Field Force Automationfor SAP

GEDigital Energy

The FFA tool improves the complete flow ofwork orders through the organization and tomobile service teams—including the creation ofservice requests, scheduling and dispatchingfield staff, tracking Service Level Agreements(SLAs), managing spare parts inventory,providing advanced mobile capabilities foryour enterprise, and forecasting how futureworkloads are likely to be distributed over timeand service area, for such operations as:

• Inspection• Repair• Maintenance• Meter reading• Service installation and testing• Trouble call response

Leveraging Your SAP InvestmentFFA enables SAP customers to further leveragethe investment made in their SAP system. FFAcan receive crew information and work ordersfrom SAP and provide updates back to SAP aswell as other pertinent corporate systems,ensuring current data is available throughoutthe organization. When SAP is combined withFFA software from GE Energy, it provides acomplete mobile workforce managementsolution, providing optimization of theeffectiveness of an organization’s resourceswhile assisting in the reduction of fieldoperation costs by as much as 35%.

Seamlessly Access SAP Data for OptimalResource Planning and Work SchedulingThis integration between SAP’s core modulesand the FFA’s scheduling engine is fullycompliant with defined SAP criteria and allowsthe sophisticated scheduling and executionsupport undertaken by the FFA application tobe utilized for all SAP-generated work orders.A work order created in SAP is fed into the FFAtool where a complex algorithm ensures thebest crew is assigned to undertake the work.Many criteria are used in this selection,including but not limited to:

• Crew location• Required skill set• Equipment needs and availability• Holiday, vacation, and other staff availabilityinformation

• Current crew status

• Status of other work orders in progress

Field Force Automation (FFA) software for SAP®

forms part of a suite of decision support toolsfrom GE Energy that enable utility andtelecommunication organizations to leveragetheir SAP asset and geospatial networkinformation in order to to optimize operationalefficiency and maximize the effectiveness ofresources. FFA is a comprehensive solutionproviding advanced tools for optimizingnetwork companies’ field resourceassignment and dispatch activities.

Field worker daily routeand calendar

FFA Gantt Chart

• Automatic, business-driven work orderoptimization and balancing by analyzingworker availability, area, skills, contracts,preferences, equipment, wage, andstreet-level routing

• Manage all levels of work orders with anintrinsic hierarchy that supports projects,service orders, work orders, actions, androutine and emergency events

• Can connect to advanced street-levelrouting and custom database

• Ability to integrate to multiple modules ofSAP or outside enterprise systems such asCIS, OMS, WMS, EAM, and GIS

• Online access from SAP’s tools for capacityplanning and work order scheduling inField Force Automation software

• The FFA application is fully supported forthe CS-SDL SAP interface, by providingcertified integration content for SAP PI

Benefits• Reduces dispatch times associated withmanual crew assignment by 33%

• Potential cost savings from 25-35% onoverall field operations, recognized in asfew as eight months through improvedresource productivity and utilization,optimized travel routes, and reducedovertime costs

• Improves operating efficiencies throughthe application of consistent schedulingpolicies throughout the organization andprovides centralized scheduling anddispatching operations

• Eliminates the complexity and high cost ofacquiring and maintaining point softwareproducts from different vendors andperforming custom integration

System Requirements

SAP ECC 6 and PI 7.1

Field Force Automation 8.9.3

For additional FFA system requirementsplease refer to the FFA Brochure

SAP ® is a registered trademark by SAP AG.

FFA is powered by Service Hub for Utilities®,claimed as a registered trademark by ViryaNet Inc.

Once assigned, each crew is provided withan optimal route in which to undertake theirjobs. The advanced street level routingexceeds standard point-to-point distancerouting by further analyzing routes withsuch information as:

• One-ways• Congestion• Average speed• Traffic signals• Real-time information (if available) suchas traffic flow, accidents, closures, etc.

The scheduled work orders are fed backinto the SAP system for dispatch andutilization by the relevant crews. Executionof work orders can also be managed byFFA, so that only SAP will be updated withthe status feedback and completioninformation. This seamless operationbetween the FFA application and the SAPenvironment provides customer servicerepresentatives or dispatcher/schedulerwith uninterrupted operations.

The actual FFA SAP Interface is an exampleof process-centric collaboration among SAPand non-SAP applications using the SAPNetweaver® “Process Integration” (PI)middleware. It demonstrates the use of theFFA SOAP adapter in conjunction with thecorrespondig PI technology. The interfaceschedules SAP service orders according topredefined scenarios which are depicted bythe SAP CS-SDL interface (“Customer Service– External Scheduling”). It proves thecompatibility of the FFA SOAP adaptor toSAP PI technology and should be used asan starting point in customer-specificimplementations.

Features• Intelligently automate processesassociated with work and resourcemanagement life cycles from planning toexecution; maximum automation ensuresbest practice, making sure that the usersfocus on managing the exceptions whilethe system manages the routine

• Offers powerful visibility by continuouslymonitoring the workings of operations,enabling your organization to make theright decisions in a timely manner

• Book appointments and scheduleresources using manual, automatic, andsemi-automatic modes with heuristicalgorithms

SAP Gantt Chart

To learn more about this offering, contact your GE sales representative or visit www.GEDigitalEnergy.com

©2011 General Electric Company. All Rights Reserved.

GEA-14522 (08/09)

Integrated process

Mapping between APIs