Configuration - HxGN EAM - 12.1.1 - Feature Briefs

Here are the configuration steps necessary to send/receive a dispatch feedback notification:

1. Create a WO activity that meets all conditions listed in the Overview section, including being dispatched to an employee or crew. The method used to dispatch the WO activity is not important. Shift, dynamic, or manual dispatching (i.e., using GIS WO Map Dispatching screen, although a dispatch Sequence is not assigned using this method) can be used. See the Optimized Scheduler Dispatching brief for details about shift and dynamic dispatching with the Constraint Optimizer integration.

2. On the Email Template screen, create a template record with the Dispatch Feedback Notification check box selected. No Subject or Body is required, but they can be populated if necessary to convey addition information to the dispatched crew/employee.

3. On the Dispatch Setup screen, enter options that will be applied to ALL crews and employees in the dispatch setup record’s organization. There is an option to override these organization level settings for individual crews and/or employees (see further in configuration steps for details):

   1. Select the record whose organization matches the dispatched crew/employee organization.

   2. In Mobile Feedback Options section, populate the Email Template created above that will be used to send notifications to crews/employee in this org., into Email Template field.

   3. Establish the number of notifications that can be sent for the same WO activity.

      1. If you would like crew/employees to receive only 1 feedback request per WO activity, then only the Notification 1 fields need to be entered. The Notification 2 and Subsequent Notifications check boxes, and related fields, can be unselected/unpopulated.

         • "Number of Minutes Prior to Estimated WO Activity Completion" - If you want the dispatched crews/employee in this organization to always get feedback notification 1 a fixed number of minutes prior to the estimated WO activity completion date/time, then enter that number of minutes here. For example, if 15 is entered here, then notification 1 for all WO activities, regardless of their Hours Remaining will be sent 15 minutes prior to estimated completion. So, a 1-hour activity and an 8-hour activity will both have their feedback notifications sent 15 minutes prior to estimated completion. If this option is used, if it recommended to leave Percentage of Minutes Prior to Estimated WO Activity Completion and Max. Number of Minutes Prior to Estimated WO Activity Completion blank. This same recommendation should apply to Notification 2 as well.

         • "Percentage of Minutes Prior to Estimated WO Activity Completion" - If you want the dispatched crews/employee in this organization to get feedback notification 1 a percentage of minutes prior to the estimated WO activity completion date/time, then enter that percentage here. For example, if 25 is entered here, then notification 1 for all WO activities will be sent with 25% of minutes remaining prior to estimated completion i.e., 75% of the way through the Hours Remaining. So, a 1-hour activity and an 8-hour activity will have their feedback notifications sent a different number of minutes prior to estimated completion. For the 1-hour activity, it will be sent with 15 minutes remaining; however, for the 8-hour activity it will be sent with 120 minutes remaining. If this option is used, if it recommended to leave Number of Minutes Prior to Estimated WO Activity Completion blank. Max. Number of Minutes Prior to Estimated WO Activity Completion is still optional and can be populated with a number of minutes that will be used if the number of minutes calculated from the percentage entered is greater than the maximum minutes entered. This field is a fail-safe that can be used to define the maximum number of minutes prior to the estimated completion of activities, these notifications will be sent. This same recommendation should apply to Notification 2 as well.

         • "Max. Number of Minutes Prior to Estimated WO Activity Completion" – See explanation in "Percentage of Minutes Prior to Estimated WO Activity Completion" section above for details.

      2. If you would like crews/employees to receive a 2nd feedback request per WO activity, then Notification 2 fields need to be entered. Same rules/recommendations as defined for Notification 1 apply for Notification 2 as well. The use of Notification 2 might be useful if it is reasonable to expect the status of work can change significantly between Notification 1 and the estimated completion time. It is recommended that Notification 2 values be somewhat smaller than Notification 1 values. If the Notification 2 and Subsequent Notifications check boxes, and related fields, can be unselected/unpopulated.

         

         • Notification 2 will only be sent if the feedback received from the employee/crew for the WO activity indicated they expected to finish either Early or Late. If they submit feedback indicating they expect to finish On-Time, then additional notifications will NOT be sent by this process. In addition, if they do not enter feedback for Notification 1, then Notification 2 will not be sent (i.e., another feedback notification based on Notification 1 will be sent the next time the job runs because the conditions for Notification 1 will likely still be met).

         • Notification 1 must be enabled to enable Notification 2. At least 1 of the number fields for Notification 1 must be populated.

      3. If you would like crews/employees to receive notifications after Notification 2, then the Enable Subsequent Notifications check box can be selected. All notifications that occur after Notification 2 will use the values from Notification 2.

         

         • Subsequent notifications will only be sent if there are at least 2 feedback records from the employee/crew for the WO activity and the latest feedback indicated they expected to finish either Early or Late. If they submit feedback indicating they expect to finish On-Time, then additional notifications will NOT be sent by this process.

         • The Enable Notification 2 check box must be selected to enable Subsequent Notifications. At least 1 of the number fields for Notification 2 must be populated as well.

   4. If the Update WO Activity Hours Remaining Based on Feedback check box is selected, the system will adjust the activity Hours Remaining based on the updated estimated completion time when the user indicates they expect to finish Early or Late. See an example of this adjustment described in the Overview section. It is recommended that this check box be selected if dispatch feedback notifications are enabled. This is so the next notification will be based on the most recent feedback and potentially updated estimated WO activity completion time.

   5. The Require Note field is used to force the dispatched crew/employee to include a note/comment with their dispatch feedback submission. The feedback note is visible on the Supervisor Dispatch Overview screen. Valid configuration values are:

      1. Never

      2. Always

      3. When On-Time is selected.

      4. When Late is selected.

      5. When Early is selected.

      6. When Early or Late is selected.

4. Select the Enable Mobile Feedback check box. If this check box is NOT selected, crews/employees in the dispatch setup record’s organization will NOT receive dispatch feedback notifications.

5. Select the Active check box for the dispatch setup record. If this check box is NOT selected, crews/employees in the dispatch setup record’s organization will NOT receive dispatch feedback notifications.

6. Overriding dispatch setup organization level setting for individual. If individual crews or employees need to have dispatch feedback setting values that are different from the organization level values or you want to disable dispatch feedback notifications for specific crews or employees in the organization, these changes can be made on the Crews and Employees screens. All of the organization level settings on the Dispatch Setup screen have been added to both of these screens. If the crew or employee is using the organization settings from an ‘active’ dispatch setup record, these organization level record values will be displayed and protected on the crew or employee record.

   1. It is NOT possible to enable dispatch feedback notifications for a crew or employee if they are NOT enabled for the organization. They must be enabled at the organization level, then settings can be changed, or notifications disabled at the crew or employee level.

   2. To change settings or disable dispatch feedback notifications for a crew or employee, select the Override Dispatch Setup check box on the crew or employee record. The setting values from the organization level record on the Dispatch Setup screen will be copied to the crew or employee and saved. At this point, settings can be changed for the individual crew or employee. In addition, the Disable Mobile Feedback check box can be selected if necessary. If this check box is selected, the individual crew or employee will NOT receive dispatch feedback notifications while others in the same organization will receive them per the organization level dispatch setup options.

7. Activate the Digital Work Dispatch Feedback Notification driver (DWDISPFBN) on the Job Setup screen.

If WO activities are dispatched to more than 1 employee or crew, each of these dispatched entities will receive a dispatch feedback notification for the WO activity if they each have a mobile device registered to their user. If this is the case, they can both submit feedback and potentially contradict each other. This same scenario will occur if the WO activity is dispatched to a crew, but the crew has more than 1 employee that has the "Determines Crew Location for Dispatching" check box selected (i.e., the notification will be sent to each of these employees on the crew). These feedback records are simply processed in the order in which they are received. It is expected that some customers may dispatch more than 1 employee and/or crew to a WO activity; however, it is NOT expected that they each have their own device with Digital Work loaded and they all submit their own feedback. Dispatch feedback notifications are designed so that there should 1 dispatched user for each WO activity that is responsible for interacting with Digital Work and entering dispatch feedback.