TECHNICIAN CONTROL SYSTEM

• US 20100312605A1
• Filed: 06/24/2009
• Published: 12/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services GmbH (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: MITCHELL, CLARENCE, MATHUR, ANKUR
• Granted Patent: US 8,321,253 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/9
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group

Abstract

Technician control, in which a control system is configured to control scheduling and dispatch operations for work orders being handled by technicians. Multiple technician devices are each associated with one or more technicians, are configured to communicate, over a network, with the control system, and also are configured to provide output in response to communications that are received from the control system and that are related to the scheduling and dispatch operations performed by the control system. A set of scheduling configuration options may be pre-defined and user input weighting at least one of the scheduling configuration options relative to other of the scheduling configuration options may be received. A scheduling application used by the control system to perform scheduling operations may be configured based on configuration data that reflects the weighting and scheduling operations may be performed using the configured scheduling application.

Claims

1. A technician control system comprising:

a control system configured to control processing of work orders being handled by technicians in each of multiple, different industries;

at least one electronic data store configured to store work order data and work flow data for each of the multiple, different industries; and

multiple technician devices that are each associated with one or more technicians, configured to communicate, over a network, with the control system, and configured to provide output in response to communications that are received from the control system and that are related to the processing of work orders;

wherein the control system includes at least one processor configured to perform operations comprising;

defining, in the at least one electronic data store, work order data for work orders corresponding to each of the multiple, different industries based on user input;

defining, in the at least one electronic data store, work flow data for the work orders corresponding to each of the multiple, different industries based on user input;

configuring the technician control system to leverage the defined work order data and the defined work flow data in performing work order processing for technicians in the multiple, different industries; and

enabling processing of work orders for technicians in the multiple, different industries using the defined work order data and the defined work flow data.

2. The technician control system of claim 1 wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform operations further comprising:

establishing a first client that manages technicians that operate in a first industry;

establishing a second client that manages technicians that operate in a second industry that is different than the first industry, the second client being different than the first client;

determining the first industry associated with the first client;

determining the second industry associated with the second client;

configuring the technician control system to leverage first pre-defined work order and work flow data associated with the first industry for technicians managed by the first client, the first pre-defined work order and work flow data having been defined in the technician control system prior to establishing the first client; and

configuring the technician control system to leverage second pre-defined work order and work flow data associated with the second industry for technicians managed by the second client, the second pre-defined work order and work flow data having been defined in the technician control system prior to establishing the second client and being different than the first pre-defined work order and work flow data.

3. The technician control system of claim 2 wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform operations further comprising:

defining, prior to establishing the first client and in the at least one electronic data store, the first pre-defined work order and work flow data based on input received from an entity operating the technician control system, the entity operating the technician control system being different than the first client; and

defining, prior to establishing the second client and in the at least one electronic data store, the second pre-defined work order and work flow data based on input received from the entity operating the technician control system, the entity operating the technician control system being different than the second client.

4. The technician control system of claim 1 wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform operations further comprising:

receiving a request associated with a work order from a technician device;

accessing, from the at least one electronic data store, pre-defined work order data and work flow data related to handling the work order based on an industry associated with the technician device;

controlling user interface display on the technician device and data collection on the technician device related to the work order based on the accessed work order data; and

controlling processing flow related to handling the work order on the technician device based on the accessed work flow data.

5. The technician control system of claim 4 wherein accessing, from the at least one electronic data store, pre-defined work order data and work flow data related to handling the work order based on the industry associated with the technician device comprises:

determining, from among the multiple, different industries, the industry associated with the technician device; and

accessing, from the at least one electronic data store, pre-defined work order data and work flow data for the determined industry.

6. The technician control system of claim 4 wherein accessing, from the at least one electronic data store, pre-defined work order data and work flow data related to handling the work order based on the industry associated with the technician device comprises:

identifying, from among multiple clients, a client associated with the technician device; and

accessing, from the at least one electronic data store, pre-defined work order data and work flow data for which the technician control system has been configured to leverage for the identified client.

7. The technician control system of claim 1 wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform operations further comprising:

establishing a first client that manages technicians that operate in a first industry;

establishing a second client that manages technicians that operate in the first industry, the second client being different than the first client;

determining the first industry associated with the first client;

determining the first industry associated with the second client;

configuring the technician control system to leverage first pre-defined work order and work flow data associated with the first industry for technicians managed by the first client, the first pre-defined work order and work flow data having been defined in the technician control system prior to establishing the first client; and

configuring the technician control system to leverage the first pre-defined work order and work flow data associated with the first industry for technicians managed by the second client, the first pre-defined work order and work flow data having been defined in the technician control system prior to establishing the second client.

8. The technician control system of claim 1 wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform operations further comprising:

establishing a first client that manages technicians that operate in a first industry and technicians that operate in a second industry that is different than the first industry;

determining the first industry associated with the first client and the second industry associated with the first client; and

configuring the technician control system to leverage first pre-defined work order and work flow data associated with the first industry for the technicians managed by the first client that operate in the first industry and to leverage second pre-defined work order and work flow data associated with the second industry for the technicians managed by the first client that operate in the second industry, the first pre-defined work order and work flow data being different than the second pre-defined work order and work flow data and both the first pre-defined work order and work flow data and the second pre-defined work order and work flow data having been defined in the technician control system prior to establishing the first client.

9. The technician control system of claim 1 wherein enabling processing of work orders for technicians in the multiple, different industries using the defined work order data and the defined work flow data comprises:

controlling user interface display and data collection for technician devices using the defined work order data; and

controlling work flow processing for the technician devices using the defined work flow data.

10. The technician control system of claim 1 wherein enabling processing of work orders for technicians in the multiple, different industries using the defined work order data and the defined work flow data comprises sending the defined work order data and the defined work flow data to technician devices to enable the technician devices to process work orders.

11. A computer-implemented method comprising:

defining, in at least one electronic data store of a technician control system, work order data for work orders corresponding to each of multiple, different industries based on user input;

defining, in the at least one electronic data store of the technician control system, work flow data for the work orders corresponding to each of the multiple, different industries based on user input;

configuring the technician control system to leverage the defined work order data and the defined work flow data in performing work order processing for technicians in the multiple, different industries; and

enabling processing of work orders for technicians in the multiple, different industries using the defined work order data and the defined work flow data.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

establishing a first client that manages technicians that operate in a first industry;

establishing a second client that manages technicians that operate in a second industry that is different than the first industry, the second client being different than the first client;

determining the first industry associated with the first client;

determining the second industry associated with the second client;

configuring the technician control system to leverage first pre-defined work order and work flow data associated with the first industry for technicians managed by the first client, the first pre-defined work order and work flow data having been defined in the technician control system prior to establishing the first client; and

configuring the technician control system to leverage second pre-defined work order and work flow data associated with the second industry for technicians managed by the second client, the second pre-defined work order and work flow data having been defined in the technician control system prior to establishing the second client and being different than the first pre-defined work order and work flow data.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

defining, prior to establishing the first client and in the at least one electronic data store, the first pre-defined work order and work flow data based on input received from an entity operating the technician control system, the entity operating the technician control system being different than the first client; and

defining, prior to establishing the second client and in the at least one electronic data store, the second pre-defined work order and work flow data based on input received from the entity operating the technician control system, the entity operating the technician control system being different than the second client.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

receiving a request associated with a work order from a technician device;

accessing, from the at least one electronic data store, pre-defined work order data and work flow data related to handling the work order based on an industry associated with the technician device;

controlling user interface display on the technician device and data collection on the technician device related to the work order based on the accessed work order data; and

controlling processing flow related to handling the work order on the technician device based on the accessed work flow data.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein accessing, from the at least one electronic data store, pre-defined work order data and work flow data related to handling the work order based on the industry associated with the technician device comprises:

determining, from among the multiple, different industries, the industry associated with the technician device; and

accessing, from the at least one electronic data store, pre-defined work order data and work flow data for the determined industry.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein accessing, from the at least one electronic data store, pre-defined work order data and work flow data related to handling the work order based on the industry associated with the technician device comprises:

identifying, from among multiple clients, a client associated with the technician device; and

accessing, from the at least one electronic data store, pre-defined work order data and work flow data for which the technician control system has been configured to leverage for the identified client.

17. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

establishing a first client that manages technicians that operate in a first industry;

establishing a second client that manages technicians that operate in the first industry, the second client being different than the first client;

determining the first industry associated with the first client;

determining the first industry associated with the second client;

configuring the technician control system to leverage first pre-defined work order and work flow data associated with the first industry for technicians managed by the first client, the first pre-defined work order and work flow data having been defined in the technician control system prior to establishing the first client; and

configuring the technician control system to leverage the first pre-defined work order and work flow data associated with the first industry for technicians managed by the second client, the first pre-defined work order and work flow data having been defined in the technician control system prior to establishing the second client.

18. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

establishing a first client that manages technicians that operate in a first industry and technicians that operate in a second industry that is different than the first industry;

determining the first industry associated with the first client and the second industry associated with the first client; and

configuring the technician control system to leverage first pre-defined work order and work flow data associated with the first industry for the technicians managed by the first client that operate in the first industry and to leverage second pre-defined work order and work flow data associated with the second industry for the technicians managed by the first client that operate in the second industry, the first pre-defined work order and work flow data being different than the second pre-defined work order and work flow data and both the first pre-defined work order and work flow data and the second pre-defined work order and work flow data having been defined in the technician control system prior to establishing the first client.

19. The method of claim 11 wherein enabling processing of work orders for technicians in the multiple, different industries using the defined work order data and the defined work flow data comprises:

controlling user interface display and data collection for technician devices using the defined work order data; and

controlling work flow processing for the technician devices using the defined work flow data.

20. At least one computer-readable storage medium encoded with executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:

defining, in at least one electronic data store of a technician control system, work order data for work orders corresponding to each of multiple, different industries based on user input;

defining, in the at least one electronic data store of the technician control system, work flow data for the work orders corresponding to each of the multiple, different industries based on user input;

configuring the technician control system to leverage the defined work order data and the defined work flow data in performing work order processing for technicians in the multiple, different industries; and

enabling processing of work orders for technicians in the multiple, different industries using the defined work order data and the defined work flow data.