Using Call Defaulting Logic Effectively
SSM offers many ways to streamline call entry by setting up default values for most fields in Call Maintenance. Call Maintenance is designed to prompt first for the fields that have the most significant impact on defaulting logic for other fields. You should consider these relationships between fields carefully when you design your pending call-entry process.
A default DEMO profile is provided with the system that closely parallels the flow of control used in Call Maintenance. It is expected that most users can start with the DEMO profile as a model and remove and rearrange fields as needed. If you preserve the basic frame sequence supplied in the default model, the standard defaulting logic of Call Maintenance should also be preserved.
Defaulting in Pending Call Maintenance
Pending Call Maintenance uses these rules for determining defaults for related fields:
1 It uses the same rules that Call Maintenance uses for determining defaults, including the default search order, described in
Call Default Precedence.
2 It searches for a default only when all the fields needed to find the default have been displayed to the user. For example, if only two of three fields required to find a default have been prompted for or displayed, no defaulting occurs. See
Effect of Work Code, Model, and Service Group for an example.
3 If one of the fields that would be populated by a default already has a value because the user specified it, the existing value is retained; it is not updated.
4 The system searches for default values for fields even when the target fields are not displayed to the user in Pending Call Maintenance (as long as rule
2 has been met).
Understanding Critical Fields for Defaulting
In Call Maintenance, a few critical fields determine default values for many other fields in the call record. In most cases, it is important to prompt for these fields first so that the related information is available.
Effect of Item and End User
In Call Maintenance, many defaults are set by the combination of item and end user. The end-user record can provide defaults for the following fields:
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• Area
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• Escalation
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• Caller
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• Travel Distance
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• Phone
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• Travel Time
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• Priority
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• Time Zone (if MTZ is active)
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• Assigned
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In addition, the end user:
• Determines points assigned to engineers during call scheduling (based on area, primary and secondary engineer, and time zone)
• Determines the customer and default bill-to addresses for Call Activity Recording and Call Invoice Recording
The fully qualified item (item, lot/serial number, and ISB reference number) is used to retrieve information about the installed base and service coverage. For example, the Contract, Service Type, Start Date, Install Date, End Date, Warranty End, and Response fields default from any contract or warranty associated with the specific item referenced on the call.
If you design a call-entry profile that prompts for fields related to item and end user before prompting for these elements, the system retains the values that the users specify and ignores values that would have defaulted. As a result, it is very important to understand the sequence in which you want to prompt users for data.
Effect of Work Code, Model, and Service Group
A pop-up frame displays in Call Maintenance after you complete the first frame. This pop-up prompts for the three key fields—Work Code, Model, and Service Group—that are used when defining call defaults in Call Default Maintenance.
If an appropriate call default record is found, many fields in the next frame are populated, including:
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• Call Severity
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• Call Status
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• Call Type
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• Call Next Status
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• Call Problem
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• Call Queue
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• Call Duration
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• Escalation
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• Call Description
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When you design a pending call system, you should consider the impact of call defaults. If you plan to use defaults, you need to prompt for the work code, model, and service group before prompting for any of the other fields listed here.
Important: Pending Call Maintenance does not search for defaults until it has values for all three fields.
You must add all three of these fields to a frame before Pending Call Maintenance searches for call default records. If you do not use model or service group when setting up defaults, you still must add them to a frame for the defaults to be found. In Pending Call Frame Maintenance (11.1.3.15), you can specify that these fields are not updateable, but they must exist in the frame.