1. Revision History
  2. Overview
  3. Feature Summary
    1. Administration
        1. Save the User Name on the Login Screen
        2. Support Oracle IDCS as OAuth2 Identity Provider
        3. Support for Supplementary Characters
        4. Travel Allowance
        5. Reset Password
    2. APIs
        1. API Updates in Capacity
        2. API Updates in Resource Management
        3. Activity and Travel Duration Statistics
        4. Application Entities Support for Metadata API
        5. Bulk Update API Improvement
        6. Core API Improvements
        7. Core API Support for Service Requests
        8. REST API for Resource Inventory Bulk Upload
        9. REST API for Smart Location
    3. Capacity Management
        1. Booking Based on Planned Capacity and Limited by Time Intervals
        2. Planned Capacity Management
        3. Quota Screen Navigation Improvements
        4. Use Temporary Assigned Resources in Quota and Capacity Calculations
    4. Collaboration
        1. Helpdesk in Mobility
    5. Core Application
        1. Unified Core Manage and Mobility
    6. Core Manage
        1. Activity Management - Month View
        2. Processing Activities of Non-Working Technicians
        3. Support of Contingent Workers
    7. Mobility
        1. Improvement of Calendars
        2. Improved Inventory in Resource and Customer Pools
        3. Displaying Traffic Layer in Maps
        4. Improved Resource Management
        5. Real-Time Traffic Updates for Travel Time Estimation
        6. Temporary Resource Locations
        7. Reports and Dashboards Usability Improvements
    8. Integration
        1. ICS as a Channel in Outbound Integration Page
        2. Integration with IoTCS Using OIC
        3. Oracle Field Service Cloud - Oracle Analytical Cloud Service (OAC) Integration
    9. Routing
        1. Using Street Level Routing (SLR) Data in Routing

Revision History

This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:

Date Feature Notes

05 NOV 2018

Oracle Field Service Cloud - Oracle Analytical Cloud Service (OAC) Integration

Updated document. Revised feature information.
09 AUG 2018 Reports and Dashboards Usability Improvements

Updated document. Revised feature information.
09 AUG 2018 Oracle Field Service Cloud - Oracle Analytical Cloud Service (OAC) Integration

Updated document. Revised feature information.
23 JUL 2018   Created initial document.

Overview

This guide outlines the information you need to know about new and improved functionality in Oracle Field Service Cloud, 18C Release. Each section includes a brief description of the feature, the steps you need to take to enable or begin using the feature, any tips or considerations that you should keep in mind, and the resources available to help you. For a listing of browsers supported by Oracle Field Service Cloud, log in to our support site and access Answer ID 8215.

You will notice that a few 18C features reference Oracle Field Service Cloud Professional Cloud Service and Oracle Field Service Cloud Enterprise Cloud Service. These are new base product offerings that are planned for availability by the end of September 2018. Once available, you will be able to transition to one of these offerings with ease. If you have decided to transition, Oracle Field Service Cloud will look and operate just like it does today but with additional functionality and services. Additional details will be available closer to September 2018. Here is a preview:

Give Us Feedback

We welcome your comments and suggestions to improve the content. Please send us your feedback at https://documentation.custhelp.com/ci/documents/detail/5/4/12.

Feature Summary

Action Required to Enable Feature

Feature

Automatically Available

End User Action Required

Administrator Action Required

Oracle Service Request Required

Administration

Save the User Name on the Login Screen

Support Oracle IDCS as OAuth2 Identity Provider

Support for Supplementary Characters

Travel Allowance

Reset Password

APIs

API Updates in Capacity

API Updates in Resource Management

Activity and Travel Duration Statistics

Application Entities Support for Metadata API

Bulk Update API Improvement

Core API Improvements

Core API Support for Service Requests

REST API for Resource Inventory Bulk Upload

REST API for Smart Location

Capacity Management

Booking Based on Planned Capacity and Limited by Time Intervals

Planned Capacity Management

Quota Screen Navigation Improvements

Use Temporary Assigned Resources in Quota and Capacity Calculations

Collaboration

Helpdesk in Mobility

Core Application

Unified Core Manage and Mobility

Core Manage

Activity Management - Month View

Processing Activities of Non-Working Technicians

Support of Contingent Workers

Mobility

Improvement of Calendars

Improved Inventory in Resource and Customer Pools

Displaying Traffic Layer in Maps

Improved Resource Management

Real-Time Traffic Updates for Travel Time Estimation

Temporary Resource Locations

Reports and Dashboards Usability Improvements

Integration

ICS as a Channel in Outbound Integration Page

Integration with IoTCS Using OIC

Oracle Field Service Cloud - Oracle Analytical Cloud Service (OAC) Integration

Routing

Using Street Level Routing (SLR) Data in Routing

Administration

Save the User Name on the Login Screen

With release 18C, you can provide users with the ability to save their user name on the Login screen when they login from the same device and browser. This is a global setting and when enabled, the Remember my username check box is displayed on the Login screen. This feature is available to login policies that are Internal or LDAP but it is not supported for SAML or OpenIDConnect  login policies.

Steps to Enable

  1. Navigate to the Configuration page and select Display.
  2. In the Display page, select the Remember User Name on Login Screen check box.

Save User Name

  1. Click Save. The next time you try logging into the application, you will see the Remember my username check box displayed on the Login screen.

Key Resources

Support Oracle IDCS as OAuth2 Identity Provider

You can now configure Oracle Identity Cloud Service (IDCS) as the OAuth2 Token Service for Oracle Field Service Cloud REST APIs on the Applications screen.

The Support of Oracle IDCS as OAuth2 Identity Provider simplifies the configuration of Oracle Identity Cloud Service as the OAuth2 Token Service for Oracle Field Service Cloud REST APIs. The Configuration, Applications screen now includes the new option Oracle Identity Cloud Service for the Token Service drop-down list. When you select the Oracle Identity Cloud Service option, you can upload the signing certificate for Oracle Identity Cloud Service. After uploading the signing certificate, you can configure Oracle Identity Cloud Service to issue OAuth2 Access Tokens that the REST APIs will accept. See the Oracle Identity Cloud Service documentation for information about where to get the signing certificate: https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/paas/identity-cloud/index.html.

The Applications screen shows Oracle Identity Cloud as the new option for Token Service.

Glossary:

Steps to Enable

To set the token service:

  1. Navigate to the Configuration page and select Applications.

The Applications page is displayed.

  1. In the Token service field, select Oracle Identity Cloud from the drop-down list.

Application Screen showing Token Service Field

  1. Click Upload to browse and select the signing certificate for Oracle Identity Cloud Service.
  2. See the Oracle Identity Cloud Service documentation for information about where to get the signing certificate:https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/paas/identity-cloud/index.html.
  3. In the API Access, enable a REST API you wish to use. Following is an example to add access to Read-write activity to Core API.
    1. Click Add New.
    2. In the Add New dialog, select Core API and click Submit.
    3. Core API is displayed under API access field.
    4. Click the Properties icon, and select Available entities.
    5. In the Available entities dialog, select ReadWrite from the Activity drop-down list.
  4. Save the application
  5. After uploading the signing certificate, you can configure Oracle Identity Cloud Service to issue OAuth2 Access Tokens that the REST APIs will accept.

To configure Oracle Identity Cloud Service:

  1. Log in to Oracle Identity Cloud service as administrator
  2. Go to the 'Applications' screen
  3. Create a new application for example "Oracle Field Service"
  4. Configure the application as a Resource Server ('Application ? Configuration ? Resources')
    1. In the Primary audience field, set the primary audience as <your Oracle Field Service Cloud instance name>. For example, 'ofsc-x1111'
    2. In the Allowed scopes field, add a  scope. The scope name must begin with a slash ( / ), followed by the application ID that you created in Oracle Field Service Cloud. For example, if the application ID is 'new_app' then the Scope is '/new_app'.
  1. Note down the client_id and client_secret of the application.
  2. Save changes.
  3. Activate the application.

To issue the access token and authenticate the REST API calls, 

  1. Get the access token for your newly created application by submitting the relevant REST API calls.
  2. See the Oracle Identity Cloud Service documentation for information to get access token from Oracle IDCS:https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/paas/identity-cloud/index.html.

Get the access token for your newly created application, as follows:

Get Access Token

Tips And Considerations

Key Resources

Support for Supplementary Characters

Starting with release 18C, the special characters used in some of the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language surnames and geographical names are supported. This also includes support for emoticons, pictographs, and certain symbols. These characters are supported across the application, including daily extract, search, parts catalog, and API functions.

Supported supplementary characters can be found at:

Steps to Enable

This feature is available automatically when a new instance is created, or when a database is recreated with an empty data set.

Key Resources

Travel Allowance

Earlier, you could not configure the duration of unpaid travel time while traveling to the first activity and from the last activity. With the 18C release new travel options have been added to the Resource Type. These options are visible for Field resource, Tool, and Vehicle resource types and found in a new “Working time” section replacing the previously available “Working time includes first travel to activity” and “Working time includes travel to final location” options.

To configure the travel allowance, the Add Resource Type and Edit Resource Type screens include the following options:

Routing also takes into account the duration of unpaid travel for resource types while routing activities under immediate, urgent, and bulk routing. The following figure shows the Time View with travel durations:

Example:

Roger’s assigned Resource Type has the following Work Time configurations:

Jane and John’s assigned Resource Type has the following Working Time configurations:

Consider Roger, Jane, and John, who have their work shift from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm.

Using the example, if a new activity is created that is estimated to finish by 5:45 pm and overtime is no allowed, routing will not assign this activity to Roger. If it was assigned, Roger would incur overtime, because his shift ends at 6:00 pm. The routing engine would look for a more suitable resource.

Migration: During the upgrade if the “Working time includes first travel to activity” was enabled, “Travel time to the first activity is included from the Working Time Start” will be enabled.  If “Working time includes travel to final location” was enabled then “Travel time from the last activity to the Resources End Location is included from the Working Time End” will be enabled. If these were not selected, the “Travel time to the first activity is not included from the Working Time Start” and “Travel time from the last activity to the Resources End Location is not included from the Working Time End” will be selected.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

Key Resources

Reset Password

Currently, users have to contact their administrator or someone in the backoffice to reset a forgotten password. With the 18C release, users can reset their passwords without any assistance from the administrator. To enable this feature, the "Enable password reset on Login screen" check box on the Display Settings screen should be checked. Once enabled, a ‘Can’t sign in?’ link will be displayed on the Login screen. This is a global feature and is available for users with an Internal login policy. It is not available for users that are assigned a login policy using LDAP, SAML, or OpenID Connect.

Here are some screenshots:

Login Screen Showing Password Reset Link

Login Screen Showing Password Reset Notification

Login Screen Showing Password Reset Fields

Steps to use this feature:

  1. Click ‘Can’t sign in’ on the Login screen. The ‘Let’s find your account’ screen is displayed.
  2. Enter your username.
    • If your username is valid, the password recovery details are sent to your email address, with the following email:

Subject: Password request for Oracle Field Service Cloud:

Body:

Your password reset request has been received. Please reset your password by clicking this secure link: <link>

If you did not request a password reset, you can ignore this email an continue logging in with your current password.

Thanks,

The Oracle Field Service Cloud Team

  1. Open the email and click the link to recover the password. The Reset your password screen appears.
  2. Type the new password twice and click Submit. A confirmation that your password is reset appears.
  3. Click Back to sign in. The Login screen appears, where you can log in using the new password.

Steps to Enable

To enable the feature:

  1. Navigate to the From Configuration click Display
  2. Select the "Enable password reset on Login screen" check box.
  3. The ‘Email for password reset’ field appears. This field includes custom properties that can be selected as the source of the users email address where the recovery email will be sent. Custom properties are displayed if the following conditions are satisfied:
    • Entity = User
    • Type = String
    • GUI = Text or Email
  4. Select the source from which you want to get the email address. Each user will require a valid email address in the selected property in order to receive the password reset email.

Key Resources

APIs

API Updates in Capacity

The REST Capacity API has been enhanced now that quota can be defined per booking interval per capacity category. The following REST APIs have been updated:

EXAMPLE FOR GET QUOTA OPERATION

Following is an example for GET QUOTA operation:

GET QUOTA Example

EXAMPLE FOR PATCH QUOTA OPERATION

Following is an example for PATCH QUOTA operation:

PATCH QUOTA Example

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

API Updates in Resource Management

The following enhancements have been made for this feature in Oracle Field Service Cloud:

Examples:

Example

Example

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Activity and Travel Duration Statistics

18C introduces new functionality around managing Activity and Travel Duration Statistics for subscribers to Oracle Field Service Cloud Professional Cloud Service and Oracle Field Service Cloud Enterprise Cloud Service. This features will enable users to:

GET ACTIVITY DURATION STATISTICS

The following Activity Statistic details can be retrieved:

There will be an option to include children in the API. When set to true, the details of all Buckets/Resources within the specified resourceId will also be retrieved. For details for the Company level, the resourceId should be set to single quotes ('').

NOTE: The number of records that can be retrieved in a single response is 10,000. If there are more records, the remaining ones can be accessed using the 'next' link at the bottom of the response.

The following REST API path can be used to obtain the activity statistics:

Description:

Name

Required

Type

Description
resourceId No string The external id of the resource. For Company level details use '' (single quotes)
akey  No string The value of the Activity Duration Stats Field (Activity key value)
includeChildren No string Specifies if the details of child resources of the selected resource should be included or not. Takes values true/false. The default value is true.

NOTE: If either the resourceId or akey is not sent as a parameter, the system will not filter the results based on that parameter and will return records for all applicable values.

Example of Response:

Get Activity Duration Statistics

GET TRAVEL DURATION STATISTICS

The following Travel Statistics details can be retrieved:

The Travel statistics can be received only at the Company level and not at lower levels.

NOTE: The number of records that can be retrieved in a single response is 10,000. If there are more records, the remaining ones can be accessed using the 'next' link at the bottom of the response.

Users can get Activity Travel Statistics using the following REST API path:

Description:

Name

Required

Type

Description
fkey  No string From key value
tkey  No string To key value
region  No string Value of the Region

NOTE: If any of the above parameters are not specified, all available entries will be retrieved. 

Example of Response

Get Travel Duration Statistics

OVERRIDE ACTIVITY DURATIONS

Activity Durations can be overridden at either the Company level or the individual Resource level. When Overriding durations at the Company level, the 'resourceId' field should be left blank. Overrides can also be done for each Activity Duration Key value at the Company level or the Technician level.

In case there are multiple Activity duration keys configured in the system, the overrides will be applicable only for the currently Active Activity key. If the Key is modified, the overrides will be deleted from the system. However, the overrides will persist if only the Active key is changed, with the old key still being present in the system as Inactive. If an Inactive key is Activated, the Overrides that were set corresponding to that key will be applicable for estimations.

The Override will be stored in the system in addition to the learned statistical value against the currently active Activity key. For duration estimations, if there was an override specified by the user, the overridden value will be used instead of the statistically learned value. However, the statistically learned value will continue to get updated based on new reported durations as currently done. At any point of time users may choose to stop using the overrides, by importing the data again with 0 value in the override field. In such cases, the system will restart using the learned statistic values for duration estimations.

Once triggered, the changes will be reflected only after the next Stats script run and durations for all future Activities will reflect the overridden values where applicable.

NOTE: Each API request is limited to 10,000 records.  Additional requests can be used if more updates are needed.

Overrides for Activity Duration estimation can be added for an Activity key value only if that kind of Activity was earlier performed by any Technician. Similarly, overrides for a Technician can be added only if that particular Technician has performed at least one Activity of any type.

Activity can be Overridden sing the following REST API path:  PATCH rest/ofscStatistics/v1/activityDurationStats/

Request Fields:

Name

Required

Type

Description
resourceId Yes string The external id of the resource. If left blank, it will be considered as Company level.
akey  Yes string The value of the Activity Duration Stats Field (Activity key value). Length cannot  exceed 50 characters 
override Yes integer The override value that needs to be set for resouceId and akey combination

Response Fields:

Name

Type

Description
status  string Status of the request
updatedrecords  integer Number of records updated

OVERRIDE VALUES IN REPORTS

The Work Statistics and Travel Statistics reports will contain an additional column showing the 'Override'. If an override was added via API, the value of the override will be displayed in this column.

Here is an example:

Work Statistics Screen

CONFIGURATION LOG HISTORY

Whenever a PATCH API is used to update a value for an Activity Duration or Travel Duration, the Configuration Log History report will have an entry showing the number of records that were updated in addition to the Activity duration or Travel duration key. that was updated.

Configuration Log History

Steps to Enable

To get API access, you must enable the 'Statistics API' check box.

Once checked, permissions can be set separately for Activity Duration and Travel duration as Hidden, Read-only and Read-write.

Key Resources

Application Entities Support for Metadata API

18C brings a new set of Metadata API functions providing the ability to export and import configuration settings for Application entities. The APIs can be used to maintain configuration backups and transfer configurations between instances.  The following set of operations implemented:

NOTE: Certificate files and Client Secret values cannot be obtained or uploaded using the API and you need to manually configure the certificate files and client secret values for each application.

API permissions as a part of API Access entity can have different variants of structure for different API's.

The application that will be used to work with these methods should be set with appropriate permissions for Metadata API.

NOTE: The application should not have restrictions for Oracle Field Service Cloud resources and should have access to the company root resource.

Steps to Enable

CREATE/UPDATE APPLICATION

The operation creates a new application with configuration settings or updates the configuration settings of an existing application.

The following path and request parameters are supported:

The following information is returned in the 200 and 201 response if an existing application is updated or created:

Following is an example:

Example

GET APPLICATION

This operation returns information about a single application entity.

The following request parameter is supported:

Label: The unique identifier of the application.

The following information is returned in the response:

Following is an example:

Example

GET APPLICATIONS

This operation returns information about a collection of applications.

The following request parameters are supported:

The following information is returned in the response:

Following is an example:

Example

UPDATE APPLICATIONS API ACCESS

This operation updates the API configuration of an application based on the application ID specified while creating an application and the API label. For example, you can use this method to enable Core API for a specific application.

The following path and request parameters are supported:

The following information is returned in the response:

Following is an example:

UPDATE APPLICATIONS API ACCESS Example

GET APPLICATIONS API ACCESS

This operation obtains the API configuration of an application based on the application ID specified while creating an application and the API label.

The following path parameters are supported:

The following information is returned in the response:

Examples:

Following is an example for GET API PERMISSIONS (based on entity fields visibilities)

GET API PERMISSIONS Example 1

Following is an example for GET API PERMISSIONS (based on entities)

GET API PERMISSIONS Example 2

GET APPLICATIONS API ACCESSES

This operation obtains the API configuration for a collection of applications based on the application ID specified while creating an application.

The following path parameter is supported:

The following information is returned in the response:Label: The label of the API access object is returned.

Following is an example

GET APPLICATIONS API ACCESSES Example

Key Resources

Bulk Update API Improvement

The maximum size of the decoded HTTP request has been increased to 5MB (previously 2MB) for bulk activity updates and maximum number of activities per request of 20 has been removed.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Core API Improvements

With the 18C release, the following Core API operations have been added to improve and simplify integrations:

Other improvements include:

GET CALENDARS

This operation returns a list of work schedules for the specified resource for the specified interval of days. This operation can be used to render work schedules on a calendar view control, such as a month or week view. Work schedules are a representation of the resources work calendar, which includes working hours, working and nonworking days, reasons for absence, and so on.

NOTE: Work schedules configured for parent resources are returned only if Oracle Field Service Cloud supports them.

The following are the request parameters:

The response body is a json object containing the following fields:

Error Handling:

A required field is not specified.

For this API to work:

Example:

Following is an example for calendars request and response:

Example for calendars Operation Request and Response

Error Matrix:

BULK UPDATE RESOURCE WORK SCHEDULES

This operation creates, updates, or deletes work schedules of multiple resources at once.

The request body is a json object containing the following fields:

The response body is a json object containing the following fields:

Error Handling:

For this API to work, the permission ‘core_api_resource’ must be set to ‘ReadWrite’.

Example:

Following is an example for bulkUpdateWorkSchedules request and response

Example for bulkUpdateWorkSchedules Request and Response

BULK UPDATE RESOURCE WORK SKILLS

This operation creates, updates, or deletes work skills of multiple resources at once.

The request body is a json object containing the following fields:

The response body is a json object containing the following fields:

Error Handling:

Generated Error Messages:

The generated error messages are as follows:

Permissions

The permission ‘core_api_resource’ has to be set to ‘ReadWrite’ for this API to work.

Example

Following is an example for bulkUpdateWorkSkills request and response

Example for bulkUpdateWorkSkills Request and Response

BULK UPDATE RESOURCE WORK ZONES

This operation creates, updates, or deletes work zones of multiple resources at once.

The request body is a json object containing the following fields:

The response body is a json object containing the following fields:

Error Handling:

Permissions:

The permission ‘core_api_resource’ has to be set to ‘ReadWrite’ for this API to work.

Example:

Following is an example for bulkUpdateWorkZones request and response:

Example for bulkUpdateWorkZones Request and Response

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

GET RESOURCE - EXPAND

The get resource(s) operations - parameter 'expand' is improved. 

Functions to expand inner entities (inventories, workZones, workSkills, workSchedules) when getting information about a resource or list of resources has been available since 18A.  With this update, query parameter "expand" supports any combination of valid parameters in the request, provided as a comma-separated list.

By default (if the expand parameter is absent) no additional sub-entities are returned (allowing for backward compatibility). If the parameter is empty or contains one or more unknown values the response returns error 400 Allowed values: [inventories, workZones, workSkills, workSchedules]

Example:

Following is an example showing the expand parameter:

GET Resource -Expand Example

GET ROUTE - SPECIFY FIELDS

The get route operation - specify a list of activity fields

A new optional parameter "activityFields" is supported in the request of the function GET /resources/{resourceId}/routes/{date} The parameter allows you to specify which activity fields/properties should be returned for each activity in the response. If the parameter is not specified in the request all information about the activities is returned (allowing for backward compatibility). If the parameter is used, only specified fields/properties of activities are returned.

The activityId field is always returned even if was not specified in the 'activityFields'

Following is an example:

GET Route Example

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Core API Support for Service Requests

The following operations have been added for service requests in Oracle Field Service Cloud:

CREATE SERVICE REQUEST

The Create Service Request operation allows integrated systems to create a new service request in Oracle Field Service Cloud.

A service request is a data container, which can be used to collect information about activities, resources, or inventories when used by integrated systems. After a service request is created in Oracle Field Service Cloud, it cannot be modified.

An existing entity ID (resourceId, activityId, or inventoryId) must be provided with the request. If no entity ID is provided, a bad request error is returned as follows:

‘Required property not set. One of the property: 'activityId' or 'inventoryId' or 'resourceId' must be specified.’

If more than one entity ID is provided in the request then a bad request error is returned as follows: ‘Only one of the parameters 'activityId', 'inventoryId', 'resourceId' can be specified at one request.’

The user must at least have read-write access to the service request entity of the Core API; else, the function will return a 403 error.

You can also specify service request custom properties while creating a service request.

A new event, resourceRequestCreated, inventoryRequestCreated, customerRequestCreated in Events API will be generated depending on the specified entity field (resourceId, inventoryId, activityId) in the request.

Only one entity ID can be specified in the request, but Oracle Field Service Cloud will populate related IDs (if any).

For example, when an inventoryId is specified when creating a service request, Oracle Field Service Cloud finds the activity or resource that is linked with the specified inventory ID and adds the activityId and resourceId to the service request.

The response of POST or GET methods will return the saved entity IDs.

The response also contains the date and time when the service request is created in Oracle Field Service Cloud and is returned in ‘YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM’ format (UTC time zone).

The following query parameters are supported:

The following information is displayed in the response:

Following is an example using inventory:

Example

GET SERVICE REQUEST

This operation returns information about the specified service request.

The following query parameter is supported:

The following information is displayed in the response:

Following is an example for GET SERVICE REQUEST:

Example

DIFFERENCES FROM SOAP VERSION:

The Core API function has the following differences:

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

REST API for Resource Inventory Bulk Upload

With 18C, a new operation bulkUpdateInventories has been added in Oracle Field Service Cloud. This operation creates or updates resource inventory in bulk for the specified resources with the inventory specified in the request.

Only inventories with status as 'resource' are created, deleted, or updated. Inventories with status as 'installed' or 'deinstalled' are not touched.

The request body is a json object containing the following fields:

The response body is a json object containing the following fields:

Error Handling:

Permissions:

The permissions ‘core_api_resource’ and ‘core_api_inventory’ have to be set to ‘ReadWrite’ for this API to work.

Following is an example for bulkUpdateInventories request and response:

Example Request

Example Response

Steps to Enable

Key Resources

REST API for Smart Location

With the 18C release, the following Smart Location REST API operations have been added to Oracle Field Service Cloud:

GET LAST KNOWN POSITIONS OF RESOURCES

This operation retrieves the last known position of the specified resources.

Example: GET  /rest/ofscCore/v1/resources/custom-actions/lastKnownPositions

The request parameter is as follows:

The response body is a json object containing the following fields:

Following are some examples:

Example 1: Multiple resources

Multiple Resources Example

Example 2: Error messages for some resources

Error messages Example

GET RESOURCES POSITION HISTORY

This operation retrieves the last known position of the specified resources.used to query resource track data.

This operation is available to subscribers of Oracle Field Service Cloud Smart Location, Oracle Field Service Professional Cloud Service and Oracle Field Service Enterprise Cloud Service.

Example: GET  /rest/ofscCore/v1/resources/{resourceID}/positionHistory

The request parameter is as follows:

The response body contains the following fields:

Following is an example:

Example

GET RESOURCES IN AREA

This operation retrieves information about the resources location within a certain area, specified by longitude, latitude, and radius parameters. Points are sorted by distance to center point of requested area. Pagination is supported within this method.

This operation is available to subscribers of Oracle Field Service Cloud Smart Location, Oracle Field Service Professional Cloud Service and Oracle Field Service Enterprise Cloud Service.

Example: GET  /rest/ofscCore/v1/resources/custom-actions/resourcesInArea

The request parameter is as follows:

The response body containing the following fields:

Besides, response contains pagination links that contain next and/or previous result set.

Following is an example:

Example

Following is an example with pagination parameters:

Example with Pagination Parameters

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Capacity Management

Booking Based on Planned Capacity and Limited by Time Intervals

As of 18C, the following new options are available in availability-based quota and booking:

The options allow using available capacity based booking for short term and switch to planned capacity for mid to long-term.

We recommend using quota management  in the following way:

WHATS NEW IN QUOTA MANAGEMENT

The Quota configuration screen layout is updated to include new quota management options.

The new Planned Max Available column has been added to Quota matrix next to Max Available one (visible only if quota is entered in percent of planned capacity).

The new editor to manage quota on booking intervals level is also added to Quota page.

Note that planned capacity is an equivalent of the "working time plans" that  you can enter through corresponding API or set on the Available Capacity screen. Also, working time plans are accessible through Admin interface.

NOTE: Quota based on working time plans is only supported if quota is managed based on booking intervals. Working time plans is not supported for the quota managed based on time slots.

HOW TO CONFIGURE QUOTA

You can decide on how to manage your quota for the given capacity area, either based on time intervals or on booking intervals using the Quota, Configuration screen.

To enter daily quota values for booking intervals based quota management, you can select one of the following options:

NOTE: During the upgrade, if available capacity based quota management has been selected, the application will migrate to booking intervals based quota with either quota in absolute time units or quota in percent of available capacity based on the quota by day settings.

To change the number of hours per day (used to recalculate working time plans (number of resources) to Max Available (hours/minutes) or vice versa), use the Business Rules page, select "man-days" as the "Measurement units for Quota and Available Capacity:" and change the value of "Number of hours per man-day:"

HOW TO USE

To allow booking by planned capacity, ensure that Quota is managed by booking intervals.

In such a case, booking would use planned capacity for the Day #"number of days + 1" up until the overnight time setting value. After this time booking for this day starts using available capacity, which may lead to over or under booking in case of the number of available resources is different from the working time plan ones.

If no working time plans are set, the available capacity is used as working time plans.

NOTE: Working time plans could be set in absolute time units (minutes/hours/days) or in number of resources. In case of plans are set in resources, the value "Number of hours per man-day:" is used to convert the resources number into hours (and then to minutes if needed).

Note that while available capacity is distributed between capacity categories and booking intervals according to real schedules, it is not true with the planned capacity. Planned capacity is proportionally distributed between available booking intervals and copied for all the capacity categories.

EXAMPLE 1

Assume you plan for 10 resources tomorrow. The following list of categories are available: Install, Uninstall, Trouble Calls. The booking intervals defined in the system are: [8-12], [13-17].

In this case, the total amount of planned working time is 80 man hours (assuming 8 h working day). It distributes like the following:

Capacity Category 8-12 13-17
Install 40 40
Uninstall 40 40
Trouble Call 40 40

Note that the total working time plans are distributed proportionally on all and every intervals for which booking is not closed on the interval level in advance. So if we include the intervals [0-8] and [17-24]*, the table would transform to:

Capacity Category -8 8-12 13-17 17-
Install 28 14 14 24
Uninstall 28 14 14 24
Trouble Call 28 14 14 24

About 2/3rd of the overall time is reserved for the morning and evening intervals and there will be no resources working assuming the overnight setting in the Business Rules page is set to 0.

If the overnight settings are set to non-zero value, the -8 interval will still have the length of 8 hours (i.e. starting at BOD), but the 17- interval prolongs till overnight end, so the length of the interval is increased with the overnight settings value.

To address the last example, two strategies could be used:

Another possibility is to manage quota on booking intervals level. To manage quota on booking intervals level, select the corresponding option on the capacity category level.

Note that you could either manage all quota on the booking intervals level or none, that is, if the corresponding option is turned on, you should enter all the quota values for all the capacity categories and all the booking intervals.

Any non-entered entry is assumed to be "zero", that is, booking for such a combination of capacity category and booking interval is prohibited.

By default, if no values were entered for quota on booking intervals level, all the values are "0", so booking is prohibited for the entire area and to allow it, one should enter the values (either manually or via API) after the "Manage quota on booking intervals level" is selected.

To enter quota limits on booking intervals level, open the Quota page and open the intervals editor using (>) button. You can enter all the values in the absolute time units (minutes/hours/days) according to ones set on the Business Rules page. The values can also be entered via Quota API.

NOTE: Mass populate and auto-fill quota values on the booking intervals level are not available  in this release.

Quota values on the booking intervals lever editor is accessible in RO mode in case of managing of quota on booking intervals level is turned off.

In this case the auto-populated values could be reviewed by means of RO editor.

Despite the fact that Quota values on the booking intervals lever editor may be visible in RO mode for all the days, those quota limits are not applied for the days when quota is not entered as percent of planned capacity.

The editor could be closed by clicking on (<) button.

The quota values on the booking intervals level would be used in the following way by corresponding SOAP or REST booking functions:

EXAMPLE 2

Consider that there are two possible time slots: (8-12) and (12-16) and two possible time intervals (8-12) and (12-16). For each time interval, the quotas for booking intervals for Install CC are entered as 4 hours and 4 hours (and have 1 resource only).

If we have already booked an activity in (8-12) time slot for 3 hours, the remaining quotas are 1 hour and 4 hours.

When we try to book another activity for 2 hours, both (8-12) and (12-16) time slots are returned, and the second activity can be started after the first one that is before 12.

But if the second activity is booked into the (8-12) time slot, 3rd activity of the same length could be booked only into (12-16) time slot as the (8-12) time slot is exhausted.

SCREENSHOTS

Planned Max Available column:

Manually editing the quota limits per time interval:

Automatically distributed quota limits per time interval:

Steps to Enable

To enable quota by booking interval:

Prerequisite: Based on booking intervals must be used.

  1. Go to Quota Screen
  2. Select Configuration Icon
  3. Check the  'Manage quota on the level of booking intervals' option

Key Resources

Planned Capacity Management

Prior to 18C mobile users were able to see the planned amount of resources/working time for a Mobility Group. The planned resource information was loaded using the Core API.  With 18C, the Capacity screen has been updated with a Planned Capacity editor on the Available Capacity screen. This editor allows capacity managers to view and manage working time plans of resources for capacity areas and organization units on a day level.

The editor displays either on the Resources or Capacity column based on the option selected from the Unit of working time plans drop-down list. See Configure Quota Options for more details.

Working time plans are values that are defined in the Capacity or Resources column of the Available Capacity screen for configuring capacity for the capacity area and its organization units.

As a quota or capacity manager, you can perform the following actions:

NOTE: The users who have access to the Available Capacity screen can view and edit the working time plans.

Steps to Enable

To add, edit, or view working time plans:

  1. Select Quota
  2. Select a capacity area from the left-hand pane.
  3. Select the Available Capacity icon. 
  4. Click on the value that is displayed on the Capacity or the Resources column for the capacity area.

The Planned Capacity editor displays an empty field for the capacity area and for each organization unit within the capacity area.

Available Capacity Screen

The following columns are displayed for both Capacity and Resources column:

  1. Enter the Planned values in the Planned column
  2. Selected Save planned values when each update is made

You can select a previous date to view the previously entered plans for the capacity area or future day to made updates in the future.

The planned capacity editor has the same functionality if you select multiple days. You can view the planned values in mobility. See the About Resource Calendars section in Using Mobility Cloud Service Guide for more details.

EXAMPLES

Example 1:

Assume that the available capacity for a capacity area in the Available column is set as 853 hours. You estimate 850 hours for the capacity area and enter the planned value as 850 in the Planned column.

As the available capacity for the capacity area is more than the planned value, the Variance column displays +3 in orange color which means there is enough capacity available.

If the planned value is entered as 856 hours, the Variance column displays –3 in orange color which means there is not enough capacity available. If the values in the planned and available capacity are the same then 0 is displayed in the Variance column.

Similarly, the above logic applies for all the organization units within the capacity area. If the planned and the available capacity are the same then a green check mark is displayed on the Capacity column.

However, the difference between the planned values for the capacity area and its organization units are displayed on the bottom of the editor. For example, consider the following scenario:

However, a message “The difference between plans for capacity area and its Organization Units is -1” displays on the editor which means that there is not enough capacity available for the organization units.

Example 2:

Assume that the available capacity for a capacity area in the Resources column is set as 97. You estimate 96 resources for the capacity area and enter the planned value as 96 in the Planned column. Since the available resources for the capacity area is more than the planned value, the Variance column displays +1 in orange color which means there are enough resources for the capacity area.

If a negative value displays in the Variance column then it means that there are not enough resources for the capacity area. Similarly, the above logic applies for all the organization units within the capacity area. If the planned and the available capacity are the same then a green check mark is displayed in the Resources column.

However, the difference between the planned values for the capacity area and its organization units are displayed on the bottom of the editor. For example, consider the following scenario:

However, a message “The difference between plans for capacity area and its Organization Units is -1” displays on the editor which means that there are not enough resources available for the organization units.

For more details, see the Oracle Field Service Cloud Using Capacity Cloud Service Guide.

Key Resources

Quota Screen Navigation Improvements

The following changes have been made to the Quota Management/Capacity module to align them with the other system screens and provide improved navigation. These include:

BOOKING STATUS SCREEN CHANGES

  1. Navigate to Quota and select the  icon to view the Booking Status screen.

Check Icon

  1. The View button is not available on the Booking Status screen and all categories are always shown on the screen only for the Booking Interval based quota.

Booking Status Screen

  1. Map displays on the top of Booking Status screen only if a single day is selected on the calendar and time slot based quota is enabled.

QUOTA SCREEN CHANGES

  1. Navigate to Quota and select the icon to view the Quota screen.

Capacity Icon

  1. The Quota screen is displayed.

Quota Screen

  1. No navigation in the View button menu. If the Time Slot based quota is enabled, only the following views are available:
    • Quota
    • Time Slot based
      • Quota by day
      • Quota by time slot
      • Quota by capacity categories
  2. All categories are always shown on the screen only for the Booking Interval based quota.

MASS POPULATE FEATURE

For availability based quota, you can mass populate all categories simultaneously and if you do not want to change the values in some categories then you need to manually reset their values after mass populate.

AVAILABLE CAPACITY SCREEN CHANGES

  1. Navigate to Quota and select the following icon to view the Available Capacity screen.

 

Available Capacity Icon

  1. The Available Capacity screen is displayed:

Available Capacity Screen

  1. In the Available Capacity screen, note:
    • No navigation in the View button menu.
    • Max Available column is always visible.

NOTE: The term, "capacity bucket" is changed to "capacity area" throughout the product

CONFIGURATION SCREEN CHANGES

The configuration screen has been improved to provide better and clearer navigation.

  1. Navigate to Quota and select the tools icon to view the Configuration screen.

Tools Icon

Example Availability Based Booking Options:

Example Time Slot Booking Options:

MIGRATION:  During the Oracle Field Service Cloud upgrade, a unnamed group is created and all the action links (Close Time history, Quota history and Mass populate) are moved to this group.  if a user type has none of those actions, the migration does not add them. If some of them exists in layout, they will be added to the new group. If a group or groups exist before migration, they will be removed and all existing actions along with their visibility are added to new unnamed group. You could edit the access rights for this group using standard configuration options.

For more details, see the Oracle Field Service Cloud Using Capacity Cloud Service Guide.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Use Temporary Assigned Resources in Quota and Capacity Calculations

Support for temporary available resources (that is, resources assigned to a given capacity area by direct assignment of a work zone to the resource) is added to quota and capacity calculations for both time slot and available capacity-based quotas to support related routing capabilities.

New fields have been added to Downloadable resource and activity lists to enable the identification of temporary resources and their activities.

When you select the Use resources outside the capacity area check box from the Business Rules, Quota Management section

The additional capacity of the resources is added to available capacity values on the Available Capacity screen and to the Max Available value on the Quota screen for multiple capacity areas.

Also, if the quota is configured as a percentage of Max Available value, the additional capacity is added to the quota calculations on the Booking screen and the booking APIs (GET AvailableBookingOptions and get_capacity operations) use the quota to determine the activity booking preferences.

The following items needs to be taken into consideration:

Downloaded Lists Updates:

To identify temporary resources, you can download the activity or resources list and search for non-empty values in the Capacity Area column.

If a value displays in the Capacity Area column, it indicates that the activity belongs to another capacity area but consumes capacity from the capacity area that it belongs.  The displayed value of the capacity area is due to the following conditions:

Following fields are added to the downloadable resource and activity lists to improve the usability of the temporary assigned resources:

Resource List:

Activity List:

NOTE: Capacity Area and Assigned to fields are not filled and available for mass repeating activities.

Other:

When this feature is enabled a resource may contribute to capacity of two (or more) areas - e.g. one are is the one resource directly belongs to and another area (or areas) are ones resource is temporary assigned by means of same workzone(s). In such a case the sum of available capacities for the capacity areas under the same capacity group may exceed the capacity group available capacity due to double counted hours. However, the used activities will also be calculated for all the compatible areas, so the total figures are right.

EXAMPLES:

Example 1: Using temporary work zones

When a resource has a temporary work zone assigned, all other work zones will be ignored during the defined start and end date of the temporary work zone.

Bucket A  [assigned WX A]   

   - Tech 1 [assigned WZ A,WZ B  and Temporary WZ C from 7/1/18-7/8/18]

Bucket C [assigned WZ C]   

   - Tech 2 [assigned WZ C]

When "Use resources outside the capacity area" is checked, Tech 1 will be counted in quota calculations for Bucket C only between 7/1/18-7/8/18 because of the temporary workzone assignment. 

Example 2: Using assigned work zones

Bucket and Tech Setup:

Bucket A  [assigned WX A]    - Tech 1 [assigned WZ A and WZ B] Bucket B [assigned WZ B]     - Tech 2 [assigned WZ B]

When "Use resources outside the capacity area" is checked, Tech 1 will be counted in quota calculations for Bucket A and B.

Steps to Enable

By default, the "Use temporary assigned resources" functionality is turned off. We enabled this is global setting.

  1. Click Business Rules
  2. Go to the Quota Management section
  3. Check the Use resources outside the capacity area checkbox.

To disable, follow the step and uncheck the Use resources outside the capacity area checkbox.

Key Resources

Collaboration

Helpdesk in Mobility

As part of the 18C release, the Helpdesk functionality is available for mobile users when the assigned as a helpdesk operator.

The following features are supported for the helpdesk operator:

Example screenshot:

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Core Application

Unified Core Manage and Mobility

The 18C release introduces the Oracle Field Service Cloud Core Application (Core Application). This is the initial iteration that unifies what was known as Core Manage and Mobility into a single application. In addition to new functionality, the Core Application adds functionality that was previously only accessible using Core Manage including Routing, Capacity, Forecasting, and Configuration. 

SUMMARY OF CHANGES

Module Screen/Functionality Before 18C 18C
Activities   Dispatcher view was available only in Manage (called Activities). There was a separate Supervisor view in Mobility (called Manage).

Core Application will include both Dispatcher view (Activities) and Supervisor view (Manage).

Landing pages - List View/Time View/Map View - will behave exactly as it used to in Core Manage. Internal screens like Create Activity, Activity Details, Start Activity, Directions, Activate Route etc. will be displayed using the screens that were present earlier in Mobility (with added functionality, in some cases).

This functionality will be called 'Dispatch Console' in the Core Application 
  List view/Time View/Map View Available only in Core Manage Available in Core Application - same functionality as Legacy Core Manage
  Delete activity

Available only in Core Manage

Available in Core Application - same functionality as Legacy Core Manage.  

Field resources will be able to delete activities.
  Reopen activity

Available only in Core Manage

Available in Core Application - same functionality as Legacy Core Manage. 

Field resources will be able to reopen activities.
  Create non-scheduled activity

Available only in Core Manage

Available in Core Application - same functionality as Legacy Core Manage. 

Field resources will be able to add non-scheduled activities.
  Create Mass/Repeating activity

Available only in Core Manage

Available in Core Application - same functionality as Legacy Core Manage.

Field resources will be able to add repeating activities.
  Teamwork creation Available in Manage and Mobility. Ability to create teamwork as repeating was available only in Manage.

Available in Core Application - same functionality as Legacy Core Manage.

It will be possible to create teamwork as repeating activity.
  Cancel Mass/Repeating activity

Available only in Core Manage

Available in Core Application - same functionality as Legacy Core Manage.
  Add Multi-day activity

Available only in Core Manage

Available in Core Application - same functionality as Legacy Core Manage.
  Reopen Multi-day activity

Available only in Core Manage

Available in Core Application - same functionality as Legacy Core Manage.
       
Quota  

Available only in Core Manage

Available in Core Application - same functionality as Legacy Core Manage.
Routing  

Available only in Core Manage

Available in Core Application - same functionality as Legacy Core Manage.
Configuration  

Available only in Core Manage

Available in Core Application - same functionality as Legacy Core Manage.
  User Types  

Labels will be changed to reflect the new approach. The older Manage will be referred to as 'Legacy Manage'. The new unified app (earlier Mobility) will be referred to as the OFSC App.

A checkbox will be present to enable users to have access to the Legacy Manage interface. Unchecking this will direct all users to the new OFSC App.
Forecasting  

Available only in Core Manage

Available in Core Application - same functionality as Legacy Core Manage.
Resources Please refer to 'RESOURCE MANAGEMENT CHANGES' section below    
Reports & Dashboards  

Available only in Core Manage. Reports and Dashboards were separate menu items in Manage.

New Dashboard functionality in the Core Application with below functionalities

1) Single menu to access Oracle Field Service Cloud dashboards, Oracle Field Service Cloud reports or any embedded dashboards.

2) Personalization options in reports & dashboards

  • Option for the users to create dashboard pages.
  • Option to add/ remove reports / Dashboards from the page based on user preferences.
  • Option for the user to change spatial arrangement of report/dashboards. 

3) Predefined dashboards for users - Admin user can create pre-defined dashboard pages for a user types this can act as a reference for all the users in that user type.

4) New Configuration UI for admin users. - A new configuration UI will be available for admin users to add available reports and predefined dashboards for user types.
Collaboration  

Available only in Core Manage and Mobility, except for Helpdesk functionality that was present only in Manage

Available in Core Application including the Helpdesk functionality
Search   

Activity Search from header was available only in Core Manage.

Search by Inventory was available in the Technician view in Mobility

Activity Search will be available in the Core Application for all Dispatcher and Supervisor screens.

For Field resource screens, users will continue to be able to Search by Inventory
Login Screen   Screens looked very different in Core Manage and Mobility. Unified screen for Core Application and Legacy Core Manage.

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT CHANGES

  Manage till 18C Mobility till 18C Core Application since 18C Behavior after upgrade
Changes of creating /updating resource /user
Used screens

Resource info - list of available resources (Org unit, buckets, field resources, vehicle, tool), possible open particular resource to view details

Add child resource - allows to create new resource

Users - allows to create new user and specify resource for user on the Add user screen.

Resources - list of available resources  (Field resources, vehicle, tool) , possible to go to resource info screen.

The "+" button available to create new resource

Resource info - allows to view info about resource and update it according to set permissions.

Resources - list of available resources (Org unit, buckets, field resources, vehicle, tool), possible to go to Resource info screen.

The "+" button available to create resource and user on the Add resource screen.

Resource info - allows to view info about resource and update it on the Edit resource screen according to set permissions.

For all users who can create Field Resources the action "Create resource/user" will be added to new context "Resources"  after upgrade.

All settings from the "Resource info" context will be copied to "Resource/user edit" context with visibility as well (excluding predefined tabs).

For all users who can create resources the field "Organization unit" will be added with RW visibility to Resource/User edit context after "Resource Type" [ptype] field.

It means that all users' permissions will be saved as well.

For other users the behavior won't have any changes.

New options:

  • ability to create/update user
  • ability to update Organization unit
  • ability to update Visible resources

Should be configured according to the feature manual.
Context layouts

Context layouts

Resource info ? Add resource

                       ? Add user to resource

Context layouts

Resource info

Context layouts

Resources ?  Resource/user info

                  ?  Resource/user edit

See above description for Changes of creating/updating resource/user section
Create resource /user - options

Ability to create resources:

  • Field resource
  • Vehicle
  • Tool
  • Bucket
  • Org unit

Ability to create separate user

Resource has to be associated with a corresponding user account

Ability to move resources through the resource tree via drag and drop

No ability to set permission for User type who can change for particular resource Visible resources (There is no such field on the context layout)

Ability to create resources:

  • Field resource
  • Vehicle
  • Tool

No ability to create user without resource

Resource associated with a corresponding user account automatically

No ability to move resources through the resource tree

No ability to set permission for User type who can change for particular resource Visible resources (There is no such field on the context layout)

Ability to create resources:

  • Field resource
  • Vehicle
  • Tool
  • Bucket
  • Org unit  

New ability to create user without resource (Dispatcher/ Manager/Admin)

Resource associated with a corresponding user account automatically

New ability to move resources between Org units and Buckets and set RO/RW access for Org unit field

New ability to set access for User type who can change for resource visible resources. (There is new field "Visible resources" on the context layout)

See above description for Changes of creating/updating resource/user section
Permissions to create /update resource /user
  • User Type?General (section Resource Management) : permission "Allow resource tree rearrangement in Manage" - allow to move resources between Org Units by Drag-n-Drop in Resource Tree in Legacy Manage.
  • User Type?General: list of Managed User Types - user of this User Type can create users just with user types mentioned in this list.
  • Context Layout "Resource Info" in Manage: action "Add Child Resource" - allows to control access to the adding new resource functionality. Context Layout "Main menu items" in Manage: menu item "Users" - allows to control access to the adding/modifying users functionality. RO access means that actions Add/Edit are not available (;
  • Context Layout "Main menu items" in Manage: menu item "Resources" - allows to control access to the adding/modifying resources functionality. RW access means that action Edit is available. If this menu item is not configured then user can't view or edit resource info
  • Context Layout "Main menu items" in Mobility: menu item "Resources" - allows to control access to the Resource Management functionality.
  • All users who have at least more then one managed resources have access to the "+" button on the Resource screen.
  • Context Layout "Resource Info" in the Core Application: allows to control access to update resource via RW/RO visibility for resources fields.
  • User Type?General (section Resource Management) : permission "Allow resource tree rearrangement" - allow to move resources between Org Units by Drag-n-Drop in Resource Tree in Legacy Manage and on Resource/User edit screen using Org Unit field.
  • User Type?General: list of Managed User Types - user of this User Type can create users just with user types mentioned in this list.
  • Context Layout "Main menu items" in the Core Application: menu item "Resources" - allows to control access to the Resource Management functionality.
  • Context Layout "Resources" in the Core Application "Add" - allows to control access to the adding new resource/user functionality

See above description for Changes of creating/updating resource/user section
Available fields on context layout

All resources and users fields

No ability to add these fields to context layout and set RW/RO access:

  • Resources (list Visible resources)
  • Self-assignment
  • Parent (Organization unit)

All resources and users fields:

No ability to add these fields to context layout and set RW/RO access:

  • Resources (list Visible resources)
  • Self-assignment
  • Parent (Organization unit)

Both resources and users fields and properties.

New ability to set RW/RO access for fields:

  • Resources (list of Visible resources)
  • Self-assignment
  • Organization unit (Parent)

See above description for Changes of creating/updating resource/user section
Changes of resources calendars
Used screens

Resource calendars - allows to switch between resources via resource tree and view their added schedules (schedule, shifts, working time, etc)

Daily - show the calculated calendar for particular day

 Calendar - allows to see calculated schedule for particular month and change calendar via tap on the particular day. Calendar - allows to see calculated schedule for particular month and change calendar via tap on the particular day. The new option "Schedule" will be available for all users who have access to the Core Application and can change calendars.  
Context layouts

Main menu ? Resource Calendar

                     

 Main menu ? Calendar Main menu ? Calendar

See above description for Changes of resources calendars section
Create schedule

Ability to create schedule on the Configuration screen:

  • Schedule
  • Shifts (On-call, Overnight)

Ability to create schedule on the Configuration screen:

  • Schedule
  • Shifts (On-call, Overnight)

Ability to create schedule on the Configuration screen:

  • Schedule
  • Shifts (On-call, Overnight)

See above description for Changes of resources calendars section
Update calendar

Possible to add to resource:

  • Work schedule
  • Shift
  • Shift override
  • Working time
  • Working time override
  • Non-working time

The final schedule calculates according to priority for mentioned schedules.

Sometimes it is not clear for end user why such final schedule shows on the Daily screen and how it was calculated.

If a resource has not own schedule then a schedule from bucket is inherits for such resource.

Possible to add to resource:

  • Shift
  • Custom working time
  • Non-working time

The final schedule calculated according to priorities which work for Manage. If Shift, Custom working time or Non-working time set via Mobility then the last will be applied on the resource calendar.

If a resource has not own schedule then a schedule from bucket is inherits for such resource.

Possible to add to resource:

  • Schedule - new ability
  • Shift
  • Custom working time
  • Non-working time

The schedule which selected via Mobility is applies for selected period of time including Schedule and will be shown on the Calendar screen immediately.

Clear option for user. The last selected option(Schedule, Shift or On-call shift, Custom working time or Non working time) will be applied on the Calendar immediately. No need to use priorities like "override" in oder to cover existed schedule.

If a resource has not own schedule then a schedule from bucket is inherits for such resource.

See above description for Changes of resources calendars section
Permissions to update resources calendar
  • User Type?General: "Allow working calendar changes in Mobility" - user of this User Type can update calendars of managed resources.
  • Context Layout "Main menu items" in Manage: tab "Resource settings" ? menu item "Resources calendar" - allows to control access to the adding/modifying resources calendars. RO access means that actions Add/Modify are not available.
  • User Type?General: "Allow working calendar changes in Mobility" - user of this User Type can update calendars of managed resources.
  • Context Layout "Main menu items" in Mobility: menu item "Calendars" -  allows to control access to the Resource Calendar functionality. The absence of such a context means that the link Calendar is not available on the screen.
  • Context Layout "Resource info" Mobility: predefined tab "Calendars" -  allows to control access to view or update calendar via RW/RO visibility setting.
  • User Type?General: "Allow working calendar changes" - user of this User Type can update calendars of managed resources.
  • Context Layout "Main menu items" in the Core Application: menu item "Calendars" -  allows to control access to the Resource Calendar functionality. The absence of such a context means that the link Calendar is not available on the screen.
  • Context Layout "Resource/user info" in the Core Application: predefined tab "Calendars" -  allows to control access to view or update calendar via RW/RO visibility setting.

See above description for Changes of resources calendars section
Warning message when set Non-working time for resource

If a resource has activities for this day, the following warning message appear:

"Resource with pending activities should not be set non-working or inactive"

 No warning messages

If a resource has activities for this day, the following warning message appear:

"Resource with pending activities should not be set non-working or inactive"

See above description for Changes of resources calendars section
Ability to change inventory in the resource pool
Options It is possible to Add/Edit and Delete inventory from the resource pool

It is possible to view inventories in the resource pool.

Not possible to add or delete.

New ability to add inventory to the Resource pool via action "Add to resource" and delete inventory via "Delete" action link.

 The action links are available on the context layout and can be added for User type if need be.

ACCESS AND AUTHENTICATION

Unified Login Screen

Authentication to Oracle Field Service Cloud app will start from the unified login screen - this replaces the legacy Core Manage and Mobility login pages. By default all users will login to Oracle Field Service Cloud application regardless of URLs they use.

Here are some common example URLs that would open the Core Application login screen:

SUPPORT OF LEGACY TYPE OF AUTHENTICATION

To provide backward compatibility upon upgrade, Oracle Field Service Cloud will support legacy type of authentication.

To enable this support:

  1. Navigate to the Configuration page and select User types.
  2. In the User Types page, enable the "Allow access to Legacy Manage" check box. When the setting is checked, users of that user type will be redirected to the legacy Manage and Mobility interfaces as it used to be in prior versions. Even those users will be presented with the unified login screen from which they log in to the system.

UNIFIED ORACLE FIELD SERVICE CLOUD CORE APPLICATION

With the unified Oracle Field Service Cloud app, all major functionalities that were previously present only in the Manage interface will also be available in the Mobility interface now. With this change, the earlier Mobility interface will be referred as the Oracle Field Service Cloud Core Application.

The following modules that were only available in Core Manage interface previously will now be available in the new Core Application and will work exactly the same way:

Activities will also be available in the Core Application; however, some screens that were already present in the Mobility interface will now replace those screens from Core Manage. This module will be called 'Dispatch Console' in the Core Application.

In addition to the Main Menu items that were present in Mobility, the Core Application will provide the ability to configure the following items in the Main Menu:

Clicking the navigation icon displays the Main Menu as follows:

Main Menu Items

The landing page, sometime referred to as the Time/List and Map View, displays information as it did in the legacy Core Manage Activities screen.

Display Console

Internal screens like Add Activity, Activity Details, Start Activity, Directions, Activate Route etc. will be displayed using the screens that were present earlier in Mobility. For example:

Add Activity Dialog

Activity Details Dialog

ENHANCED ACTIVITY MANAGEMENT

Following are some enhancements with activity management:

Roles:

There are two main roles for activity management that can be defined basing on visibility that they have on resources:

These roles are not strictly limited to those short descriptions, there could be a mix (i.e. some user can perform work as a field resource but manage other resources as dispatcher) with Oracle Field Service Cloud distinguishing functionality as follows:

Delete Activity

Availability: Available for Dispatchers and Field resources. The functionality is presented online and offline.

Changes: Functionality is available for Field resources. The "Allow activity deletion in Manage" configuration setting is renamed to "Allow activity deletion"

A checkbox to delete activity is displayed on the "Cancel" screen when "Allow activity deletion" configuration setting is checked for a User type associated with the user. The checkbox is displayed for activities placed in inactive route.

Cancel activity Dialog

Reopen Activity

Availability: Available for Dispatchers and Field resources. The "Reopen activity" functionality works online and offline.

Changes: Functionality is available for Field resources.

The "Reopen activity" can be configured on the User type -> "Reopen Activity" configuration screen. From this version "Reopen activity" becomes a "shared" context layout hence changes applied to it are reflected in the Core Application and Legacy Core Manage.

Reopen Activity Action Link

The "Reopen" action link is available in the Core Application and Legacy Core Manage. It will be displayed for activities in "Canceled", "Completed", "Not Done" statuses.

Activity details Page

When clicking Reopen, the "reopen Activity" screen opens.

Values of all configured on the screen product fields and custom properties with enabled "Clone on reopen/prework" setting will be copied from initial activity and populated on the "Reopen activity" screen. Similarly to other screen intended to create new essences (such as "Add activity", "Add inventory" etc.) the "Reopen activity" screen will display fields/properties configured as R/W or Mandatory and amend R/O fields/properties.

Create Non-Scheduled Activity

Availability: Available for Dispatchers and Field resources. The functionality is available online and offline.

Changes: Functionality is available for Field resources.

The "Add activity" screen has the ability to create a non-scheduled activity.  If "Allow access to non-scheduled pool" is enabled for a User type associated with the user, they will be presented with two options: add activity for a specific date or add non-scheduled activity. When "Submit" is pressed, the activity will be created as scheduled or non-scheduled depending on selected option.

Add activity Dialog

Create Mass/Repeating activity

Availability: Available for Dispatchers and Field resources. The functionality is presented in online only.

Changes: The functionality is available for Field resources.

It's possible to create mass and/or repeating activity under the following conditions:

Dispatchers will be able to create mass and repeating activities while Field resources will create only repeating activities regardless of configured activity type options as they cannot manage other resources.

Repeating activity Dialog

Teamwork Creation Activity

Availability: Available for Dispatchers and Field resources. Teamwork creation is an online operation.

Changes: Field resource can add teamwork activity as "repeating".

The screen to create teamwork is displayed by clicking "Assign to team" action link from resource hint or cogwheel on time view or by drag-n-drop the resource to another on the resource tree. The teamwork screen shows up like in Legacy Core Manage when following conditions are met:

Teamwork creation screen displays "Repeating activity" section if the activity type supports this functionality. Teamwork creation screen does not display "Mass activity" section even if the activity type supports this functionality.

Add activity Dialog

Cancel Repeating / Mass Activity

Availability: Available for Dispatchers. The functionality is presented online and offline as follows:

Changes: Dispatchers can cancel Repeating / Mass activities regardless of the screen from which this operation is executed.

Same options that are available for repeating and mass activities in the Dispatch Console are reflected on the "Cancel activity" screen from Mobility.

Cancel Activity Dialog

Add Multi-day Activity

Availability: Available for Dispatchers and Field resources. The functionality works online and not presented offline.

Changes: Field resource can add multi-day activity on the "Add activity".

Multi-day activities can be created for activity types that support the "Multi-day activity" option. Field resource can add multi-day activities as either scheduled or non-scheduled if allowed for their assigned user type.

"Duration" is a mandatory field on the screen  so it is important to have this property and its respective visibility configured. 

Reopen Multi-Day Activity

Availability: Available for Dispatchers. The functionality works online and not presented offline.

Changes: Dispatchers can reopen Multi-day activity regardless of the screen from which this operation is executed.

The functionality of reopening a multi-day activity is similar to reopening a single day activity. There are two differences that should be taken into account:

Additional Action Links in Activity Details

The following Action links will be available for configuration within the Activity Details screen in the Core Application:

These links will open up a new screen that will have the same content as the tabs with the same names in the Legacy Manage interface.

Activity Links Dialog

Resource Preferences Dialog

Messages Dialog

Search

The search functionality that was present in Legacy Core Manage is also available in the Core Application in the "Dispatch Console".

Display Console

Routing, Quota, Forecasting and Configuration

Routing, Quota, Forecasting and Configuration will display similar to Legacy Core Manage and can be accessed from the Main menu, if configured for the User Type.

Routing Screen

Configuration Page

CHANGES TO USER TYPES CONFIGURATION

Within the User Types Configuration screen, all references to Core Manage and Mobility will be removed or changed to "Use Legacy Manage for Dispatch operations." and "Allow access via web application" respectively.

User Types Configuration Screen - Access Settings

The 'Allow access via installed application for Android' and 'Allow access via installed application for iOS' checkboxes specify whether the users assigned to this User Type, should have access to the native Android and/or iOS Oracle Field Service Cloud applications. If checked, users can access the Oracle Field Service Cloud application via the installed app on Android or iOS devices.

The Allow access via Mobility check box is removed, since the Core Application will be the default interface. The Allow access via Manage check box is renamed to Use Legacy Manage for Dispatch operations. If this checkbox is enabled, users will be redirected based on the URL to Legacy Core Manage or the new Core Application. If unchecked, users will have access to only the new Core Application.

The following table provides the URL redirection logic:

Optional service Mobility is enabled

Access to Legacy Manage is allowed (on User Type screen)

 Used URL Before 18C 18C>
YES YES https://login.etadirect.com/{instance_name}/

Manage Login screen

Redirect to Manage

Unified Login screen

Redirect to Legacy Manage

YES

 YES

https://login.etadirect.com/{instance_name}/mobility

https://login.etadirect.com/{instance_name}/mob

https://login.etadirect.com/{instance_name}/m/

Mobility Login screen

Redirect to Mobility

Unified Login screen

Redirect to the Core Application
YES NO https://login.etadirect.com/{instance_name}/

Manage Login screen

Logout

Unified Login screen

Redirect to the Core Application
YES NO

https://login.etadirect.com/{instance_name}/mobility

https://login.etadirect.com/{instance_name}/mob

https://login.etadirect.com/{instance_name}/m/

Mobility Login screen

Redirect to Mobility

Unified Login screen

Redirect to the Core Application
NO YES https://login.etadirect.com/{instance_name}/

Manage Login screen

Redirect to Manage

Unified Login screen

Redirect to Legacy Manage
NO YES

https://login.etadirect.com/{instance_name}/mobility

https://login.etadirect.com/{instance_name}/mob

https://login.etadirect.com/{instance_name}/m/

Mobility Login screen

Logout

Unified Login screen

Redirect to the Core Application without Offline functionality
NO NO https://login.etadirect.com/{instance_name}/

Manage Login screen

Logout

Unified Login screen

Redirect to the Core Application
NO NO

https://login.etadirect.com/{instance_name}/mobility

https://login.etadirect.com/{instance_name}/mob

https://login.etadirect.com/{instance_name}/m/

Mobility Login screen

Logout

Unified Login screen

Redirect to the Core Application without Offline functionality

MIGRATION

Existing customers will not experience changes after the upgrade with the Core Application. The admin or individual responsible for configuration will have to configure Main menu items for each user type in order to make the screens visible for the Core Application. The Main Menu items will be visible only to those users who currently can view the Main menu. Since the Main menu is currently displayed to users who have at least 2 resources associated with them, even after the upgrade, only these users will be able to access the new screens that have been merged from the earlier Core Manage service.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Core Manage

Activity Management - Month View

With the 18C release, the Time View automatically includes a new Month view, in addition to the existing Day, 2 Days, 3 Days, and 1 Week views.  Another minor update involved changing the 1 Week view name to Week.

NOTE: Accessing all 30 days in a single view requires a 4K display or multi-monitor configuration. When smaller screens are used, it is expected behavior that users will have to scroll for the Week or Month views.

The Month view is available when you click the Calendar and select Month. It displays the activities scheduled for 30 or 31 days, depending on the month, starting from the selected day. The shape and colors of activities are the same as in the Week view. In the Month view, the daily activities are shown at the work day/work schedule level, instead of the time level. So, if two resources have different start times, their starting activities are shown at the same level. The following figure shows the Month view with an activity hint:

Activities that are shorter than 1/4th of the resource schedule length, or those that don’t fit to either 1/4th, ½, or 3/4th of the resource schedule length are shown in the condensed activity view as striped bars. Clicking the condensed activity view shows the activity details and the activity hint. A multi-day activity that ends at the end of the previous day and starts at the beginning of the next day is shown as a single activity over multiple days. You can move activities in the Month view, by dragging and dropping them. If the activity is hidden inside the stripped bar, open the hint and then drag the activity to the required place.

Displaying the Month view for large buckets or where routes have more than 20 activities per resource per day may take additional time to render. It is recommended that you use this view when there are fewer then 20 resources to be presented.

The rules for displaying activities in the Month view are:

For example: Suppose that a work day for a technician starts at 8:00 AM and the work day duration is 8 hours. In this case, the activities starting at 8:00 AM and finishing at 10:00 AM (2h = 1/4 of the work day duration), starting at 10:00 AM and finishing at 2:00 PM (4h = 1/2 of the work day duration), or starting at 10:00 AM and finishing at 4:00 PM (6h = 3/4 of the work day duration) are shown as single activities. But the activities starting at 9:00 AM and finishing at 10:00 AM (1h = 50% of 1/4th of 8h work day) and starting at 11:00 AM and finishing at 1:30 PM (2.5h is more than 100% of 1/4th of 8h work day, but less than 70% of 1/2nd of 8h work day) are shown as a multi-activity.

Steps to Enable

Key Resources

Processing Activities of Non-Working Technicians

Currently, when a resource has non-working time or an inactive schedule, the activities assigned to the resource’s route are not included in bulk routing optimization. With the 18C release, when a technician has a non-working calendar or an inactive schedule, the activities in their route will be reoptimized using bulk routing when following conditions are met:

The activities that are not routed to other resources during reoptimization will be moved to the routing bucket.  This behavior applies even when the reoptimization goal =  "resources route" is used or if the activity was directly assigned to the resource of the resource preference is “required”.  Mass and repeating activities are not considered for reoptimization. This feature decreases the number of activities that are moved manually to adjust non-working time.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Support of Contingent Workers

With the 18C release, a new Contingent (or Infrequent) Workforce service is being introduced. A Contingent (or Infrequent) Workforce is one where the workers do not work directly for the company. They are contractors that may not have a dedicated or an assigned route every day. Typically, they will be assigned work infrequently, on an ad-hoc basis.  This new offering provides businesses with additional configuration capabilities to support mixed usage models where there are in-house resources, dedicated contractors and/or Contingent Workers.

To accommodate contingent workers, this release includes the new option, Resource is a contingent worker on the Add resource type and Edit resource type screens. This option lets you identify a resource as a contingent worker.

A new read-only field, User classification field is added to the Users screen. This field indicates whether the user is a contingent worker. The values are: “contingent worker” and “regular”.

HOW TO USE THE OPTION

First, enable the Contingent Worker service, so that it is available as part of your Oracle Field Service Cloud subscription.

NOTE: The Contingent Worker service is being targeted for availability and provisioning by the end of September 2018. Once provisioned, the functionality will be available for use and configuration. It will require either Oracle Field Service Cloud Professional Cloud Service and Oracle Field Service Enterprise Cloud Service.

To use the functionality, create a resource type for Contingent Workers. In other words, select the Resource is a contingent worker check box when creating a resource type on the Add resource type screen.

NOTE: The Resource is a contingent worker check box is grayed out on the Edit resource type screen. This means, after you create a contingent worker resource type, you cannot change it back to a normal resource. Further, a contingent worker resource can only be a field resource and this resource must have only one corresponding contingent worker user.

When you select the Resource is a contingent worker check box, the following fields are grayed out on the Add resource type screen:

Add Resource Type Screen

The following rules apply to contingent worker resources:

VIEW CONTINGENT WORKFORCE

Use the following options to view whether a resource is a regular or a contingent user:

As only a field resource can be linked to a user as a main resource, only field resource types are listed in the Resource type filter. The Resource type field is empty for users without a main resource.

Steps to Enable

Requires Oracle Field Service Cloud Contingent Worker to be added to your subscription. 

Key Resources

Mobility

Improvement of Calendars

Starting with the 18C release, a new option ‘Schedule’ is available on the Calendar screen in the Unified Manage and Mobility Application, making it possible to assign a schedule to a resource using the Calendar. The supervisor can also set Non-Working Time for a resource in case the resource needs a day off. However, the supervisor gets a warning message if the resource has some tasks assigned for the Non-Working Time allotted day.

This feature provides the following functionalities:

With 18C release, it is possible to assign an existing in the system schedule and select a point period of time for the schedule.  The update will be visible once Submit is selected. 

Assigning Schedule for a Resource

It is not possible to apply non-working time if the resource has a status other than repeating, shift, or mass type of activities assigned to thier route. If non-working time cannot be applied, a warning message appears. When you click Confirm, the non-working time is applied. 

These are the warning conditions:

Not Activated route and at least one activity in status:

Activated Route and at least one activity in status:

Deactivated route and at least one activity in status:

Steps to Enable

To use this option:

  1. Go to the Calendar screen.
  2. Click any calendar cell to open the Calendar Edit dialog.
  3. Click the down arrow and select the start date for the schedule.
  4. Set the End Date so that schedule applies for a period of time.
  5. (Optional) Select No date specified if you want the schedule to be applied indefinitely.
  6. Click Submit.

NOTE: Access to modifying of calendar depends on a configuration for User type.

Key Resources

Improved Inventory in Resource and Customer Pools

Starting release 18C, you can add inventory in the resource and customer pools and delete inventory from any pool using Oracle Field Service Cloud Core Application.

With this feature, you can:

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

Displaying Traffic Layer in Maps

A Traffic Layer will be available to users of Oracle Field Service Cloud Enterprise Cloud Service and Oracle Field Service Standard Map Cloud Service with Google Maps or Baidu Maps. The layer is available when the ‘Traffic’ option is selected from the following maps:

Route Map example:

Dispatch or Dispatch Console example:

This layer is not available for soon to be available Oracle Field Service Cloud Contingent Workers add-on service that will be available to subscribers of Oracle Field Service Cloud Professional Cloud Service and Oracle Field Service Cloud Enterprise Cloud Service.

NOTE: Traffic information will vary based on the map providers data availability which may not be available in all countries/areas/states/provinces/localities. Please check the map providers website for data availability.  When traffic data is available the system will use the most recent information available from the map provider which may not always be current.

Steps to Enable

To enable this option:

  1. From the Configuration page, click User Types.
  2. Select the User Type
  3. Under Permissions, select Use Real-time Traffic Data option.
  4. Click Save

Key Resources

Improved Resource Management

Starting with the release 18C, the “Add Resource” screen in Oracle Field Service Cloud Core Application has a new option to create “Organization Unit”, “Bucket” and users with the role “Admin/Manager/Dispatcher”.  All the resources of the Organization are displayed in the “Resources” section with flexible filters allowing resources to be allocated to a particular Org unit.

FUNCTIONAL IMPROVEMENTS

"Resources" screen  extended roles

In the previous version of Oracle Field Service Cloud Mobility Resource Management only displayed  "Field resource", "Vehicle" or "Tool".  The "Resources" screen has been extended to show the resources with the role "Dispatcher/Manager/Admin", "Organization unit" and "Bucket". Organization Units and Buckets are always shown at the top of the list and sorted alphabetically. Field Resources, "Dispatcher/Manager/Admins", Vehicles and Tools are shown below and also sorted alphabetically. 

A "Dispatcher/Manager/Admin" is a new role and these are  individuals that work in offices and have access to the system but are not assigned a route. They can manage users, the field resource, capacity, system configuration, etc.

WORKING WITH RESOURCES iN MOBILITY

Creation of organizational structure - organization units and buckets

The steps to create a new Organization units or Buckets are the same.

  1. From the Resources screen, Click the via "+" button to open the "Add resource" screen.
  2. Select the appropriate Resource Type =  "Organization unit" or "Bucket" depending on what you want to create
  3. Complete the necessary fields including:
    • The Org Unit/Bucket. to which the new organization unit belongs to. Note: Each instance has at least one "top level" organization unit which represents the organization.
    • Resource name that will be used to identify the Organization unit or Bucket
    • Other fields such as Time zone, Time format, Date format, Long Date format, Message language and Status are filled automatically based. They are set based on the configuration of the User who is creating the new resource/user. These fields can be changed if required.
    • Other properties may be need to be filled depending on the configuration of your instance.
  4. Click Submit

Creation of a "Dispatcher, Admin or Manager" resource

Users are created the same way a Field Resource was created in past releases. 

  1. From the Resources screen, Click the via "+" button to open the "Add resource" screen.
  2. Select the appropriate Resource Type =  "Dispatcher/Manager/Admin" 
  3. Complete the necessary fields including:
    • Resource name - identifies the resource in system
    • User Type - select the User Type from the drop-down list
    • Login -  login that will be used by the resource to access the system
    • Password  - the password that will be used to access the system (when the User Type has the internal login policy)
    • The Org Unit/Bucket. to which the new organization unit belongs to.

NOTE: Each instance has at least one "top level" organization unit which represents the organization.

  1. Click Submit

If Organization unit field is not specified for the Manager/Dispatcher/Admin user then such user will be treated as 'Unassigned" to any organization.

There are several cases when an Organizational unit field will not be specified:

Users also belong to Organization units

For companies which have org structure, it is important to see which employees and where they are located (office or department). In the previous version in OFSC, it is possible to see just Field Resources, but it is not possible to see users who arrange their work, because just "field resources" assigned to only one organization unit or bucket. Thus it is not possible to see the general hierarchy and determine how many users like managers, admins or dispatchers works and where they are located hierarchically.

Since 18C version the users, who are actually "Dispatchers/Managers/Admins" (see above), are also organized in the hierarchical structure in the same way as "field resources". It means that it possible to see all resources in the one place, understand which resources are there in particular office or department and quickly navigate needed of them using a filter on the screen.

How to move resource from one Org Unit/Bucket to another one

How to change a Field Resource to a Dispatcher, Admin or Manager

How to find resources who are assigned to a particular organization unit

NOTE: The user should have visibility into the Org unit or Bucket where the resource is located.

How to find resources who are not assigned to a particular organization unit

NOTE: The user should have visibility into the Org unit or Bucket where the resource is located.

How to find resources who are assigned a "Dispatcher/Manager/Admin" role

NOTE: This resource type is only available on the filter panel if it is configured on the "Resource type" screen context.

How to see the user count for particular organization unit

In the example below the FL, USA Org Unit has 5 active Manage/Dispatcher/Admin users.

CONFIGURATION ACCESS FOR RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

How to restrict functionality of new resource creation

  1. Go to Configuration -> User type -> General -> Can create users of the following user type
  2. Go to Screen configuration -> Context layout Resources  and add action "Create resource/users". If context Resources is not configured the button "+" is hidden on the Resources screen.
  3. Go to Context layout Resource/user edit. The following fields should be configured with a RW visibility:
    • Organization Unit (label: parent)
    • Resource Type (label: ptype)
    • Status (label: pactive)
    • Resource Name (label: pname)
    • Language (label: planguage)
    • Date Format (label: pdate_fid)
    • Time Format (label: ptime_fid) 
    • Time Zone (label: time_zone) 
    • Long Date Format (label: sulong_date_fid)
    • User Type (label: user_type_id)
    • Login (label: ulogin)
    • Password (label: password) - mandatory for User Type which has the internal login policy
    • Visible Resources (label: resources)  Other properties may be need to be configured and filled depending on the configuration of your instance.

NOTE: If mandatory properties are not configured on the screen for particular User Type or are empty, the message "Form is mis-configured" will be shown when attempting to submit "Add resource" and you will not be able to create a new resource/user until the mandatory properties are added to the screen layout.

How to restrict functionality of moving resources between Org Units

It is possible to restrict access of moving resources by:

  1. Go to Configuration screen
    • Select appropriate User type and go to the General tab
    • Check the option Allow to move resources between Organization Units
  2. Go to Configuration screen
    • Select appropriate User type and go to the Screen configuration
    • Go to the Edit Resource/User context and set RW/RO visibility for the field Org Unit/Bucket

SCREEN CONFIGURATION UPDATES:

Here are other updates to the screen configurations:

  1. The existing context layout Resource info is renamed to Resource/User Info.  
  2. A new context Resource/user Edit was added. This enables the "Resource/User edit" to be set so users and resources can be created and modified. RO/RW visibility settings will determine access to resources/users fields.
  3. A new context Resources is added to the Application screens section and is used for the existing "Resources". This context lets users configure the "Create resource/user" action link that is used to control access for adding new resource/users.
  4. A RW/RO visibility are added to the "Org Unit/Bucket" field making it possible to control who can move resources by hierarchy (between offices or departments). 
  5. A RW/RO visibility are added to the "Visible resources" field making it is possible to control who has access to change visible resources for particular resource.

Steps to Enable

Key Resources

Real-Time Traffic Updates for Travel Time Estimation

Starting with 18C, travel time between activities will be updated with current travel and traffic conditions (i.e. real-time traffic data) when a field resource activates their route or when the end/complete an activity.

Use of this feature requires a subscription to Oracle Field Service Cloud Enterprise Cloud Service and Oracle Field Service Standard Map Cloud Service with Google Maps or Oracle Field Service Standard Map Cloud Service with Baidu Maps.

This feature is configurable by user type and when enabled, the travel time will be updated with current travel and traffic conditions at:

ROUTE ACTIVATION

When a user activates their route from the Oracle Field Service Cloud Mobility app or the Core Application, the real-time travel data from the map data provider (e.g. Google Maps) will  be used to update the travel time between activities on the current days route. In order to use this option while activating the route, the following conditions must be satisfied:

ACTIVITY COMPLETION

When an activity is completed using the Oracle Field Service Cloud Mobility app or the Core Application, the real-time travel data from the map data provider (e.g. Google Maps) will  be used to update the travel time to next activity on the route. In order to use this option after completing the activity, the following conditions must be satisfied:

If the 'Allow next activity selection on Complete' is enabled for the user where it is possible to select next activity on the route, the travel time to those activities will be updated with current, real-time conditions when another activity is selected.

NOTE:  Traffic information will vary based on the map providers data availability which may not be available in all countries/areas/states/provinces/localities. Please check the map providers website for data availability.  When traffic data is available the system will use the most recent information available from the map provider which may not always be current.

Steps to Enable

To set up real-time traffic updates:

  1. Log into Oracle Field Service Cloud Application.
  2. Navigate to the Configuration page.
  3. From the Configuration page, click User Types.
  4. Select the User Type. 
  5. Under Permissions, select Use Real-time Traffic Data option.Click Save.

Key Resources

Temporary Resource Locations

Currently, you can define resource start, end and home locations for each weekday. With the release 18C, you can define start, end and home zone locations for a specific day using the new "Override daily locations" section on the Mobility resource management screen. When configured, the Override Daily Locations will be used across the entire system including bulk, immediate, and urgent routing. Temporary locations older than 90 days are automatically deleted from the system.  

Example of the Override Daily Location screen:

You can add, edit, and cancel daily location overrides. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. In Mobility, click the navigation menu and click Resources.
  2. Select the Resource for which you want to update the locations.
  3. Click the Locations tile.
  4. Go to the Override Daily Locations section.
  5. To add an override, click the plus icon. The Override Daily Location dialog appears.
  6. Select the start location, end location, and home location.
  7. Select the date for which you want to override. You can select any date up to 1085 days in the future.
  8. Click Submit.
  9. To edit an override, click on it and change the details in the popup screen.
  10. To cancel an override, click the minus icon.

NOTE: Location Override updates are not available using an API in the release.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Reports and Dashboards Usability Improvements

With 18C, the functional flow of reports and dashboards has been enhanced to improve the usability experience for Oracle Field Service Cloud Core Application users (see Unified Core Manage and Mobility).

This feature allows you to perform the following:

About Dashboard Charts and Reports in Core Application 

Dashboard Charts: 

Dashboard charts are graphical representation of a report. A user can configure a dashboard tab and drag the required chart icon from the Available reports menu and drop it inside a dashboard tab then the chart will display the details of the report accordingly.

Users will be able to remove a chart from a dashboard page using the X button in the upper right hand corner of the report. 

Users can click the Options icon to display the configurable parameters for the Dashboard. In case of predefined dashboards charts, these settings are configured at the time of creation and users who view these predefined dashboards cannot modify these settings. 

Standard Reports: 

Standard reports are represented as a tile in a dashboard tab as shown below. User can configure a dashboard tab and drag the report icon from the Available reports menu and drop it inside a dashboard tab. Reports will be represented with standard report icon and name in Available reports menu.

The report will be displayed with a description of that report in the dashboard tab along with a standard icon as follows:

Standard Report

While configuring a dashboard tab, user can add or remove the report tile from a tab. The Close button will be available while configuring a dashboard. Clicking this button will remove the report from dashboard tab. If the Available reports menu is hidden then the user cannot remove or add reports to the dashboard tab.

Note that the following functionality is not available in the Core Application Dashboards:

Steps to Enable

SET UP DASHBOARDS AS A MENU ITEM FOR A USER TYPE

Access to configure available reports in Dashboards in the Core Application is controlled by user types. The user (preferably, Administrator with configuration permission) can grant permissions to access dashboards for a particular user type so that all users in that user type can access the Dashboards menu.

To set up Dashboards as a menu item for a user type:

  1. Click the Navigation button and select Configuration.
  2. In the Configuration page, select User Types.
  3. In the User Types page, select Screen Configuration.
  4. From the Application screens section, select the Main menu item:
  5. In the Main Menu context layout, click Add action. The Add menu item dialog is displayed.
  6. In the Add menu item dialog, select the Dashboard check box and click OK.
  7. The Dashboards menu item is now added to the Navigation pane. Users can access dashboards and reports from this Dashboards page.
  8. To navigate to the Dashboards page, click the Navigation button and select Dashboards.

ADD DASHBOARD

You can set up custom dashboards from the Dashboards page. Such dashboards are shown as tabbed pages in the Dashboards page. In this document, the Dashboards tabbed page is referred as dashboard.

NOTE: The Add dashboard action will work only if the Available Reports pane is open.

To add a dashboard:

  1. Log into Oracle Field Service Cloud Mobile App.
  2. Navigate to the Dashboards page.
  3. Click the properties icon.

Properties Pane

  1. Select Add dashboard from the drop-down menu.

The Add Dashboard dialog opens:

Add Dashboard Dialog

  1. Select the New Dashboard option.
  2. Enter the dashboard tab name to add.
  3. Click OK.

The Dashboards page shows the newly added dashboard.

Dashboards Page Showing New Dashboard Tab

The Dashboard will be in configure mode by default you can drag & drop reports or dashboard charts from the available reports.

CONFIGURE A DASHBOARD PAGE

You can configure a dashboard tab by selecting the configure current dashboard from the menu.

To configure a dashboard tab page:

  1. Navigate to the Dashboards page.
  2. Click the properties icon and select Configure current dashboard from the drop-down menu. 

The Available reports pane opens.

You can perform the following tasks:

NOTE: You cannot add reports or dashboard charts into any dashboard tab once you close the Available reports pane. Similarly, you cannot remove a dashboard chart from a dashboard tab after closing the Available reports pane.

RENAME A DASHBOARD

You may rename a dashboard to any name you wish to use.

To rename a dashboard:

  1. Navigate to the Dashboards page.
  2. Click the properties icon and select Rename Dashboard from the drop-down menu.

The Rename Dashboard dialog is displayed:

Rename Dashboard Dialog

  1. Edit the Name field to the dashboard name you wish to use..
  2. Click OK.

The Dashboards page refreshes to display the modified dashboard name.

DELETE CURRENT DASHBOARD

You can delete dashboards or reports on the Dashboard.

NOTE: Apply caution when deleting dashboards; once they are deleted, dashboards cannot be retrieved from Oracle Field Service Cloud.

To delete a dashboard tab:

  1. Navigate to the Dashboards page.
  2. Select the tab corresponding to the dashboard to delete.
  3. Click the properties icon and select Delete current dashboardf rom the drop-down menu. The Delete Dashboard dialog appears:
  4. Click OK to confirm deletion.

The deleted dashboard will not be available in the Dashboards page.

REARRANGE DASHBOARDS

You may want to set the arrangement of how custom tab pages appear in the Dashboards page. You can choose how to display a selected dashboard in the Dashboards page in mobile devices.

To rearrange dashboard tabs in the Dashboards page:

  1. Navigate to the Dashboards page.
  2. Click the properties icon and select Rearrange dashboard from the drop-down menu.

The Rearrange Dashboard dialog displays a list of available dashboards.

Rearrange Dashboard Dialog

  1. Select the tab corresponding to the dashboard you want to move.
  2. Drag and drop the selected object as needed. The selected object can be moved up or down.
  3. Click OK.

The Dashboards page shows the selected object in its new position.

CONFIGURE AVAILABLE REPORTS FOR A USER TYPE

Access to configure available reports for a user type in the Core Application is controlled by user types. The user (preferably, Administrator with configuration permission) can grant permissions to add Dashboards as a menu item. To configure available reports for a user type, you would require permissions to access Dashboards from the Configuration page.

To set up Dashboards as a menu item in configuration page for a user type:

  1. Click the Navigation button and select Configuration.
  2. In the Configuration page, select User Types.
  3. In the User Types page, select Screen Configuration.
  4. From the Application screens section, select the configuration  menu item.
  5. In the configuration menu context layout, click Add action. The Add menu item dialog is displayed.
  6. In the Add menu item dialog, select the Dashboards check box and click OK.
  7. The Dashboards menu item is now added in the Configuration page. Users can access dashboards and configure available reports for a user type.

To configure available reports for a user type, navigate to the Dashboards page from the Configuration menu.

When the user opens the Dashboards page for the first time, reports or dashboard charts will not be available for the selected user type as follows:

Default Dashboards Page

You can set the Available reports configuration option to enable reports.

To set the necessary permissions for a list of reports:

  1. Navigate to the Dashboards page.
  2. Click the properties icon and select Configure current dashboard from the drop-down menu. 
  3. The Available Reports pane appears as follows:

Available Reports Pane Before Setting Permissions

  1.  Select the progress icon placed next to each report under the Available reports pane to enable it. 

Available Reports Pane After Setting Permissions

The selected reports or dashboard charts will be added to the available reports list of that user type.

CONFIGURING PREDEFINED REPORTS

Predefined dashboards are dashboards created by a user for a specific user type - all the users in that user type will be able to see this dashboard tab by default. Access to configure predefined dashboards in the core application is controlled by user types. The user (preferably, Administrator with configuration permission) can grant permissions to configure predefined dashboards for a user type.

To configure predefined dashboards in the Oracle Field Service Cloud core application:

  1. Make sure that the user has permission to access dashboards from configuration page.
  2. Navigate to the Dashboards page.
  3. If the Available Reports pane is not displayed, click the properties icon and select Configure current dashboard from the drop-down menu.  When you open the Dashboards page for the first time, no dashboards will be configured.
  4. You can either click the New Dashboard button or select the menu item to add a predefined dashboard to create a new predefined dashboard.
  5. You can select the user type from the page header and add relevant reports or dashboard charts to the dashboard to create a predefined dashboard for that user type.

Default Dashboard

Users in that user type will be able to view the predefined dashboard now:

Predefined Dashboard

Only those users that have permission to create predefined dashboard will be able to configure, rearrange, rename or delete predefined dashboards. With predefined dashboards configured for that user type, users can view the dashboard. To view the parameters configured for a dashboard chart, you can click the options icon.

Options Icon  

Options configured while creating the predefined dashboard will remain the same for all the users in that user type.

SET A DATE OR RESOURCE FILTER

You can view date and resource as a generic filter for all the charts or reports configured in a dashboard page.

Date filter:

You can select a date from the calendar. The selected date will be applicable for all the dashboards on the Dashboards page. You can choose to see the data for the selected day or for the day before selected from the dashboard.

To select a specific date from the calendar:

  1. Click the Calendar icon and select a date.
  2. Charts will display data for the  selected month / month before selected/ selected day/ Day before selected.
  3. When the user drills down a report from the Dashboard page, report details page will displayed based on the selected date. Report details page will display both From date and To date as the date selected from this page by default. You can change these dates from the filter in the Report details page.

Resource filters: 

Resource filter can be used for displaying the data of charts at buckets or organizations or at individual resource level. When the user drills down a report tile, the Report Details page will be displayed based on the resource or resource group selected in this page.    

My Dashboard: 

Existing Dashboard charts selected in the legacy Manage application will be displayed as a new tab  "My Dashboard" in Oracle Field Service Cloud application: 

Key Resources

Integration

ICS as a Channel in Outbound Integration Page

With release 18C, you can view your existing ICS channel configurations from Outbound delivery channels earlier this was available in the configuration page under Users, Security section.You can perform the following tasks:

NOTE: To add, delete and modify ICS configurations, you should have the permission to access Outbound Integration.

Steps to Enable

VIEW THE INTEGRATION CLOUD SERVICE CHANNEL

You can view the available channels using the Outbound Integration Channels page.

To view the ICS channel configurations, navigate to the Configuration page and Click Outbound Integration Channels.

Outbound Integration Channels Page

The Outbound Integration Channels page displays a list of available channels.  

CREATE AN INTEGRATION CLOUD SERVICE CHANNEL

You can create a new Integration Cloud Service (ICS) channel by using the add channel option on the page.

  1. Navigate to the Configuration page and Click Outbound Integration Channels.
  2. In the Outbound Integration Channels page, click Add Channel.
  3. In the Add Channel dialog, provide the following details to create an ICS channel.

Add Channel Dialog

  1. Click OK.

The new ICS channel appears in the Outbound Integration Channels page.

New ICS Channel

MODIFY THE CONNECTION DETAILS OF AN ICS CHANNEL

You can add or modify the connection details of an Integration Cloud Service (ICS) channel from the Outbound Integration Channels page.

NOTE: Users who have permission to access ICS channel should be allowed to access Outbound delivery channels to access ICS channel.

  1. In the Outbound Integration Channels page, select the Integration Cloud Service (ICS) channel to edit.
  2. Click the Properties icon.

Properties Icon

NOTE: The Properties icon will not be available for Daily Extract Configuration.

  1. Click Modify.  

Modify Options for ICS Channel

  1. In the edit dialog, modify the values in the following fields as necessary and click OK:
    • Name – Enter the channel name to be displayed
    • Host – Provide the address of the database server or the name of the host
    • User Name– Enter the name of the ICS User
    • Password– Provide the password associated with the ICS User
    • Confirm Password– Retype the password.
  2. The updated details for the ICS channel are displayed in the Outbound Integration Channels page.

DELETE AN INTEGRATION CLOUD SERVICE CHANNEL

You can delete Integration Cloud Service (ICS) channels from the Outbound Integration Channels page.

  1. In the Outbound Integration Channels page, select the Integration Cloud Service (ICS) channel to delete.
  2. Click the Properties icon.
  3. Click Delete.
  4. In the delete confirmation dialog, click OK.
  5. Deleting ICS channel will delete the ICS configurations from Oracle Field Service Cloud.

You can also delete BICS, DBaaS or OAC channels using the Outbound Integration Channels page. Deleting the channel will delete the channel configurations from Oracle Field Service Cloud.

When BICS / DBaaS channel are deleted from Oracle Field Service Cloud Outbound Integration Channels page, all the entities corresponding to that channel configuration will be deleted. This includes deletion of all the configurations in Oracle Field Service Cloud including the tables and columns. However, corresponding tables and columns created in BICS / DBaaS will not get deleted as part of this action. You must manually delete these tables and columns from BICS or DBaaS. If you create a table/column in OFSC with the same name as in BICS /DBaaS then the data transfer from OFSC to BICS /DBaaS will fail.

ICS CHANNEL DETAILS

You can configure Integration Cloud Service (ICS) channels using the Outbound Integration Channels page.

  1. In the Outbound Integration Channels page, a newly created Integration Cloud Service (ICS) channel appears as follows:

ICS Channel - Data Transfer Not Started

  1. The status shows that the data transfer has not yet started.
  2. After data transfer starts for the selected channel, the status displays the time when the last update occurred.

ICS Channel - Data Transfer Details

  1. Data Transmission Success Rate is the Percentage of successfully transferred data.  Data transmission success rate = (total.number of events successfully transferred / total.events selected).

Integration with IoTCS Using OIC

With the release 18C, integration with IoTCS using OIC feature has been introduced to automate the process of dispatching a Technician to a job that needs the attention, for an IoT enabled device.

Earlier, there was a need for certain amount of manual effort whenever a Technician has to attend to an asset. With 18C, wherever a Technician has to attend to the asset, this feature enables capturing the alerts triggered by the asset and creates an Oracle Field Service Cloud (OFSC) activity automatically with the appropriate details. Therefore, the process of scheduling a Technician appointment can be completed with little or no user interference.

This integration includes the following scenarios:

PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE

  1. The monitored Asset triggers an alert that it needs to be serviced (for example, regular annual maintenance). The asset also stores information about the SLA (the amount of days after the alert is triggered by which the technician should come).
  2. The application sends the alert to Oracle Field Service Cloud via OIC.
  3. The application creates a new activity with asset related information received from IoTCS. It assigns the activity to a predefined "bucket" from where it can be routed to a suitable Technician as and when required.
  4. The created activity will have the following fields populated from IoTCS:
    • Asset Name – Displays the name of the Asset as available in IoTCS
    • Asset Description – Displays the description of the Asset as available in IoTCS
    • Summary – Displays the summary of the Alert as available in IoTCS
    • Severity – Displays the priority of the Activity. For a Maintenance activity, this value is set to 'Low'. For an Outage, it will be set as 'Critical'
    • Address– Displays the address of the Activity
    • City– Displays the city name as in the Activity address
    • Zip/Postal Code– Displays the postal code
    • State– Displays the state name as in the Activity address
    • SLA End– Displays the SLA end value calculated based on the current date and the value received from IoTCS
    • Activity Type – Specifies the Activity type. The default value is Asset Maintenance. You may modify this value if needed
    • Resource ID – Specifies the Bucket where the Activity will be created. This is set to the Bucket 'Routing' for this integration; it can be modified as per customer preference.
    • Appt Number - Specifies the external Id of the Activity
    • Customer Number – Displays the customer number as received from IoTCS

OUTAGE

  1. If a critical event occurs (for example, an outage), the monitored Asset triggers an alert that it needs to be serviced immediately.
  2. The critical alert is sent to Oracle Field Service Cloud via OIC.
  3. The application creates an activity with high severity and asset related information received from IoTCS. It routes the activity to the most appropriate technician immediately. The technician receives a notification that there is a critical activity.
  4. The created activity will have the fields populated from IoTCS in similar manner as it would be for Preventive Maintenance
  5. The severity of this activity is set as 'CRITICAL'. Within Oracle Field Service Cloud, Activities with CRITICAL severity will be routed immediately to a suitable Technician on priority.

    Critical Severity

ASSET DETAILS SCREEN

Whenever the application assigns an activity, based on alert received from IoTCS, to a technician, the technician can view the device information and key indicators in real time data in Mobility. This information will also be available in the Dispatcher view of Activity details.

Asset Details Screen

This is a point to point integration between IoTCS and Oracle Field Service Cloud and would not involve OIC.

Integration between IoTCS and Oracle Field Service Cloud through OIC configuration is discussed next.

IOT AND OFSC INTEGRATION VIA OIC CONFIGURATION

Process flow during iOT and Oracle Field Service Cloud Integration:

  1. IoT invokes OIC and sends the alert message with the array of alerts.
  2. For each alert the information about the asset is retrieved from IoT.
  3. The integration package for OIC can be imported from the OFSC-OSvC par file.
  4. The image shows a flow diagram of how the integration between iOT and Oracle Field Service Cloud happens:

OFSC and IOT Integration Process

In the integration flow diagram:

  1. Using alert and asset information OIC creates or updates activity in OFSC.

MAPPED FIELDS IN INTEGRATION

This section discusses the details about the mapped fields in the integration:

Steps to Enable

You can configure IoTCS Integration using the following procedures:

  1. Set Up IoT to Enable the Integration:
    1. Create the device model in the IoT platform
    2. Set Up the IoT data simulator
    3. Create and configure assets
    4. Configure rules
    5. Set up the application settings in the IoT platform
    6. Create a new integration cloud service integration in the IoT platform
    7. Show asset details in Oracle Field Service Cloud by enabling widgets in IoT
  2. Set Up Oracle Field Service Cloud to Enable the Integration
    1. Create new activity type for this integration
    2. Create properties for the new activity type
    3. Mobility configuration for new activity

SET UP IoT ENABLE THE INTEGRATION

1. Create the Device Model in the IoT Platform:

  1. Navigate to Devices, Model and create a new Model  named "Cell tower" with the following details:
    • Name – Enter the value “Cell tower”
    • Description – Enter the value “Cell tower model”
    • URN – Enter the value “urn:com:oracle:iot:cellTower”

  2. Define the attributes for the model:

  1. Provide the details for the alert "serviceNeeded". Set the following values:
    • Name: serviceNeeded
    • Description: Routine service is needed
    • Type: Alert
    • URN: urn:com:oracle:iot:cellTower:serviceNeeded
    • Fields: 
      • Name: service_needed
      • Type: Boolean
  2. Navigate to Application, Oracle IoT Asset Monitoring Cloud Service, Device Models.
  3. Select the "Cell tower" by clicking Hand button to use it with the assets.
  4. Select the "Device Model for System Alerts" by clicking the Hand button to perform the integration between IoT and OFSC with the help of "Alert" object.
  5. Navigate to Application, Oracle IoT Asset Monitoring Cloud Service, Device Selection and select "Include All"

2. Set Up the IoT Data Simulator:

  1. Obtain the IoT Data Simulator URL, for example: <your_host>/ds/.
  2. Define the attributes for the Cell tower simulation model based on the Cell tower device model as follows:
    • signalLevel – Indicates the level of the GSM signal produced by the cell tower. The initial value is -70 dB. The function to automatically change signalLevel is: randomInRange(-80.0,-60.0)
    • Voltage – Indicates the voltage in the power network to which the tower is connected. The initial value is 110 V. The function to automatically change Voltage is: sinInRange(108.0,112.0)
  3. Define the configuration for the alert "urn:com:oracle:iot:cellTower:serviceNeeded" supported by a simulation model as follows:
    • Name: SEND:serviceNeeded
    • Time: 0ms
    • Field "service_needed" = true

  4. Add one event to the configuration of the simulation model. When the event is triggered, it changes the behavior of the attributes of the virtual device:

  1. Create three instances of the virtual device based on the simulation model. See the following sample:

Sample Instances of Virtual Device Based on Simulation Model

  1. After devices are created switch them on.
  2. Open the IoT platform (URL: <your_host>/ui/) in a Web Browser.
  3. Navigate to the Devices page, Management and enter the values of Name, Description and GPS coordinates for each of three devices you have created.

3. Configure the Asset

  1. Navigate to IoT Asset Monitoring CS service, URL: <your_host>/am/), configure asset type and create several assets.
  2. Open the Assets screen and select the Asset types tab:

Asset Types Tab Icon

  1. Add a new asset type
    1. Create a new asset type with the name: cell_tower_type
    2. Set the default value or specify the allowed values in the following attributes. Define the attributes in the following format <name>: <type>.
      • city: Text
      • state: Text
      • street: Text
      • zip: Text
      • service_delta: Number
    3. Address related fields are automatically populated into the Oracle Field Service Cloud Activity when the maintenance is required or an outage occurred. 
    4. service_delta is used to calculate the Service Level Agreement (SLA) for Oracle Field Service Cloud activity. SLA will be set to <timeofbooking of the activity created > + service_delta. 
    5. service_delta is defined in days.

  2. Edit an asset type:

    1. Select the asset type with the name: cell_tower_type and select Modify.
    2. In the Edit Asset Type dialog, specify the options:

      Edit Asset Type Dialog

    3. Specify that there should be one device attached to the asset of this type. The name of the device is: cell_tower. The device model is: Cell Tower (the same as defined in step a).

  3. Create three assets based on the "cell_tower_type one for each virtual device created before.
  4. Edit an asset:
    1. Navigate to the Edit Asset dialog.
    2. In the Edit Asset dialog, specify arbitrary Name and Description. Example for a serial number would be CT389283009823.

NOTE: The only limitation that Name cannot contain any spaces.

Edit Asset Dialog

  1. Select one device from the menu. The selected device will be linked with the asset.
  2. Specify the address details for example street, city, state and zip. The address should be located in the same GPS coordinate as the device linked to the asset.
  1. Navigate to the Map screen and check if you can see the assets on the Map.
  2. The coordinates of each asset are taken from the coordinates of the corresponding device and not from the asset address.

4. Configure Rules

  1. Navigate to the IoT Asset Monitoring CS service (URL: <your_host>/am/).
  2. Open the Assets screen.
  3. Requirements to create rules:
    1. Rules set conditions on asset sensor or KPI values.
    2. When a rule condition is met, the associated alert, warning, or incident is triggered.
    3. Only alerts can be sent to the integrated system. Hence, alerts are triggered.
  4. Create two rules as follows:

Rule 1: The first rule will trigger an alert with low severity when an asset notifies that it needs service. When the device that is linked with the asset generates Alert message with urn:com:oracle:iot:cellTower:serviceNeeded then a system alert should be send to the integrated system. This resulting alert is generated by a system build-in device of model "Device Model for System Alerts". To configure the first rule, set the following values:

Rule 1 specifies that when a device linked with the asset generates an alert message with urn:com:oracle:iot:cellTower:serviceNeeded then the Device Model for System Alerts model generates an alert and sends it to the integrated system.

Rule 2: The second rule will trigger and alert with critical severity when an outage is identified. For example the outage is reported when the "Voltage" reported by the cell tower is less than 90 Volts. It is possible to set more complex rules. To configure this rule, use the following attributes:

5. Set up the Application Settings in the IoT Platform

  1. Navigate to the IoT platform (URL: <your_host>/ui/).
  2. Open the Settings page.
  3. In the Trusted CN field, enter the domain of the Oracle Integrated Cloud Services that you use. This value is mandatory to connect from IoT to OIC and it should be provided to configure the integration.

6. Create a New Integration Cloud Service Integration in the iOT Platform

  1. Navigate to the IoT platform (URL: <your_host>/ui/).
  2. Open Applications, Oracle IoT Asset Monitoring Cloud Service, Integration.
  3. In the Create new Integration Cloud Service Integration page, complete the following fields:
    1. Select the Overview tab and enter OFSC in the Name field.
    2. Select the Connection tab and enter the following values.
    3. Select the Streams tab and enter the following values.
      • Message Format: RESystemAlert
      • Integration resource URL: /IOT_TO_OFSC_ORCHESTR/v01/createActivity

7. Enable Widgets in IoT Platform to Populate Asset Details Page in Oracle Field Service Cloud

  1. Navigate to the IoT platform.
  2. Open the Settings page and navigate to the Security section.
  3. Under Security section, fill the following fields:
    • Allowed Hosts for Syndicated Widgets – Enter the name of your OFSC host in format: https://some_host.com(Put the manage URL of your OFSC instance)
    • Allowed Hosts for Cross-Origin Resource Sharing–Enter the same OFSC host as provided in the Allowed Hosts for Syndicated Widgets field.
  4. The Settings page appears as follows:

IoTSettings Page Showing Security Section

  1. Save your settings.

SET UP ORACLE FIELD SERVICE CLOUD TO ENABLE THE INTEGRATION

1. Create a New Activity Type for this Integration in Oracle Field Service Cloud

  1. Navigate to the Configuration page and click Activity Types.
  2. In the Activity Types page, click Add Group to add a new group.
  3. In the Add Group dialog, enter the following values:
    • Label: asset_gr
    • Name: Asset

The Add group dialog shows the values for the new group Asset.

Add Group Dialog

  1. Click Add.
  2. Click Add Activity Type to create a new activity type with the following parameters:
    • Label: asset
    • Name: Asset Maintenance
    • Active: checked
    • Group: Asset
    • Default duration: 48
    • Color scheme - copy from other activity
  3. Under Features, enable the check boxes next to the following fields:
    • Teamwork: unchecked
    • Multi-day activity: unchecked
    • Allow move between resources: checked
    • Allow creation in buckets: checked
    • Allow reschedule: checked
    • Support of not-ordered activities: checked
    • Allow non-scheduled: checked
    • Allow mass activities: unchecked
    • Allow repeating activities: unchecked

The Add activity dialog shows the values for the new activity type Asset Maintenance.

Add Activity Type Dialog

  1. Click Add to create the new activity type.

2. Set Up Properties for the New Activity Type

  1. Navigate to the Configuration page and click Properties.
  2. In the Properties page, add the following properties:
    • Properties that hold asset information
      • Asset Name
        • Property type: String
        • Property name: Asset Name
        • Property label: asset_name
        • Lines count: 1
        • GUI: Text
      • Asset Description
        • Property type: String
        • Property name: Asset Description
        • Property label: asset_description
        • Lines count: 1
        • GUI: Text
    • Properties that hold information about the alert
      • Summary
        • Property type: String
        • Property name: Summary
        • Property label: summary
        • Lines count: 1
        • GUI: Text
      • Severity
        • Property type: Enumeration
        • Property name: Severity
        • Property label: severity
        • GUI: Combobox
        • Enumeration values:-
          • Critical      , CRITICAL
          • Low           , LOW
          • Normal      , NORMAL
          • Significant , SIGNIFICANT
  3. Close the Properties page.

3. Configure Mobility for the New Activity Type

NOTE: The action links will only work on Oracle Field Service Cloud release 18A or greater platforms.

  1. Navigate to the Configuration page and click Action Management.
  2. In the Action Management page, create an action link with the following details:
    • General tab options:

Edit Action Link Dialog Showing General Tab

Edit Action Link Dialog Showing Plugin Details Tab

  1. In the Configuration page, click User Types.
  2. In the User Types page, select the Screen Configuration tab:
  3. Add the above created action link Asset details to the context Edit/View Activity in Mobility section.

Screen Configuration Tab Showing Edit/View Activity Action Link

  1. Drag and drop the actions named Asset details to the palette and give visibility condition as Activity type[aworktype] equals to Asset Maintenance. 
  2. Drag and drop the field Asset Name to the palette. This is a mandatory field. The plug-in will work only if this field has a value.
  3. Other fields like Asset ID, Asset Description, Summary, Severity are also can be added to this context with visibility flag as Activity type[aworktype] equals to  Asset Maintenance.

Define Urgent Activity Condition for the New Activity Type

  1. Navigate to the Configuration page and click Business Rules.
  2. In the Business Rules page, locate the Activity priority field.
  3. In the Activity priority field, enter the following field values:   
    • Property to define priority: Severity[severity]   
    • Urgent activities have the following values for the property: Critical   
    • Normal activities have the following values for the property: Low,Normal,Significant  
  4. Create a routing plan with Run schedule Immediately for Urgent activities. This is used to assign the activities meeting the defined criteria as they appear in the bucket. Once immediately is selected, two options of activity selection appear.

Create Routing Plan Screen Showing Run Schedule Immediately With Urgent Activities

Select the for Urgent Activities option. (Routing will assign the activities matching the 'property+value' combination defined in the Activity Priority field).

  1. Activate the Routing plan.  

Tips And Considerations

Oracle Field Service Cloud - Oracle Analytical Cloud Service (OAC) Integration

The 18C release provides Oracle Analytical Cloud Service (OAC) users capabilities to explore and perform collaborative analytics for users and their enterprises, built on a high-performance platform with flexible data storage. With Oracle Field Service Cloud and OAC integration, you need not navigate between applications to access data; you can use Oracle Field Service Cloud as the single location to make use of Oracle Field Service Cloud data and create analytical reports in OAC. You can also embed any OAC report or dashboard in Oracle Field Service Cloud pages so that user who has access privileges can see such reports/dashboards in Oracle Field Service Cloud directly.

NOTE: You must have a subscription to Oracle Analytical Cloud Service to use this integration.

You can add any parameter values to the reports/dashboards embedded into Oracle Field Service Cloud. The reports / dashboards will be refreshed based on these parameter values.

Steps to Enable

Following are the steps to configure Oracle Field Service Cloud - Oracle Analytical Cloud Service (OAC) integration:

To add a new channel for OAC in Oracle Field Service Cloud

  1. Navigate to the Configuration page and select Outbound Integration Channels.
  2. In the Outbound Integration Channels page, click Add Channel.
  3. In the Add Channel dialog, select Oracle Analytical Cloud Service from the Channel Type drop-down list.
  4. In the Name field, enter the channel name to be displayed.
  5. In the URL field, specify your Oracle Analytics Cloud URL without the /analytics or /va URL extension. For example, https://<My OAC>.oraclecloud.com.
  6. In the Service Name field, provide the network service name of the database.
  7. In the User Name field, enter the name of the OAC User.
  8. In the Password field, provide the password associated with the OAC User.
  9. In the Confirm Password field, retype the same password.
  10. Click OK.

The Outbound Integration Channels page displays the newly added OAC channel:

OAC Channel

Users can transfer data in near real-time or daily once based on the configuration set against an entity. All the fields supported for Oracle Business Intelligence Cloud Service (BICS) transmissions will be available for Oracle Analytical Cloud Service (OAC) data transfer. Steps to add fields into the OAC channel are similar to that of BICS/ DBaaS channel.

EMBED OAC URLS INTO ORACLE FIELD SERVICE CLOUD

Oracle Field Service Cloud users can embed OAC reports, visualizations, and dashboards that they created in Oracle Analytical Cloud Service.

To embed reports or Dashboards:

  1. Whitelist the Oracle Field Service Cloud domain in OAC.
  2. Find the OAC URL of the object you want to embed.
  3. Sign in to Oracle Field Service Cloud. Embed the Oracle Analytical Cloud Service content inside action link and use the copied URL.

EMBED ORACLE ANALYTICAL CLOUD REPORTS OR DASHBOARD INTO ORACLE FIELD SERVICE CLOUD

To get access for the Oracle Analytical Cloud Service reports or Dashboard, users must whitelist the Oracle Field Service Cloud: domain name in OAC.

NOTE: Only administrators have the privilege to add safe domains to the whitelist. 

Users can log into Oracle Analytical Cloud Service and add the domain name associated with Oracle Field Service Cloud to the “Allow embedding in” whitelist for OAC.

To allow embedding in Oracle Analytical Cloud Service:

  1. Click Console.
  2. Click Safe Domains.
  3. Click Add Domain under Allow embedding in.
  4. Type the name of Oracle Field Service Cloud domain. For example, allow embedding in *.etadirect.com.

FIND THE URL OF THE OBJECT FROM OAC INSTANCE YOU WANT TO EMBED.

The user will have to select the URL of the dashboards which he wishes to embed into Oracle Field Service Cloud

  1. Go to the Catalog and open the object.
  2. Copy the URL displayed in the browser. The URL will look similar to this

http://example.com/analytics/saw.dll?Dashboard&PortalPath=%2Fshared%2FSales%2F_portal%2FQuickStart&page=Top%20Products

EMBED ORACLE ANALYTICAL CLOUD CONTENT INTO ORACLE FIELD SERVICE CLOUD

  1. Make sure user have permission to access dashboards in Oracle Field Service Cloud app. Details are available here
  2. Log in to Oracle Field Service Cloud app
  3. Click the Navigation button and select Dashboards.
  4. Click the properties icon and select Add Dashboard from the drop-down menu.

The Add dashboard dialog opens.

Add Dashboard Dialog Showing Embedded Dashboard Option

  1. Select the Embedded dashboard option.
  2. Complete the following fields and click OK.
    • Name - Enter the name of the tab to be displayed on the Dashboards page.
    • URL - Provide the URL that to be embedded in the Dashboard tab. Once added this URL will be added as a new tab in the Dashboards page.  You can now add dashboard URL of any other analytical applications in this page. Data will be displayed in dashboards as a new tab with the name provided. You will not be able to add or remove charts or reports into this page.

ADD PARAMETER VALUES IN EMBEDDED REPORTS

You can add parameter values in the embedded reports and display the same in the Oracle Field Service Cloud page created. To achieve this, you must

For example, a user wants to add a resource tree into the embedded OAC reports:

  1. Add resource tree parameters {pid} in the OAC URL as follows:

https://example.com/analytics/saw.dll?Go&Path=%2Fcompany_shared%2FOFSC-DEMO%2F_portal%2FOFSC%20Sample%20Dashboard&p0=1&p1=eq&p2="provider"."pid"&p3="{pid}" https://example.com/analytics/saw.dll?Go&Path=%2Fcompany_shared%2FOFSC-DEMO%2F_portal%2FOFSC%20Sample%20Dashboard - OAC dashboard URL

  1. Create a filter in the OAC report / dashboard with PID. Note, for displaying the dashboard for both parent and leaf nodes, the URI requires two PID placeholders as follows:

https://testbi723-usoracle11148.analytics.us9.mycloud.oraclecorp.com/analytics/saw.dll?Dashboard&PortalPath=%2Fcompany_shared%2FOFSC-DEMO%2F_portal%2FOFSC%20DEMO%20Dashboard&Action=Navigate&P0=2&P1=eq&P2=PROVIDER.RESOURCE_ID&P3={pid}&P4=eq&P5=PROVIDER.PARENT_RESOURCE_ID&P6={pid}&options=mdr

SSO CONFIGURATION

To avoid the administration overhead of multiple logins in Oracle Field Service Cloud and Oracle Analytical Cloud Service cross-domain SSO for Oracle Field Service Cloud and Oracle Analytical Cloud  Service can be configured.

To configure SSO in Oracle Field Service Cloud, use these steps

  1. Log into Oracle Field service Manage interface.
  2. Click Configuration.
  3. Click Login Policies.
  4. Click Add New button. The Add Policy dialog is displayed. 
  5. Complete the following fields and click Add:
    1. In the Authenticate using field, enter the SAML value.
    2. In the IdP Metadata XML field, enter the name of the Metadata file provided by IdP.
    3. In the label field, enter the unique identifier label. This will be used for the SSO login screen.
    4. In the Oracle Field Service Cloud Metadata XML field, download and update the SAML Idp metadata file.
    5. In the Policy name field, enter the policy name assigned to this policy.
    6. In the Specify SAML IdP field, enter the Upload metadata XML.

To configure SSO in Oracle Analytical Cloud Service, use these steps:

  1. You must be logged onto Oracle Analytical Cloud Service as an administrator

NOTE: Ensure that the username in Oracle Field Service Cloud matches the username in Oracle Analytical Cloud Service. Otherwise, update the user which want enable SSO to keep in that way under User.

  1. To enable SSO, click SSO Configuration and then click Configure SSO.
  2. Select Import IP metadata option. Browse and select the same SSO file that was used for Oracle Field Service Cloud from SAML IDP Provider.
  3. In SSO protocol field, enter HTTP POST.
  4. In the User Identifier, custom attribute field, enter uid.
  5. Export Oracle Analytical Cloud Service Provider metadata and update the SAML IDP provider in Oracle Field Service Cloud.
  6. Click Test and then select Start SSO. When you enter the administrator user name and password, you should see the successful login session message.
  7. Once it is successful, click Enable SSO.

NOTE: Oracle Analytical Cloud Service instance should be active while accessing the embedded reports in Oracle Field Service Cloud. If not active, a blank page will be displayed with error details.

  1. Users can add any parameter value to the reports/ and dashboards embedded into Oracle Field Service Cloud. The reports or dashboards will be refreshed based on these parameter values.

Key Resources

Routing

Using Street Level Routing (SLR) Data in Routing

The 18C release adds the Street Level Routing (SLR) capabilities to routing. This new functionality can be configured per routing plan and when enabled, it will obtain Street Level travel data from the map provider (for example, Google Maps) and use that data during optimization. 

HOW TO USE

Prerequisite:  Requires a subscription to Oracle Field Service Cloud Enterprise and Oracle Field Service Standard Map Cloud Service with Google Maps or Oracle Field Service Standard Map Cloud Service with Baidu Maps.  Oracle Maps availability is planned for a future release.

To enable SLR functionality for a routing plan:

  1. Go to Routing, Routing Plans.
  2. Choose a Routing Plan.
  3. Select Modify from the menu.
  4. Under the Run Schedule tab choose "Use SLR to obtain travel data" and adjust the time limit if needed.

When SLR is enabled in the routing plan:

Regardless of the optimization goal that is used, you could also limit the maximum travel time and travel distance for every travel (either to first activity or from last activity or between two activities). The maximum values for the Avoid travel longer than field are 1440 minutes and 900 miles.

Routing Summary Screen:

A new line shows the Average Mileage per route for travel-enabled activities (either Average Mileage or Average Kilometer, depending of the units chosen) in the routing summary screen.

Routing Report:

A new line shows the method of distance and/or time estimation for travel to each activity in the routing report. The following methods of travel estimation are available: 

Travel Estimation Method

Description
Not estimated No travel estimation was done;  this it a rare outcome to be seen in the report.
Using Defaults Using company defaults (see Default travel average time in minutes under Configuration -> Statistics)
Statistics Estimated using company travel statistics
Airline Distance Estimated as airline distance using Airline distance speed in km/h parameter from Configuration -> Statistics)
Airline Distance and Statistics Estimated as weighted average of value from company travel statistics and airline distance (see  Coordinate calculation weight under Configuration -> Statistics)
Manual Adjustment Manually adjusted via interface
Street Level Routing Time and distance were obtained from the Street Level Routing provided
External Adjustment Adjusted via API
Same Location No travel is needed as both activities takes place in the same location

Routing Comparison:

A new line shows the Average Mileage per route for travel-enabled activities (either Average Mileage or Average Kilometer, depending on the units chosen) in the routing comparison screen.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.