Field Service Key Concepts and Glossary
Review terms used in Agentforce Field Service and Operations (formerly Field Service).
Required Editions
| Available in: both Salesforce Classic (not available in all orgs) and Lightning Experience |
| The Agentforce Field Service and Operations core features, managed package, and mobile app are available in Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions. |
Key Concepts
- Call Center Rep
- A call center rep handles inbound calls, creates work orders, and books appointments from the service console. A call center rep must have the Field Service Call Center Rep permission set.
- Appointment Booking
- When a service appointment requires a specific execution time for a customer-facing service, you can assign an arrival window using appointment booking. The arrival window assures that the service appointment starts within the defined time range. Customers can book their own appointment, and set the arrival window from available time slots, using the appointment assistance feature.
- Asset
- An asset is an item of commercial value that a customer has purchased and installed. An asset can have a warranty or entitlement for a service according to a service contract. The Asset object enables tracking relevant performance indicators, such as asset downtime. An asset can be serviced according to a maintenance plan or on an as-needed basis. When an asset requires service according to a maintenance plan, a work order is generated automatically.
- Dispatcher
- A dispatcher uses the Classic Dispatch Console to monitor the execution of service appointments assigned to specific groups of resources by territories and handles exceptions using the Field Service tools. A dispatcher must have the Field Service Dispatcher permissions set and a Field Service Dispatcher license.
- Mobile Worker (Service Resource)
- A mobile worker (also called a service resource or technician) is a worker that executes assigned service appointment jobs according to availability. A mobile worker can update job progress in the Field Service mobile app.
- Resource Availability
- Time intervals during which a resource can be scheduled, composed of operating hours, time slots, and shifts.
- Scheduling and Optimization
- Scheduling is the process by which service appointments are assigned to mobile workers or crews. Manually constructing an efficient field service schedule can be a complex, time-consuming operation. Field Service’s Scheduling and Optimization does the work for you by generating an optimal schedule according to scheduling policies that define your organizational priorities and constraints. Schedule optimization helps you comply with service-level agreements and minimize travel time, overtime, costs, and no-shows.
- You can define the scope of optimization in different ways.
- Global optimization—Assesses time slots and mobile worker options to schedule upcoming appointments in the best order.
- In-Day Optimization—Optimizes the schedule for one or more territories on the day of service.
- Resource Schedule Optimization (RSO)—Optimizes a specific mobile worker’s day. Reshuffle—Moves existing appointments to schedule a high-priority appointment.
- Service Appointment
- A service appointment provides the scheduling and assignment details of a field service visit—onsite or remote—to a customer. A service appointment can be with or without an arrival window that is derived from a customer’s appointment time.
- Service Territory
- A service territory is the most basic grouping of service resources in Field Service. A grouping can be based on geographic regions, such as cities, counties, and neighborhoods, or according to product lines or type of customer. You can assign service resources to territories and create territory hierarchies, depending on how your business is structured.
- Work Order
- A work order is a request for field service work. It includes the work type and other relevant information for scheduling the service appointment. A work order can include several work order line items representing different types of work that must be done or various assets to be worked on.
Glossary Terms
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Absence | A time period when the resource isn’t available for scheduling. An absence can have locations. You sometimes need the resource absence location to schedule a service appointment before or after an absence. Absences with a location can also have travel times associated with them. Also referred to as Resource Absence. |
| Admin | A user who manages Field Service features and sets up user permissions for your org. An admin must have access to Field Service settings. |
| Arrival window | A time frame that limits the scheduled start time of a service appointment that was scheduled using appointment booking. The scheduled start time must be between the start time and the end time of the window. |
| Asset attributes | Describes the state of an asset and can represent its health and performance. Asset attributes provide a better understanding of the condition of assets and let mobile workers repair and maintain those assets in the field more efficiently. An asset usually has multiple attributes. |
| Assigned resource | A service resource who is assigned to a service appointment and has relevant information, such as the travel time and distance. |
| Briefcase Builder | This tool lets admins configure datasets of records that are required for mobile resources to interact with the Field Service mobile app when they’re offline. |
| Capacity-based resource | A resource representing one or more service resources with a bucket of working hours or service appointments per period (for example, 100 working hours per week or four service appointments a day). Scheduling service appointments to a capacity-based resource is as easy as scheduling to a regular service resource. |
| Check rules | A logic service that verifies whether a service appointment conforms to the scheduling rules. When manually scheduling a service appointment, you can use this service to check whether the scheduling violates a scheduling rule. |
| Complex work | A composite service appointment, composed of interdependent service appointments, each of which is performed separately. The appointment dependency defines the time relationship between service appointments. For example, a service appointment can only be started after the completion of another service appointment. |
| Crew | A team of service resources scheduled to work together. Resources are allocated to a crew for a specific time period. During an allocation, crew members can only be scheduled as part of a crew. |
| Day of service | The actual execution day of the planned job. |
| Classic Dispatch Console: Gantt | A visual representation in the form of a Gantt chart of the service resources and their appointments over time. The UI provides easy access to many service appointments and resource-related activities. |
| Classic Dispatch Console: Map | A view that displays a map of service appointments, resources’ home bases, and last known locations. You can add other objects with locations. |
| Drip feed | A method for dispatching service appointments, one by one, as the previous service appointments are completed. |
| Duration | The time that a service appointment takes to complete. Duration is used to optimize the schedule. |
| Enhanced Scheduling and Optimization | The Enhanced Scheduling and Optimization engine is gradually replacing the optimization functionality and associated manual and semiautomatic scheduling services. This engine provides an architecture and services that are more efficient and improve scalability, performance, and schedule quality. It includes innovative capabilities such as Travel Modes, Service Appointment Sliding, Multiple Flexible Breaks, Scheduled Jobs, Holiday Management, Offsite Appointments, and Optimization Hub. As of Summer ’23, new Salesforce orgs have Enhanced Scheduling and Optimization enabled for all territories by default. Existing orgs can switch to use Enhanced Scheduling and Optimization for all service territories or per territory. |
| Entitlement | The customer service level (for example, Basic, Premium, VIP) which dictates the response time. |
| Field Service mobile flow | A flow that is supported in the Field Service mobile app, and uses Flow Builder and the Field Service Mobile Flow type. |
| Field Service permission sets | Allow users to access Field Service features by assigning them permission set licenses. Field Service includes three permission set licenses related to the managed package and mobile app.
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| Field Service settings | You can adjust your Field Service settings in two places.
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| Flexible breaks | Admins can set a break duration and a time window for when the break must occur relative to the start of the mobile resource’s day. |
| Gantt chart | See Classic Dispatch Console: Gantt. |
| Get Candidates | An action that suggests which service resources can be assigned to a service appointment and when. |
| Grade | A numerical score given to an assignment or an appointment slot according to the relative fulfillment of a set of objectives. |
| Holiday management | This feature lets admins account for business holiday closures. Admins can refine working hours by updating operating hours so that service appointments aren’t scheduled on holidays. |
| Home base | A location where a resource starts and ends work each day. You can temporarily change the home base of a resource. You can define a home base at the Service Territory level or Service Territory Member level, which overrides the Service Territory level. |
| Horizon or scheduling horizon |
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| Inventory | The available serialized or not serialized products in a fixed location, such as a warehouse, or a mobile location that represents the service resource’s stock. Product transfers track the movement of inventory from one location to another. The inventory numbers at storage locations are updated automatically to reflect transfers. |
| Maintenance plan | Defines how often maintenance visits occur according to a schedule or based on usage criteria. For example, maintain the generator every 1,000 operating hours, start from 0 and stop at 100,000 hours. The Maintenance Plan automatically generates work orders for future visits. |
| Manual scheduling | A process by which a dispatcher manually creates assignments. Manual scheduling enables manual intervention in the scheduling process. |
| Map | See Classic Dispatch Console: Map. |
| Mobile actions | Quick actions, global actions, flows, and app extensions that help your team work more efficiently from the field. Actions are displayed in a predefined order in the action launcher on record pages in the app. |
| Mobile push notification | A push notification in the mobile app that informs the mobile workforce of events, such as status changes, approaching appointments, scheduling changes, or comments added. To create customized notifications, install the connect app and use the Notification Builder Platform. |
| Multi-day work | A service appointment that spans over multiple days. The maximum period is 8 weeks. |
| Notifications Center | A UI display of notifications relevant to the dispatcher, such as scheduling results and other action feedback information. |
| Operating hours | The times when field service work can be performed by service resources (weekly recurring availability per resource and per territory), customer accounts (visiting hours per customer), and appointment booking. Operating hours consist of the time zone and time slots, which can be broken down into arrival windows. |
| Optimization Hub | This set of dashboards shows the impact and improvements of an optimization request, formatted as standard KPIs. The optimization hub enables users to gain visibility across the scheduling of service appointments within service territories. |
| Outcome-based contracts | This feature lets service providers define KPIs for their customers to measure and track service outcomes and assess the compliance of service contracts. For example, a contract is compliant if an electric vehicle’s battery is strong as indicated by the charging speed of the battery. Tracking the vehicle’s charging speed over a time indicates that its battery is strong and therefore, that the contract is compliant. |
| Priming | Loading of data (records and metadata) to a mobile device according to the scheduling horizon, so that mobile workers can perform their job while offline. |
| Priority | The importance or urgency of a service appointment, on a numeric scale. The default priority range is the 1–10 scale, where 1 is the highest priority and 10 is the lowest. You can also choose to use a scale of 1–100. Used by the optimization process to ensure that when there’s limited resource availability, service appointments are scheduled according to importance. |
| Product item | A part for services that can be requested, required, transferred, and consumed in field service work. The Product Item object is used across clouds (Marketing, Sales, Industries, and Commerce). |
| Product request | A request for one or more parts. |
| Product transfer | A transfer of inventory between locations. |
| Relevance group | A group of service appointments or service territory members that require their own work rules or service objectives. For example, use relevance groups to enforce your company policy on breaks and travel time for full-time versus part-time employees. |
| Relocation | A type of service territory membership in which a service resource is temporarily moved from one territory to another. A relocation can also temporarily change the resource’s home base. |
| Resource efficiency | The relative speed at which a resource works (1 = the nominal rate). For example, if a service appointment is expected to take 1 hour, it takes a resource with an efficiency of 0.5 2 hours. |
| Return order | A record of inventory returns or repairs. |
| Scheduled job | Scheduled jobs are Apex jobs scheduled to run at a given time in the future. In Field Service, scheduled jobs are used to group a set of data to submit for optimization or share records with user territories. |
| Scheduled start and scheduled end | A scheduled time slot for a service appointment. |
| Scheduling dependencies | Scheduling dependencies between related service appointments helps you account for situations when mobile resources must perform related service appointments in a certain order. For example, ensure that a particular appointment can’t start until a related appointment is completed or that two appointments must start at the same time. |
| Scheduling policy | A set of work rules and service objectives that guide the schedule optimizer in its decisions. You can use scheduling policies to promote or de-emphasize factors, like business priorities, travel time, and customer preferences. For example, if an organization has 100 resources, work rules look at various criteria, such as availability, territory assignment, skills, driving distance, to reduce the number of potential candidates to five. These five candidates are then analyzed by service objectives to assign a grade to each candidate. The grade determines who, out of the five, is the best resource and time slot to schedule. |
| Scheduling recipe | A scheduling automation that is triggered by certain events to solve overlaps (caused by urgent service appointments or late ending of service appointments) or free spaces (caused by service appointments ending early or canceled). |
| Serialized product | A product with a serial number whose movements between locations, such as warehouses, depots, or mobile workers, can be tracked. |
| Service appointment list | A Field Service view that displays service appointments. The list provides easy access to service appointments and actions in the Gantt view of the Classic Dispatch Console. |
| Service appointment number | A unique service appointment identification number. |
| Service appointment status or status category | A lifecycle sequence of stages or statuses through which a service appointment passes. The lifecycle covers the time from when the service appointment enters the organization until the time it’s completed. Each status category can include several statuses. |
| Service appointment sliding | This feature enables moving service appointments on the Gantt for the same resource to an earlier or later time within the resource’s shift. Appointment sliding lets you free up time for a new service appointment when using appointment booking and scheduling operations. |
| Service appointment time properties | Field Service includes the time properties that are relevant for the four standard Match Time Rule work rules.
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| Service contract | A contractual agreement to provide service to a customer based on their profile. Service contracts represent different types of customer service, such as subscriptions or service level agreements (SLAs) that stipulate a certain due date or a start-by date. The products covered by a service contract are the contract line items. |
| Service objective | A logic entity that evaluates and grades assignments or schedules. Service objectives enable using business priorities to choose the best candidate for the job. For example, if the top priority is to minimize travel, the qualified candidate closest to the job site is the best choice. |
| Service report | A customer-facing report summarizing the status of service appointments and work orders. |
| Service resource | See Mobile worker. |
| Service resource list | A part of the Gantt view that displays all the resources in the system. The Service Resource List provides easy access to resources and actions in the Gantt view of the Classic Dispatch Console. |
| Shift availability | A set of working periods for your shift-based workforce, such as contractors or on-call staff. You can create and assign shifts for particular dates and times when you need coverage. |
| Skill | An ability required to perform a field service task. You can assign skills to service resources to represent certifications or areas of expertise. You can add skill requirements to work types, work orders, and work order line items to indicate the skills required to complete the work. Skills can also have skill levels. |
| Time-phased | Refers to a property whose value varies at specified times. For example, time-phased skills of a crew that change when a resource is added or removed from the crew (applies to Skills, Territory Membership, and Crew Membership). |
| Time sheets | A tool that tracks the time that your field service employees spend on tasks. Time sheets are mainly used for payment and charging. |
| Travel modes | Travel modes reflect transportation type (car, light truck, heavy truck, bicycle, or walking), the use of toll roads, and hazmat considerations. Travel modes enhance predictive travel by providing more accurate travel time predictions and improving the completion rate of service appointments. |
| Work Capacity | The Work Capacity feature lets users control the amount of work that the optimization service can schedule for service resources. This feature enables capacity reservation based on dynamic company priorities. Limiting work capacity is done by adding adjustable thresholds that limit how many hours or what percentage of the total work capacity can be scheduled for working on specific service appointments. For example, you can limit the total duration of new installation jobs scheduled in the New York territory to 100 hours per day during weekdays for the next 2 months. You can also limit maintenance jobs to 50 hours per day on Mondays. Or set the limit as a percentage of the total calculated available work capacity. For example, limit the installation jobs in Miami to 15% of the total calculated available time in Miami per day during the same time period. |
| Work order | A request for one-time or recurring field service work. It includes the work type and all relevant information for scheduling the service appointment. A work order can include several work order line items. |
| Work plan or work steps | A work plan is a set of prescribed work steps that guide frontline and back-office workers on how to complete a work order. By following steps in work plans, field service teams can complete assignments quickly, consistently, and with less guesswork. |
| Work rule | A combination of rules determines which candidates can complete the job based on business policies and organizational goals. A work rule determines whether the candidates have the required skills and if they’re available in the right territory at the right time. For example, a rule can require that a resource can be assigned to a service appointment only if they’re both in the same district. |
| Work type | A template that is used for common field service work, such as cable installations or furnace repairs. It includes the work duration, skills required for a specific work type, and so on. |
Note Field Service is now Agentforce Field Service and Operations. In some cases,
we still use Field Service to refer to this product area in Salesforce applications and
documentation.
See Also
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