List View

The Part List view displays a list of the products to count at a selected inventory location and records
the count results. The records in the Part List are created by clicking Generate Counts or the
Generate Counts (All Locations) in the Inventory screen’s Cycle Counts view. For more information,
see “Cycle Counts View” on page 438. Records can also be entered manually. Table 120 describes a
button in Part List records.

Table 120. Selected Items in the Part List View

Item Description

Count Complete This button compares the value entered in the Count field and the number of
items in the database, produces the data in the Variance view, and lists the
missing assets in the Missing Assets subview.

Counted Serial Numbers Subview

The Counted Serial Numbers subview accepts serial numbers for each serialized product that is
counted.

Variance View
The Variance view shows the differences between the quantity in the Field Service database and an
actual product count. Table 121 describes a button in the Variance view.

Table 121. Selected Items in the Variance View

Item Description

Adjust Clicking this button creates database transactions to match the quantity recorded in the
database with the physical count. The transactions are either Receive Other (from the
External location) or Ship Other (to the External Location). The Cycle Counting Engine
does not validate (quantity or source) for the External location. For more information,
see “Setting Up External Locations” on page 369 and “Inventory Transactions” on
page 355.

Cycle Counting Report

The Reports menu on the Cycle Counts screen provides the Cycle Count Detail report (Table 122).

Table 122. Cycle Count Detail Report

Report Description

Cycle Count Detail Presents all information about selected cycle counts.

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16 Release Manager
Applications administrators can use this chapter for configuring the Siebel application, so that end
users can use Release Manager. Product Marketing, Engineering, Quality Assurance (QA), and
Technical Publications managers can use this chapter to monitor their teams’ progress. End users
(product marketers, engineers, QA testers, and technical writers) can refer to this chapter for
procedures to record their development tasks.

The Release Manager and Quality modules of Siebel Service work together. After a product is
released, the Quality module tracks the product improvement process and channels requests for
improvements to future releases. For more information about the Quality module, see Chapter 14,
“Quality.” Topics for this chapter include:

■ Release Manager on page 441

■ Business Scenario for Release Manager on page 444

■ Example Process Flow for Release Manager on page 446

■ Administrator Setup Procedures for Release Manager on page 448

■ Product Marketing End-User Procedures for Release Manager on page 452

■ Engineering End-User Procedures for Release Manager on page 455

■ Quality Assurance End-User Procedures for Release Manager on page 457

■ Technical Publications End-User Procedures for Release Manager on page 462

■ Administrator Maintenance Procedures for Release Manager on page 463

Release Manager
The Release Manager module helps to manage new product development and release cycles from
start to finish. Release Manager uses data collected in your Siebel application to help guide product
feature selection and development. Topics include:

■ Release Manager Structure on page 442

■ Product Release Process on page 443

Release Manager assists with a number of release-related activities. With Release Manager, users
can perform the following tasks:

■ Communicate feature descriptions throughout the organization.

■ Prioritize features so that the most important ones get implemented.

■ Develop marketing requirements documents (MRDs) for engineers to use as product

specifications.

■ Allocate engineering resources and track engineering tasks.

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■ Track QA test plan development and test execution.

■ Track documentation development.

■ Track activities associated with release-related items.

■ Monitor development status.

Release Manager Structure

You can think of a product release as a composite of features. The decision to implement these
features generates multiple release-related items: MRDs to identify the features, engineering tasks
to implement the features, QA test plans to test the features, and documentation to describe the
features. The system helps to make sure that each task, test plan, and document derives from one
or more new features.

Release Manager is built around features. In Release Manager, engineering tasks, MRDs, QA test
plans, and technical publications documents are linked to their associated features. Users gain
benefits, such as the following:

■ Executives can justify decisions on how to allocate engineering resources and schedule QA
testing.

■ Product marketing managers can see the features specified in MRDs, and determine the
development, testing, and documentation status for a given feature.

■ Engineering and QA managers can know which new features need to be incorporated into their
project plans and test plans.

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Figure 36 on page 443 shows how the various release-related items are linked to features. This
illustration shows an area that represents Release Manager. Within this area, tests are linked to test
plans, and test plans, engineering tasks, MRDs, and documentation are all linked to features at the
center.

Figure 36. Release Manager Release-Related Items and Attributes

Product Release Process

The product release process consists of the following stages:

■ Stage 1. Product Marketing begins the release cycle by defining product features, entering those
features into the system, determining which features will be implemented, and developing
marketing requirements documents (MRDs).

■ Stage 2. Engineering builds the features. Engineering defines the tasks required to implement
the features, builds the features, and uses the system to track task completion.

■ Stage 3. Quality Assurance (QA) defines test plans to test the new features, and uses Release
Manager to track the test plan development. QA then tests the features by executing the test
plans in various operating environments, and records the details of each test iteration.

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■ Stage 4. Technical Publications documents each feature in the appropriate publication and uses
Release Manager to track document development status.

In practice, these stages are not rigidly sequential. At any given point in the release development
cycle, activities for several of the stages may overlap as teams pursue their goals simultaneously.

As illustrated in Figure 37, Stage 1 (Product Marketing), Stage 2 (Engineering), Stage 3 (Quality
Assurance), and Stage 4 (Technical Publications) all lead toward the final stage, Ship.

Figure 37. The Product Release Process

Business Scenario for Release Manager

This scenario provides an example of a process flow performed by an applications administrator, and
managers and line employees in product marketing, engineering, QA, and technical publications.
Your company may follow a different process flow according to its business requirements. The
scenarios for Release Manager are:

■ Setup Scenario for Administrators on page 445

■ Scenario for Product Marketing on page 445

■ Scenario for Engineering on page 445

■ Scenario for Quality Assurance on page 445

■ Scenario for Technical Publications on page 446

■ Maintenance Scenario for Administrators on page 446

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Setup Scenario for Administrators

Before the release cycle begins, the administrator sets up a master record for the release in the
Siebel application. Then the administrator defines an access list of people who will be associated with
the release. Afterward, the administrator designates the people on the access list for project teams
that will be associated with various stages of the release. The administrator also sets up lists of
values for picklist fields in the Release Manager views. Finally, the administrator sets up activity
templates by which end users can associate lists of specific activities with certain stages of the
release process.

Scenario for Product Marketing

At the beginning of a release cycle, the Product Marketing group defines a set of release-defining
features, requirements and enhancements for the products based on customer needs. After the
detailed features list has been finalized and prioritized, Product Marketing enters the features into
Release Manager as Feature records. If a feature is a complex one with multiple components, Product
Marketing enters each component as a Feature record, and then designates the main feature as its
parent feature.

After the features for a release have been entered, Product Marketing writes Marketing Requirement
Documents (MRDs) and enters them into Release Manager. Product Marketing creates a new record
for each MRD or logical group of MRDs. After the MRD records have been created, Product Marketing
links the MRD document files to their respective MRD records as attachments. Finally, Product
Marketing links the MRDs to the features they reference.

Scenario for Engineering

As Product Marketing defines release features, Engineering writes engineering tasks to implement
those features in the product. Each engineering task is entered as an individual record in Release
Manager. Each engineering task is linked to the features it is designed to implement. If a task is a
complex one with multiple components, Engineering enters each component as a subtask record,
then links it to the main engineering task.

Scenario for Quality Assurance

As Product Marketing defines release features and Engineering implements them, Quality Assurance
writes test plans to validate the features. Each completed test plan is entered as an individual record
in Release Manager. Each test plan is linked to the features it is designed to validate.

Next, Quality Assurance creates test strategies, which are logical groupings of test plans. (For
example, all test plans for one application module might be grouped together as a test strategy.
Alternatively, all test plans to be executed on the same platform and browser combination might be
grouped together as a test strategy.) Each completed test strategy is entered as an individual record
in Release Manager. Each test strategy is linked to the test plans that it groups together.

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After test strategies have been defined, Quality Assurance runs test plan executions, or test passes.
Each test plan execution is logged as a test pass record. As the test passes are recorded, Quality
Assurance links the test pass records to their respective test plans. Defects found during testing are
recorded as change request records and linked to the test passes from which they were recorded.

During and after testing, Quality Assurance managers can run various reports on test pass results to
monitor the health and progress of the product release effort.

Scenario for Technical Publications

As the other teams design, implement, and test the release features, Technical Publications writes
technical documents to describe the product and explain how to use it. Each technical document is
entered as an individual record in Release Manager. Each technical document is linked to the features
it describes. Technical Publications then links an activity plan with standard milestones and deadlines
to each technical document record. After the technical document records have been created,
Technical Publications links the technical document files to their respective records as attachments.

Maintenance Scenario for Administrators

While release work is ongoing, the administrator may need to do certain maintenance tasks to make
sure Release Manager continues to run smoothly for end users. After Engineering completes builds
of the product, the administrator adds product prototype records for which Quality Assurance records
tests. As product parameters change in the course of development, the administrator may need to
add new Area and Subarea category combinations to add to Release Manager’s lists of values. When
a new release cycle begins, the release administrator determines the need for new and revised test
plans and test strategies.

Example Process Flow for Release

Manager
This section presents an example process flow for setting up, using, and maintaining the Release
Manager module. Topics include:

■ Administrator Setup Procedures on page 447

■ Product Marketing End-User Procedures on page 447

■ Engineering End-User Procedures on page 447

■ Quality Assurance End-User Procedures on page 447

■ Technical Publications End-User Procedures on page 448

■ Administrator Maintenance Procedures on page 448

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Administrator Setup Procedures

Before end users can begin working with Release Manager, the administrator must set it up. The
tasks applications administrators perform to set up Release Manager follow. You should do them in
the order shown.

1 Set up releases. (See “Setting Up Releases” on page 449.)

2 Set up the access list. (See “Setting Up the Access List” on page 449.)

3 Set up project teams. (See “Setting Up Project Teams” on page 449.)

4 Set up activity templates. (See “Setting Up Activity Templates” on page 452.)

5 Set up lists of values. (See “Setting Up Lists of Values” on page 450.)

Product Marketing End-User Procedures

After the administrator has set up Release Manager, Product Marketing begins its work. The tasks
that Product Marketing personnel perform when using Release Manager follow. You should do them
in the order shown.

1 Create features and subfeatures. (See “Creating Features and Subfeatures” on page 453.)

2 Create MRDs. (See “Adding MRDs” on page 454.)

3 Associate features with MRDs. (See “Product Marketing End-User Procedures” on page 447.)

Engineering End-User Procedures

After Product Marketing has defined features, Engineering begins its work. The tasks that
Engineering personnel perform when using Release Manager follow. You should do them in the order
shown.

1 Add engineering tasks and associating features. (See “Adding Engineering Tasks and Linking
Features” on page 456.)

2 Add subtasks. (See “Adding a Subtask to an Engineering Task” on page 457.)

Quality Assurance End-User Procedures

After Engineering has implemented tasks, Quality Assurance begins its work. The tasks that Quality
Assurance personnel perform when using Release Manager follow. You should do them in the order
shown.

1 Create test plans and associate features. (See “Creating Test Plans and Linking Features” on
page 457.)

2 Create test strategies. (See “Creating Test Strategies” on page 459.)

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3 Associate test plans with test strategies. (See “Recording a Test Pass and Linking a Test Plan”
on page 460.)

4 Record test pass results. (See “Recording a Test Pass and Linking a Test Plan” on page 460.)

5 Associate change requests with test passes. (See “Associating Change Requests with a Test
Pass” on page 461.)

6 View test plan results. (See “Monitoring Test Results” on page 461.)

Technical Publications End-User Procedures

After Product Marketing has written MRDs, Technical Publications begins its work. The tasks that
Technical Publications personnel perform when using Release Manager follow. You should do them in
the order shown.

1 Create technical documents and linking features. (See “Creating Technical Documents and
Linking Features” on page 462.)

2 Add activity plans to technical documents. (See “Adding Activity Plans to Technical
Documents” on page 463.)

Administrator Maintenance Procedures

While end users are working with Release Manager, the administrator must maintain it. The tasks
that applications administrators and release administrators perform to maintain Release Manager
follow. You can do them as needed, in any order.

1 Add product prototypes. (See “Adding Product Prototypes” on page 464.)

2 Add new area and subarea combinations. (See “Adding New Area and Subarea Combinations”
on page 464.)

3 Update test plans and test strategies. (See “Updating Test Plans and Test Strategies” on
page 465.)

Administrator Setup Procedures for

Release Manager
Administrators must set up several areas of Release Manager in advance to make sure the application
is usable for product marketers, quality assurance testers, engineers, and technical writers.
Depending on your company’s structure and policies, these activities might be the duties of the
organization’s Release Manager, Applications Administrator, or another person responsible for setting
up the system. For convenience and brevity, this chapter refers to this person as the administrator.

This section provides instructions for the following procedures:

■ Setting Up Releases on page 449

■ Setting Up the Access List on page 449

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■ Setting Up Project Teams on page 449

■ Setting Up Activity Templates on page 452

■ Setting Up Lists of Values on page 450

Setting Up Releases
When entering a release item record, an end user must associate the item record with a particular
release. In Release Manager, a release is a type of project, and releases are tracked in the same way
as projects are in Siebel Professional Services. For more information about setting up projects, see
Siebel Professional Services Automation Guide.

There are two types of releases, as follows:

■ Future Releases. Because each release item must be associated with a particular release, you
must set up the release (project) before entering any records. Though only one active release
may be in progress, you must set up records for future releases as well. That way, if a feature is
deferred from the current release, the product marketing manager can immediately target it to
a specific future release.

■ Unspecified Releases. There may be times when the appropriate future release for a given
feature or other release item is unknown. Because all release items must be associated with a
release, you should set up at least one artificial release called Unspecified Release or some
similar term. Orphan release items can be linked to this release. When the appropriate future
release has been determined, an item can then be retargeted to that release.

Setting Up the Access List

Release Manager is based on the Siebel Professional Services model for project management, which
includes the concept of an access list. Each project has a group of people (the ones on its access list)
who are associated with a release. To be on a release access list, an employee must be associated
in your Siebel application with that release project.

To be added to an access list, a person must first be added as an employee in your Siebel application.
For information about setting up employees, see Siebel Security Guide.

For information about adding employees to an access list, see the chapter on project management
in Siebel Professional Services Automation Guide.

Setting Up Project Teams

Release Manager is based on the Siebel Professional Services model for project management, which
includes the concept of project teams. Each project has a group of people (the project team) who
own, approve, or otherwise are associated with each release item (feature, MRD, engineering task,
QA test plan, QA test, or document). To be associated with any release item, an employee must be
a member of the project team.

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To be added to a project team, a person must first be added to the release access list. For more
information, see “Setting Up the Access List.” For information about setting up project teams and
adding employees to them, see the chapter on project management in Siebel Professional Services
Automation Guide.

Setting Up Lists of Values

The Siebel administrator is typically responsible for setting up lists of values (LOVs) for use in Siebel
Business Applications. Although the Status field is shared by all types of release items, the LOVs for
the Status field are likely to be specific to each release item.

For example, while the Status values for an engineering task typically relate to the development
phase of the task (Unit Test, Final, and so on), the Status values for a technical publications
document typically relate to the production phase of the document (Draft, Final Edit, and so on). To
prevent end users from having to sift through long lists of values for phases that are related to their
work, you may need to restrict the views in which specific lists of values appear.

For information on setting up LOVs and restricting the views associated with specific LOVs, see Siebel
Applications Administration Guide.

Table 123 displays information about the LOVs to be set up before using Release Manager.

Table 123. Release Manager LOVs

Associated
View Release Typical
Label Items Type Usage Values

Client OS QA Tests PSTASK_CLIENT_OS Type of operating Windows

system running on the 2000, Mac OS
client test machine.

Client QA Tests PSTASK_CLIENT_TYPE Type of test machine Dedicated,

Type used by the tester. HTML

Database QA Tests PSTASK_CLIENT_DB Type of database IBM DB2,

running in the test Microsoft SQL
environment. Server 7.0

Effort Engineering PSTASK_ENGINEER_EFFORT Level of effort required High, Low,

Tasks of the engineer to 1 Man Month
complete the task.

Priority Features PSTASK_PRIORITY Relative importance of High, Medium,

the feature. P1-Critical

Revenue Features PSTASK_REVENUE Amount of revenue that High, Low,

can be expected if the >5M, <1M
feature is implemented.

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Table 123. Release Manager LOVs

Associated
View Release Typical
Label Items Type Usage Values

Risk Engineering PSTASK_ENGINEER_RISK Level of risk to High, Low

Tasks destabilizing the
product by undertaking
this engineering task.

Server QA Tests PSTASK_SERVER_OS Type of operating Windows NT

OS system running on the
server.

Source Features PSTASK_SOURCE Source of the feature. Customer

Input, Market
Survey

Status All PSTASK_STATUS Current implementation Draft, Unit

or development phase Test, Final
of the release item.

Test QA Tests PS_QA_TEST_STRATEGY_ Sequence category of Certification

Class TEST_CLASS the test. Pass, Full
Pass, Final
Pass,
Acceptance
Pass, Browser
Certification

Test Set QA Tests PS_QA_TEST_PLAN_TEST_ Product area to which Install,

SET the test was applied. Upgrade,
Report,
Charts,
General

Type QA Tests PSTASK_ALT_TYPE Type of test that was Blitz, Ad Hoc,

conducted. Detailed,
White Glove

NOTE: In the preceding table, the Type value is the value of the picklist record in the Applications
Administration List of Values view.

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Special Tag LOVs

You must also add a list of values for the Special Tag field in the QA Test Plans view. Table 124 shows
an example of how you might set the fields of several new LOV records to populate the Special Tag
field with values.

Table 124. Special Tag LOV Examples

Field Record 1 Record 2 Record 3 Record 4

Type LOV_TYPE PS_TEST_PLAN_ PS_TEST_PLAN_ PS_TEST_PLAN_

SPEC_TAG SPEC_TAG SPEC_TAG

Display Value PS_TEST_PLAN_ Browser Specific EBIZ Specific Config. Specific

SPEC_TAG

Language PS_TEST_PLAN_ Browser Specific EBIZ Specific Config. Specific

Independent Code SPEC_TAG

Language Name English-American English-American English-American English-American

Active True True True True

Replication Level All All All All

Setting Up Activity Templates

The QA and Technical Publications teams have access to activity templates. An activity template
contains multiple predefined activities that can be associated with a release item. These templates
save end users from having to enter each activity manually, and help to standardize activities for
groups or teams. If end user teams need activity templates, create them before anyone uses Release
Manager.

For information about how to create activity templates and add activities to them, see “Setting Up
Field Service Activity Templates” on page 73.

Product Marketing End-User Procedures

for Release Manager
After Release Manager is configured, product marketers can record the progress and results of their
product design efforts into the system. Their managers can monitor the information they enter.

This section provides instructions for the following procedures:

■ Creating Features and Subfeatures on page 453

■ Adding MRDs on page 454

■ Monitoring Features and MRDs on page 454

■ Monitoring Release Items on page 454

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Creating Features and Subfeatures

Product marketing managers can use Release Manager to enter new product features and, if
appropriate, subfeature components of these features.

To add a feature and subfeature

1 Navigate to the Release screen > Features list view.

2 Add a new feature record and complete the fields, as needed.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Description

Account Account that requested the feature or to which your company is contractually
obligated to deliver the feature.

Area Product area associated with the feature.

Associated Individuals associated with the feature. The product marketing manager
Parties responsible for the feature should be set as Primary.

EAT Engineering Acceptance Test completion date.

Completion
Date

Parent Parent feature to the current feature. You can use this field to set up an n-level
hierarchy of parent features and child subfeatures. However, linking to a parent
feature with the Parent field does not add this feature to the parent feature’s
Subfeatures list.

Priority Priority of this feature relative to other features targeted for the same release.

Product Line The list of product line choices depends on the selection in the Subarea field.
Release Name or number of the product release for which the feature is a candidate.

Revenue Indicator of the level of revenue tied to delivering this feature in the targeted
release.

Source Source of the idea for this feature.

Status Shows color codes with the following meanings:

■ Green - Approved for the release

■ Yellow - May be included in the release

■ Red - Not included in the release

Subarea Product subarea associated with the feature. The list of subarea choices
depends on the selection in the Area field.

3 Drill down on the Feature field and click the Subfeatures subview tab if you want to add
subfeatures to the feature.

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4 Add subfeatures as appropriate.

Adding MRDs
Product marketing managers can group like features together into an MRD and track the
development of the MRD in Release Manager. Authors of the MRDs can attach electronic copies to
MRD records.

To add an MRD and link features

1 Navigate to the Release screen > Marketing Requirement Documents view.

2 Add a new MRD record and complete the fields, as needed.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Description

Associated Parties Individuals associated with the MRD. The author should be set as
Primary.

Release Name or number of the product release with which the MRD is
associated.

3 Drill down on the MRD # field and click the Features subview tab if you want to associate features
to the MRD.

4 Add subfeatures as appropriate.

Monitoring Features and MRDs

As a release progresses, product marketing managers can use Release Manager to track the status
of their features and the related release items. In addition, product marketing managers can monitor
the features to make sure that important ones are not forgotten.

Monitoring Release Items

During the release process, product marketing managers can monitor features to make sure they
meet the following criteria.

■ They are properly specified with MRDs.

■ They are implemented by engineering.

■ They are tested against QA test plans.

■ They are described in technical publications documents.

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Product marketing managers can run queries to identify features that do not meet these criteria. The
procedures that follow provide examples.

Identifying Features Without Linked MRDs

To query for features without corresponding MRDs, do the following.

To identify features without linked MRDs

1 Navigate to the Release screen > Marketing Requirement Documents view.

2 Launch a query with the following parameters.

■ In the Release field, select the current release.

■ In the MRD field, enter NOT(EXISTS(LIKE*)).

NOTE: You can follow similar procedures to query for features without corresponding engineering
tasks, test plans, or technical publications documents.

Identifying Engineering Tasks Without Linked Features

During the release process, engineering managers can monitor development plans to make their
teams are not working on tasks that lack corresponding features. To query for engineering tasks
without linked features, do the following.

To identify engineering tasks without linked features

1 Navigate to the Release screen > Engineering Tasks view.

2 Launch a query with the following parameters.

■ In the Release field, select the current release.

■ In the Related Features field, enter NOT(EXISTS(LIKE*)).

NOTE: You can follow similar procedures to query for MRDs, test plans, or technical publications
documents without corresponding features.

Engineering End-User Procedures for

Release Manager
After features and MRDs are entered in Release Manager, engineers can begin recording the progress
and results of their development efforts into the system. Their managers can monitor the information
the engineers enter.

This section provides instructions for the following procedures:

■ Adding Engineering Tasks and Linking Features on page 456

■ Adding a Subtask to an Engineering Task on page 457

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Adding Engineering Tasks and Linking Features

After product marketing managers have entered some features and their corresponding MRDs into
Release Manager, engineering managers can begin analyzing the development work and identifying
the discrete tasks required to implement the features. These tasks can be entered directly into
Release Manager. As engineering task records are created, they are linked to the features they are
designed to implement.

The product marketing and engineering managers match the requested features with the available
engineering resources. During this process, the relative importance of the features are weighed
against the investment required to implement them. Some features may be deferred to a future
release. The end result is a final set of release features for which the necessary engineering
resources are available.

To add an engineering task and link features

1 Navigate to the Release screen > Feature Engineer Tasks view.

2 Add a new record and complete the fields, as needed.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Description

Associated Individuals associated with the engineering task. The engineering manager
Parties responsible for the task should be set as Primary.

Code Review For software releases. Date when the code review took place.

Comp % Portion of the task that has been completed to date.

Design Review Date when the design review took place.

Effort Indicator of the level of effort required on the part of the engineer to
complete the task.

Engineering Engineering group responsible for the task. Usually, this is the group to
Group which the engineering manager (owner) of the task belongs.

Parent Task Parent task to the current task. You can use this field to set up a hierarchy
of parent tasks and child subtasks.

Release Name or number of the product release with which the engineering task is
associated.

Risk Level of risk of destabilizing the product by undertaking this engineering

task.

Target Date Date when the task is expected to be completed.

3 Drill down on the Task # field and click the Related Features field if you want to associate features
to the engineering task.

4 Add related features as appropriate.

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Adding a Subtask to an Engineering Task

If a task is a complex one with multiple components, Engineering enters each component as a
subtask record, then links it to the main engineering task.

To add a subtask to an engineering task

1 Navigate to the Release screen > Engineer Task - Subtasks view.

2 Add a new record and complete the fields, as needed.

Monitoring Engineering Tasks

During the development process, engineering managers can use Release Manager to track the status
of the tasks underway. Design reviews and (for software releases) code reviews can be conducted
and recorded. For each task, the fraction completed and the target completion dates are logged so
that potential issues can be flagged before they become critical.

Quality Assurance End-User Procedures

for Release Manager
After engineering tasks are entered in Release Manager, QA testers can begin recording the progress
and results of their testing efforts into the system. Their managers can monitor the information the
QA testers enter.

This section provides instructions for the following procedures:

■ Creating Test Plans and Linking Features on page 457

■ Creating Test Strategies on page 459

■ Recording a Test Pass and Linking a Test Plan on page 460

■ Associating Change Requests with a Test Pass on page 461

■ Monitoring Test Results on page 461

Creating Test Plans and Linking Features

After the features for a release have been identified, QA can begin revising existing test plans or
developing new ones to exercise new product functionality. Test plan development is tracked in
Release Manager, with the test plan available as an attachment to the record. Parties such as product
marketers who are associated with the development of the test plan are linked to the record, and
their approvals are recorded.

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For each test plan, the fraction completed and the target completion dates are logged so that
potential issues will be flagged before they become critical. The QA manager decides whether they
need to run a particular test plan to validate one or more test strategies, and if so, specifies those
strategies.

To add a test plan and link features

1 Navigate to the Release screen > Test Plan Administration view.

2 Add a new record and complete the fields, as needed.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Description

% Auto Percent of the test that is automated.

% Auto Horizontal Percent of the horizontal version of the product for which the test is
automated

% Auto International Percent of the international version of the product for which the test
is automated.

% Auto Platforms Percent of platforms for which the test is automated.

Auto Complete Date Date the automated test is completed.

Automated If selected, indicates this test is automated.

Complete % Portion of the test plan that has been completed to date.

Product Line Automatically populated based on the values selected in the Area and
Subarea fields.

QA Owner Person responsible for doing the testing.

Release Name or number of the product release with which this test plan is
associated.

Special Tag Tags defined by your company for convenience in grouping or

querying tests. You can specify multiple tags. For information about
defining special tags, see “Special Tag LOVs” on page 452.

Suggested Strategies Test strategies to apply to this test plan. Available selections come
from test strategy records entered in the Strategy Administration
view. See “Creating Test Strategies” on page 459.

Tag Summary Expanded area field that makes multiple tags visible in the view. For
convenience in querying tags that are selected in, but that might not
appear on the view in, the Special Tag field.

Target Date Date when the test plan is expected to be completed.

Test Plan Owner Individuals associated with the test plan. The author of the test plan
should be set as Primary.

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Field Description

Test Set Indicates what grouping of tests this test belongs to. Groupings may
reflect, for example, parts of the product being exercised through
multiple tests.

Tools Software used to automate this test.

3 Click in the Related Feature field to select the features you want to link to this test plan.

Adding Activity Plans to Test Plans

An activity plan derives from a predefined activity template. An activity template contains multiple
predefined activities that can be associated with a release item. This saves end users from having to
enter each activity manually, and helps to standardize activities for QA teams.

To add an activity plan to a test plan

1 Navigate to the Release screen > QA Test Plan Activity Plans view.

2 Select a test plan.

3 Add a new activity plan record and complete the fields, as needed.

When you have associated the activity plan with the test plan, all the activities in the activity
plan become associated with the test plan and appear in the Activities view.

Creating Test Strategies

At the beginning of a release cycle, you define a set of criteria (or matrix) that identifies the various
combinations for which any given QA test plan can be run. For example, the matrix for a software
product might include criteria such as Server, Database, Browser, and so on. These criteria sets are
known as test strategies.

To create a test strategy

1 Navigate to the Release screen > QA Test Strategies view.

2 From the visibility filter, choose Strategy Administration.

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3 Add a new record and complete the other fields, as needed.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Description

Interactivity Specifies whether the test is either in High Interactivity Mode or in Standard
Interactivity Mode.

Release Name or number of the product release with which this test strategy is
associated.

Test Class Type of test pass to be done with this test strategy.

Web Srv App Application that runs on the selected Web server.

After the test strategy is saved, it appears as a choice in the Suggested Strategies field in the
Strategy Test Plan Admin view.

4 Drill down on the Title field to access the QA Test Plans view if you want to associate test plans
with the test strategy.

5 Select the test plan you want to associate to the current test strategy.

Recording a Test Pass and Linking a Test Plan

After a QA test plan is complete and is associated with a test strategy, tests can be run to validate
the test plan. Because test plans are linked to their features in Release Manager, QA managers can
focus their teams’ efforts on those test plans that are associated with the greatest number of new
features. As each test is executed, QA testers record the results in Release Manager. Each test pass
is linked to the test plan that it executes.

To record a test pass

1 Navigate to the Release screen > QA Tests view.
2 Add a new record and complete the fields, as needed.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Description

Build Product prototype that was tested.

Client OS Type of operating system running on the client test machine.

Client Type Type of test machine used by the tester.

Cover % Portion of the test plan that was executed (covered) by this test.

Database Type of database running in the test environment.

Date Date when the test was conducted.

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Field Description

Interactivity Specifies whether the test is either in High Interactivity Mode or in Standard
Interactivity Mode.

Pass % Portion of the test plan that passed this test.

Release Name or number of the product release with which the test is associated.

Server OS Type of operating system running on the server machine in the test
environment.

Status Stability of the prototype as assessed by the tester during that test.

Tester Individuals associated with the test. The individual who conducted the test
should be set as Primary.

Type Type of test that was conducted.

3 Click the Test Plan field if you want to associate tests with the test plan.

Associating Change Requests with a Test Pass

While doing a test pass, QA testers encounter product defects and ideas for design improvements.
QA testers record these defects and ideas as change request records and associate them with the
test pass in which they were found.

To associate a change request with a test pass

1 Navigate to the Release screen > QA Test Defects view.

2 In the Change Requests view, select the CRs that you want to associate with the test pass.

For information about entering change requests, see Chapter 14, “Quality.”

Monitoring Test Results

QA managers can then review test summary information to assess overall product quality and
determine when the product is ready to ship.

In the QA Test Plans view, the number of executions (passes) of the test plan and the status as
assessed by the tester the last time the test plan was executed. The more passes of the test plan
and the higher the stability of the tested area, the greater the overall product quality.

QA managers can run queries on these fields to pinpoint areas of risk to product quality. To identify
which new product features have been tested to only a minimum level, and which features may be
unstable, do the following.

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To identify features that are incompletely tested or unstable

1 Navigate to the Release screen > QA Test Plans view.

2 Create a query as specified in one of the following fields:

■ In the Passes field, enter < n, where n is the minimum number of test iterations that you
think is adequate at this point in the release.

In each test plan the query returns, click the Related Features field to display the features
that are at risk because they have not been fully tested.

■ In the Last Build field, enter Unstable or another value listed in the Status field on the QA
Tests subview that represents a low-quality assessment.

In each test plan the query returns, click the Related Features field to display the features
that are at risk because they may not have been functional in the most recent test.

Technical Publications End-User

Procedures for Release Manager
As design, development, and test data are entered in Release Manager, technical writers can begin
recording the progress and results of their documentation efforts into the system. Their managers
can monitor the information they enter.

This section provides instructions for the following procedures:

■ Creating Technical Documents and Linking Features on page 462

■ Adding Activity Plans to Technical Documents on page 463

Creating Technical Documents and Linking Features

After release features have been identified, Technical Publications can begin revising existing
documentation or developing new documents to describe new product functionality.

Documentation development is tracked in Release Manager, with the document available as an

attachment to the record. Associated features are linked to the document. Product marketers who
may be associated with the development of the document are linked to the record, and their
approvals are recorded. For each document, the fraction completed and the target completion date
are logged so that potential issues can be flagged before they become critical.

To add a document
1 Navigate to the Release screen > Technical Documents view.

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2 Add a new record and complete the fields, as needed.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Description

Associated Individuals associated with development of the document. The author should
Parties be set as Primary.

Complete % Portion of the document that has been completed to date.

Est Pages Estimated number of pages for the completed document.

New % Portion of the document that will be new in this version.

Release Name or number of the product release with which the document is
associated.

Target Date Date when the document is expected to be completed.

Adding Activity Plans to Technical Documents

An activity plan derives from a predefined activity template. An activity template contains multiple
predefined activities that can be associated with a release item. These activity templates save end
users from having to enter each activity manually, and helps to standardize activities for technical
publications teams.

To add an activity plan to a technical document

1 Navigate to the Release screen > Technical Document Activity Plans view.

2 Select a technical document record.

3 In the Activity Plans view, add a new record and complete the fields, as needed.

When you have associated the activity plan with the technical document, all the activities in the
activity plan become associated with the technical document and appear in the Activities view.

Administrator Maintenance Procedures

for Release Manager
You must perform some Release Manager maintenance tasks on an as-needed basis. These tasks are
your ongoing responsibility.

This section provides instructions for the following procedures:

■ Adding Product Prototypes on page 464

■ Synchronizing with Microsoft Project on page 464

■ Adding New Area and Subarea Combinations on page 464

■ Updating Test Plans and Test Strategies on page 465

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Adding Product Prototypes

As a product progresses through the release cycle, increasingly advanced product prototypes become
available for testing. (In the case of software development, these prototypes are known as builds.)
When QA testers execute a test plan, they select the version number of each tested prototype. As
each new prototype becomes available, you are responsible for entering it into Release Manager so
that QA can record tests for it.

You enter builds as products in the Quality screen, Release Product Administration view.

Synchronizing with Microsoft Project

Some engineering organizations use resource planning tools such as Microsoft Project to develop
project plans. Each line item in such a project plan corresponds to an engineering task in Release
Manager.

For engineering organizations that use Microsoft Project to manage project plans, Release Manager
offers Microsoft Project integration. Engineering tasks can be tracked in Microsoft Project and then
synchronized with Release Manager, eliminating the need to enter and update the same information
in both applications.

For information on setting up the required mappings and synchronizing Microsoft Project with Siebel
Business Applications, see the chapter about Microsoft Project integration in Siebel Professional
Services Automation Guide.

Adding New Area and Subarea Combinations

Area and Subarea fields are linked so that the values available in the Subarea field change
dynamically according to the value selected in the Area field. These lists of values appear in both the
Release Manager and Quality modules of your Siebel application. In Release Manager, an area value
is associated with a feature.

As product parameters change in the course of development, you may need to add new Area and
Subarea combinations to Release Manager.

To add an area and subarea combination

1 Navigate to the Quality screen > Quality Administration view.

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2 Create a new record for each area and subarea combination and complete the fields, as needed.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Description

Product Line Grouping of products with which this Area and Subarea combination is
associated.

QA Owner Quality Assurance team owner with which this Area and Subarea
combination is associated.

Engineering Group Engineering team with which this Area and Subarea combination is
associated.

NOTE: Because of the mappings created by Area records in this view, when a feature record is
added, selecting a value in the Area field automatically populates the Subarea, Product Line, QA
Owner, and Engineering Group fields.

Updating Test Plans and Test Strategies

When a new release cycle begins, some test plans and test strategies from the previous release are
relevant to the new release, while some are not. Existing test plans and test strategies must be sifted
for relevance to the new release, and the relevant ones updated. Gaps in the existing resources must
be identified and filled with new test plans and test strategies. These are ongoing tasks for a QA
Release Administrator.

For information about adding and linking test plans and test strategies, see “Quality Assurance End-
User Procedures” on page 447.

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17 Assets
This chapter describes the capabilities in Siebel Field Service for tracking and managing assets. Field
Service also provides for automating the collection of data from assets in the field, providing
information for preventive maintenance, repairs, billing, and marketing. Topics include:

■ Properties of Assets on page 467

■ Setting Up Assets on page 470

■ Obtaining Asset Information on page 477

■ Asset Dispatch Board on page 480

■ Administration - Pricing Screen on page 483

■ Assets Screen on page 484

Properties of Assets
An asset in Siebel Field Service is an instance of a product that has an individual identity and an
association with a customer. An asset can be created for any product by assigning it a unique asset
number. An asset has a quantity, a location, and a monetary value. An asset is associated with a
product and an organization. Topics include:

■ Asset Serialization on page 468

■ Asset Registration on page 469

■ Hierarchical Assets on page 469

■ Asset Transactions on page 469

■ Asset Swaps on page 470

In Siebel Field Service, assets have these additional properties:

■ Assets can be physical or virtual.

■ Assets can have serial numbers.

■ Assets can exist individually or they can have components.

■ Assets can be related to or dependent upon other assets.

■ Teams of employees can be associated with an asset.

Assets can be associated with other Siebel business objects as well as with internal data and
calculations. Some examples are as follows:

■ Assets can contain a hierarchy of other assets as components. There is no restriction on the
number of tiers and the number of components that comprise a multitiered asset.

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■ Actions such as install, uninstall, upgrade, or downgrade can be performed on an asset. These
actions can be recorded as asset transactions.

■ The same asset can have different products over time. For example, the product on which an
asset is based may become obsolete and be replaced with a different product. In this case, the
same asset record can remain in your Siebel application, but the product with which it is
associated can be changed.

■ When an asset is serviced, service requests, preventive maintenance records, and repair records
can be associated with the asset, and a service history is maintained for that asset.

■ Assets can have multiple types of measurements set up, including gauges, counters and sensors.
Each measurement can have multiple readings recorded manually or automatically and stored
for diagnosis or for usage tracking.

■ The current value of an asset can be calculated or revalued and stored based on its condition,
value basis, and cost method.

Asset Serialization
Not every asset requires a serial number. If an asset requires a serial number, it is known as
serialized.

If an asset is serialized, then a serial number is required for all movements and transactions for this
asset, including the following:

■ Inventory transactions

■ Field part movements

■ Cycle counts

■ Shipments

■ Receipts

For all inventory transactions involving serialized products, an asset is considered equivalent to one
part (quantity = 1).

If a product is serialized, then the assets of this product must also be serialized. However, an asset
can be an instance of a nonserialized product and still have a serial number. For more information,
see “Product Service Details View” on page 338.

Serialized assets are treated differently from nonserialized ones. For example, whenever serialized
assets are shipped or received, Siebel Field Service expects the right number of assets with matching
serial numbers.

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Asset Registration
An asset can be associated with an account, an account site, an owner, and one or more contacts.
If a customer buys an asset, then the owner and the account are the same. If, however, the asset
is leased or rented, then the account is where the asset is located, and the owner is the lessor or
rental agent for the asset. All registered assets for an account can be viewed from the Accounts
screen.

Hierarchical Assets
Assets can be hierarchical with other asset components.

A hierarchical asset is an asset with a hierarchical structure consisting of asset or product

components. The hierarchical structure of a complex asset can consist of multiple levels and sub-
levels of asset or product components and sub-components. There is no restriction on the number
of levels or the number of components that can comprise a complex hierarchical asset. Asset
components can be serialized or nonserialized. For example, a computer is a parent asset that has
child assets: a motherboard (Part # M, Qty 1, Serial # 123), RAM (Part # RAM, Qty 16, no Serial #),
and so on.

A customizable asset is an asset that is instantiated from a configurable product. It can be

customized by Configurator. For information about configurable products, see Siebel Product
Administration Guide.

Components of a hierarchical asset inherit some properties of the top-level asset. Changing the
following fields of the top or parent level asset of a hierarchical asset changes the same fields in all
installed components: Account (and all Account-related fields; for example, Site, Address Line 1, and
so on), Owner, Ownership, and Organization.

Inheritance applies whether the change is initiated by a user action or by an automated process.
Changes to the components occur when a user updates the fields mentioned in the previous
paragraph and the record is saved. Only the top-level asset's fields can be updated. The fields of
component assets are read-only.

Siebel Field Service offers views to display complex asset hierarchies. For more information, see
“Explorer View” on page 490 and “Explorer Across Organizations View” on page 491.

Asset Transactions
The installed base or BOM for an asset is maintained with asset transactions of the types Install,
Uninstall, Upgrade, and Downgrade. These transactions must be created manually.

For example, a computer (asset A) has a defective disk drive (asset H) that must be replaced with
another disk drive (asset N). The change is effected by two asset transactions. The first uninstalls
the defective asset (H) from the parent asset (A). The second installs the new part (N) in the parent
asset (A).

If an asset has components, a transaction performed for that asset automatically includes its
components.

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Some asset transactions change inventory levels directly. For details, see “Mobile Inventory
Transactions” on page 359.

Asset Swaps
Service activities often include the replacement of one asset with another. When replacing an asset,
the field service engineer records the replacement in the Part Tracker view of the Activities screen
For more information, see “To record the swapping of one asset for another” on page 77. If the installed
asset is an instance of the same product or product component as the uninstalled asset, the
replacement can be recorded as a swap.

When two assets are swapped, the warranties and entitlements of the uninstalled asset can be
transferred to the installed asset on a pro-rata basis. For this transfer to occur, the assets should be
root assets and the transferable flags—one for warranties and one for entitlements—need to be set
before the swap can be recorded in Part Tracker. For more information about the transferable flags,
see “Warranties View” on page 498 and “Entitlements Screen” on page 260.

NOTE: A warranty transfer and an entitlement transfer are executed in slightly different ways if the
uninstalled and installed assets in the swap are instances of different products or product
components. In this case, the warranties of the installed asset’s product are in effect. For contracts
which include entitlements for the removed asset, those entitlements' asset values on the Service
Agreement Product business component are updated with the installed asset's number, replacing the
asset number of the uninstalled asset. When this business component is updated, the Asset # field
on the Agreements screen > List > Entitlements > Products view changes to display the new asset.
The result is that the warranties and entitlements are automatically in place for the installed asset.

Asset swaps also transfer any hierarchical relationships from the uninstalled asset to the installed
asset, with one exception. The exception is that if an uninstalled asset is a child asset, the uninstalled
asset’s parent becomes the installed asset’s parent, but the uninstalled asset keeps its child(ren), if
any.

Asset Swaps Business Service

The FS Asset Swap Service business service is used during asset exchange. Using the business
service methods, the warranties and entitlements of the uninstalled asset can be transferred to the
installed asset. See “FS Asset Swap Service Business Service” on page 552 for more information on
this business service.

Setting Up Assets
This section describes how to set up assets. Topics include:

■ Creating Transactions and Components on page 472

■ Creating a Hierarchical Asset from a Product Bundle on page 472

■ To associate a preventive maintenance plan with an asset on page 471

■ Defining Field Engineer Assignments on page 472

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■ Asset Mapping on page 476

■ Defining Asset Measurements on page 476

Follow these procedures to set up assets.

To create an asset
1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.

2 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

NOTE: If a predefined query on the Assets screen > List view limits the displayed records to a
subset of all the assets, create an asset with a customizable product and click Customize to
refresh the view. This causes the new asset record to disappear from the visible part of the view.
To find the record again, you must query for it, then click Customize again to complete the
configuration.

For more information about the Customize button, see “Assets View” on page 485.

To associate change requests with an asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Asset # field for a selected asset and click the Change Requests view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To associate a backup or dependent asset with a primary asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Asset # field for a selected asset and click the Relationships view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To associate an asset with an account

1 Navigate to the Accounts screen > Assets view.

2 Query for the account record in the Account form.

3 In the Assets list, create a new asset record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To associate a preventive maintenance plan with an asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.
2 Drill down on the Asset # field for a selected asset and click the Preventive Maintenance view tab.

3 Click Plans in the link bar.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

See “Preventive Maintenance View” on page 489 for more information.

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Creating Transactions and Components

End users must create transactions to add components to an asset.

To manually associate a transaction with an asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Asset # field for a selected asset, and then click the Transactions view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To create components
1 Follow the steps of “To manually associate a transaction with an asset.”

2 In the Type field, select Install as the transaction type. Then click the Components view tab.

The asset selected in the transaction record appears in the Components list for the primary asset.

Creating a Hierarchical Asset from a Product Bundle

You can generate a hierarchical asset from a product bundle. For information about hierarchical
assets, see “Hierarchical Assets” on page 469.

To generate a hierarchical asset from a product bundle

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.

2 Add an asset record. In the Product field, select a product bundle, and then complete the other
fields as appropriate.

3 Drill down on the selected asset record, and click the Components tab.

The Components list shows the asset components created from the child products in the product
bundle.

CAUTION: To successfully generate a hierarchical asset, a product bundle can consist only of parent
and child products; for example, a laptop computer that comes with a CD-ROM drive. It cannot
include grandchild products; for example, an airplane that comes with an engine, which in turn
comes with a fuel tank.

Defining Field Engineer Assignments

Teams of employees can be assigned to particular assets and accounts. An asset service team can
be set up for field service environments where there are large pieces of equipment and where it may
be a requirement that the same individuals work on a given set of equipment. When you have
assigned the appropriate field engineers to an asset, you can then define primary, secondary, or
tertiary role priorities for each engineer.

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An account service team is a team of service personnel associated with a particular account or a
particular account site. This team either works at the account site or is called in for breaks, fixes,
preventive maintenance, or related tasks at the site. The service personnel are then ranked as
primary, secondary, or tertiary to make sure that sufficient coverage is available. These defined role
priorities are used to assign activities to appropriate candidates.

When you assign teams of employees to a particular asset or account, service to customers can be
expedited because:

■ Customers know the background of the installation and how the activities are typically divided
up between the team.

■ Customers know their service team and whom to contact if a service requirement arises.

■ Special clearances and other entry requirements for secured locations can be taken care of once
for the assigned team, rather than several times for different individuals.

This topic includes the following related subtopics:

■ Creating Asset Service Teams on page 473

■ Adding Role Priorities to Asset Service Team Employees on page 474

■ Account Service Team Configuration on page 474

■ Creating Account Service Teams on page 474

■ Adding Role Priorities to Account Service Team Employees on page 475

■ Using Role Priorities When Defining Assignment Rules on page 475

Creating Asset Service Teams

Perform the steps in the following procedures to associate employees with an asset, creating an asset
service team.

To associate employees with an asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.

2 Select an asset record.

3 Scroll down to the Asset form.

4 In the Employees field, click the select button and select the appropriate field service engineers.

To view a list of the selected employees, navigate to the Assets screen > List > Employees view.
The Employees list shows the list of selected engineers.

NOTE: To associate skills with employees, see Siebel Assignment Manager Administration Guide
for more information.

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Adding Role Priorities to Asset Service Team Employees

Different levels of role priority can be assigned to employees associated with an asset. When
dispatchers assign an activity relating to the particular asset, the primary, secondary, and tertiary
candidates appear in ascending order of assignment scores received. See “Role Priorities” on
page 119 for more information on using roles priorities to assign activities.

Role priorities can also be used by assignment rules to support prioritized assignment of primary,
secondary and tertiary field engineers, where primary engineers achieve the highest score, then the
secondary, and finally, the tertiary engineer. For more information on how candidates are defined for
assignment rules, see “Using Role Priorities When Defining Assignment Rules” on page 475 and Siebel
Assignment Manager Administration Guide.

Perform the steps in the following procedure to assign roles to asset service team employees.

NOTE: This procedure assumes that employees have already been associated with the asset. If you
have not yet associated employees with the asset, see “To associate employees with an asset” on
page 473 for more information.

To assign role priorities to asset service team employees

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > Employees view.

2 In the Asset form, query for the appropriate asset record.

The Employees list updates to display the employees associated with this asset.

3 In the Role field, select a primary, secondary, or tertiary role from the drop-down list for each
employee.

Account Service Team Configuration

If account service teams are required for your company’s service delivery model, then the Employee
Account business component must be configured. There are no applets defined for this business
component, which means that the appropriate applets and views must be configured using Siebel
Tools. For an example of how this view could appear, navigate to the Asset screen > Employees view.
See Configuring Siebel Business Applications for more information about adding views to an
application.

NOTE: Membership of an account service team does not have any impact on account visibility. This
means that even if an employee is part of an account’s service team, the particular account may not
be displayed to this employee using the My Accounts visibility filter. To make the account visible to
the employee, the appropriate position must be added using the Account Team Members dialog box.
This dialog box is displayed when you navigate to the Accounts screen > Accounts List view and click
the select button.

Creating Account Service Teams

When you have configured the applets and views so that Field Service now includes an Accounts
screen > Employees view (similar to the Asset screen > Employees view), the account service team
can be created. The procedure for this should be similar to that described in “To associate employees
with an asset” on page 473.

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Adding Role Priorities to Account Service Team Employees

Role priorities for an account service team identify the primary, secondary or tertiary engineer who
would assist the account for the requested service activity.

When you have created an account service team, you can then add role priorities for each employee.
The procedure for this should be similar to that described in “To assign role priorities to asset service
team employees” on page 474.

Role priorities can be used when defining assignment rules in Assignment Manager. For more
information, see “Using Role Priorities When Defining Assignment Rules” on page 475. See also “Role
Priorities” on page 119 for more information on using roles priorities to assign activities.

Using Role Priorities When Defining Assignment Rules

Role priorities can also be used in assignment rules to support prioritized assignment of primary,
secondary and tertiary field engineers, where primary engineers achieve the highest score, then the
secondary, and finally, the tertiary engineer.

Once role priorities have been assigned to asset or account service team employees, assignment
rules that are based on these priorities can be defined within Assignment Manager. Assignment
Manager uses these assignment rules to determine dynamic candidates. Dynamic candidates are
potential assignees for activities. See “How Are Dynamic Candidates Used by an End User?” on
page 476 for more information.

For example, if you associate an activity with an asset, and that asset has a team of employees, you
can configure Assignment Manager to automatically consider these employees (team) for an activity
and have the same employees available as potential candidates for other activities. These employees
are known as the dynamic candidates.

For more information on how dynamic candidates are determined for activities see Siebel Assignment
Manager Administration Guide.

To define an asset service team assignment rule

1 Navigate to the Administration - Assignment screen > Assignment Rules List view.

2 Create a new assignment rule record and complete the fields as appropriate, making sure that
you select Activity from the Objects to be Assigned drop-down list.

3 Drill down on the Name field.

4 In the Assignment Rule form, select Activity Asset Team from the Person Candidates Source
drop-down list.

5 Scroll down to the Criteria list and create a new record.

6 In the Rule Criterion field, select Asset Team Relationship Type from the drop-down list.

7 In the Comparison Method, select Compare to Person from the drop-down list.

8 Scroll down to the Asset Team Relationship Type list.

9 Create three new records, one each for Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary and allot scores for
each. For example, 100, 50, and 25 respectively.

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To define an account service team assignment rule

1 Follow Step 1 to Step 5 in “To define an asset service team assignment rule” on page 475.

2 In the Rule Criterion field, select Account Team Relationship Type from the drop-down list.

3 In the Comparison Method, select Compare to Person from the drop-down list.

4 Scroll down to the Account Team Relationship Type list.

5 Create three new records, one each for Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary and allot scores for
each. For example, 100, 50, and 25 respectively.

How Are Dynamic Candidates Used by an End User?

When the asset or account service team assignment have been created, Assignment Manager
controls the candidates that are presented for selection to, for example, the dispatcher.

When the dispatcher creates a new activity on the Activities screen, an asset can be specified for the
activity. When the dispatcher selects Assign from the menu button’s drop-down list, the assignment
rules determine that only certain employees are shown for selection. The employees that are
displayed are displayed in accordance with their roles, the primary candidates receiving higher
scores than secondary and tertiary. Using this information, the dispatcher can select the most
appropriate candidate for the activity.

Asset Mapping
Asset mapping records the factors that adjust the cost of assets. Adjustments depend on the
Condition, Value Basis, Cost List, and Cost Method fields for each asset. These factors are used to
calculate the Asset Values and the Replacement Costs on the Asset Valuation screen.

For more information, see Siebel Pricing Administration Guide.

NOTE: Asset mapping applies to product lines and to all assets that belong to the same product line
and cost list.

Defining Asset Measurements

Measurements are defined for a product and apply to the assets of that product.

To define measurements for assets

1 Navigate to the Administration - Product screen > Products view.

2 Drill down on the Product field of a selected product and click the More Info view tab.
3 From the visibility filter, select Product Measurements.

4 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

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Obtaining Asset Information

This section describes how to obtain information about assets. Topics include:

■ Calculating the Value and Cost of an Asset on page 478

■ Associating Measurements with Assets on page 479

■ Recording Readings from Assets on page 479

Follow these procedures to obtain information about assets.

To review all change requests for a selected asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Asset # field for a selected asset and click the Change Requests view tab.

To review all repairs for a selected asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Asset # field for a selected asset and click the Repairs view tab.

To review all activities associated with an asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Asset # field for a selected asset and click the Activities view tab.

To review preventive maintenance activities associated with an asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Asset # field for a selected asset and click the Preventive Maintenance view tab.
3 Click History in the link bar.

To view the status of a preventive maintenance plan for an asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen.

2 Drill down on the Asset # field for a selected asset and click the Preventive Maintenance view tab.

3 Click Plans in the link bar.

To view an asset hierarchy

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.

2 In the link bar, do one of the following:

■ To view assets associated with your organization, click Assets Explorer.

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■ To view assets associated with all organizations, click Assets Explorer Across Organizations.

3 In the explorer list in the left pane, click the plus sign (+) in front of each asset to see a
hierarchical list of its components.

Calculating the Value and Cost of an Asset

Follow these procedures to calculate the costs and value of assets.

Calculating Adjusted Cost

The following procedure calculates the adjusted cost of an asset from the original cost, plus the value
of enhancements, minus the value of depreciation, write-downs, and so on.

To calculate the adjusted cost of an asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Asset # field for a selected asset and click the Value view tab.

a In the Original Cost field, enter the original cost, if necessary.

b In the Value Basis field, select Adjusted.

c In the Condition field, select the asset’s condition.

3 For an action that affects the value of the selected asset, create a new record in the Asset
Valuation subview and complete the fields as appropriate.

4 On the Value form, click Recost.

Field Service calculates and returns the Adjustment amount and Adjusted Cost to the
corresponding fields on the Value form. The adjusted cost is calculated as the original cost, plus
or minus the sum of values in the Amount column of the Asset Valuation subview. The calculation
also includes a factor for the asset's condition. For more information, see “Asset Mapping” on
page 476.

Calculating Value-Based Cost

The following method of determining the cost of an asset uses the value basis for the asset. These
variables are defined in the “Asset Mapping View” on page 484.

To calculate the value and replacement cost of an asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Asset # field for a selected asset that has one or more associated cost lists.

NOTE: An asset is associated with a cost list through the product on which it is based. To display
the selected cost list’s associated products, navigate to Administration - Pricing screen > Cost
Lists view and click the Cost List Line Items tab.

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3 Click the Value view tab. Then in the Cost List field, select a cost list.

4 In the Value Basis field, select a value other than Adjusted and click Recost.

Field Service calculates and returns the Asset Value and Replacement Cost to the corresponding
fields on the Value form. The calculation is done by one of the following methods:

■ Asset Value = Factor * Original Cost

■ Replacement Cost = Factor * Cost List Value of Product

NOTE: To specify which method to use for the value-based cost calculation, navigate to the
Administration - Pricing screen > Cost List view and click the Asset Mapping view tab. In the Cost
Field, select Asset Value or Replacement. For more information, see “Asset Mapping” on page 476.

Associating Measurements with Assets

Measurements associated with a product are not automatically associated with assets of the product.
Follow this procedure to associate measurements with assets.

To associate measurements with an asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Asset # field for a selected asset and click the Measurements view tab.

3 Create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

NOTE: You are only allowed to select measurement types that are already defined for the product.
To define the measurement types that are associated with assets, see “To define measurements for
assets” on page 476.

Recording Readings from Assets

Follow these procedures to record readings of measurements from assets.

To record a reading for an asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Asset # field for a selected asset and click the Readings view tab.

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3 In the Readings form, create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

The record becomes read-only. The Done check box must be selected in order for the reading to
be charted.

CAUTION: When an asset is created, the Measurement Type records are copied over from the
Product table into the Asset Table. It is common that measurement types (upper limit, lower limit,
and so on) change when products are upgraded. However, assets may not be upgraded to the next
version of product and would retain the measurement types of the original product. If the product of
an asset has been changed after the asset was created, then measurement types that are not defined
for the current product may remain associated with the asset. Therefore, it is recommended that you
validate measurement types between the asset and its product when you change the product.
Otherwise, it is possible to record a measurement that is invalid for the asset. It is also recommended
that the Assets screen only be accessible to a user with the Service Manager responsibility, and
exclude field engineers. Field engineers can enter readings using the Activities screen > Readings
view.

To record a reading for an asset associated with a selected activity

1 Navigate to the Activities screen > List view.

2 Drill down on the Type field for a selected activity with an associated asset and click the Readings
view tab.

3 In the Readings form, create a new record and complete the fields as appropriate.

To analyze the results of readings for a selected asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > List view.

2 Select an asset and in the link bar, click Charts.

3 In the Charts list, select a measurement type record.

4 In the Measurement Analysis subview, select the reading you want to measure.

Asset Dispatch Board

The Asset Dispatch Board provides a drag-and-drop interface for the manual scheduling of asset-
related activities.

Setting User Preferences for the Asset Dispatch Board

Asset Dispatch Board user preferences are available by navigating to User Preferences > Asset
Dispatch Board. For details on settings, see Setting User Preferences for the Dispatch Board on
page 178.

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Asset Dispatch Board Screen Interface

The Asset Dispatch Board has two sections:

■ Gantt chart (top)

■ Unscheduled Activities list (bottom)

To schedule activities, users drag-and-drop activities from the Unscheduled Activities list onto the
Gantt chart. To unschedule activities, users drag the activity from the Gantt chart back to the
Unscheduled Activities list.

Gantt Chart
The Gantt chart shows the scheduled and unscheduled time periods for the asset records. The chart
is divided by a frames boundary into left and right frames.

The left frame lists assets and the related products and accounts. The right frame shows scheduled
activities in different time periods. The right frame of the Gantt chart appears in a calendar format.
Scheduled activities are shown with colors that represent its priority, status, and type. For more
information, see “Setting User Preferences for the Dispatch Board” on page 178. The user preferences
that are set for the Dispatch Board are also applied to the Asset Dispatch Board.

In the left frame, users can drill down on the Asset # field to quickly navigate to the Assets screen
> List > Activities view. Drill down on the Product field to navigate to the Products screen > Internal
Product List view. Drill down on the Account field to navigate to the All Accounts Across Organizations
view.

User can also drill down on an activity’s time bar in the right frame to navigate directly to the
Activities screen > Activity List > Schedule view.

Unscheduled Activities List

The Unscheduled Activities list displays all activities that have a status of Unscheduled. Users can
create new activities directly from this list. This list provides the same drag-and-drop features as the
Dispatch Board Unscheduled Activities list. See “Unscheduled Activities List” on page 175 for more
information.

Users can drill down on the Type field to quickly navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List >
Schedule view. Drill down on the Account field to navigate to the Accounts screen > Contacts view.

Using the Information Display Controls in the Gantt

Chart
Users can change the way that information appears in the Asset Dispatch Board using various
controls.

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Date Field
The date displayed in the field at the top of the Gantt chart is the date to which the information
currently shown relates. Users can enter new dates in this field to change the day for which
information is displayed in the chart.

To change the date displayed in the Gantt chart

1 Click the date drop-down list to select the start day for the chart.

2 Click Go when you have selected a date.

The Gantt chart refreshes to display the specified date.

Time Zoom Intervals

Users can change the time intervals shown in the Gantt chart using the time zoom interval buttons.

To change the time intervals displayed

■ Click the appropriate time zoom interval button.

The Gantt chart refreshes to display the time axis divided into the appropriate time intervals.

The time zoom intervals are:

■ 1/4. Click this time interval button to display the Gantt chart with the time axis divided into
quarter-hour intervals.

■ 1/2. Click this time interval button to display the Gantt chart with the time axis divided into
half-hour intervals.

■ 1. Click this time interval button to display the Gantt chart with the time axis divided into
hourly intervals.

■ 2. Click this time interval button to display the Gantt chart with the time axis divided into
two-hour intervals.

■ 4. Click this time interval button to display the Gantt chart with the time axis divided into
four-hour intervals.

Querying for Assets in the Gantt Chart

Users can use the query assistant to display only the required assets in the Gantt chart.

To query for a particular asset on the Gantt chart

1 On the Asset Dispatch Board’s Gantt chart, click Query.

The Gantt chart refreshes to display a Query Assistant and Cancel button.

2 Click the Query Assistant button.

The query assistant appears.

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3 Select Asset # from the drop-down list

NOTE: You can only enter query parameters for the Asset # field.

Viewing ToolTip Information in the Gantt Chart

Users can view a summary of asset activity details through the ToolTip feature.

To view a summary of activity details

■ Position the mouse pointer over the activity in the Gantt chart, and in the ToolTip that appears,
review details such as:

■ Activity number

■ Type

■ Status

■ Account name

■ Priority

■ Latest start

■ Duration in minutes

■ Description

■ Planned end

Scheduling Asset Activities

Users can schedule activities by dragging-and-dropping an activity record from the Unscheduled
Activities list to the Gantt chart.

To schedule an activity for an asset

1 Navigate to the Asset screen > Dispatch Board view.

2 In the Date field, enter the date for which you want to schedule activities.

3 Make sure that the asset for which you want to schedule activities is displayed in the Gantt chart.

4 In the Unscheduled Activities list, select an activity record.

5 Drag the activity to the Gantt chart and drop it onto the appropriate asset and time interval.

Administration - Pricing Screen

The Administration - Pricing screen has one view for configuring the calculation of an asset’s value.
To see this view, navigate to the Administration - Pricing screen > Cost List view, and then click the
Asset Mapping view tab.

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Asset Mapping View

The Asset Mapping view records the factor (percentage) that is used to adjust the cost of an asset.
These factors are used to calculate the Asset Values and the Replacement Costs in the Value view.
For more information, see “Value View” on page 486. Table 125 describes items in Asset Mapping
records.

Table 125. Selected Items in the Asset Mapping View

Item Description

Cost Field The field in the Asset Value view to which this calculation applies; for example, Asset
Value or Replacement Cost.

Factor A percentage of the cost, from the cost list, for the selected asset. If a mapping is
unspecified, the factor defaults to 100%.

Asset mapping values apply to specific cost lists at the level of product lines (including their
hierarchies of products and assets). Each combination of cost field, cost list, product line, condition,
value basis, and cost method can have a record for asset mapping.

For a complete description of costs lists and asset mapping, see Siebel Pricing Administration Guide.

Assets Screen
The Assets screen records all information about assets, including service and repair history,
components, associated activities, and preventive maintenance. Topics include:

■ Assets View on page 485

■ Activities View on page 486

■ Employees View on page 486

■ Warranty View on page 486

■ Value View on page 486

■ Readings View on page 487

■ Charts View on page 487

■ Components View on page 487

■ Transactions View on page 487

■ Change Requests View on page 488

■ Repairs View on page 488

■ Relationships View on page 488

■ Measurements View on page 488

■ Preventive Maintenance View on page 489

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■ Audit Trail View on page 489

■ Entitlements View on page 490

■ Uptime Data View on page 490

■ Attributes View on page 490

■ Explorer View on page 490

■ Explorer Across Organizations View on page 491

Assets View
The Assets view defines assets. Some fields in the Assets view are described in Table 126.

Table 126. Selected Fields in the Assets View

Field Description

Serialized Selected if the product selected is a serialized product. Read-only

in the Assets screen.

Reference Indicates that the asset can be referenced to customers or to

other vendors, depending on the organization’s business process.

Operating Status Whether the asset is operational and at what level.

Purchase Site Location of the asset.

Product Line Inherited from the product from which this asset is derived.

Class Inherited from the product from which this asset is derived.

Parent Asset # Read-only. The next higher level asset under which the selected
asset is currently installed (for example, the parent asset of a disk
drive is a computer).

Account Account associated with the asset. If you select an account, the
Contacts field is not limited to the contacts for the account.

Contacts Contacts associated with the asset. If you select a contact, the
Account field is not populated with the account for the contacts.

A Customize button appears in the top of the Asset form. The button is available only if your company
has a license for Configurator and the asset was instantiated from a configurable product. When an
end user clicks this button, Siebel Field Service launches Configurator for the asset displayed in the
form. For information about configurable products and Configurator, see Siebel Product
Administration Guide.

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Activities View
The Activities view associates activities with specific assets. For more information, see Chapter 4,
“Field Service Activities.”

Employees View
The Employees view associates employees with specific assets. The role field can be used to prioritize
employees for scheduling purposes. For more information, see “Role Priorities” on page 119 and
“Defining Field Engineer Assignments” on page 472.

Warranty View
For information about this view, see “Warranty View” on page 499.

Value View
The Value view calculates the current value of an asset based on its history.

There are two ways that assets can be valued:

■ Changes in asset value. An asset value is based on the original cost of the asset, plus or minus
changes to the asset (such as upgrades or damage). This is an accurate method for tracking
assets, but requires entry of detailed asset information. This information is entered in the Asset
Valuation subview.

NOTE: Asset Valuation records can have negative cost values to reflect devaluation in the asset
cost.

■ Asset mapping. An asset is valued as a percentage of its value on the cost list. The percentage
is based on the current condition of the asset. For example, a new asset in excellent condition
would be 100% of the cost list value, while a used asset in average condition would be 40% of
the cost list value. For information about setting these percentages, see “Asset Mapping View” on
page 484.

Both cost and value are important because they allow businesses to report the value of their
inventory accurately and to make repair versus replace decisions based on asset valuation.

Recost
A Recost function is available as both a button and a menu command in the Asset Screen’s Value
view. Recost assesses an asset’s cost by applying data from asset value records. To calculate the
current cost and the replacement value of the asset, an end user must select a cost list, condition,
and value basis and then click the Recost button or choose Recost from the view menu. Recost
calculates the values by taking the cost of the asset from the cost list, factoring in the cost method,
and applying the factor from Asset Mapping. Asset Mapping must provide mapping for Asset Value
and Replacement Cost. If the mapping is unavailable, the factor defaults to 100%.

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Readings View
Together with the Measurements view, the Readings view does the following:

■ Captures asset usage and compares actual versus expected usage

■ Captures data needed for preventive maintenance

■ Automates meter reading, fee-per-use, and other usage-based service models

■ Captures performance and quality data

The Readings view records data from measurements of an asset. Selecting the Done check box
indicates that the reading is complete and the record becomes read-only.

Charts View
The Asset screen has a Measurement Analysis chart that shows the readings from a selected
measurement as a function of the date of the readings. The upper and lower limits of readings (set
using the Administration - Contracts screen) are also shown on the graphs.

Components View
The Components view displays immediate components of specific assets. The parent asset record
appears in the Asset form, while the parent asset’s child components appear in the Components list
below. The sub-components of these components do not appear in the list. To view the sub-
components of a child component, drill down on the Asset # field and click the Components view tab.

For example, asset A has a component asset B, which in turn has a sub-component asset C. The
Component list for asset A displays only asset B. To view asset C, drill down on the Asset # field for
asset B and click the Components view tab. Asset C is displayed in asset B's Component list.

You can build a hierarchy of assets by defining each level in the hierarchy as a component.
Components are themselves individual assets that must exist before being included in component
relationships. Component relationships are defined in the Transactions view.

Transactions View
The Transactions view allows an end user to create asset transactions manually. These transactions
are of the types Install, Uninstall, Upgrade, and Downgrade.

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Transactions of the type Install can create a hierarchy of components for existing assets. Removing
a component requires another transaction of the type Uninstall. An Install transaction sets the Status
and Install Date. An Uninstall transaction clears the Status and Install Date. Install and uninstall
transactions can be entered manually in the Transactions list, or field part movements can create
these transactions automatically. For more information, see “Parts Movement Administration View” on
page 366.

NOTE: Components of customizable products should be installed through invoking the product
configurator.

Depending on which transaction type you select, assets become available for selection as follows:

■ Uninstall - Only assets that are currently installed

■ Downgrade - All assets

■ Install - Only assets that are not currently installed and are in the same inventory location, an
external location, or no location

■ Upgrade - All assets

NOTE: The asset transactions (Install, Uninstall, Upgrade, and Downgrade) do not directly update
quantities for inventory levels.

Change Requests View

For information on Change Requests, see Chapter 14, “Quality.”

Repairs View
The Repairs view lists all of the repair numbers recorded for an asset. For more information, see
“Repairs View” on page 536 for details.

Relationships View
The Relationships view records backup assets for a primary asset and assets that depend on the
operation of a primary asset.

An example of a dependent asset is a hospital power system; hospital medical equipment is

dependent on the power system. By checking this view, the engineer can tell what other assets may
be affected by a defective asset. The field service engineer can then take steps to make sure that no
unintended disruptions occur. In this example, the engineer would make sure that the medical
equipment was switched to the backup power supply before down taking the primary power supply.

Measurements View
Together with the Readings view, the Measurements view does the following:

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■ Captures asset usage and compares actual versus expected usage

■ Captures data needed for preventive maintenance

■ Automates meter reading, fee-per-use, and other usage-based service models

■ Captures performance and quality data

Measurement records are defined for a product. One or more measurement type records can be
inherited by an asset of this product and adapted for the selected asset. For more information, see
“Setting Up Use Plans” on page 289.

Preventive Maintenance View

The Preventive Maintenance view contains two subviews, accessible from the link bar:

■ History. Displays preventive maintenance actions associated with assets.

■ Plans. Associates preventive maintenance plans with assets. The Active check box indicates that
the Preventive Maintenance Engine can use this plan to schedule preventive maintenance action.

In the Asset form, an End Date field allows an end user to set the latest date that the Preventive
Maintenance Engine considers when generating preventive maintenance actions. Setting a date in
the future allows the Preventive Maintenance Engine to generate a future schedule of preventive
maintenance actions. Clicking the Run PM button runs the Preventive Maintenance Engine for the
selected asset.

For more information about the PM plans, PM actions, and the Preventive Maintenance Engine, see
Chapter 19, “Preventive Maintenance.”

Audit Trail View

The Audit Trail view displays an audit trail for a selected asset.

When any of the following fields in an asset record are modified, the change is automatically recorded
and time stamped in the Audit Trail view.

■ Account

■ Status

■ Operating Status

■ Revision

■ Inventory Location

■ Contacts

■ Employees

■ Ownership

■ Owner

■ Installed Date

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■ Registered Date

■ Shipped Date

■ Manufactured Date

■ Purchased Date

■ Primary Warranty

■ Organization

The following actions are also tracked as part of the audit trail:

■ Changes to the asset’s components (when components are installed or uninstalled)

■ Changes to the asset's value

Entitlements View
The Entitlements view displays all entitlements that cover the selected asset. This view is read-only.

Uptime Data View

The Uptime Data view displays a selected asset’s operating status, operating history, and a chart
showing its operating status over time.

This view shows a timestamp of when the Operating Status field of the asset was changed, the
original value, the new value, the employee who made the change, comments, and when the asset
was taken down and why. The view also displays a chart titled Operating Status Over Time, which
plots the Operating Status value (y-axis) over time (x-axis).

Attributes View
The Attributes view shows the attributes associated with the selected asset. This is a read-only view.
Attributes are associated with configurable products and can only be changed by invoking the
Configurator through the Customize button on the Asset form.

Explorer View
The Explorer View is accessed through the Assets link bar. This view shows an explorer-format view
of assets, including a hierarchical view of assets that have components. This view displays only the
assets in the user's organization.

For each hierarchical parent asset, a + sign is displayed to the left of the first column, denoting a
tree structure under it. Clicking the + sign expands the tree to the next level of components. If there
are further levels below, a + sign is displayed next to each line item that has more sub-components
at a lower level.

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Explorer Across Organizations View

The Explorer Across Organizations View is accessed through the Assets link bar. This view is the same
as the Assets Explorer View, except that it shows all assets across organizations.

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18 Warranties
This chapter describes how to use Siebel Field Service to track the warranties for products. Topics
include:

■ Warranties on page 493

■ Setting Up Warranties on page 494

■ Obtaining Information Warranties on page 496

■ Administration - Service Screen on page 498

■ Assets Screen on page 499

■ Service Order Screen on page 499

■ Products Screen on page 500

■ Repairs Screen on page 500

■ Service Screen on page 500

Warranties
Field Service offers multilevel warranty tracking, immediate recognition, and closed-loop handling.
Warranties are categorized into three types: product, manufacturer, and component. Each warranty
specifies the covered products, costs, and service providers. A warranty is valid for a specified
amount of time or usage. Warranties are separate from entitlements that are sold to a customer.

When an asset is created for a product that is covered by warranties, the user can verify the
applicable warranties by clicking the Get Warranties button on the Assets screen > List > Warranty
view. The number of days remaining on the warranty is automatically tracked.

When creating a service request or repair number for repairing an asset, the user can choose the
Check Warranty menu command to immediately find out the valid warranty coverage based on a
specified day. If a warranty is not associated with an asset, the Check Warranty feature automatically
checks the parent and root assets to determine if the asset is covered by an applicable component
warranty.

When an asset returned from the field is still under warranty, an order can be created for the
warranty provider, and each line item is tracked through closure, based on the warranty recovery
process.

Concurrent Warranties
Siebel Field Service provides the ability to create concurrent warranties. These warranties are valid
for:

■ A predefined amount of time

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■ A predefined amount of usage

For example, an automobile warranty that expires after 3 years or 36,000 miles, whichever occurs
first, is a concurrent warranty.

NOTE: In Siebel Field Service, time parameters are required fields and usage parameters are
optional fields.

Setting Up Warranties
Follow these procedures to set up warranties.

To create a new warranty

1 Navigate to the Administration - Service screen > Warranties view.

2 Create a new record or select an existing warranty.

3 To make the warranty a concurrent warranty, complete the following fields:

■ Start Date Type

■ Duration (Days)

■ Measurement Type

■ Unit of Measure

■ Usage Amount

To specify the products covered by a warranty

1 Navigate to the Administration - Service screen > Warranties view.
2 Select a warranty record.

3 Click the Products view tab.

4 In the Products list, create a record and associate a product with the selected warranty.

5 Enter values for the required fields.

6 Repeat Step 4 and Step 5 for each additional product covered by the selected warranty.

To associate a warranty with warranty service providers

1 Navigate to the Administration - Service screen > Warranties view.

2 Select a warranty record.

3 Click the Service Providers view tab.

4 In the Service Providers list, create a new record to associate a service provider with the current
warranty.

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To associate warranties with an asset manually

1 Navigate to the Assets screen.

2 Select an asset record.

3 In the All Assets list, drill down on the Asset # field hyperlink.

4 Click the Warranty view tab.

5 In the Warranty list, create a record to associate a warranty with the selected asset.

6 Enter values in the Start Date, End Date, and Name fields.

NOTE: Before a warranty can appear in the Pick Warranty dialog box, a product must be
associated with that warranty in the Service Administration screen, Warranties view, Products
subview.

To associate warranties with an asset automatically

1 Navigate to the Assets screen.

2 Select an asset record.

3 In the All Assets list, drill down on the Asset # field hyperlink.

4 Click the Warranty view tab.

5 In the Warranty list, click Get Warranty.

All warranties that are associated with the asset's product and that are applicable to the asset
will be automatically instantiated in the Warranty list.

6 Modify the values in the Start Date, End Date, and Name fields of the Warranty records as
required.

CAUTION: If the date field specified by Start Date Type in the warranty record is not populated
in the asset record, then the Get Warranty command will fail. For more information, see
“Warranties View” on page 498.

To associate warranties with an order line item

1 Navigate to the Service Order screen > List view.

2 Drill down on a selected order record.

3 Click the Line Items view tab.

4 Select an order line item record.

5 On the link bar, click Warranty.

6 In the Warranty list, create a record to associate a warranty with the selected line item.

7 Enter values for the required fields.

NOTE: Before a warranty can appear in the Pick Warranty dialog box, a product must be
associated with that warranty in the Service Administration screen, Warranties view, Products
subview.

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Obtaining Information Warranties

Follow these procedures to obtain information warranties.

To verify warranties and related information for an asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen.

2 Select an asset record.

3 In the All Assets list, drill down on the Asset # field hyperlink.

4 Click the More Info view tab.

The form shows the Status, Installed date, and the Registered date for the selected asset.

5 Click the Warranty view tab.

6 In the Warranty list, click Get Warranty.

The Warranties list displays the warranties associated with the selected asset. Each warranty
record shows the start date, the end date, and the number of days left on the warranty.

CAUTION: If the date field specified by Start Date Type in the warranty record is not populated
in the asset record, then the Get Warranty command will fail. For more information, see
“Warranties View” on page 498. If the asset does not have an appropriate measurement defined,
then Get Warranty will not add the usage-based concurrent warranty correctly.

To verify the warranties for a product

1 Navigate to the Products screen.

2 Select a product record.

3 In the All Products list, drill down on the product field hyperlink.
4 Click the Warranties view tab.

The Warranties list shows the warranties associated with this product.

To check the products covered by a warranty

1 Navigate to the Administration - Service screen > Warranties view.

2 Select a warranty record.

3 Click the Products view tab.

The Products list shows the products covered by this warranty.

To verify warranties for a service request

1 Navigate to the Service screen > Service Request List view.

2 Select an open service request that has an associated product or asset.

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3 Drill down on the SR # field hyperlink.

4 Click the Service Details view tab.

5 In the Warranty As of field, enter a date on which you want to assess the warranty status of the
selected service request.

The default date is the date the service request was created.

6 Click Check Warranty.

If any warranties are in effect as of the specified date, the Check Warranty command indicates
what types of warranties apply. It does so by selecting the appropriate check boxes (Product
Warranty, Manufacturer Warranty, or Component Warranty).

To verify warranties for an order

1 Navigate to the Service Order screen > List view.

2 Drill down on a selected order record.

3 Click the Line Items view tab.

4 Select an order line item record.

5 On the link bar, click Warranty.

The Warranty list displays the warranties for the selected line item.

To identify the service providers for a warranty

1 Navigate to the Administration - Service screen > Warranties view.

2 Select a warranty record.

3 In the Warranties list, drill down on the Name field hyperlink.

4 Click the Service Providers view tab.

The Service Provider list shows the service providers for this warranty.

To track warranty recovery

1 Navigate to the Service Order screen > List view.

2 Select an order with the type RMA Return, RMA Repair Return, or RMA Advance Exchange.

3 Drill down on the Order # field hyperlink.

4 Click the Line Items view tab.

5 Select an order line item record.

6 On the link bar, click Warranty.

7 In the Warranty list, select or create a new record for the appropriate warranty.

8 Record the warranty claim information in the Status, Planned Recovery, and Actual Recovery
fields.

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To verify the warranty status for defective parts

1 Navigate to the Repairs screen.

2 Select a repair record.

3 In the My Repairs list, drill down on the Repair # field hyperlink.

4 Click the More Info view tab.

5 In the Warranty As of field, enter a date on which you want to assess the warranty status of the
selected repair.

6 Click Check Warranty.

If any warranties are in effect as of the specified date, the Check Warranty command indicates
what types of warranties apply. It does so by selecting the appropriate check boxes (Product
Warranty, Manufacturer Warranty, or Component Warranty).

Administration - Service Screen

The Administration - Service screen provides views for defining warranties offered to customers.

Warranties View
The Warranties view lists warranties and their terms for all products and service providers. Table 127
describes the check boxes in the Warranties view.

Table 127. Selected Items on the Warranties View

Item Description
Expenses Indicates that this warranty covers the cost of expenses incurred by field
service agents.

Labor Indicates that this warranty covers the cost of labor.

Parts Indicates that this warranty covers the cost of replacement parts.

Start Date Type Specifies which field value in an associated asset record to use as the start
date of the warranty’s coverage of that asset. For example, if the Start
Date Type of the warranty is Installed Date, then the Installed Date of the
asset is used as the start date of the warranty associated with that asset.

Duration (Days) Specifies the length of the covered period under the warranty.

Measurement Type Specifies the type of measurement used to determine if the usage
limitation of a concurrent warranty is exceeded or not.

Unit of Measure Specifies the unit of measure for measuring usage of the asset under
warranty.

Usage Amount The limitation on usage of the asset under warranty, above which the
warranty is no longer valid.

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Table 127. Selected Items on the Warranties View

Item Description

Transferable When checked, the warranty is transferred from an uninstalled asset to an

installed asset upon recording an asset swap. For more information, see
“Asset Swaps” on page 470.

Transportation Indicates that this warranty covers the cost of transportation.

Products Subview
The Products subview specifies the products covered by a warranty. The products are selected from
a dialog box. Products are configured on the Product Administration screen. For more information,
see Siebel Product Administration Guide.

Service Providers Subview

The Service Providers subview records the accounts that supply services for a warranty. The service
providers are selected from a dialog box.

Assets Screen
The Assets screen has one view that displays information about warranties.

Warranty View
The Warranty view displays the warranties associated with selected assets. Table 128 describes the
Get Warranty button in this view.

Table 128. Selected Item on the Warranty View

Item Description

Get Warranty This button and command lists all warranties associated with a product and fills
in the fields that describe the warranty.

Service Order Screen

The Service Order screen associates warranties with line items in an order.

Warranty Subview
The Warranty subview (under the Line Items view) associates warranties with line items in an order
and allows users to record details of expected credit recovery.

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Products Screen
The Products screen has one view for warranties.

Warranties View
The Warranties view shows the warranties that apply to selected products. This view is read-only.

Repairs Screen
The Repairs screen provides a Check Warranty button and menu command.

More Info View

A Check Warranty button and command in the More Info tab’s menu provides warranty information
for an asset. Choosing this command checks the appropriate warranty boxes (Product Warranty,
Component Warranty, and Manufacturer Warranty) as of the date specified in the Warranty As Of
field.

Service Screen
The Service screen has one view with a Check Warranties button and menu command.

Service Details View

The Service Details view contains a Check Warranty button and command. This command identifies
the warranties that are associated with a service request on the Warranty As Of date. Choosing this
command checks the appropriate warranty boxes (Product Warranty, Component Warranty, and
Manufacturer Warranty) as of the date specified in the Warranty As Of field.

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19 Preventive Maintenance
This chapter describes the Preventive Maintenance module for Siebel Field Service and the automatic
generation of service requests and activities for maintenance. Topics include:

■ Preventive Maintenance on page 501

■ Preventive Maintenance Triggers on page 502

■ PM Plans and Actions on page 509

■ Preventive Maintenance Engine on page 510

■ Setting Up the Preventive Maintenance Engine on page 515

■ Generating Preventive Maintenance Activities on page 517

■ Administration - Service Screen on page 518

■ Preventive Maintenance Screen on page 518

■ Assets Screen on page 523

■ Agreements Screen on page 523

Preventive Maintenance
The Preventive Maintenance Engine can automatically generate preventive maintenance (PM) service
requests and actions (or activities), triggered by elapsed time, asset usage, measurement
thresholds, or events (see Figure 38 on page 502):

■ Time-based triggers call for maintenance actions at regular time intervals.

■ Usage-based triggers are for equipment that can keep track of usage with a counter (for
example, number of copies for photocopiers).

■ Threshold-based triggers initiate a service activity when a measurement falls above or below a
set level (similar to an alarm or engine warning light).

■ Event-based triggers use predefined events to determine if a PM activity is required.

When a PM activity is required, you use Field Service to create service requests and detailed
activities. Figure 38 on page 502 shows the process of the Preventive Maintenance Engine, which is:

1 Run the PM Engine for an asset or an agreement.

2 Select the PM Plan for the asset or for the entitlement’s assets.

3 For each trigger, if conditions require an action, create service requests or activities, and then
run the PM Engine. If conditions do not require an action, run the PM Engine.

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4 Continue the process until all necessary service requests and activities have been created.

Figure 38. Logic of the Preventive Maintenance Engine

Preventive Maintenance Triggers

Preventive Maintenance triggers initiate processes in Field Service to plan and schedule routine
service activities. The Preventive Maintenance Engine responds to triggers and plans service
activities. The Optimization Engine can schedule these activities (see “Guidelines for Integrating
Preventive Maintenance with the Appointment Booking System” on page 104).

There are five types of triggers for preventive maintenance plans: Time Interval, Date, Usage,
Threshold, and Event. Topics include:

■ Logic Governing Triggers on page 503

■ Prioritization of PM Plans for Date and Time Interval Triggers on page 504

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■ Time Interval Triggers on page 505

■ Date Triggers on page 507

■ Usage Triggers on page 508

■ Threshold Triggers on page 508

■ Event Triggers on page 509

Logic Governing Triggers

The following rules regulate the operation of Preventive Maintenance triggers:

■ Time Interval and Date triggers are the only trigger type that can fire for a date in the future.
All other triggers can fire only for the current date (when the engine runs).

■ Triggers never fire in the past. If the Preventive Maintenance Engine finds a trigger that should
have fired in the past, it fires for the current date unless some other constraint or condition
prevents that.

■ No trigger can fire more than once a day.

■ No trigger can fire while there is an outstanding (future) PM activity for the asset and its
associated PM plan.

When the trigger logic evaluates whether a trigger should fire, it prevents the creation of a new PM
action whenever there is an existing action for the current date or any date in the future. This
behavior is by design, to prevent triggers from firing multiple times for the same trigger condition.
However, it means that plans with a Time or Date trigger combined with another trigger should not
be run with end dates too far in the future. Time- or Date-triggered preventive maintenance actions
in the future might prevent other valid triggers (such as Usage triggers) from firing, thus preventing
valid service actions from being created.

NOTE: There are no constraints built into the PM module limiting multiple triggers.

For example, a plan with Time and Usage triggers might run with an end date one year in the future.
All the PM actions for the next year are created based on the Time trigger, and during that time the
Usage trigger will never fire, whatever the actual usage. You can avoid this conflict by only
scheduling PM actions a few weeks or one month in advance. Then, in the worst case, the engine
runs and schedules a PM action based on the Time trigger even though the asset meets the usage
criteria tomorrow. The actual difference in the time between when the PM action should have been
scheduled and when it was scheduled is, at most, the difference between the end date passed to the
engine and the current date (when the engine runs).

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When an SR Template is associated to a PM Plan and one of the triggers for the plan fires, it
generates service requests and PM actions with date fields automatically filled with values, as listed
in Table 129:

Table 129. Field Values from PM Triggers

Screen and View Field Description

Assets > Service Requests Opened Date and time the PM engine was run.

Assets > Service Requests Committed Date and time the PM activity is due. Corresponds
to the date and time of the trigger.

Assets > Preventive Created Date and time the PM engine was run.
Maintenance > History

Assets > Preventive Scheduled Date and time the PM activity is due. Corresponds
Maintenance > History to the date and time of the trigger.

Prioritization of PM Plans for Date and Time Interval

Triggers
Priority levels can be selected for PM plans, ranging from 1-ASAP to 4-Low. This is done using the
Priority field on the Preventive Maintenance screen > Preventive Maintenance List view. The priority
value is used to determine whether actions (which can be overlapping) need to be generated when
more than one PM plan applies to the same asset.

If the Optional flag on the PM plan is not selected, this means that action generation is mandatory
and the actions are generated regardless of its priority. However, if the Optional flag is selected,
action generation for this plan is dependent on the priority. Prioritization of PM plans only happens
in the same run, which means that if actions from a previous plan with lower priority were already
created, then the current plan does not override those actions, regardless of its priority.

Prioritization of PM plans only affects Date and Time Interval triggers. Other triggers should be set
up so that they do not overlap between different PM plans. This means that Usage, Threshold, and
Event triggers from different plans that trigger on the same day, can create overlapping actions
without the prioritization logic being applied.

The logic of PM prioritization can handle one or a combination of the following scenarios:

■ Scenario 1. Two or more PM plans have the same priority.

■ Scenario 2. There are two PM plans.one with a high priority and one with a low priority

■ Scenario 3. The PM plans have the optional flag set to FALSE.

■ Scenario 4. The PM plans have no set priority.

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Scenario 1
In Scenario 1, PM plans with equal priority behave as if they have no priority with respect to each
other. This means that all the actions that need to be generated from these plans are created and
that the priority is not considered to be a factor.

Scenario 2
In scenario 2, the PM Engine processes the plan with the higher priority first to generate the
necessary actions. Next, the engine processes the plan with the lower priority. It then checks if the
actions to be created are scheduled for the same day as those already generated by the plan with
the higher priority. If a higher priority action already exists, then the lower priority plan does not
create another action that overlaps the old one.

Scenario 3
In scenario 3, plan actions that must always be created will have the optional flag set to FALSE for
the corresponding PM plan. In this case, the PM Engine ignores the priority and the plan executes
normally. The priority of mandatory PM plans will also affect the prioritization of other plans in the
same run.

Scenario 4
Finally, in scenario 4, PM plans with no priority are considered as plans with the lowest priority.

See “Plans View” on page 519 for more information on the Priority and Optional fields.

Time Interval Triggers

Time Interval triggers in a PM plan for an asset determine the dates on which the PM engine
schedules PM actions for that asset. Other factors that determine these dates include:

■ Installation date of the asset

■ Period of time for which you run the PM engine

Time Interval triggers include the following fields:

■ Interval. A time interval in days.

■ Valid Start. A number that indicates the first day in the asset life to which the corresponding
interval applies.

■ Valid End. A number that indicates the day in the asset life to which the corresponding interval
no longer applies.

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Example of Using Time Interval Triggers

This topic gives one example of how the PM engine schedules PM action dates. You may use this
feature differently, depending on your business model. For an asset purchased on June 8, the PM
plan for the asset includes the Time Interval triggers listed in the following table:

Table 130. Sample Time Interval Triggers

Time Interval
Trigger
Number Interval Valid Start Valid End

1 1 0 2

2 3 2 7

3 5 7

Time Interval trigger number 1 indicates that for the first day of the asset life, a time interval of 1
day applies. Time Interval trigger number 2 indicates that for the second through the sixth day of
the asset life, a time interval of 3 days applies. Time Interval trigger number 3 indicates that for the
seventh and subsequent days of the asset life, a time interval of 5 days applies.

If you run the PM engine from June 8 to June 30, the PM engine uses the asset installation date to
calculate the PM action dates, because no PM actions currently exist. The PM engine schedules the
following PM action dates: June 9, 11, 14, 23, 28:

■ For the first day of the asset life (June 9), Time Interval trigger number 1 applies. The engine
adds 1 day to the June 8 installation date to obtain the June 9 scheduled date.

■ For the second through sixth days of the asset life (June 10 - June 14), Time Interval trigger
number 2 applies. The engine adds 3 days to the June 8 installation date to obtain the June 11
scheduled date, and adds 6 days to the June 8 installation date to obtain the June 14 scheduled
date.

■ For the seventh and subsequent days of the asset life (June 15 - June 30), Time Interval trigger
number 3 applies. The engine adds 10 days to the June 8 installation date to obtain the June 18
scheduled date. (The engine adds 10 days, and not 5 days, to obtain a date that is on or after
the seventh day of the asset life.)

■ The engine adds 15 days to the June 8 installation date to obtain the June 23 scheduled date,
and adds 20 days to the June 8 installation date to obtain the June 28 scheduled date.

If you complete the June 28 scheduled action two days early on June 26, and if you run the PM engine
for the period of time from June 8 to July 15, the PM engine uses this last completion date to calculate
the PM action dates. The PM engine schedules the following PM action dates: July 1, 6, 11:

■ For the seventh and subsequent days of the asset life, Time Interval trigger number 3 applies.
The engine adds 5 days to the June 26 completion date to obtain the July 1 scheduled date.
■ The engine adds 10 days to the June 26 completion date to obtain the July 6 scheduled date, and
adds 15 days to the June 26 completion date to obtain July 11 scheduled date.

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If you do not complete the July 11 scheduled action, and if you run the PM engine for the period of
time from June 8 to July 31, the PM engine uses this last scheduled date to calculate the PM action
dates, because the last scheduled action has no completion date. The PM engine schedules the
following PM action dates: July 16, 21, 26:

■ For the seventh and subsequent days of the asset life, Time Interval trigger number 3 applies.
The engine adds 5 days to the July 11 scheduled date to obtain the July 16 scheduled date.

■ The engine adds 10 days to the July 11 scheduled date to obtain the July 21 scheduled date and
adds 15 days to the June 11 scheduled date to obtain the July 26 scheduled date.

Although the interval could be less than 1 day, higher-level logic currently prevents triggers from
firing more than once a day.

The asset installation date determines the age of the asset. An asset with no installation date has an
age of 0 days.

NOTE: Do not change the installation date of an asset, because the existing PM actions will not be
consistent with your revised installation date.

Though you cannot change the dates of scheduled PM actions for an asset, you can restart PM action
scheduling to go into effect on the current date or a future date. To restart PM action scheduling for
an asset, use one of the following methods:

■ In the Date Completed field of the latest PM action for the asset, enter the restart date.

■ The PM engine uses the existing Time Interval triggers in the asset's PM plan and this restart
date to schedule PM actions.

■ Delete the asset from the PM plan, and create a new PM plan for the asset with new Time Interval
triggers.

■ The PM engine uses the revised Time Interval triggers and the asset installation date to schedule
PM actions.

■ If the PM plan contains only the asset for which you want to restart PM action scheduling, set an
end day corresponding to today for any Time Interval triggers that are in effect on the restart
date, delete any Time Interval triggers that are in effect after the restart date, and create new
Time Interval triggers to replace them.

The PM engine uses the revised Time Interval triggers and the date of the last completed PM
action for the asset to schedule PM actions. If no completed PM actions exist, the engine uses
the date of the last scheduled PM action for the asset instead of the date of the last completed
action. If no scheduled PM actions exist for the asset, the PM engine uses the asset installation
date instead of the date of the last scheduled PM action.

Date Triggers
Date triggers fire on a specific date. Like Time Interval triggers, they may have a valid start and end
that are measured from the asset’s install date.

NOTE: In the out-of-the-box configuration, Date triggers are not exposed in the user interface.

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Usage Triggers
Usage triggers activate a PM plan when the reading from an asset changes by a specified amount.
Each usage trigger record has start and stop values, so that the activation of a PM plan can change
with the usage of the asset. For example, a service request may be generated every 3,000 counts
for the first 15,000 counts, then every 10,000 counts after 15,000.

NOTE: For Time Interval and Usage triggers (which use Valid Start and Valid End settings), if the
interval falls beyond the Valid End, the trigger does not fire.

The trigger fires if the readings for the specified measurement have a delta greater than the specified
interval. The delta is determined by the difference between the most recent reading and the reading
at the time of the last PM action. To be considered, the readings must be marked as Done. For more
information, see “Warranty View” on page 486. If the most recent reading is less than the reading at
the time of the last PM action, then the measurement is assumed to have wrapped around and the
delta is calculated as follows:

delta = (max – last) + (new – min) + 1

Usage triggers may also specify a valid start and end, defining the values of the reading for which
the trigger is valid.

A measurement is specified only by its type. For more information, see “Measurements View” on
page 488. If an asset is given more than one measurement of the type specified by a Usage trigger,
then if any of the measurements exceed the usage specified by its type, the trigger fires. To avoid
this, you should define specific types, as applicable, in the measurement type LOV
(ASSET_MEAS_TYPE).

Threshold Triggers
A Threshold trigger activates a PM Plan when a reading from an asset exceeds a set value. Threshold
triggers can fire in response to a change in a binary value; for example, a threshold of 0.5 would
trigger a PM plan when an on/off alarm changes state.

Threshold triggers examine the readings since the most recent PM action. If any completed reading
exceeds the lower or upper limit, the trigger fires.

Like Usage triggers, Threshold triggers specify a measurement type to which they apply. The same
potential issues and solutions for “Usage Triggers” on page 508 apply to Threshold triggers.

Measurements and Readings

Measurements are defined for products on the Administration - Product screen > Service Information
> Measurements view. For more information, see “Setting Up Use Plans” on page 289.

The Measurements view on the Assets screen associates measurements from a product with the
selected asset. The view allows these measurements to be customized for this asset. For example,
a relevant measurement for a copy machine would be the number of copies, read from a counter;
for a car it would be the distance traveled, read from an odometer; and for a pump it might be oil
level, oil, pressure, and temperature, read from gauges. For more information, see “Measurements
View” on page 488.

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The Readings view on the Assets screen allows a technician to record the readings for specific
measurements and specific assets. These readings may act as triggers for usage and threshold
triggers.

Event Triggers
An Event Trigger activates a PM Plan when the number of service requests for an asset exceeds a
threshold number in a specified time period. This trigger is useful for activating a higher level PM
plan when a certain number of routine PM plans have taken place. For example, this trigger could
activate a complete overhaul.

Currently, the only event supported is the number of service requests in a specified period.

PM Plans and Actions

PM plans define sets of activities for preventive maintenance. The steps in setting up a PM plan are
also useful for understanding the function of a plan:

1 Create an SR template. Each SR template defines a type of preventive maintenance: for example,
5,000 mile service or major overhaul.

2 Associate one or more activity templates with each SR template. An activity template is a set of
activities to carry out a preventive maintenance objective. For more information about activity
templates, see “Field Service Activity Templates and Activity Plans” on page 71.

3 Create a PM plan. Define triggers and products or assets covered by the PM plan. Associate one
or more SR templates with the PM plan. You can also directly associate activity templates with
the PM plan.

Service Request Templates

A Service Request Template is used to create service requests whenever a preventive maintenance
trigger is activated. An SR Template includes one or more activity templates and holds default values
for the following service request fields:

■ Name

■ Description

■ Area

■ Subarea

■ Symptoms

■ Severity

■ Status

■ Substatus

■ Priority

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■ Resolution

SR templates apply only to preventive maintenance.

Preventive Maintenance Engine

This section describes the Preventive Maintenance Engine. Topics includes:

■ Validating PM Plans for an Asset on page 510

■ Running the Preventive Maintenance Engine on page 511

■ System Preferences for the Preventive Maintenance Engine on page 512

■ Parameters for the Preventive Maintenance Engine on page 513

When a trigger fires, the Preventive Maintenance Engine creates a service request. Activities are
created in two ways:

■ Activities are derived from SR templates (and PM plans). These activities are associated with the
service request. See “Service Request Templates” on page 509 and “Actions View” on page 522.

■ Activities are derived from activity templates associated directly with a PM plan. See “Actions
View” on page 522, Activities subview.

NOTE: The association between activities and activity templates is made in the Activity Templates
view in the Administration - Applications screen (see “Administration - Application Screen” on
page 78).

Validating PM Plans for an Asset

The Products view on the Preventive Maintenance screen allows you to associate products and assets
with PM plans. The PM Engine retrieves these products and assets as follows:

■ The products are obtained by querying the database for all the products that are associated with
the PM plan and then setting their All Assets flags to TRUE.

■ The assets are obtained by querying for all the assets that are associated with the PM plan and
then setting their products’ All Assets flags to FALSE.

You set the All Assets flag for products associated with PM plans in the Products view of the
Preventive Maintenance screen. For more information, see “Products View” on page 521.

NOTE: PM plans are always associated with products and not with product lines.

To determine if a plan is applicable to an asset, the Preventive Maintenance Engine applies the
following logic:

1 The engine checks the product of the asset with the collection of products held in the plan. If a
match is found, the plan applies to the asset; otherwise processing continues.

2 The engine checks the asset against the collection of assets held in the plan. If a match is found,
the plan applies to the asset; otherwise the plan does not apply.

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Running the Preventive Maintenance Engine

There are two methods of invoking the Preventive Maintenance Engine:

■ Using component jobs

■ Using the Field Service client

Related Topic
“FS Preventive Maintenance Business Service” on page 580

Using Component Jobs

Administrators can set up jobs (one-time or repeating) for tasks that are serviced by the Preventive
Maintenance Engine. The component-specific parameters specified by the job determine what the
engine does for that job. For a detailed explanation, see “Parameters for the Preventive Maintenance
Engine” on page 513.

In general, tasks must define these variables:

■ A set of objects for the engine to operate on.

■ A date that is the latest date to schedule preventive maintenance during the run.

■ The mode in which the task is to be run. When invoking the PM Engine through component jobs,
you can specify either ID or SQL mode for this variable. (The Field Service client uses another
mode, TempTbl, when invoking the PM engine.)

■ The sub-mode, which determines the entities that are specified for the selected mode.

The set of objects must include either assets and plans or agreements, as defined by the sub-mode
parameter in the job. In the case of assets and plans, if only assets or only plans are specified, then
all of the other object types are assumed. For example, if only assets are specified (Sub-
mode=Assets), then the Preventive Maintenance Engine checks the specified assets with all plans.
When agreements are specified, each agreement implicitly defines a set of assets and plans
(entitlements have both associated assets/products and PM plans) that the engine is to process for
that agreement.

Usually these jobs use a SQL parameter that completes a SQL statement. The SQL statement locates
the objects that the Preventive Maintenance Engine will process for that run. Component jobs can
also use ID parameters instead of the SQL parameters.

CAUTION: Do not run component jobs in Temp-Table Mode to invoke the Preventive Maintenance
Engine. This mode is reserved for interactive engine jobs sent directly from a client application.

Using the Field Service Client

End users can pass client requests directly from the client application. They can do this by performing
one of the following:

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To invoke the PM engine from the Assets screen

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > Preventive Maintenance view.

2 Select an asset. From the menu drop-down list, select Run PM All.

To invoke the PM engine from the Agreements screen

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > Preventive Maintenance view.

2 Select an agreement. From the menu drop-down list, select Run PM All.

System Preferences for the Preventive Maintenance

Engine
The Preventive Maintenance Engine uses the two system preferences described in Table 131.

Table 131. System Preferences for the Preventive Maintenance Engine

Default
System Preference Value Description

FSPrevMnt: Default Org ID Org ID The value of this system preference is the
ROW_ID of the default organization. This default
organization is used on generated service
requests when the asset for which the service
request is being generated does not have a
specified account. If the owner account is
specified for the asset, then the account’s BU_ID
is used.

FSPrevMnt: Def Act Owner ID Act Owner ID The value of this system preference is used when
you create activities from a template in which
the activity owner (Employees) has not been
defined. The value specified should be the
ROW_ID of the desired employee.

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Parameters for the Preventive Maintenance Engine

Siebel Business Process Designer or the client can invoke all engines. These engines require certain
parameters to be passed. Table 132 describes the parameters for the Preventive Maintenance
Engine.

Table 132. Preventive Maintenance Engine Parameters

Parameter Values Description

Mode {SQL, Id, TempTbl} This required parameter specifies how the
engine locates the entities to process. Only SQL
or ID should be specified in user requests.
TempTbl is used by the client applications for
submitting requests.

Sub-mode {Assets, Plans, Assets&Plans, This required parameter identifies which entities
Agreements} are specified. A Sub-mode of Assets implies ALL
PM Plans, and a Sub-mode of Plans implies ALL
Assets.

End Date YYYY-MM-DD format This required parameter specifies the date
furthest into the future for which the engine will
generate PM Actions. Note that currently, only
time-based triggers can fire for a future date.

Asset ID Row ID of an asset This parameter specifies a specific asset. It is

required when the Mode is Id and the Sub-mode
is either Assets or Assets&Plans.

Plan ID Row ID of a PM Plan This parameter specifies a specific PM Plan. It is

required when the Mode is Id and the Sub-mode
is either Plans or Assets&Plans.

Agreement Row ID of an agreement This parameter specifies a specific Agreement.

ID It is required when the Mode is Id and the Sub-
mode is Agreements.

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Table 132. Preventive Maintenance Engine Parameters

Parameter Values Description

Asset SQL Where clause for the This parameter specifies a search specification
GET_SQL_ASSETS template. The for assets. It is required when the Mode is SQL
where clause takes the following and the Sub-mode is either Assets or
form: Assets&Plans.

[BusComp Field Name] = ‘Value’ The SQL template for retrieving assets is as
follows:

GET_SQL_ASSETS =
SELECT asset.ROW_ID
FROM &Table_Owner.S_ASSET asset
WHERE $SEARCH_SPEC$

The value supplied as the Asset SQL parameter

is substituted for '$SEARCH_SPEC$.' Thus, any
specification that completes this template with
valid values is allowed for the parameter.

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Table 132. Preventive Maintenance Engine Parameters

Parameter Values Description

Plan SQL Where clause for the This parameter specifies a search specification
GET_SQL_PM_PLANS template. for PM plans. It is required when the Mode is SQL
The where clause takes the and the Sub-mode is either Plans or
following form: Assets&Plans.

[BusComp Field Name] = ‘Value’ The SQL template for retrieving PM Plans is as
follows:

GET_SQL_PM_PLANS =
SELECT pln.ROW_ID
FROM &Table_Owner.S_PM_PLNITM pln
WHERE pln.ACTIVE_FLG = 'Y'
AND $SEARCH_SPEC$

The value supplied as the Plan SQL parameter is

substituted for '$SEARCH_SPEC$.' Thus, any
specification that completes this template with
valid values is allowed for the parameter.

Agreement Where clause for the This parameter specifies a search specification
SQL GET_SQL_AGREEMENT_IDS for agreements. It is required when the Mode is
template. The where clause takes SQL and the Sub-mode is Agreements.
the following form:
The SQL template for retrieving PM Agreements
[BusComp Field Name] = ‘Value’ is as follows:

GET_SQL_AGREEMENT_IDS =
SELECT agrmnt.ROW_ID
FROM &Table_Owner.S_DOC_AGREE agrmt
WHERE agrmnt.VALID_FLG = 'Y'
AND $SEARCH_SPEC$

The value supplied as the Agreement SQL

parameter is substituted for '$SEARCH_SPEC$.'
Thus, any specification that completes this
template with valid values is allowed for the
parameter.

Setting Up the Preventive Maintenance

Engine
Follow these procedures to set up the Preventive Maintenance Engine.

For information about synchronous and asynchronous processing, see Siebel Application Services
Interface Reference.

In synchronous processing, the client screen can lock. Consequently, the user sees a blank screen.

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To set asynchronous operation of the Preventive Maintenance Engine

1 From the application-level menu, choose Tools > User Preferences.

The User Preferences screen appears.

2 On the link bar, click Service.

The Field Service form appears.

3 In the Asynchronous Processing of section, select Preventive Maintenance.

To set parameters for the Preventive Maintenance Engine

1 Create or edit a component job for the server component Preventive Maintenance Engine (alias
FSPrevMnt).

2 Create or edit a component job for the Preventive Maintenance Engine server component.

3 Add or modify the server component parameters, as needed. For information about server
components and component parameters, see Siebel System Administration Guide.

To change system preferences for the Preventive Maintenance Engine

1 Navigate to the Administration - Applications screen > System Preferences view.

2 Select the name of the system preference, and then enter a new value. For the names of
applicable system preferences, see Table 131 on page 512.

3 To register changes to system preferences, restart the Field Service server. For information
about how to restart servers, see Siebel System Administration Guide.

To add preventive maintenance plans

1 Navigate to the Preventive Maintenance screen > Preventive Maintenance List view.

2 Add a new record.

To add triggers for a selected PM plan

1 Navigate to the Preventive Maintenance List screen > Triggers view.

2 Select a PM plan, and then add a new record in any applicable subview.

To associate a PM plan with an agreement

1 Navigate to the Agreements screen > Entitlements view.

2 Select an entitlement, add a new record, and then associate a PM plan.

To associate assets with PM plans

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > Preventive Maintenance - Plans view.

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2 Select an asset, add a new record, and then associate an asset.

To associate activity templates with a PM plan

1 Navigate to the Preventive Maintenance screen > Preventive Maintenance List view.

2 Select a preventive maintenance plan, and click the Actions view tab.

3 In the Activity Templates applet, create a new record, and associate an activity template with
the PM plan.

To associate service request templates with a PM plan

1 Navigate to the Preventive Maintenance screen > Preventive Maintenance List view.

2 Select a preventive maintenance plan, and click the Actions view tab.

3 In the SR Templates applet, create a new record, and associate a service request template with
the PM plan.

Creating Service Request Templates for Preventive Maintenance

Service Request Templates provide one or more activity templates to carry out preventive
maintenance.

To create a service request template for preventive maintenance

1 Navigate to the Administration - Service screen > Service Request Templates view.

2 Add a record, click the Service Request Template Activities view tab, and add activity templates
as needed for preventive maintenance.

Generating Preventive Maintenance

Activities
Use the following procedures to generate preventive maintenance activities (actions).

To run PM plans for an asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > Preventive Maintenance - Plans view.

2 Select an asset, and then add a new record to associate a preventive maintenance plan to the
asset.

3 Complete the End Date field. This is the latest date that the PM Engine considers when generating
PM actions. The field defaults to the current date, and you can set it to any date in the future.

4 Do one of the following:

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■ To run the PM Engine for the selected asset and all its associated maintenance plans, click
Run PM.

■ To run the PM Engine for all assets and all their associated maintenance plans, click the menu
button and choose Run PM All.

To review generated PM actions for an asset

1 Navigate to the Assets screen > Preventive Maintenance - History view.

2 Select an asset.

Administration - Service Screen

Two views in the Administration - Service screen are for configuring activity templates for preventive
maintenance. These templates become part of PM plans. For more information, see “Preventive
Maintenance Screen” on page 518. Topics include:

■ Service Request Templates on page 509

■ Service Request Template Activities View on page 518

Service Request Templates View

The Service Request Templates view creates templates for preventive maintenance service requests.
An SR template includes one or more activity templates plus default values for a preventive
maintenance service request: for example, Area, Status, Priority, Symptoms, and Resolution. When
activated, the preventive maintenance trigger creates the service request using this template.

NOTE: Service request templates apply only to preventive maintenance.

Service Request Template Activities View

The Service Request Template Activities view associates activity templates with preventive
maintenance service request templates.

Activity templates are set up in the Administration - Application screen, Activity Templates view. For
more information, see “Setting Up Field Service Activity Templates” on page 73.

Preventive Maintenance Screen

The Preventive Maintenance screen configures preventive maintenance plans for specific products
and assets. Topics include:

■ Plans View on page 519

■ Triggers View on page 520

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■ Products View on page 521

■ Actions View on page 522

■ History View on page 523

Plans View
The Plans view defines preventive maintenance plans for specific products and assets. Table 133
describes some of the items on this view.

Table 133. Items in the Plans view

Item Description

Active Selecting the Active check box allows the Preventive Maintenance Engine to process
this plan. It may be useful to clear this box when you define a plan or to temporarily
disable specific plans. When the plan definition is complete or a plan is reinstated,
the administrator selects this box to activate the preventive maintenance plan.

Optional Indicates whether action generation for the PM plan is mandatory or optional. By
default, this flag is set to FALSE. However, when the flag is set to TRUE, the PM
Engine can take prioritization into account when determining the action generation.

Reset Time Select this check box to reset the time trigger after the plan has been activated. See
Trigger “Time Interval Triggers” on page 505 for more information.

Priority Priority of the preventive maintenance planning item. See “Prioritization of PM Plans
for Date and Time Interval Triggers” on page 504 for more information.

Last Run The time and date when the selected PM plan was last activated.

The Preventive Maintenance Engine fills two time stamps when it runs:

■ When you run the Auto PM function on an asset, the Preventive Maintenance
Engine examines each active PM plan to determine whether it applies to the
particular asset. The time stamp for this examination is recorded in the PM plan
(S_PM_PLNITM.LAST_RUN_DT).

■ When the Preventive Maintenance engine has located a PM plan that applies to
the asset (the plan has an asset connector for the asset or a corresponding
product connector with the All Assets flag set), it also records the time stamp in
the corresponding product connector or asset connector record
(S_PM_APPL_ASSET.LAST_RUN_DT). If required, you can expose this time stamp
in the following business components:

■ FS PM Applicable Plan Item

■ FS PM Plan Item-Product Connector

■ FS PM Plan Item-Asset Connector

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Triggers View
The Triggers view provides four subviews (Time Interval, Month-Day, Usage, Threshold, or Event)
to define the triggers that activate PM plans.

Time Interval Subview

The Time Interval subview sets the interval in days between triggers that activate a selected plan.
A plan can have more than one Time Interval trigger. For more information, see “Time Interval
Triggers” on page 505. Table 134 describes items in Time Interval records.

Table 134. Items in the Time Interval Subview

Item Description

Interval Length of the interval between triggers, in number of days. Must be an integer.

Valid Start The age of an asset, in days, at which this trigger becomes effective. Required.

Valid End The age of an asset at which this trigger is no longer effective. If this value is blank,
the end is set to infinity.

NOTE: The asset installation date determines the age of the asset. An asset with no installation date
has an age of 0 days.

Usage Subview
The Usage subview defines the measurement and measurement parameters that trigger a PM plan.
A plan can have more than one Usage trigger. For more information, see “Usage Triggers” on
page 508. Table 135 describes items in Usage records.

Table 135. Items in the Usage Subview

Item Description

Measurement A type of reading, chosen from a dialog box.

Type

Interval The change in a reading that triggers a PM plan. Interval uses the units set in
Measurement Type.

Valid Start The measurement at which the trigger becomes valid. The value is in the same
units as the interval.

Valid End The measurement at which the trigger is no longer valid. The value is in the
same units as the interval. If this value is blank, the end is set to infinity.

NOTE: For Time Interval and Usage triggers (which use Valid Start and Valid End settings), if the
interval falls beyond the Valid End, the trigger does not fire.

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Threshold Subview
The Threshold subview defines a reading from an asset that triggers a PM plan. A plan can have more
than one Threshold trigger. For more information, see “Threshold Triggers” on page 508. Table 136
describes the item in Threshold records.

Table 136. Items in the Threshold Subview

Item Description

Measurement Type A type of measurement, chosen from a dialog box.

Event Subview
The Event subview defines the number of service requests in a time interval that trigger a PM plan.
A plan can have only one Event trigger. For more information, see “Event Triggers” on page 509.
Table 137 describes items in the Event subview. Both items are required.

Table 137. Items in the Event Subview

Item Description

# of SRs The number of service requests which, when exceeded, triggers a PM plan.

Over # of Days The time interval, in days, during which the number of service requests
must occur.

Products View
The Products view associates specific products and assets with PM plans. Table 138 describes the
check box in the Products view.

Table 138. Item in the Products View

Item Description

All Assets A check box that indicates all assets of this product are covered by the PM
plan, whether or not they appear in the Assets list.

To cover only the specified assets, make sure that All Assets is not selected.

CAUTION: You must configure the correct measurement types in the Administration - Product
screen for the products covered in the preventive maintenance plan. In the More Info view, select
Product Measurements from the visibility filter. If you do not configure measurement types, then
Usage and Threshold triggers can cause unpredictable and undesired results. For more information
about configuring products, see Siebel Product Administration Guide.

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If the asset is already associated through the All Assets flag, adding the PM plan as a record has no
effect other than to display the relationship.

To perform this procedure, see “To associate assets with PM plans” on page 516.

Assets Subview
The Assets subview lists the assets for each product covered under the PM plan.

Actions View
The Actions view associates service request templates and activity templates with PM Plan records.
The application does not verify duplication of activity templates, so the same activity template may
be associated directly with a PM plan and indirectly through an SR template.

To create SR templates, see “Administration - Service Screen” on page 518.

The preventative maintenance trigger, when activated, creates a service request using the service
request template. The trigger also creates activities (but not activity plans) for the activity templates
that are associated with the service request. The following fields are copied from the service request
template to the service request:

■ Area

■ Description

■ Name

■ Primary Symptom Code

■ Priority

■ Resolution Code

■ Severity

■ Source

■ Status

■ Sub-Area

■ Sub-Status

The Commit Time field on the service request is set to the date of the preventative maintenance
trigger.

The preventative maintenance trigger, when activated, creates activities (but not an activity plan)
using the activity template. To view the fields that are copied from the activity template to the
activities, see “Field Service Activity Templates and Activity Plans” on page 71. The Due Date field on
the activities is set relative to the date of the preventative maintenance trigger.

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History View
The History view displays past preventive maintenance actions for each selected PM plan. This view
is read-only.

Assets Screen
The Preventive Maintenance view on the Assets screen associates PM plans with specific assets and
shows the history of PM plans scheduled or carried out. The Preventive Maintenance view has two
subviews, Plans and History, selected from the hyperlinks in the link bar.

Plans Subview
The Plans subview associates PM plans with selected assets.

When you select the Active check box in this view, the Preventive Maintenance Engine can process
this plan. You can clear this check box while defining a plan or to disable specific plans temporarily.
When the plan definition is complete or a plan is reinstated, select this check box.

NOTE: Selecting the All Assets check box in the Products view associates all assets of a product line
with a selected PM plan. If the asset is not already associated with a PM plan (the All Assets check
box is cleared for the product), users can cover the asset by adding the PM plan as a record in this
subview. For more information, see “Products View” on page 521.

History Subview
The History subview reports all of the PM actions in the history of a selected asset. All fields in this
form are read-only except for the Completed field, which accepts the date that the activities in a plan
are completed.

Agreements Screen
The Agreements screen, Entitlements view, has one subview for preventive maintenance, which
shows the PM plans that are associated with specific agreements and their entitlements and PM
actions for this entitlement and agreement that are scheduled or completed. This subview is read-
only.

Preventive Maintenance Subview

Select PM Plans or PM Actions from the drop-down list at the top in the Preventive Maintenance
subview.

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20 Repairs
This chapter describes how to use the Repair module to process and track equipment repairs. Topics
include:

■ Siebel Repair on page 525

■ Setting Up and Configuring Repairs on page 531

■ Repairs Screen on page 535

■ Assets Screen on page 536

Siebel Repair
Siebel Repair generates repair activity plans, assigns and schedules repair activities, tracks
symptoms and resolutions, and stores repair histories. Topics include:

■ How Items Are Received for Repair on page 527

■ Repair Numbers on page 527

■ Repair Activities on page 528

■ Repair Orders on page 528

■ Asset Repair Histories on page 528

■ Process of Generating Inventory Transactions for Repairs on page 528

The workflow for repairs is illustrated in Figure 39 on page 526, which shows the steps of the process
as follows:

1 Receive and tag. Receive RMA and create a repair order. The item may have been received as
a stock transfer or over the counter.

2 Internal or external repair. If this is an internal repair, generate a repair activity and verify
the service agreement. If this is an external repair, generate a repair order, ship to the external
provider, and receive from the external provider.

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3 Return or keep in inventory. After the repair is done, if the item is returned to the customer,
allocate the item, generate the pick ticket, and ship. If the item is returned to good or defective
inventory, generate the inventory transaction.

Figure 39. Repair Workflow

Repairs begin when a customer calls a service center about a defective product. The customer service
representative assigns an RMA (Return Material Authorization) to the product, and requests that the
customer ship the product to the service center. The RMA (either RMA Repair Return or RMA Advance
Exchange) signifies that the product is to be repaired.

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How Items Are Received for Repair

At the service center, the defective item is either repaired or shipped to a third-party provider for
repair. If an external repair is chosen, a repair order (RO) number is assigned, which can track the
item to and from the external vendor. When an external repair vendor performs the repair, the item’s
repair is tracked to completion using the ship and receive dates to and from the external vendor.
Siebel Repair generates the inventory transactions that record the product’s travels.

The defective product may be repaired and returned to the customer, or the product may be repaired
and placed in good stock.

There are three routes for placing defective parts in the repair process:

■ Repair items from customers generally arrive by a freight carrier and have an attached RMA. If
no RMA is attached, it is necessary to create one.

■ The field service engineer or an internal department can deliver a defective part over the counter
to a repair center agent.

■ The repair center may receive transfers from other internal locations (for example, if defective
parts were collected at a field office and then sent to a repair facility). In the latter case, an
internal order can track the parts transferred from one inventory location to another, or a stock
transfer (inventory transaction) can be issued directly.

Repair Numbers
A repair number is a number assigned to a repair record, uniquely identifying the product to repair.
A repair center agent physically attaches a tag containing this number to the product. The repair
number, either a card or a marker (often a bar-coded label), lets the service business track defective
parts through the repair process, whether or not they have serial numbers. For methods to customize
this number, see “How Service Requests and Other Business Component Object Types Are Numbered”
on page 52.

If the product is serialized, add the asset number to the repair record. This automatically provides
the product name, inventory location, and inventory level (status and availability).

Some businesses prefer to speed up the receiving process by creating batches of repair numbers in
advance. To do this, they create multiple blank repair records. When a defective part arrives, the
repair center uses one of these blank records and its repair number. An agent then completes the
record for this part.

Serialized Products and Inventory Locations

To generate a repair number for a serialized product, an asset number must be assigned. The
transactions that accompany receiving the asset, through an RMA or field part movement, identify
the destination inventory locations for these incoming parts.

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Repair Activities
For the repair of an item, Siebel Field Service provides activity plans and activities:

■ Repair activity plans automatically set up activities and generate activity records.

■ Field service staff can manually create or update activity records.

Repair activities, activity plans, and activity templates function much as they do for other field
service activities. See Chapter 4, “Field Service Activities,” for more information.

As an item moves among inventory locations, Field Service records its movements by updating the
Location, Status, or Availability fields in the repair record. These updates automatically generate
inventory transactions.

Repair Orders
If a third-party provider performs repairs, Field Service can create a repair order. These orders record
the transactions involved in shipping items to the external vendor and receiving the repaired items
back from this vendor. For more information, see Siebel Order Management Guide.

Asset Repair Histories

Repair histories can be attached to assets to track defects over time. A repair history can associate
several repair numbers with an asset. Failure trends can be detected from asset repair histories.
Based on the occurrence of repair numbers, an asset can be identified as a financial liability. The
decision to scrap may be justified if the repair cost is too high and a more reliable substitute product
can be found.

Process of Generating Inventory Transactions for

Repairs
Repair activities, generated from an activity plan, move parts from inventory location to inventory
location. Each time a part moves, an inventory transaction is generated. Validations are performed
for each transfer; for example, to move an asset to a destination inventory location, it must belong
to a source inventory location. These steps summarize the transaction process for an internal repair:

1 Generate an inventory transaction as a Stock Transfer.

2 Commit the inventory transactions.

3 Update the inventory location ID (Prod_INV_ID) on the repair number (S_PART_RPR).

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The rules for these inventory transactions are summarized in Table 139.

Table 139. Rules for Inventory Transactions: Internal Repair

Inventory Level
(InvLoc + Status + Avail)

Old Value New Value Transactions Required?

NULL NULL No

NULL INV1 No

INV1 INV1 No

INV1 INV2 Yes. Normal inventory transaction as

Stock Transfer, with all validations.

INV1 NULL No

NOTE: Previously, buckets were used instead of inventory levels.

Sending Repairs to a Third-Party Vendor

In Shipping > Repair Pick Ticket, clicking the Process Shipment button generates transactions of the
type Ship to TP (Third Party) to move a product from the defective inventory location to the third-
party vendor, and sets the variables Defective and On Hand. This transaction updates the variables
INVLOC_ID, INV_STATUS_CD, and INV_AVAIL_CD. For more information, see “Repair Pick Ticket
Subview” on page 384. These steps summarize the transaction process:

1 Generate inventory transaction as Ship to TP and De-Allocate.

2 Commit inventory transactions.

3 Update the inventory location ID (Prod_INV_ID), inventory location (INVLOC_ID), status

(INV_STSTUS_CD), and availability (INV_AVAIL_CD) on the Repair Number (S_PART_RPR),
using the BusComp FS Repair Without Update logic.

Receiving Repairs from a Third-Party Vendor

On the Receiving screen, the Receive PO, Receive RMA, and the Receive Internal Order views, the
Process Receipt command generates transactions, of the type Receive from TP, to move a product
from a third-party vendor to the desired inventory location. This transaction updates the variables
INVLOC_ID, INV_STATUS_CD, and INV_AVAIL_CD.

To receive an item from a third-party location, define the third-party location in the Service Order
screen and the receiving location in the To Inventory field in the Receiving screen > Line Item
Receipts view.

To go to the Receive PO, Receive RMA, or the Receive Internal Order view, first navigate to the
Receiving screen, All Pending Orders view, and then click on a Receive Type field for any record. This
exposes the Receive PO, Receive RMA, or Receive Internal Order views, with their subviews:
[Receipt] Line Items, Received Line Item, and Serial Numbers.

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These steps summarize the transaction process:

1 Generate an inventory transaction as Receive from TP.

2 Commit the inventory transaction.

3 Update the inventory location ID (Prod_INV_ID), inventory location (INVLOC_ID), status

(INV_STSTUS_CD), and availability (INV_AVAIL_CD) on the Repair Number (S_PART_RPR),
using the BusComp FS Repair Without Update logic.

The rules for these inventory transactions are summarized in Table 140.

Table 140. Rules for Inventory Transactions: Receive from Third-Party Vendor

Source Destination
Inventory
Transaction Inventory Inventory
Type Inventory Level Assets Inventory Level Assets

Receive from Source Invloc ID On Hand Yes Destination On Hand Yes

TP Comes from Invloc ID
Defective Good/
Service Order Comes from
Defective
screen, Line Service Order
Items view, screen, Line
Actions subview Items view,
and is the Actions subview
Destination and is the
Location field. Source Location
field.

NOTE: Previously, buckets were used instead of inventory levels. Also, in the preceding table, the
asset rows are included in the transaction validation if the product is serialized.

Exchanging an Asset During a Third-Party Repair

If the third-party repair vendor returns a different part, the inventory transactions fails unless the
new asset exists in the third-party inventory location. The user can accomplish this in one of two
ways:

■ Use the same Asset ID and change the serial number associated with this record.

■ Create a new asset. Receive it from the third-party vendor using a Receive Other transaction.
Then delete the previous asset, using another transaction.

Returning a Product to Good Inventory

To return a product to good inventory:

■ For internal repairs, set the Inventory Location, Availability, and Status (usually Good) in the
repair record.

■ For repair orders, set the Inventory Location, Availability, and Status in the repair record.

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Changing the values in the repair record triggers an inventory transaction which changes the
inventory quantity.

Inventory Levels for Repaired Parts

If the defective part was received with an RMA Repair/Return, then the repair center returns the part
using the regular shipping process (Allocate, Pick Ticket, and Ship).

When the part is repaired, either internally or by a third-party vendor, it receives an inventory level;
for example, On Hand/Good. When the part is shipped, the inventory transaction records the product
movement, but the information on the Repairs screen still points to the same inventory level, that
indicates the last location for the repaired item in inventory. The inventory movements for a product
do not update the last location of the product in the repair record.

Setting Up and Configuring Repairs

The following sections describe the configuration and transactions for repairs. Topics include:

■ Setting Up Repair Activities on page 531

■ Processing Defective Items for Repair on page 531

Setting Up Repair Activities

To create activity templates for repairs, see “To define activity templates” on page 73. See also “To
associate activities with activity templates” on page 73.

To define activity plans for repairs

1 Navigate to the Repairs screen.

2 Select a repair record.

3 In the My Repairs list, drill down on the Repair # hyperlink.

4 In the Activities list, create a new activity plan record.

This action populates the fields in the Activities Plans and Activities lists.

Processing Defective Items for Repair

Follow these procedures to process defective items for repair.

To receive defective parts with an RMA

1 Navigate to the Receiving screen.

2 In the Pending POs/ROs/RMAs list, select an RMA Repair Return order.

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3 Click the hyperlink in the Receive Type field.

4 Select a line item record in the Line Items subview.

5 In the Received Line Item list, create a record describing the received item.

6 Enter values in the fields, as needed.

7 If the item is a serialized asset, in the Serial Numbers list, create a record for it.

8 Enter values in the fields, as needed.

9 In the upper Receive RMA form, click Process Receipt.

To receive defective parts over the counter

1 Navigate to the Repairs screen.

2 In the My Repairs list, do one of the following:

■ Query for the repair item record with the repair number.

■ Create a new repair record.

3 Copy the value in the Repair # field.

4 Navigate to the Inventory Transactions screen.

5 Create an inventory transaction record.

a In the Type field, select Over-the-counter.

b In the Repair ID field, enter (paste) the repair number.

c Enter values for the required fields.

To receive defective parts by stock transfer

1 Navigate to the Receiving screen.

2 In the Pending POs/ROs/RMAs list, select an Internal Order.

3 Click the hyperlink in the Receive Type Field.

The Receive Internal Order view appears.

4 Select a line Item record in the Line Items subview.

5 In the Received Line Item list, create a new record.

6 Enter receipt details, as needed.

7 In the Serial Numbers list, create a new record.

8 Enter serialized asset details, as needed.

9 In the Receive Internal Order list, click Process Receipt.

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To create a repair record

1 Navigate to the Repairs screen.

2 Create a new repair record.

3 If this repair record is for a serialized item, in the Asset # field, select an asset.

4 Associate the repair record with its service request by entering it in the SR # field.

5 Associate the repair record with its RMA by clicking the Show More button and selecting it in the
RMA # field.

To add an activity plan and generate activities for a repair

1 Navigate to the Repairs screen.

2 Select a repair record.

3 In the My Repairs list, drill down on the Repair # field hyperlink.

4 Click the Activity Plans view tab.

5 In the Activity Plans list create an activity plan record.

6 In the Template field, select an activity template.

This populates the Activities list with the activities in the template.

To view or update repair activities

1 Navigate to the Repairs screen.

2 Select a repair record.

3 In the My Repairs list, drill down on the Repair # field hyperlink.

4 Select an activity record.

5 Change the value of any field.

To track the movement of a defective part

1 Navigate to the Repairs screen.

2 Select a repair record.

3 In the My Repairs list, drill down on the Repair # field hyperlink

4 Click the More Info view tab.

5 Update the Location, Status, and Availability fields to show the current location and inventory
level for a part.

To associate a repair order, RMA, or service request with a repair record

1 Navigate to the Repairs screen.

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2 Select a repair record.

3 In the My Repairs list, drill down on the Repair # field hyperlink.

4 Click the More Info view tab.

5 Do one of the following:

■ To associate a repair order, in the RO Item # field, select a repair order.

■ To associate an RMA repair return, in the RMA # field, select an RMA.

■ To associate a service request, in the SR # field, select a service request.

To create a repair order

1 Navigate to the Service Order screen > List view.

2 In the My Service Orders list, create a new order record.

a In the Type field, select Repair Order.

b Enter values for the required fields.

3 In the My Service Orders list, drill down on the Order # field hyperlink.

4 In the Line Items list, create a record for each item to be repaired.

5 Complete the required fields.

To ship a defective part to an external repair provider

1 Navigate to the Repairs screen.

2 Select a repair record or create a new repair record.

3 Copy the value in the Repair # field.

4 Navigate to the Inventory Transactions screen.

5 Create a transaction record.

6 In the Type field, select Ship to TP.

7 In the Repair ID field, enter (paste) the repair number.

8 Complete the required fields.

To receive a repaired item from a third-party vendor, see “To receive repaired items from a third-
party vendor” on page 380.

To return a repaired or exchanged part to a customer

1 Navigate to the Service Order screen > List view.

2 Add a new order record.

a In the Type field, select RMA Repair Return or RMA Advance Exchange.

b Enter values for the required fields.

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3 In the My Service Orders list, drill down on the Order # field hyperlink.

4 In the Line Items list, create a record for each item to be repaired or exchanged.

5 Complete the required fields.

To record time and expenses for a repair activity

1 Navigate to the Repairs screen.

2 Select a repair record.

3 In the My Repairs list, drill down on the Repair # field hyperlink.

4 In the Activities list, select an activity record.

5 Drill down on the Type field hyperlink.

The Activity Attachments view appears.

6 Click the Time Tracker view tab.

7 Create a time record and complete the required fields.

For more information, see the “Time Tracker View” on page 86.

8 Click the Expense Tracker view tab.

9 Create an expense record and complete the required fields.

To view an asset’s repair history

1 Navigate to the Repairs screen.

2 Select a repair record.

3 In the My Repairs list, drill down on the Asset # field hyperlink.

4 Click the Repairs view tab.

The Repairs list shows the repair records for this asset.

Repairs Screen
The Repairs screen identifies repairs and the activities associated with these repairs. Topics include:

■ More Info View on page 536

■ Activity Plans View on page 536

■ Activities View on page 536

■ Repair Reports on page 536

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More Info View

The More Info view records the information that is necessary to identify a repair, such as location,
status, asset number, service request number, assigned technician, repair station, and relevant
dates. Clicking Check Warranty button or selecting the Check Warranty command provides
information about warranties for the asset requiring repair.

Activity Plans View

The Activity Plans view associates an activities plan and its activities with a repair number record.
For more information, see “Activity Templates View” on page 79.

Activities View
The Activities view associates individual activities with a repair number record. Users can create and
associate numerous activities with a single repair record.

Repair Reports
The Repairs screen provides the reports listed in Table 141.

Table 141. Repair Reports

Report Description

Repair Summary A summary of each repair.

Repair Detail One page for each repair and its associated activities. Includes barcodes.
(Barcode)

Repair Detail One page for each repair and its associated activities. Does not include
(No Barcode) barcodes.

Assets Screen
The Assets screen records all information about assets, including service and repair history,
components, associated activities, and preventive maintenance.

Repairs View
The Repairs view lists all the repair records for a selected asset.

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21 Barcodes
This chapter presents the feature of Siebel Field Service that allows end users to enter data through
barcodes. Topics include:

■ Barcode Concepts and Terms on page 537

■ Barcode Reader Input on page 537

■ The Barcode Interface on page 538

■ Setup and Configuration for Barcode Reading on page 543

Barcode Concepts and Terms

The following terms and concepts are specific to the Barcode module.

Barcode A series of vertical bars printed or stamped on parts, containers, labels, or other
media. These bars represent information that can be read by an electronic
barcode reader attached to a computer system.
Barcode types Multiple types of barcodes exist. Some can encode only numbers, while others
can encode numbers, letters, and special computer control characters. Each
uses a series of varying-width bars and spaces to represent characters.

For information about supported barcode types, see Siebel System

Requirements and Supported Platforms on Oracle Technology Network for your
Siebel application.
Barcode scanner An electronic device that detects a barcode’s pattern of bars and spaces and
transmits the pattern to a barcode reader.
Barcode reader An electronic device that decodes the barcode patterns sent from a scanner into
the characters they represent, and transmits those characters to a computer as
though the data were typed in.

Barcode Reader Input

Control character sequences before and after the barcode information notify your Siebel application
that input is from a barcode reader, as follows:

■ Ctrl - \ is the prefix signalling that the next input will be from a barcode reader.

■ Ctrl - / is the suffix signalling that the barcode reader input has ended.

Any programmable barcode reader that can be configured to send this prefix and suffix before and
after the barcode can be used with Siebel Field Service’s barcode automation functionality. To
program the scanning preamble into a barcode reader, refer to the user manual or product reference
guide provided with the barcode reader.

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The Barcode Interface

This section includes procedures for using the screens and features for reading barcode data. For
guidelines and details of configuration, see “Setup and Configuration for Barcode Reading” on
page 543. Topics include:

■ The Barcode Toolbar on page 539

■ Printing Barcodes in Reports on page 541

■ Scanning Barcodes for Toolbar Actions on page 541

■ Entering Information from a Barcode Reader on page 542

■ Finding Information with a Barcode Reader on page 542

■ Setting Up a Barcode Interface on page 543

■ Changing the Barcode Font for a Report on page 543

Siebel Field Service accepts data from a barcode reader into individual, active fields in your Siebel
application. Data such as the following is often available in barcode format:

■ Part numbers

■ Asset numbers

■ Repair numbers

■ Order numbers

■ Service request numbers

■ Pick ticket numbers

CAUTION: The automated barcode module does not accept serial numbers as input. If end users
need to scan serial numbers, make sure that the asset numbers are the same as the serial numbers.

With data from the barcode reader, an end user can perform the following types of operations:

■ New. Enter the number from the barcode in a new line (record) in the view. In this mode, an
end user goes to the view that is to receive a number, then clicks on a specific tab. Siebel Field
Service creates a new record and fills the appropriate field in this record.

■ Update. Update the number in a selected line (record) in the view. The new number replaces
the existing number. In this mode, an end user goes to the view that is to receive a number,
clicks on a specific tab, and selects a record. Siebel Field Service fills the appropriate field in the
selected record.

■ Find. Search the Siebel application for the place where the barcode input should go. In this
mode, the incoming barcode finds its own destination, opens the appropriate view, selects a tab,
and fills in the appropriate fields.

An end user can do the following operations:

■ Enter individual barcodes of any acceptable type. Individual barcodes are entered with either the
New or Update option.

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■ Read multiple barcodes in succession, all of the same type (for example, either asset numbers
or repair numbers). Individual barcodes are entered with the New option only.

CAUTION: If end users will be creating multiple barcodes in succession, make sure that all
required fields in the records, except for the target field for the barcode data, have a default
value.

The Barcode Toolbar

Siebel Field Service provides a barcode toolbar that sets Siebel Field Service to use incoming data
from a barcode reader. The barcode toolbar appears immediately below the application-level menu
in the Siebel Service application.

The barcode toolbar is shown in Figure 40. It contains the following controls, from left to right: a New
button, an Update button, a Find button, a Use drop-down list, and an Activate button.

Update
New Find Use List Activate

Figure 40. The Barcode Toolbar

The barcode toolbar is shown or hidden according to the following factors:

■ For a mobile client, the sfs.cfg file’s ShowBarcodeToolbar parameter must be set. A value of TRUE
shows the barcode toolbar, while a value of FALSE hides it. If your Siebel application is licensed
to include barcode automation functionality, the parameter is set to TRUE by default.

■ For a server configuration, a barcode toolbar parameter must exist in the SFSObjMgr. The name
of this parameter is Barcode Toolbar Enable Flag. A value of TRUE enables the barcode toolbar,
while a value of FALSE disables it.

CAUTION: A Siebel client running on an individual workstation cannot have both the Barcode toolbar
and the CTI toolbar displayed at the same time.

Table 142 summarizes the functionality of the barcode toolbar buttons.

Table 142. Barcode Toolbar Buttons, from Left to Right

Button Action

New Enters a value of the specified type (Use) into a new record in the selected view.

Update Enters a value of the specified type (Use) into an existing record and field in a
selected record, replacing the number that was there.

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Table 142. Barcode Toolbar Buttons, from Left to Right

Button Action

Find Locates the appropriate view and field, and enters a value of the specified type.
When an end user scans the barcode, the application brings up the applicable view
with the query already executed. The displays only those records that match the
value scanned from the barcode.

Activate Turns the barcode functionality on or off.

Of the first three buttons (New, Update, or Find), only one at a time can be active. Once clicked, a
button remains active until another button is selected.

The Use drop-down list contains entry modes that define the type of information coming from the
next barcode to your Siebel application. The contents of the Use drop-down list change according to
the following factors:

■ Whether the New, Update, or Find button is selected

■ The active screen and view

It is necessary to select a value in the drop-down list only if more than one value appears in it.

Keyboard Shortcuts for the Barcode Toolbar

Shortcut keys for barcode operation are shown in Table 143.

Table 143. Additional Keyboard Shortcuts for the Barcode Toolbar

Shortcut Action

Ctrl - \ The first shortcut precedes the barcode data input and the second one follows it.
When your Siebel application receives such input, it carries out a series of steps to
Ctrl - \
copy the data from the barcode into the correct field in a view:

1 Determines the current view, tab, and active button on the Barcode toolbar.
2 Examines the records in the Barcode Mapping list to determine if there is a
record for this combination of view, tab, and button selection. For more
information, see “Setting Up a Barcode Interface” on page 543.

3 From the Barcode mapping record, determines the field in the corresponding
record to receive the data.

4 Enters the barcode data in the target field defined in the Barcode Mapping list.

Normally, these commands are programmed into the barcode reader and delivered
as a prefix and suffix to the barcode data; they are not entered from the keyboard.
For more information, see “Barcode Reader Input” on page 537.

NOTE: The shortcut definitions can be changed by editing the values for the Start
Key Code and End Key Code user properties in the HTML FS Barcoding Tool Bar
business service.

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Printing Barcodes in Reports

The following reports include barcodes, when available:

■ Pick Ticket Details (Shipping screen). The Pick Ticket number is barcoded.

■ Repair Detail (Repairs screen). The Repair Number number is barcoded.

■ Order Detail (Service Order and Sales Order screen). The Order number is barcoded.

■ Service Request Detail (Service screen). The Service Request number is barcoded.

The Reports menus display two versions for each report: barcoded and not barcoded. For information
about barcode fonts, see Siebel System Requirements and Supported Platforms on Oracle
Technology Network for your Siebel application.

Scanning Barcodes for Toolbar Actions

You can scan barcodes into Field Service to trigger the same actions as clicking the toolbar buttons.
This is for the convenience of end users who do not have access to a mouse for clicking the toolbar
buttons, or who need to shift frequently between the New, Update, and Find operations.

Table 144 shows the barcode character combinations and their associated actions. The middle
column, labeled Barcode Example, shows the actual barcodes that correspond to the Barcode Values
(such as *New*), in a typical barcode font.

Table 144. Barcode Actions

Barcode
Value Barcode Example Action Name

*NEW* New Button. Scanning this barcode simulates

clicking New on the barcode toolbar.

*UPDATE* Update Button. Scanning this barcode simulates

clicking Update on the barcode toolbar.

*FIND* Find Button. Scanning this barcode simulates

clicking Find on the barcode toolbar.

*OPTIONS* Use ComboBox Selection. Scanning this barcode

toggles between the various Use drop-down list
selections in the barcode toolbar.

CAUTION: If you scan only the letters in barcode without the leading and trailing asterisks, the
operation will fail. For example, to represent NEW, you must use this form: *NEW*.

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Barcodes ■ The Barcode Interface

Entering Information from a Barcode Reader

This section explains how to enter information from a barcode reader into your Siebel application.

To create new records for barcode data

1 On the Barcode toolbar, click New.

2 Navigate to the view that is to receive the barcode information.

3 If more than one value appears on the Use drop-down list, select the type of information
contained in the barcode; for example, an asset number.

4 Scan the barcode.

The system creates a new record in the active tab and populates the appropriate field in the new
record with the information from the barcode.

5 If you want to create multiple records, continue scanning the barcodes.

To update a record with barcode data

1 On the Barcode toolbar, click Update.

2 Navigate to the view that is to receive the barcode information.

3 If more than one value appears on the Use drop-down list, select the type of information
contained in the barcode; for example, a part number.

4 Click the tab and select the record that is to receive the number from a barcode.

5 Select the record where you want the barcode information to go.

6 Scan the barcode.

The system populates the appropriate field in the selected record with the information from the
barcode. If the field already has a value, the barcode information replaces it.

Finding Information with a Barcode Reader

This section explains how to find information in your Siebel application with a barcode reader.

To find a record with barcode data

1 On the Barcode toolbar, click the Find button.

2 If more than one value appears on the Use drop-down list, select the type of information
contained in the barcode; for example, a repair number.

3 Scan the barcode.

If the data exists in the database, the system displays the record that matches the barcode input.

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 Barcodes ■ Setup and Configuration for Barcode Reading

Setup and Configuration for Barcode

Reading
This section describes the setup and configuration procedures for barcode reading.

Setting Up a Barcode Interface

The FS Barcode Mapping view on the Service Administration screen sets the destinations for barcode
data. Based on these mappings, barcode data is copied to specific views, tabs, and fields. The data
may create a new record or update an existing record. When mapping barcode data to fields, you
add a record for each field that is to receive data from a barcode.

NOTE: Your Siebel application comes with a complete series of barcode mappings. You do not have
to add or change any mappings unless you want to configure custom mappings.

To set the destinations for barcode data in specific views, tabs, and fields, use the procedure that
follows.

To map barcode data to views, tabs, and fields

1 Navigate to the Administration - Service screen > Barcode Mappings view.

2 Create a new record for every field that is to receive barcode data.

3 Complete the fields.

Some fields are described in the following table.

Field Description

View Name View that is to receive the data.

Applet Name Applet (tab) that is to receive the data.

Field Name Field that is to receive the data.

Entry Mode Type of information to receive from the barcode input.

Corresponds to the values in the Use drop-down list.

Process Mode Type of operation that will bring focus to the specified field
(New, Update, or Find).

Changing the Barcode Font for a Report

You can change the barcode font in reports that include barcodes. For instructions about how to
change the font, see the chapter on global report modifications in Siebel Reports Administration
Guide.

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544 Siebel Field Service Guide Version 8.0, Rev. B

A Engines Logging Levels

This appendix provides reference information about logging levels for the engines available in Siebel
Field Service as business services.

Business Service Engines for Siebel Field

Service
To facilitate configuration, maintenance, and multilanguage support, the following engines within
Siebel Field Service are implemented as business services:

■ Cycle Counting Engine

■ Fulfillment Engine

■ Mobile Inventory Transaction Engine

■ Part Locator Engine

■ Preventive Maintenance Engine

■ Replenishment Engine

Server Component Aliases

As with every component of the Siebel Server, each of these engines has an alias. These aliases are
used as parameters in SRVRMGR commands. Table 145 lists the aliases for the server components
associated with each engine.

Table 145. Engine Server Component Aliases

Engine Server Component Alias

Cycle Counting FSCyccnt

Fulfillment FSFulfill

Mobile Inventory Transaction FSInvTxn

Part Locator FSLocate

Preventive Maintenance FSPrevMnt

Replenishment FSRepl

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Logging Levels
Each engine has an associated logging level. A logging level is a level of detail for automatic event
logging when a Siebel application component is running. The logging level is expressed as a number,
with higher numbers representing greater levels of detail. Table 146 shows the logging levels and
their definitions.

Table 146. Engine Logging Levels

Level Name Description

1 Error Logs anything that goes wrong.

2 Warning Logs anything exceptional even if it does not stop the operation.

3 Trace Traces the functioning of the engine. Generates a chronology of events even if
they are not errors or warnings.

4 Debug Generates a very detailed log. Mainly for use by Siebel developers.

The default logging level for each of the engines is 1. If you need more detail in testing or
troubleshooting, you can specify a higher logging level for the engine. You can modify the logging
level by using one of the following methods:

■ For individual event types. Navigate to the Administration - Server Configuration screen >
Components view > Events subview. For the component selected in the Components view, the
Events subview shows each type of event that can be logged and its associated logging level.

■ For all event types. Invoke the SRVRMGR.EXE command line utility. The command to pass is
as follows:

change evtloglvl <parameter> = <log level> for comp <parameter>

For example:

change evtloglvl FSPrevMnt = 3 for comp FSPrevMnt

This command changes the logging level for all event types associated with the engine.

NOTE: This command is case insensitive, except for the parameter.

For more information about configuring business services, see the chapter on business services in
Integration Platform Technologies: Siebel Enterprise Application Integration.

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B Business Service Methods
Reference for Field Service

This chapter is a reference that explains the methods developed for the following:

■ FS Agreement Charge Business Service on ■ FS Activity Cache Business Service on page 568
page 548
■ FS Agreement Renewal Business Service on ■ FS Create Entitlement Business Service on
page 550 page 568
■ FS Holiday API Service on page 551 ■ FS Verify Entitlement Business Service on
page 570
■ ISS Copy Service Business Service on ■ FS Fulfillment Service Business Service on
page 552 page 575
■ FS Asset Swap Service Business Service on ■ FS Part Locator Service Business Service on
page 552 page 576
■ FS Asset Warranty Service Business ■ FS Inventory Transaction Business Service on
Service on page 554 page 577
■ FS Generate Conditional Charge Process ■ FS Generate Conditional Charge Process Business
Business Service on page 555 Service on page 555
■ FS Service Charge Business Service on ■ FS Preventive Maintenance Business Service on
page 556 page 580
■ FS Cycle Counting Business Service on ■ FS Replenish Business Service on page 581
page 562
■ FS Dispatch Board Utils Business Service on ■ ABS Methods on page 584
page 562
■ FS Service Region Business Service on ■ Optimization Engine Methods on page 593
page 567

Generally, a business service has the following characteristics:

■ Defines reusable business logic that can be executed within the Object Manager

■ Can be a built-in service that is defined in Siebel Tools or a run-time service that is defined in
the Siebel client application by administrators

■ Can be based on the CSSService Class (standard business service) or on specialized classes
(specialized business service)

NOTE: Specialized business services are used only by internal Siebel Engineering personnel.
Customers should not use specialized business services unless their behavior is specifically
documented.

■ Can be configured by properties or scripts (written in Siebel VB or Siebel eScript)

■ Can be called by a workflow, a script, or directly from runtime events

■ Can be used for generic code libraries that are called from other scripts

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■ Are used as building blocks in the Siebel Application Integration framework

■ Can be referred to by commands associated with a menu item or toolbar button

NOTE: Some business services or workflow processes can be exposed as web services to be
consumed by the Field Service application. For information on the Activity Plan, Asset Management,
and Siebel Service Request web services, see Siebel CRM Web Services Reference.

Agreements
Since Field Service version 7.8, pricing logic is defined using Pricing Procedures. The procedures are
based on the Product Selection and Pricing (PSP) engine. The advantage of using the PSP engine is
that pricing is fully configurable. When a product is added to an agreement line item or another asset
is added, the PSP engine is selected to ascertain the price of the selected product. For more
information about the PSP engine, see Siebel Order Management Guide. For more information about
the procedures used for pricing, see Siebel Pricing Administration Guide.

NOTE: Because you can use pricing procedures to define pricing logic, pricing models and pricing
factors are no longer used in Siebel Pricer.

See “Charges” on page 555 for more information on how invoicing and charging have changed.

This section describes some of the business services that relate to the area of agreements. These
include:

■ FS Agreement Charge Business Service on page 548

■ FS Agreement Renewal Business Service on page 550

■ FS Holiday API Service on page 551

■ ISS Copy Service Business Service on page 552

FS Agreement Charge Business Service

This business service is called by the FS - Generate Agreement Charge workflow and the FS -
Generate All Agreement Charges workflow. Field Service’s modularized charging and invoicing allows
administrators to extend the workflow where necessary.

The Field Service Agreement Charge business service is used to generate charges based on an
agreement item’s charge plan. See “Workflow to Create Agreement Charges” on page 302 and
“Workflow to Generate All Agreement Charges” on page 303 for more information on how the business
service methods are used within the workflow processes. See Figure 41 on page 558 for a graphical
representation of the workflow.

This business service includes the following methods:

■ CalculateRCAdjustAmount. See “CalculateRCAdjustAmount Method” on page 549 for more

information.

■ GenerateAdjustmentCharge. See “GenerateAdjustmentCharge Method” on page 549 for more

information.

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■ GenerateNRCCharge. See “GenerateNRCCharge Method” on page 549 for more information.

■ GenerateRCCharge. See “GenerateRCCharge Method” on page 549 for more information.

■ GenerateUsageCharge. See “GenerateUsageCharge Method” on page 550 for more information.

CalculateRCAdjustAmount Method
CalculateRCAdjustAmount is used to calculate the recurring charge (RC) adjustment amount based
on the values for the RC Adjustment Unit Amount and the RC Adjustment Unit (Per Day/Per Week).

Usage
This method is called by the FS - Generate Agreement Charge workflow, which adjusts the RC
amount.

GenerateAdjustmentCharge Method
GenerateAdjustmentCharge is used to generate the adjustment charge for an agreement line item.

Usage
This method is called by the FS - Generate Adjustment Charge workflow.

GenerateNRCCharge Method
GenerateNRCCharge is used to generate the nonrecurring charge (NRC) for an agreement line item.

Usage
This method is called by the FS - Generate NRC Charge workflow. Once the NRC is generated, the
process also updates the NRC last-charged date on the charge plan.

Additional Details
The input date for this process should be in the local time format, which the process converts to Open
Database Connectivity (ODBC) format (YY-MM-DD).

GenerateRCCharge Method
GenerateRCCharge is used to generate the RC amounts for an agreement line item.

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Usage
This method is called by the FS - Generate RC Charge workflow. The workflow retrieves and converts
the asset readings to charge amounts. Once the RC amount is generated, the process also updates
the RC last-charged date on the charge plan.

Additional Details
The input date for this process should be in the local time format, which the process converts to the
ODBC format (YY-MM-DD).

GenerateUsageCharge Method
GenerateUsageCharge is used to generate the usage charge for an agreement line item based on
asset usage.

Usage
This method is called by the FS - Generate Usage Charge workflow. The workflow retrieves and
converts the asset readings to charge amounts. Once the usage charge is generated, the process
also updates the usage last-charged date on the charge plan.

Additional Details
The input date for this process should be in the local time format, which the process converts to
ODBC format (YY-MM-DD).

FS Agreement Renewal Business Service

The Field Service Agreement Renewal business service is used to renew agreement line items. See
“Workflow to Automatically Renew Agreement Line Items” on page 245 and “Workflow to Automatically
Renew All Agreement Line Items” on page 245 for more information on how the business service
methods are used within the workflow processes.

This business service includes the following methods:

■ RenewAgreement. See “RenewAgreement Method” on page 550 for more information.

■ RenewAllAgreements. See “RenewAllAgreements Method” on page 551 for more information.

RenewAgreement Method
RenewAgreement is used to renew one agreement item.

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Usage
This method is called by the FS - Renewal Item workflow. The date and agreement ID are passed in
to renew the agreement. The Renewal Agreement Item Id of the newly created agreement is then
passed back as an output argument.

RenewAllAgreements Method
RenewAllAgreements is used to renew all agreement line items with a renewal date greater than the
date entered in the input argument.

Usage
This method is called by the FS - Renewal Item workflow.

FS Holiday API Service

The FS Holiday API Service is used to calculate the business time taken to accomplish a task, to
calculate committed time based on a service calendar and exception calendar, or to return an output
indicating whether a day is a defined holiday and return the next working day.

The business service includes the following methods:

■ GetElapsedBusinessTime. See “GetElapsedBusinessTime Method” on page 551 for more

information.

■ GetResponseTime. See “GetResponseTime Method” on page 572 for more information.

■ IsHoliday. See “IsHoliday Method” on page 551 for more information.

GetElapsedBusinessTime Method
This method calculates the business time taken to accomplish a task. It calculates the business time
that has elapsed between two dates, according to a schedule that runs in a specific time zone.

Usage
This method is called from the FS Holiday API Service.

Additional Details
This method is not used as part of any workflow process.

IsHoliday Method
This method returns an output indicating whether a day is a defined holiday and returns a value for
the next working day.

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Usage
This method is called from the FS Holiday API Service. It returns Yes if the Working field is unchecked
for the holiday definition of that day, or No if the Working field is checked. See “Defining Hours for
Employees” on page 117 for more information on the Working field.

Additional Details
This method is not used as part of any workflow process.

ISS Copy Service Business Service

The ISS Copy Service business service is used for a number of features in Field Service, including
auto contracts. Oracle’s Siebel Order Management copies data from one document type to another
as a transaction progresses. Example transactions for which data is copied from one document type
to another include the following:

■ Quote-to-Agreement

■ Opportunity-to-Quote

■ Order-to-Agreement

■ Agreement-to-Order

In earlier releases, the mapping between objects was either hard-coded (as in Quote-to-Agreement)
or inconsistently defined (such as with business component user properties). Since the 7.8 release,
all mappings between objects are defined in the Administration - Application > Data Map
Administration views of the run-time client. Using the Administration - Data views and the ISS Copy
business service, you can create new mappings and update existing mappings. A mapping can
support one or more business components from a business object (for example, quote, quote line
item, and quote payments).

See Siebel Order Management Infrastructure Guide for more information about the ISS Copy Service
business service.

Asset Management
This section describes some of the business services that relate to the area of asset management.
These include:

■ FS Asset Swap Service Business Service on page 552

■ FS Asset Warranty Service Business Service on page 554

FS Asset Swap Service Business Service

The Field Service Asset Swap Service business service is used to swap warranties or entitlements
during asset exchange. See “Asset Swaps” on page 470 for more information about how asset
swapping is accomplished.

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This business service includes the following methods:

■ SwapAssetEntitlements. See “SwapAssetEntitlements Method” on page 553 for more

information.

■ SwapAssetWarranties. See “SwapAssetWarranties Method” on page 553 for more information.

SwapAssetEntitlements Method
SwapAssetEntitlements is used to swap asset entitlements. Service activities often include the
replacement of one asset with another. When two assets are swapped, the entitlements of the
uninstalled asset can be transferred to the installed asset on an individual basis.

For contracts which include entitlements for the removed asset, those entitlements' asset values on
the Service Agreement Product business component are updated with the installed asset's number,
replacing the asset number of the uninstalled asset. When this business component is updated, the
Asset # field on the Agreements screen > List > Entitlements > Products view changes to display
the new asset.

Asset swaps also transfer any hierarchical relationships from the uninstalled asset to the installed
asset, with one exception. The exception is that if an uninstalled asset is a child asset, the uninstalled
asset’s parent becomes the installed asset’s parent, but the uninstalled asset keeps any children it
may have.

Usage
This method is invoked when a record in the FS Activity Part Movements List Applet (used in the
Activities screen > Part Tracker view) includes the following:

■ Serialized asset

■ Valid Swap Part Mvmt # value

■ Commit flag set to Y (by selecting the check box or clicking the Commit button).

Additional Details
This method can also be invoked from eScript.

SwapAssetWarranties Method
SwapAssetWarranties is used to swap asset warranties. Service activities often include the
replacement of one asset with another. When two assets are swapped, the warranties of the
uninstalled asset can be transferred to the installed asset on an individual basis.

Usage
This method is invoked when a record in the FS Activity Part Movements List Applet (used in the
Activities screen > Part Tracker view) includes the following:

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■ Serialized asset

■ Valid Swap Part Mvmt # value

■ Commit flag has been set to Y (by selecting the check box or clicking the Commit button).

Additional Details
This method can also be invoked from eScript.

FS Asset Warranty Service Business Service

The Field Service Asset Warranty Service business service is used to retrieve, check, and create
services for asset warranties.

This business service includes the following methods:

■ CheckAssetWarranty. See “CheckAssetWarranty Method” on page 554 for more information.

■ CreateAssetWarranty. See “CreateAssetWarranty Method” on page 554 for more information.

■ GetAssetWarranties. See “GetAssetWarranties Method” on page 555 for more information.

CheckAssetWarranty Method
CheckAssetWarranty examines all the warranties for a given asset and checks whether any are
applicable according to the Warranty Criteria business service user property.

Usage
When creating a service request or repair number for repairing an asset, the user can click the menu
button and select the Check Warranty option (available on the Service screen > Service Request List
> Service Details view) to instantly check the valid warranty coverage based on a specified day.

Additional Details
If a warranty is not associated with an asset, the Check Warranty feature automatically checks the
parent and root assets to determine whether or not the asset is covered by an applicable component
warranty. By default, a warranty check is made for the asset and a component warranty check is
made for the asset subcomponents. The component warranty checks whether the subcomponent can
be disabled by setting the value for the Sub Component Check business service user property to N.

The criteria for selecting applicable warranties are flexible and can be altered by changing the
parameters in the Warranty Criteria business service user property.

CreateAssetWarranty Method
CreateAssetWarranty adds the input warranty to the source asset.

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Usage
When an asset is created for a product that is covered by warranties, the user can verify the
applicable warranties by clicking the Get Warranties button on the Assets screen > List > Warranty
view. The number of days remaining on the warranty is automatically tracked.

GetAssetWarranties Method
GetAssetWarranties is used to retrieve all the warranties for a specified asset's product and then add
them to the asset if not already done so.

Usage
When an asset is created for a product that is covered by warranties, the user can verify the
applicable warranties by clicking the Get Warranties button on the Assets screen > List > Warranty
view. The number of days remaining on the warranty is automatically tracked.

Charges
The Invoice Engine was extensively rewritten for Field Service version 7.7 to make charging and
invoicing for service requests and activities more modularized. To accomplish this, Oracle introduced
the charge system for managing charges associated with contracts, service requests, and activities.
To support the use of the Charge Engine, all the services previously used to generate invoice line
items were converted to generate charges instead. A flexible framework was also implemented to
allow administrators to configure invoicing to meet their company’s business requirements by simply
creating business services and plugging them into the framework.

This section describes some of the business services that relate to the area of charges. These
include:

■ FS Generate Conditional Charge Process Business Service on page 555

■ FS Service Charge Business Service on page 556

FS Generate Conditional Charge Process Business

Service
This business service includes the following methods:

■ GenerateCharge. See “GenerateCharge Method” on page 556.

■ GetCondCharge. See “GetCondCharge Method” on page 556.

See “Setting Up Conditional Charge Plans” on page 293 and “Workflow to Create Conditional Charges”
on page 304 for more information.

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GenerateCharge Method
GenerateCharge is used to adjust charges based on conditional charges.

Usage
This method is called by the FS - Generate Conditional Charge Process workflow.

GetCondCharge Method
GetCondCharge is used to get the conditional charge for an agreement.

Usage
This method is called by the FS - Generate Conditional Charge Process workflow.

FS Service Charge Business Service

The FS Service Charge business service is used to create charges and control invoicing for service
requests and activities. This business service is called directly from C++ code on the applet class.
The business service is called from the code rather than from a workflow in order to support handheld
products.

This business service includes the following methods:

■ CreateExpenseCharge. See “CreateExpenseCharge Method” on page 558 for more information.

■ CreateExpenseEntitlementCharge. See “CreateExpenseEntitlementCharge Method” on

page 559 for more information.

■ CreateOrderCharges. See “CreateOrderCharges Method” on page 559 for more information.

■ CreatePartsCharge. See “CreatePartsCharge Method” on page 560 for more information.

■ CreatePartsEntitlementCharge. See “CreatePartsEntitlementCharge Method” on page 560 for

more information.

■ CreateServiceCharges. See “CreateServiceCharges Method” on page 560 for more information.

■ CreateTimeCharge. See “CreateTimeCharge Method” on page 561 for more information.

■ CreateTimeEntitlementCharge. See “CreateTimeEntitlementCharge Method” on page 561 for

more information.

If, as administrator, you want to create your own workflow, follow the flow illustrated in Figure 41
on page 558. This figure shows the flow of control for the methods that are exposed by this business
service. Figure 41 also shows several instances where the CreateCharge method is driven by the user
properties on the business component. These user properties pass information to the user interface
about which business services and methods to call.

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To alter the flow for the service charges, you must edit the user properties on the business
components listed in Table 147. Each individual item in the flow can be added or removed using these
user properties.

Table 147. FS Service Charge Business Components and User Properties

Business Component User Property Value

Service Request ChargeExecuteBusinessComponent1 Action

Service Request ChargeExecuteBusinessComponent2 Order Entry - Orders

Action ChargeExecuteBusinessComponent1 Time Sheet Daily Hours

Action ChargeExecuteBusinessComponent2 FS Expense Item

Action ChargeExecuteBusinessComponent3 FS Activity Part Movement

Action ChargeBusinessService Invoice Charges Business

Service

Action ChargeBusinessServiceMethod1 CreateServiceCharges

Order Entry - Orders ChargeBusinessServiceMethod1 CreateOrderCharges

FS Activity Parts ChargeBusinessService Invoice Charges Business

Movement Service

FS Activity Parts ChargeBusinessServiceMethod1 CreatePartsCharge

Movement

FS Activity Parts ChargeBusinessServiceMethod2 CreatePartsEntitlementCharge

Movement

FS Expense Item ChargeBusinessService Invoice Charges Business

Service

FS Expense Item ChargeBusinessServiceMethod1 CreateExpenseCharge

FS Expense Item ChargeBusinessServiceMethod2 CreateExpenseEntitlementChar
ge

Time Sheet Daily Hours ChargeBusinessService Invoice Charges Business

Service

Time Sheet Daily Hours ChargeBusinessServiceMethod1 CreateTimeCharge

Time Sheet Daily Hours ChargeBusinessServiceMethod2 CreateTimeEntitlementCharge

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Figure 41. Workflow Process for SR or Activity Invoicing

CreateExpenseCharge Method
CreateExpenseCharge is used to create the base charge for an activity expense.

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Usage
This method is called by the C++ class behind the Auto Charge button on the Activities screen >
Activity List > Charges view. If you do not wish to have expenses charged, remove the user property
ChargeBusinessServiceMethod1 from the FS Expense Item business component.

Additional Details
This method is not used as part of any workflow process.

CreateExpenseEntitlementCharge Method
CreateExpenseEntitlementCharge is used to create the entitlement adjustment charge for an activity
expense.

Usage
This method is called directly from the FS Charge List Applet - Auto Charge (used in the Activities
screen > Activity List > Charges view). This view is used to create charges for an activity. The
business service is called directly from the applet class.

Additional Details
This method is not used as part of any workflow process.

If you do not wish to have expense adjustment charged, remove the user property
ChargeBusinessServiceMethod2 from the FS Expense Item business component. See Table 147 on
page 557 for more information.

TIP: Charges can still be created even when there is a zero amount adjustment charge ($0). To
remove such adjustment charges from the final invoice, you can modify the charge consolidation
plan. Add a consolidation rule with Name = Search Spec and Value = [FS Charge. Amount = 0] AND
[FS Charge.Entitlement Id <> NULL]. See “Consolidation Rule Subview” on page 311 for more
information.

CreateOrderCharges Method
CreateOrderCharges is used to create charges for all line items in an order.

Usage
This method is called directly from the FS Charge List Applet - Auto Charge (used in the Activities
screen > Activity List > Charges view). This view is used to create charges for an activity. The
business service is called directly from the applet class.

Additional Details
This method is not used as part of any workflow process.

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CreatePartsCharge Method
CreatePartsCharge is used to create the base charge for an activity part movement.

Usage
This method is called directly from the FS Charge List Applet - Auto Charge (used in the Activities
screen > Activity List > Charges view). This view is used to create charges for an activity. The
business service is called directly from the applet class. This method then creates the charges for
the parts used in the activity.

Additional Details
This method is not used as part of any workflow process.

CreatePartsEntitlementCharge Method
CreatePartsEntitlementCharge is used to create the entitlement adjustment charge for an activity
part movement.

Usage
This method is called directly from the FS Charge List Applet - Auto Charge (used in the Activities
screen > Activity List > Charges view). This view is used to create charges for an activity. The
business service is called directly from the applet class. This method then adjusts the costs of the
parts based on the associated entitlement.

Additional Details
This method is not used as part of any workflow process.

CreateServiceCharges Method
CreateServiceCharges is used to create service charges or entitlement adjustment charges for parts,
expenses and time.

Usage
This method is called directly from the FS Charge List Applet - Auto Charge (used in the Activities
screen > Activity List > Charges view). This view is used to create charges for an activity. The
business service is called directly from the applet class. This method then aggregates all the charges
for parts, time, and expenses.

If you do not wish to have expense adjustment charged, remove the user property
ChargeBusinessServiceMethod1 from the Action business component. See Table 147 on page 557 for
more information.

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Additional Details
This method is not used as part of any workflow process.

CreateTimeCharge Method
CreateTimeCharge is used to create charges based on reported time.

Usage
This method is called directly from the FS Charge List Applet - Auto Charge (used in the Activities
screen > Activity List > Charges view). This view is used to create charges for an activity. The
business service is called directly from the applet class. This method then creates the time charges
for the activity, based on the hourly rate of the activity owner.

Additional Details
This method is not used as part of any workflow process.

If you do not wish to have expense adjustment charged, remove the user property
ChargeBusinessServiceMethod1 on the Time Sheet Daily Hours Item business component. See
Table 147 on page 557 for more information.

CreateTimeEntitlementCharge Method
CreateTimeEntitlementCharge is used to create time entitlement adjustments.

Usage
This method is called directly from the FS Charge List Applet - Auto Charge (used in the Activities
screen > Activity List > Charges view). This view is used to create charges for an activity. The
business service is called directly from the applet class. This method then adjusts the cost of the
hourly resource, based on the entitlement associated with the activity.

Additional Details
This method is not used as part of any workflow process.

If you do not wish to have time adjustment charged, you should remove the user property
ChargeBusinessServiceMethod2 on the Time Sheet Daily Hours Item business component. See
Table 147 on page 557 for more information.

Cycle Counting
This section describes the FS Cycle Counting business service.

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FS Cycle Counting Business Service

The Field Service Cycle Counting business service has just one method, GenerateCounts. See “Cycle
Counting” on page 417 for more information about the Cycle Counting Engine.

GenerateCounts Method
GenerateCounts generates parts list for counting based on product classification data (ABC or XYZ).

Usage
The following input parameters are required for this method:

■ Mode

■ Start Date

■ End Date

Based on the Mode value (SQL, ID, TempTbl), the other inputs (ClientID, RowID or Where) must be
specified. Loc/Type will indicate what the ClientID, RowID or Where values represent. For example,
if the Loc/Type value is Loc, this it means that the RowID is an inventory location.

Additional Details
By default, cycle counting is run as a server component and not as a business service. The inputs
are called if invoking from code or from a server component job.

Dispatch Board
This section describes some of the business services that relate to the Dispatch Board. These include:

■ FS Dispatch Board Utils Business Service on page 562

■ FS Service Region Business Service on page 567

■ FS Activity Cache Business Service on page 568

FS Dispatch Board Utils Business Service

The Field Service Dispatch Board Utils business service is a collection of methods that implement the
functions of the Dispatch Board.

This business service includes the following methods:

■ AssetAssignActivity. See “AssetAssignActivity Method” on page 563 for more information.

■ AssetUnassignActivity. See “AssetUnassignActivity Method” on page 563 for more information.

■ AssignActivity. See “AssignActivity Method” on page 564 for more information.

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■ CalculateDistanceVals. See “CalculateDistanceVals Method” on page 565 for more information.

■ CalculateFromToAddresses. See “CalculateFromToAddresses Method” on page 564 for more

information.

■ GetCalculatedDistanceVals. See “GetCalculatedDistanceVals Method” on page 566 for more

information.

■ GetEmployeeScores. See “GetEmployeeScores Method” on page 566 for more information.

■ GetWirelessCoverage. See “GetWirelessCoverage Method” on page 566 for more information.

■ UnassignActivity. See “UnassignActivity Method” on page 567 for more information.

AssetAssignActivity Method
AssetAssignActivity is called when an activity is dropped onto the Asset Dispatch Board. This method
is configurable and can be used to enable drag-and-drop events for business components configured
to be displayed along the y-axis of the Asset Dispatch Board.

Usage
This method is called by the Asset Dispatch Board applet (Asset DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet).
In this applet, the business components shown vertically on the left are the Y business components
(the y-axis). The X business component is the object getting scheduled (the x-axis); the object being
scheduled is normally an activity. When it is called, the method updates the X business component’s
Asset Id as defined in the Drag and Drop Update Field business service user property.

For example, in the Asset Dispatch Board, Asset Mgmt - Asset is the Y business component and
Action is the X business component. When the user drags the Action onto the Asset Dispatch Board
to assign an asset, the AssetAssignActivity method will take the Object Id of the Asset Mgmt - Asset
business component and insert it into the Action business component’s Asset Id field.

If a new Dispatch Board, which had accounts on the y-axis, was required, then Account would be the
Y business component. You could then change the user property on the AssetAssignActivity method
to update the Account Id. In this case, the method would take the account's Object Id and insert it
into the Action business component’s Account Id field.

Additional Details
If pre- or post-processing needs to be done on the drag and drop business event to support a specific
business process, this method's arguments can be accessed from custom code.

AssetUnassignActivity Method
AssetUnassignActivity is called when an activity is dropped onto the bottom applet of the Asset
Dispatch Board view.

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Usage
This method is called by the FS Asset DB Unplanned Activity List Ax Applet when an object is dragged
off the FS Asset DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet. The calling of this method is set using the Drag
Drop Business Service applet user property. When it is called, the method sets the Activity Status to
Unscheduled and clears the Asset Id field as defined in the Drag and Drop Update Field business
service user property.

Additional Details
If pre- or post-processing needs to be done on the drag and drop business event to support a specific
business process, this method's arguments can be accessed from custom code.

AssignActivity Method
AssignActivity is the method called when an activity is dropped onto the employee Dispatch Board.
This method is designed to leverage the caching mechanism implemented on the Dispatch Board to
maximize end user performance.

Usage
This method is called by the FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet. The calling of this method is set
using the Drag Drop Business Service applet user property.

This method is specific to the CSSSWEFrameGanttDBActX class used for dispatching employees. It
is designed to perform the specialized ownership changes particular to the updating of the Action
business component’s primary owner and the subsequent updating of the Dispatch Board's
performance cache.

When it is called, the method removes any previous primary owner, sets the new primary owner to
the employee on the Y business component (shown on the Dispatch Board’s y-axis), and sets the
status to Scheduled.

Additional Details
If pre-or post-processing needs to be done on the drag and drop business event to support a specific
business process, this method's arguments can be accessed from custom code.

CalculateFromToAddresses Method
CalculateFromToAddresses is the first API called by GetCalculatedDistanceVals (see
“GetCalculatedDistanceVals Method” on page 566 for more information). This API determines the
activity location and the location of each of the employee, and outputs the results to
CalculateDistanceVals.

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Usage
This method's default behavior (as determined by the business service user properties) is to identify
the location for an activity as the activity’s personal address. If the location is not available, the
method then checks the business address for the activity. It then retrieves the activity previous to
the one being scheduled. If no previous activity is scheduled for an engineer, it sets the value for
From Address to the address in the engineer’s employee profile. The field engineer’s originating
address is set using the Start Shift Location Field Name user property. By default, this value is the
engineer’s Start Home Address Id, as provided by the Start Home Address section on the
Administration - User screen > Employees > Service Details view.

Additional Details
This method will search each activity's addresses, in accordance with the order set by the From
Address Id Props and To Address Id Props business service user properties. Each of these properties
specifies the business component ID and address type of the address which must be checked. If the
address type is set to TRUE, this signifies that it is a personal address; if the address type is set to
FALSE, this signifies that it is a business address.

If the business address business component is not the same as the default, this can be set by adding
a business service user property named Business Address CUT. The business address business
component can then be specified in this new user property. The field engineer’s originating address
is determined by the Start Shift Location Field Name business service user property. The default
value for this user property is Start Home Address Id.

CalculateDistanceVals Method
CalculateDistanceVals is the second API called by GetCalculatedDistanceVals. This method calculates
the distance between the new activity location and the employee location, and outputs a list of
<Employee Id, Distance Value> pairs.

Usage
This method checks the City, State, and Postal Code fields on an address for matching entries in the
Zip Code business component. The master list of geocodes can be reviewed using the Administration
- Data screen > Zip Code Administration view. The lookup requires that all three fields (City, State,
and Postal Code) match exactly in order to return the latitude/longitude location values used in the
distance calculation. This calculation determines the straight line distance between the latitude/
longitude coordinates for the two ZIP Codes.

Additional Details
The method returns a distance of -1 to alert users when there is no valid result from the data
provided. Typically, invalid results occur because of a missing address or unmapped ZIP Code.

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GetCalculatedDistanceVals Method
GetCalculatedDistanceVals is the API that calculates the distance between the selected activity
location and the employee location, and outputs a list of <Employee Id, Distance Value> pairs.

Usage
The FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet calls this method, which then calls CalculateFromToAddress
and subsequently, CalculateDistanceVals.

The method performs the following tasks:

1 Determines the location and starting time of the new activity.

2 Determines the location of the employee by:

a Identifying the employee's activity whose end time is closest to the start time of the new activity

b Identifying the location of this activity

c If no such activities are found, the method chooses the employee's default location. The address
ID is defined in the Start Shift Location Field Name business service user property.
3 Calculates the linear distance between the two locations using the addresses of the unscheduled
activity and the employee location.

Additional Details
The distance value of -1 is displayed if the method lacks sufficient valid address information to
calculate a distance.

GetEmployeeScores Method
GetEmployeeScores returns the appropriate scores for a given employee as defined by the
Assignment Manager server component.

Usage
This method is invoked from the Dispatch Board after the user clicks the Assignment Score button.
The method looks at the mappings listed in the Administration - Scheduling screen > Server Key
Mappings view to determine the appropriate Siebel application server to call for a particular service
region.

GetWirelessCoverage Method
GetWirelessCoverage is the method that checks whether the employee has a wireless handheld
device that is in coverage.

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Usage
This method is invoked from the Dispatch Board after the user clicks the Wireless Coverage button.
The method verifies whether an employee’s handheld device is on the network and returns Y or N
depending on whether the ping is successful.

Additional Details
The method references the Wireless Coverage Timeout business service user property, which
determines how many seconds the business service waits for a ping response.

UnassignActivity Method
UnassignActivity is the API that is called when an activity is dropped onto the bottom applet in the
Dispatch Board view.

Usage
The FS DB Unplanned Activity List Ax Applet calls this method (as set in the Drag Drop Business
Service applet user property) when an object is dragged off the FS DB Planned GanttChart AX Applet.
The method then sets the Activity Status to Unscheduled.

Additional Details
If pre- or post-processing needs to be done on the drag and drop business event to support a specific
business process, this method's arguments can be accessed from custom code.

FS Service Region Business Service

The Field Service Region business service is used to retrieve the service regions for activities. This
business service includes just one method, GetServiceRegionId.

GetServiceRegionId Method
GetServiceRegionId is used to retrieve the service region ID, based on the postal code (ZIP Code)
that is passed to it.

Usage
This method is called whenever an address is added to an activity or service request. It then
determines the service region mapped to that activity. This method is used to set the service region
in the Service Request and Activity business components when an address is specified.

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FS Activity Cache Business Service

The Field Service Activity Cache Service business service is used to clear or refresh cached activity
data from the Dispatch Board. This business service includes the CleanUpCacheTable method, which
is described in the following section.

CleanUpCacheTable Method
CleanUpCacheTable is used to clear the activity data cache table used by the Dispatch Board. The
activity data in the cache table is duplicate data, created during a user session.

Usage
This method can be called manually, using the business service simulator or through the use of a
repeating component job. See “Clearing Cached Activity Data” on page 182 for more information.

Entitlements
This section describes some of the business services that relate to entitlements. These include:

■ FS Create Entitlement Business Service on page 568

■ FS Verify Entitlement Business Service on page 570

FS Create Entitlement Business Service

The Field Service Create Entitlement business service is used in the process of entitlement creation.
See “Workflow to Automatically Create Entitlements from an Entitlement Template” on page 240 for
more information on how the business service methods are used within the workflow process.

This business service includes the following methods:

■ CreateCoveredProds. See “CreateCoveredProds Method” on page 569 for more information.

■ CreateEntitlements. See “CreateEntitlements Method” on page 569 for more information.

■ GetEntitlementTemplates. See “GetEntitlementTemplates Method” on page 570 for more

information.

■ ValidateEntitlementTemplates. See “ValidateEntitlementTemplates Method” on page 570 for

more information.

Entitlement Creation Process Flow

The FS Create Entitlement business service performs the following steps when the user clicks the
Auto Entitlement button and the FS - Create Entitlement workflow process begins:

1 Checks whether the agreement is valid.

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2 Retrieves the appropriate business components.

3 Retrieves the details for each agreement line item.

4 If the agreement Product ID is not empty, the business service retrieves the entitlement
templates applicable to the agreement line item product.

It does this by setting the Product ID on the product entitlement template.

5 For each of the product templates, the business service does the following:

a Checks to make sure the current template was not already used in generating entitlements for
this particular agreement.
b Creates a new entitlement from the template.

c Copies over the entitlement service metrics, preventive maintenance, pricing, and service
details.

d If the entitlement template Include Account flag is set to TRUE, it copies over the account
information from the agreement and uses the settings from the template.

e If the entitlement template Include Contact flag is set to TRUE, it copies over the contact into
from agreement and use the settings from the template.
f If the entitlement template Account All Contacts flag is set to TRUE, the business service copies
over all the contacts from the account.
g If the entitlement template Account All Products flag is set to TRUE, the business service copies
over all the products from the account and adds them to the entitlement with the corresponding
asset number.
h If the entitlement template Contact All Products flag is set to TRUE, the business service copies
over all the products associated with the contact. This includes the asset IDs, and so on.

See “Configuring Auto-Entitlement for Quotes and Orders” on page 224 for more information.

CreateCoveredProds Method
CreateCoveredProds is used to retrieve a list of the service products covered by a particular
entitlement template.

Usage
This method is called by the FS – Create Entitlement workflow.

CreateEntitlements Method
CreateEntitlements is used to create an entitlement based on the entitlement template.

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Usage
This method is called by the FS - Create Entitlement workflow, when the user clicks the Auto
Entitlement button. See “Configuring Auto-Entitlement for Quotes and Orders” on page 224 for more
information.

GetEntitlementTemplates Method
GetEntitlementTemplates is used to retrieve a list of the entitlement templates associated with a
specific service product.

Usage
This method is called by the FS - Create Entitlement workflow, when the user clicks the Auto
Entitlement button. The method retrieves a list of all entitlement templates.

ValidateEntitlementTemplates Method
ValidateEntitlementTemplates is used to retrieve a list of the entitlement templates associated with
a specific service product.

Usage
This method retrieves a subset of the entitlement templates. This subset includes only those
templates with which the product is associated.

FS Verify Entitlement Business Service

The Field Service Verify Entitlement business service is used for entitlement verification purposes.
See “Workflows for Entitlement Creation and Verification” on page 240 for more information on how
the business service methods are used within the workflow processes.

This business service includes the following methods:

■ GenerateList. See “GenerateList Method” on page 571 for more information.

■ GetBestPricedEntitlement. See “GetBestPricedEntitlement Method” on page 571 for more

information.

■ GetBestResponseTime. See “GetBestResponseTime Method” on page 571 for more information.

■ GetNextItem. See “GetNextItem Method” on page 572 for more information.

■ GetPrice. See “GetPrice Method” on page 572 for more information.

■ GetResponseTime. See “GetResponseTime Method” on page 572 for more information.

■ GetTimeZone. See “GetTimeZone Method” on page 573 for more information.

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■ ShowEntitlementPickList. See “ShowEntitlementPickList Method” on page 573 for more

information.

■ UpdateEntitlementCounter. See “UpdateEntitlementCounter Method” on page 574 for more

information.

■ VerifyPricingEntitlement. See “VerifyPricingEntitlement Method” on page 574 for more

information.

■ VerifyServiceEntitlement. See “VerifyServiceEntitlement Method” on page 574 for more

information.

GenerateList Method
GenerateList is a utility method used for looping through the workflow.

Usage
This method will return a set of entitlements for a specific business component based on the search
specification passed to it from the VerifyServiceEntitlement method or VerifyPricingEntitlement
method.

GetBestPricedEntitlement Method
GetBestPricedEntitlement retrieves the best-priced entitlement, based on the entitlement discounts
defined in the Agreements screen > Entitlements > Price Details view.

Usage
This method is called by the FS - Verify Entitlement Order Best Price and FS - Verify Entitlement
Quote Best Price workflows. The method automates the process of verifying entitlements by cycling
through all the entitlements for product line items and identifying the best-priced entitlement for
each line item. It then stamps the ID of the best entitlement on each line item.

Additional Details
This method could be implemented by including it in a configured pricing procedure. This procedure
could then consistently include contract discounts without explicitly requiring the user to invoke the
method from the line item by clicking a button.

GetBestResponseTime Method
GetBestResponseTime is used to get the best response time entitlement for a service request.

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Usage
This method is called by the FS - Verify Entitlement SR Best Response Time' workflow. This workflow
is invoked when the user clicks the Verify Best Time button on the service request detail applet (used
in the Service Request form on the Service screen > Service Request List view). The method chooses
the entitlement with the best response time metric matching the service request priority. Entitlement
response times are defined in the Entitlements screen > Metrics view. It then calculates the commit
time according to the service calendar and stamps it on the service request commit time field and
entitlement.

Additional Details
In addition, this workflow can be easily extended to generate a series of dates used for an escalation
path as defined by metrics on the agreement or by a default set of values. For example, the commit
date/time for the first callback could be four hours, the field engineer onsite date may be within eight
working hours, and the resolution may be required within three days. Each of these may be an
independent metric calculated by GetBestResponseTime, and saved to the service request.

GetNextItem Method
GetNextItem is a utility method used for looping through the workflow.

Usage
This method is used by the workflows to find the best price entitlement for quotes and orders. It will
cycle through the list then adjust the prices of the products based on the best entitlement.

GetPrice Method
GetPrice is used to retrieve the price for a product using the entitlement discounts.

Usage
This method can be used in the Quotes and Order screens to get the price of a product after it has
been adjusted by the entitlement. The Product Id, Base Price, and Entitlement Id must be passed as
arguments into this method. The new price is then passed back as the output.

GetResponseTime Method
GetResponseTime is used to retrieve the response time based on entitlement and priority.

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Usage
This method is called by the FS - Verify Entitlement SR workflow. This workflow is invoked when the
user clicks the Verify button on the service request detail applet (used in the Service Request form
on the Service screen > Service Request List view). The method evaluates the response time metric
that matches the service request priority for the selected entitlement. It then calculates the commit
time according to the service calendar and sets the Date Committed and Entitlement fields for the
service request.

This method can also be called from the FS Holiday API Service to calculate committed time based
on a service calendar and exception calender.

Additional Details
The workflow can also be automatically called based upon the priority of the SR. Calling the workflow
automatically on service level agreements where the committed date/time is often linked to the
priority of the service request.

GetTimeZone Method
GetTimeZone retrieves the time zone used in the response time calculation.

Usage
This method is used to retrieve the time zone based on the following inputs:

■ Entitlement time zone

■ Contact time zone

■ Time zone for the service request owner

■ System default time zone

Each of these inputs has an associated time zone. The GetTimeZone method selects the entitlement
time zone first, if available. If the entitlement time zone is unavailable, the method selects the
contact's time zone. If the contact's time zone is unavailable, the method selects the service request
owner time zone. If none of these options is available, the method selects the system default time
zone. After the time zone has been retrieved, it is passed to the GetResponseTime method to
calculate the response time.

Additional Details
This method can be overwritten to handle other business scenarios.

ShowEntitlementPickList Method
ShowEntitlementPickList is used to display a list of entitlements from the search specification.

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Usage
This method is a user interface step that shows a list of all the relevant entitlements based on the
search specification passed from the VerifyServiceEntitlement method.

UpdateEntitlementCounter Method
UpdateEntitlementCounter is used to update the counters on an entitlement.

Usage
This method exists for administrators to use if it is required that the counter on an entitlement should
be incremented or decremented. This would ideally be used in a situation where a company sells
support on a per unit or in a multiunit pack, and wants to monitor usage of those units.

Additional Details
This method is currently unused.

VerifyPricingEntitlement Method
VerifyPricingEntitlement is used to return a list of eligible pricing entitlements.

Usage
Based on the account, contact, and product input arguments for this method, a suitable search
specification is returned. This search specification can then be provided to the
ShowEntitlementPickList method to show all relevant entitlements.

VerifyServiceEntitlement Method
VerifyServiceEntitlement is used to return a list of eligible service entitlements.

Usage
Based on the account, contact, asset, and product input arguments for this method, a suitable search
specification is returned. This search specification can then be provided to the
ShowEntitlementPickList method to show all relevant entitlements.

Fulfillment
This section describes some of the business services that relate to fulfillment. These include:

■ FS Fulfillment Service Business Service on page 575

■ FS Part Locator Service Business Service on page 576

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FS Fulfillment Service Business Service

The Field Service Fulfillment Service business service is used to perform order fulfillment tasks. See
“Fulfillment Engine” on page 323 for more information about how fulfillment is achieved in Field
Service.

This business service includes the following methods:

■ Fulfill. See “Fulfill Method” on page 575 for more information.

■ GenPickTickets. See “GenPickTickets Method” on page 576 for more information.

Fulfill Method
The Fulfill method fulfills an order item, order, or a group of orders.

Usage
By default, the Fulfillment Engine is used as a server component and not a business service. The
Fulfill command (on the Service Order screen > List view, click the menu button and select the Fulfill
option) finds the order line items, allocates these items, and generates a pick ticket record for the
item.

Additional Details
This method can be used in two ways:

1 You can invoke the Fulfillment Engine in the standard manner to analyze orders and allocate parts
for each line item, and automatically generate pick tickets. While fulfilling the inventory, the
Fulfillment Engine will take into account the inventory relationships set in the Inventory screen
> Relationships view.

The inputs for the standard manner of usage are described in “Setting Parameters for the
Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines” on page 333.

2 You can explicitly specify the order in which inventory locations are considered by the Fulfillment
Engine for fulfillment.

Individual inventories may not be related to other inventories in the list—the inventories are
sorted by the score. Inventory scoring can be used for geocode-based fulfillment, which means
that orders should be fulfilled from the nearest possible warehouse.

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The additional inputs required for this manner of usage are described in Table 148. See “Setting
Parameters for the Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines” on page 333 for more information on the
standard inputs.

Table 148.Inputs for Fulfill Method: Explicitly Specifying Inventory Location Order

Input Description

InvLocIds A property set of Inventory Id and Score. The Inventory

locations are considered in the sorted order of the Score.

Fulfill List Mode The value for this can be ASCENDING or DESCENDING.

For example:

Fulfill List Mode = ASCENDING

{ ""XX-ABCD"", 10

""YY-PQRS"", 34

….

} Type = InvLocIds

NOTE: If you intend to call the Fulfillment Engine with Fulfill List Mode set to Ascending (explicitly
passing the sequence of Inventory Location IDs to be searched), do not set up Fulfills relationships
between inventory locations in the Inventory screen > Relationships view. Order Fulfillment with
Fulfill List Mode set to Ascending is intended to use only the inventory locations explicitly defined in
the input and their sublevel locations.

GenPickTickets Method
GenPickTickets is used to produce a pick ticket record.

Usage
The input for this method is the order ID for which the pick tickets are to be generated. The Generate
Pick Tickets command (on the Service Order screen > List view’s Service Order form, click the menu
button and select the Generate PickTickets option) produces a pick ticket record.

FS Part Locator Service Business Service

The Field Service Part Locator Service business service is used to locate parts for fulfillment. See
“Part Locator Engine” on page 328 for more information about this engine.

This business service includes just one method, Locate.

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Locate Method
Locate is used to find (in inventory) the product specified in an order line item. The method also finds
substitutes if the product is unavailable.

Usage
This method is called when the user clicks the Locate button on the Service Order screen > Line
Items > Part Locator view. The method then locates the order line items in the inventory hierarchy.

Additional Details
By default, the Part Locator Engine is used as a server component and not as a business service. This
method is similar to the Fulfillment method except that it does not allocate or generate pick tickets.

Inventory
This topic describes the Field Service Inventory Transaction business service.

FS Inventory Transaction Business Service

The Field Service Inventory Transaction business service is used by the Bulk Inventory Transaction -
Asset List - Default workflow and Inventory Transaction - Asset List - Default workflow to transfer
one or more assets at a time. See “Workflows to Perform Bulk Inventory Transactions” on page 359 for
more information on these workflow processes.

This business service includes the following methods:

■ AddAssetsToTxn. See “AddAssetsToTxn Method” on page 577 for more information.

■ AggrAssetsPerProdPerSource. See “AggrAssetsPerProdPerSource Method” on page 578 for

more information.

■ BulkTransfer. See “BulkTransfer Method” on page 578 for more information.

■ CommitTxn. See “CommitTxn Method” on page 578 for more information.

■ GetDetails. See “GetDetails Method” on page 578 for more information.

■ SetTxnDetails. See “SetTxnDetails Method” on page 579 for more information.

■ SetTxnDetailsFromTxnSet. See “SetTxnDetailsFromTxnSet Method” on page 579 for more

information.

AddAssetsToTxn Method
AddAssetsToTxn adds assets to the inventory transaction record.

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Usage
This method is called by the Inventory Transaction - Asset List - Default workflow.

AggrAssetsPerProdPerSource Method
AggrAssetsPerProdPerSource is used to aggregate assets, based on the properties specified by the
Aggregate per Property 1...n string. Each such aggregation forms one transaction. This method
allows assets of the same product with the same source details to be part of the same transaction.

Usage
This method is called by the Bulk Inventory Transaction - Asset List - Default workflow.

BulkTransfer Method
The Bulktransfer method loops and calls the next step to create each inventory transaction. During
each iteration, a child is removed and passed to the next step to create the transaction. When the
child count reaches zero (0), the loop stops.

Usage
This method is called by the Bulk Inventory Transaction - Asset List - Default workflow.

CommitTxn Method
CommitTxn commits the transaction.

Usage
This method is called by the Inventory Transaction - Asset List - Default workflow.

GetDetails Method
GetDetails is used to query the specified business component and retrieve the fields that start with
Input: xxx. These fields are added to the property set as properties. The method loops for each line
item and queries for the fields.

Usage
This method is called by the Bulk Inventory Transaction - Asset List - Default workflow.

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SetTxnDetails Method
SetTxnDetails creates the inventory transaction record. It can take only the input arguments that
are fields on the Inventory Transaction business component or the fields that start with Default. This
method generates the ID of the created transaction.

Usage
This method is called by the Inventory Transaction - Asset List - Default workflow.

SetTxnDetailsFromTxnSet Method
SetTxnDetailsFromTxnSet reads the transaction details from the Inventory Transaction Set property
set and creates a transaction record. All fields specified by Inv Txn Field are populated on the
transaction. This method calls the SetTxnDetails method internally.

Usage
This method is called by the Inventory Transaction - Asset List - Default workflow.

Invoices
This section describes the FS Charge Consolidation business service.

FS Charge Consolidation Business Service

The Field Service Charge Consolidation business service is used for invoice consolidation. See
“Workflow to Consolidate Charges” on page 304 for more information on how the business service
methods are used within the workflow process.

This business service includes the following methods:

■ CancelInvoice. See “CancelInvoice Method” on page 579 for more information.

■ ConsolidateCharge. See “ConsolidateCharge Method” on page 580 for more information.

CancelInvoice Method
CancelInvoice is used to cancel invoices, allowing for the charge consolidation to run again.

Usage
This method can be used to perform an update to change the status of existing charge records for
an agreement line item to Expired or Canceled. See “Running Charges After Charge Consolidation Has
Been Performed” on page 307 for more information.

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ConsolidateCharge Method
ConsolidateCharge is used to consolidate the charges in the charge table, based on a set of rules
that are defined in the consolidation plans.

Usage
This method is called by the FS - Charge Consolidation workflow, which is called when the user clicks
the Execute Now button on the Administration - Contracts screen > Charge Consolidation Plans view.

Preventive Maintenance
This section describes the FS Preventive Maintenance business service.

FS Preventive Maintenance Business Service

The Field Service Preventive Maintenance business service has just one method, GeneratePM. See
“Preventive Maintenance” on page 501 for more information about the Preventive Maintenance
Engine.

GeneratePM Method
GeneratePM generates service requests and activities for the maintenance of assets, based on
predefined triggers.

Usage
The following input arguments are required for this method:

■ Mode

■ End Date

■ Sub-mode

Depending on the combination of the Mode and Sub-mode values, the other inputs can be specified.
For example, if the value for Mode is SQL and the Sub-mode value is Assets&Plans, then the Plan
SQL and Asset SQL arguments must be specified.

DefOrgID and DefActOwnerId denote the default organization for the service requests or activities
created and the owner for the activities.

The input parameters are called if invoking from code or from a component request. See “Parameters
for the Preventive Maintenance Engine” on page 513 for more information about the parameters used
with this engine.

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Additional Details
By default, this service is not used.

Replenishment
This section describes the FS Replenish business service.

FS Replenish Business Service

The Field Service Replenish business service is used for replenishment purposes. See “Replenishment
Engine” on page 427 for more information about this engine.

This business service includes the following methods:

■ GenerateOrder. See “GenerateOrder Method” on page 581 for more information.

■ UnlockAllInventories. See “UnlockAllInventories Method” on page 581 for more information.

GenerateOrder Method
GenerateOrder is used to select source and target inventories when restocking is needed. The
method then generates the orders required to obtain materials from an external provider, an internal
inventory site, or an internal manufacturing facility.

Usage
The input parameters are called if invoking from code or from a component request. See “Parameters
for the Replenishment Engine” on page 430 for more information about these parameters.

Additional Details
By default, the Replenishment Engine is run as a server component and not as a business service.

UnlockAllInventories Method
UnlockAllInventories is an API which can be used to unlock all the inventories.

Usage
In certain error situations, where the inventory may not be unlocked during replenishment, this API
can be run to unlock the inventories.

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Scheduling
This section describes the ABS and Optimization Engine methods. To load the ABS or Optimization
Engine, use either eScript or a workflow process. See “Invoking the ABS and Optimization Engine
Methods” for more information.

The following sections provide a list of methods that are supported for the ABS and Optimization
Engine components:

■ ABS Methods on page 584

■ Optimization Engine Methods on page 593

Invoking the ABS and Optimization Engine Methods

The Appointment Booking System and Optimization Engine can be invoked through script by calling
the predefined Server Requests business service and specifying the Appointment Booking Engine or
Optimization Engine component. The methods must first be loaded and residing on the server before
they can be called. Only the server request broker can determine the correct component that should
be called for a given service region. See Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide for
more information about using the Server Requests business service.

The following script is an example of how to call the ABS component with the GetAppointment
method.

var SRMSvc, BSWrite, BSRead;

var srmInputs, apptBookInputs, srmOutputs, tempPropSet;

var childPropSet, activePropSet, apptPropSet;

var errCode;

// use Server Request to call the Booking Engine

SRMSvc = TheApplication().GetService("Server Requests");

srmInputs = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();

apptBookInputs = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();

srmOutputs = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();

tempPropSet = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();

srmInputs.SetProperty("Mode", "Sync");

srmInputs.SetProperty("Method", "GetAppointment");

srmInputs.SetProperty("Component", "ApptBook");

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apptBookInputs.SetProperty("ActId", "1-93J9");

apptBookInputs.SetProperty("SvcRegnId", "1-1BGD");

srmInputs.AddChild(apptBookInputs);

SRMSvc.InvokeMethod("SubmitRequest", srmInputs, srmOutputs);

// write out the outputs for debugging

childPropSet = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();

activePropSet = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();

childPropSet = srmOutputs.GetChild(0);

errCode = childPropSet.GetProperty("ErrCode");

if (errCode == "0")

var apptCount = childPropSet.GetChildCount();

apptPropSet = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();

for (var i = 0; i < apptCount; i++)

activePropSet = childPropSet.GetChild(i);

apptPropSet.AddChild(activePropSet);

// write out the inputs for debugging

apptPropSet.SetProperty("number of appointments", apptCount);

apptPropSet.SetType("addedPropSet");

Outputs.AddChild(apptPropSet);

else

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activePropSet = null;

tempPropSet = null;

childPropSet = null;

SRMSvc = null;

BSWrite = null;

BSRead = null;

srmInputs = null;

apptBookInputs = null;

srmOutputs = null;

ABS Methods
The ABS is used for scheduling purposes in Field Service. See “About the Appointment Booking
System” on page 96 for more information about the ABS.

The following methods can be used with the ABS:

■ CancelAppointment. See “CancelAppointment Method” on page 585 for more information.

■ CancelRequest. See “CancelRequest Method” on page 585 for more information.

■ ConfirmAppointment. See “ConfirmAppointment Method” on page 586 for more information.

■ DefragmentServiceRegion. See “DefragmentServiceRegion Method” on page 587 for more

information.

■ Get Appointment. See “GetAppointment Method” on page 587 for more information.

■ Get Appointments. See “GetAppointments Method” on page 588 for more information.

■ GetConfirmedAppointment. See “GetConfirmedAppointment Method” on page 590 for more

information.

■ LoadActivities. See “LoadActivities Method” on page 591 for more information.

■ LoadEmployees. See “LoadEmployees Method” on page 592 for more information.

■ ReloadServiceRegion. See “ReloadServiceRegion Method” on page 592 for more information.

■ UnloadEmployees. See “UnloadEmployees Method” on page 593 for more information.

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CancelAppointment Method
CancelAppointment is used to cancel a scheduled appointment. The method sets the appointment
status to Cancelled and removes the planned start and planned end. The time previously booked for
this activity is then open and available for booking by the ABS.

Usage
This method is invoked when the user clicks the Cancel Appointment button on the Service screen >
Service Request List > Activities view and the Activities screen > Activity List > Schedule view.

Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 149.

Table 149. Inputs for CancelAppointment Method

Input Description

ActId Activity ID of the activity which needs to be scheduled.

SvcRegnId Service region ID of the activity.

CancelRequest Method
CancelRequest is used to free all of the reserved time slots previously reserved by the
GetAppointment method. The time slots are then available to be booked by the ABS for other
requests.

Usage
This method is called when the user clicks the Cancel button on the Pick Appointment dialog box (Abs
Result Pick Applet). This dialog box appears when the user clicks the Book Appointment button on
the Activities screen > Activity List > Schedule view.

Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 150.

Table 150. Inputs for CancelRequest Method

Input Description

ReqId Request ID returned by the ABS for the GetAppointment

method.

SvcRegnId Service region ID of the activity.

There are no outputs for this method.

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ConfirmAppointment Method
ConfirmAppointment confirms the selected appointment (time slot) that the GetAppointment method
has reserved. The activity is assigned to the given owner and starts during the selected time slot.
This method also releases the other time slots that GetAppointment previously reserved.

The GetAppointment and GetAppointments methods generate a property set containing a list of time
slots that are available for the activity. Each returned time slot contains properties. The time slot
that these methods pass to the ConfirmAppointment method includes the Slot Start - SR Time Zone
property, which is the slot start time in the time zone of the activity's service region.

Usage
This method is called when the user clicks the Book Appointment button on the Activities screen >
Activity List > Schedule view, and selects a time slot from the Pick Appointment dialog box (Abs
Result Pick Applet).

Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 151.

Table 151. Inputs for ConfirmAppointment Method

Input Description

ReqId Request ID returned by the ABS for the GetAppointment

method.

SvcRegnId Service region ID of the activity.

There are no outputs for this method.

ConfirmAppointment needs an additional input property request key for the Server Requests
business service. See “Invoking the ABS and Optimization Engine Methods” on page 582 for more
information. The following is a sample script that defines this additional input.

var SRMSvc = TheApplication().GetService("Server Requests");

var srmInputs = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();

var apptBookInputs = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();

var srmOutputs = TheApplication().NewPropertySet();

srmInputs.SetProperty("Mode", "Sync");

srmInputs.SetProperty("Method", "ConfirmAppointment");

srmInputs.SetProperty("Component", "ApptBook");

srmInputs.SetProperty("ReqKey", Inputs.GetProperty("strSRId"));

// Or whatever way the service region ID is determined

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apptBookInputs.SetProperty("ActId", Inputs.GetProperty("strActId"));

apptBookInputs.SetProperty("SvcRegnId", Inputs.GetProperty("strSRId"));

apptBookInputs.SetProperty("ReqId", Inputs.GetProperty("strReqId"));

apptBookInputs.SetProperty("SlotStart",
Inputs.GetProperty("strSlotStartTimeSRTimeZone"));

srmInputs.AddChild(apptBookInputs);

SRMSvc.InvokeMethod("SubmitRequest", srmInputs, srmOutputs);

DefragmentServiceRegion Method
DefragmentServiceRegion is used to defragment the service region employees calendar. This
removes gaps between scheduled appointments.

Usage
This method is called when the user clicks the Coalesce ABS button on the Administration -
Scheduling screen > Service Regions List view.

Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 152.

Table 152. Inputs for DefragmentServiceRegion Method

Input Description

SvcRegnId Service region ID of the activity.

There are no outputs for this method.

GetAppointment Method
GetAppointment reserves and returns a set of employee time slots in the service region for a given
activity. This method is followed by ConfirmAppointment or CancelAppointment. This method has a
timeout function to release reserved time slots in the event that neither of these are called in a timely
fashion.

Usage
This method is called when the user clicks the Book Appointment button on the Service screen >
Service Request List > Activities view and the Activities screen > Activity List > Schedule view.

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Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 153.

Table 153. Inputs for GetAppointment Method

Input Description

ActId Activity ID of the activity which needs to be scheduled.

SvcRegnId Service region ID of the activity.

This method outputs a property set containing a list of time slots that are available for the activity.
Each returned time slot contains the properties described in Table 154.

Table 154. Outputs for GetAppointment Method

Output Description

Request Id Unique ID to identify the request sent to the engine.

Assignee Assignee available during the time slot.

Slot Start - SR Time Zone Slot start time, in activity service region time zone.

Slot End - SR Time Zone Slot start time, in activity service region time zone.

Slot Start Slot start time. This parameter is always in GMT time zone, not
the login user’s time zone.

Slot End Slot end time, in client time zone. This parameter is always in
GMT time zone, not the login user’s time zone.

Service Region Id Service region ID of the activity.

Activity Id Activity ID of the activity being scheduled.

GetAppointments Method
GetAppointments returns a time slot for each employee during which the employee could potentially
be booked. The method reserves these time slots in memory until ConfirmAppointment or
CancelRequest is called, or until the timeout elapses.

Usage
This method is similar to GetAppointment, but is called specifically by Assignment Manager.
GetAppointments differs from GetAppointment in the following ways:

■ The actual activities being booked do not exist yet, and will not be created until
ConfirmAppointment is called.
■ GetAppointments checks for several employees in the same request.

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■ GetAppointments only returns one time slot for each employee instead of the number defined by
the ABS - Default number of slots parameter. See “Schedule Parameters” on page 128 for more
information.

■ GetAppointments provides the additional flag, SameTimeFlag.

■ If SameTimeFlag is set to TRUE, all the employees must be scheduled together for the same
time. Time slots will be returned for all or none of the specified employees.

■ If SameTimeFlag is set to FALSE, the employees can each be scheduled for different times
between the earliest start time and latest start time. Time slots will be returned only for only
those employees that can be scheduled.

Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 155.

Table 155. Inputs for GetAppointments Method

Input Description

SvcRegnId Service region ID of the activity.

ReqId Unique number to identify this request for a subsequent call to

either confirm some of the time slots returned by this function
or to cancel the request and free those slots.

EmployeeIds IDs of all the employees that need to be scheduled during this
time.

ActType Type of the activity, This could be call, appointment,

administration, and so on.

ActPriority Value from the Priority field of the activity; 1-ASAP, 2-High, 3-
Medium, or 4-Low.

NoSoonerThan Value from the Earliest Start Time field of the activity.

NoLaterThan Value from the Latest Start Time field of the activity.

Duration Actual length of time for which each employee is required.

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Table 155. Inputs for GetAppointments Method

Input Description

SameTimeFlag Flag which is used to specify whether all employees need to

available at the same time or whether their appointments can
be spread out at different times between the earliest and
latest start time.

■ TRUE indicates that the employees must be available for

scheduling at the same time.

■ FALSE indicates that the employees can be scheduled for

different times.

BreakFlag Flag which is used to specify whether the activity can be

broken into different pieces or whether it must be contiguous.

■ TRUE indicates that the activity can be broken down.

■ FALSE indicates that it must be contiguous.

This method outputs a property set containing a list of time slots, which are available for the activity.
Each returned time slot contains the properties described in the following table.

The outputs for this method are described in Table 156.

Table 156. Outputs for GetAppointments Method

Output Description

Request Id Unique ID to identify the request sent to the engine.

Assignee Assignee available during the time slot.

Slot Start - SR Time Zone Slot start time, in activity service region time zone.
Slot End - SR Time Zone Slot start time, in activity service region time zone.

Slot Start Slot start time. This parameter is always in GMT time zone, not
the login user’s time zone.

Slot End Slot end time. This parameter is always in GMT time zone, not
the login user’s time zone.

Service Region Id Service region ID of the activity.

Activity Id Activity ID of the activity being scheduled.

GetConfirmedAppointment Method
GetConfirmedAppointment is used to insert an activity into the schedule without presenting time slot
alternatives.

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Usage
This method is called when the user clicks the Contract Schedule button on the Activities screen >
Activity List > Schedule view. It is also called when the user selects Insert Activity from the menu
button on the Dispatch Board’s Unscheduled Activities list.

Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 157.

Table 157. Inputs for GetConfirmedAppointment Method

Input Description

ActId Activity ID of the activity that needs to be scheduled.

SvcRegnId Service region ID of the activity.

The outputs for this method are described in Table 158.

Table 158. Outputs for GetConfirmedAppointment Method

Output Description

Assignee Employee assigned to the activity.

StartDt Activity scheduled start time, in service region time zone.

LoadActivities Method
LoadActivities is used to load activities into the ABS cache. When called, the ABS attempts to insert
the activities into the employee schedules.

Usage
This method is called when the user clicks the Load button on the Administration - Scheduling screen
> Service Region List > Activities view.

Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 159.

Table 159. Inputs for LoadActivities Method

Input Description

ActIds Comma separated activity IDs.

SvcRegnId Service region ID of the activities that need to be loaded.

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There are no outputs for this method.

LoadEmployees Method
LoadEmployees is used to reload an employee into the ABS cache. This method can be useful in
situations where there is a new employee being added to a service region, or where there is a
schedule change for an employee already loaded into the ABS.

Usage
This method is called when the user clicks the Load ABS button on the Administration - Scheduling
screen > Service Regions List > Employees view.

Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 160.

Table 160. Inputs for LoadEmployees Method

Input Description

SvcRegnId Service region ID of the employees that need to be loaded.

EmployeeIds Comma separated employee IDs.

There are no outputs for this method.

ReloadServiceRegion Method
ReloadServiceRegion loads or reloads service region data into the ABS cache. This method should be
called if the parameter sets or the schedule changes for a service region. It is also used to change
the ABS time horizon for a service region.

Usage
This method is called when the user clicks the Load ABS button on the Administration - Scheduling
screen > Service Region List view. It is typically invoked from a repeating component request that
refreshes the service regions time horizon.

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Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 161.

Table 161. Inputs for ReloadServiceRegion Method

Input Description

SvcRegnId Service region ID that needs to be reloaded.

There are no outputs for this method.

UnloadEmployees Method
UnloadEmployees is used to remove employees from the ABS cache.

Usage
This method is called when the user clicks the Unload ABS button on the Administration - Scheduling
screen > Service Region List > Employees view.

Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 162.

Table 162. Inputs for UnloadEmployees Method

Input Description

SvcRegnId Service region ID of the employees that need to be unloaded.

EmployeeIds Comma separated employee IDs.

There are no outputs for this method.

Optimization Engine Methods

The Field Service Optimization Engine (Optimizer) is used together with the ABS for scheduling
purposes. See “About the Scheduling Optimizer” on page 96 for more information.

The following methods can be used with the Optimization Engine:

■ CancelAppointment. See “CancelAppointment Method” on page 594 for more information.

■ GetConfirmedAppointment. See “GetConfirmedAppointment Method” on page 594 for more

information.

■ LoadActivities. See “LoadActivities Method” on page 595 for more information.

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■ LoadEmployees. See “LoadEmployees Method” on page 596 for more information.

■ Optimize. See “Optimize Method” on page 596 for more information.

■ ReloadServiceRegion. See “ReloadServiceRegion Method” on page 597 for more information.

■ StopOptimize. See “StopOptimize Method” on page 598 for more information.

■ UnloadEmployees. See “UnloadEmployees Method” on page 599 for more information.

CancelAppointment Method
CancelAppointment is used to cancel a scheduled appointment. This method sets the appointment
status to Cancelled, removes the planned start and end time, and removes the activity from the
cache.

Usage
This method is the same as the Appointment Booking Service’s CancelAppointment method. See
“CancelAppointment Method” on page 585 for more information.

Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 163.

Table 163. Inputs for CancelAppointment Method

Input Description

ActId Activity ID of the activity that needs to be canceled.

SvcRegnId Service region ID of the activity.

The outputs for this method are described in Table 164.

Table 164. Outputs for CancelAppointment Method

Output Description

Message Optimizer error tracing message that is returned if an error

occurs.

ErrorCode Error code returned from the Optimizer, indicating whether or

not the operation is successful. A value of 0 indicates success.

GetConfirmedAppointment Method
This method is used to insert the activity into the schedule without presenting time slot alternatives.

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Usage
This method is the same as the Appointment Booking Service’s GetConfirmedAppointment method.
See “GetConfirmedAppointment Method” on page 590 for more information.

Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 165.

Table 165. Inputs for GetConfirmedAppointment Method

Input Description

ActId Activity ID of the activity which needs to be scheduled.

SvcRegnId Service region ID of the activity.

The outputs for this method are described in Table 166.

Table 166. Outputs for GetConfirmedAppointment Method

Output Description

Assignee Employee assigned to the activity.

StartDT Scheduled start time for the activity, in service region time
zone.

Message Optimizer trace message returned. This can include error

messages.

ErrorCode Error code returned from the Optimizer, indicating whether or

not the operation is successful. A value of 0 indicates success.

ErrArgs Arguments for the error message associated with the returned
error code.

LoadActivities Method
LoadActivities loads activities into the Optimizer cache. The Optimizer then inserts them into an
employee's calendar if the activities can be scheduled. The activity should already have a planned
start and planned end.

Usage
This method is the same as the Appointment Booking Service’s LoadActivities method. See
“LoadActivities Method” on page 591 for more information.

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Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 167.

Table 167. Inputs for LoadActivities Method

Input Description

ActIds Comma separated activity IDs.

SvcRegnId Service region ID of the activities that need to be loaded.

The outputs for this method are described in Table 168.

Table 168. Outputs for LoadActivities Method

Output Description

Message Optimizer error tracing message that is returned if an error

occurs.

ErrorCode Error code returned from the Optimizer, indicating whether or

not the operation is successful. A value of 0 indicates success.

LoadEmployees Method
LoadEmployees is used to reload an employee into the Optimizer cache. This method can be useful
in situations where there is a new employee being added to a service region, or where there is a
schedule change for an employee already loaded into the Optimizer.

Usage
This method is called when the user clicks the Load Optimizer button on the Administration -
Scheduling screen > Service Regions List > Employees view.

Optimize Method
This method starts the Optimizer for the requested service region.

Usage
This method is called when the user clicks the Optimize button on the Administration - Scheduling
screen > Service Region List view.

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Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 169.

Table 169. Inputs for Optimize Method

Input Description

SvcRegnId Service region ID of the activities that need to be optimized.

The outputs for this method are described in Table 170.

Table 170. Outputs for Optimize Method

Output Description

Message Optimizer error tracing message that is returned if an error

occurs.

ErrorCode Error code returned from the Optimizer, indicating whether or

not the operation is successful. A value of 0 indicates success.

ReloadServiceRegion Method
ReloadServiceRegion reloads the service region data into the Optimizer cache.

Usage
This method is called when the user clicks the Load Optimizer button on the Administration -
Scheduling screen > Service Region List view.

Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 171.

Table 171. Inputs for ReloadServiceRegion Method

Input Description

SvcRegnId Service region ID of the activities that need to be reloaded.

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The outputs for this method are described in Table 172.

Table 172. Outputs for ReloadServiceRegion Method

Output Description

Message Optimizer error tracing message that is returned if an error

occurs.

ErrorCode Error code returned from the Optimizer, indicating whether or

not the operation is successful. A value of 0 indicates success.

StopOptimize Method
StopOptimize halts optimization for the service region.

Usage
This method is called when the user clicks the menu button and selects Stop Optimization. This
selection is made from the Service Regions list on the Administration - Scheduling screen > Service
Region List view.

Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 173.

Table 173. Inputs for StopOptimize Method

Input Description

SvcRegnId Service region ID on which optimization should be stopped.

The outputs for this method are described in Table 174.

Table 174. Outputs for StopOptimize Method

Output Description

Message Optimizer error tracing message that is returned if an error

occurs.

ErrorCode Error code returned from the Optimizer, indicating whether or

not the operation is successful. A value of 0 indicates success.

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UnloadEmployees Method
UnloadEmployees can be used when employees become unavailable as a result of vehicle breakdown
and so on.

This method updates an employee’s schedule by adding new exception hours to the cache. The
activities scheduled during the employee's exception hours will be rescheduled or unscheduled.
Activities are rescheduled for any open slots that meet the hard constraints. Employees must have
at least one defined exception hour.

Usage
This method is called when the user clicks the Unavailable button on the Administration - Scheduling
screen > Service Region List > Employees view.

Additional Details
The inputs for this method are described in Table 175.

Table 175. Inputs for UnloadEmployees Method

Input Description

SvcRegnId Service region ID of the employees that need to be unloaded.

EmployeeIds Comma separated employee IDs. However, the Optimizer only

processes one employee at a time. This means that if more
than one employee ID is provided, the Optimizer will only
process the first employee ID.

The outputs for this method are described in Table 176.

Table 176. Outputs for UnloadEmployees Method

Output Description
Message Optimizer error tracing message that is returned if an error
occurs.

ErrorCode Error code returned from the Optimizer, indicating whether or

not the operation is successful. A value of 0 indicates success.

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Business Service Methods Reference for Field Service ■ Scheduling

600 Siebel Field Service Guide Version 8.0, Rev. B

 Index

A Accounts view 48
ABS Activities views 56
ABS horizon, about using for long-range Activity Plans view 56
appointments 99 Agent Committed, about 53
ABS horizon, defined 98 Agreements view 48
appointment booking, business process Assign command, about 54
steps 101 Attachments view 56
appointment booking, technical process Audit Trail view 56
steps 102 Calendar view 56
coalescing 145 Change Requests view 57
constraints (table) 124 Charts view 59
invoking from script using methods 582 Contact view 48
methods 146 Decision Issues view 57
overview 96 Entitlements view 48
preventive maintenance and ABS, guidelines information, summarized 46
for 104 Invoices view 58
reloading the cache manually 144 Messages view 57
reloading the cache, about 140, 169 Metrics view 58
reloading the cache, guidelines for 141 numbering service requests 52
reloading the cache, overriding a row Orders view 59
limit 144 Service Details view 57
rules enforced by 103 Service Hours view 58
running, requirements for 160 Service Profile view 48
scenario 96 service requests across organizations 50
schedule data, cache management 169 Service Requests views 51
schedule parameters (table) 128 Service screen 49
scheduling horizons, example 98 Solutions view 59
scheduling horizons, list of 98 Survey view 58
service region’s schedule, methods for Verify button, about 52, 53
obtaining 100 Verify button, entitlement rules 54
troubleshooting 160 Actions view, about using 344, 522
ABS horizon, about 98 activities
access list, role of 449 about and types of 69
account service teams activity data, clearing cache 182
about 473 activity materials, ordering 76
adding role priorities 475 activity templates and plans, using 71
configuring 474 adding scheduling information to 148
creating 474 additional skills, recording 78
accounts agreement, adding to 227
entitlements, associating manually 237 agreements, about associating with 259
entitlements, associating with 255 analysis charts, list of 87
viewing invoices for 313 asset, reviewing by 477
Accounts screen assigning and scheduling 196
about 313 booking appointments for, about 150
Accounts Across Organizations view, Category field 72
about 47 child records, creating 72
Accounts reports 49 different time zones, considerations 100

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Index ■ A

expenses, tracking 309 Reports menu, activity reports 87

hours spent on, logging 75 Schedule view, about 148
invoice, generating automatically 77 Schedule view, using for field service
invoices, logic for generating 286 activities 85
Lock Assignment flag, using 72 Schedule view, using for scheduling 148
materials, verifying availability 76 Steps view, about and fields (table) 86
moving between service regions 144 Time Tracker view, using for field service
on-hand inventory, verifying 76 activities 86
Preventive Maintenance Engine, about Time Tracker view, using for invoices 308
creating activities 510 using, about 373
pricing of 249 Activities view 56
process of scheduling 148 about and buttons (table) 152
products and assets, tracking 309 Assets screen, about using 486
repair activities, recording time and Repairs screen, about using 536
expenses 535 service region, about displaying activities
repair activities, viewing and updating 533 for 143
repair, generating activity plan and activities activities, billable
for 533 creating invoices for 299
reports, described 87 expenses, recording for 296
rules, assigning 81 parts, recording for 296
schedules, viewing 85 recording for service request 295
service parts, recording movement 76 time, recording for 296
service region, about displaying activities activity breaks, about and rules 119
for 143 activity data, maintaining and loading 143
service request, adding new activity 77 Activity Gantt Chart
service request, associating with 43 about 175
service request, updating for 43 about using 198
substitute product suggestions, viewing 88 behavior, changing 178
tracking, about 31 data, selecting activity for 195
trunk inventory, verifying 76 queries and legacy data, using with 195
Unscheduled Activities list, about 175 activity labor charges, tracking 308
verifying 76 activity plans
viewing invoices by activity 310 agreements, about associating with 259
Activities screen repair, generating for 533
All Activity view, about 80 service request, associating with 43
Assignment Skills view, about 85 technical documentation, adding to 463
Charts view, about and fields (table) 87 test plans, adding to 459
Expense Tracker view, using for field service Activity Plans view
activities 82 about 56
Expense Tracker view, using for invoices 309 about using 343
Instructions view, about 84 Repairs screen, about using 536
Invoices view, using for field service activity templates
activities 84 about 71
Invoices view, using for invoices 310 Actions view, about associating preventive
Items view, about and fields (table) 85 maintenance plans with 522
Part Browser screen, about 89 activity assignment, overview of 72
Part Tracker view, about using for fields copied from, list of 71
invoices 309 order line items, associating with 343
Part Tracker view, about using for service preventive maintenance plans, associating
inventory 373 with 517
Part Tracker view, using for field service Release Manager, setting up 452
activities 82 Activity Templates view
Products screen, about and fields (table) 88 about 78
Readings view, about 84 Service Details subview, about and fields 79

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 Index ■ A

Add Benefits button agreement terms

about configuring 279 adding to agreements 235
adding defining 228
conditions to benefits 272 terms and totals, viewing 259
adjustments agreement validation
invoice charges, about 286 creating messages for 208
line items, invoicing logic 287 creating rule sets for 207
Administration-Application screen, agreements
about 246 activities, about associating with 259
Administration-Contracts screen, about 247 activities, adding 227
Administration-Pricing screen, about 246, activity plans, about associating with 259
483 activity plans, associating 227
administrative tasks, list of 34 adding agreement terms 235
Agent Committed adding multiple assets 215
about 53 agreement approvals, setting up 209
Agent Committed Time, about agreement charges and invoicing, about 202
calculating 256 agreement management, about 202
aggregate pricing, about setting up 250 Agreement record, field descriptions 252
agreement approval list, defining 210 agreement renewal, setting up 205
agreement contacts agreement validation, setting up 207
agreements, viewing for 227, 229 analysis charts, viewing 260
primary contact, associating 227 approvals, submitting 228
verifying 227 approvals, viewing 259
viewing 227, 229 attachments, viewing 259
agreement line items benefits, creating for 271
adding revenue line items 233 business services 548
adding revenue plans 233 configuring data maps for 212
billing details, using for invoices 312 configuring signals for 211
charge plans, defining 229, 230 contract schedules, defining 294
conditional charge plans, defining 231 contract, verifying for 227
creating automatically 237 cost of materials and revenues, viewing 257
detail fields, viewing 254 creating opportunities and quotes 214
entitlements, creating automatically 237 creating revenue plan templates for 216
invoices associated with, viewing 255 entitlements, manually adding 237
invoices, modifying 313 files, attaching 228
invoicing logic 286 financial details, adding 228
line item detail, viewing 253 generated documents, viewing 234
pretax and preshipping price, viewing 253 generating agreement documents 234
product attributes, viewing 253 generating approvals using ISS Approval
renewal terms, creating and modifying 254 (Agreement) workflow 246
revenue, managing 232 invoices, logic for generating 286
service pricing 247 ISS Approval (Agreement) workflow 246
agreement pricing plans level of service, viewing 256
asset-based pricing, about 203 new agreements, creating 226
asset-based pricing, defining 203 new agreements, verifying 226
contract-based pricing, defining 205 notes, adding 260
discounts, viewing 260 overview 201
nonrecurring plans, defining 288 preventive maintenance actions,
order-entitlement-based pricing, generating 239
configuring 204 preventive maintenance plans, associating
service-based matrix pricing, about 204 with 516
use plans, defining 291 process of setting up 202
agreement renewal, from opportunities and related orders, viewing 260
quotes 214 renewing using FS - Agreement Renewal All

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Index ■ A

workflow 245 booking from the Activities screen 151

renewing using FS - Agreement Renewal booking, conditions for 152
workflow 245 canceling 152
reports, viewing 261 conditions for canceling 152
revising 226 configuring booking information
shipping information, defining 228 displayed 165
terms, adding to 270 moving about and classes of operations 100
use plan pricing, defining 291 rescheduling in the Dispatch Board,
using 225 about 199
using Auto Contract 210 time slots, displaying 166
viewing by entitlement 226 approvals
agreements and products agreements, submitting for 228
covered products, viewing 226 asset costing
products, adding 228 adjusted cost, calculating 478
purchased products, viewing 256 Asset Mapping view, about mapping and cost
Agreements screen adjustment 484
Line Items view, about using and fields cost delta and value 486
(table) 311 Recost function, about 486
Preventive Maintenance subview, about replacement cost delta, calculating 478
using 523 Asset Dispatch Board, interface
using for preventive maintenance, about 481
about 523 Gantt chart, about 481
agreements, renewing Gantt chart, changing the date 482
using repeating component jobs 245 Gantt chart, changing the time intervals 482
agreements, using co-terms 236 Gantt chart, querying for assets 482
alarms, setting for activities 75 Gantt chart, viewing ToolTip information 483
about 74 scheduling asset activities 483
configuring 74 Unscheduled Activities list 481
All Activities view asset hierarchy
about and views (table) 80 Components view, about displaying
activities, rules for assigning 81 components 487
All Exceptions view, about naming set of hierarchical asset, generating from a product
exceptions 109 bundle 472
All Inventory Locations Across overview 469
Organizations, about 369 shipping and receiving, considerations 378
All Pending Orders view Transaction view, about working with 487
Pending Internal Orders subview, about asset mapping
using 385 Asset Mapping view, about cost
Pending POs/ROs/RMAs subview, about adjustment 484
using 385 overview 476
using, about 385 Value view, about valuing assets 486
All Schedule view Asset Mapping view, about and fields
about using to create multiple schedules 107 (table) 484
All Unknown Receipts view, about using 387 asset measurements
Allocate button, about using 325 Asset Mapping view, about cost
Allocated Lines subview, about and fields adjustment 484
(table) 382 associating assets with measurements 479
Application Administration Screen, Activity defining 476
Templates view 78 Measurement Analysis chart, about 487
application design Measurements view, about 488
about 33 reading from assets, recording 479
Appointment Booking System (ABS) reading results, analyzing 480
See ABS recording readings 480
appointments usage data, about capturing 487

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 Index ■ A

asset numbers, about recording serial/asset viewing 370

numbers 386 product, specifying for 361
asset service teams properties of 467
about 472 readings from assets, recording 479
adding role priorities 474 Recost function, about 486
creating 473 registration 469
asset swaps, about 470 Relationships view, about recording backup
asset transactions and dependent assets 488
about 354 repair history, about attaching 528
asset swaps, about 470 repair history, viewing 535
creating an asset 471 repairs, reviewing for selected asset 477
generation rules 357 serialization of 468
transaction types, about 469 service request, adding additional assets
Transaction view, about creating 487 to 44
asset-based matrix pricing service request, adding to 44
defining 203 service request, generating for preventive
service products 247 maintenance 517
asset-based pricing specifying for a product 361
about 203 Value view, about valuing an asset 486
enabling 216 warranties, associating with 495
assets warranties, automatically associating
activities, reviewing all associated with 477 with 495
adding to agreement line items 215 warranties, verifying and related
allocation of products, specifying 361 information 496
asset hierarchy, reviewing 477 Assets screen
asset numbers by product and transaction, Activities view, about using 486
viewing 373 Assets view, about and fields (table) 485
Assets view, about defining assets 485 Assets, about using 484
asset-swapping during repairs 530 Attributes view, about using 490
Audit Trail view, about viewing audit Audit Trail view, about using 489
trail 489 Charts view, about using 487
business services 552 Components view, about using 487
change requests, reviewing for assets 477 Entitlements view, about 490
covered by entitlement, viewing 250 Explorer Across Organizations view, about
creating asset service teams 473 using 491
defining field engineer assignments 472 Explorer view, about using 490
entitlement, associating 238 History subview, about using 523
Entitlements view, about displaying Measurements view, about using 488
entitlement for an asset 490 Plans subview, about using 523
entitlements, associating manually 238 Preventive Maintenance view, about
hierarchical, inventory transactions on 354, using 489
355 preventive maintenance, about using 523
movement of 88 Readings view, about using 487
movement tracking, viewing 373 Relationships view, about using 488
operating status and history, viewing 490 Repairs view, about using 488
preventive maintenance activities, Repairs, about using 536
reviewing 477 Transaction view, about using 487
preventive maintenance plan, viewing the Uptime Data view, about using 490
status for an asset 477 Value view, about using 486
preventive maintenance plans, associating Warranties, about using 499
with 516 Warranty view, about using 499
preventive maintenance plans, Assets subview
validating 510 Inventory screen, about and using 370
by product and inventory location, Products view, about using 522

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Index ■ B

Assets view Barcode report, about 385

Assets screen, about and fields (table) 485 Barcode Toolbar Enable Flag parameter,
Inventory Transactions screen, about about 539
using 373 barcodes
assets, setting up barcode interface, setting up 543
associating with account 471 barcode toolbar, about 539
change requests, associating with 471 barcode toolbar, showing or hiding 539
components, creating 472 concepts and terms 537
measurements, defining 476 control characters 537
preventive maintenance plans, associating end user operations, list of 538
with 471 interface entry modes 540
primary asset, associating with backup interface overview 538
asset 471 interface, control characters 540
role priorities, adding to employees associated new records for barcode data, creating 542
with asset 474 printing in reports 541
transactions, manually associating 472 record, finding with barcode data 542
Assign command record, updating with barcode data 542
about 54 reports, changing fonts for 543
field service engineers, assignment rules 54 scanning, actions triggered by 541
Assignment Engine toolbar buttons, described (table) 539
about running automatically and interactive benefit template, creating 266
mode 55 benefits
Assignment Manager conditions, adding to 272
about and using for scheduling activities 94 creating for an agreement 271
using to assign field service engineers 197 billable expenses
assignment rules recording 295
using role priorities 475 Billable Flag, about 308
Assignment Skills view, about 85 billable items
Attachments view 56 See invoice, billable items
Attributes subview, about using 343 billing terms
Attributes view, about using 490 defined by service 249
audit trail discounts, viewing 260
content 62 entitlement services 249
overview 61 expense exceptions 250
Siebel Remote users, about audit trail 62 service billing details, viewing 257
Audit Trail view 56 service product exceptions 250
Assets screen, about using 489 services, pricing for 247
audit trails, about viewing by assets 489 time exceptions 249
Auto Contract break/fix activities. See repairs
using with quotes and orders 210 Breakable flag, about 120
Auto Receive flag, about 344 breaks
auto-entitlement about and rules 119
adding buttons 224 activities, including in 120
configuring 224 break time, recording 120
auto-invoice break type, setting name of 120
about setting up 297 defining and allowing them for activities 120
required information 299 business constraints
auto-substitution, conditions for 330 contractual or legal, tracking 105
parts, availability of 155
B business service engines
backup assets list of 545
about recording using the Relationships logging levels, about and table 546
view 488 server component aliases 545
business services

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 Index ■ C

Condition Evaluator Service 278 requests 407

Contracts Accumulator Service 274 products, verifying changes requests
Contracts Resolver Service 275 associated with 46
buttons reassigning 406
Add Benefits, about configuring 279 related change requests, linking 410
Entitle button, about configuring 279 reopening change requests 413
Revise, about configuring 279 resolving, process of 395
service request, associating with 42
C solution, associating with 64
cache test passes, associating with 461
clearing Dispatch Board’s cached activity unassigned change requests, closing 406
data 182 unassigned change requests, querying
reloading service region data automatically to for 406
the ABS 146 Change Requests view
reloading service region data manually to the about 66
ABS 144 Service screen 57
reloading service region data manually to the Solutions screen 67
Optimizer 145 change requests, logging by quality
Calendar view 56 assurance
Category field about 403
about 72 change request, logging 403
child records, about creating 72 existing change request, querying for 403
centralized dispatch model and field service service requests. generating change requests
optimization 105 from 404
change request closures, verifying change requests, resolving by engineering
about 413 about 408
closed change requests, querying for 413 closing resolved change requests 411
closing change requests as verified 413 engineers, assigning change requests to 408
reopening change requests 413 multiple occurrence change requests,
change request, assessing by product creating 408
marketing multiple occurrence links, breaking 409
about 405 related change requests, linking 410
change request, reassigning 406 charge consolidation plans
prioritizing and assigning change canceling charges 307
requests 407 creating 297
unassigned change request, closing 406 Charge Consolidation Plans view
unassigned change requests, querying about 310
for 406 Consolidation Rule subview 311
change requests Contract Schedule view 294
assessing importance of, process of 394 charge plans
asset, associating with 471 defining for agreement line items 229
assets, viewing by 477 process for defining and running 229
closed change requests, querying for 413 running, using the Charge button 230
closing change requests as verified 413 running, using workflows 217
closing resolved change requests 411 scenario 229
closures, verifying 397 setting up 288
engineers, assigning to 408 charges
logging, process of 393 automatically generate a charge for an
multiple occurrence change requests, activity 295
creating 408 automatically generate a charge for an
multiple occurrence links, breaking 409 agreement line item 295
patch requests, process of creating 398 automatically generate multiple charges 230
prioritizing and assigning change automatically generating for a service
request 295

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Index ■ C

business services 555 Cycle Counting Engine, technical

canceling after charge consolidation 307 explanation 419
consolidating to generate invoices 300 inventory, about aspect precedence 420
creating manually for an agreement line precedence rule for cycle counting 418
item 294 Replenishment Engine (table) 428
FS - Generate Agreement Charge wo Goto Consolidated Lines subview, about
Charges View workflow 303 using 385
FS - Generate Agreement Charge Consolidation Rule subview 311
workflow 302 Consolidation view
FS - Generate All Agreement Charges Consolidated Lines subview, about using 385
workflow 303 Qualified Lines subview, about using 384
FS - Generate Conditional Charge Process Shipping screen, about using 384
workflow 304 Constraint Sets view
process of setting up 288 Constraints view, about 126
repeating component job, using to generate constraints
multiple charges 206, 217 ABS and Optimizer (table) 124
running batch consolidation 307 Constraint Wizard, about using to create 126
running charges after charge creating constraint sets 126
consolidation 307 creating constraints 126
workflow to consolidate charges 304 service business constraints and
workflows, about 301 examples 122
charges, workflows types of 123
improving performance and scalability 307 viewing associated service regions 127
running in batch mode 307 work hours, examples of limiting 123
Charts view 59 Constraints Sets view
Assets screen, about using 487 Service Regions view, about 127
Charts view, about and fields (table) 87 Constraints view
Check Trunk, using to verify on-hand Constraint Sets view, about 126
inventory 76 contacts
closing a service request 45 viewing invoices for 313
coalescing, the ABS 145 Contacts screen, about 313
Commit buttons Contacts view 48
about 84 contract management
mechanism described 360 See Siebel Contract Management
using, about 85 Contract Schedule button, about 159
compliance, verifying 272 Contract Schedule view, using for
component job parameters invoicing 294
Cycle Counting Engine, setting a repeating contract scheduling
job 423 about and running 157
Cycle Counting Engine, setting for 423 Contract Schedule button, about 159
Fulfillment Engine, setting 335 cost function, factor calculations 134
Part Locator Engine, setting 335 Insert Activity button, about and conditions
Preventive Maintenance Engine (table) 512 for using 158
Replenishment Engine (table) 430 Load button, about and conditions for
Components view, about using 487 use 159
Condition Evaluator Service 278 Contract Scheduling period, defined 98
condition template, creating 268 contract-based pricing
conditional charge plans about 250
defining for agreement line items 231 defining 205
scenario 231 order-entitlement-based pricing,
setting up 293 configuring 204
conditions contracts
adding to benefits 272 See agreements
configuration parameters Contracts Accumulator Service 274

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 Index ■ D

Contracts Resolver Service 275 repeating job 423

correspondence configuration parameters (table) 420
service request, generating for 45 configuration parameters, technical
Cost Function Details View, about 135 explanation 419
cost functions configuring tracing 425
about 123 counting results, reviewing 427
about defining Optimizer function 134 cycle count, running 427
factor calculations 134 FSCyccnt parameters (table) 422
viewing associated service regions 135 input and output 418
cost lists, about tracking 284 logging levels, modifying 546
costs, calculating asset adjusted cost 478 methods, using to invoke 422
co-terms, about 236 process overview and logic diagram 418
Counted Serial Numbers subview, about product classification methods 417
using 440 running interactively 426
Customer Satisfaction Survey view synchronous or asynchronous operation,
about 67 specifying 423
customers system preferences, changing 423
repaired or exchanged parts, returning tracing levels, about 423
to 534 cycle counting parameters, viewing for a
repaired parts, shipping to 531 location 364
cycle count basis cycle counting setup
inventory location type, defining for 424 cycle count, defining basis for inventory
inventory location, defining for 424 locations 424
cycle count class frequency and periods, defining for an
inventory type and product, defining 424, inventory location 425
425 Inventory Location Types view, about
cycle count setup assigning cycle counting
inventory location type, defining for 424 parameters 434
inventory type and product, defining 424, inventory location, setting up by 424
425 parameters by location, defining 436
Cycle Count view, about using 372 product parameters by location 435
cycle counting start and end dates, defining 424
business services 561 system preferences 421
completing a cycle count 427 Cycle Counts screen
frequency and periods, defining for an Cycle Counts view, about and fields
inventory location type 425 (table) 439
overview 417 using, about 439
Part List view, about displaying product counts Cycle Counts subview, about and fields
by location 440 (table) 439
parts lists, reviewing 426 Cycle Counts view
parts, specifying manually 425 Cycle Counts subview, about and fields
pending cycle counts, reviewing 426 (table) 439
populating variance and serial number Inventory screen, about and fields
data 427 (table) 438
precedence rule, about 418 More Info subview, about and fields
results of a cycle count, recording 426 (table) 438
results, reviewing 427 Part List view, about and fields (table) 440
scenario 420 Variance view, about and fields (table) 440
variance information, viewing 440 Cycle Counts views, about and fields
Cycle Counting Detail report 440 (table) 439
Cycle Counting Engine
about 33 D
component job parameters, setting 423 data
component job parameters, setting a

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Index ■ E

activity data, maintaining and loading 143 adding user preference colors 192
employee data, maintaining and loading 142 changing days of the week displayed 190
loading for service regions 169 changing label information displayed 188
Data Administration screen changing time zone intervals 189
Order Action Types view, about using 341 dispatcher responsibility, assigning to
Order Types view, about using 341 users 183
views for configuring orders, about 340 displaying additional information on the y-
data cleansing application, about 115 axis 183
data maps enabling applets for drag and drop 191
configuring for copying 213 optimizing display speeds 181
using with agreements 212 setting system preferences 178
data set, extending 320 setting user preferences 178, 192
databases Dispatch Board, user interface
remote and local databases, about about 29, 175
synchronizing 364 about scheduling information shown 175
synchronization, trunk inventory 350 about using 198
Date triggers, about 505 Activity Gantt Chart, about 175
De-Allocate transaction Unscheduled Activities list 175
about and using Process Shipment Dispatch Board, using
button 376 activities, searching for 196
Shipped Line quantity conflict 383 assigning and scheduling activities,
decision issues about 196
service request, finding for 46 creating activities 198
view 57 displaying parent service regions, about 195
Def Act Owner ID system preference, displaying specific dates 196
about 512 displaying specific service regions 195
defective parts field service engineers, assigning and
defective items, receiving 527 scheduling 197
external provider, shipping to 534 querying with legacy data, about 195
movement, tracking 533 rescheduling appointments, about 199
over the counter, returning 532 selecting data for display in Gantt chart 195
processing for repair 531 dispatcher responsibility
stock transfers, tracking 532 assigning to users, about 183
warranty status, verifying 498 list of views for 183
DeInstall transaction, about 469 Documents view, about and fields
dependent assets, recording 488 (table) 234
Details subview, about and fields Downgrade transaction, about 469
(table) 316 dynamic candidates
discounts, viewing 260 using for activity assignment 476
Dispatch Board
about and scheduling activities 173 E
business services 562 employee data
centralized dispatch procedures 174 maintaining and loading 142
local dispatcher procedures 174 removing from the ABS cache 142
overview 173 employee schedules
process flows, about 174 about and control of 116
process for assigning activities 195 associating with employees 117
process for setting up 177 break time, recording 120
Dispatch Board, setting up break type, setting name 120
activity data, clearing cache 182 breaks, about and rules 119
activity data, clearing cache using business breaks, defining and allowing them for
service simulator 182 activities 120
adding drilldowns 185 breaks, including activities 120
adding query fields 187

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 Index ■ E

constraints, examples of 123 FS - Create Entitlement workflow 240

defining employee unavailability 121 FS - Verify Entitlement Activity workflow 241
exception hours, defining 117 FS - Verify Entitlement Order workflow 242
roles, about 119 FS - Verify Entitlement Quote Best Price
rules for defining 116 workflow 243
shifts, about and rate types 118 FS - Verify Entitlement SR Best Response
skill-based routing, about 119 Time workflow 244
travel conditions and travel time, about and FS - Verify Entitlement SR workflow 244
setting fields 121 Metrics subview, about recording performance
employees measurements for 256
associating with assets 473 overview 218
defining assignments 472 performance metrics, adding 238
roles, defining with locations 372 preventive maintenance plans, associating
schedules, associating with 117 manually 239
Employees view products, associating manually 238
about listing employees assigned to service service billing details, viewing 257
region 142 service request, verifying for and selecting an
Entitle button entitlement 239
about configuring 279 setting up 218
Entitle button, about using 247 use plan pricing, defining 291
entitlement templates user properties, checking 220
about 220 using 236
configuring auto-entitlement 224 verification workflows 240
creating 220 viewing 255
defining 221 Entitlements view
metrics, defining 248 Accounts screen 48
overview 247 Assets screen 490
preventive maintenance plans, defining 221 entitlements, setting up
Preventive Maintenance subview, about and AlertEscalation Email workflow,
preventive maintenance plan 248 activating 223
products, defining 221 entitlement template metrics, defining 221
service billing details, defining 221 entitlement templates, defining preventive
special pricing, defining 221 maintenance plans 221
template metrics, defining 221 entitlement templates, defining service billing
entitlement-based pricing details 221
adding auto-entitlement buttons 224 entitlement templates, defining special
associating with quote 205 pricing 221
entitlements escalation times, defining 222
accounts, associating manually 237 products covered by entitlements,
agreements, manually adding entitlements defining 221
to 237 schedule exceptions, defining 222
agreements, viewing for 226 service activity, defining billing
assets, associating manually 238 exception 222
assets, viewing 250 service calendar, associating 238
automatic entitlements, about 202 service hours, defining 222
billing terms, defining 249 system preferences for verifying, table
business services 568 of 219
Contacts subview, about using to associate verification system preferences 219
contacts with an entitlement 256 Verify entitlements button, setting system
contacts, associating manually 238 preferences 219
details, displaying for specific escalation times, defining 222
entitlement 256 Event subview, about and fields (table) 521
FS - Agreement Renewal All workflow 245 Event triggers, about 509
FS - Agreement Renewal workflow 245 exception hours

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about defining and scheduling 108 service activity steps. recording

defining a day or continuous blocks of additional 77
days 109 service parts, recording movement in the
defining for employees 117 field 76
schedules, adding to 109 skills required to complete activity, recording
Exception Hours view, about 109 additional 78
exchanged part, returning to customer 534 field service activity templates
expense exceptions, defining 222 activity templates, associating activities
Expense Tracker view with 73
field service activities, about and fields activity templates, defining 73
(table) 82 steps, skills, parts and tools, and instructions,
invoices, about using for 309 associating with an activity 73
expenses Field Service client
activity, logging for 75 invoking Preventive Maintenance Engine 511
recording for repair activities 535 field service engineers
explanations activities, reviewing 78
service request, finding for 46 assigning and scheduling with Assignment
Explorer Across Organizations view, about Manager 197
using 491 assigning and scheduling with Dispatch
Explorer view, about using 490 Board 197
external locations assigning and scheduling with Service
about 353 screen 197
setting up 369 Assignment Manager, employee assignment
rules 54
F field service engines, list of 33
Fast Guided Local search optimization files, attaching to agreements 228
method, about 101 FS Activity Cache business service
field part movements, verifying 44 about 568
field service activities FS Agreement Charge business service
invoice, automatically generating 77 about 548
material, verifying availability 76 FS Agreement Renewal business service
materials, ordering 76 about 550
new activity, adding 77 FS Asset Swap business service
on-hand inventory, verifying 76 about 552
order status, verifying 76 FS Asset Warranty business service
service parts, recording movement 76 about 554
substitute product suggestions, viewing 88 FS Charge Consolidation business service
tracking 82 about 579
trunk inventory, verifying 76 FS Create Entitlement business service
field service activities, setting up about 568
alarms, setting for activities 74 FS Cycle Counting business service
field service activity templates, setting up 73 about 562
field service activities, using FS Dispatch Board Utils business service
activity, logging hours spent on 75 about 562
expenses, logging for an activity 75 FS Fulfillment Service business service
field service engineer’s activities, about 575
reviewing 78 FS Generate Conditional Charge Process
instructions, recording additional 78 business service
materials for an activity, verifying availability about 555
and order status 76 FS Holiday API service
on-hand inventory, verifying using Check about 551
Trunk 76 FS Inventory Transaction business service
part movements in the field, verifying 78 about 577
FS Part Locator business service

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 Index ■ G

about 576 system preferences, table of 331

FS Preventive Maintenance business service Fulfillment view
about 580 about using the Auto Receive flag 344
FS Replenish business service Future Release release type, about 402
about 581
FS Service Charge business service G
about 556 Generate Orders view
FS Service Region business service about using 371
about 567 Inventory Locations view, about using 437
FS Verify Entitlement business service Source Locations subview, about using 437
about 570 Target Locations subview, about using 437
FS_PROD_ALLOC_RULES, about Generate PickTickets command, business
specifying 331 flow 325
FSCyccnt component request geocodes
parameters 422 about 113
FSFulfill component job parameter, about data, specifications for 115
and table 333 importing geocode data 114
FSLocate component job parameter 333 Get Warranty button, about 499
FSPrevMnt component request parameter, Glued period, defined 98
about 512 Greedy search optimization method,
FSRepl component parameters (table) 430 about 101
fulfillment Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), about and list
Allocate button, about using 325 of time zones 99
business services 574 Guided Tabu search optimization method,
Fulfill command, about 325 about 101
Generate PickTickets command, business
flow 325
Locate button, about using 325 H
methods for 323 handheld devices
parameters, about and table 328 computing support, about 30
parameters, Fulfillment and Part Locator hard constraints, about 123
Engines 333 heuristic methods
parameters, setting (procedure) 333 for the ABS 100
replenishment relationships, about for the Optimizer 100
setting 351 hierarchical assets
Fulfillment Engine See asset hierarchy
about 33 History subview, about using 523
auto-substitution, conditions for 330 History view, about using 523
component job parameters, setting up 335 holidays, about using the Exception Hours
filling orders 336 view 109
inventory line items, status requirement 324
inventory locations, overview of locating 324 I
inventory option fields 340 inbound service center calls, handling
inventory-specific attributes, list of 330 sequence 28
logging levels, modifying 546 Insert Activity button, about and conditions
overview 323 for using 158
parameters, about 328 Install transaction, about 469
parameters, about and table 333 installment plan
Parts Locator, compared to 323 See nonrecurring payment plans
process overview and function diagram 325 Instructions view, about 84
starting 334 internal orders, allocating parts
substitute products, viewing 340 manually 335
synchronous/asynchronous operation, inventory
setting 335 assets and products, linking 361

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Index ■ I

cycle count, adjusting after 427 inventory locations and cycle count
inventory module, about 31 cycle basis, defining 424
inventory order, about specifying 353 frequency and periods, defining 425
mobile inventory transactions, about 359 inventory location types, defining cycle count
on-hand inventory, verifying 76 basis for 424
on-hand inventory, verifying using Check setting up 424
Trunk 76 inventory locations and products
options allocated 368 assets, by product, viewing 370
Pending Internal Orders subview, using to products associated with, viewing 370
view orders 385 products at location, viewing 372
Received Line Item subview, about recording Inventory Locations view
inventory level 386 All Inventory Locations Across Organizations,
replenishing (procedure) 432 about 369
status for allocation 324 external location, setting up 369
inventory categories, setting 367 Generate Orders view, about using 437
Inventory Level Categories view, about Inventory screen, about and fields
using 367 (table) 436
Inventory Level subview Inventory screen, about using 369
Product Inventory view, about and fields Pending Orders view, about using 437
(table) 370 Product Inventory subview, about and fields
Product Inventory view, about using 372 (table) 436
inventory levels inventory locations, setup
about and examples 352 cycle count classes, defining 424
creating (procedure) 362 cycle count, setting up 424
defining (procedure) 363 external location, setting up 369
Inventory Level Categories view, about frequency and periods, defining 425
using 367 inventory location types, defining cycle count
negative levels 353 basis for 424
products, associated with 370 location types, about setting 367
Inventory Location Types subview, about overview of setting up 362
using 367 positions, defining roles 372
Inventory Location Types view, about and replenishment relationships, defining 432
fields (table) 434 setup diagram 349
inventory locations structure network, overview 351
across organizations 369 virtual locations 373
cycle count parameters, viewing for a Inventory Options subview
location 364 Product Field Service Details view 340
cycle count, defining basis for 424 Product Service Details view, about
cycle counting frequency and period, defining using 368
for an inventory location type 425 Products screen, viewing from 88
employee, associating with 362 Service Details view, about and fields
Inventory Locations Types view 367 (table) 435
location choices, displaying 369 Inventory screen
multiple locations, viewing relationships about using 368
among 371 Cycle Count view, about using 372
organization, associating with 363 cycle counting and replacement, about using
overview and location types, list of 348 for 435
relationships between, defining 363 cycle counting parameters, viewing for a
Relationships view, about viewing location 364
relationships 437 Cycle Counts view, about and fields
repair numbers 527 (table) 438
truck inventory 350 Generate Orders view, about using 371
Vendor view, about recording vendors 371 Inventory Location view, about and fields
vendor, associating with a location 363 (table) 436

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Inventory Locations view, about using 369 trunk 365

inventory status reports, generating 364 stock transfer, receiving a product as 365
inventory status, using to verify 364 third-party vendor, repairs received
Pending Orders view, about using 371 from 529
Product Inventory view, about using 370 third-party vendors, repairs sent to 529
Relationships view, about and fields types, summary of (table) 356
(table) 371 viewing 364
Roles view, about 372 write-off 366
Vendors view, about 371 Inventory Transactions screen
inventory structure Assets view, about using 373
inventory hierarchy structure, about 351 Inventory Transactions view, about and fields
structure diagram 347 (table) 373
inventory tracking using, about 372
cycle counting parameters, viewing for a Inventory Transactions view
location 364 inventory transactions across organizations,
inventory levels, about and examples 352 about 373
inventory status reports, generating 364 Inventory Transactions screen, about and
inventory status, verifying using the fields (table) 373
Inventory screen 364 inventory transactions, creating
inventory status, verifying using the Part asset, adding to 365
Browser 364 creating manually 365
reports, list of 374 destination mobile client, moving item to
tracking methods, about 352 another trunk 365
inventory transaction types source mobile client, moving item to another
defining 363 trunk 365
view containing 367 stock transfer or over-the-counter
Inventory Transaction Types view, about transaction, receiving product
using 367 as 365
inventory transactions inventory, products
about 355 creating (procedure) 361
across organizations, about 373 restocking products 371
Allocate button, using to allocate 325 serialization 354
asset numbers by product, viewing 373 substituting products, about using 368
asset swaps during repair 530 writing off inventory 366
assets, adding to transactions 365 invoice integration
assets, assigning to transactions 365 data set, extending 320
Commit buttons, mechanics of 360 overview 319
conditions for generating, types of service ports, defining 321
(table) 357 terms, invoicing integration 319
customers, shipping to 531 third-party invoicing software, disabling 321
destination mobile client, moving item to Web services, configuring 320
another trunk 365 workflow processes, about creating 321
good inventory, returning to 530 invoice, billable items
hierarchical assets 354, 355 expense tracking 309
inventory generation rules 357 expenses, recording for an activity 296
mobile client transactions, committing 365 labor charges, tracking 308
negative inventory level, and 353 orders, recording for a service request 296
over-the-counter transaction, receiving a parts, recording for an activity 296
product as 365 time, recording for an activity 296
products created automatically 368 viewing, about and Line Items view 316
repair activities, about 528 invoices
screen and view 372 activity invoice, creating automatically 299
serialized assets, quantity definition 468 auto-invoice feature, about setting up 297
source mobile client, moving item to another auto-invoice, required information 299

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Index ■ L

billable activities, recording for a service field service activities, about using for 84
request 295 invoices, about using for 310
business services 579 Line Items view, about and fields (table) 316
canceling an invoice 301 invoices, viewing
charge consolidation plan, creating 297 agreement line item billing details 312
consolidating charges for invoices 300 billable items. about and Line Items
creating and modifying 314 view 316
creating automatically for service by activity 310
requests 299 by contact 313
creating manually 298 discounts 260
customized invoices, process for setting line item detail, viewing and Details
up 297 subview 316
discounts associated with agreement 260 Payments view, about and fields (table) 317
field service activity, generating ISS Copy Service business service
automatically 77 about 552
FS - Generate Agreement Charge wo Goto Items view, about and fields (table) 85
Charges View workflow 303 items, definition of and repair activities 69
FS - Generate Agreement Charge
workflow 302 L
FS - Generate All Agreement Charges labor charges, tracking 308
workflow 303 laptop computers
FS - Generate Conditional Charge Process remote and local databases, about
workflow 304 synchronizing 364
nonrecurring charges 286 synchronization of trunk inventory 350
nonrecurring plans 289 Latitude format, about 115
overview 283 legacy data and Dispatch Board queries 195
part, product, and asset tracking 309 Line Detail subview, about and fields
payments, associating 301 (table) 343
printing 301 Line Item Details view, about and fields
processes for setting up 296 (table) 316
recurring charge line items, processing line items
logic 287 orders, reviewing 380
report for 317 Line Items Receipts view, about using 386
service request, generating and printing Line Items subview, about using 386
for 45 Line Items view
status indicators (table) 314 Actions subview, about using 344
types of charges 286 Activity Plans subview, about using 343
view 58 Agreements screen, about using and fields
workflow to consolidate charges 304 (table) 311
workflows, about 301 Attributes subview, about using 343
invoices and agreements Charge Plan subview, about using 312
discounts, viewing 260 Invoices screen, about and fields (table) 316
invoices and agreement line items, Invoices view, about using 313
associating 255 Line Detail subview, about and fields
line items, modifying 313 (table) 343
renewal terms, creating and modifying 254 Part Locator subview, about using and
Invoices screen lists 343
Invoices view, about and fields (table) 314 Repair subview, about using 344
invoices, about using for 314 Service Order screen, about and fields
Line Item Details view, about and fields (table) 341
(table) 316 Totals subview, about using 342
Line Items view, about and fields (table) 316 updating order line items, configuration
Payments view, about and fields (table) 317 note 342
Invoices view

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Warranty subview, about using 344 multiprocessor support, about and

Load button, about and conditions for examples 137
use 159
Locate button, about using 325 N
locating order line items 336 No Barcode report, about 385
location order, about specifying 353 nonrecurring charges, about 286
Lock Assignment flag, about 72, 153 nonrecurring payment plans
Lock Schedule flag, about 153 about 289
logging levels, service engines 546 defining 288
Longitude format, about 115 NRC view 289
nonserialized products
M creating (procedure) 361
Manual assignment, about and scheduling treatment of 88
activities 94
Marketing Release Document (MRD) O
adding 454 one-time charges 289
materials on-hand inventory, verifying 76
availability and order status, verifying 76 operating status and history, viewing by
Measurement Analysis chart, about 487 asset 490
measurements Optimization Engine
about defining 508 invoking from script using methods 582
Measurements view, about using 488 invoking using Workflow Manager 156
Messages view 57 See also Optimizer
Metrics view Optimizer
about using 248 appointments, moving and classes of
Accounts screen 58 operations 100
Microsoft Project, synchronizing with 464 business priorities, about 97
mobile clients centralized dispatch model, about 105
about synchronizing 364 constraints (table) 124
Commit buttons, mechanics of 360 Contract Scheduling horizon, defined 98
committing transactions 365 contractual or legal constraints, about
destination mobile client, trunk-to-trunk enforcing 105
transfers 365 cost functions (table) 136
inventory transactions, about 359 defining geographic areas for 113
parts movement, process overview 366 geocode and ZIP Code requirements 114
source mobile client, trunk-to-trunk guidelines for optimizing schedules 104
transfers 365 obtaining good results, guidelines for 164
Mobile Inventory Transaction Engine optimization, levels of 105
about 33 Optimizer horizon, defined 98
asset transactions, about using for 354 optimizing scheduling, role in 97
logging levels, modifying 546 overview 96
mobile inventory transactions parts, availability of 155
about 359 reloading the cache manually 145
Commit buttons, mechanism of 360 reloading the cache, about 140, 169
modules, list of 29 reloading the cache, guidelines for 141
More Info subview, about and fields repairs and service contracts, scheduling
(table) 438 concerns 97
More Info view running optimization manually 156
repairs, about using for 536 running, requirements for 163
warranties, about using for 500 schedule parameters (table) 128
multiple occurrence scheduling calls, high-traffic areas 105
change requests, creating 408 scheduling horizons, example 98
links, breaking 409 scheduling horizons, list of 98

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Index ■ O

service region’s schedule, methods for Replenishment Engine 437

obtaining 100 generating agreement documents 234
stopping optimization 157 Order Action Types view, about using 341
troubleshooting 163 Order Types view, about 341
Workflow Manager, about using 156 pick ticket, generating for an order 336
Order Action Types view, about using 341 pick tickets, relationship with 379
order line items receiving hierarchical assets 378
activity templates, associating with 343 related agreements, viewing 260
adjustment line items, logic for 287 repair orders, creating 534
allocating using Part Locator Engine 336 restocking inventory 371
attributes, selecting for customizable service or internal orders, allocating parts
products 343 manually 335
deallocating (procedure) 337 service requests, reviewing associated
fields in view 341 with 44
fulfilling (procedure) 337 status, verifying for field service activity 76
invoicing logic for nonrecurring charges 286 view 59
line items processed, viewing 386 orders, receiving
locating parts using Part Locator line items for all order, reviewing 380
subview 343 line items with incomplete documentation,
locating using Part Locator Engine 336 reviewing 381
pick tickets, finding for line item 378 overview 376
pricing details, viewing for 342 pending orders (purchase, repair and return
reviewing line items 380 material), viewing 385
selected order line item, getting more details receiving (procedure) 379
on 343 repaired items from vendor, receiving 380
transactions, viewing 344 Unknown Receipt records, adding 381
updating, configuration note 342 validations for transactions 377
warranties, associating with 495 viewing received orders 386
warranties, verifying for 497 orders, setting up
order line items, finding 336 Fulfillment and Part Locator Engines, setting
order line items, receiving asynchronous or synchronous 335
incomplete documentation, reviewing 381 order action types, defining 334
order, receiving 379 types of orders, defining 334
order line items, shipping orders, shipping
allocated items and associated pick ticket, hierarchical assets, considerations 378
viewing 382 pick ticket generation, process overview 375
allocated items and shipment, viewing 383 pick ticket, finding for line item 378
qualified items, viewing 384 pick tickets, consolidating 379
Repair Pick Ticket view, about viewing items Process Shipment button, processes
allocated for repairs 384 invoked 376
serial numbers 383 reports 385
shipping orders, viewing 378 Shipped Line quantity conflict 383
Order Types view, about using 341 shipping procedure 378
order-entitlement-based pricing, about and validations for transactions 377
configuring 204 organizations
orders defined 47, 369
All Pending Orders view, about using 385 inventory locations across organizations 369
billable orders, recording for service inventory transactions across organizations,
request 296 about 373
contract-based pricing 250 primary organization, setting for inventory
defined and field service 27 location 363
Fulfillment Engine, using to fulfill orders 336 overtime, about defining and
Generate Order view, about generating by scheduling 107, 117

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 Index ■ P

P Part Movement Administration view, about

Parameter Sets view, about 134 using 366
parameters part movements
Cycle Counting Engine (table) 422 verifying in the field 78
fulfillment and Part Locator Engine, setting Part Tracker view
parameters (procedure) 333 Activities screen, about and fields (table) 82
Fulfillment Engine and Part Locator Engine, Commit button, about 85
about and table 328 invoices, about using for 309
Fulfillment Engine, table of 331 service industry, about using for 373
precedence rule for cycle counting 418 parts
Preventive Maintenance Engine (table) 513 allocating manually 335
Replenishment Engine (table) 430 availability of 155
Replenishment Engine, configuration of billable parts, recording for activity 296
(table) 428 customers, shipping repaired parts to 531
Parameters view, about 134 exchanged, returning to customer 534
parameters, scheduling on-hand inventory, verifying 76
about 127 physical location in inventory 353
appointments, moving about and classes of Pick Ticket view, about viewing allocated
operations 100 parts 382
defining parameter sets 134 recording movement in the field 76
viewing associated service regions 134 repaired parts, returning to the
parent service regions customer 534
specifying for scheduling 112 service parts information, about 31
viewing in the Dispatch Board Gantt specifying manually for cycle counting 425
chart 195 tracking by activity 309
Part Browser screen trunk inventory, verifying 76
inventory status, using to verify 364 parts movement
on-hand inventory, using to verify 76 asset transaction generation 354
Part Locator, about and differences from 89 Commit buttons, mechanism of 360
Product Inventory view, about using 372 defective parts, receiving 527
service inventory, about using for 372 good inventory, returning 530
Part List view mobile clients, process overview 366
Counted Serial Numbers subview, about mobile inventory transactions, about 359
using 440 physical location, tracking 352
Cycle Counts view, about and fields recording movement 76
(table) 440 tracking by asset or serial number 373
Part Locator Engine patch requests, creating
about 33 about 414
component job parameters, setting up 335 approving and shipping patch requests 414
Fulfillment Engine, compared to 323 change request, generating from 414
inventory line items, status requirement 324 process of creating 398
line item fulfillment, about 328 payment plans
logging levels, modifying 546 nonrecurring payments 289
order line items, allocating 336 usage-based plans 291
order line items, finding 336 payments
parameters, about and table 328, 333 invoice payments, viewing and Payments
parameters, setting (procedure) 333 view 317
synchronous/asynchronous operation, invoices, associating 301
setting 335 Payments view, about and fields (table) 317
Part Locator subview, about using and Pending Internal Orders subview, about
lists 343 using 385
Part Locator, differences from Part Browser Pending Orders view
screen 89 cycle counting and replenishment, about
using for 437

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Index ■ P

Relationships view, about using 437 preventive maintenance engine, about 33

service inventory, about using for 371 preventive maintenance plans, defining 516
Vendors view, about using 437 service request templates, creating 517
Pending POs/ROs/RMAs subview, about status of plan, viewing for an asset 477
using 385 Threshold triggers, measurements and
performance readings 508
improving workflow performance 307 Time Interval triggers, about 505
performance measurements triggers, prioritization 504
service requests, viewing for 45 triggers, rules and examples 503
performance metrics usage triggers, about 508
entitlement, adding manually 238 Preventive Maintenance Engine
Metrics subview, about using 256 activities, about creating 510
Pick Ticket view asset, validating PM plans for 510
Serial Numbers subview, about and fields FSPrevMnt server component 512
(table) 383 logging levels, modifying 546
pick tickets logic (diagram) 501
allocated line items and pick tickets, parameters, listed (table) 513
viewing 382 parameters, setting 516
allocated line items and shipment, running 511
viewing 383 synchronous or asynchronous operation,
consolidated pick tickets, viewing 384 setting 515
consolidating (procedure) 379 system preferences, changing 516
line item, finding for 378 triggers, defining for preventive maintenance
order, generating for 336 plans 516
orders, relationship with 379 preventive maintenance plans
overview 375 activity templates, associating with 517
Pick Ticket Details report, about 385 agreements, associating with 516
products and quantities, viewing on one pick asset, running for 517
ticket 385 associating actions 239
qualified order line items, viewing 384 entitlements, associating manually 239
Shipments view, about using and fields 381 entitlements, manually associating 239
waybills, filling in 379 generating for agreements and
Planned Completion, about making schedule entitlements 239
changes 140 preventive maintenance action,
Planned End, about making schedule associating 239
changes 140 use with entitlement templates 248
Plans subview, about using 523 Preventive Maintenance screen
Plans view, about using 519 Actions view, about using 522
positions History view, about using 523
defining with locations 372 Plans view, about using 519
inventory locations, associating with 362 Products view, about and fields (table) 521
postal code Triggers view, about using 520
See ZIP Code using, about 518
preventive maintenance Preventive Maintenance subview, about
activities, reviewing by asset 477 using 523
asset, reviewing generated activities for 518 Preventive Maintenance view, about
assets and preventive maintenance plans, using 489
associating with 516 Price Details view, about using 257
business services 580 price lists, about tracking 285
Event triggers, about 509 pricing
history, viewing 523 aggregate, about setting up 250
module, about 32 asset-based 203
overview 501 contract-based pricing 250
plans, setup overview 509 nonrecurring payments 289

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service pricing and exceptions 249 allocation of, specifying 361

time exceptions 249 allocation, specifying 361
usage-based plans 291 asset, specifying for 361
use plan pricing, defining 291 associating inventory levels with 370
Pricing Administration screen change requests, verifying associated with a
Asset Mapping view, about and fields product 46
(table) 484 displaying information about using 368
using, about 483 in inventory locations 372
printing inventory locations for, viewing 370
barcodes in reports 541 inventory, adding to 362
invoices 301 locating and allocating, views for 338
problem resolutions nonserialized products, creating 361
setting up 63 Products view, about associating with PM
Process Receipt button, about processes plans 521
generated 377 repair history, verifying 46
Process Shipment button, processes restocking 371
invoked 376 returning to good inventory 530
processor, about multiprocessor support and serialized and nonserialized, treatment of 88
example 137 serialized compared to nonserialized 354
Product Administration screen 337 service pricing exceptions 250
fulfillment, about using for 337 service products and asset-based
Product Field Service Details view, about and pricing 247
fields 338 substitute service product suggestions,
Products Service Detail view, about 368 viewing 88
Products view, about using 368 warranties, verifying for 496
service industry, about using for 368 warranty coverage, checking 496
product builds, adding 402 warranty coverage, specifying 494
Product Field Service Details view products and agreements
Inventory Options subview, about 340 agreement line item attributes, viewing 253
Product Administration screen, about and agreement, adding sold under 228
fields (table) 338 products in an agreement, viewing 226
Substitute Products subview, about and products and assets
using 340 asset-based pricing 203
Product Inventory subview, about and fields assets by products for a location,
(table) 436 viewing 370
Product Inventory view assets, specifying 361
Assets subview, about using and fields 370 products and entitlements
Inventory Level subview, about using 372 associating 251
Inventory Level subview, about using and associating manually 238
fields 370 entitlement template, defining 221
Inventory screen, about using 370 products covered by entitlement,
Part Browser screen, about using 372 viewing 250
Substitutes subview, about using 372 Products screen
product prototypes, about 464 cycle counting and replenishment, about
product serialization using for 434
about 354 field service activities, about and fields
serialized compared to nonserialized 354 (table) 88
serialized products, creating 361 Service Details view, about using 434
Product Service Details view Substitute Products subview, about 89
Inventory Options subview, about using 368 warranties, about using for 500
Product Administration screen, about Products subview, about using 499
using 368 Products view
Substitute Product subview, about using 368 Assets subview, about using 522
products fulfillment, about and fields (table) 337

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Index ■ Q

Preventive Maintenance screen, about using hierarchical assets, considerations 378

and fields (table) 521 line items for all orders, reviewing 380
service inventory, about using for 368 line items with incomplete documentation,
project teams, about setting up 449 reviewing 381
purchase orders overview 376
about viewing orders arriving from external pending orders (purchase, repair and return
locations 385 material), viewing 385
receiving an order 379
Q repaired items from vendor, receiving 380
Qualified Lines subview, about using 384 Unknown Receipt records, adding 381
quality management validations for transactions 377
area-subarea combination, adding 401 viewing received orders 386
best practices 390 Receiving screen
change requests, logging 393 All Pending Orders view, about using 385
features of 390 All Unknown Receipts view, about using 387
list of values, setting up 399 Line Items Receipts view, about using 386
overview 389 Receive Orders views, about using 386
process example 391 shipping and receiving, about using for 385
release product builds, releasing 402 recommended tools, about and repair
roles and responsibilities, about setting activities 69
up 399 Recost view, about using 486
setup and maintenance, list of 392 recurring charges, about 286
Siebel Quality and Release Manager, registration of assets 469
about 390 Related Solutions view 66
querying Solutions screen 67
closed change requests, querying for 413 Relationships view
existing change requests, querying for 403 Assets screen, about using 488
unassigned change requests, querying Inventory screen, about and fields
for 406 (table) 371
quotes Pending Orders view, about using 437
entitlement-based quote pricing 205 release features
generating agreement documents 234 creating 453
engineering subtasks, adding 457
engineering tasks, linking to 456
R engineering tasks, monitoring 457
rate lists, about tracking 285 features, identifying without linked
readings (meter) and triggers 508 MRDs 455
Readings view monitoring features and MRDs 454
Activities screen, about using 84 monitoring release items 454
Assets screen, about using 487 new features and subfeatures, adding 453
receipts technical documentation, linking to 462
All Unknown Receipts view, about using 387 test plans, linking to 457
Line Items subview, about listing items Release Manager
received in 386 access lists, role of 449
Receive Orders views activity templates 452
Line Items subview, about using 386 administrator setup procedure process 447
Received Line Item subview, about area-subarea combinations, adding 464
using 386 business scenarios 444
Receiving screen, about using 386 engineering procedures overview 447
Serial Numbers subview, about using 386 features, creating 453
Receive Unknown view, about using 387 features, identifying without linked
Received Line Item subview, about MRDs 455
using 386 list of values, setting up (table) 450
receiving maintenance procedures 448

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 Index ■ R

marketing procedures overview 447 customer 534

Microsoft Project, synchronizing with 464 repairs
monitoring features and MRDs 454 activities and activity plans, generating 533
monitoring release items 454 activities, recording time and expenses 535
overview 441 activities, viewing and updating 533
product prototypes, adding 464 asset swapping during repair 530
product release, process diagram 444 asset’s repair history, viewing 535
product release, process overview 443 assets, reviewing for selected asset 477
project teams, setting up 449 customers, shipping to 531
quality assurance procedures 447 defective items, processing for repair 531
releases, types of 449 defective part, shipping to external repair
Special Tag, list of values (table) 452 provider 534
Status field, about setting up and defective parts, receiving 527
example 450 defective parts, receiving by stock
structure 442 transfer 532
structure diagram 442 defective parts, receiving over the
subfeatures, creating 453 counter 532
technical publications procedure, overview defective parts, tracking movement of 533
of 448 inventory transactions, about 528
test results, monitoring 461 pending orders, viewing 385
test strategies, creating 459 received repair order, viewing 386
Release Manager, engineering repair activities and activity plans, about 528
engineering tasks, monitoring 457 repair activities, setting up 531
procedures overview 447 repair histories, about attaching to
subtasks, adding 457 assets 528
tasks, linking to features 456 repair number, about 527
Release Manager, marketing repair order, creating 534
MRDs, adding 454 repair orders, about 528
procedures overview 447 repair records and orders, linking 533
Release Manager, technical publications repair records, creating 533
activity plans, adding 463 repaired or exchanged part, returning to
features, adding and linking to 462 customer 534
procedures, overview of 448 serialized product numbers, about
Release Manager, test plans generating 527
creating and linking to 457 service contract scheduling concerns 97
updating 465 third-party vendor, received from 529
release product builds, adding 402 third-party vendors, repairs sent to 529
repair history workflow process steps 525
product, verifying for 46 Repairs screen
repair items using, about 535
good items, returning to inventory 530 warranties, about using for 500
receiving items, overview 527 Repairs view
repair numbers, viewing 344 assets, about using for 488
repair orders repairs, about using for 536
creating 534 replacement cost of asset, calculating 478
external locations, about viewing orders replenishment
arriving from 385 business services 581
Repair Pick Ticket view, about 384 inventory location and vendor,
Repair subview, about using 344 associating 433
repaired items inventory location relationships, setting 432
Repair Pick Ticket view, about using to inventory, procedures for 432
view 384 maximum and minimum stock levels,
vendors, receiving from 380 setting 432
repaired part, returning repaired parts to orders, verifying pending 433

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Index ■ S

overview 427 revenue line items, adding to

Pending Orders view, about viewing internal agreements 233
orders 437 revenue plan templates, creating 216
Pending Orders view, about viewing pending revenue plans, adding to agreements 233
orders 437 Revise button, about configuring 279
restocking orders 371 role priorities
Source Locations subview, about identifying adding to account service teams 475
sources for target locations 437 adding to asset service teams 474
Target Locations subview, about listing target setting for employees 119
locations 437 using to define assignment rules 475
Vendors view, about viewing vendors by roles
location 437 about 119
vendors, defining 432 Roles view, about 372
Replenishment Engine ROs (repair orders)
about 33 See repairs
configuration parameters (table) 428
Generate Orders view, about automatic order S
generation 437 S_SHIPMENT table and Generate PickTickets
implementation logic, setting 430 command 325
invoking 431 S_ZIPCODE table
logging levels, modifying 546 geocode data, importing 114
overview 427 Schedule Hours view, about using to define
parameters (table) 430 day and time periods 108
system preferences (table) 428 Schedule view, about and fields (table) 85
reports scheduler
activity reports (table) 87 See Siebel Scheduler
activity reports, described 87 schedules
agreement reports, viewing 261 ABS heuristic methods 100
barcode, printing in 541 constraint sets, about creating 126
barcodes, changing fonts for 543 constraints, about creating 126
Customer Invoice report 317 creating and setting schedule hours 107
Cycle Counting Detail report 440 defined 94
inventory reports, list of 374 employee, associating a schedule with 117
inventory status reports, generating 364 employee, defining exception hours 117
invoice report 317 entitlements, associating with 238
repairs, list of 536 exceptions and exception hours, adding
service inventory reports. list of 374 to 109
shipping 385 locking 153
resolution documents Optimizer heuristic methods 100
editing 66 reloading migrated data, about 171
editing, allowing 64 service region, associating schedule
solution, adding to 63 with 112
view 67 schedules, making changes to
Response Time metric, about using 256 about 140
Return Material Authorizations (RMAs) caution, about making manual changes 141
defective part, receiving with an RMA 531 scheduling
described 525 ABS and Optimization cache
external locations, about viewing orders management 169
arriving from 385 activities, tools for assigning and
pending orders, viewing 385 scheduling 94
received RMA, viewing 386 booking activity appointments, about 150
repair record, associating with 533 business requirements 95
RMA repair and return, about shipping to a information displayed on Dispatch Board 175
customer 531

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optimization, levels of 105 nonserialized, compared to 354

optimizing for high-traffic areas 105 repair number, about generating for 527
process for scheduling activities 148 serial numbers, about for Allocated line
process for setting up 106 items 383
server inventory system, integration treatment of 88
with 104 server component task parameters
time periods, example 98 specifying values for 139
time periods, list of 98 server inventory system, about integration
wireless updates, guidelines for 103 with 104
Scheduling Administration screen server key mappings
Constraint Sets view, about 126 about 136
Cost Functions view, about 134 setting up 138
Parameter Sets view, about 134 Server Key Mappings view, about 138
Service Regions List view, about 111 server processes
Time Windows view, about 121 enhancing performance of 166
scheduling, setting up setting up multiprocessor support 137
creating constraint sets 122 Server Request Broker
creating parameter sets 127 relationship with Scheduler, about 167
creating time windows 122 servers component aliases, about and
employee availability and schedules 116 table 545
guidelines 102 service activities
reloading ABS and Optimizer caches 140 billing exception, defining 222
setting server component task resolution, recording 44
parameters 139 skills required to complete, recording 78
setting server key mappings 136 steps, recording additional recommended 77
setting Server Request Broker tasks 140 template, creating 38
universal time codes, about and list of 99 Service Administration screen
scheduling, using All Exceptions view, about 109
adding scheduling information to All Schedules view, about 107
activities 148 cycle counting and replenishment, about
booking appointments from the Activities using for 433
screen 151 Exception Hours view, about 109
booking appointments from the Service Inventory Location Types view, about and
screen 152 fields (table) 434
canceling appointments 152 Parts Movement Administration view, about
launching the Optimizer 155 using 366
locking schedules and assignments 153 preventive maintenance, about using
running contract scheduling 157 for 518
stopping the Optimizer 157 Schedule Hours view, about 108
serial numbers service industry, about using for 366
allocating inventory, about selecting for 383 Service Inventory view, about using 367
assets, serialization of 468 Service Request Template Activities view,
Counting Serial Numbers subview, about input about using 518
serial numbers 440 Service Request Templates view, about
populating in a cycle count 427 using 518
Serial Numbers subview, about recording Warranties view, about and fields
serial/asset numbers 386 (table) 498
transactions and 354 warranties, about using for 498
Serial Numbers subview service center, handling sequence of
Pick Ticket view, about and fields (table) 383 inbound calls 28
Receive Orders views, about using 386 service charge
serialized orders, receiving 379 quote, generating 43
serialized products Service Details view
creating (procedure) 361 about 57

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Inventory Options subview, about and fields trunk 365

(table) 435 stock transfer or over-the-counter
Products screen, about using 434 transaction, receiving product
Service screen, about 500 as 365
Substitutes subview, about using 435 transaction types, defining 363
symptom codes for a service request 58 Service Inventory view
service engineers Inventory Level Categories subview, about
activities, tracking 31 using 367
information, tracking 31 Inventory Location Types subview,
service events about 367
activities, tracking 31 Inventory Transaction Types subview, about
Service Hours view 58 using 367
service inventory service metrics, setting up 39
cycle counting parameters, viewing for a Service Order screen
location 364 Fulfillment view, about using the Auto Receive
flow of goods (diagram) 346 flag 344
hierarchy structure, about 351 fulfillment, about using for 341
inventory status reports, generating 364 Line Items view, about and fields (table) 341
inventory type, defining 362 warranties, about using for 499
inventory, scrapping 366 service orders, allocating parts,
locations, overview and location types 348 manually 335
overview 345 service parts information
and product serialization 354 See parts
products, adding to inventory 362 service ports, defining 321
reports, list of 374 service pricing, grouping multiple
See inventory products 247
setting up, sample structure diagram 347 Service Profile view 48
setup diagram 349 Service Providers subview, about using 499
status, verifying using the Inventory service providers, identifying for a
screen 364 warranty 497
status, verifying using the Part Browser 364 service regions
structure diagram 347 about and defining 109
transactions, creating manually 365 caches, about 110
truck inventory 350 Dispatch Board, adding to 195
vendors, associating with inventory moving activities between 144
locations 363 reloading data automatically to the ABS 146
service inventory levels reloading data manually to the ABS 144
creating (procedure) 362 reloading data manually to the
defining (procedure) 363 Optimizer 145
service inventory locations Service Regions view
creating (procedure) 362 Activities view, about 143
defining relationships between locations 363 Cost Functions view, about using 135
employee positions, associating with 362 Employees view, about 142
organizations, associating with 363 Time Windows view 122
tracking, methods of 352 Zip Codes view, about 114
vendors, associating with locations 363 service regions, setting up
service inventory transactions associating schedules with 112
about 355 break time, recording 120
asset transactions, about 354 caution, defining service area and ZIP
asset, adding to 365 Code 113
destination mobile client, moving item to creating service region records 110
another trunk 365 defining geographic areas for 113
mobile client transactions, committing 365 employee travel conditions and travel time,
source mobile client, moving item to another about 121

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geocode data and ZIP Codes, about 113 Verify button, entitlement rules 54
geocode data, importing 114 viewing 257
geocode data, specification for 115 views 51
service region data, loading and warranty, verifying for 496
reloading 169 Service Requests view
specifying parent service regions 112 Solution Administration screen 66
service reports, about 61 Solutions screen 67
service request activities service requests, logging
activity plan, defining 56 account, contact, and asset, verifying 41
new activity, adding 77 activity plan, associating with a service
Service Request Template Activities view, request 43
about using 518 activity, associating with 43
service request templates change request, associating with service
about 509 request 42
Actions view, about associating PM plans entitlement, selecting for a service
with 522 request 41
preventive maintenance service request 509 logging a service request 41
preventive maintenance templates, creating process flow 40
for 517 service agreement and entitlements,
Service Request Templates view, about verifying 41
using 518 service charge quote, generating 43
service requests valid hours for completing service request,
Agent Committed, about 53 verifying 42
asset swapping during repairs 530 warranties, verifying 42
asset, generating plans for 517 service requests, updating
audit trail content 62 activities, updating for a service request 43
audit trail overview 61 assets, adding 44
billable activities, recording 295 assets, adding additional to service
change request, associating with a requests 44
solution 64 change requests, verifying associated for a
change request, generating from 404 product 46
default opened date and time, setting 39 closing a service request 45
defined and field service 27 correspondence, generating 45
entitlements, verifying and selecting an decision issues, finding for a service
entitlement 239 request 46
invoices, creating automatically 299 field part movements, verifying 44
invoices, logic for generating 285 invoice, generating and printing 45
numbering, about 52 orders, reviewing associating with service
organizations, across all 50 requests 44
problem resolutions, setting up 63 performance measurements, viewing for a
processing workflow 37 service request 45
repair record, associating with 533 product, verifying repair history 46
resolution document, adding to a resolution, recording for a service activity 44
solution 64, 66 service request, associating with a related
resolution documents, allowing editing 64 service request 46
service activity template, creating 38 Service screen 49
service metrics, setting up 39 Activities view, about and buttons
Siebel Remote users, about audit trail 62 (table) 152
solution, adding 63 appointment booking, conditions for 152
solutions, about 63 warranties, about using for 500
solutions, associating with 64 Service screen, using to assign field service
solutions, associating with each other 64 engineers 197
symptom codes 58 service support, setting up
Verify button, about 52, 53 service activity template, creating 38

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service metrics, setting up 39 Contracts Resolver Service 275

service-based pricing Entitle button, about configuring 279
about 204 managing advanced contracts, process
defining 204 of 265
SFPrevMnt component request parameter, new benefit template, creating 266
about 512 new condition template, creating 268
shifts, about and rate types 118 Revise button, about configuring 279
Shipments view scenario 264
Allocated Lines subview, about and fields term templates, creating 217
(table) 382 terms defined 263
Consolidation view, about using 384 terms, adding to agreements 270
Pick Ticket view, about and fields (table) 382 workflows, about 273
Pick Tickets view, about and fields Siebel Appointment Booking System
(table) 382 See ABS
Repair Pick Ticket view, about 384 Siebel Contract Management
Shipped Line subview, about and fields about 31
(table) 383 Siebel Contracts
Shipping screen, about using and fields about 31
(table) 381 Siebel data model and third-party invoicing
Waybill view, about and fields (table) 384 software
Shipped Line quantity and De-Allocation about extending the data set 320
transactions 383 Siebel Field Service Analytics Applications
Shipped Line subview, about and fields about 33
(table) 383 Siebel Invoice ASI, about 319
shipping Siebel Invoice business service, about 319
agreements, adding information to 228 Siebel Professional Services
costs, about using Consolidation view to about integrated with 33
reduce cost 384 field service engines 33
De-Allocate transaction 376 Siebel Remote
hierarchical assets, considerations 378 synchronizing, about 364
pick ticket generation, process overview 375 Siebel Scheduler
pick ticket, finding for line item 378 about 30
pick tickets, consolidating 379 balancing service region CPU load 167
Process Shipment button, processes defined 94
invoked 376 enhancing performance of 166
reports 385 relationship with Server Request Broker,
Shipped Line quantity conflict 383 about 167
shipping, procedure 378 Siebel Shipping and Receiving
validations for transactions 377 about 32
waybills, filling in for pick tickets 379 Siebel Wireless
Shipping screen using, about 33
Shipments view, about using and fields signals, using with agreements 211
(table) 381 skills
shipping and receiving, about using for 381 recording required skills 78
ShowBarcodeToolbar parameter, about 539 skills-based routing, about 119
Siebel Advanced Contracts soft constraints, about 123
about 263 Solution Administration screen
Add Benefits button, about configuring 279 Change Requests view 66
benefit, creating for an agreement 271 Related Solutions view 66
common agreement types 264 Resolution Documents view 66
compliance, verifying 272 Service Requests view 66
Condition Evaluator Service 278 service support, about using for 65
conditions, adding to benefits 272 Solution Categories view 66
Contracts Accumulator Service 274 Solutions list, about and views 65

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Solution Categories view 66 Target Locations subview, about using 437

solutions Task UI application tasks
adding a solution 63 Assets to Agreements 280
associating with each other 64 Execute Field Task Start to Finish 89
change request, association with a templates
solution 64 activity templates, associating with
resolution documents, adding 64, 66 preventive maintenance plans 517
resolution documents, allowing editing 64 activity templates, setting up 452
service request, associating with a benefit template, creating 266
solution 64 new condition template, creating 268
Solutions list, about and views 65 service activity template, creating 38
Solutions screen service request template, creating for
Change Requests view 67 preventive maintenance 517
Customer Satisfaction Survey view 67 term templates, creating 217
Related Solutions view 67 term templates, creating 217
Resolution Documents view 67 terms
Service Requests view 67 adding agreements to 270
service support, about using for 66 test passes
Solutions view 67 change requests, associating with 461
Solutions view 59, 67 linking to test plan 460
Source Locations subview, about using 437 test plans
SRVRMGR command, about 545 activity plans, adding to 459
Steepest search optimization method, creating and linking to 457
about 101 test pass, linking to 460
Steps view, about and fields (table) 86 updating 465
Substitute Products subview test results, monitoring 461
Product Field Service Details view, about and test strategies
using 340 creating 459
Product Service Details view, about updating 465
using 368 third-party invoicing software
Products screen, about 89 disabling 321
viewing 88 service port definition 321
Substitutes subview Siebel data model, extending to
Product Inventory view, about using 372 accommodate 320
Service Details view, about using 435 Siebel Invoice integration, overview 319
substitution, conditions for auto- terms, invoicing integration 319
substitution 330 Web service configuration 320
Survey view workflow, about defining 321
about 58 third-party vendors
system preferences asset swapping during repair 530
Cycle Counting Engine, changing 423 defective parts, shipping to 534
Cycle Counting Engine, location and list repaired items, receiving 380
of 421 repairs, received from 529
Dispatch Board 178 repairs, sent to 529
Fulfillment Engine, table of 331 replenishment, defining for 432
Preventive Maintenance Engine (table) 512 Vendors view, about viewing by
Replenishment Engine S_SYS_PREF replenishment location 437
table 428 Threshold subview, about and fields
Verify button 219 (table) 521
Threshold triggers, measurements and
T reading 508
Tabu search optimization method, time and exception pricing 249
about 101 time codes, about and list of 99
Time Interval subview, about and fields

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(table) 520 about 350

Time Interval triggers, about 505 database synchronization 350
time recording source mobile client, moving item to another
repair activities, recording for 535 trunk 365
Time Tracker view verifying 76
field service activities, using for 86 turning on alarms for an activity 75
invoices, about using for 308
Time Window Details view, about 122 U
time windows Unknown Receipt records, adding 381
creating for schedules 122 Unscheduled Activities list, about 175
viewing associated service regions 122 Unspecified Release release type, about 402
Time Windows view Upgrade transaction, about 469
Scheduling Administration screen, about and Uptime Data view, about using 490
using 121 Usage plans
Service Regions view, about 122 adding service product measurements 290
Time Window Details view, about 122 Usage subview, about and fields (table) 520
tracing Usage triggers, about 508
Cycle Counting Engine, configuring 425 usage-based charges
levels, about setting for Cycle Counting estimated usage, calculation fields 287
Engine 423 invoice charge, about 286
Transaction view, about using 487 line items, invoicing logic 287
travel usage-based payment plans
conditions and travel time, about and setting about 291
fields 121 pricing, defining 291
employee travel conditions and travel time, usage-based pricing, usage data, about
about and field values 121 capturing 487
triggers use plans
Event triggers, about 509 adding pricing information 292
measurements and readings, about creating 291
associating with an asset 508 setting up 289
preventive maintenance plans, defining user preferences
for 516 Dispatch Board 178
prioritization of date and time interval
triggers 504
rules and examples 503 V
Threshold triggers, measurements and Value view
reading 508 Assets screen, about using 486
Time Interval subview, about setting time Recost view, about using 486
interval 520 Variance view, about and fields (table) 440
time interval triggers, about 505 vendors
Usage triggers, about 508 asset swaps during repair 530
Triggers view associating with inventory locations 371
Event subview, about and fields (table) 521 inventory location, setting a vendor for 433
preventive maintenance, about using inventory locations, associating with 363
for 520 product, setting up for 432
Threshold subview, about and fields repair items, receiving from 380
(table) 521 repairs received from 529
Time Interval subview, about and fields repairs sent to 529
(table) 520 Vendors view
Usage subview, about and fields (table) 520 Inventory screen, about 371
troubleshooting Pending Orders view, about using 437
ABS configuration 160 Verify button
Optimizer configuration 163 about 52, 53
trunk inventory system preferences for verifying 219

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system preferences, setting 219 Warranty subview

Line Items view, about using 344
W Service Order screen, about using 499
warranties Warranty view, about using 499
asset, verifying for 42 Waybill view, about and fields (table) 384
asset, verifying warranties and related waybills
information 496 about 375
concurrent warranties, about 493 pick tickets, filling in 379
defective parts, verifying warranty Waybill view, about using to associate with
status 498 pick tickets 384
order, verifying for 497 Web services, configuring for invoice
overview 493 integration 320
product, verifying warranties for 496 wireless application protocol (WAP)-enabled
products, checking coverage 496 phone
service providers, identifying 497 about using Siebel Wireless 33
service request, verifying for 496 wireless devices
warranty recovery, tracking 497 computing support, about 30
Warranties view Workflow Manager, scheduling 156
Products screen, about using 500 workflow processes, about creating for
Products subview, about using 499 invoicing functions 321
Service Administration screen, about and workflow processes, improving
fields (table) 498 performance 307
Service Providers subview, about using 499 workflows
warranties, setting up Siebel Advanced Contracts, about 273
asset, associating with automatically 495
assets and warranties, associating 495 Z
covered products, specifying 494 ZIP Codes
new warranties, creating 494 about 113
order line items, associating 495 about using in multiple service regions 116
warranties and warranty service providers, data cleansing, about 115
associating 494 Zip Codes view
Warranties screen and views 498 about 114

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632 Siebel Field Service Guide Version 8.0, Rev. B