Dispatch Console Map

Dispatch Console Map enables field service supervisors to track the live locations of the field service technicians and monitor the statuses of all service appointments in real-time using geolocation data. This clear geographical representation of the data helps the dispatcher to find answers to most important questions that comes along his way such as; Who should perform this task?, Who are the available resources at this time?, What is the status of ongoing work?, What are the activities in jeopardy?, What are the exceptions associated to the resources or activities?, What is the workload of a technician on a given day of the week?, Does a field technician need more time at their current appointment?, Has a field service technician taken the day off but their tasks are still pending? Is a technician overloaded with a lot of tasks and need additional help? and much more. This map is directly related to scheduling operations serving as a helpful tool to get answers to all these questions quickly so that the field service technicians can continue to focus on the service task at hand while the dispatcher can keep an eye on issues in the field and thereby enabling dispatcher to make smarter decisions easier and faster in field service operations.

This dynamic and interactive map view can be accessed by the command “Map” on Dispatch Console Gantt and the Calendar. The Map appears in a new tab as a separate page shifting the focus from the current page. The Map is always referred with a certain set of data specific to a particular dataset which is being searched on the corresponding Dispatch Console. When the Dataset search is altered or changed to a different dataset, it will be notified to the user on the Dispatch Console Map with a mark up text allowing to perform a manual refresh to retrieve the latest changes.

Session Handling: Once the Dispatch Console Map is opened in a new page the data that can be loaded into the map should belong to the same dataset that is being searched on the corresponding Dispatch Console as there's a synchronization between the  Map page and Gantt page. In case if the dataset on the Dispatch Console has been altered or changed to a different dataset that will be notified on the Map page with a pop up message allowing user to manually refresh the Map page to retrieve the latest dataset changes. The "Gantt" command on the Map page can be used at any given instance to navigate back to the parent Dispatch Console.

Map interaction includes;

• Different map pins for Resources based on their statuses, Unallocated tasks, Allocated Tasks. And Separate highlight on the scheduling exception pins associated with Tasks and Resources to make it easier for the dispatcher to prioritize exceptions for scheduling operations.

• When the data is loaded, the focus of the map will be automatically changed accordingly based on the geographical spread of the selected data.

• The left panel consist of four tabs based on Resources, Unallocated tasks, Allocated tasks and Scheduling Exceptions.“View on Map” command on the Left Panel can be used to view and load all or selected items into the Map respectively.

• Search context fields on the right side will be predetermined based on the left panel tab selection. This search context on the map can be used to filter out specific data on the map based on user selection. The search context will help the user to filter out the loaded data based on different search criteria.

• Resource location is determined by the geographic coordinates that are sent from the field technician's mobile device. The date and time retrieved on the last location is shown on the resource cards and this keeps updating as the data on the “Device Location” table changes with time. In absence of a current location, resources are located based on their start and end location of the shift.

• The tooltips are available on each map pin allowing the dispatcher to have a quick glance over the more information on the resources/task/location when hovering over the respective map pin.

• Use of cards on the Resource pin to make more data visible on the technician’s profile E.g., Resource Logging Status, Resource Group, Region, Contact Details, Date and Time retrieved from the last location etc. and easy to perform scheduling actions such as log on/log off, View shift, View Exceptions, Absence Register and much more.

• Use of cards on the Work Task pin to make more data visible such as Description, Status, Duration, Date when the tasks are scheduled to be executed, Location, Start and End time of SLAs, and easy to perform actions such as Status changes, Navigations to Work Task/Work Order, View Exceptions and much more.

• Specific commands on an Unallocated Task such as locating Nearby Resources and quick access to “Assign Work” dialog to manually assign Resources to it.

• The Exceptions tab in the left panel will be enabled to see all the scheduling exception types thrown for resources and tasks to locate them on the map. E.g., If the assigned technician for a task is delayed or can't perform the task, then reassign the task to an alternate resource. This will allow the dispatcher to quickly react out of compliance conditions and provide excellent service to the technicians.

• On Map setting there is a option to remember the recent map position and the zoom level with respect to the user when loading the map each time.

• Zoom in and Zoom out of the map for a specific location/area.

• Enable the traffic on routes. (The HERE traffic API offers traffic data only for specific regions. For the details about traffic coverage available for you, Contact your HERE representative)

View Shift

This shows the dispatcher the start and end location of the field service technician and their tasks list that need to be executed on the current date or on a future date. The current location of the resource, locations of the tasks are displayed according to their execution order with the suggested optimized task route. The dispatcher can make use of two route display options, straight-line or Turn by Turn directions along with traffic details to get an idea about the travel time and distance. The Card on each task displays more details about the tasks and the use of Map pins to differentiate the Completed Tasks as they complete their tasks along the route for the day.

View Nearby Resources

This action is available on an unallocated task on Gantt and on the Map enabling the dispatcher to quickly locate the nearby resources who can immediately attend to the Work Task based on the default distance set from the Scheduling Configuration page. This will also consider other parameters such as Resource Group, Competencies, Licenses and Region defined on the task to give out a perfect match. When determining the distance, the aerial distance between the Unallocated activity and the Resource current location is used and once the resources are located this parameter value can be manually changed from the search in context to change the data loaded on the Map. The resources are located based on their current location or else based on the shift start and end locations. Once the dispatcher identifies one of the closest technicians suit for the job, he can use "Assign Task" command on the resource pin or refer the Gantt area to see a gap in their schedule and then use drag and drop for the allocation.

Dispatch Console Legend

Clustering of Map Pins

Based on the zooming level, Resources and Work Tasks that are close together will be merged into an orange-color cluster that displays the count of different Map pin types. When a user further zoom-in the clusters, it will be broken down into small clusters reducing its display count accordingly. When map pins are stacked into a same location, those will be indicated by a dark blue color cluster pin resulting in an intermediate card with a context menu of grouped pin types. This menu selection will open up a pop-up dialog to show the pin types and the details of the map pins in that location.