What is Dynamics 365 Field Service and How to Create A Trial Under 5 Minutes?
What do we really mean by saying Field Service?
Field service management (FSM) refers to the management of a company’s resources employed at or en route to the property of clients, rather than on company property. Examples include locating vehicles, managing worker activities, scheduling and dispatching work, ensuring driver safety, and integrating the management of such activities with inventory, billing, accounting and other back-office systems. FSM most commonly refers to companies who need to manage installation, service, or repairs of systems or equipment. It can also refer to software and cloud-based platforms that aid in field service management. (Wikipedia)
Field service management must meet certain requirements:
· Customer expectations: Customers expect that their service should not be disrupted, and should be immediately restored
· Underutilized equipment: Expensive industrial equipment in mining or oil and gas can cost millions when sitting idle
· Low employee productivity: Managers are unable to monitor field employees, which may reduce productivity
· Safety: Safety of drivers and vehicles on the road and while on the job site is a concern both for individuals and their employers
· Cost: Rising cost of fuel, vehicle maintenance, and parts inventory
· Service to sales: Increasingly, companies expect their services department to generate revenues.
· Dynamic environment: Continuously balancing between critical tickets, irate customers, productive employees, and optimized routes make scheduling, routing, and dispatching very challenging
· Data and technology: Many times, the data for analytics is missing, stale, or inaccurate.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service is a field service management software designed to transform businesses from the traditional service center model to proactive service that helps you detect and resolve issues before they become problems. Dynamics 365 Field Service combines workflow automation, scheduling algorithms, and remote access so your teams can work smarter and better.
The Field Service application enables you to:
· Improve first-time fix rate
· Complete more service calls per technician per week
· Manage follow-up work and take advantage of upsell and cross sell opportunities
· Reduce travel time, mileage, and vehicle wear and tear
· Organize and track resolution of customer issues
· Communicate an accurate arrival time to customers
· Provide accurate account and equipment history to the field technician
· Keep customers updated with the status of their service call and when it’s resolved
· Schedule onsite visits when it’s convenient for the customer
· Avoid equipment downtime through preventative maintenance
Dynamics 365 Architecture
Before we look at the how Dynamics 365 Field Service works, understanding the architecture is important to understand the entire ecosystem of Dynamics 365 Field Service.
Central to Dynamics 365 is the Dataverse and its Common Data Model (CDM). This provides a foundation for data integration across all Dynamics 365 applications and services, your productivity and collaboration apps in Microsoft 365, your in-house systems, and even your SaaS applications in other clouds.
The Dataverse is a heterogeneous storage service for both structured tabular data and unstructured data such as images or log files. It runs in Microsoft Azure and is shared by Dynamics 365 applications, Microsoft 365, and the Microsoft Power Platform. The Dataverse understands the shape of your data and the business logic over your data.
To integrate your existing systems and business processes with Dynamics 365 and the Dataverse, there are hundreds of pre-built connectors covering popular data platforms and apps to allow you to connect to your existing systems for both read-only processes such as a one-time batch operation and read-write communications. (Fournier, 2020)
How Does Dynamics 365 Field Service Works
The most important process in Field Service is the work order process where work orders are:
1. Created
2. Scheduled to resources
3. Performed by field technicians
4. Completed and reviewed
The following diagram can help you understand the various entities, attributes, and relationships that enable the work order process. This diagram references the specific entity names in the application.
The Work Order entity contains the details of the job that needs to be completed. This includes basic details like work order type, status, duration, priority, and more. Work orders are related to the standard Dynamics 365 Account entity in that specifying a Service Account on the work order adds related account information like territory, address, geocode (latitude and longitude), price list, and more. For instances where the work order location (service account) is different than the billing location, you can relate a service account to a Billing Account.
Key capabilities
Field service capabilities include:
· Work orders to define the service work needed primarily (but not exclusively) at customer locations.
· Scheduling and dispatch tools to manage resources and equipment needed for customer service, visualize onsite appointments, and optimize service schedules with efficient routing and resource skill matching.
· Communication tools to enhance collaboration between customer service agents, dispatchers, field technicians, customers, and other stakeholders.
· An easy-to-use mobile application that guides technicians through schedule changes and service work.
· Asset management capabilities to keep track of customer equipment and service history.
· Preventive maintenance by automatically generating recurring maintenance appointments for equipment.
· Inventory, purchasing, and returns capabilities to manage truck stock, purchase order requests and fulfillment, and product returns.
· Billing capabilities to generate invoices based on products and services delivered to customers.
· Time tracking to help you track how resources are spending their time, whether they’re traveling, on break, or working.
· Analytics for reporting on key performance indicators for managing work orders, scheduling activities, and interacting with customers.
Field Service roles
The Field Service application provides tools for these key roles on your service team:
· Customer service agents triage incoming requests and determine when to create work orders for onsite visits. Agents primarily use the application through a web browser.
· Service managers track performance metrics and oversee service delivery, finding ways to increase efficiency and standardize processes. Service managers primarily use the application through a web browser.
· Dispatchers review and schedule work orders, and assign them to resources on the schedule board through resource availability searches, and through a fully automated resource scheduling optimization add-in. Dispatchers primarily use the application through a web browser.
· Field technicians manage their assigned work orders using the mobile app on a phone or tablet and perform maintenance and repairs onsite at customer locations.
· Inventory managers ensure field technicians have what they need to complete their service calls. Inventory managers also handle product returns and purchase new inventory. Inventory managers primarily use the application through a web browser.
Work Orders
A work order in Dynamics 365 Field Service has information on what work needs to be done. It is used to coordinate and schedule resources and activities. It can be used for different types of work, such as installations, repairs, or preventive maintenance.
A work order is often created from a case or opportunity. It is then scheduled either manually or using the schedule assistant and then dispatched. Once the work is complete, it is reviewed and approved by a manager.
Work order lifecycle
· Work order creation: A work order is created, usually from a case or opportunity
· Schedule: The work order is then scheduled.
· Dispatch: The work order is dispatched.
· Service: The work order is performed and details are updated.
· Review/Approval: The work order is reviewed and approved by a supervisor.
· Invoice and inventory adjustment: Inventory adjustments are made and an invoice is generated for the corresponding account.
Create a work order
From the get started page:
- As a Field Service administrator or system administrator in the Field Service app, go to the Get Started page.
2. Select Create in the Create your work orders section.
3. Fill in the basic information about the work order.
4. In the form, add as many tasks, products, and services as needed.
5. If you want to immediately schedule the work order, select Save & Book. Select Save & Close to only save the work order.
From the work order form and record list
Go to Field Service > Service > Work Orders > +New.
At a minimum, enter information in the following required fields.
· For Service Account, select an account from the list or create a new one.
· For Work Order Type, select a work order type from the list or create a new one.
· For System Status, select Open-Unscheduled.
· For Price List, select a price list from list or create new one.
· Set Taxable to No.
· For Summary:
o General: Fill in the basic information regarding the work order, such as the work order number and the service account it is associated with, a brief summary, and status, which can show whether the work order is unscheduled, scheduled, in progress, or finished.
o Primary Incident: Enter more information regarding the nature of the work to be performed.
o Total: Enter pricing information for the work order. This will show total pricing information for tasks, including products and services.
· For Settings:
o General: Specify the category the work order may fall into. Also, fill in important information regarding the location of the work order, price list, service territory, and more.
o Sales tax: Sales tax can be added to the total amount of the work order based on work order details like service account, billing account, and work order type. The Taxable field will be set to yes if work order type is Taxable and the billing account is Not Tax Exempt. If the work order is taxable, a Sales Tax Code lookup field will display and inherit a value from the service account. It can also be updated manually.
o Preferences: Enter the resource and time information for the work order.
o Follow up: Shows instructions of how to proceed if desired, or whether the work order calls for a follow-up.
o Related to: Specify if the work order is related to an originating work order or agreement.
o Preferences: Specify any preferred time windows.
o Source: Specify source information regarding the work order.
· Address: The address where the work will be performed. The address should be inherited from the service account.
· Location: Shows the address location on the map.
Then choose Save and close.
Add service tasks, products, or services to the work order
When the work order has been created and saved, you can then add any related tasks, products, or services to the work order.
· Go to the Service Tasks section and select +Add Work Order Service Task record. Fill in your information.
· Go to the Products or Services section and select the + button. Fill in your information.
Consider using incident types to add more details and instructions to your work orders.
Statuses and the work order life cycle
A field service organization wants to understand how the out-of-the-box statuses are designed for the work order process without any customizations, based on their specific business needs.
Field Service ships with standard work order system statuses and booking statuses that should be considered during all field service implementations; many processes are triggered based on those statuses, which makes the Field Service app more valuable for an organization by:
1. automatically calculating and populating data.
2. automating the next step in the work order process.
For example, when the Booking Status is changed to In Progress to indicate the field technician has arrived on site, the Actual Arrival Time field populates accordingly on the bookable resource booking. For another example, when the Work Order System Status is changed to Open-Completed, applicable work order products are converted to customer assets to begin building service history.
Let’s walk through the standard work order and booking statuses at each stage of the work order life cycle.
When a work order is created, it has a status of Open-Unscheduled by default.
Once the work order is scheduled, the booking created for it has a booking status of Scheduled by default.
The creation of a booking automatically changes the work order system status to Open-Scheduled.
After the work order is scheduled to a field technician resource, you can see it on the Field Service Mobile app. Then the field technician can note that they are traveling to the work order location by changing the booking status to Traveling.
Each booking status has a color and icon and appears on the schedule board.
The status and a color appear on the mobile app, too.
Changing the booking status to Traveling automatically changes the work order system status to Open — In Progress.
When the field technician arrives on site and is ready to begin the work, they change the booking status to In Progress. The work order status remains as Open — In Progress.
On the related work order, the First Arrived On field is updated with the Actual Arrival Time of the booking.
During work, the field technician may want to record times they are on break by changing the booking status to On Break.
For both In Progress and On Break booking statuses, the work order system status remains as Open — In Progress.
When the work is complete, the field technician will change the booking status to Completed.
In the previous screenshot, the color and icon reflect a completed status. The duration is updated to the actual duration of the booking, and the end time is updated to reflect the time the status was changed to completed.
The related work order system status will become Open-Completed.
Finally, a back-office worker will review the completed work order to make sure data was entered correctly, communicate with the customer, review survey results, and more depending on the organization’s specific business needs. The last step is to change the work order system status to Closed-Posted.
Changing the work order system status to Closed-Posted is only performed by office workers in the web interface. In fact, the out-of-the-box resource security roles prohibit field technicians from editing the work order system status field on the Field Service Mobile app.
Booking status processes
Scheduled
· Miles Traveled is updated, calculated as the driving distance from the previous location to the booking location (typically the work order location).
· Booking Timestamp created. Booking timestamps track the date and time of all booking status changes.
Traveling
· Start time of bookable resource booking (“Booking”) is updated to current time.
· Booking Timestamp is created.
In Progress
· Actual Arrival Time field is updated with the date and time when booking status is changed from the mobile app or schedule board, but not from the form.
· First Arrived On (Work Order) field on the related work order is updated with the Actual Arrival Time of the booking. If Actual Arrival Time is edited, manually or otherwise, First Arrived On will be updated. If there are multiple bookings, this field is updated with the actual arrival time of the first booking. The First Arrived On value will respect offline scenarios and calculate correctly once the technician syncs their mobile data.
· Actual Travel Duration field is updated, calculated as the total time the booking status is Traveling.
· Booking Timestamp is created.
On Break
· Booking Timestamp is created.
Completed
· End Time is updated.
· Total Duration in Progress is updated, calculated as the total time the booking status is In progress.
· Total Break Duration is updated, calculated as the total time the booking status is On Break.
· Total Cost is updated, defined as the internal cost of the resource for the booking, calculated as the sum total of actual travel duration, total duration in progress, and total break duration, multiplied by the resource’s hourly rate.
· Total Billable Duration is updated, calculated as the sum total of total duration in progress and total break duration.
· Booking Journals created. Booking journals use booking timestamps to calculate the working duration, travel time, and break time for a specific booking. Booking journals also calculate internal resource costs for bookings based on resource’s hourly rate as defined on the bookable resource record.
· Booking Timestamp is created.
· Completed On (Work Order) field on the related work order is updated with the end time of the booking. If the booking end time is edited, manually or otherwise, Completed On will be updated. If there are multiple bookings, this field is updated with the end time of the last booking, meaning the most recently completed booking related to the work order. The Completed On value will respect offline scenarios and calculate correctly once the technician syncs their mobile data.
By the end of the work order life cycle, you will have timestamps of all booking status changes from both the field technicians and dispatchers.
How to Create a Trial?
Creating a Trial environment for Dynamics 365 apps are easy. All you need to do is create an account then activate your app that you want to try.
Go to Dynamics 365 Field Service Free Trial page and click “Sign Up now”. Enter your email address. If it says, “You need to create an account”, simply set up your account.
After setting up your account, you will need to create a domain name for your trial environment. You need to enter a unique domain name.
And the last step is for creating your user for your environment. This user will have System Admin rights and will be used for creating users, new environment and giving permissions to other users.
When you finished all, click “Sign Up”. It will take a minute to make everything ready. When you see your Confirmation Details, click “Get Started” button. It will open your Microsoft 365 admin center. From here we will create our Trial Environment for Field Service.
On the right-hand side, from the navigation pane click “Purchase services” under the “Billing Section”. Click “Dynamics 365” category to filter by Dynamics 365 products. Write Field Service to the search bar.
You should see “Dynamics 365 Field Service” subscription now. Click “Details” under the “Dynamics 365 Field Service”. In here simply click “Start free trial”.
It will direct you to Check out screen for free Trial service. Click “Try now”. You should be able to see your Dynamics 365 Field Service Trial under “Your Products” page now. Click “Your Products” tab on the navigation pane to confirm it.
Now we have our License for our service. The only thing left is our environment. Our environment is where we connect and use our app. Go to your Power Platform admin center and click “Environments” on your navigation pane. Click to your default environment. On the navigated screen click “Add database”. Check “Enable Dynamics 365 apps” radio button and click “Add” button.
Go back to Environments screen. Select your default environment, click Resources on the top bar and click “Dynamics 365 apps” .
On the navigated screen, click “Install App” and select “Dynamics 365 for Field Service”. Select your environment. After a few minutes it will be ready to open. On the “Environments” screen click the 3 dots on the right-hand side of your environment name and select “Open environment”. It will open your environment and from there you can select your Field Service app.
