Setting up work orders and tasks
Summarize
Summary of Setting up work orders and tasks
Creating work orders in Field Service Management allows you to provide clear instructions for Field Service agents to fulfill service requests. Work orders can be broken down into tasks to organize and specify the work required. This setup supports both simple task creation and more advanced automated management of work orders and tasks.
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Key Features
- Work Orders and Tasks: Work orders capture essential details such as customer info, service locations, and configuration items. Each work order can include multiple tasks, each detailing specific work requirements like agent skills or parts needed. Tasks are automatically generated when a work order is created.
- Task Categorization: Tasks can be categorized by type to ensure consistency in assignments, such as linking specific task types to particular assignment groups. Questionnaires can be added to tasks for agents to complete at different stages (e.g., safety checklists).
- Time Tracking: Automatic time recording for tasks is available, converting work time into time cards for accurate labor tracking.
- Field Service Work Configurations (Optional): Customize task data capture for different workflows (e.g., maintenance versus break-fix tasks) to better track costs and durations specific to each work type.
- Planned Work Management (Optional): Schedule and manage recurring activities like maintenance or inspections by installing the Planned Work Management application.
- Access Hours Auto-Population (Optional): Set default access hours based on customer preferences (account, location, asset) to ensure tasks are scheduled only during business operating times by enabling the Access Hours Management plugin.
- Linear Assets Support (Optional): Manage assets such as roads or cables effectively by activating Enterprise Asset Management support for linear assets.
- Playbooks (Optional): Guide agents through task life cycles with detailed workflows and activity sequences to ensure consistent task resolution.
- Customer Experience (Optional): Provide customers with updates, agent tracking, and feedback capabilities by installing the Customer Experience plugin.
- Request Task Management (Optional): Split requests into multiple tasks for distributed assignment or scheduling flexibility.
- Quality Management (Optional): Add a Reviewer role to provide task reviews and feedback by installing the Quality Management plugin.
Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
By setting up work orders and work order tasks in Field Service Management, customers can structure and automate their service delivery processes. This leads to clearer task assignments, improved tracking of work progress, and better resource management. Optional configurations enable customization for diverse workflows, recurring work, asset management, customer communication, and quality control, thus enhancing operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
When work is required, create a work order to provide information for the Field Service agents to fulfill the request. Create work order tasks to break down the tasks required to complete the work order.
You can use Field Service Management and only set up work orders and work order tasks to start work. Or you can set up additional configurations to automate some of the process around creating and managing work orders and work order tasks.
Configuration overview
The steps for setting up work orders and tasks are:
- Configuring work orders
Configure Field Service Management to use a task-driven process, wherein each work order encapsulates a list of essential tasks. Upon the creation of a work order, a corresponding task record is instantly generated. Task-driven processing can provide structure and clarity for intricate projects.
Work orders in Field Service Management store information about requested work, including customer names and addresses, locations where work is to be performed, and any associated configuration items. Work orders can include one or more tasks that contain specific details about the work to be performed, such as required agent skills or part requirements. Work orders are the driving force behind Field Service Management. They define what Field Service agents must do to complete their jobs.
- Configuring work order tasks
Categorize work order tasks by type so that work order tasks of the same type are consistent, like if a certain type of task always requires a specific assignment group. Additionally, you can require agents to complete questionnaires before, during, or after completing a task. For example, if you want agents to complete a safety checklist before starting a task, you can use questionnaires. Work order tasks also allow for automatic time recording that tracks and translates time worked on a task into a time card.
- (Optional) Configuring Field Service Work Configurations
Customize the information captured on a work order task to better suite similar but different workflows using Field Service Work Configurations. For example, maintenance and installations can have a fixed cost associated with them, but break-fix tasks may need to capture additional information related to the cost and duration of the task. With Field Service work configurations, you can set up these task types to capture specific information.
- (Optional) Configuring Planned Work Management
Manage flexible work plans for any recurring activity that requires regular maintenance. For example, you can use planned Work management to schedule maintenance, inspections, or audits. You can install the Planned Work Management application (com.snc.fsm_planned_work_management) if you have the admin role.
- (Optional) Configuring the auto-population of access hours in a work order task
Define default access hours for a work order task based on customer preferences such as account, location, or asset, enables the auto-population of the access hours for the task. For example, you can set the access hours for a business to guarantee that work order tasks are only assigned to the location when it’s open. You can activate the Field Service Management Access Hours Management plugin (com.snc.fsm_access_hours) for Field Service Management if you have the admin role.
- (Optional) Activate linear assets support in Field Service Management
Enable effective management of assets like roads, telephone lines, or fiber cables. You can enable the Field Service Management application to support linear assets by activating the Enterprise Asset Management plugin (com.sn_eam) if you have the admin role.
- (Optional) Configuring Playbooks for Field Service Management
Enable agents to manage the life cycle of work order tasks by guiding them through sequences of activities. Playbooks show detailed workflows associated with a specific type of work order task and the activities that must be completed to resolve that task.
- (Optional) Configuring Field Service Management Customer Experience
Provide customers with timely updates about their reported issues, enabling them to track the location of agents and provide agent feedback. You can install the Field Service Management Customer Experience plugin (com.snc.fsm_customer_experience) if you have the wm_admin role.
- (Optional) Configuring request task management
Split requests into separate tasks with request task management. This can be helpful if you want to assign different parts of a task to different people, assign parts of a task to people in different locations, or schedule parts of a task to be completed at different times.
- (Optional) Configuring Field Service Quality Management
Add the Reviewer role to Field Service Management. The Reviewer can review tasks and provide feedback. You can install the Field Service Management plugin (com.sn_fsm_quality) if you have the wm_admin role.