EBS_122_Cum_RCD_SVC

ORACLE E-BUSINESS SUITE RELEASE CONTENT DOCUMENT Service Management Releases 12.1 and 12.2 (inclusive of 12.0.2 – 12.0.7)

Prepared by EBS Product Management & Strategy Last Updated: May 09, 2014

Version: 2.3 Copyright © 2014 Oracle Corporation All Rights Reserved

Table of Contents

1. Disclaimer 1

2. Introduction 2

2.1. Purpose of Document 2

3. New and Changed Features in Service Management 3

3.1. Oracle Advanced Inbound Telephony 3 3.1.1. Overview 3 3.1.2. Release 12.1.1 3

3.1.2.1. Direct Client-side CTI Integration 3 3.1.3. Release 12.2.4 3

3.1.3.1. Direct Client-side CTI Integration with HTML Service Applications 3

3.2. Oracle Advanced Scheduler 4 3.2.1. Overview 4 3.2.2. Release 12.1.1 4

3.2.2.1. Geographic Clustering 4 3.2.2.2. New Scheduling Optimizer 4 3.2.2.3. 2008 Navteq Digital Map Data Certification 4

3.2.3. Release 12.1.1+ 4 3.2.3.1. Segmentation of Cost Parameters and Profiles 4 3.2.3.2. Technician Shift and Skills Management 5 3.2.3.3. Stand-By Shift Support 6

3.2.4. Release 12.1.2 6 3.2.4.1. Navteq 2008 Data Certification and Global Instance 6

3.2.5. Release 12.1.3 6 3.2.5.1. Third Party Scheduling 6 3.2.5.2. Scheduling to preferred resources based on Scheduler's cost model 6

3.2.6. Release 12.1.3+ 7 3.2.6.1. Scheduler UI – Simplified Territory Qualifier Selection 7 3.2.6.2. Scheduler UI – Display Spares Sourcing Information 7 3.2.6.3. Auto Commit (Release) Tasks by Territory 7 3.2.6.4. Scheduling to Site Dedicated Technicians 7

3.2.7. Release 12.2 7 3.2.7.1. Uptake of Navteq ODF Data format 7

3.2.8. Release 12.2.4 8 3.2.8.1. Work Load Balancing 8 3.2.8.2. Scheduler Web Services 8

3.3. Oracle Assignment Manager 8 3.3.1. Overview 8 3.3.2. Release 12.1.1 9

3.3.2.1. Sort Winning Territory Resources by Absolute Rank 9 3.3.3. Release 12.1.2 9

3.3.3.1. Follow the Sun Service Request and Task Assignment 9 3.3.3.2. Mass Service Request and Task Updates 9

3.4. Oracle Complex Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (CMRO) 9

Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document ii

3.4.1. Release 12.1.1 9 3.4.1.1. Marshalling 9 3.4.1.2. OSP Receiving 10 3.4.1.3. Enigma 3C Integration 10 3.4.1.4. Various Enhancements in Engineering (forward ports from R11.5.10) 10 3.4.1.5. Various Enhancements in Planning (forward ports from R11.5.10) 10 3.4.1.6. Various Enhancements in Production (forward ports from R11.5.10) 11

3.4.2. Release 12.1.2 11 3.4.2.1. Enhance Effectivity Details definition 11 3.4.2.2. Enhance maintenance requirement interval definition with counter start date 11 3.4.2.3. Enable WIP accounting class to be updateable in production 12 3.4.2.4. Allow creation of a non-routine from an existing non-routine 12

3.4.3. Release 12.1.3 12 3.4.3.1. Descriptive Flex Field (DFF) enablement 12

3.4.4. Release 12.2 13 3.4.4.1. FAA Compliance Reports 13 3.4.4.2. Projects Integration Enhancements 14 3.4.4.3. Enigma 3C Integration 16 3.4.4.4. Supplier Warranty 18

3.4.5. Terminology 22

3.5. Oracle Depot Repair 23 3.5.1. Release 12.1.1 23

3.5.1.1. Third Party Logistics for Repairs 23 3.5.1.2. Supplier Warranty Claims 23 3.5.1.3. Invoice Third Party 23 3.5.1.4. Disposition Rules Engine 24 3.5.1.5. Defaulting Rules Engine 24 3.5.1.6. Dynamic Repair BOM 24 3.5.1.7. Bar-Coded Traveler Document 24 3.5.1.8. Default Repair Item as Material Demand 24 3.5.1.9. Service Bulletins 24 3.5.1.10. Manage ECOs 25 3.5.1.11. Enable Back flush of Non-Serialized Repair Parts 25 3.5.1.12. Service Parts Planning: Forecast and Fulfill Demand for Spare Parts 25

3.5.2. Release 12.1.2 25 3.5.2.1. Repair Manager Portal 25 3.5.2.2. Returns Management: Planned Receipt Matching 25 3.5.2.3. Time Clock 25 3.5.2.4. Complete Work Button 26 3.5.2.5. Filter Root Cause Codes by Repair Item 26

3.5.3. Release 12.1.3 26 3.5.3.1. Recall Management 26 3.5.3.2. Returns Dashboard 26 3.5.3.3. Environmental Impact Reporting 26 3.5.3.4. Warehouse-to-Warehouse Movement of Serialized Products and Parts 26 3.5.3.5. Partner Portal for Repair Vendor Collaboration 27 3.5.3.6. Warranty Claims Portal 27 3.5.3.7. Capture Payment and Shipping Information 27 3.5.3.8. Read-only Depot Workbench 27 3.5.3.9. Automatically Close Repair Order after Shipping Item 27 3.5.3.10. Recycling and Asset Recovery 27 3.5.3.11. Manage Exchanges and Returns of Broken Parts and Field Replaceable Units 27 3.5.3.12. Refurbish Internally-owned Items and Parts 27

3.5.4. Release 12.1.3+ 28 3.5.4.1. Returns Portal 28 3.5.4.2. Environmental Impact Reporting 28 3.5.4.3. Supplier Warranty Management 28 3.5.4.4. Asset Recovery Flow 28 3.5.4.5. Service Campaigns and Field Change Orders 29 3.5.4.6. Create New Customer 29

Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document iii

3.5.4.7. Batch Create Jobs 29 3.5.4.8. Calculate Resolve By Date from RMA Receipt Date 29 3.5.4.9. Prevent Shipping Exchange Item until Defective Item Received 29 3.5.4.10. DFFs Added to Technician Portal 30 3.5.4.11. Create Service Requests and Repair Orders for Rental Items 30 3.5.4.12. Display Material Transaction History on Technician Portal Materials Table 30 3.5.4.13. Recommend Part Disposition from Rules Engine 30 3.5.4.14. Auto-create Repair Orders for Recovered Parts 30 3.5.4.15. View and Capture Install Base Data from Technician Portal 30 3.5.4.16. Auto-complete Operation using Time Clock 30 3.5.4.17. Auto-create Repair Warranty 31 3.5.4.18. Track Serial Numbers and Sub-inventories against Internal Sales Orders 31 3.5.4.19. “Request Parts” Button auto-creates Purchase Req or Internal Req 31 3.5.4.20. Service Parts Planning Integration for Serialized Items 31 3.5.4.21. Service Order Orchestration 31 3.5.4.22. Bulk Returns through the Returns Portal 31 3.5.4.23. Bulk Internal Moves: Inter- and Intra-Warehouse 32 3.5.4.24. Additional Defaulting Rule Attributes 32 3.5.4.25. Create Estimate from Technician Portal 32 3.5.4.26. Launch Quality Collection Plan upon Operation Completion 32 3.5.4.27. Extend Resolve By Date for Hold Time 32 3.5.4.28. Calculate Resolve By Date starting from Specified Status Transition 32 3.5.4.29. Returns Portal Enhancements for Oracle’s Own Takeback Operations 32

3.5.5. Release 12.2 33 3.5.5.1. Changing from “Repair Order” to “Service Order” 33 3.5.5.2. Automotive Industry Configuration 33

3.6. Oracle Depot Repair Extensions for Oracle Endeca – New Product 33 3.6.1. Overview 33 3.6.2. Release 12.1.3+ 33

3.6.2.1. Expedite Late or Aging Repair Orders 34 3.6.2.2. Assign Unassigned Repair Orders 34 3.6.2.3. Identify and Resolve Process Bottlenecks 34 3.6.2.4. Identify and Resolve Quality Problems 34 3.6.2.5. Evaluate Performance of Service Technicians, Groups and Divisions 34 3.6.2.6. Ensure Supplier Warranty Claims are Settled and Paid Expeditiously 34 3.6.2.7. Ability to Evaluate Suppliers based on Product Quality and Claims Settlement 34

3.7. Oracle Email Center 35 3.7.1. Overview 35 3.7.2. Release 12.1.2 35

3.7.2.1. Display of Email Threads during Email Response 35 3.7.2.2. Agent UI Queues Tab 35 3.7.2.3. Advanced Automatic Service Request Creation 35

3.7.3. Release 12.1.3 35 3.7.3.1. SSL Enabled Download Processor 35

3.7.4. Release 12.2.4 36 3.7.4.1. SMTP Authorization for Non-SSL email accounts 36

3.8. Oracle Field Service 36 3.8.1. Overview 36 3.8.2. Release 12.0.3 (RUP3) 36

3.8.2.1. Google Maps Integration 36 3.8.3. Release 12.1.1 36

3.8.3.1. Technician and Administrator Portals – Trunk Stock Management and Debrief Trunk Stock Visibility36 3.8.3.2. Technician and Administrator Portal - Task Scheduling 37 3.8.3.3. Technician and Administrator Portal – Debrief Error Corrections 37

3.8.4. Release 12.1.1+ 37 3.8.4.1. Dispatch Center Usability Enhancements 37 3.8.4.2. Dispatch Center Advanced Task Management 38

3.8.5. Release 12.1.2 38 3.8.5.1. Dispatch Center - GPS Location Capture and Mapping 38

Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document iv

3.8.5.2. Field Service Technician Portal – Usability and Security Enhancements 38 3.8.6. Release 12.1.3 39

3.8.6.1. Field Service Third Party Administrator/Technician Portals 39 3.8.6.2. Dispatch Center Third Party Management 39 3.8.6.3. eLocation Map Viewer Option 40

3.8.7. Release 12.1.3+ 40 3.8.7.1. Reschedule, Un-schedule, and Cancel Tasks that have received Customer Confirmation 40 3.8.7.2. Commit/Release Task while recording Customer Confirmation 40 3.8.7.3. Configure Shift Task Display in Dispatch Center 40 3.8.7.4. Advanced Debrief – DOA, Unused Parts, Serial Tagging 40 3.8.7.5. Debrief – Return Routing Engine Integration 41 3.8.7.6. Technician Setup UI 41 3.8.7.7. Display Parts Shipping Information in Dispatch Center 41 3.8.7.8. Portals support Transfer Parts 41 3.8.7.9. Part Replacement Validation 41 3.8.7.10. Mass ‘Unscheduling’ of assigned Tasks 41 3.8.7.11. Enhanced Technician Calendar, Shifts and Exception Management 41

3.8.8. Release 12.2 42 3.8.8.1. Projects Related Fields in Dispatch Center 42 3.8.8.2. Auto create Install Debrief from Recovery/Return Debrief 42 3.8.8.3. Search Recovered Item using Serial Number during Debrief Install 42 3.8.8.4. Ability to Enter Serial Number before Item Number during Debrief Install 42 3.8.8.5. Provide Ability to Receive Parts from Parts Tab 42 3.8.8.6. Display Projects Related Fields in Task Details UI 42 3.8.8.7. Provide Access Technician Setup UI 42 3.8.8.8. Field Service Report with Signature Capture Capability 43 3.8.8.9. Update Task Actuals based on Labor Service Activity Code 43

3.8.9. Release 12.2.4 43 3.8.9.1. Display Unassigned Tasks in Administrator Dashboard 43 3.8.9.2. View and Create Personal Tasks in Field Service Portals 43 3.8.9.3. Integrate new Service Tasks UI in Portal 43 3.8.9.4. Integrate Field Service Portals and Wireless with Inquira 43

3.9. Oracle Field Service Extensions for Oracle Endeca – New Product 43 3.9.1. Overview 43 3.9.2. Release 12.1.3+ 44

3.9.2.1. Identify exceptions, escalations and Tasks in jeopardy by Geography or Customer 44 3.9.2.2. Track Task and Technician Performance Metrics 44 3.9.2.3. Continuously monitor and improve response times, service quality and cost of service 44 3.9.2.4. Review, update and submit debrief faster for creating charges and invoices 44 3.9.2.5. Reduce violation of SLAs, contractual obligations and penalties 44 3.9.2.6. Enhance Workforce Performance 44 3.9.2.7. Track spare parts usage and quality issues 45 3.9.2.8. Manage Warehouse Inventories and Reduce Spare Part Backorders 45

3.10. Oracle iSupport 45 3.10.1. Overview 45 3.10.2. Release 12.1.1 45

3.10.2.1. Multi-Party Access in iSupport 45 3.10.3. Release 12.1.2 46

3.10.3.1. Multi-Party Search 46 3.10.4. Release 12.2 46

3.10.4.1. Uptake Publish Flag in iSupport 46 3.10.5. Release 12.2.4 46

3.10.5.1. Contract Entitlement Control 46 3.10.5.2. Display of Task Notes and Task Dates for tasks related to service requests 46

3.11. Knowledge Management 46 3.11.1. Release 12.1.2 46

3.11.1.1. Attachment Import and Authoring Improvements 46 3.11.2. Release 12.2 46

3.11.2.1. Support of additional Search methods such as Fuzzy and Synonym match for knowledge search 46 Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document v

3.11.3. Release 12.2 47 3.11.3.1. Single page solution authoring 47

3.12. Oracle Mobile Field Service 47 3.12.1. Overview 47 3.12.2. Release 12.0.3 (RUP3) 47

3.12.2.1. Scheduled Task Notification 47 3.12.3. Release 12.1.1 47

3.12.3.1. Multiple Field Resources using the same Laptop 47 3.12.3.2. Mobile Manager/Administrators Dashboard 47 3.12.3.3. Open Service Request against any Product/Asset owned by the Technician’s Customers 48 3.12.3.4. File-based Synchronization Option 48 3.12.3.5. Wireless PDA – Parts Visibility 48 3.12.3.6. Wireless PDA –Excess Parts Execution 48 3.12.3.7. Wireless PDA – Ability to Change Password 48

3.12.4. Release 12.1.2 49 3.12.4.1. Store and Forward Mobile Queries 49 3.12.4.2. Store and Forward Automatic Synchronization 49 3.12.4.3. Store and Forward Pocket PC – Personalization 49 3.12.4.4. Store and Forward Pocket PC - Wireless Integration 49 3.12.4.5. Store and Forward Pocket PC - Usability and Security 50

3.12.5. Release 12.1.3 51 3.12.5.1. Store and Forward Pocket PC – Email Query 51 3.12.5.2. Wireless PDA – Enhancements 51

3.12.6. Release 12.1.3+ 51 3.12.6.1. Email Query Phase 2 - Spares Commands 51 3.12.6.2. Wireless – Advanced Debrief and Returns Routing Integration 52 3.12.6.3. Wireless – Support for Transfer Parts 52 3.12.6.4. Wireless – Enhanced Debrief Flow 52 3.12.6.5. Wireless- Support for Special Address Creation 52 3.12.6.6. Wireless-Validation to Ensure Installed Item matches Returned Item 52 3.12.6.7. Store and Forward – New Multi Platform Application 52 3.12.6.8. Automatic Synchronization for Multi Platform Application 53 3.12.6.9. Support for Expense Debrief in Multi Platform Application 53

3.12.7. Release 12.2 53 3.12.7.1. Wireless- Auto Create Install Debrief during Recovery/Return Debrief 53 3.12.7.2. Wireless- Provide Ability to Receive Parts from Parts Requirement Screen 53 3.12.7.3. Wireless- Enhanced UI Configuration Options 53 3.12.7.4. Wireless- Ability to Set the Profile ‘Client Time zone’ in the Device 54 3.12.7.5. Wireless - Field Service Report with Signature Capture Capability 54 3.12.7.6. Wireless - Ability to Trigger Context sensitive mobile query from Task Details Screen 54 3.12.7.7. Wireless - Display Projects Related Fields in Task Details Screen 54

3.12.8. Release 12.2.4 54 3.12.8.1. Wireless - View and Create Personal Tasks 54 3.12.8.2. Wireless - FS Managers Dashboard 54

3.13. Oracle Service Contracts 55 3.13.1. Release 12.1.1 55

3.13.1.1. Service Contract Import Program 55 3.13.2. Release 12.1.3+ 55

3.13.2.1. Service Contract Renewal Performance Enhancements 55 3.13.2.2. Performance Enhancements to Main Billing Program for Usage Contracts 55 3.13.2.3. Mass Update Tool 56 3.13.2.4. Prevent Deletion of Line/Sub line during Contracts Renewal 56 3.13.2.5. Carry Over Self-Service Decline Code onto Service Contract Cancellation Reason 56 3.13.2.6. Revalue Contract during Change in Currency 56 3.13.2.7. Specify Cc E-mail Addresses during Quote and Reminders 56 3.13.2.8. Selective Update of Warranty Contracts upon IB Transfer of Ownership 56 3.13.2.9. Re-price on Renewal Consolidation 56 3.13.2.10. Flexible Invoice Text Defaulting 56 3.13.2.11. Service Contracts Usability Enhancements 57

Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document vi

3.13.2.12. Merge Assets across Contracts 57 3.13.2.13. Drive Contract Coverage by Severity 58 3.13.2.14. Control Generation of Invoice 58 3.13.2.15. Calculate Estimated Tax with Higher Accuracy 58

3.13.3. Release 12.2 58 3.13.3.1. Solution Ordering 58

3.13.4. Release 12.2.4 59 3.13.4.1. Service Contracts Public APIs 59

3.14. Oracle Service Contracts Extensions for Oracle Endeca – New Product 59 3.14.1. Overview 59 3.14.2. V5 59

3.14.2.1. Identify Renewal Exceptions and Manage Renewals Work Queue 60 3.14.2.2. Monitor Renewal Performance Metrics 60 3.14.2.3. Continuously Monitor and Improve Customer Service Experience 60 3.14.2.4. Identify Early Signs of Risks and Strategize Their Remediation 60 3.14.2.5. Monitor Service Revenue Leakage and Strategize Their Mitigation 60

3.15. Oracle Spares Management 61 3.15.1. Overview 61 3.15.2. Release 12.1.1 61

3.15.2.1. WRP Planned Order Release Automation 61 3.15.3. Release 12.1.2 61

3.15.3.1. New HTML Parts UIs and Distance Based Search 61 3.15.3.2. Part Returns - Flexible Routing 62

3.15.4. Release 12.1.3 62 3.15.4.1. Supersession and Substitute Notes 62 3.15.4.2. Site Dedicated Stocking Locations Support 62 3.15.4.3. Parts Return Routing Engine 63

3.15.5. Release 12.1.3+ 63 3.15.5.1. Ship-to Address Enhancements 63 3.15.5.2. Enhancements to handling Parts Orders when Tasks are Reassigned 63 3.15.5.3. Enhancements to the Parts Requirement UI 64 3.15.5.4. Spares Sourcing Options Distance Limit 64 3.15.5.5. Support for ‘Third Party’ Ship-to Locations 64 3.15.5.6. Enhanced External Repair Execution flows 64

3.15.6. Release 12.2.4 65 3.15.6.1. External Repair Execution enhancement for Canceling External Repair Order for Zero Pick 65 3.15.6.2. ADF technology based HTML Planners Dashboard 65

3.16. Oracle TeleService 65 3.16.1. Overview 65 3.16.2. Release 12.0.6 (RUP6) 66

3.16.2.1. User Hook for Charges Pricing API 66 3.16.3. Release 12.1.1 66

3.16.3.1. Service Costing and Profitability 66 3.16.3.2. Improved Field Service Execution Flows 66 3.16.3.3. Service Requests Search using Secure Enterprise Search (SES) 66 3.16.3.4. Additional Attributes in the Service Request Form 67 3.16.3.5. Quick Service Request Creation and Update 67 3.16.3.6. Enhanced Service Request Tools Menu 67 3.16.3.7. Charge Call-Out 67

3.16.4. Release 12.1.1+ 67 3.16.4.1. Support for International and One Time Addresses 67 3.16.4.2. Optimization of Service Request Creation Process 68 3.16.4.3. Enhanced Service Request Search capabilities 68 3.16.4.4. Improved Service Request Tasks Management 69

3.16.5. Release 12.1.2 69 3.16.5.1. Party Site level Profile Checks 69 3.16.5.2. Optimization of Service Request Creation Process 69 3.16.5.3. Enhanced Service Request Search capabilities 70 3.16.5.4. Service Request Task Management Enhancements 70

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3.16.5.5. Inactivating a contact 71 3.16.5.6. Charges - Submit Order User Hooks 71

3.16.6. Release 12.1.3 71 3.16.6.1. New HTML Charges User Interface 71 3.16.6.2. Credit Card Capture on the Service Request and Charges 71

3.16.7. Release 12.1.3+ 71 3.16.7.1. HTML Service Request User Interface Enhancements 71 3.16.7.2. Capture additional SLA information for Service Requests 72 3.16.7.3. Creation of Part Requirements based on Task Type 72 3.16.7.4. Enhanced Charges Logistics 72

3.16.8. Release 12.2 74 3.16.8.1. Oracle Projects Integration 74 3.16.8.2. HTML Customer Service User Interface Enhancements 74 3.16.8.3. Automatic Task Creation on Service Request Status Transitions 79 3.16.8.4. Launch of Workflow on Service Request Status Transitions 79 3.16.8.5. Filter Task Template Groups LOV Based on Task Template Mappings 79

3.16.9. Release 12.2.4 79 3.16.9.1. Integration with Oracle Knowledge (Inquira) 79 3.16.9.2. HTML Service Application Enhancements 80 3.16.9.3. Public APIs to create Service Request Extended Attributes (CIC) 81

3.17. Oracle TeleService Extensions for Oracle Endeca – New Product 81 3.17.1. Overview 81 3.17.2. V5 81

3.17.2.1. Identify and monitor critical service requests 81 3.17.2.2. Identify most active customers, most problematic products and areas, most common service request types 82 3.17.2.3. Execute corrective actions on transactional system 82 3.17.2.4. Enforce data security for service requests 82 3.17.2.5. Analyze graphical data with varying dimensions 83 3.17.2.6. Improve product and service quality through root cause analysis 83 3.17.2.7. Improve workload utilization and elevate performance 83

Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document viii

1. Disclaimer This Release Content Document (RCD) describes product features that are proposed for the specified releases of the Oracle E-Business Suite. This document describes new or changed functionality only. Existing functionality from prior releases is not described. It is intended solely to help you assess the business benefits of upgrading to the specified release of the Oracle E-Business Suite.

This document in any form, software or printed matter, contains proprietary information that is the exclusive property of Oracle. Your access to and use of this confidential material is subject to the terms and conditions of your Oracle Software License and Service Agreement, which has been executed and with which you agree to comply. This document and information contained herein may not be disclosed, copied, reproduced or distributed to anyone outside Oracle without prior written consent of Oracle. This document is not part of your license agreement nor can it be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Oracle or its subsidiaries or affiliates.

This document is for informational purposes only and is intended solely to assist you in planning for the implementation and upgrade of the product features described. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described in this document remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

Due to the nature of the product architecture, it may not be possible to safely include all features described in this document without risking significant destabilization of the code.

Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document Purpose of Document 1

2. Introduction

2.1. Purpose of Document This Release Content Document (RCD) communicates information about new or changed functionality introduced in Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2, and in subsequent Release Update Packs (RUPs) and off-cycle patches. For your convenience, it also includes new or changed functionality introduced in the RUPs for Release 12, including 12.0.2 through 12.0.7.

The features and enhancements described in this document are grouped by product, and then by the release in which they first became available, for example, “Release 12.1.1”. Features released in an off-cycle patch have a special designation – for example, a feature released after 12.1.1, but before 12.1.2, is designated as “Release 12.1.1+”.

Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document Purpose of Document 2

3. New and Changed Features in Service Management

3.1. Oracle Advanced Inbound Telephony 3.1.1. Overview

Oracle Advanced Inbound Telephony provides telephony integration to all major telephone systems and leading CTI middleware. This enables users of EBS Sales and Service Call Centers to leverage powerful CTI technology such as context sensitive screen pops, intelligent routing and queuing. In addition, integration with CRM applications enables agents to provide consistent handling of customer interactions. Business benefits include increased customer satisfaction, increased agent productivity, and decreased costs from accurate call routing.

3.1.2. Release 12.1.1

3.1.2.1. Direct Client-side CTI Integration

Oracle Advanced Inbound Telephony provides telephony integration to all major telephone systems and supports leading CTI middleware with server–side adapters. These server–side adapters interact with the telephony systems and provide context sensitive screen-pop functionality in the Oracle TeleService and Telesales applications. These server-side adapters have limitations in terms of scalability of the deployment and performance of the screen pops as the call information flows through multiple servers such as OTM, OTAS, and UWQ.

New 12.1.1 direct client-side CTI integration addresses these issues by creating a framework for direct integration between key CRM Forms (Contact Center, Service Request, and eBusiness Center) and the soft phones of any middleware vendor. This not only reduces the communication overhead (and consequentially provides faster screen-pop for agents), but also improves scalability of the solution. As part of this integration, the client-side communications Java bean already available for Contact Center Form will be provided on the eBusiness Center and Service Request Forms.

3.1.3. Release 12.2.4

3.1.3.1. Direct Client-side CTI Integration with HTML Service Applications

The direct client-side CTI integration introduced in 12.1.1 for Forms based Service applications has been extended to HTML Service Application enabling the agents using the HTML Service applications to be more productive through incoming call screen pops. The agent can log into the CTI System from the HTML Service application and make themselves available for taking incoming call. On an incoming call, this functionality launches a context-sensitive screen-pop for the agent who is answering the call based on the information entered by the customer into the IVR. The agents can also make outbound calls.

Using the direct client-side CTI integration framework, the service organizations can write custom adapters for CTI integration between the HTML Service pages and a third party middleware’s soft phone. This framework reduces the communication overhead, provides faster screen-pop for agents, and improves scalability of the solution. In this release, only the Service Request Update page is screen pop enabled. The IVR Parameter for the Service Request Number is available in this release.

Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document Oracle Advanced Inbound Telephony 3

3.2. Oracle Advanced Scheduler 3.2.1. Overview

Oracle Advance Scheduler provides powerful Field Service Scheduling and Optimization Programs that help leading service providers run efficient field service operations. It considers territories, technician availability in regular and standby shifts, spares availability, skill requirements, cost factors, access hours, and spatial data to create optimal field service schedules.

3.2.2. Release 12.1.1

3.2.2.1. Geographic Clustering

This feature provides an option for Autonomous Scheduler to sort the set of tasks being scheduled by their geographic proximity before they are inserted into the schedule. This reduces the total travel time and distance in the schedule as well as the number of times disparate technicians visit the same site/area during the schedule horizon. Service providers who value travel cost reduction over SLA violation risk (the current approach) will find this new option produces schedules more to their liking. Another benefit of Geographic Clustering is that it keeps field technicians evenly spread across the territory which better positions them to quickly respond to customer emergencies.

3.2.2.2. New Scheduling Optimizer

First pass schedules are never perfectly optimized as the (cheapest insertion) scheduling algorithm lacks insight into tasks that have not yet been created or scheduled. Also, the current Release 12 Optimization feature only optimizes the trip of single technician for a single day.

To address these issues, a new Optimization Program has been created to squeeze more costs/travel out of the schedule. This program can optimize the scheduled trips of multiple technicians across multiple days and can be leveraged to optimize technicians’ trips interactively or by scheduling a background process.

3.2.2.3. 2008 Navteq Digital Map Data Certification

Oracle Advanced Scheduler uses digital map data to calculate accurate drive times and distances, which are in turn used to build an optimized schedule. In Release 12.1.1, Oracle Advanced Scheduler will support all geographies (around 70+ countries) covered by Navteq digital map data including North America, Europe, and World Markets.

3.2.3. Release 12.1.1+ 3.2.3.1. Segmentation of Cost Parameters and Profiles

A new Scheduler Rules UI is provided that consolidates all Advanced Scheduler setups into a single page including cost factor weights and profile options. In addition, Scheduler Rules can now be set at the Territory and Technician levels as well as the traditional profiles levels of Site, Application, Responsibility and User. For example, Default Travel Distance can now vary by Territory and Overtime Cost can be set for an individual Technician.

Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document Oracle Advanced Scheduler 4

To further enhance Advanced Scheduler’s ability to create optimal schedules that match the priorities and policies of leading service providers, five new Cost Factors are provided: - SLA Violation Cost by Task Priority - Technician visiting Same Site Cost Factor - Skill Level Cost Factor - No Parts Cost Factor - Stand By Shift Cost Factor

SLA Violation Cost by Task Priority was added so that missing the SLA of a high priority task has a greater scheduling cost than missing the SLA on a low priority task.

Technician visiting same site Cost Factor was added so that there is a cost to sending more than one technician to the same site on the same day (which increases travel and is considered bad customer service by many leading Service Providers).

Skill Level Cost Factor was added to give Service Providers the ability to favor lower or higher skilled technicians when scheduling. Some Service Providers want lower skilled technicians to be utilized first (must meet the minimum skill requirement for the task) holding back higher skilled technicians in case of an emergency. However, other Service Providers prefer the opposite and want to use the higher skilled technicians first to provide the highest possible quality of service.

No Parts Cost Factor was added to give preference to technicians who have the required parts but still allow techs without the parts to be scheduled if other costs are significantly lower (such as travel and SLA violation). Prior to this enhancement, Scheduler did not consider technicians that did not have all of the required parts available in time to meet the SLA (this option still exists).

Stand By Shift Cost Factor has also been added so that, if available, technicians on regular shifts are preferred by Scheduler to those on standby shifts.

3.2.3.2. Technician Shift and Skills Management

The ability to create and adjust technician shifts interactively has been added to the Dispatch Center. Previously, shifts could only be created and updated by a concurrent (batch) program which proved a very rigid process. This feature gives dispatchers the ability to quickly adjust a technician’s shift if, for say, the tech will be starting an hour latter tomorrow.

The ability to specify Shift Start and End Locations other than the tech’s home address has been added to better support technicians who travel to remote locations or who start their day from the office instead of their home. The user can select Start and End Locations from the tech’s primary ship to or any of his/her other addresses. Any address in TCA can also be used and even one time addresses can be created and used.

Currently, Scheduler provides an option to totally include or exclude travel to the first task of the day (and home from the last task of the day) within the shift (on company time) or outside of the shift (tech personal own time). This functionality has been enhanced to allow Service Providers to split this time so that only a portion of the travel is scheduled outside the shift. This is particularly useful when a tech livers far away from his/her territory.

Advanced Scheduler matches the skills required for a task to the skills of the available technicians. Skills can be product oriented (e.g. model TCT-500s) or non-product oriented (e.g. French). Service Providers typically have hundreds of products to support and find it quite difficult to maintain tech skills for each product. To elevate this issue, we are providing the ability to define and match skills at the Product Category Level.


3.2.3.3. Stand-By Shift Support

Service Providers typically offer 23x7x265 support and field service especially when their equipment is mission critical (e.g. medical devices). To provide this service, field technicians are typically required to intermittently be on standby in case an emergency call comes in after regular hours or on the weekend. To support this requirement, we have added the ability to create standby by shifts, to view stand by shifts in the Dispatch Center, and to include stand by shifts in the Advanced Scheduler’s logic. Several options are provided on how AS uses technicians on standby shifts (never, day by day, regular then stand by). Also, a new cost factor has also been added so that, if available, technicians on regular shifts are preferred by Scheduler to those on standby shifts.

Many Service Providers use different Territories after hours and on weekends (usually much larger). To support this requirement, new Territory Qualifiers (‘Time of the Day’ and ‘Day of the Week’) have been added.

3.2.4. Release 12.1.2 3.2.4.1. Navteq 2008 Data Certification and Global Instance

In this release, Advanced Scheduler has been certified against the latest Spatial Data Set provided by partner Navteq. In addition, support for all Navteq data (Europe, US, Asia, etc.) on a single instance is now available.

3.2.5. Release 12.1.3 3.2.5.1. Third Party Scheduling

OEMs often outsource field service to Third Party Service Provides for a variety of reasons including the ability to deliver service in remote geographies, after hours, and on weekends, as well as to handle simple tasks more cheaply.

In this release, Advanced Scheduler has been significantly enhanced to support scheduling, releasing, and managing tasks to be executed by Third Party Organizations. Support for Third Party scheduling has been built based on the assumption that Third Party Organizations (Service Providers) have unlimited capacity to execute field service Tasks but are only available during the times defined in their Calendar.

Scheduling to Third Party resources can be completely automated by the background Autonomous Scheduler engine or can be performed interactively with the Interactive Scheduler user interface. This encompasses enhancements to support the definition and recognition of Third Party entities in Advanced Scheduler and to allow Third Party Organizations to perform the customer confirmation process.

3.2.5.2. Scheduling to preferred resources based on Scheduler's cost model

Advanced Scheduler sources technicians from Territories, Contracts and/or Install Base based on the requested sourcing options. Currently, when Territories is one of the resource identification sources along with Contracts or Install Base, Advanced Scheduler only considers technicians that are assigned to Contracts/Install Base AND are also assigned to the winning Territories. In this release, Scheduler is enhanced to consider all eligible resources from the Winning Territories regardless of whether they are part of the Contract or Install Base records. This enhanced logic effectively utilizes the existing cost factor ‘Preferred Resource violation Cost’ so that Service Providers can give preference to the Technicians listed in the Contract/Installed Base. In addition, the Scheduler UI has been enhanced to display Technician Source (Contracts, Install Base or Territories), to enable the dispatchers to make intelligent decisions while scheduling interactively.


3.2.6. Release 12.1.3+

3.2.6.1. Scheduler UI – Simplified Territory Qualifier Selection

Schedule Task UI is used to schedule Field Service Tasks interactively and has a Tab where the user can specify resource selection criteria. Territory Qualifier(s) is one of the commonly used selection criteria. Prior to R12, when the Dispatcher wanted to use only one qualifier, he/she had to uncheck all other qualifiers one at a time. This was a time consuming and error prone activity. In this release, the Schedule Task UI has been enhanced to allow Dispatchers to quickly select or de-select territory qualifiers.

3.2.6.2. Scheduler UI – Display Spares Sourcing Information

Spares Management integration will enable dispatchers to see vital information regarding the plan options, when the Task being scheduled has a Part requirement. Schedule Task UI has been enhanced to display the shipment information about the spare parts being shipped (e.g. Sourced Warehouse, Shipping Distance, and Method of Shipment) for making better and more intelligent scheduling decisions while interactively scheduling Tasks using Scheduler UI.

3.2.6.3. Auto Commit (Release) Tasks by Territory

Currently the Dispatchers lack the ability to release Tasks to Technicians belonging to a specific Territory, without resorting to writing a well tuned Task Query that can precisely identify all Tasks, scheduled but not yet released to Technicians assigned to a specific Territory. In this release Auto Commit Tasks background process has been enhanced to enable the Auto Commit process to release Tasks scheduled but, not yet committed to Technicians assigned to Territories associated to the Dispatcher. Dispatchers will now have the ability to control the commit process for a specific time horizon with the new ‘Auto Commit Horizon’ parameter introduced.

3.2.6.4. Scheduling to Site Dedicated Technicians

In order to better serve critical customers with a large number of installed products and tight SLAs/contractual obligations, Service Providers frequently assign field technicians to work full time at a specific the customer site. To support this, technician trips can now be started and/or completed at the customer address instead of the field office address or the technician’s home address. In addition, the Scheduler and Optimizer algorithms have been enhanced to skip estimating Travel Distance/Time and calculating associated Travel Costs for technicians already located at the customer site (same site tasks are ones that point to same address record or to address records with the same lat/long).

3.2.7. Release 12.2 3.2.7.1. Uptake of Navteq ODF Data format

In this release, Advanced Scheduler has been certified against the new ODF (Oracle Data Format) Spatial Data provided by partner Navteq. Customers using Advanced Scheduler’s spatial features will be able to get the new datasets when the data is made available by Navteq, without waiting for any additional certification from Oracle. Navteq provides ODF format based datasets for several geographical regions and countries, which are otherwise not available in older data formats. Customers planning to use the Scheduler features in new geographic regions can take advantage from the expanded coverage and availability of spatial data.


3.2.8. Release 12.2.4 3.2.8.1. Work Load Balancing

The EBS Advanced Scheduler’s/Optimizer’s main focus is to fulfill customer SLAs with the lowest cost schedule. In some cases, this may lead to schedules that, while low in cost, do not utilize all of the technicians available for work on a specific shift. Hence, some customers have asked for the ability to balance the work load as well as optimize service delivery costs.

To address these concerns, Scheduler engine has been enhanced to consider work load balancing as well as other factors when scheduling field service tasks. Two approaches to work load balancing are provided. The first is a statistics-centric approach using various attributes of technician trips and their available capacity. The other is a new Work Load Balancing Cost Factory that reduces the cost of scheduling work to technicians that have more time available in the calendar/schedule.

3.2.8.2. Scheduler Web Services

Important features and functions of Advances Scheduler engine are now made available as standards based Web Services. These web services enable Advanced Scheduler to integrate with external business applications. REST based Scheduler Web Services are built using Integrated SOA Gateway (ISG) technology components and facilitating communication with external consuming application modules using XML. Scheduler Web Services allow other applications that run either on same or different technology stack as Advanced Scheduler to leverage Scheduler’s powerful features to drive complex field service business flows. An external application built on either ADF or any other heterogeneous technology components and that can understand EBS session and data model can leverage Advanced Scheduler engine using the Web Services.

To cater to the varying needs of customer base and a wide array of possibilities in utilizing of functionality of Oracle Advanced Scheduler, the most important Scheduling operations like searching for Technicians availability, scheduling a task, batch scheduling, canceling a scheduled Task, unscheduling, and rescheduling, etc, are made available as Web Services. Scheduler Configuration (by defining Scheduler Rules) essentially drives the logic of Web Services at run time and these Scheduler Rules are made available to the Web Services as an XML document at run time. Scheduler Web Services are implemented duly incorporating the standard security features. An Oracle E-Business Suite Integration Repository Administrator can select the appropriate authentication type for each web service-enabled interface.

3.3. Oracle Assignment Manager 3.3.1. Overview

In today’s marketplace, it is imperative that sales forces and service teams maximize their productivity. This can be achieved with territory structures that clearly define lines of ownership. With Oracle Territory Manager, sales operations and territory administrators will find it easy to manage large, complex territories hierarchies effectively and efficiently. Oracle Assignment Manager and Oracle Advanced Scheduler leverage this powerful territory functionality to drive the assignment Service Requests, Tasks, Leads, etc. to qualified resources.

Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document Oracle Assignment Manager 8

3.3.2. Release 12.1.1

3.3.2.1. Sort Winning Territory Resources by Absolute Rank

Assignment Manager is used for fetching the qualified resources and assigning them to the SR and/or Task object. It fetches resources from multiple sources, including Service Contracts, Installed Base and the Territories setup. After fetching the resources from Territories setup, resources are implicitly sorted based on the system generated Territory Identifier. Many customers have requested functionality in Assignment Manager to support a resource sort order based on Absolute Rank of the Territories. Absolute Ranks are derived based on the setups done and hence controlled by the users.

This feature provides a configurable option in the Assignment Manager module to sort a set of Territory Resources based upon the absolute rank associated with the Territory definition, rather than the Territory Identifier. Advanced Scheduler is an important consumer of the Assignment Manager module and it is one of the beneficiaries of this change. While scheduling tasks to technicians, Scheduler looks for plan options among technicians returned by the Assignment Manager in the order in which it receives the list of resources. Hence the sort order of the resources by the Assignment Manager is critical. Similarly Dispatch Center and TeleService modules will benefit from this enhancement.

3.3.3. Release 12.1.2

3.3.3.1. Follow the Sun Service Request and Task Assignment

Many service organizations provide global support on a 24 x 7 x 365 basis and need tools to route incoming work to the correct support center/group as well as transfer work between groups at the end of the work day/shift. In 12.1.2, Oracle Assignment Manager has been enhanced to consider support center/group work calendars when assigning Service Request and Tasks. In addition, an option to consider call center agent and tech support engineer work calendars is provided for service providers who use the push model.

3.3.3.2. Mass Service Request and Task Updates

New OA HTML based user interfaces have also been introduced to provide mass update capability for service requests and tasks. These features can be used by support duty managers to quickly handover high priority work items to another support center/group when their shift ends.

Note: The ability to mass update tasks is introduced in Release 12.1.3.

3.4. Oracle Complex Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (CMRO) 3.4.1. Release 12.1.1

3.4.1.1. Marshalling

In an engine overhaul shop, once the tear down has been initiated, hundreds and even thousands of parts are liberated from assemblies and sub assemblies that make up one working engine. At this point, some parts need to be replaced with new, some inspected and reused, and others reconditioned and reused. Marshalling is the organizing of these parts and the planning for the reassembly to take place.

Marshalling Features:

• Provide a place and a way to stage materials in a Marshalling area for an upcoming visit

Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document Oracle Complex Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (CMRO) 9

• Provide a view of the Marshalling area to include the unit status, material requirements, staged materials, and the materials not yet available

• Provide a way to request needed materials

• Provide a view of a unit, its visits, and the status of its visits

3.4.1.2. OSP Receiving

The Service Order Receiving flow is a specific grouping of functions needed for the receipt and subsequent return to service of parts and assemblies that are inbound from an external repair station.

OSP Receiving Features:

• Support receipt of part

• Support receipt of service

• Support of planned and unplanned part exchanges

• Support of staging parts for inspection

• Support put-away of part

3.4.1.3. Enigma 3C Integration

CMRO’s integration to Enigma’s 3C document publication system links documents such as the illustrated parts catalog (IPC), engine manual and wiring diagram to the master configuration in engineering. It also enables the creation of routes and operations based on the aircraft maintenance manual (AMM) published in Enigma 3C. For this process CMRO receives the AMM in a XML file and automatically loads the data into route management and builds a link to the actual manual page. If the AMM is revised on Enigma’s side CMRO will receive a revision report and revises the routes and operations accordingly. Through this integration, Engineers and Technicians have the ability to navigate to the manuals in Enigma 3C either from a position of the master configuration or unit configuration, the routes in route management or from the work orders on the shop floor.

3.4.1.4. Various Enhancements in Engineering (forward ports from R11.5.10)

• Ability to add a node to a unit configuration without knowing its parent node. The node will show up as an extra node in the unit configuration

• Enable the descriptive flex-field in the unit configuration user interface • Ability to load master configuration rules through a public API • Ability to access the maintenance requirement user interfaces in a view-only

mode • Ability to search for maintenance requirements with additional attributes for

route type and program sub type • Ability to define a resource requirement in route management for a specific

department that might differ from the general department the ensuing work order is assigned to.

• Ability to access route management and document index user interfaces in read-only mode.

3.4.1.5. Various Enhancements in Planning (forward ports from R11.5.10)


• Ability to close a visit from the visit work package user interface the same way as closing a visit from production – by navigating to visit close user interface.

• Ability to search for the route system key flex-field when adding maintenance

requirements to a visit

3.4.1.6. Various Enhancements in Production (forward ports from R11.5.10)

• Ability to update a unit configuration from a work order in production, in order to record the actual unit information at receipt and disassembly of a unit on the shop floor without having to go through the parts change process.

• Ability to custom configure the update of work orders through a public API and pre- and post-user hooks within the API

• Visual support in the work order user interface to indicate that a work order is ready to be signed off (all operations have been signed off) and the ability to search for work orders that are ready to be signed off.

• Ability to specify a reason to work order status of hold and parts hold

Ability to view the net quantity of the material in a work order. The information is viewable in the material requirements and material transactions user interface

3.4.2. Release 12.1.2 3.4.2.1. Enhance Effectivity Details definition

The Maintenance Requirement Effectivity Details UI will be split up into four separate tables, one for defining the serial number effectivity details (as it is currently), one to define the owner(s), one to define the location(s) and one to define the extended attributes.

If the user wants to setup effectivity based on ‘from-to’ serial number, owner and location, they have to create a row for all permutations of ‘from-to’ serial number, owner, location and extended attributes. The user can setup any number of serial numbers (from-to), any number of owners and any number of locations and any numbers of extended attributes.

Each table will have the ‘Exclude’ checkbox. Conditions entered in all the tables have to be satisfied for the instance to be applicable. If the user wants to setup effectivity based on owner or location, then they have to create 2 different effectivity and then for one effectivity define effectivity detail based on owner and for the other define effectivity detail based on location.

3.4.2.2. Enhance maintenance requirement interval definition with counter start date

The interval threshold definition is enhanced with a column (yes/no), that defines whether the first occurrence of the MR includes the interval when calculating the due date.

If the value of the column is ‘yes’, the BUE process will calculate the first occurrence of the MR as interval start value + interval. If the value of the column is ‘no’, the BUE process will calculate the first occurrence of the MR as the interval start value without considering the interval (current behavior).

The checkbox is only relevant if a start value has been defined, otherwise it should not be enterable. A start date can be either in the future or in the past.


3.4.2.3. Enable WIP accounting class to be updateable in production

The WIP accounting class attribute will be updateable in the work order update user interface. A valid value can be selected from a list of values. The list contains values defined through the set up for WIP accounting class in WIP.

3.4.2.4. Allow creation of a non-routine from an existing non-routine

A new function will be provided to give a user access to log a non-routine against an existing non-routine work order. If a user is entitled to do so, the user needs to get access to this function. Without access to this function a user will be restricted from creating a non-routine form an existing non-routine, which is the current behavior of the application and will be the default.

3.4.3. Release 12.1.3 3.4.3.1. Descriptive Flex Field (DFF) enablement

The setup and transaction pages provide fields to capture most of the information required by users. Changes in business requirements and legacy system integration can create requirements for additional information in these pages. In order for user to capture additional information on the CMRO pages, there is a need to enable Descriptive Flex Fields (DFFs).

The data entry into a DFF can be setup as mandatory or optional. If the CMRO object can be created using public API, then the user should be able to enter the DFF values using a public APIs for that object as well. The user can also create additional triggers for entering information in the DFFs from the data defined in other pages.

The enablement of DFFs provides the best way to capture these additional data requirements, without the need to create hard customizations of additional fields on the setup and transaction pages.

DFFs will be enabled on following objects:

• Document index-Create Page the entity

• Document index-Edit Page

• Document index-Create Revision Page Entity

• Document Index- Edit Revision Page

• Operations- Create Page

• Operations Edit/Revision Page

• Operations Material Request UI

• Route - Material Request UI

• Fleet Maintenance Program- MR Creation Page

• Fleet Maintenance Program- MR Revision Page

• Fleet Maintenance Program- MR View Page

• Routes-Creation Page

• Routes-Revision Page

• Enabling DFF on Disposition List Details (Disposition Association From Routes)

• Composition List

• Visit- Create Page


• Visit- Edit Page

• Visit Stages

• Flight Schedule-Create/Update

• Visit Task( Edit Mode)

• Visit Task( View Mode)

• Initial Accomplishment

• Maintenance Requirement Deferral

• Create Task / Unassociated Task.

• Non-Routine Request header- Planning

• Create Non-Routine Work Order/Execution

3.4.4. Release 12.2 3.4.4.1. FAA Compliance Reports

This is a forward port of a number of reports, from a previous release to 12.2, that were delivered as a one-off to a customer. There are 8 different reports that have been developed:

• Aircraft Maintenance Status • Assembly Bill of Materials • Component Maintenance Status • Component Removal Forecast • Component Removal/Installation History • Maintenance Requirement Information and Status • Part Number Status • Unit Serial Numbers

These reports are located in the Administrative module of CMRO under two new Tabs; “Reports” and “Maintenance Requirement Status Reports”. Each report will include a search page UI, where the user can select search criteria in which to customize the output of the report results. Many of these reports also have hyperlinked search results and icons that allow for drill down into detail UIs to view additional information about the results row. Reports can be Printed and Exported as well as viewed Online. There is also functionality to Save the Search, which allows the user to customize and provide default search Views (applicable only for the Aircraft Maintenance Status & component Maintenance Status Reports).

3.4.4.1.1. Reports Tab

Within the Reports Tab there is a subtab hyperlink to a configuration UI, called “Common Setup”, where each of the 8 reports can be individually configured by the user:


• For several reports, the user is provided options for setting up parameters for the 3 dynamic counters (Counter1, Counter 2 and Counter 3). These dynamic counters replace the hardcoded values HRS, CY and DYS and will become visible as labels in the following reports: • Assembly Bill of Materials (for Remaining counters) • Component Removal Forecast (for Remaining and Since Repair

Counters) • Unit Serial Number (for Spec Limit Counters)

• For the other reports, the following configurations are provided in the

Common Setup UI:

o Component Removal Forecast - there is an additional parameter of “Program Subtype” that is available. [In addition to the 3 dynamic counters.] Users can add up to 10 subtypes as filtering criteria.

o Aircraft Maintenance Status and Component Maintenance Status reports - Instance Counters can be selected.

o Maintenance Requirement Information and Status report - Accomplished Counters can be selected.

o Component Removal/Installation History report - a Quality Collection Plan can be selected.

o Part Number Status - users can add up to 10 subtypes as filtering criteria.

o Unit Serial Numbers - Specification Limit Counters can be selected.

Also within the Reports Tab are subtab hyperlinks to these 5 reports:

o Assembly Bill of Materials o Component Removal Forecast o Component Removal/Installation History o Part Number Status o Unit Serial Numbers

3.4.4.1.2. Maintenance Requirement Status Reports Tab

Within this Tab are subtab hyperlinks to these 3 reports:

o Aircraft Maintenance Status o Component Maintenance Status o Maintenance Requirement Information and Status

3.4.4.2. Projects Integration Enhancements

CMRO currently has a basic integration with Oracle Projects. In this release there will be new functionality that will enhance this integration.

3.4.4.2.1. Define Cost Hierarchy for Project Tasks

New functionality will support the creation of subtasks in the project hierarchy after transactions have been made against parent tasks. This will support the addition of Non-Routine requirements that are discovered after transactions have already been made. The solution will ensure that an extra


Project task is created for every CMRO task, in order to create separate transaction branch in the cost hierarchy. More specifically, the enhancements will include: • A single Project task will represent a “roll up” task for the corresponding

CMRO task, with a child Project task that will collect the cost transactions; called the transaction task.

• If an additional task is created, which should roll up to the originating CMRO task, a new task will be created under the applicable Project roll up task.

• These roll up tasks will only be created on the Projects side. CMRO will define and track costs in a view that excludes these tasks.

• The visit task and corresponding work orders will maintain a direct association with the transaction task.

• The user will have the ability to manually change this costing hierarchy. When changes to the cost hierarchy are made on the CMRO side, the corresponding changes will be made on the Projects side tasks, including both the associated task where transactions are collected and the applicable roll up task.

• Utilizing the Open APIs in the Projects product to create a hierarchy of tasks. These tasks will be used to propagate the CMRO Visit and Task dates to the Projects schema and to pass distinguishing attributes to the Project Tasks that will enable the distinction of Routine and Non Routine tasks.

3.4.4.2.2. Add Visits to Parent Projects

When creating a maintenance visit in CMRO, the user will have the ability to create a new associated project, or to add the visit under an existing project. When tracking costs for a visit under an existing project, the user will select the project at the visit header instead of choosing a project template. The visit will be created as top task in the selected project, with the complete costing hierarchy defined below, which is similar to creating a new project. In CMRO, the following UIs will be updated to include the Project LOV:

• Create Visit • Update Visit

NOTE: Visits Pushed to Production after up taking this feature will have the changes discussed here, with existing visits maintaining the old task structure 3.4.4.2.3. Synchronize Visit and Project Task Dates

Projects are created for a maintenance visit at the push to production, or for costing purposes while in planning. At the time project tasks are created, the corresponding work orders are also created; which updates each work order with the scheduled dates corresponding to the visit tasks’ start and end dates. Whenever work order schedule dates are adjusted, the corresponding Project task dates will be updated as well. 3.4.4.2.4. Define Service Type


In order to identify routine and non-routine maintenance activity, the Project’s Service type attribute will be defined in CMRO for visit tasks and work orders. This value will be used when creating the corresponding Project roll up, transaction and summary tasks. In CMRO, Visit Tasks will have a Service Type and this will be defaulted from two new profiles (one for Routine and one for Non-Routine). This attribute will also be added to the search criteria and details page of several UIs:

• Search Visit Task • Create Unplanned Visit Task • Create Planned Task • Create Unassociated Task • Update Visit Task • Update Cost Structure • Disposition Details

3.4.4.3. Enigma 3C Integration

The integration between CMRO and Enigma’s 3C is to provide an out-of-the-box solution for MRO Service Providers to enable the maintenance technicians with a set of tools that connects CMRO’s extensive back office functionality for configuration management, engineering and maintenance planning with Enigma’s flexible and easy to use documentation centric maintenance execution system in a wireless or disconnected environment. This combination of the two products supports the maintenance technicians in efficiently executing all their maintenance tasks, achieving highest level of quality by providing the right information in the right place at the right time in a most user-friendly form.

3.4.4.3.1. CMRO Module Functionality

Planning • Routes and Operations Creation: Enigma will produce a revision file

based on the Aircraft Maintenance Manual (AMM), Engine Manual (EM) and Service Bulletin (SB) using the Enigma processing and publishing environment. The file will be automatically loaded into CMRO Routes and Operations.

• Master Configuration Creation: Enigma will produce a revision file based on the Illustrated Parts Catalog (IPC) using the Enigma processing and publishing environment. The file will be automatically loaded into CMRO Master Configuration.

• Maintenance Requirement Creation: Enigma will produce a revision file based on the Maintenance Planning Document (MPD) using the Enigma processing and publishing environment. The file will be automatically loaded into CMRO Maintenance Requirement; utilizing a direct link from the CMRO to the most up-to-date content with in the Enigma repository. This link is intended to be used by maintenance planners.

• Job Card and Work Package generation: CMRO will enable their users to print jobs card from various locations in CMRO (including Route


Management). The job card printing process use Enigma’s Job Card Generator (JCG). A job card will contain both the CMRO work order attributes as well as the content from the manual that is published in Enigma.

Execution • Content Links: Users will utilize a direct link from CMRO to the most

up-to-date content with in the Enigma repository. The link will be used by technicians during the execution process, as it will allow them to view the relevant documents relate to the work order they currently executing. For example, they will be able to view the IPC in a CMRO unit Configuration and identify required parts.

• Material requirement: In order to simplify the creation of a material requirement on the shop floor, a CMRO technician will be able to create a material requirement directly from the Illustrated Parts Catalog within Enigma InService MRO. The required material will be created as a material requirement in the originated work order, from which the IPC has been invoked.

• Joe Cards: Users will be able to preview and print Job Cards directly from the CMRO Technician Work Bench using the InService MRO Job Card Generator (JCG).

• Mobile Features: A Maintenance Technician can access the CMRO Work Orders and the AMM tasks on a wireless device and execute the major tasks through the handheld device

3.4.4.3.2. Creating Master Configurations from an IPC

The integration also provides the ability to create Master Configurations in the CMRO DB from the IPC XMLs files provided by from Enigma. The process uses the Oracle BPEL process manager for hosting a new web service, which will call several new PL/SQL APIs to perform the job of Master Configuration creation. There will be three different types of XMLs for this; one each for item compositions, item groups, and MC position hierarchy. These files will be used to update the corresponding tables and views within CMRO. Users will be able to distinguish data that was sourced from Enigma, verses manually setup in CMRO, through the user of search criteria and results attributes in the following UIs:

• “Sourced From Enigma” Yes/No dropdown is added to the search

criteria in these UIs: o Search Master Configuration UI o Search Alternate Items UI o Search Item Composition UI

• “Sourced From Enigma” Yes/No attribute is displayed as read-only in these UIs”

o Master Configuration Details UI


o Item Groups Details UI o Item Composition Details UI

3.4.4.4. Supplier Warranty

The CMRO Supplier Warranty functionality in this release will allow for customers to define, assign, identify, record and claim warranty for potential reimbursement from external suppliers. The new functionality has been integrated as optional attributes through many existing task/workorder based UIs and will be supported as well through the introduction of new administrative UIs, standard reports, and workflows. The business functions supported are: Warranty Set-Up:

• Define Warranty Capability for a supplier (service vendor) • Create reusable Warranty Templates • Define Supplier Warranty for a single Asset or a group of Assets. • Associate Supplier Warranty at a Route and Maintenance Requirement

level. Warranty Administration:

• Flag a visit task, work order, non-routine and OSP order for warranty. • Inquire about warranty entitlements on visit tasks, work orders, non-

routine definition and OSP order lines. • Manage Warranty Contracts through for an Asset in a workbench. • Create alerts for assets with warranty expiration. • Perform warranty work internally. • Create and manage Warranty Claims. • View claim information and purchase orders related to an asset under

warranty.

3.4.4.4.1. Defining Warranty

Users can identify vendors who provide warranty coverage as well as the associated service items. These vendors will be used to define warranty at both the vendor and item level in the form of a warranty template. These templates can be associated in the Engineering module to routes and maintenance requirements and/or will be used in assigning warranty at the item instance level. The following UIs will gain warranty functionality:

• Warranty Vendor definition – a warranty capable checkbox is added • Warranty Service Item definition – the vendor warranty checkbox is

viewable • Search Route – warranty template added a search attribute. • Route Header Update – a warranty template can be added to a route

through an LOV. • Search Maintenance Requirements – warranty template added a search

attribute.


• Maintenance Requirement Header Update – a warranty template can be added to a requirement through an LOV. This template will override any templates that are contained in associated routes.

The following UIs are new to this release:

• Search Warranty Template – allows the search, view, copy and edit of warranty templates. Users can also view all warranty contracts that have been created from a template.

• Create, Edit and View Warranty Template – allows the user the ability to create, edit and view warranty templates for a vendor. These templates will allow for the definition of applicable terms/conditions and will be supported through attachment functionality. The template will control if an item from install base is eligible (enabled) to have new contracts assigned at the instance level and will also provide the parameters for the expiration date calculation method. This method can be defined as date-based, period-based, usage-based (install base counters) or a combination. There is also functionality to handle future introductions of item instances in install base and to support the auto-creation of warranty claims in Outside Processing (OSP).

3.4.4.4.2. Assigning Warranty

Users will be able to assign (create) a warranty contract(s) for a unique item instance from a warranty template. This functionality is targeted for an item instance which has an item and serial number and maintains the same item instance in install base for its serviceable life. An item instance can have one or more contracts active at any time, from one or more templates, and it is further supported by the ability to manually define a contract for an instance. A warranty contract will have a defined lifespan, as governed by the warranty template and/or the warranty contract expiration attributes. These include:

• Date Based – fixed start and end date, which can originate from the warranty template and/or can be user defined.

• Period Based – fixed time period, which begins at a user defined start date. The end date is therefore calculated at the time of creation.

• Usage Based – the time period will be in counter UOM based units. The start value will be determined by the user and a threshold value (amount of coverage) will be added from the warranty template. The end value will be calculated at the time of creation. If the instance has an associated forecast, then the counters will gain utilization and the warranty contract will be updated with a new calculated expiration date. This is controlled by a user run expiration procedure.

• Combination – the Period and Usage based expirations can be used together. This will allow for multiple expiration dates to be established and updated routinely for a warranty contract. The first expiration date will be displayed to the user in most UIs.

The following UIs are new to this release:


• Search Warranty Contract – allows the user to search, view and edit existing warranty contracts. The historical claims for the contract can be viewed as well.

• Search Warranty Item – allows the user to search for an item instance, view existing contracts, applicable warranty templates, and to assign (define) new warranty contracts based on these templates. The user can also access the warranty workbench for the instance as well.

• Warranty Workbench – this workbench allows the user to manage an item instances complete warranty lifecycle. The user can view current and past contracts, define warranty, view instance counters, view warranty provides and view historical claims. The user can also manually define warranty contracts from here as well. This workbench is also accessed by the OSP receiving process to manage inbound instances that are returning from vendor repair.

3.4.4.4.3. Identifying Warranty

Users will be able to identify warranty for an activity in the planning module of CMRO. Here the user will utilize new standard reports for an Asset to evaluate the warranty applicability of maintenance tasks. The user will then identify the applicable warranty contract, at the item instance level, and at the task level, prior to pushing the task to production. They will also be able to flag tasks as not being warranty applicable, based on the activity being defined, despite the item instance being flagged as having activity warranty coverage. The following UIs will gain warranty functionality:

• Search Visit Task – several new attributes are added to the task results section of this UI. This includes identification of the task being warranty enabled (via the originating route or maintenance requirement) and an item instance having active contracts. There is some automation which automatically will select and set the status of a warranty contract, if these attributes have a common warranty template. Else, the user will navigate to the Update Task Header UI to update warranty contract and status.

• Update Task Header – the user can select an active contract and update the task’s warranty status. The item instance must have active contracts in order to select from the LOV.

3.4.4.4.4. Recording Warranty

Front line planners and technicians will interact with warranty in the execution modules of CMRO at the workorder level. Tasks will carry the warranty attributes forward to the workorder during their push to production. Front line planners will have the ability to further update / refine the warranty definitions during execution. Front line technicians will be able to request further warranty review (through a workflow) as well as select and update a warranty contract for an eligible workorder. The technician changes will be supported through an approval process that includes workflow notification.


Warranty administrators will use entitlement UIs to manage requests for review and approve / reject changes. A warranty entitlement record is created for each combination of workorder and selected / approved warranty contract. These entitlements will be managed by administrators in order to produce warranty claims. The following UIs will gain warranty functionality:

• Work Order Operations – warranty information is displayed and can be updated by front line planners.

• Work Order Overview (Update Work Order) – front line technician UI in which warranty information can be viewed. If the warranty contract is changed, the status will go to review and a workflow initiated. The technician can also request a general warranty review as well.

• Non-Routine Workorder Header Update – same functionality as a regular workorder. The non-routine workorder will inherit the warranty attributes from its source workorder. However, if additional maintenance requirements are added, they must be manually updated.

• Outside Processing Orders – same functionality as a regular workorder. If the warranty contract included the flag for OSP auto-creation, then a warranty claim would be produced during PO Creation.

• OSP Order Receiving – The user will be presented a link to the warranty workbench in this UI.

The following UIs are new to this release: • Search Warranty Entitlements – new UI which will allow the

administrative user the ability to approve / reject entitlement records, as well as audit entitlement records prior to claim creation.

3.4.4.4.5. Claiming Warranty

Claims administrators will be able to create, track and update vendor warranty claims. These claims can be based on visit and/or OSP based workorder entitlements to a vendor that is warranty enabled. The user will be able to add turnover notes and hopefully update reimbursement attributes as well. There is a standard claim report that is available as well. The following UIs are new to this release: • Search Warranty Claims – allows the user to view, edit and create

warranty claims. OSP auto generated claims will be flagged as well. • Create, Edit and View Warranty Claims – allows the user the ability to

create, edit and view warranty claims. Users will be able to add, edit and remove warranty entitlements for a claim. Users will also be able to identify and enter warranty costs per entitlement, which will be summed into a total claim amount.

• Search Orders for Warranty Claim (Select Mode) – allows the users the ability search and select (add) warranty entitlements to a claim.


3.4.4.4.6. Reports

Users will be able to leverage several new reports that are intended to enhance their existing business processes by providing warranty focused information: • Visit Instance Task Warranty Contract Report –will be used to view and

print warranty entitlement of various tasks in the visit. • Visit Instance Warranty Contract Report - will be used to view and print

warranty entitlement of various instances associated to the visit. • Warranty Claim Report – accessed in the Search Warranty Claims UI and

is prepared for a single claim, listing all the warranty entitlement information.

3.4.4.4.7. Notifications

Customers that utilize notifications can take advantage of several new notifications that involve warranty: • Warranty Expiration Notification – will provide users a single notification

of all warranty contracts that are expiring in a user defined number of days in the future.

• Warranty Approval Notification – will be sent to an approver when a front line technician has made a change to a warranty contract, selected a warranty contract (from null) or requests a general review.

• Warranty Definition Notification – will be sent to a supervisory level user when a warranty contract has been defined for a workorder.

3.4.4.4.8. Warranty Procedures

There are 2 new concurrent request procedures that will enhance the existing functionality in CMRO in support of supplier warranty: • Supplier Warranty Auto Assign – this procedure will identify new item

instances, since its last run, that have been created in install base. It will then compare this list to all enabled warranty templates and will generate warranty contracts in a pending status, for administrative review and completion.

• Supplier Warranty Expiration Date Calculation - this procedure will update the expiration date of all active warranty contracts, taking into consideration counter-based usage and associated forecasts. This procedure will also generate the data for the warranty expiration notification.

3.4.5. Terminology

Term Definition

UMP Unit Maintenance Plan VWP Visit Work Package OSP Outside Processing


3.5. Oracle Depot Repair 3.5.1. Release 12.1.1

3.5.1.1. Third Party Logistics for Repairs

Broken products, repaired products, and exchanges need to be moved and tracked between service organization, customer, and third parties. Oracle Depot Repair will support the following models of third party repair logistics:

• “Ad-hoc” Repairs - A repair organization can manually create orders to ship items to a third party or RMA items back from a third party. OSP orders for repair service can be automatically generated from repair jobs.

• “Cross Dock” Repairs - A repair organization can send broken customer product out for third party repair immediately upon receipt. Depot Repair defaults the appropriate repair vendor and ship-to location based on customer-defined disposition rules. Overdue returns trigger escalation notifications. Third party refurbishment status is tracked via workflow and/or iSupplier Portal.

• “Portal” Repairs - A repair organization can provide a third party repair shop with technician portal access. The third party can view repair orders assigned to them, update status, capture time and materials, and capture symptoms and root causes. The repair organization gets to keep the repair intelligence without exposing customer or pricing information to an outside party.

• “Control Tower” Repairs - A repair organization may coordinate the repair process without executing any repair or fulfillment operations in-house. Customer broken products are routed to third party repair shops while exchanges are sourced from OEMs or third party distribution centers. Depot Repair defaults the appropriate repair vendor, ship-to location, exchange warehouse and ship-from location based on customer-defined disposition rules. Overdue returns and refurbishments trigger escalation notifications. Third party refurbishment status is tracked via workflow and/or iSupplier Portal.

3.5.1.2. Supplier Warranty Claims

Organizations that perform repairs on products manufactured by other companies need a mechanism for reporting and settling warranty claims with the OEM.

Send Claim to Supplier Depot Repair will provide the ability to capture claim data (OEM account, OEM bill-to, parts, labor, replaced parts, and so on) and trigger the claim submission workflow. Multiple claims can be made against multiple vendors per repair order.

Track Approval Status and Claim Number from Supplier Depot Repair will provide fields to capture the supplier warranty claim number and warranty claim status from the supplier’s claim management system. Multiple claim numbers and statuses can be tracked per repair order.

3.5.1.3. Invoice Third Party

Depot Repair will allow sending repair invoices to a different party from that which logged the service request. Invoices can be sent to multiple parties for a single repair order.

Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document Oracle Depot Repair 23

3.5.1.4. Disposition Rules Engine

Repair type, repair location, repair organization, third party repair vendor, exchange from location and other values can be defaulted at time of repair order creation based on customer-defined rules. Rules can be based on repair item, repair location, customer, contract, and so on.

3.5.1.5. Defaulting Rules Engine

Repair queue, repair owner, priority and other repair order values can be defaulted at time of repair order creation based on customer defined rules. Rules can be based on repair item, repair location, customer, contract, and so on.

3.5.1.6. Dynamic Repair BOM

Dynamic Repair BOM Selection Depot Repair will provide a new screen to display the exploded bill of materials for an item. Checkboxes next to each component allow a technician to quickly select the parts needed for repair, significantly reducing the number of clicks required. Parts selected will be added to the repair estimate.

Create Job from Estimate Depot Repair will provide the ability to automatically generate a repair job from the repair estimate. Repair parts from the estimate will be converted to “material demand” on the repair job and allowing part sourcing via Oracle Advanced Planning and Scheduling.

3.5.1.7. Bar-Coded Traveler Document

Depot Repair will provide an out-of-box bar-coded traveler document. Traveler documents allow easy identification and disposition of items in the repair shop. Bar-coded serial numbers and repair order numbers allow technicians to quickly find repair records without typing.

3.5.1.8. Default Repair Item as Material Demand

Depot Repair will default the repair item as material demand on repair jobs. Because repair jobs always create an additional quantity of the item on the job, it is necessary to consume the repair item as material on a job to keep the inventory system in balance. In the past, all customers using WIP for repair jobs were required to manually enter the repair item on the job.

3.5.1.9. Service Bulletins

Depot Repair will automatically link a service bulletin to a repair order based on customer-defined service bulletin rules. Service bulletins provide information to repair managers and technicians regarding:

• Recalls

• ECOs, FCOs, or Supercessions

• Regulatory Compliance - WEEE, RoHS, International Laws

• Parts Shortages

• Up-sells and Cross-sells

• Special Customer Entitlements, Priority, or Expedited Processing

• Processing Exceptions - Late Repair Orders, RMAs, Loaners, or Vendor Shipments


3.5.1.10. Manage ECOs

Depot Repair will automatically notify technicians that there are engineering change orders that have not yet been applied when products come in for repair. For products that require an ECO, the system will automatically apply the BOMs and routes needed to perform the ECO when repair jobs are created. Notifications will not be triggered for ECOs that have already been applied to a specific item instance.

3.5.1.11. Enable Back flush of Non-Serialized Repair Parts

For non-serialized parts, allow automatic tracking of parts consumption when the repair job is closed. This will reduce the repair technician clicks on jobs where components aren’t tracked serially.

3.5.1.12. Service Parts Planning: Forecast and Fulfill Demand for Spare Parts

Oracle Advanced Planning and Scheduling will utilize historical repair order data to forecast the demand and yield for spare parts. APS will automatically generate repair orders within Depot Repair to refurbish defective parts into usable parts to satisfy anticipated repair demand.

3.5.2. Release 12.1.2 3.5.2.1. Repair Manager Portal

The Repair Manager Portal provides the ability to monitor and manage the return center from a single screen. It allows a manager to:

• monitor all escalated, aging, past-due, or on-hold repair orders • bulk create and mass update repair orders • monitor how many of each product are being returned to detect quality events • set return thresholds to trigger automatic quality event notifications

The Portal provides instant visibility to bottlenecks and process exceptions and allows the user to manage those exceptions quickly.

3.5.2.2. Returns Management: Planned Receipt Matching

The Bulk Receiving screen has been enhanced to allow the receipt of both planned and unplanned returns from a single screen. For each package received at the return center, the receiving clerk just enters the customer name, serial numbers, items and quantities while the system matches expected receipts to RMAs and automatically creates and receives new RMAs and repair orders for unexpected materials.

The Bulk Receiving screen has also been enhanced to support locator, lot and revision controlled items. A receiving clerk can also now search for the customer name based on a service request number, and an external reference number can be captured at time of receiving.

3.5.2.3. Time Clock

The Repair Technician Portal has a new widget that allows the technician to clock in and clock out for a repair. The system will track the amount of time a technician spends clocked in on a repair and automatically capture that time as a resource transaction. The technician no longer needs to manually track time spent on a job or manually enter that information into the system. The technician can pause the clock when taking breaks and can allocate time to different operations.


3.5.2.4. Complete Work Button

The Repair Technician Portal has a new “Complete Work” button that allows the technician to complete jobs and operations, issue materials, capture labor time and transact resources with a single button push. Prior to the addition of this button, a technician had to transact all of that information in the system manually.

3.5.2.5. Filter Root Cause Codes by Repair Item

The Repair Technician Portal Debrief tab displays root cause codes for a technician to check off after repair completion. Previously this tab displayed every active root cause code no matter what item was under repair. However, in most businesses, not all root cause codes apply to all items, and the list of codes could be needlessly long.

This enhancement provides a new setup screen where each root cause code can be linked to specific items or item categories. Based on this setup, the Repair Technician Portal will display only root cause codes that match the item or category of the item being repaired.

3.5.3. Release 12.1.3 3.5.3.1. Recall Management

New capability has been added to manage recalls. A recall is an action taken to address a problem with an item that makes it likely to fail, cause injury or violate safety laws. Depot Repair will provide the ability to

• create and update recall records • link the list of impacted item instances to the recall • specify the service activities and corrective actions required • track and monitor progress, accrued cost and estimated remaining cost

3.5.3.2. Returns Dashboard

A new dashboard has been added to enable a company to monitor all of its return streams and the amount and value of material being returned in each. Businesses can use this information to reduce the overall number of returns, to react quickly to unexpected increases in the number of returns, and create programs to increase the recovery of higher-value assets.

3.5.3.3. Environmental Impact Reporting

A new dashboard has been added to enable a company to monitor how much returned material is re-used, recycled, sent to landfill or disposed as hazardous material. Actual disposition is tracked against configurable thresholds.

Businesses can use this information to develop more effective ways to re-use and recycle materials and to build products that create less waste and hazardous material.

3.5.3.4. Warehouse-to-Warehouse Movement of Serialized Products and Parts

A new screen has been added to enable quick and easy movement of products and parts from one inventory organization to another using Internal Sales Orders. This new capability improves on the existing process by tracking serial numbers for serialized parts and by removing the restriction that every move-in line must have a matching move-out line with the same item and quantity.

For businesses that model third-party warehouses, distribution centers, repair centers or field service drop-off sites as inventory organizations, this new screen allows easy tracking and movement of materials to, from and between these third party locations.


3.5.3.5. Partner Portal for Repair Vendor Collaboration

The Technician Portal and Bulk Receiving screens have been retro-fitted to be deployable to service partners over the Internet. Authorized partners can receive against RMAs, manage discrepancies, access checklists, send and receive notes and view item/part save lists online; furthermore, they can enter inspection data, fault codes and regulatory sign-offs directly in the enterprise’s database.

For businesses that work with multiple repair vendors, providing an Internet portal with which to capture data is significantly more cost effective than creating system-to-system integrations with each partner, and also significantly reduces the barriers to adding or changing partners.

3.5.3.6. Warranty Claims Portal

A new solution using iSupport and Depot Repair enables a company to receive online warranty claims from authorized service partners (ASP). ASPs can self-register using iSupport, and can submit claims through Depot Repair that include parts used, labor required, root cause, checklists and notes. The system will auto-create shipment lines for replacement part, RMAs for the return of broken parts, and actual lines for financial settlement with the ASP.

3.5.3.7. Capture Payment and Shipping Information

A new hyperlink has been added to Sales Order Numbers in the Depot Workbench that allow users to click on the hyperlinked Order Number and launch the Sales Order Form. The user can then capture payment and shipping information directly on the Sales Order Form without having to leave the Depot Workbench and navigate to the Sales Order Form.

3.5.3.8. Read-only Depot Workbench

A new responsibility has been seeded for users whose jobs require them to view but not update the data in the Depot Workbench. These users can now launch the Depot Workbench in read-only mode.

3.5.3.9. Automatically Close Repair Order after Shipping Item

A new workflow node is provided that can be linked to the OM Line Type used for repair shipments which will automatically close the repair order after the item ships. This will reduce user clicks and improve the accuracy of data for reporting.

3.5.3.10. Recycling and Asset Recovery

New capabilities have been added to support recycling and asset recovery flows. This “Return to Recover” process supports both businesses that perform recycling and asset recovery and businesses that contract with third parties for recycling and recovery.

3.5.3.11. Manage Exchanges and Returns of Broken Parts and Field Replaceable Units

Depot has long had the capability to manage exchanges and returns of both products and parts, and in this release new capability has been added to simplify the movement of broken parts to, from and between internal and third party warehouses.

3.5.3.12. Refurbish Internally-owned Items and Parts

Depot has long had the capability to refurbish internally-owned items and parts, and in this release new capability has been added to simplify the movement of broken product and parts to, from and between internal and third party warehouses.


3.5.4. Release 12.1.3+ 3.5.4.1. Returns Portal

The Returns Portal allows customers, partners, distributors and retail associates to return products via web portal. Products can be returned for service, repair, testing, calibration, exchange, upgrade, trade-in or recycling.

The Returns Portal is launched from the iSupport Home Page and uses the iSupport registration and login features. The Portal allows a user to enter one or more items for return, and each returned item can have a different return type, return policy and terms and conditions.

The system can automatically verify serial numbers, ownership and warranty status and provide an estimate of charges and credits. Contract entitlements and Advanced Pricing rules are automatically applied to the estimate. Credit card information can be captured and authorized if required. The system will automatically determine the highest value option for processing and routing items based on business rules. Authorized users can select existing customer records or create new customer records when creating a return.

3.5.4.2. Environmental Impact Reporting

The Environmental Impact Dashboard was added in the 12.1.3 release to enable a business to monitor and report on the environmental impact of its return streams and returns processing. In 12.2, two new tabs have been added to the Environmental Impact Dashboard: the Disposition Summary tab and the Put on Market tab.

The Disposition Summary tab enables a business to track and report on the recovered value, cost of recovery and profit margin from processing returned materials. This allows a business to track the effectiveness of its take-back program and to quantify the benefits of reuse and recycling.

The Put on Market tab enables a business to track how many units of each item have been sold or placed into specific geographic regions. This allows a business to comply with environmental impact legislation that requires periodic reporting of put on market data along with take back information for the impacted region.

3.5.4.3. Supplier Warranty Management

New functionality has been added to support businesses that sell and service items and/or components that may fall under a supplier’s warranty. A warranty administrator can create supplier warranty templates, create supplier warranties and link supplier warranties to item instances. A warranty administrator also has the ability to create a claim against the supplier in the Claims Workbench for service to items under supplier warranty. Warranty information is stored in the supplier warranty repository.

A technician can view whether an item under repair is covered by a supplier warranty from within the Technician Portal. If multiple warranties apply, the technician can choose the highest value option. If the item has failed due to a customer induced defect, the technician can indicate that the warranty has been violated.

3.5.4.4. Asset Recovery Flow

The Asset Recovery flow is initiated by a depot manager, service advisor or spares pool manager who wants to repair, refurbish, recondition, remanufacture or recycle in-house items or parts owned by the service business. This may include defective parts recovered from customer products, excess & obsolete materials, finished goods requiring rework, aging spare parts or loaner equipment.

The user can bulk enter materials to be processed and the system can then auto-create service orders with the highest-value processing option and auto-create internal move order lines to move items to the best processing locations based on business rules.


This flow allows movement of materials from one warehouse to another and from one sub-inventory to another. Moves can be one-way or multi-destination moves. The system supports partial shipments and over-shipments. Materials moved in to a depot for processing may be different than the material moved out, such as when materials are upgraded.

3.5.4.5. Service Campaigns and Field Change Orders

The Depot system supports the creation and execution of service campaigns or field change orders. A service campaign is a coordinated set of service actions focused on a specific set of customers or products in a business’s install base. Some examples include:

• Calling all customers approaching their next regular maintenance interval

• Calling all customers serviced in the last month to survey their satisfaction

• Emailing customers whose warranties will soon expire

• Coordinating warehouse personnel to replace batteries on spare parts that have been on the shelf over a certain period of time

Service campaigns include field change orders (FCOs), field actions, technical bulletins, and safety alerts. A service campaign enables a business to increase service revenue, improve product performance and increase customer satisfaction.

The system enables queries against the Oracle Install Base to create a set of specific instances impacted by a service campaign based on attributes such as item types, revisions, model years, and so on. A list of service requests can be automatically generated for these instances so that execution, progress and costs of the service campaign can be tracked and monitored.

3.5.4.6. Create New Customer

In prior releases, users had to leave the Depot Workbench and open another application to create a new customer party. In 12.2 a new button has been added to the Workbench to launch a screen from which a user can create a new customer party without leaving the Workbench. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.

3.5.4.7. Batch Create Jobs

New capability has been added to the Mass Update Repair Order screen to enable a service organization to create repair jobs in bulk. Jobs can be created based on specified service code, BOM and/or Route. Jobs can be created across repair orders, service requests, customers and service organizations. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.

3.5.4.8. Calculate Resolve By Date from RMA Receipt Date

Previously, the Resolve By Date for a repair order could only be calculated based on the service order creation date. Now service organizations have the option to calculate the resolve by date starting from the time the item is received at the service center. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.

3.5.4.9. Prevent Shipping Exchange Item until Defective Item Received

Many service businesses require that a customer return their defective item before shipping a replacement item. Previously, users could accidentally ship replacements before the defective item was returned, but with this new functionality users are warned if they attempt to ship replacements before receiving the customer defective. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.


3.5.4.10. DFFs Added to Technician Portal

DFFs have been added to the Diagnostic Codes, Operations, Materials and Resources tables of the Technician Portal to enable capture of diagnostic code failure location, and operation test results, as well as part-level problem code, failure location, primary defect code, action and so on. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.

3.5.4.11. Create Service Requests and Repair Orders for Rental Items

Previously, the system would not allow customers to create service requests for items owned by the service organization, such as rentals, leased items and loaners. New functionality has been added to enable creation of service requests and repair orders for internally owned items and to automatically create a relationship between the returned item and the customer logging the service request. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.

3.5.4.12. Display Material Transaction History on Technician Portal Materials Table

Previously, the Technician Portal Materials Table only displayed net transacted quantity for each material on the table. This meant that if one part was removed and the same type of part was added to a repair item, the displayed net quantity would be zero.

New functionality has been added to display each material transaction as a separate sub-line under the material row in the table. A hide/show region enables selective disclosure of this information. Quantity transacted and disposition information is displayed for each transaction. Additionally, the quantity issued and quantity recovered are now displayed on the material record in addition to the net transacted quantity. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.

3.5.4.13. Recommend Part Disposition from Rules Engine

New capability has been added to the Defaulting Rules Engine to enable defaulting part-level disposition codes. Each part listed on the Technician Portal Materials Table can be assigned a disposition code, and with this new functionality the Depot Rules Engine can recommend the best disposition for each part based on recovery value, customer agreement, part demand and many other business factors. Technicians can over-ride the recommendation with appropriate permission. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.

3.5.4.14. Auto-create Repair Orders for Recovered Parts

Technicians can track each part recovered from a repair item on the Technician Portal Materials Table. With this new functionality, each recovered part can automatically generate a repair order to track whether the recovered part will be refurbished to stock, shipped back to the manufacturer, recycled or scrapped. Repair Order Type, Ship-to Location and other values are defaulted from the Depot Rules Engine. The newly spawned repair orders are linked to the original order that spawned them. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.

3.5.4.15. View and Capture Install Base Data from Technician Portal

The Technician Portal has been enhanced such that a user can click on the Install Base Reference Number to launch the Install Base screen. Instance specific values and attributes can be captured quickly and easily. Users can return to the Depot Technician Portal without having to re query data. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.

3.5.4.16. Auto-complete Operation using Time Clock

Previously, clicking the “Next” button on the Technician Portal Time Clock stopped accruing time against the current operation and starting accruing time against the next operation. New functionality has been added to automatically complete the current operation when moving to the next operation. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.


3.5.4.17. Auto-create Repair Warranty

New functionality has been added to automatically create a repair warranty for repair work done. When the repaired item is shipped, a workflow process triggers that creates a repair warranty and links it to the repaired item instance. Different warranty types and warranty periods can be determined using Defaulting Rules. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.

3.5.4.18. Track Serial Numbers and Sub-inventories against Internal Sales Orders

The Depot Internal Moves screen enables fast creation of internal requisitions and internal sales orders to move items and parts from one inventory location to another. Each internal sales order is linked to the repair order that spawned it. New functionality has been added to enable a user to indicate specific sub-inventories for shipping and receiving, as well as the specific serial numbers that are being moved. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.

3.5.4.19. “Request Parts” Button auto-creates Purchase Req or Internal Req

A new “Request Parts” button has been added to the Technician Portal Materials Table to allow a technician to automatically create a purchase requisition or internal requisition to procure parts. The generated requisition number displays on the Materials Table, and clicking the hyperlinked requisition number will launch the Requisition screen. Multiple parts can be requested with a single click. User hooks enable custom sourcing logic to be called rather than using the standard Oracle Procurement sourcing rules. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.

3.5.4.20. Service Parts Planning Integration for Serialized Items

Oracle's Service Parts Planning engine uses historical repair demand and fulfillment information from the Depot Repair application to forecast repair part demand. The Planning engine can then create repair orders to refurbish defective parts to meet that demand, as well as create internal sales orders to move defective parts to the appropriate depot for repair. New functionality has been added to simplify refurbishing serialized parts by enabling a single refurbishment repair order to track many serialized defectives. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.

3.5.4.21. Service Order Orchestration

A new screen enables service personnel to view the status of cross-domain documents (for example, sales orders, purchase orders, shipping lines, WIP jobs) related to a service order and will allow service personnel to drill into additional document details as permissions allow. Furthermore, this new feature allows a business to define rules for triggering repair order status changes and programmatic function calls based on status changes to related documents and location changes of the service item. A concurrent program monitors for events, evaluates business rules and triggers actions based on those rules. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.

3.5.4.22. Bulk Returns through the Returns Portal

The Returns Portal has been enhanced to support returns of material in bulk. This feature was built to support palette-load returns of scrap or obsolete materials for which there is no desire to track serial numbers or other attributes specific to each item. Rather, attributes are tracked at the palette level (for example, number of boxes, total shipment weight, shipment dimensions) and only high level item information is captured. Service requests, repair orders and RMAs are generated, but serial number and other information will not be captured until the material is received if at all. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.


3.5.4.23. Bulk Internal Moves: Inter- and Intra-Warehouse

The Internal Moves module has been enhanced such that inter- and intra-warehouse movements of products and parts can be done in bulk and can automatically create an associated service request and repair orders for the moved materials. This feature is handy for moving material in bulk from a defective sub-inventory to a depot for part harvesting, or moving all excess and obsolete material from a particular storage location into a depot for refurbishment. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.

3.5.4.24. Additional Defaulting Rule Attributes

The Depot Defaulting Rules Engine has been extended with a number of new defaultable attributes. New attributes include Job Status, Accounting Class, Job Inventory Organization, Pick Release Rule, Material Issue Sub-Inventory, Pricelist, Default Completion Sub-Inventory and more. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.

3.5.4.25. Create Estimate from Technician Portal

The Technician Portal has been enhanced such that technicians can create work estimates in the Portal and export that estimate to the Depot Workbench Estimate tab for pricing and approval. Technicians can create an estimate of the operations, parts and time required to execute a job in the same screen in which they execute that job. Furthermore, the Depot Workbench Estimates tab has been enhanced such that a service agent can price estimates, approve or reject estimates, or request a new estimate from the technician. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.2.

3.5.4.26. Launch Quality Collection Plan upon Operation Completion

Some service organizations want their technicians to capture quality data specific to certain operations. The Operations table on the Technician Portal has been enhanced such that a Quality Collection Plan can be launched when an operation is completed. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.4+.

3.5.4.27. Extend Resolve By Date for Hold Time

Many businesses have service contracts with service level agreements indicating the date by when a reported problem must be resolved. The Resolve By Date field tracks this contractually obligated resolution date. New logic enables the system to automatically extend the Resolve By Date if the order goes into a hold status; for example, when the order is on hold awaiting a customer approval. When the hold is removed, the Resolve By Date is extended to include the amount of time of the hold. An activity record is logged to capture that the Resolve By Date was extended. This logic is optional and controlled by setups. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.4+.

3.5.4.28. Calculate Resolve By Date starting from Specified Status Transition

Many businesses have service contracts with service level agreements indicating by when a reported problem must be resolved. The Resolve By Date field tracks the contractually obligated resolution date. New logic enables a business to dictate what event should mark the starting point in time from which the Resolve By Date is calculated; for example, from time of receipt, inspection, entitlement verification or any other milestone. This logic is optional and controlled by setups. This feature is forward-ported to 12.2.4+.

3.5.4.29. Returns Portal Enhancements for Oracle’s Own Takeback Operations

A number of enhancements were made to the Returns Portal specifically for Oracle’s own internal use. These include:

• New defaulting rules for carrier, processor and disposition

• Save partially completed return request


• Export search results to spreadsheet

• Additional search attributes

• Flexible Item Type search

• Mandatory file upload

• Restrict visibility to only records created by logged in user

• Web-specific user experience enhancements

• Flexible page regions to enable easy re-arrangement using Personalization

• Out-of-box workflow notifications for carriers, processors and repair order owner

• Seeded business event for return order creation

• Additional DFFs

These features are forward-ported to 12.2.4+.

3.5.5. Release 12.2 3.5.5.1. Changing from “Repair Order” to “Service Order”

In the Depot application a user can execute business flows for service, testing, calibration, exchange, upgrade, asset recovery, trade-in or recycling in addition to repair; however, many screen labels, menus, functions and title bars specifically say “repair”. Some users dislike when the screen says “repair” when no repair is being done.

In 12.2 the Depot application will replace the term “repair” with the more universal term “service”. For example, “repair order” becomes “service order”, “repair type” becomes “service type”, “repair organization” becomes “service organization” and so on.

3.5.5.2. Automotive Industry Configuration

The automotive industry has a number of unique business flows, naming conventions and data requirements that are unique to that industry. A new option is provided in the Depot application to automatically configure the system to provide automotive industry-specific setups for automotive manufacturers, dealers and service centers.

3.6. Oracle Depot Repair Extensions for Oracle Endeca – New Product 3.6.1. Overview

Depot Repair Extensions for Oracle Endeca is a solution that allows users to track and manage repairs and supplier warranty claims effectively. Service managers, operations managers and repair technicians can leverage the functionalities offered by the Repair Order Dashboard while claims managers and claims administrators can leverage the Supplier Warranty Claims Dashboard to: manage performance of service centers, technicians, partners and suppliers; identify and eliminate process bottlenecks, continuously improve the speed, quality and cost of repairs; and improve supplier warranty claim recovery rate.

3.6.2. Release 12.1.3+ Depot Repair Extensions for Endeca provides the following features:

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3.6.2.1. Expedite Late or Aging Repair Orders

The most profitable vehicle for service organizations is the service contract; however, service organizations must have process discipline that allows aggressive delivery dates and consistently meeting these dates or the contracts will not be profitable. The Depot Extensions provide the tools to ensure that orders are fulfilled on-time, including the ability to view aging and late order information, the ability to re-assign work as needed to meet dates, the ability to expedite part requests, and the ability to communicate instructions across the service group.

3.6.2.2. Assign Unassigned Repair Orders

To meet due dates and to ensure work is performed with appropriate quality, service managers must assign work to the right resource in the right circumstances. The Depot Extensions provide the ability to re-assign work as circumstances dictate, to view who worked on a returned item the last time it came in and the ability to view unassigned orders to make sure all are assigned in a timely manner.

3.6.2.3. Identify and Resolve Process Bottlenecks

Service organizations need visibility to the amount of time orders are spending in each process step to identify which process steps are taking too long. The Depot Extensions provide visibility to time in status as well as reason for holds and for repeating process steps is vital to improving overall turnaround time.

3.6.2.4. Identify and Resolve Quality Problems

Service organizations incur high costs if they fail to provide the requested service correctly the first time. The Depot Extensions provide visibility to repeat returns and rework and the ability to analyze patterns related to specific technicians, groups, parts or item so that quality issues can be resolved.

3.6.2.5. Evaluate Performance of Service Technicians, Groups and Divisions

Service managers need the ability to evaluate the performance of their teams and technicians. The Depot Extensions provide tools that allow them to view historical performance, compare performance to baselines and view trends.

3.6.2.6. Ensure Supplier Warranty Claims are Settled and Paid Expeditiously

Service organizations need the ability to submit claims and ensure that those claims are processed quickly and paid in full. The Depot Extensions provide the ability to view all claims in process, expedite aging claims, communicate with suppliers, track supplier communication, provide additional information related to the part failure or service work, and view the original language of the warrantee agreement in cases of dispute.

3.6.2.7. Ability to Evaluate Suppliers based on Product Quality and Claims Settlement

Service organizations need to evaluate their suppliers for both the reliability of the parts they provide as well as how well and how fast they honor their warranty commitments. The Depot Extensions provide visibility to supplier performance data, product quality data and claims settlement data.

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3.7. Oracle Email Center 3.7.1. Overview

Oracle Email Center is a comprehensive solution for managing high volumes of inbound email. Oracle Email Center reduces the cost per email interaction by automatically replying to certain email inquiries as well as routing others to a skilled set of agents and providing them with a full featured console with cross application functionality. Oracle Email Center increases customer satisfaction and reduces customer attrition by providing quick, accurate and consistent responses. It also increases agent's efficiency through the use of a full featured, Email Center agent console thereby reducing agent turnover.

3.7.2. Release 12.1.2

3.7.2.1. Display of Email Threads during Email Response

With this new capability, the agents now have easy access to the emails that have been previously exchanged with the customer regarding the email/ issue that they are working on. All the emails threads related to this specific email are displayed to the agent in descending order of time. The agents can access this information by navigating to the ‘Thread’ tab on the message component.

3.7.2.2. Agent UI Queues Tab

A new Tab has been added to the Agent UI to allow agents to view the subject of each email in their queues as well as drill down to see the entire body of the email. This feature allows agents to cherry pick the emails they want to work on/respond to instead of being forced to work on the email at the top of the queue. To enable similar functionality in the UWQ, the Email Queue Node has been made visible to Agents (previously only available to Managers).

Email Center Administrators can define queues as being visible to agents or not. Additionally, administrators can define a group of agents that are allowed to view a particular queue.

3.7.2.3. Advanced Automatic Service Request Creation

In R12, the service requests can be automatically created and updated from the inbound emails. In 12.1.2, this feature has been enhanced to parse the text of the inbound emails and extract the information such as customer, product, serial number, address, and problem code contained in email’s body as per defined parser rules. This extracted information is passed to the service request API to populate the corresponding fields in the service request during the service request creation process.

As part of the Advanced Service Request creation feature, the administrators can create parser definitions i.e. define the tags within which the data needs to be parsed and define the corresponding field on the Service Request schema this data would be mapped to. When used in conjunction with the Auto Create Service Request rule, the data captured by the parser definition will be sent to the service request being created from the inbound email.

3.7.3. Release 12.1.3

3.7.3.1. SSL Enabled Download Processor The Email Center download processor can now connect to an SSL enabled port of the mail server. This ensures the download of emails to email center application is secure and in compliance with corporate network security regulations.

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3.7.4. Release 12.2.4

3.7.4.1. SMTP Authorization for Non-SSL email accounts

SMTP authorization for non-SSL email accounts can be enabled through setup. By default, authorization is not required for non-SSL email accounts.

3.8. Oracle Field Service 3.8.1. Overview

As service and customer care becomes a more important part of global business strategy, field service organizations are faced with a growing number of challenges and opportunities. Dispersed staff coordination, complex technical issue resolution, inventory management, and increasing tougher Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are challenges to running a profitable field service business. Oracle Field Service offers a complete solution which leading field service organizations have successfully deployed to optimally utilize resources, minimize costs and improve customer satisfaction.

Oracle Field Service drives profitability by supporting and automating key field service process such as scheduling, dispatching, debriefing and billing. Oracle Field Service improves customer satisfaction by automatically scheduling tasks to insure customer expectations and contractual agreements are fulfilled efficiently. A variety of constraints and objectives are considered including technician shifts/availability, skill requirements, parts requirements/availability, and street level geo-spatial data.

3.8.2. Release 12.0.3 (RUP3)

3.8.2.1. Google Maps Integration

In this release, users can access Google Maps from the Dispatch Center and the Field Tech Portal to display Technician and Task Locations. Color coding is used to display task status and mouse over pop-ups display of task and tech details like address and task type. All of the standard Google map functionality is available such as zooming in/out, panning, scrolling, and printing. This map features does not require installation of spatial data but does require purchase of a security key from Google.

3.8.3. Release 12.1.1

3.8.3.1. Technician and Administrator Portals – Trunk Stock Management and Debrief Trunk Stock Visibility

In Release 12, Oracle Mobile Field Service - Laptop provides trunk stock inventory visibility while the Field Service Technician Portal (FSTP) and Field Service Administrator Portal (FSAO) UIs do not have this very useful feature.

In Release 12.1.1, the FSTP and FSAP UIs have been enhanced so users (technician or administrator) can view parts inventory balances and reservations in a technician’s trunk stock location as well as other inventory locations he/she has been assigned (e.g. district office stock room, parts sheds, nearby technician trunk stock, etc.).

On this new page, the technician will have the ability to:

• View inventory balances for all of the sub-inventories assigned to a technician

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• View reservations against the inventory balances in these sub-inventories • View transaction history details for these sub inventories

Additionally, the Item LOV in the DebriefMaterialsInstall region has been enhanced to include On Hand Quantity and Available Quantity to hold the technician debrief accurately.

3.8.3.2. Technician and Administrator Portal - Task Scheduling

In Release 12, Oracle Mobile Field Service Wireless PDA solution provides the capability for technicians to schedule follow-up and new tasks while the Field Service Technician Portal (FSTP) does not provide this capability.

A new feature is provided in 12.1.1 that gives users of the FSTP the ability to schedule new and follow-up tasks while at the customer site. This improves customer satisfaction as the customer knows immediately when someone is coming back to do the work at a time that is convenient. It improves efficiency as the field technician does not have to call his/her dispatchers to get the task scheduled. The following scheduling modes are supported:

• Self Schedule • Window to promise • Intelligent

3.8.3.3. Technician and Administrator Portal – Debrief Error Corrections

In Release 12, only Parts Debrief Lines can be corrected/reversed by entering a new debrief line. Corrections/reversals of Labor and Expense Debrief Lines are not allowed which distorts our DBI labor utilization reports among other issues. Many customers, such as BCI and Eaton, have requested this feature.

With this new 12.1.1 feature, users can now debrief labor and expense correction lines and automatically generate credits from them in Charges.

3.8.4. Release 12.1.1+ 3.8.4.1. Dispatch Center Usability Enhancements

The Dispatch Center UI provides Dispatchers and Service Coordinators a work bench to perform most of their scheduling and monitoring functions. Even though the current Dispatch Center UI provides many best in class features including Plan Board, Interactive Scheduling Chart, Map, and Schedule Management, it is missing a few features needed by some of our more sophisticated customers like NCR, Beckman Coulter, Hitachi, and Telefonica. In this release, we have added the following new features:

A sortable Task Table replaces simple Task List. It displays relevant information about each task such as task description, task status, customer name, address and SLA dates and timings.

A Task Quick Find feature as been added so dispatchers can quickly navigate to the desired task in the Plan Board or Scheduling Chart.

Almost all Task Attributes have been exposed in the Dispatch Center so the dispatcher does not have to navigate to other UIs like the Service Request or Task Manger Forms to make basic updates.


More icons have been added to the Scheduling Chart so dispatchers can see the task attributes most critical to decision making in their particular scheduling environment.

Direct access to the new HTML Parts UI is provided making it more efficient for dispatchers to perform Spares functions (sourcing, ordering, and receiving) on behalf of their field technicians,

3.8.4.2. Dispatch Center Advanced Task Management

The Dispatch Center has been enhanced to allow users to easily create Follow-up Tasks and Personal Tasks on behalf of a technician. Follow-up Tasks need to be created when a technician cannot finish a Service Request due to lack or parts, skills, or time. Personal Tasks are created to block out time for doctor appointments, meetings, vacation, etc. Previously, users had to navigate to completely separate UIs to create these tasks.

All Task update UIs, including the Dispatch Center, have been enhanced to prevent the user from putting a task into a status that conflicts with another task. For example, it doesn’t allow the tech to be traveling to two different locations at the same time or working on tasks at different locations at the same time. This functionality is configurable (new setup UI) so Service Providers can determine which statuses should not be in conflict.

3.8.5. Release 12.1.2

3.8.5.1. Dispatch Center - GPS Location Capture and Mapping

Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is now commonly available in phones and on trucks/cars. Leading service providers are taking advantage of this technology to reduce travel, respond to emergencies and source parts.

In this release, we are providing OOB integration to leading GPS service providers to capture and map resource/technician locations and routes. GPS locations are also used in our new Distance Based Parts Sourcing Logic.

3.8.5.2. Field Service Technician Portal – Usability and Security Enhancements

The Field Service Technicians Portal (FSTP) provides all of the functionality needed for a field technical to receive work, report status, diagnose problems, and debrief results. It is typically used by technicians working on a laptop with wireless connectivity. This section describes the many enhancements provided in 12.1.2 to this key UI. A similar UI, Field Service Administration Portal provides all of the same features but also includes capability to enter transaction on behalf of multiple field technicians.

An option to restrict technicians to only creating Service Requests for the sites where they are scheduled to work is provided. This feature allows service providers to more tightly control technician behavior and forces customers to contact the call center instead of calling a field tech to log their issue. Additionally, a new Create SR button has been added to the Task Update UI for easy access to the SR creation page. And, the Create Service Request UI accessed from the FSTP has been enhanced to support task creation (previously could only create follow-up tasks on existing SRs).

The FSTP Labor Debrief Region has been enhanced to capture Actual Travel Time and Distance and keep it separate from regular labor. To do this, a new Travel Flag has been added to the Service Activity Code setup and two new fields have been added to the Labor Debrief Region (Distance and UOM) to capture travel distance in addition to travel time.


To improve debrief efficiency and accuracy, the FSTP Debrief UI has been enhanced to optionally default travel and labor start and end times from the task assignment status changes. For example, Travel Start Time can be defaulted when the Task Status changes from “Accepted” to “Traveling”.

An option to make Labor Debrief Mandatory is provided to force technicians to report their labor before changing the task status to “Completed” or “Closed”. Also, a similar option to force the technician to enter a Resolution Code before completing or closing at task has been provided.

The SR Regions in the Dashboard and Task Update UIs have been enhanced to display Site Name, Site Number, and Addressee for the Incident Address. These are key fields that service providers need to use to store important data like Wal-Mart Store Number. In addition, the Service Create SR UI and View SR UI are enhanced to also display these key address fields.

The Service Request Region of Task Update UI has been enhanced to allow users to update service request severity. A new dropdown is provided to upgrade/downgrade severity. Note, if severity is changed, the Respond By and the Resolve By dates get recalculated.

The Google Map UI (access from the FSTP Dashboard) has been enhanced to provide driving directions capability. Technicians can simply click on a task and its address gets automatically pulled in the driving directions UI.

The Service Request region of Task Update UI has been enhanced to display Contract Coverage Days and Times and the existing Contract Number field has been changed to a hyperlink. This hyperlink invokes the HTML Contract Coverage UI which displays contracts details such as coverage name, reaction times and resolution times. Additionally, if the product on the SR is not under contract, the Contract Number field in the Service Request region displays a message indicating that no contract coverage exists for this product.

The ability to filter the Task List on the Field Service Administrators Portal Dashboard by Group and Territory provided so the administrator can locate just the tasks needed to be work on. In addition, the portal personalization UI is enhanced to add group and territory.

3.8.6. Release 12.1.3

3.8.6.1. Field Service Third Party Administrator/Technician Portals

In 12.1.3, both Field Service Administrator/Technician portals have been enhanced to support use by Third Party Administrators/Dispatchers and Third Party Technicians. The Admin Portal has been enhanced to add security functionality so Third Parties can only see Field Service Tasks and Spares Inventory assigned to their Organization/Technicians. The Tech Portal has been enhanced so Service Provides can personalize it for use by Third Party Technicians (e.g. turn off access to create Service Requests)

3.8.6.2. Dispatch Center Third Party Management

The Dispatch Center UI has been enhanced to support monitoring Tasks scheduled to Third Party Organizations and their Technicians. Dispatch Center Spread-table view has been enhanced to query and view Tasks scheduled to Third Party Service Providers. To


support this feature, Advanced Find UI has been enhanced to create intelligent queries. Dispatchers can now be able to commit and release Tasks scheduled to Third Party Service Providers. Dispatchers can monitor these tasks in the list and perform all scheduling functions with the Right Click Menu. In addition, task schedule to Third Party Organizations (Resource Groups) will not be displayed in the Plan Board and Gantt Chart but tasks assigned to Third Party Techs will be displayed.

3.8.6.3. eLocation Map Viewer Option

The Dispatch Center UI has been enhanced to integrate to the eLocation Map UI as an alternative to the Google Map UI already supported. The eLocation Map UI has the same features and the Google Map UI with the additional capability to display multiple tasks for the same site/address (icon changes to a Red Star if more than 1 task is scheduled for a single site/address). The advantage of the eLocation Map is that is an Oracle Product so the Service Provider does not have to buy a Google license. In addition, a Geo Code Validation UI is provided to help implementers diagnose address geo-coding errors.

3.8.7. Release 12.1.3+

3.8.7.1. Reschedule, Un-schedule, and Cancel Tasks that have received Customer Confirmation

In prior releases, if a Task has its Customer Confirmation Status set to ‘Received’, the menu options ‘Reschedule’, ‘Unschedule’, and ‘Cancel’ are disabled. Dispatchers have to execute several steps to reset the Confirmation status to either ‘Required’ or ‘Not Required’, before being allowed to perform these functions. With this enhancement, Dispatchers can perform this functions on Tasks for which Customer Confirmation has already been received and recorded.

3.8.7.2. Commit/Release Task while recording Customer Confirmation

In this release, the Customer Confirmation UI is enhanced to allow Dispatchers to release (‘Commit’) the Task while recording receipt of customer confirmation.

3.8.7.3. Configure Shift Task Display in Dispatch Center

Until now, if a Technician works both in Regular and Standby Shift, then 4 shift Tasks are displayed on the Plan Board. Dispatchers have an option to hide these Shift Tasks interactively. They can choose to hide either Regular Shift Tasks or Standby Shift Tasks or both. Once they close and re-open the Dispatch Center, however, the previous Shift task display options selected are not retained. With this enhancement, Dispatchers can configure shift Tasks display in the Dispatch Center through the profile ‘CSF: Display Shift Tasks’. This profile is honored every time the Dispatch Center UI is launched.

3.8.7.4. Advanced Debrief – DOA, Unused Parts, Serial Tagging

The Tech, Admin and Third Party Portals Debrief UIs along with the Wireless Debrief UI have been enhanced to support debrief of Defective on Arrival (DOA) and Unused Parts. The Debrief Posting program has also been enhanced to process DOA and Unused Parts differently from parts debriefed as being installed into the customer site/equipment.

In addition, the SCM Serial Tagging functionality has been up taken in Debrief so service providers need only capture serial numbers when installing/removing parts (instead of having to also enter them every time a part moves in the supply chain).


3.8.7.5. Debrief – Return Routing Engine Integration

The Tech, Admin and Third Party Portals Debrief UIs along with the Wireless Debrief UI have been integrated with the Return Routing Engine (new in 12.1.3) so the user can be instructed where to return DOA, Unused and Defective Parts as soon as he/she saves the debrief line.

3.8.7.6. Technician Setup UI

A new HTML UI is provided in this release so Administrators have a single UI to perform all on-boarding setups and quick maintenance of existing setups including:

• User Name and Responsibilities • Groups • Territories • Skills • Inventory Locations • Home and Ship to Addresses • Calendar (Regular and Stand by)

3.8.7.7. Display Parts Shipping Information in Dispatch Center

Dispatchers will now be able to view the Spare Parts Expected Arrival Date, Warehouse, Shipping Distance, Shipping Cost and the Method of Shipment in the Dispatch Center Spares Tab. This information will enhance Dispatchers’ ability to communicate and collaborate with warehouse personnel, customers and technicians in the field.

3.8.7.8. Portals support Transfer Parts

The Trunk Stock management UI’s in Tech, Admin and Third Party Portals have been enhanced to provide the ability to transfer parts from one technician’s sub inventory to another technician’s sub inventory.

3.8.7.9. Part Replacement Validation

Debrief install region has been enhanced to check whether the part being installed is a valid replacement for the part being removed. The validation includes evaluating whether the new part is supersession or a substitute for the defective part being replaced. This validation is optionally done when the Replacement Debrief Line is saved (warning) and again when it is posted (hard error).

3.8.7.10. Mass ‘Unscheduling’ of assigned Tasks

Schedule Management screen in the Dispatch Center UI is now enhanced to provide Dispatchers with the capability to ‘unschedule’ assigned Tasks from the trips of several Technicians at once, within a specific date range.

3.8.7.11. Enhanced Technician Calendar, Shifts and Exception Management

Field Service Administrators now have the ability to setup repeating holidays (like New Years Day and Christmas) as a single exception in the Calendar. The Generate Trips program has been enhanced to honor these repetitive exceptions and prevent creating Trips on those dates.

Schedule Management screen in the Dispatch Center UI has been enhanced so Dispatchers can generate Trips for all their resources or for jus specific selected resources. They can also select the Calendar and Shift Name to be used when generating


trips. Dispatchers also have an option to invoke Generate Trips concurrent program from within the Dispatch Center, with the additional capability to select a Calendar and Shift Name interactively.

3.8.8. Release 12.2 3.8.8.1. Projects Related Fields in Dispatch Center

Dispatch Center UI has been enhanced to display projects related fields (read-only) in Service Request Tab: Project Number, Project Name, Project Task Number, and Project Task Name. The project information present in the SR header will be defaulted to the Task Details. Advanced Find Tasks UI (Service Request Tab) is also enhanced to allow Dispatchers to search Tasks based on Project Number and Project Task Number fields.

3.8.8.2. Auto create Install Debrief from Recovery/Return Debrief

In the Tech/Admin Portals, users can now automatically create a Part Install transaction when entering a Part Recovery/Return which increases debrief reporting efficiency and accuracy.

3.8.8.3. Search Recovered Item using Serial Number during Debrief Install

In the Tech/Admin Portals, the Debrief Install region has been enhanced provide ability to search for recovered item and parent item Installed Base Records using serial number.

3.8.8.4. Ability to Enter Serial Number before Item Number during Debrief Install

In the Tech/Admin Portals, the Debrief install region has been enhanced to display Serial Number at the row level. When the technician/administrator enters the serial number, item number and item description will be backfilled.

3.8.8.5. Provide Ability to Receive Parts from Parts Tab

In the Tech/Admin Portals, the Parts Tab in Task Details UI has been enhanced to show parts requirements in the show/hide region. Additionally, a new Receive button is displayed on the Parts Tab to launch the Receive Parts UI which displays all orders created for the task so the use can receive the parts.

3.8.8.6. Display Projects Related Fields in Task Details UI

In the Tech/Admin Portals, the Task Details UI has been enhanced to display projects related five new fields (read-only) in service request region present in the Task Details UI: Expenditure Organization, Project Number, Project Name, Project Task Number, and Project Task Name. The project information present in the SR header will be defaulted to all debrief lines (Labor, Material, and Expense). Line level project information fields will be editable in order to allow technician to capture data if it is different from SR header level information.

3.8.8.7. Provide Access Technician Setup UI

In the Tech/Admin Portals, the quick links region present in dashboard has been enhanced to provide a link to access to Field Service Technician setup UI. Technician setup UI allows administrators to assign Territories, Calendars, Skills, Address and Subinventories to the individual technicians (on boarding).


3.8.8.8. Field Service Report with Signature Capture Capability

In the Tech/Admin Portals, the Task Details UI has been enhanced to allow technician to view a consolidated action report done for the task. This report displays Labor, Material, Expense and attached notes and allows technicians to collect the signature from the customer once they validate the report. This feature also allows technicians to generate and email a pdf report to the customer. Implementers can create their own custom report and replace the existing one using the profile “CSF: Default Task Report Template”.

3.8.8.9. Update Task Actuals based on Labor Service Activity Code

Service Activity Code Setup UI has been enhanced to add a new “Update Task Actuals” flag. This will drive the automatic update of the Task Actual Dates instead of the hard coded logic we had previously.

3.8.9. Release 12.2.4 3.8.9.1. Display Unassigned Tasks in Administrator Dashboard Field Service Managers/Administrators have the ability to review all unassigned tasks (no tech assigned and not schedule dates/times) owned by the groups in which administrator is a member or owned by the administrator themselves. They can then schedule these tasks (manually or use Scheduler UI) to the appropriate technicians.

3.8.9.2. View and Create Personal Tasks in Field Service Portals The existing views present in Portal have been enhanced to display personal tasks. Additionally, a new link ‘Create Personal Tasks’ has been seeded in the Quick Links section on the dashboard to allow the technicians or administrators to create personal tasks.

3.8.9.3. Integrate new Service Tasks UI in Portal A new HTML Service Tasks UI was delivered in 12.2 which provides all of the task functionality available in Forms. In this release, the Field Service Portals have been enhanced to provide access to this new HTML Service Tasks UI instead of the old generic Task Pages.

3.8.9.4. Integrate Field Service Portals and Wireless with Inquira The existing Knowledge base Search region in Portals and Wireless Dashboards has been enhanced to provide an option to launch the Inquira Knowledge Base UI.

3.9. Oracle Field Service Extensions for Oracle Endeca – New Product 3.9.1. Overview

Oracle E-Business Suite Endeca Extension for Field Service is a solution that allows users to proactively monitor field service tasks, effectively manage field workforce utilization, and efficiently control spare parts inventories, to achieve maximum customer satisfaction. Field operations managers and field service technicians can leverage the functionalities offered by Tasks and Parts Dashboards, while Field service administrators can leverage the Administrator Dashboard. With the powerful search, guided navigation and drilldown capabilities of Endeca Extension for Field Service, field service organizations can improve compliance with service level agreements by quickly finding opportunities to load balance field jobs and increase daily throughput.

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3.9.2. Release 12.1.3+ Field Service operations managers need to know how best to prioritize and monitor workload, where operational deficiencies exist, which task debriefs have not been reviewed and submitted for invoicing, which technicians are performing well or badly and which spare parts are being used heavily or not used at all, and why.

Endeca Extension for Field Service provides the following features:

3.9.2.1. Identify exceptions, escalations and Tasks in jeopardy by Geography or Customer

The Endeca Extension for Field Service provides Field Service Operations managers with information on Tasks with high probability of SLA violation or already in violation contractual obligations, Tasks that are escalated and/or unattended to; as well as the tools needed to expedite, resolve and reschedule Tasks in real time, if necessary. Managers will have a comprehensive view of field activities across geographies they are responsible for, and if required, can focus on a specific state/city or even to a specific customer.

3.9.2.2. Track Task and Technician Performance Metrics

Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of Task and Technician performance like First Time Fix Rate, Tasks started and finished on-time, and Tasks per Technician, etc., provide critical insights into the operational efficiencies, which may also reflect the measure of customer satisfaction. These KPIs will help service organizations to benchmark operational performance across regions, identify opportunities for improvements and make informed timely decisions.

3.9.2.3. Continuously monitor and improve response times, service quality and cost of service

Business intelligence tools for Field service enable a field service organization to monitor operational bottlenecks, rework, repeat site visits, issues with spare parts and poor quality performance. This will allow managers to track down root causes for these operational deficiencies and initiate appropriate remedial measures.

3.9.2.4. Review, update and submit debrief faster for creating charges and invoices

Field Service Administrators can proactively work towards achieving their revenue goals by identifying Tasks with incomplete or pending debrief. They can review, update and finalize debriefs so that charges can be submitted and invoices generated in a timely manner.

3.9.2.5. Reduce violation of SLAs, contractual obligations and penalties

Having visibility to all open Tasks, accurate status, escalations and SLA based response times and having the tools to communicate, remove bottlenecks, re-schedule and release Tasks to the field in a timely manner enables a field service organization to minimize violation of contractual obligations and penalties for missed SLAs.

3.9.2.6. Enhance Workforce Performance

Providing field service administrators the visibility into task and Technician status in real time and any operational bottlenecks, along with the necessary tools to expedite Task execution and resolve issues in the field empowers the decision makers to streamline operations. Field Service operations managers have visibility to repeat same site visit, rework and excessive travel. They can identify the root causes and responsible parties. They can take corrective or preventive actions based on the insights gained. Field Service

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Managers can monitor the performance of technicians and third party service providers to reward good performance and address any performance deficiencies.

3.9.2.7. Track spare parts usage and quality issues

By tracking the spare parts usage in the field, field service warehouse and logistics coordinators can identify trends of excessive usage of any specific spare parts and narrow down issues in a specific region or a warehouse or with specific field technicians. They can also track parts frequently flagged as ‘dead or defective on arrival (DOA)’ and address any quality issues with the suppliers and initiate necessary claims to recover entitled warranties on those spare parts.

3.9.2.8. Manage Warehouse Inventories and Reduce Spare Part Backorders

Field Service Warehouse and Logistics coordinators can proactively identify and manage backorders for spare parts. By gaining insights into the inventory levels across spares supply chain, they can facilitate parts movement to avoid any excessive stock piling in some locations, and at the same time, minimize any backorders in other locations.

3.10. Oracle iSupport 3.10.1. Overview

Oracle iSupport enables you to provide a secure, web portal that delivers self-service functionality to customers and employees 24/7. It provides a variety of transaction and query capabilities including product configurations tracking, orders, invoices and payments, shipments, returns, and contracts. Oracle iSupport has been implemented at many leading companies who have achieved improved customer satisfaction while driving down service costs.

3.10.2. Release 12.1.1

3.10.2.1. Multi-Party Access in iSupport

Oracle iSupport Release 12 only allows a business user to view data and create transactions for a single TCA party. Many organizations have expressed the need for their iSupport users to view data (e.g. view account balance) and create transactions (e.g. create service request) for multiple parties without having to re-log in with a separate User ID. This frequently occurs when a central IT or Engineering group is managing vendor service for a large multinational modeled with a complex structure in TCA (e.g. Motorola’s Global IT Department logs Service Requests with SUN for all of its divisions which SUN models as separate Parties in TCA)

In this release, the Multi-Party Access feature will allow the business users of iSupport to view and do transactions for the parties and accounts for which they have been granted access. The iSupport administrators or the primary users (customer administrators) will be able to grant a user access to multiple parties and accounts. After logging into iSupport, the users can select the party for which they want to view data/create transactions (Party Context) from a list of authorized parties.

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3.10.3. Release 12.1.2 3.10.3.1. Multi-Party Search

In 12.1.2, the Multi-Party Access feature introduced in release 12.1 has been extended to allow users to search service requests for all the parties that the users has access without manually switching the party context.

3.10.4. Release 12.2

3.10.4.1. Uptake Publish Flag in iSupport The service request has a flag “Publish” that can be set using the Service Request Form and Customer Support HTML UI. In previous releases, Oracle iSupport did not honor this flag when displaying the service requests to users. In this release, the system can be configured to display only the published service requests to iSupport users.

3.10.5. Release 12.2.4

3.10.5.1. Contract Entitlement Control

The automatic contract entitlement on service request creation can now be enabled or disabled through setup for service requests created through iSupport. In earlier releases, automatic entitlement is always done when service requests are created from iSupport.

3.10.5.2. Display of Task Notes and Task Dates for tasks related to service requests

The scheduled, planned, and actual dates for service request tasks can now be displayed under Resolution Actions region of the service request details page. Published task notes can also be accessed in this region.

3.11. Knowledge Management 3.11.1. Release 12.1.2

3.11.1.1. Attachment Import and Authoring Improvements

Attachments can now be imported along with the Solutions they are attached to. Solution attachments can be files (any standard document of file type such as doc, pdf, and xls). Attachments can also be imported for existing Solutions. In addition, the KM Search Logic has been enhanced to search these Solution Attachments.

Spell checking capability has been provided in Knowledge Management Statement Page. Users can now run the spell checker before saving the knowledge solutions or notes.

3.11.2. Release 12.2

3.11.2.1. Support of additional Search methods such as Fuzzy and Synonym match for knowledge search

A support for additional search methods for searching knowledge such as Fuzzy and synonyms match are enabled in this release making it easier to search knowledge.

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3.11.3. Release 12.2

3.11.3.1. Single page solution authoring

The solution authoring UI has been streamlined to allow the creation and update of solutions using a single page, minimizing the need to navigate to multiple pages to complete the task.

3.12. Oracle Mobile Field Service 3.12.1. Overview

Oracle Mobile Field Service (MFS) provides 3 distinct offerings: Store and Forward Laptop, Store and Forward Pocket PC, and Wireless PDA Browser. These applications are used by thousands of technicians all over the world in a variety of industries. With MFS, technicians can view their work queue, record status, access knowledge and service history, order and transact parts, as well as debrief travel, expenses, parts, and labor. In addition, technicians can create service requests as well as create and schedule follow-up tasks.

3.12.2. Release 12.0.3 (RUP3)

3.12.2.1. Scheduled Task Notification

A seeded Oracle Workflow has been provided to send important task related notifications to field technicians. This extendable Workflow supports the three notifications listed below as email, SMS or Workflow Message:

New Task Assignment

Task Assignment Delete or Cancel

Task Reschedule

3.12.3. Release 12.1.1

3.12.3.1. Multiple Field Resources using the same Laptop

The current Release 12 MFS Laptop software only supports a single user. However, some customers, like the USMC, need to share a single laptop among all members of a team/unit as it is not cost effective for each resource to have his/her own device. In 12.1, Mobile Field Service Laptop and Oracle Lite Database have been enhanced to allow all members of a Resource Group (e.g. a USMC Maintenance Unit) to work on a single laptop

3.12.3.2. Mobile Manager/Administrators Dashboard

Customers, like the USMC, have requested functionality to support a user who is leading a team/group of technicians sharing a single MFS Store and Forward Laptop. As such, the MFS Technicians Dashboard page has been enhanced to allow a Group/Team Lead/Administrator to assign tasks, monitor task progress, record task debriefs, order parts, and create service requests and tasks for any Field Technician who is a member of the Group.

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3.12.3.3. Open Service Request against any Product/Asset owned by the Technician’s Customers

Currently, only the customer and asset/IB records referenced on Service Requests/Tasks assigned to the field technician are downloaded to the MFS device. This prevents field technicians from opening service requests against equipment they have never serviced before. Service providers, like the USMC, have a requirement to open new Service Requests, in the field, against any piece of equipment owned by their internal/external customers.

To implement this enhancement to the MFS Data Download Program, a new setup UI/Table has been created to map Field Technicians to the Customers they service. Enhancements have also been made to the MFS Service Request and Task creation pages to allow field technicians to create an SR without copying it from one that already exists.

3.12.3.4. File-based Synchronization Option

Some Mobile Field Service customers, like the USMC, have Field Service Operations in very hostile environments where network connectivity for synchronization is not available or intermittent for long periods of time.

This new File Based Synchronization option uses file-based transfer to transmit Service Request data between a mobile field service device and an Oracle Field Service instance. The data will be saved into a file that can be attached to an email or saved in certain storage device (a CD or a USB drive).

3.12.3.5. Wireless PDA – Parts Visibility

In Release 12, technicians cannot search and view spares inventory balances on their hand held wireless device. In Release 12.1.1, technicians now have the ability to search for parts inventory balances on their wireless hand held device. To accommodate this feature, the parts search UI has been enhanced to include a new radio button called on hand quantity. Additionally, the search results page now displays – Location, On hand good and On hand bad quantities.

NOTE: This was an enhancement was released as a patch on top of 11i10CU2.

3.12.3.6. Wireless PDA –Excess Parts Execution

In Release 12, technicians only had the ability to view their Return Parts List on their wireless hand held device. In Release 12.1.1, technicians now have the ability to execute return transfers from the Return Parts UI (for both excess and defective parts residing in their trunk stock inventory location).


3.12.3.7. Wireless PDA – Ability to Change Password

In Release 12, technicians have to login to the enterprise applications to reset or change their passwords. In Release 12.1.1, the technicians have the ability to change their passwords from their wireless device



3.12.4. Release 12.1.2

3.12.4.1. Store and Forward Mobile Queries

The ability for technicians using offline (store and forward) MFS devices to run queries against the enterprise data base is provided. A new enterprise UI allows administrators to define SQL queries and download them to technician mobile devices. A new query UI is provided on mobile devices for technicians to select one of the pre-defined queries, enter variables, and submit to the enterprise for execution on the next synchronization. After the sync, results are displayed in the new UI.

3.12.4.2. Store and Forward Automatic Synchronization

In previous releases, all data synchronization was initiated manually by the field technician from his/her mobile device (laptop or PPC). Release 12.1.2 supports full automatic synchronization capability so the technician and enterprise always have up to date information. Automatic synchronization can be initiated in 3 different ways:

• Instantaneous Synchronization is initiated whenever a change is made to key service objects (such as service request) on either the enterprise data base or the mobile device.

• Timer Automatic synchronization is initiated from the enterprise server on a specific time interval.

• Exception Event The mobile device initiates automatic synchronization when certain types of exceptions are raised. Exception events include network bandwidth, battery level and detection of A/C power.

3.12.4.3. Store and Forward Pocket PC – Personalization

The Pocket PC Software Developers Kit now includes a tool which allows personalization the MFS PPC application screens without having to write custom code. This feature supports the ability to Hide/Show fields, Re-order fields and make fields mandatory for input. These personalizations are also upgrade safe.

A new Personalization icon has been added in the toolbar section of the UIs that are enabled for the personalization (Task details and SR details). Clicking on the icon opens the Personalization UI where Administrators can define the personalizations. Once the personalizations are uploaded to the server, they are downloaded each mobile device the next time it syncs to the enterprise. Personalizations are only available at the site level (all devices receive the same personalizations).

3.12.4.4. Store and Forward Pocket PC - Wireless Integration

Field service technicians require the ability to work offline (Store and Forward) as well as the ability to access functionality that is only available when connected to the enterprise DB (Wireless). Seamless integration between these two solutions is provided in this release including the ability to only log in once, to easily access to the Wireless screens from the S&F screens, and to pass context information and results back and forth. The following Wireless features are now available from the S&F Pocket PC when the device has connectivity to network:


• Parts Receiving

• Excess Parts Returns

• Defective Parts Returns

• Parts Search

• Knowledge Base Search

• Driving Directions

• Password Change

3.12.4.5. Store and Forward Pocket PC - Usability and Security

In this release, quite a few usability enhancements have been made to the Store and Forward PPC software. The section briefly describes each of these enhancements. A new SR Copy UI is provided to allow field technicians to quickly create new SRs. Data defaults from the source SR and then the technician can update the following fields: Severity, Problem Code, Problem Summary, Item Number, Instance Number, Serial Number, SR Type, P.O. Number, Primary contact and Phone Number.

The Synchronization Download Program logic has been enhanced to download all customer contacts associated with the customers being downloaded allowing the technician to add contacts to new and existing service requests.

An optional new validation has been added to the SR Creation flow to restrict technicians to only create SRs for sites that they are scheduled to work at (have open tasks). This forces customers to contact the call center to log new service requests instead of calling their favorite tech unless the tech is already on site (or scheduled to be on-site soon).

The ability to enter Serial and/or Instance Numbers without validation has been added to support service providers who do not want to download Installed Base records to their mobile devices. With this feature, Serial Numbers are validation is deferred until the SR is uploaded to the enterprise data base. If the serial number is valid, it’s Item Number and Contracts are added SR on the enterprise data base and downloaded to the mobile device during the next synchronization.

The Debrief UIs (and Service Active Code Setup) have been enhanced to support the capture of Actual and Billable Travel Time and Distance distinct from regular working labor.

To improve debrief efficiency and accuracy, the Debrief UI has been enhanced to optionally default travel and labor start and end times from task assignment status changes. For example, Travel Start Time can be defaulted from the time when Task Status changes from “Accepted” to “Traveling”.

An option to make Labor Debrief Mandatory is provided to force technicians to report their labor before changing the task status to “Completed” or “Closed”. Also, a similar option to force the technician to enter a Resolution Code before completing or closing at task has been provided.

A new Contracts Detail UI is provided so technicians can view contract details like coverage name, coverage hours, reaction times and resolution times. This UI is accessed from a new button on the existing View Contracts UI.

The Dashboard UI has been enhanced to allow field technicians to update task assignment status without having to open another UI.


The Customer details UI has been enhanced to include Site Name and Site Number. Additionally, the Sync Program logic has been enhanced to download Site Name and Site Number for each address being downloaded.

The Create Personal Tasks UI has been enhanced to allow selection or enter of address information so personal tasks cab be displayed on maps and so Advanced Scheduler can better integrated them into the technicians daily schedule

The toolbar regions of the Task Update UI and SR Update UI have been enhanced to enable the attachments icon when an attachment is associated with the service request or a task.

Cross Task Validations have been added to prevent technicians from putting a task into a status that contradicts the status another task for a different site (e.g. can’t be traveling to or working at 2 different sits at the same time).

3.12.5. Release 12.1.3

3.12.5.1. Store and Forward Pocket PC – Email Query

In Release 12.1.3, the existing Mobile Query Engine has been enhanced to make it available through any email interface. Some highlights of this new feature are:

• Ability to execute standard field service business functions (such as get technician’s daily task list, update task status, etc.) using email interface.

• Ability to execute these functions using any devices available in the market that has email capability.

• Extends support to third party service providers to execute field service business functions through email.

3.12.5.2. Wireless PDA – Enhancements

In Release 12.1.3, Labor debrief region has been enhanced to capture Actual Travel Time and Distance and keep it separate from regular labor.

Additionally, existing task scheduling feature has been enhanced to allow technicians to schedule follow-up task using intelligent mode.

3.12.6. Release 12.1.3+

3.12.6.1. Email Query Phase 2 - Spares Commands

Existing Mobile Query Engine (available in all devices that supports email) has been enhanced to support the following Parts related commands:

• Partinfo: This command allows technicians to view following Item attributes: Item, Description, Recovered part Disposition, Item Revision, Lot control, Locator control, Serial Control, IB Trackable

• Partsub: This command allows technicians to view following information about substitute item: Supplied Item, Description, Item Type, Substitute Item, Description, Source Org, and Source Subinventory


• Partavail: This command allows technicians to view following information: Item, Description, Item Type, Quantity, Source Org, Source Subinventory, Source Type, and Distance

• Partrtninfo: This command allows technicians to view following information: Item Name, Description, Org, Disposition, Revision, Locator, Subinventory, Location Control, Lot Control, Serial Number control, IB Trackable

Additionally, some existing commands are enhanced to increase the usability.

3.12.6.2. Wireless – Advanced Debrief and Returns Routing Integration

Debrief UI has been enhanced to support Defective on Arrival (DOA), Parts Unused, and Serial tagged items. Additionally, debrief UI has been enhanced to support Return Routing Rules as well as debrief posting in real time.

3.12.6.3. Wireless – Support for Transfer Parts

This feature allows technicians to transfer parts from their sub inventory to another technician’s sub inventory.

3.12.6.4. Wireless – Enhanced Debrief Flow

Wireless application has been enhanced to allow technicians to execute debrief flow much faster and efficiently. In addition, optimized design reduces the data transfer between device and the server over the network which in turn reduces the cost. The new design allows technicians to do the following:

Scan multiple Item Number or Serial Numbers using built-in bar code scanners and drive debrief flow (it can be either installing parts at the customer site or recover parts from the customer site )based on scanned Item Numbers or Serial Numbers

Default parts from the parts requirement attached to the task that allows faster debrief with less data entry errors

3.12.6.5. Wireless- Support for Special Address Creation

A new value “Special Address” has been added to the address type drop down. This allows technicians to create Special Address just like is available in the HTML Parts Requirement UI.

3.12.6.6. Wireless-Validation to Ensure Installed Item matches Returned Item

Debrief install region has been enhanced to validate whether the part being installed is similar to the part being replaced. The validation includes evaluating whether the new part is supersession or a substitute for the defective part being replaced. This validation will be done when the Replacement Debrief Line is saved and again when it is posted.

3.12.6.7. Store and Forward – New Multi Platform Application

This paragraph introduces our new EBS MFS Multi Platform Application which is supported on 12.1.3 and later releases. This application has been developed using Oracle’s Mobile Applications Development Framework technology (HTML5 and Java)


which allows most code to be reused on multiple mobile operating systems. The first release of this new application supports iOS and Android devices.

This new application provides all of the basic field service functions offline and certain data intensive functions (like parts inventory search) when the device is connected. The application runs in hybrid mode and leverages native device features (Camera, Voice) and touch screen capabilities thereby providing intuitive and easy to use user interfaces.

3.12.6.8. Automatic Synchronization for Multi Platform Application

Automatic synchronization provides the ability to synchronize the client data in the background whenever the device data changes on the client side or when the device that was previously offline detects a connection. Implementers have the ability to set auto- synch interval based on the user preference. The design allows a visual indication on the screen whenever auto synch is initiated in the background. This feature allows provides the ability to notify Field Service Engineer if the data is not synchronized with the server for a given period of time.

3.12.6.9. Support for Expense Debrief in Multi Platform Application

This feature provides the ability to capture expense debrief during task progression. A new Expense menu item is displayed in the Task Details Screen. Additionally, Action menu present in Task Details is enhanced to display new menu Expense in addition to the existing Travel, Labor, Install, and Return options.

3.12.7. Release 12.2 3.12.7.1. Wireless- Auto Create Install Debrief during Recovery/Return Debrief

Users can now automatically create a Part Install transaction when entering a Part Recovery/Return which increases debrief reporting efficiency and accuracy.

3.12.7.2. Wireless- Provide Ability to Receive Parts from Parts Requirement Screen

Parts Order screen and context sensitive action menu on the Task Details UI has been enhanced to display a new “Receive” button. Upon tapping the receive button, existing Receive Parts screen will be launched and all orders that are created for the task will be displayed. Technician will have the ability to select the order using the check box and click “Receive” button in order to receive the order. A confirmation message will be displayed once the receipt transaction completes successfully

3.12.7.3. Wireless- Enhanced UI Configuration Options

The Preference screen has been enhanced to display additional fields on the Task list screen. Additionally, task display lov will now contain the following additional list of fields to display on the task list screen:

• Duration • Priority • Task Subject • SR Number


3.12.7.4. Wireless- Ability to Set the Profile ‘Client Time zone’ in the Device

Preferences screen has been enhanced to provide technicians the ability to set the profile ‘Client Time zone’ of which all Dates/Times on the Wireless UIs are rendered.

3.12.7.5. Wireless - Field Service Report with Signature Capture Capability

The Task Details screen has been enhanced to allow technician to view a consolidated action report done for the task. This report displays Labor, Material, Expense and attached Notes and allows technicians to collect the signature from the customer once they validate the report. The technician can also email a pdf report to the customer. Implementers can create their own custom report and replace the existing one using the profile “CSF: Default Task Report Template”.

3.12.7.6. Wireless - Ability to Trigger Context sensitive mobile query from Task Details Screen

Enhanced mobile query feature allows users to execute context sensitive queries from task details screen.

3.12.7.7. Wireless - Display Projects Related Fields in Task Details Screen

Task Details UI has been enhanced to display projects related five new fields (read-only) in service request region present in the Task Details UI: Expenditure Organization, Project Number, Project Name, Project Task Number, and Project Task Name. The project information present in the SR header will be defaulted to all debrief lines (Labor, Material, and Expense). Additionally, users has the ability to change the project details at debrief line level.

3.12.8. Release 12.2.4 3.12.8.1. Wireless - View and Create Personal Tasks The existing views present in Wireless have been enhanced to display Personal tasks. Additionally, the technicians also have the ability to create, update Personal tasks.

3.12.8.2. Wireless - FS Managers Dashboard A new Admin dashboard screen has been designed to allow Field Service Wireless administrators to manage their groups from their smart phones. This feature is similar to the functionality present in the Field Service Administrator Portal: • View Tasks assigned to the group/territory or individual task assigned to the

Field Service technicians belonging to the group • Reassign the existing tasks to one of the group/territory member using manual

mode • Create, update and post debrief on behalf of the technicians • Create and Order Parts on behalf of the technicians • Return Excess and Defective parts on behalf of the technicians. • Receive parts on behalf of the technicians


3.13. Oracle Service Contracts 3.13.1. Release 12.1.1

3.13.1.1. Service Contract Import Program

Oracle Service Contracts now offers a feature to import Warranties, Extended Warranties, unbilled or fully-billed Service Contracts and intangible Subscription Contracts. This capability allows a service contract to be captured from an external system. Once the service contract has been imported, Oracle Service Contracts can be used for Entitlements and Billing.

3.13.2. Release 12.1.3+

3.13.2.1. Service Contract Renewal Performance Enhancements

3.13.2.1.1. Date Assembler Changes

Currently when a large number of service contracts expire on the same date and simultaneously need renewing, it can take a long time for the renewal process to complete. To improve the performance of the service contract renewal process, the Date Assembler Workflow Manager feature controls the number of service contracts to be processed concurrently for renewal.

Instead of creating a workflow process for each service contract to be renewed, the date assembler will insert the details into an interface table and then specific numbers of workflow processes are created to process the renewal. A new concurrent request “Service Contracts Date Assembler Workflow Manager” has been introduced to fetch data from the above mentioned interface table and create the workflow processes for service contract renewals. The number of records to be fetched is controlled by a new profile option “OKS: Date Assembler Workflow Queue Size.”

3.13.2.1.2. Re-Pricing enhancements

Oracle Service Contracts has made performance enhancements to the re-pricing of service contracts during contract renewal.

• Re-price in bulk mode: Bulk mode features will be leveraged to re-price service contracts. A new profile option “OKS: Use Bulk Loading for Line Re-price” has been introduced to enable bulk mode re-pricing.

• Re-price in concurrent mode: If the number of lines/sub lines crosses the pre-defined threshold value, service contracts will be re-priced in concurrent mode. The threshold is controlled by a new profile option “OKS: Subline Threshold Value to Launch a Concurrent Program.” When the number of lines/sub lines cross this threshold then the re-pricing will be done through a concurrent request to improve the pricing performance. This feature is also available for manual/automatic renewal processes.

3.13.2.2. Performance Enhancements to Main Billing Program for Usage Contracts

Oracle Service Contracts has made performance enhancements to the pricing of usage contracts during the Main Billing Program. When there are a large number of usage lines, then the Advanced Pricing engine will be called in bulk mode for the eligible lines.

New profile options have been introduced to manage this process:

• OKS: Call QP In Bulk Mode for Usage Line Billing to enable calling the Advanced Pricing engine in bulk mode

• OKS: Skip QP call in Usage for Zero Quantity to determine whether zero quantity lines are interfaced to Advanced Pricing

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• OKS: Number of Child Requests for Service Contracts Main Billing to control the number of child requests to be spawned. The default value is 30 in order to maintain backward compatibility.

3.13.2.3. Mass Update Tool

A new Mass Update Tool, which is available from the Service Contract Authoring form, can help users manage service contracts with a large number of lines/sub lines. Users can sort and then update individual lines or a group of lines – such as all lines, all lines for a configuration, or all lines for a given serial number. Changes are processed in the background, so that the user can immediately continue onto their next task.

3.13.2.4. Prevent Deletion of Line/Sub line during Contracts Renewal

Oracle Service Contracts has introduced the ability to disallow deletion of lines/sub lines during contracts renewal to improve contract revenue leakage analysis. When the customer does not want to continue a service, the line/sub line should be cancelled during the renewal process. Disallowing deletion of renewed lines/sub lines will ensure users are properly cancelling lines/sub lines. Administrators and management have the ability to configure which users will not be allowed to delete lines/sub lines during contract renewal process.

This is managed using the profile “OKS: Delete Renewed Contract Lines or Sublines.” When the profile is set to ‘No’, then the user will be required to cancel lines using an appropriate status value along with an appropriate reason for cancelling the line.

3.13.2.5. Carry Over Self-Service Decline Code onto Service Contract Cancellation Reason

When customers decline to renew service they select a decline code. This decline code will now carry over onto the service contract cancellation reason to improve contract revenue leakage analysis.

3.13.2.6. Revalue Contract during Change in Currency

A new profile option “OKS: Revalue Contract Using Currency Conversion Rate” allows users to configure whether to automatically re-price or allow manual revaluation when the currency is changed on a service contract.

3.13.2.7. Specify Cc E-mail Addresses during Quote and Reminders

Users can specify cc email addresses for email quote and reminders as a part of the contract renewal process.

3.13.2.8. Selective Update of Warranty Contracts upon IB Transfer of Ownership

In certain business scenarios the service during warranty period is provided by the OEM and during extended warranty is provided by a Partner. In such cases, this feature allows you to update only the warranty contracts upon IB transfer of ownership.

3.13.2.9. Re-price on Renewal Consolidation

As a part of Renewal Consolidation, only the lines/ sub lines that are moved from the Source to the Target Contract are Re-priced as per Target contract’s Price List. All the lines existing on the Target contract prior to Renewal Consolidation exercise are not re-priced automatically.

3.13.2.10. Flexible Invoice Text Defaulting

A new profile option “OKS: Update Invoice Text during Renewal” allows users to configure whether the invoice text will be defaulted from the original contract or the renewed contract.


3.13.2.11. Service Contracts Usability Enhancements

In Release 12.1.3+, the following usability enhancements have been made to improve user productivity:

• When adding sub lines to an Extended Warranty service line, the Product List of Values shows available instances with several different sort sequences to choose from: Party, Site, Customer, System, Item and Model. Now Configuration will also be an option which displays available instances based on the installed base configuration. It shows top level instances and allows the user to drill down to see all instances in the configuration. As with other levels, users should be able to select one or more displayed instances to add to the contract.

• The cascading attributes action has been enhanced to support concurrent processing. When a service line had a large number of sub lines, users were forced to wait until the entire cascade action completed. Now users can specify attributes to be cascaded to all sub lines in the Cascading Attribute form, and the user can continue updating the contract while the concurrent program completes in the background. This is managed through a profile “OKS: Cascade Attributes Using Concurrent Request.” In the case of the user changing the Effectivity Date on a service line, then using this feature the user can default the same effectivity date to all the associated sub lines.

• Users can review the contract details from the FYI (For Your Information) notification page. When a FYI notification is received by an external user, then the user can access the contract details link on the notification and launch the Contract Details page. The user can launch the page only if he/she has access to the contract.

• During entitlement search, users have the option to view the subscription contracts having service lines covering item instances. This is managed using the profile option “OKS: Display Subscription Contracts in Entitlements.”

• During entitlement check, the Respond By and Resolve By dates are returned to the service request even when they fall outside of the contract coverage effective start date and end dates.

• During entitlement check, the calculation of ‘Response By’ and ‘Resolve By’ time takes into consideration the customer’s availability defined in the ‘Access Hours’ setup in Field Service application.

• Users can view the line and sub line number in the status change history page.

• Users can update the billing streams based on the original billing streams duration. Also, the end date gets adjusted to match the new end date for the line.

• Users can now view the Card Holder’s name for the card specified in the Payment Method – both at the header as well as contract lines. The card holder’s name is shown in the Credit Card Number LOV while selecting the credit card. In addition, if the user is required to enter the details for a new credit card, they can specify the card holder’s name.

• Users can now choose to display either the item description or item part number in forms as well as HTML pages. This is controlled via the profile option ‘OKS: Line Level Item Display Preference’.

3.13.2.12. Merge Assets across Contracts

Contract consolidation can have multiple business drivers, such as customer’s request, installation location of a group of assets etc. Users can now move assets from multiple


source contracts, to a single target contract. This helps in improving the maintainability of customer contracts, and avoids duplication of assets across the contract base. The movement of assets is recorded in the execution history of the source contracts. A new profile option “OKS: Change Party in Contract Merge” allows users to move assets across the customer base. The re-pricing of the assets moved to target contract is controlled using “OKS: Pricing Method for Contract Merge” profile option.

3.13.2.13. Drive Contract Coverage by Severity

There might be business need to cover High priority tasks round the clock, but it doesn’t justify providing similar coverage to a Low or Medium priority task. Oracle Service Contracts now provides the capability to define contract Coverage Time, Reaction Time and Resolution Time based on the severity of the task. This enables service organizations in providing assistance to tasks as per the severity. This results in cost savings by avoiding manual interventions that are otherwise needed for modifying the planned end dates and rescheduling tasks as per the severity. Prior to this release, users defined Reaction and Resolution Times based on specific number of hours it took to respond to a task. With this release, Reaction and Resolution Times can be defined as variable number of hours depending on when a task gets created, thereby ensuring compliance with the promised service level agreements.

3.13.2.14. Control Generation of Invoice

In certain geographies, such as Latin America, the customers accept invoices only till a specific day of the month after which they are sent back to the service provider. With this release, the application provides users the ability to specify the range of days on which the invoices are accepted by the customers. Any invoice falling outside this range is sent to the customer in the next billing cycle.

A profile option “OKS: Enable Interface Date Range” with a value of ‘Yes’ enables users to honor customers’ invoicing preferences by recording the range of days on which the invoices are accepted by the customer.

3.13.2.15. Calculate Estimated Tax with Higher Accuracy The tax rate and its effectivity can change over the contract duration. Hence, service organizations need to provide an accurate picture of the estimated tax that the customer might end up paying. Prior to this release, the application calculated the estimated tax based on the line/ sub line start date. With this release, Oracle Service Contracts provides users with an option to calculate tax at contract billing schedule level thereby considering the changes in tax rate effectivity at that level.

A profile option “OKS: Calculate Tax at Schedule” with a value of ‘Yes’ enables the application to calculate tax at billing schedule level for all lines/ sub lines.

3.13.3. Release 12.2

3.13.3.1. Solution Ordering

Users can now order Subscriptions using Oracle Order Management and have the application create the subscription contracts automatically. The value of the ‘OKS: Category for Order Management Originated Contracts’ profile option is not considered


during subscription contracts creation. The Oracle Order Management attributes required for creating subscription contracts are Subscription Template, Duration and Period, Service Start Date and Service End Date, Service Billing Profile, and Service Billing Option.

Service Billing Profile is the value that is set for a sales order and lets the user to bill using multiple periods. If this value is not set for a sales order, then the service or subscription lines consider the Service Billing Option value as Full Billing from Order Management.

Service Billing Option values are ‘Full Billing from Order Management’, ‘Full Billing from Service Contracts’ and ‘First Period Billing from OM, Subsequent from Contracts’.

3.13.4. Release 12.2.4

3.13.4.1. Service Contracts Public APIs Oracle Service Contracts now offers a wide range of public APIs to carry out Create and Update operations at various levels in the entire contract document. With this release, users can create and update contract header, lines, sub lines, billing streams, billing schedules and contract templates. In addition to these, the APIs also enable users to take actions on contracts, such as changing contract status, terminating active contracts, deleting contracts, activating contracts, renewing contracts and cascading attributes from header to lines/ sub lines. These APIs will help in increasing the usability of the application and productivity of the users.

3.14. Oracle Service Contracts Extensions for Oracle Endeca – New Product 3.14.1. Overview

Oracle E-Business Suite Endeca Extensions for Service Contracts is a solution that allows users to effectively manage contract renewals, proactively monitor performance metrics, and efficiently monitor customers’ service experience, to achieve maximum customer satisfaction. Renewal sales representatives can leverage the functionalities offered by Sales Representative Command Center dashboard and renewal sales managers can leverage the Sales Manager Command Center dashboard. With the powerful search feature, guided navigation, and drilldown capabilities of Endeca Extensions for Service Contracts, service organizations can improve compliance with service level agreements as well as keep the entire organization in sync. Higher customer satisfaction levels can be achieved by constantly monitoring and addressing issues in a timely manner, which otherwise could potentially have an adverse effect on the quality of service being delivered.

3.14.2. V5

Renewal sales representative’s main job is to ensure on-time renewal of all the assigned contracts and provide timely response to all customer queries. Information about customers’ satisfaction with past service experience, their financial health and credit rating assist the sales representatives in forecasting whether customers’ would be renewing their contracts or not.

Renewal sales managers, on the other hand, need to monitor the day to day activities of the sales representatives reporting to them and track their performance. Their main tasks

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are ensuring accurate renewal forecast, mitigating cancelation and termination risks and determining patterns in cancelation and termination reasons.

3.14.2.1. Identify Renewal Exceptions and Manage Renewals Work Queue

The Sales Representative Command Center dashboard allows sales representatives to effectively manage contract renewals and perform renewal related activities to ensure that the contracts are renewed on time. Sales representatives receive alerts about renewed contracts that are yet to be booked and about active contracts in grace period for which the renewed contracts have not yet been booked. For sales managers, the Sales Manager Command Center dashboard provides a comprehensive view of the alerts and work queues of the sales representatives reporting to them.

3.14.2.2. Monitor Renewal Performance Metrics

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) like Renewal Rate, Cancelation Rate, Termination Rate and On Time Renewal provide critical insights into the renewal process and a good idea about the extent of service revenue leakage and customer satisfaction levels. These KPIs also help service organizations in evaluating the performance of the sales representatives by helping them compare the actual performance with the targets assigned to them.

3.14.2.3. Continuously Monitor and Improve Customer Service Experience

The Command Center allows users to monitor customer’s service requests and address issues in a timely manner thereby ensuring high quality of service being delivered. It allows them to proactively take actions to keep the entire service delivery organization in sync and ensure that all the agreed terms and conditions are impeccably honored.

3.14.2.4. Identify Early Signs of Risks and Strategize Their Remediation

Business events such as bankruptcy, litigations, claims, and so on, provide indication about customers’ financial health and resultant credit rating, thereby providing an indication of their likelihood of renewing the contracts in the future. The Command Center dashboard is the single source of truth of all the customer information that can help in accurately forecasting contract renewals. Thus the service delivery organization is able to get a more accurate picture of forecasted service revenue and is able to proactively monitor high risk contracts that could potentially get canceled or terminated.

3.14.2.5. Monitor Service Revenue Leakage and Strategize Their Mitigation

The Command Center dashboard provides visibility into the service revenue leakage occurring due to the cancelation or termination of contracts by customers for different reasons. It provides the sales managers the necessary tools to determine trends in contract cancelations and terminations. These insights can help the service delivery organization to take corrective or preventive actions.

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3.15. Oracle Spares Management 3.15.1. Overview

Oracle Spares Management fully leverages the EBS Supply Chain Products to deliver world class spare part logistics and planning capabilities. Tight integration with Mobile Field Service and Advanced Scheduler provide for efficient spares sourcing, ordering, receiving, tracking, debriefing and costing/billing.

3.15.2. Release 12.1.1

3.15.2.1. WRP Planned Order Release Automation

This new Warehouse Replenishment Planning (WRP) feature automates the release of planned orders (i.e. creation of purchase, repair, and internal orders) when certain business rules are met. These rules include planned order value, tracking signal (forecast error) and lead time for each of the supported supply types (excess, repair and new buy). This functionality lets Parts Planners automate the routine/low risk planned orders leaving more time to focus on the exceptions and high value items.

3.15.3. Release 12.1.2

3.15.3.1. New HTML Parts UIs and Distance Based Search

Parts search and ordering is a key process for any field service operation that uses parts. The functionality provides the technician, dispatcher or logistics analyst with tools to quickly locate parts and execute the lowest cost delivery to meet the customer’s Service Level Agreement. Finding parts in a field service supply chain can be complicated by conditions unique to field service. For example, the field service supply chain can have many locations to search with some having limited access hours

In this release, a new HTML Parts Search and Ordering UI is provided with the following key new features (in addition to all of the functionality contained in the Part Requirement Form which this UI replaces):

• Search for spare parts by distance from customer site or technician location

• New search parameters/filters in addition to distance including

o manned (open or closed),

o unmanned

o other technicians (working or not)

• Considers supersessions and substitutes in the search results

• Map display of search results showing stocking locations with the parts

This new UI is accessible from the Service Request UIs, the Dispatch Center as well as directly from the Menu. This new functionality is also available in EBS Mobile Field Service Wireless and Store and Forward solutions.

The Parts Search and Ordering Module will replace the current Parts Requirement functionality in Spares Management. It will also be included in Mobile Field Service

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Wireless and Store and Forward applications. The functionality will be embedded in the Dispatch Center and Service Request UI’s.

3.15.3.2. Part Returns - Flexible Routing

Reverse logistics is a key process most every field service operation where defective, excess and unused parts are returned “back up the supply chain” to be repaired, used in a warranty claim, or better positioned in the case of excess.

In this release, the Part Returns UI has the following enhancements:

• Allows shipping/transfers to any Inventory Location (local warehouse, regional/national warehouse, repair depot, etc.) in the spares supply chain

• A User Hook has been added to the Returns Program so customers can insert their own Returns Routing Logic/Rules

• Support for Consolidated as well as Individual Part Returns

• Automatic creation of the appropriate Logistics Order (Internal Order, Mover Order, Transfer, etc.) to execute the return

3.15.4. Release 12.1.3 3.15.4.1. Supersession and Substitute Notes

Notes are used throughout the field service operation to remind users that something needs to be done or to provide information that is important to the process. Supersession is where one part is replaced by another and it’s usually driven by product engineering with mandatory implementation. The supersession for field service is created in Spares Management. A Substitute, on the other hand, is where two independent parts are compatible in form, fit and function. The substitute is never mandatory. It’s used by field service for convenience, usually in situations where a shortage condition has occurred and the requested part is not available. The substitute is created in Oracle Item Relationships. The Spares Management Parts Search and Ordering functionality includes supersessions and substitutes, which together are referred to as alternate parts. This alternate parts functionality is used to present supersessions and substitutes in the search result when the primary part is not available.

Oracle EBS has existing Notes functionality that will be used to create the notes for the supersessions and substitutes. The Spares Management Parts Search and Ordering UI has been enhanced to display Supersession and Substitutes Notes in the Search Results Region when alternate parts are displayed.

3.15.4.2. Site Dedicated Stocking Locations Support

Customers of field service will often request (and pay extra for) inventory positioning that is dedicated to a specific mission critical site. This strategy is employed so that spare parts are always available for that site and a very fast restore can be achieved when a break down occurs.

The Parts Search functionality has been enhanced to not source/display parts in Site Dedicated Stocking Locations unless the Service Request, for which parts are being sourced, is for a dedicated site. The Spares Management Planners Desktop has been enhanced to allow Spares Inventory Locations to be tied/dedicated to certain customer sites (addresses).


3.15.4.3. Parts Return Routing Engine

In an efficient field service spares supply chain, defective, excess or unused parts need to be returned to various destinations based on Return Routing Rules such as Product Line, Item Number and Country. The source of the returns could be a technician, warehouse or customer. The destination can be a consolidation warehouse, a repair depot or a vendor.

This release provides a new, rule based, Parts Return Routing Engine. This routing engine has been integrated into the Return Program so that each Return Record it creates can be stamped with the appropriate Ship to Location. Hence, when the user opens the Return UI, each Return Record will have a Ship to Location (which the user can change).

A new HTML Return Rules UI has been provided which supports the creation of Return Routing Rules based on the following factors/parameters:

• Source (warehouse, technician, or customer)

• Location (country, territory)

• Return Type (Defective, Excess, Defective on Arrival, or Warranty)

3.15.5. Release 12.1.3+

3.15.5.1. Ship-to Address Enhancements The Parts Requirements and Ordering UI has been enhanced to allow users (Dispatcher or Tech) to update the Ship to Address before the order is booked. This UI is also enhanced to default the Ship to Address based on a new profile to either the SR Incident/Task Address, the SR Customer’s Default Ship to, or the Tech’s Primary Ship to. The Parts UI and the Spares – Scheduler Integration has been enhanced to create Parts Orders in Enter or Booked Status based on a new profile option. A complementary enhancement is also provided to move Parts Orders from Entered to Booked Status when the tech accepts the associated field service task. Note, creating the Parts Order in Entered instead of Booked status will prevent the order from immediately going into the pick/pack/ship process.

3.15.5.2. Enhancements to handling Parts Orders when Tasks are Reassigned Currently in 12.1.2, when tasks with parts orders are reassigned, it’s not possible for the second technician to receive the parts order that was created for the first technician except when using the third party portal. To avoid the possibility of creating two parts orders for the same task, the reassignment process is currently blocked when the first technician’s parts order cannot be cancelled. When the Ship-to address is task or customer there would be no need to block the reassignment process if the second technician can receive the parts order from the first technician.

To improve this proves the following enhancements have been added:

• Allow the reassignment process to complete when the parts order for the first technician cannot be cancelled and the ship-to address is task or customer.

• When a task reassignment is made, allow the second technician to receive the parts order from the first technician when the ship-to address is Task or Customer and the first technician’s order cannot be cancelled.

The reassignment process has been standardized across all applications where the reassignments are made: Scheduler, Gantt, Service Request Form, Optimizer and the Admin and Third Party portals


3.15.5.3. Enhancements to the Parts Requirement UI The following is a list of enhancements added to the Parts Requirement UI:

• Show both the reservation and the internal order after the technician has received the order.

• Show all cancelled parts orders • Only allow Parts Requirements to be created for certain Task Types. • Create parts orders in Entered or Booked status in the Parts Requirement UI and

MFS Wireless (based on a profile) • Show the distance from the source warehouse to the Ship-to address in the parts

order details region after sourcing • Add Ship-to Contact to the header region

3.15.5.4. Spares Sourcing Options Distance Limit

Large complex supply chains can involve a very large number of setups especially when the local field service warehouses support each other and shipments are made directly to the task or customer address. Customers who have this very large setup task are looking for ways to cut down on the setups particularly when the method of shipment is only intended for local delivery.

This enhancement filters out sourcing options based on Method of Shipment and Distance so that methods of shipment intended only for local delivery are not considered when shipping longer distances. For example, if the method of shipment is Courier, this filter could be used to eliminate that method of shipment as a sourcing option when the ship-to address is greater than say 50 miles. This would eliminate Courier as a sourcing option where, for example, the warehouse was in Boston and the ship-to address was in San Francisco.

A distance limit field has been added to the Spares Delivery Times Setup UI to support this new feature. This is a much simpler setup than creating Zones for each MOS at each Warehouse which was the only way this functionality could have been implemented previously.

3.15.5.5. Support for ‘Third Party’ Ship-to Locations

Third Party addresses/locations are often used to ship and return parts from field technicians (e.g. Kinko’s, Post Office, Gas Station, etc.). To support this requirement, a new Ship to option for ‘Third Party’ addresses has been added to the Parts Requirements and Ordering UI. Prior to this ER, customers had to create these third party addresses for every technician. To share Third Party Addresses, these addresses only need to be associated to a Resource Group for all the techs sharing the address.

3.15.5.6. Enhanced External Repair Execution flows

External Repair Execution (ERE) is the Oracle Field Service Spares Management module that manages the parts repair cycle when the repair supplier is external/out-sourced. Repair Administrators now have the ability to assign a reason code for Scrap and Adjustment Transactions. In addition, customers can set up ‘account aliases’ for Scrap and Adjustment Transactions. These account aliases will be stamped on the ERE Inventory Scrap and Adjustment Transaction for downstream posting to the General Ledger/Financials.

Repair Purchase Order balance due quantities are now automatically updated to account for warehouse Short-Picks as well as for Scrap and Adjustment transactions.


3.15.6. Release 12.2.4

3.15.6.1. External Repair Execution enhancement for Canceling External Repair Order for Zero Pick

At times, the defective parts are not traceable at the defective warehouse for various reasons, making it impossible for Warehouse Administrator to ship the defective parts to the Repair Supplier against the internal order created by the ERE system (this is also known as ‘Zero-Pick’ situation). External Repair Execution has been enhanced to allow the Warehouse Administrator to cancel the internal sales order in its entirety (and also cancel the corresponding External Repair Order, this process is also known as ‘Auto-Kill’ Order). Sometimes the parts planning systems may also trigger creation of PO Requisition for external repair of defective parts (which in turn creates an External Repair Order). If the External Repair Order is created in error or duplicate orders created, now the Repair Administrator has the ability to cancel the External Repair Order (and also cancel the corresponding internal sales order). Warehouse and Repair Administrators can also capture the reason for cancellation of external repair order, while initiating cancellation using External Repair Execution user interface.

3.15.6.2. ADF technology based HTML Planners Dashboard

Existing Planner’s Desktop has been re-designed using the latest ADF Technology and renamed as Planner’s Dashboard. Most features available in the existing Forms based Planner’s Desktop are made available in the ADF Planner’s Dashboard.

In addition to the features of Planner’s Desktop, additional features like QBE (query by example), Detach Table, Drag & Drop Nodes etc, provided by ADF technology are implemented in the new Planner’s Dashboard. The new user interface is designed to provide rich user experience.

Planner’s Dashboard will be shipped with a default Spares Planning node that serves as the top level of the planning tree. From this node, Users can create sub-nodes to model organizations and subinventories. Users will have the ability to search for Organizations and Subinventories modeled in the Planner’s Dashboard.

From within the new Planner’s Dashboard page users will be able to manage forecast rules, excess rules and recommendation rules.

Users will have capabilities to submit the following concurrent programs from within Planner’s Dashboard:

• Create Parts Availability Data

• Generate ASL Recommendations

• Calculate Failure Rates

• Roll-up Usage.

3.16. Oracle TeleService 3.16.1. Overview

Oracle TeleService provides contact center and technical support solutions that have been successfully implemented at hundreds of leading service providers. Oracle TeleService integrates seamlessly with many other CRM and ERP applications, including Service Contracts, Depot Repair, EAM, Field Service, MRO, Installed Base, Spares, and Order Management.

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3.16.2. Release 12.0.6 (RUP6)

3.16.2.1. User Hook for Charges Pricing API

A new user hook for the Charges Pricing API allows customers to execute custom logic for the retrieval of prices for Charge line items. The user hook is invoked from the Charges UI as well as the public Charges Create and Update APIs. Users can embed custom logic to calculate the price of an item based on pricing rules defined in Advanced Pricing for Charges submission.

3.16.3. Release 12.1.1

3.16.3.1. Service Costing and Profitability

Service request costing and margin reporting functionality has been requested by many organizations in the high technology and manufacturing sectors. These organizations need the ability to monitor and track the costs and profits incurred providing service to their customers.

Currently, the Oracle TeleService/Field Service Products do not capture cost information for the parts, labor, and expenses debriefed during the resolution of a service request. This new feature will provide the ability to automatically capture the item cost for parts, labor, and expenses debriefed and for manually entered Charge Lines. Service Request Cost records will be created and stored in a new table automatically whenever debrief lines and manually entered charge records are created/updated.

In addition, a new report will be provided to display the costs, charges, and the related profit margin at a service request level. The XML Publisher technology will be leveraged to provide a configurable report in multiple display formats such as PDF, RTF, HTML, and EXCEL. The users will be able to access this report from service request form and the customer support service request page.

3.16.3.2. Improved Field Service Execution Flows

In the field service scenarios, it is a common for the Call Center Agent (tier 1) or Tech Support Engineer (tier 2) to specify the parts and skills required for field service task. In addition, the Call Center Agents need the ability to put Access Hours on a Field Service Task as well as record whether customer appointment confirmation is required.

In R12, the users do not have the ability to enter parts requirements, skills requirements, site access hours, or customer appointment confirmation during the creation of field service tasks from the service request form. The only way to input or review this information is by accessing the Dispatch Center which is very inconvenient for a Call Center Agent or Tech Support Engineer who works primarily in the service request form.

To alleviate this inconvenience and streamline the field service flows, the task tab in the service request form has been enhanced to allow users to quickly enter part requirements, skills requirements, access hours, and capture customer confirmation status.

3.16.3.3. Service Requests Search using Secure Enterprise Search (SES)

AppSearch (short for Applications Search) is a new feature offered by Application Technology Group for EBS release 12. Search is a very common function of any Enterprise application. Indeed, the most common usage patterns begin with a search, whether from a first-time self-service inquiry or a heads-down power user. AppSearch–a metadata driven search framework provide a new Search paradigm to search EBS data instead of Find by utilizing Oracle’s Secure Enterprise Search.

In 12.1, this search paradigm is enabled for customer service agents to perform a text based search on the service requests that they have access to. The service request search


function is added to the agent dashboards included in the following applications: Customer Support, Service Desk, and Case Management and to. This search paradigm will be available to the users in addition to the current find functionality.

3.16.3.4. Additional Attributes in the Service Request Form

Service Request Additional Attribute functionality is currently available in the Contact Center and iSupport UIs. Customers have requested this functionality also be made available in the more heavily used Service Request Form. This feature allows customers to define service request attributes specific to their business requirements. Additional attributes can vary by Service Request Type.

In 12.1, this feature is available directly from the Service Request Form. A new icon to access the Additional Attributes Form has been added to the Workbench tab. In addition to entering and updating Additional Attributes, dependent functionality (Duplicate Checking and Automatic Task Generation) has also been added to the Service Request Form.

3.16.3.5. Quick Service Request Creation and Update

In Release 12.1.1, a Quick Service Request Entry feature has been added to the Service Request Form to help agents enter and update service requests more efficiently (fewer clicks). All required fields have been added to the SR Header Region along with the ability to add notes. This eliminates the need to open multiple tabs to get an SR created which should greatly improve call center and tech support agent productivity.

3.16.3.6. Enhanced Service Request Tools Menu

In Release 12.1.1, the Service Request Form’s Tools Menu items have been reorganized into logical grouped buckets for ease of use and better navigation.

3.16.3.7. Charge Call-Out

In Release 12.1.1, a new user hook has been provided in the Charges Pricing API to enable integration of the charges module with Advanced Pricing and other customer-driven functionality. Many customers want to calculate the price of an item in Charges based on the pricing rules such as modifiers, qualifiers, and price breaks defined in Oracle Advanced Pricing. The user hook for Charges pricing allows customers to embed logic of their own to calculate the price of an item leveraging Advanced Pricing features.

3.16.4. Release 12.1.1+

3.16.4.1. Support for International and One Time Addresses

International Address Styles (flex field popup) are now supported in the Service Requests Form (for permanent and one time address) so address can be created and viewed in the format of the country they are located. In addition, validation against TCA Geographies Data (cross validates Country, State, Province, City, etc.) when creating a new address permanent or one time address is now also supported.

The Service Request one time address feature has been enhanced to allow one time addresses to be utilized downstream in the Field Service Products (geo-coding, scheduling, driving directions, shipping, trip start/end locations, etc.). To do this, one time addresses are now stored in the TCA Tables instead of in the Service Request Table. In addition, the Service Request UI has been enhanced to display one time address Site information (Site Number, Site Name, etc.)


3.16.4.2. Optimization of Service Request Creation Process

In this release, many enhancements as listed below have been done on the Service Request Form to make the service request creation and update process more efficient and intuitive:

• The LOVs and interrelationships between the following key fields in the SR Form Header have been enhanced (Incident Address, Installed Base, Customer, and Item). The Incident Address LOV has been made configurable so service providers can filter the Incident Address by the SR customer and its related parties instead of displaying every address in TCA. In addition, the IB fields LOVs (Instance, Serial and Tag) can now be filtered by the Incident Address so the user can more quickly find the Installed Base record the customer is calling about.

• A new Incident Address Search UI is provided so users can search for the correct address using a wide variety of criteria (Customer Name, Site Name, Site Number, Addressee, Site Phone, City, State, and Zip Code). This new UI is accessible from the Service Request Form, the Service Request Tab in the Contact Center, and the Find Service Requests Form.

• The Install Base Search Form has been enhanced to make it easier for agents to find the correct Install Base record to open the SR against. New search fields for Site Name, Site Number, Addressee, Site Phone, Customer Number, City, State, and Zip Code have been added to the Basic Search form. It is also possible now to search products by Customer and Account since these fields have been enabled. The search has been made more powerful and intuitive by providing the ability to enter free form text with wildcards for most of the search fields.

• A new option to start SLA (Service Level Agreement) calculations when the service request is saved has been introduced. Previously, the Service Request form calculates the SLAs (“Respond by and “Resolve by” dates and times) from the time the Service Request Form is opened. We added this feature because several of our key customers do not want to consume SLA time while defining the issue with the customer on the phone

• Site Name, Site Number, and Addressee fields are now available for the selection of permanent and the creation/display of one time incident addresses in the Service Request form, Contact Center Service Request Tab, Create Service Request Page (OA HTML), Update Service Request Page (OA HTML), and the View Service Request Page (OA HTML). Users can now also view, create, and update Site Phones information in the Service Request Form. These site fields are also available in the Find Service Request form to allow users to search for service requests by the Site Name, Site Number, and Addressee of Customer and Incident Addresses.

3.16.4.3. Enhanced Service Request Search capabilities

In this release, many enhancements as listed below have been done to the Find Service Request Form:

• The Incident Address Fields on the SR Search UI have been fully enabled (previously they were just displayed after the user selected the address from an LOV).

• The Site fields are now available in the Find Service Request form to allow users to search for service requests by the Site Name, Site Number, and Addressee of Customer and Incident Addresses


• Partial search capability for some key fields (free form entry with wildcards) is now available

3.16.4.4. Improved Service Request Tasks Management

In this release, many enhancements as listed below have been done to the tasks management functionality available from the service request form:

• The Service Request Task Tab has been enhanced to provide an option to filter the Task Assignee LOV based on the Type of the Task Owner. For example, if the Task Owner is a Group, the Task Assignee LOV only displays Resources that are a member of the owner group.

• The logic to default the Task Planned End Date/Time has been enhanced to provide several calculation options (Respond by, Resolve by, or Respond by if null Resolve by less Planned Effort). This enhancement gives Service Providers several options on how they want to run their business by treating Planned End Date/Time as the latest Start Time or the latest Finish Time and by supporting Resolution Based SLAs.

3.16.5. Release 12.1.2

3.16.5.1. Party Site level Profile Checks

Customer Profiles (statistics), visible from the Contact Center and the Service Request Form, can now be collected and displayed for individual Customer Sites. . For example a profile could be created to display the number of service requests open for the site.

3.16.5.2. Optimization of Service Request Creation Process

In this release, many enhancements as listed below have been done on the Service Request Form to optimize the service request creation and update process as described below:

• Customer Search Form, previously only available from the Contact Center is now accessible from the Service Request Form. This allows users to search for customers based on multiple criteria such as Site Name, Site Number, Addressee, Site Phone, City and Zip Code instead of just selecting from a simple LOV. The Customer Search Form has also been made accusable from the Find Service Request Form.

• The Service Request Form logic has been enhanced to allow the user to enter Product, Customer and Problem Description before selecting Service Request Type and Severity. This allows users to identify who is calling and what is the problem before determining the type of service that is needed and how sever the problem is.

• The duplicate checking logic has been enhanced to consider Service Request Status as many customers do not want closed or completed service requests to be considered duplicates. Also, an enhancement has been made to allow service provides to configure the Status and Problem Code assigned to service requests designated by the user as duplicates. These values were previously hard coded.

• The Service Request Log and Notes UI now have full Time Zone support including Corporate (Server), Agent, Customer, Contact, and Incident Time Zone. The Service Request Bill To and Ship To Addresses can now be optionally defaulted from the installed base record selected on the SR.

• The contracts region on the Service Request Form has been enhanced to provide more information like Coverage Name and Coverage Description.


3.16.5.3. Enhanced Service Request Search capabilities

In this release, several enhancements have been done to the Find Service Request Form:

• New fields have been added to the Basic and the Advanced Search criteria to allow users to search for service requests using Postal Code and City.

• The Advanced Search has been improved by adding more search fields including Incident Address Site Name, Incident Address Site Number, Incident Address Addressee, Incident Address, Incident City, Incident State, and Incident Postal Code.

• A new icon has been added next to invoke the Search Installed Base UI (available on the Service Request form also). This UI allows the users to find the right instance based on multiple criteria such as Site Name, Site Number, Addressee City or Postal Code before searching for service requests.

3.16.5.4. Service Request Task Management Enhancements

In this release, several key enhancements have been done to the tasks management functionality available from the service request form (Task Tab):

• Complete Task Audit Details are now visible in the Audit Tab of the Task Details Form. In this release, the size of the Task details Form has been increased so that users can see more fields without scrolling. In addition, the log and notes form available from the service request form has been enhanced to show more audit details for the service request tasks. The level of Task Audit details in the log and notes section is the same as is displayed in the audits tab of the “Task Details Form”.

• Site Access Hours can be automatically associated to a Field Service Tasks when they are created so agents do not have to enter them manually.

• A warning message will be displayed to the agents when they manually scheduler overlapping Field Service Tasks to the same technician. The overlapping task can belong to the same or a different service request.

• A new check box has been introduced in the “Copy Service Request” form to enable tasks to be auto generated on a new service request being created with the copy utility (uses the Service Request Attribute to Task Template Mapping setups).

• Task Actual Start and End Dates/Times can now be automatically updated when Task Status changes to a Working Status (start) and from a Working Status (end). This feature reduces error and key strokes.

• Service Request Tasks can now have their own address separate from the Incident Address on the Service Request. This feature is especially useful when technicians need to work on both ends of a pipe or wire. Task Addresses are defaulted from the service request incident address whether the address is a permanent or one-time.

• Previously, when service request tasks were automatically created from Task Templates, their task owner (required field) was simply defaulted from a profile. In this release, Assignment Manager and Territories can now used to assign the task owner just like it can be done in the Task Tab UI.

• A new button has been added on the Service Request Form Task Tab to allow users to create and view attachments for the specific task (previously attachments were only supported at the service request level).


• The More, Notes and Debrief buttons on the Task Tab are now always enabled even if the Task is closed. However, when the task is closed, read only versions of the More, Notes and Debrief Forms are opened when the user pushes the one of these buttons.

3.16.5.5. Inactivating a contact

Users now have the ability to end date Service Request Contacts in the Service Request Form and HTML UIs. Users can view inactive contacts in iSupport but cannot inactivate them there.

3.16.5.6. Charges - Submit Order User Hooks

In this release, Service adds user hooks to the Create Order and Update Order API to enable customers to execute custom logic when submitting charge lines to order management.

If activated, the user hooks are invoked before an order is created or updated. These user hooks can be used by customers to override the order line type associated with the service activity code or to pass information into the order header flex fields and order line flex fields.

3.16.6. Release 12.1.3

3.16.6.1. New HTML Charges User Interface

Prior to this release, the functionality to manage charges for a service request is available only from the service request form.

In this release, a new HTML Charges interface—built on the Oracle Applications (OA) Framework has been provided to allow users to manage charges more intuitively and easily. This functionality is available in two options:

• A standalone page that can be invoked from a Forms based application e.g. Service Request Form, Dispatch Center or from another OA Framework page.

• An embeddable OA Charges region that can be included in an existing OA page e.g. HTML Service Request Update page.

3.16.6.2. Credit Card Capture on the Service Request and Charges In this release, credit card functionality has been added to service request and charges to allow service billing using credit cards.

The credit card information can be captured on the service request and the charge line level. New user interfaces based on Oracle Applications (OA) Framework has been provided to capture new credit cards or update the information pertaining to an existing credit card.

The credit card information captured at the service request level is automatically defaulted on individual charge lines and can be overridden by the agents. This information is passed to Order Management upon submission of charge lines so it can be passed to A/R to bill service charges to the credit card.

3.16.7. Release 12.1.3+

3.16.7.1. HTML Service Request User Interface Enhancements HTML Customer Service module, built on the Oracle Applications Framework, provides an easy to use and configurable HTML user interface. The following features have been provided in 12.2 to enhance usability of the service request pages:


3.16.7.1.1. Display of Job and Department information for Service Request Contacts

In the Create and Update Service Request pages/ Service Request Form, the Job Code and Department information is displayed for the service requests contacts. This helps the agents to select the service request contacts more easily.

3.16.7.1.2. Display Email and Phone Number for Service Request owner

In the Create and Update Service Request pages/ Service Request Form, the email address, work phone number, and cell phone number of the Service Request owner are displayed. This additional information enables people within a service organization to easily contact the service request owner if needed.

3.16.7.1.3. HTML Tasks Search User Interface

With a new HTML Tasks Search user interface accessible from the Agent Dashboard, support agents can easily search and manage their owned and assigned tasks.

3.16.7.1.4. HTML Service Request Escalations User Interface

With the new HTML Escalations user interface, support agents can manage the escalation of service requests from the Update Service Request page. This functionality is similar to the functionality in Forms. In addition, the escalation level field has been added to the service requests queues on the Agent Dashboard which enables the agents to have a quick look at the escalated service requests and their escalation levels.

3.16.7.2. Capture additional SLA information for Service Requests 6 SLA dates and 2 SLA durations attributes have been added to all of the Service Request user interfaces (Service Request Form, HTML Service Request Pages and iSupport Service Request details page). These attributes are for customers who want to track SLAs in addition to the OOB Respond by and Resolve by SLAs. Examples include ‘Restore By’ and ‘Workaround By’. Out of the box, these dates are not tied to any functional behavior as they are free-form attributes and customers can choose to use them as needed.

3.16.7.3. Creation of Part Requirements based on Task Type Prior to this release, part requirements could be created and viewed from service request user interfaces (Service Request Form/ HTML Service) for field service tasks only. Customers have asked for more fined grained control of the creation of Part Requirements/Orders so now the creation of parts requirements will only be allowed for certain task types. A new flag to enable/disable creation of part requirements has been added to the task type setup user interface.

3.16.7.4. Enhanced Charges Logistics

3.16.7.4.1. Spares Sourcing Integration

The Charges UIs (Forms and HTML) have been integrated to the Spares Sourcing UI so the agents can leverage the Spares Sourcing Engine to select the Warehouse and Shipping Method needed to fulfill the shipment of a part. This allows agents to select the best source from which to send parts to customers based on cost, distance, delivery date, and need-by date, and shipping method. If a need-by date is entered by agents, it is used to filter the Inventory/ Sub-inventory LOVs such that only those sources which have the specified item/part available AND can be delivered by the specified need-by-date are displayed in the LOVs. This feature is only available in Charges HTML UI.


The agents can also see the distance between the Ship-From Warehouse (Inventory/ Sub-inventory) to the Ship-to-Address in the Inventory/Sub-inventory LOVs. Once an entry has been selected, the distance is displayed on the Charges HTML UI as a read-only field.

3.16.7.4.2. Spares Return Routing Integration

The Charges UIs (Forms and HTML) have been integrated with the Spares Return Routing Engine to inform the user where (warehouse and ship to address) returned parts should be shipped by the customer.

3.16.7.4.3. Multi-Currency Support

Agents can now dynamically create and view charges in different currencies. They can select any currency that is defined in the currency conversion list associated with the selected pricelist.

3.16.7.4.4. Specification of ‘Calculate Price Flag’

Prior to this release, the order lines created through charges are created with a value of ‘Freeze’ for the calculate price flag with value. This prevents the order line prices from being updated in the sales order interface. In this release, organizations can specify the value of this flag to be used in the creation of the order lines. A new Calculate Price LOV has been added to the Service Activity Codes setup UI to allow organizations to choose an appropriate value— Freeze, Calculate, and Partial for the Calculate Price flag for each service activity code.

3.16.7.4.5. Capture and Parent Instance on Shipment Lines

In prior releases, the field service technicians have the ability to specify the parent instance of an item on a material line debrief. But in charges UIs, the agents cannot capture this information on manually created charge lines. In this release, this ability has also added to the Charges. For shipment lines in Charges, the agents can specify a parent instance for the item being shipped so that the shipped item can be added properly in the customer’s system configuration in the Install Base. A new profile is introduced to control the behavior of defaulting of parent information on the Charges shipment lines. The service organizations, based on value of a profile option, can choose to default parent information based on the selected product in the service request, the recovered item information on the Charges line, or not default any parent information at all.

3.16.7.4.6. Selection of Service Request Operating Unit

During the service request creation process, the operating unit is defaulted from a profile option. In this release, agents can choose any active operating unit that he/she is authorized to see and override the defaulted value. Once the service request is created, the operating unit cannot be updated.

3.16.7.4.7. Restriction of Service and Request and Charges Operating Units by MOAC

In this release, the service organizations can restrict the operating unit LOVs in the service request header and charge lines to only show the operating units which the agents are authorized to see as dictated by their MOAC security profiles.

3.16.7.4.8. Drill Downs on Sales Order Number and Instance Number from Charges


In this release, the agents can drill down on the sales order number to view the sales order details and any invoice details from the Charges HTML UI. The Sales Order Details UI includes information on shipping status, pricing and taxes, and invoice details. The agents can also view the instance details and graphical representation of the instance configuration for installed base tracked items on the charge lines.

3.16.7.4.9. Update Sequence of Charge Lines

In this release, agents can update the sequence number of un-submitted charge lines. This can be used to dictate the order in which they appear in the resulting sales order and subsequent customer invoice.

3.16.7.4.10. Specify Default Price List on Service Request Header

In this release, the agents can choose a price list on the service request which is used to default the price list of the subsequently created charge lines. As a result, agents do not have to manually select the price list on each individual charge line.

3.16.7.4.11. Control list of parties/addresses displayed in Charge Line Bill-to/Ship-to

In this release, the customers can control the list of parties and addresses being displayed in the Bill-To Party/Address and Ship-To Party/Address fields on charge lines. A new profile is provided to configure these fields to show 1) Only service request customer and its addresses, 2) Service request customer party and its related parties and their addresses or 3) All active parties and their addresses.

3.16.7.4.12. Charges Setup UIs in HTML

The setup UIs for Charges such as Service Activity Codes are now available in OA HTML interface.

3.16.8. Release 12.2

3.16.8.1. Oracle Projects Integration In this release, the Service Request costs captured in SR Task Debrief can be posted into Oracle Projects. Flexibility is provided through a series of setups that determine the type of costs that are tracked and how they get pushed/ imported into EBS Projects as Expenditures. This interface is an alternative to using Service Request Charges/Order Management to post service costs to the Oracle General Ledger

3.16.8.2. HTML Customer Service User Interface Enhancements HTML Customer Service module, built on the Oracle Applications Framework, provides an easy to use and configurable HTML user interface. There are four different configurations HTML Customer Service pages – Customer Support, Service Desk, Case Management, and ITIL. The following features have been provided in 12.2 to make it functionally a richer user interface:

3.16.8.2.1. Customer Profiles Dashboard

Customer Profiles Dashboard in Service Request Form and Contact Center displays key customer profiles attributes such as Open Service Requests, Critical Service Requests, Active Contracts, Expired Contracts, Open Orders etc. for a given customer/ contact/ account/ address. The service organizations can use the customer profiles definition functionality to define these profiles. With this release, this functionality is now also available partially in HTML Customer Service module. The drill-down from the customer profiles to actual transactions as available in Forms is not supported.

3.16.8.2.2. Universal Work queues in HTML

The Universal Work Queue interface, currently available only in Forms Applications, is now also available in HTML Customer Service. The work queues as defined using the Universal Work Queue Setup are made available to the agents through this new interface.


This new interface is available as an embeddable region in the Agent Dashboard and also as a standalone page. For the service request and task nodes, the work panels are available which allows agents to make quick update and initiate other actions on these work items. For UWQ, the media integration is not currently supported.

3.16.8.2.3. Full Task Management in HTML Customer Service

In this release, many enhancements have been done to the Service Request Tasks Pages used by CS HTML as well as the Field Service Portals:

• The Task Queues in the Agent Dashboard and the Tasks List in the Update Service Request Page have been enhanced to support the following field service functionality:

o Debrief field service and non-field service tasks

o Enter part requirements for a field service tasks

o Schedule a field service task

o View Individual/ All Tasks on Map

• The Service Tasks Pages have been enhanced to support the following:

o Definition of Customer Access Hours and Required Technician Skills for a field service task. Site Access Hours can also be automatically associated to Field Service tasks when they are created so that the agents do not have to enter them manually.

o Capture Customer Confirmation

o A new option has been added to the Update Task Page to allow agents to copy a task. This is very similar to the functionality already supported in the SR Form.

o The logic to default the Task Planned End Date/Time in the Task Pages has been enhanced to provide several options: Respond by, Resolve by, or Respond by if null Resolve by less Planned Effort.

o The Task Pages have been enhanced to provide an option to filter the Task Assignee LOV based on the Type of the Task Owner. For example, if the Task Owner is a Group, the Task Assignee LOV only displays Resources that are a member of the owner group.

o Schedule dates are synchronized with task planned effort. The Planned effort will be updated if Scheduled Start date or Scheduled End date is updated. If Planned effort is updated, the Scheduled End date will be changed

o A warning message will be displayed to the agents when they manually schedule overlapping Field Service Tasks to the same technician. The overlapping task can belong to the same or a different service request.

o Service Request Tasks can now have their own address separate from the Incident Address on the Service Request. Task Addresses are defaulted from the service request incident address whether the address is a permanent or one-time.

o The Task pages have a new dropdown menu to set the time zone to be used to show the SR and task dates. The user can select the time zone from the following options: Corporate (Server), Agent, Customer, Contact and Incident Time Zone.


o The enhanced Task Pages now honor the service request status flags. Users will not be able to update a task when the service request has a restricted status (Disallow Request Update flag is checked or Disallow Task Update flag is checked)

o A new tab has been added to the Task Pages to show additional Task details like Resources, Dependencies and Audit

o A new flag has been added to the Task Status Setup UI to identify the statuses that will restrict the updates on the tasks. If the flag for the task status is checked, users will not be able to update a task.

• The Service Request Task Search page has two new options. The agents now have an option to create and save Tasks searches. Once the search results are displayed, the agents can also export them in an excel format.

3.16.8.2.4. HTML Service Request Audit Report

A new HTML Audit Report page is available in this release to display the following information to the agents for a service request:

• Who made the change

• What attribute changed (new and old value displayed)

• When was the change made

• Why was the change made

This Audit Report is accessible from the existing ‘Actions’ drop down list in the Update service request page.

3.16.8.2.5. Capture and display Interactions and Interaction Activities

Interactions and activities are created whenever Service Requests are created and updated. In prior releases, the interactions and activities were captured and displayed only in the Service Request Form. From this release, interactions and activities are captured when service requests are created and updated from HTML Customer Service module. A new region is added in the update service request page that displays all the Interactions and Activities captured for that service request.

3.16.8.2.6. Service Request Additional Attributes

Service Request Additional Attribute functionality, currently available in the Contact Center, Service Request Form, and iSupport UIs, allows the service organizations to define service request attributes specific to their business requirements. These attributes can vary by service request types. The agents, using HTML Customer Service module to create and update service requests, can now capture these additional attributes which are defined based on the service request Type. Based on the values entered for these attributes, tasks can be generated automatically as per setup both during creation and update of service requests. In prior releases, tasks were auto generated only when a service request was created. In this release, tasks are generated automatically whenever the values for extensible attributes are captured for the first time (either during the service request creation process or during an update process). In prior releases, two service request notes are automatically created for the extensible attribute feature. One Note captures the Incident Address and the second captures the name value pair of the extensible attributes. In this release, these notes are created only if the values for extensible attribute are not null.

3.16.8.2.7. Enable Party Search Region in Customer Support configuration Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document Oracle TeleService 76

The ‘Party Search’ option is introduced on the Agent Dashboard. This region allows agents to look up for a Customer, and review customer details like Contact Points, Addresses etc. and the past service requests reported by the customer. In prior releases, this option was available only for the Case Management flavor.

3.16.8.2.8. Uptake service request status restrictions

The HTML Service Request Create and Update Pages now support controlling updates based on SR Status just like the SR Form. The updates are controlled by the status attributes (flags) on the SR Status Setup UI.

3.16.8.2.9. Duplicate Checking for Service Requests

Duplicate checking is done in the Service Request Form in the following scenarios:

• When agents attempts to save a service request for the first time (not on update)

• When agents tabs out of the Item Instance or Serial # field during service request creation

• When a service requests created from Oracle iSupport or Oracle Email Center is queried up in the service request form

This feature of Duplicate Checking for Service Requests is now also available in HTML Customer Service module.

3.16.8.2.10. Ability to view Instance Configuration from service request

Agents can now view the details of an Item Instance in a hierarchical view with a single click from the Create and Update Service Request pages. A new button is introduced in the Product Information region of the Service request pages to invoke the hierarchical view of an Item Instance.

3.16.8.2.11. List of Contracts for a Service Request on Create and Update Service Request pages

In the Service Request Form, the agents can view a list of Entitled or All Contracts (Entitled as well as not Entitled) in a tabular format. Using this list, the agents can select the appropriate contract to entitle the service request. This feature is now available in HTML Customer Service module.

3.16.8.2.12. Sharable Saved Searches

The service administrators can define Saved Searches and share them with:

• All Users or

• Users of certain Responsibilities

If there are specific searches that typically need to be executed by all users or by a group of users, these can be defined once and shared with the target group. This ensures consistency in a service organization and avoids having the agents to define their own saved searches. Agents can focus on resolving issues and improve their productivity.

3.16.8.2.13. Update Service Request Status directly on Agent Dashboard

The service request work queues that are displayed on the Agent Dashboard–‘My Service Requests’ and ‘My Group Owned Service Requests’ are enhanced to allow agents to update the status of the service request from the queue itself without navigating to the service request page. Many times, the agents need to only update the status of one or more service requests before beginning to work on them. This feature provides that ability to the agents and improves their productivity.

3.16.8.2.14. Manual Service Request Assignment during Creation


In prior releases, the agents could not manually assign a Group or Individual Owner during service request creation as available in the service request form. Only fully automated assignment was supported. In this release, agents can select Group and Individual SR Owners from a LOV during service request creation..

3.16.8.2.15. Ability to launch Email Center from Contact Email Address

The agents can now send an email to a service request contact with one click. An envelope mail icon is added next to the contact’s Email Address (if the contact method is Email) that launches the Oracle Email Center Compose Email window when clicked. The ‘To’ address is defaulted to the service request Contact’s email address and the body can be setup to default from a template. This improved agents’ productivity by reducing the amount of work agents have to do to compose and send an outbound email.

3.16.8.2.16. Time Zone Support

There are a couple of improvements done in this area:

• The SLA dates–‘Respond To/By’ and ‘Resolution To/By’ can be viewed in three different time zones: Agent time zone, Contact time zone, and Incident Address time zone. Being able to view these dates in the different time zones allows the agents to better prioritize their work and accurately respond to customer enquiries.

• The dates/times displayed in the History tab by default are displayed in the agent’s time zone. These dates can be toggled to be viewed in the following time zones: Primary Contact’s time zone, Incident Address time zone, and Server time zone.

3.16.8.2.17. Copy Service Request Enhancements

When making a copy of a service requests agents can now do the following:

• Change the Customer of the new copied service request

• Create a link between the new copied service request and the existing service request

This improves agent productivity because in most cases, the copy service request operation results in changing the customer and establishing a link between the two service requests.

3.16.8.2.18. Search by “Created By User” in Service Request Advanced Search

The existing Service Request Advanced Search feature is enhanced to allow agents to search for service requests created by a particular user or a group.

3.16.8.2.19. Ability to select Item Revision Description from LOV during service request creation/ update

In some implementations, an Item can have hundreds of revisions and each revision has a number and a description. The agents are more likely to remember a description than a number. In prior releases, only the Revision Number was available in the Create and Update Service Request pages. In this release, the Revision Description attribute is added that allows agents to search for an item via its revision description–thus making it easy for agents to identify the correct item.

3.16.8.2.20. Uptake profile to default Bill to and Ship to Addresses during service request creation/ update

The Bill To and Ship To addresses can now be defaulted based on the setting of the profile ‘Service: Default Bill To and Ship To Address Options’. The two values of this profile are:


• Default from Customer – In this case, the service request’s Bill To and Ship To addresses are defaulted from the Customer’s primary Bill To and Ship To addresses

• Default from Installed Base – In this case, the service request’s Bill To and Ship To addresses are defaulted from the Instance’s Bill To and Ship To addresses. In case when these addresses are not defined in Installed Base, the Bill To and Ship To will be defaulted from the customer’s primary Bill To and Ship To addresses.

3.16.8.2.21. Service Request Usability Enhancements

• The phone number associated to the service request contact is displayed with the Country Code and Extension in the ‘Contact Information’ region.

• The Note Type and Note Visibility fields are displayed on the Service Request create page.

• When linking Service Requests, the service request type is displayed to the agents enabling them to identify the service request more easily.

• The following profiles are now honored in HTML Customer Service module:

o Service: Make Contact Mandatory

o Service: Default New Note Type

o Service: Interaction Logging Mode

3.16.8.3. Automatic Task Creation on Service Request Status Transitions In prior releases, SR Tasks can be automatically created during service request creation based on a mapping of Task Templates to SR attributes. In this release, SR Tasks can be automatically created on specific SR Status Transitions (e.g. from “New” to “Entitled”).

3.16.8.4. Launch of Workflow on Service Request Status Transitions In this release, an ability to launch service request workflow when a certain service request status transition happens has been provided. Each service request status transition can be mapped to a workflow with an item type of SERVEREQ. When the service request status changes as described in the status transition, the appropriate workflow is kicked off.

3.16.8.5. Filter Task Template Groups LOV Based on Task Template Mappings

In this release, the task template groups LOV during task creation can be filtered based on the task template mapping attributes of service request type, item category, item, and problem code.

3.16.9. Release 12.2.4

3.16.9.1. Integration with Oracle Knowledge (Inquira)

Oracle Knowledge (Inquira) is a best of the breed knowledge management system. It enables the service organizations to easily create, manage, and share content across languages. It provides a powerful Natural Language Search (NLS) to search unstructured content, structured data, and transactional business applications.

In this release, a new integration with Oracle Knowledge (Inquira) allows the agents to search knowledge stored in Inquira system from various service user interfaces such as Contact Center Form, Service Request Form, Field Service Tech portal, and HTML Service Request page to resolve customer issues. InQuira’s patented Intelligent Search technology finds exact answers to inquiries based on their meaning. The agents can also attach solutions to the service requests.


The service Organizations can configure to either use the knowledge stored in Oracle Knowledge (Inquira) or in the Oracle e-Business Knowledge Management System available from previous releases.

3.16.9.2. HTML Service Application Enhancements

3.16.9.2.1. Direct Client-side CTI Integration with HTML Service Applications

The direct client-side CTI integration introduced in 12.1.1 for Forms based Service applications has been extended to HTML Service Application enabling the agents using the HTML Service applications to be more productive through incoming call screen pops. The agent can log into the CTI System from the HTML Service application and make themselves available for taking incoming call. On an incoming call, this functionality launches a context-sensitive screen-pop for the agent who is answering the call based on the information entered by the customer into the IVR. The agents can also make outbound calls.

Using the direct client-side CTI integration framework, the service organizations can write custom adapters for CTI integration between the HTML Service pages and a third party middleware’s soft phone. This framework reduces the communication overhead, provides faster screen-pop for agents, and improves scalability of the solution. In this release, only the Service Request Update page is screen pop enabled. Service Request Number is available as an IVR Parameter in this release.

3.16.9.2.2. Optimization of HTML Service Create and Update Service Request Pages

The HTML service request Create and Update pages have been enhanced to improve their usability and look and feel. The changes include improving the layout of various regions, fields, and buttons displayed on these CS HTML pages, removing extra white space, and creating a new region for the Assignment options.

3.16.9.2.3. New Modal pop-ups for quick Create/Update/View of Service Requests

New modal pop-ups have been created to allow agents to quickly create and update service requests and to review service request notes history. They pop-ups can be invoked from the Universal Work Queue and the queues available in the Agent Dashboard page.

3.16.9.2.4. Enhanced Service Request Audit Report

The Service Request audit report is enhanced to display the audit information related to the both Service Request Flex fields.

3.16.9.2.5. Display of Task Audit details in the Service Request History Region

The History Tab now displays the information similar to the Service Request Log and Notes in Service request form. More task fields are displayed in this region. This tab has new filter checkboxes with the following options: All, Service Request Notes, Service Request Audit, Knowledge, Interactions, Tasks, and Service Request Escalations.

3.16.9.2.6. Complete Incident Address Logic in HTML Service Request Pages

Now the HTML Service Request pages support the same behavior for the Incident Customer and the Incident Address fields as it exists in Service Request Form. It is done by honoring the profile “Service: Address Filter Options”.

3.16.9.2.7. Display/Update of Service Request Business Process on Service Request Pages

A new field has been added to the Service Request Pages to capture business process. It defaults from the business process associated to the selected Service Request Type. However, the users can the business process without changing the Service Request type. If the business process is changed, the service request will be automatically re-entitled by calling the service contracts entitlements API.


3.16.9.2.8. Display of Customer Credit Hold on Service Request Pages

A new field has been added to the Create and Update Service Request pages to display whether the Customer Account/ Bill to Account selected on the service request is on Credit Hold.

3.16.9.2.9. Uptake of Notes Security by User/Role in Service Request History Tab

The Service Request History Tab has been enhanced to uptake the security model already provided by common foundations Notes module. Different subsets of notes for a service request may be accessible to different users based on their privileges as defined by security in Notes Module.

3.16.9.2.10. Capture Sales Order Number on the Service Request Pages

A new field has been added to the Service Request Pages to capture Sales Order Number at the service request header level. This field is also available in Service Request Forms user interfaces. The Sales Order Number captured at the service request level is used as the default Sales Order Number when creating Charge Lines. 3.16.9.2.11. Uptake Rich Text Editor for Notes

The notes section in the Service Request pages was enhanced to uptake the new rich text editor functionality.

3.16.9.3. Public APIs to create Service Request Extended Attributes (CIC) New public APIs to Create, Update, and Delete Service Request Extended attributes for service requests (also referred to as CIC Extended Attributes) are provided.

3.17. Oracle TeleService Extensions for Oracle Endeca – New Product 3.17.1. Overview

Oracle E-Business Suite TeleService Extensions for Oracle Endeca is a solution that improves the efficiency and productivity of service managers and service agents. The newly introduced Service Operations Dashboard improves operational efficiency by allowing service managers to identify bottlenecks, rebalance work queues, and measure utilization and performance of support teams. They can elevate service quality by monitoring service requests in jeopardy, performing root cause analysis, and taking corrective actions to help resolve top priority issues. By proactively monitoring service requests, they can reduce service level agreement penalties and improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, thereby increasing overall profitability.

3.17.2. V5 Service managers and agents need to know how to prioritize their workload. The Service Operations Dashboard is designed to provide critical metrics and information instantly so that they can direct their attention to the most critical issues. This product is compatible with releases 12.1.3 and 12.2 of EBS.

TeleService Extensions for Oracle Endeca provides the following features:

3.17.2.1. Identify and monitor critical service requests

The Service Operations Dashboard provides a metrics bar to highlight the following critical metrics:

• Open - service requests which are open

• Escalated – service requests which are escalated

Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document Oracle TeleService Extensions for Oracle Endeca – New Product 81

• Response in Jeopardy – service requests which are in jeopardy of missing the expected respond by date

• Resolution in Jeopardy – service requests which are in jeopardy of missing the expected resolve by date

• Missed Response – service requests which have already missed the expected respond by date

• Missed Resolution – service requests which have already missed the expected resolve by date

• Unassigned – service requests which have not been assigned to a group or an individual owner

• Unassigned Owner – service requests which have been assigned to a group but not to an individual owner

Service managers can immediately direct their attention to the areas as highlighted by these metrics and take appropriate corrective actions.

3.17.2.2. Identify most active customers, most problematic products and areas, most common service request types

The Service Operations Dashboard provides tag clouds which highlight the following:

• Top service request types

• Top products reported in service requests

• Top problem areas reported in service requests

• Top active customers reporting service requests

The information provided by these tag clouds gives insights on the nature and source of the service requests. Service managers can use this information to improve the quality of the products, improve training for service agents, and improve customer knowledge to reduce the number of service requests.

3.17.2.3. Execute corrective actions on transactional system

Service managers can drill down directly into the service requests details page to update the service request with diagnosis, change status, reassign to a different owner, or ask for additional information.

Service managers and agents can also perform mass update actions on a selected group of service requests to quickly change status, update a note, provide a resolution, or change owners in a single transaction.

These corrective actions can prevent breach of service agreements, and minimize the penalties incurred on service requests that have already missed the SLAs.

3.17.2.4. Enforce data security for service requests

In addition to enforcing the currently available service request type security, the Service Operations Dashboard supports three levels of data security to control access to the service requests. Agents and managers can be given access to either:

• Access all service requests

• Access only service requests owned by them or the groups they belong to

• Access only service requests owned to them


3.17.2.5. Analyze graphical data with varying dimensions

The dashboard provides interactive graphs for each critical metric which allows managers and agents to group data by two different sets of dimensions such as:

• Group Owner

• Individual Owner

• Item Name

• Request Type

• Status

• Severity

• Urgency

• Customer Name

• Problem Code

They can also drill down into specific attributes to dynamically view data based on the newly chosen criteria.

3.17.2.6. Improve product and service quality through root cause analysis

Service managers and agents can perform root cause analysis by searching for specific attributes or keywords through the search box or the guided navigation components.

3.17.2.7. Improve workload utilization and elevate performance

Service managers can track the backlog of resource groups and individual owners to ensure that all agents are utilized effectively and assigned the appropriate service requests to achieve effective throughput. To expedite the resolutions for the service requests, service managers can rebalance the work queues by reassigning service requests, make staffing changes, and implement more effective training plans for improved performance.


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