Oracle Field Service Cloud What's New in the August 2016 Release August 2016
TABLE OF CONTENTS REVISION HISTORY... 3 OVERVIEW... 4 Security & New Features... 4 Give Us Feedback... 4 RELEASE FEATURE SUMMARY... 5 FIELD SERVICE... 6 Field Resource Manager Expansion... 6 Enhanced Map Functionality... 6 Collaboration Enhancements... 7 Natural Learning... 7 Core Manage and Routing Enhancements... 8 Integration Cloud Service (ICS) and RESTful API Expansion... 8 New Integrations... 9 Forecasting Enhancements... 9 2
REVISION HISTORY This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates are logged below, with the most recent updates at the top. Date What's Changed Notes 03 AUG 2016 Initial Document Creation 3
OVERVIEW This guide outlines the information you need to know about new or improved functionality in Oracle Field Service Cloud Release August 2016 and describes any tasks you might need to perform for the update. 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 8415. SECURITY & NEW FEATURES We would like to remind you if your system has modified security structures you may need to advise your security administrator of new features. GIVE US FEEDBACK We welcome your comments and suggestions to improve the content. Please send us your feedback at HTTP://DOCUMENTATION.CUSTHELP.COM/CI/DOCUMENTS/DETAIL/5/4/12. 4
RELEASE FEATURE SUMMARY Some of the new features are automatically available to users after the upgrade and some require action from the user, the company administrator, or Oracle. The table below offers a quick view of the actions required to enable each of the features. Automatically Available Action Required to Enable Feature End User Action Required Administrator Action Required Feature Field Service Field Resource Manager Expansion Oracle Service Request Required Enhanced Map Functionality Collaboration Enhancements Natural Learning Core Manage and Routing Enhancements Integration Cloud Service (ICS) and Restful API Expansion New Integrations Forecasting Enhancements 5
FIELD SERVICE Built on time-based, self-learning, and predictive technology, Oracle Field Service Cloud transforms customer experiences as well as the effectiveness and productivity of field service operations. Customers know when service will occur and how long a job will take because Oracle Field Service Cloud s patented approach eliminates guesswork and uncertainty. Users can plan, optimize, and manage fieldwork, scheduling, and coordinating jobs for mid-to-large workforces in minutes. Field teams can communicate with customers and each other to ensure that jobs are completed in a timely manner. This holistic field service loop allows managers to create efficient daily job schedules, work assignments, and routes while maintaining a real-time view of the field. FIELD RESOURCE MANAGER EXPANSION Updates to the Field Resource Manager feature first released in August 2015 and February 2016 will further extend the capabilities of field supervisors, taking another step toward completely optimized field service management without the need for centralized dispatch. Supervisors can manage each resource s calendar, easily adjusting shifts and time off. Work skill, work zone levels, and locations can be adjusted in the field at the supervisor s discretion, right from his or her device. No steps are required to enable this feature. Configuration is required to provide users with the ability to update calendars, work zones, work skills, and locations. TIPS AND CONSIDERATIONS Users must be online in order to manage field resources. Users must have a user type that is configured to display Resource info (configured in the Mobility section of the Screen Configuration tab). ENHANCED MAP FUNCTIONALITY The August 2016 release adds new functionality to Oracle Field Service Cloud s Mapping solution, allowing customers who prefer to manage the field directly in map view to quickly make adjustments and shift resources. The capability to host custom map layers such as CAD maps displaying above- and below-ground infrastructure allows customers to quickly identify assets on maps, increasing the speed of fieldwork. The new maps also accommodate the representation of work zones. Field managers can visualize the location of resources, identify pools of capacity, and see infrastructure on a single map. Upload a shape file through the Metadata API to add an internal custom map layer. 6
TIPS AND CONSIDERATIONS Internal custom map layers can be viewed only on the Team, Activity List, and Activity Detail maps in Mobility and only in online mode. COLLABORATION ENHANCEMENTS Oracle Field Service Cloud s Field Collaboration module receives a significant update with the August 2016 release, further enabling the field to self-manage. The Broadcast feature offers the ability to send field-wide messages from the Collaboration window. This feature allows users to notify the field of emergencies or important changes, such as route changes or schedule adjustments, taking place during the day. With the Activity Broadcasting feature, jobs can be offered to the field for individuals to accept on a first-come, first-served basis, improving the efficiency of handling unscheduled work requests. This feature is also a benefit for customers who often need to assign work to a large number of contractors. These enhancements also include the ability for field workers to exchange a fixed quantity of unserialized inventory directly through the Collaboration module. This feature improves inventory management and increases field efficiency by enabling and tracking exchanges in the field through a simple, chat-like interface. No steps are required to enable this feature. TIPS AND CONSIDERATIONS Only activities with a pending status can be broadcast for assignment. Only users with the Allow Activity Move Between Resources permission in their user type can broadcast activities for assignment. Recipients of an activity broadcast are filtered to ensure they have the appropriate work skills, work zones, and service window for the activity. The Conference option of group messaging allows discussion among all recipients of the message. NATURAL LEARNING This release introduces Natural Learning, a major advancement to the self-learning capabilities of Oracle Field Service Cloud. This feature is an evolution of the product s ability to build performance pattern profiles for each person in the field, mimicking the way human beings learn and respond to past experiences. Natural Learning simulates the human learning process to determine activity duration time estimates, providing the ability to calculate job durations beyond an individual s average performance and placing more emphasis on the most recent time the job was performed. This adjustment allows 7
users to see patterns develop more quickly and provides a higher level of confidence in statistical results. No steps are required to enable this feature. TIPS AND CONSIDERATIONS Recommendations for configuring the New Resource page include adding the Initial Ratio for Activity Duration property so that an initial value can be set and omitting the Working days left for reported data to start impacting duration estimations property. Recommendations for configuring the Edit Resource page include adding the Working days left property and omitting the Initial Ratio property. CORE MANAGE AND ROUTING ENHANCEMENTS The August 2016 release includes several updates to Oracle Field Service Cloud s Core Manage and Routing modules. Enhancements to Core Manage include an About screen, which helps users see what services are part of their subscription and provides links to useful content. Message configuration has been redesigned, simplifying message scenario and notification setup. Simplified SAML configuration allows users to configure Single Sign On more easily when SAML authentication is used. Other updates include easier configuration of properties; the ability to multi-select items found in Business Rules, Work Zones, Display and Statistics Parameters; and the automated recalculation of data when configuration changes are made. With this release, all routing configuration screens have been redesigned for simpler navigation and configuration adjustment. No steps are required to enable these features. INTEGRATION CLOUD SERVICE (ICS) AND RESTFUL API EXPANSION This release offers an expansion of Oracle Field Service Cloud s ICS integration capabilities and APIs, allowing customers to more easily integrate with backend systems. In the ICS integration expansion, the integration layer will now support bulk operations, and resource- and user-related events can be published via ICS adaptor. Event API, part of Oracle Service Cloud s Core API, allows customers to subscribe to events and receive notifications in near-real time. This release adds the capability for a user to call a specific event related to user or resource, providing a more comprehensive source of changes occurring in Oracle Field Service Cloud. 8
Meta API was expanded and enables updating and storing of software configurations with the addition of Work Skills, Properties, and Languages. Finally, Core API expansions now support delaying activities until a certain time or for a certain amount of time, reopening a previously completed activity, starting prework, inventory exchanges, and modifying the travel time between scheduled pending activities. KEY RESOURCES No steps are required to enable these features. Oracle ICS is a separate Oracle product distinct from Oracle Field Service Cloud. You must have a valid subscription to Oracle ICS to use the adapter. Understanding Oracle Field Service Cloud APIs NEW INTEGRATIONS The August 2016 release includes two major integrations. Integration with Oracle Business Intelligence Cloud enables bulk upload from Oracle Field Service Cloud directly into Oracle Business Intelligence Cloud. With this integration, customers can creating more complex reports and forecasts, and have the ability to blend field service data with other data sources to achieve more insight into their business. An embedded integration with Oracle Identity Management allows customers who use Oracle Identity Manager (OIM) to control all of their field service identities along with all other cloud and on-premises applications from a single, unified tool. Oracle Business Intelligence Cloud Service is a separate Oracle product distinct from Oracle Field Service Cloud. You must have a valid subscription to Oracle Business Intelligence Cloud Service to use the integration between the two applications. Oracle Identity Manager is a separate Oracle product distinct from Oracle Field Service Cloud. You must have a valid subscription to Oracle Identity Manager to use integration between the two applications. FORECASTING ENHANCEMENTS An enhancement to Oracle Field Service Cloud s Forecasting module shows resource availability scenarios including the minimum, maximum and average resource availability when a particular capacity category or time slot is selected from the view option. No steps are required to enable this feature. --- 9
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