Introducing Crowd Service

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to implement and manage the Crowd Workforce feature in SAP Field Service Management.

Introduction to Crowd Service

Unit 7: Key Topics

This unit focuses on Crowd Workforce, a component of SAP Field Service Management that allows companies to effectively outsource service/maintenance work to technicians outside of their organization, potentially subcontracting companies or freelancers. The key objectives and topics to focus on in this unit include:

  1. Understanding Crowd Workforce: Here, learners will be introduced to the concept of Crowd Workforce, how it enables companies to manage peaks in demand, expand into new locations, or close gaps in skill sets by outsourcing work to external technicians.

  2. The Roles within Crowd Workforce: This part of the unit introduces the different roles within Crowd Workforce, including the crowd owner, crowd partner manager, and crowd technician, and what each role is responsible for.

  3. Setting up Crowd Service: Learners will learn about the process of onboarding service partner organizations, from inviting potential crowd partner admins to the platform, to registering technicians and approving their skill sets and certifications.

  4. Crowd Service Planning and Execution Process: This topic covers the steps from assigning work to a partner organization, to executing and reviewing the work output. It provides insight into how work is assigned, confirmed, executed and reviewed in the Crowd Workforce.

  5. Crowd Workforce Configuration: Learners will gain an understanding of how to enable and set up Crowd Workforce within a company, from the basic prerequisites to specific role permissions, business rules, and company settings.

  6. Crowd Workforce Settings: The unit will guide learners through managing Crowd Workforce settings, including managing skills, defining partner statuses, customizing URLs, and setting up external links.

  7. Dispatching Assignments to Partners: Finally, learners will gain insight into how assignments are dispatched to partners – involving confirmation of partner dispatching, notification of dispatching, acceptance of assignments by the partner manager, and releasing the assignment to the technician.

At the end of this unit, learners should have an understanding of how Crowd Workforce in SAP Field Service Management can help organizations effectively manage their service/maintenance work by leveraging external technicians, and how to set up and manage the entire process effectively. This would enable the learners to efficiently handle service demand peaks, manage skill gaps, and smoothly run operations in new locations.

Overview: Crowd Service

Crowd Workforce enables companies using SAP Field Service Management to outsource service work to technicians outside of their company.

Crowd Workforce enables companies using SAP Field Service Management (that is, the crowd owner), to effectively outsource service/maintenance work to technicians outside of their company. This outsourcing could be to other subcontracting companies or to freelancers. This allows the crowd owner to meet peaks in demand, to expand in new locations, or to close gaps in skill sets.

Crowd Service provides a portal to partners or subcontractors to manage their own resources, including their skills and certifications. In the portal, the partner can also manage the work that has been assigned to them by enabling them to do the detailed assignment to their technicians and to track the job status. This simplifies administrative work.

Service partners have access to all relevant data to maintain high service quality and to meet customers' expectations.

The autoscheduling feature optimizes resource allocation by assigning jobs to the best available technicians. This could be own staff or that of a service partner.

As a crowd owner, transparency is ensured by seeing status updates on the planning board and by having full access to the relevant data.

The main user groups in the context of Crowd Service are Crowd Owner, Partner Manager, and Partner Technician.

Thecrowd owner crowd owner is the organization that is using the SAP Field Service Management solution.

The crowd owner invites new partners and has an overview of all crowd members and service partners in the Crowd Workforce marketplace. They will review and approve information provided by crowd members, including the technicians' skills and company certifications. They also assign activities to the crowd partner as a whole, or directly to individual partner technicians.

The crowd partner manager (also known as the service partner admin) works for the subcontractor. They are responsible for the partner's registration and information. They register the partner technician and manage activities assigned and subcontracted to them in the Partner Portal. They are registered as a Field Service Management user with the admin policy group Partner Admin.

The crowd technician (or partner technician) works for the subcontractor. They are responsible for the execution of the activities assigned by the partner manager or crowd owner. They are registered as a Field Service Management user with the admin policy group Partner Technician.

The terms "Crowd Workforce" and "Crowd Service" are used interchangeably.

Partner Onboarding Process and Crowd Service Execution Process

Image describing the process flow for onboarding a Crowd Service Partner

Setting up Crowd Service starts with onboarding the service partner organization. This is done by sending the future crowd partner admin an invitation to join you as your subcontractor. The future crowd partner admin is then directed to a webpage to register basic data about themselves and their organization. The Field Service Management Cloud then generates the crowd partner admin as a user, with the corresponding permissions (admin policy group Partner Admin). The partner admin can then access the Partner Portal, where they complete their company information, as well as information about their technicians.

Invitation: As an alternative to sending individual invitations, the crowd owner can import existing partners into the Crowd Workforce by using the basic bulk import function. The invitation email can be customized in the corresponding business rule.

Account creation: The service partner admin records various information in the company profile such as the following:

  • Company name
  • Contact information
  • Billing address
  • Service area
  • Relevant documents as uploads

Technician details: After entering the required company info, the Crowd partner will be prompted to enter information for the technicians. This includes, for example:

  • Contact details
  • Address
  • Skills
  • Relevant documents as uploads

The technician information will then be verified and approved by the crowd owner. The FSM Cloud proceeds to create the crowd technicians as FSM users (admin policy group Partner Technician).

The Crowd Workforce module allows the Crowd Owner to manage the Partner's information.

The crowd owner has an overview of all partners in the Crowd Workforce module, under the My Connections tab. Here, the crowd owner can review, maintain, and approve the partners' general information, submitted documents, and technician information.

After the Partner Manager maintained their technicians' data, the Crowd Owner needs to approve it.

After the Crowd partner has entered company and technician information and uploaded documents, the crowd owner reviews and approves or rejects the submitted information.

When all the partner users have been set up, and their data is approved, service activities can be assigned to the partner organization, for execution by the partner technician.

Image describing the process flow for service planning and execution for Crowd Workforce

The crowd service planning and execution process is as follows:

  1. Assign to partner.

    The crowd owner plans an activity to a partner in the Planning and Dispatching app - that is, on the Planning Board. The partner manager and/or partner technicians have their own rows on the planning board, according to the 'plannable resource' flag on the Person record. The activity can be assigned to the partner manager or to a partner technician directly. This assignment may be done manually, or alternatively by autoscheduling when being assigned directly to partner technicians. The autoscheduling may be assisted or fully automatic.

  2. Confirm assignment

    The crowd owner releases the assignment to the partner (or the partner technician).

  3. Notify partner

    To notify the partner of the new assignment, the crowd owner needs to configure the relevant business rule. When the rule is triggered, new assignments will be displayed in the partner portal for the partner manager to accept or reject.

  4. Accept assignment

    The partner manager has the choice to either accept or reject the assignment. If no action is taken, the assignment times out. In case of rejection or time-out, the activity is unassigned from the partner.

  5. Adjust assignment

    The partner manager assigns the activity to one of their technicians and can adjust the assignment details.

  6. Mobile execution

    The partner technician executes the activity in the same way as an internal technician, with the Field Service Management Mobile app. While completing the assignment, the partner technician can book efforts, materials, and so on.

  7. Review in the Time and Material Journal

    After the EMME records (Effort, Material, Mileage, Expense) have been created by the partner technician, the crowd owner can review those records in the regular Time and Material Journal application.

This finalizes the crowd service process. Any follow-up activities, like the reimbursement of the crowd partner for their services, must be handled outside of FSM, for example in SAP S/4HANA.

Configuration of Crowd Workforce

The main prerequisite to use FSM Crowd Workforce is that the licensing must be in place. When this is secured, you can start to configure and use the Crowd Workforce features. To enable Crowd Workforce, execute the following steps:

  1. Enable Crowd Workforce for your company: Open to the Companies screen and select the company for which you want to activate the single tenant crowd. Edit the company details and select Single Tenant from the Crowd Type dropdown.
  2. Set up the Admin Policy Groups for the Crowd users: go to SAP Help pages → Field Service Management → Crowd Workforce. There, download the policy groups for Crowd Owner, Crowd Partner Admin, and Crowd Partner Technician. Then, go to the FSM account menu, open the Admin Policy Groups screen and upload each Policy Group.
  3. Set up the required client ID and client secret for your account: From the account menu, open the Clients screen and create the required clients as described under SAP Help pages → Field Service Management → Administration → Generating Client ID and Secret. Create 1 client with the admin policy group Crowd Owner and 1 client with the admin policy group Partner Admin.
  4. Update the admin policy groups to allow access the previously created clients: for the Crowd Owner policy group, make sure that the "Crowd Owner" client is allowed. For the Partner Admin policy group, make sure that the Partner Admin client is allowed. If your policy groups allow "all" clients, you can skip this step.
  5. Update and activate the Business Rules for Crowd Workforce: In the business rule screen, find and update the following business rules:
    • CROWD_NOTIFY_PARTNER business rule: enter the email address of the technical contact in the Technical Contact field. Also, in the Action section of the rule, add the Client Id and Client Secret of the Crowd Owner Policy Group.
    • CROWD_EMAIL_PARTNERSHIP_TERMINATION_REQUEST business rule: In the email action, enter the crowd owner email in the TO field.
  6. Set up the Crowd Partner Acceptance Timeout for your company: Open the Company Settings screen and search for the CoreSystems.CoresystemsFSM.Crowd.acceptanceTimeoutSecondscompany setting. Edit the company setting and enter the time duration in seconds.

The Crowd Workforce features are now enabled for your company.

Partner Registration settings determine the layout and information available on the registration page.

Partner Registration Settings include the following:

  • Company logo
  • Crowd name
  • Crowd description
  • Acknowledgment setup

These settings can be found under Settings & Configs → Crowd Workforce → Partner Registration. The company logo, crowd name, and crowd description will be displayed in the partner registration form. The company logo will also be displayed in the Partner Portal. The uploaded Privacy Statement and Terms and Conditions by the Crowd owner will be displayed in the partner registration form. The partner will need to read and accept these agreements before joining.

Under Partner Portal settings, you can maintain the contact person for crowd partners to reach out to. If the crowd owner has only 1 contact person for all crowd partner, the contact details can be maintained under Settings & Configs → Crowd Workforce → Partner Portal. If the crowd owner has multiple contact persons, refer to "Partner Groups" below.

Other settings relevant to the partner portal can be found under company settings. These determine some of the actions available to the partner manager. The following settings are available:

  • SAP.FSM.Crowd.PartnerPortal.CloseButtonDisplay: determines whether the Close button is visible in the Partner Portal
  • SAP.FSM.Crowd.PartnerPortal.HandoverButtonDisplay: determines whether the Handover button is visible in the Partner Portal
  • SAP.FSM.Crowd.PartnerPortal.RejectButtonDisplay: determines whether the Reject button is visible in the Partner Portal

Enhancements to the Partner Portal can be made with the use of extensions as well as with the dedicated Crowd API. Extensions can be placed in outlets of the Portal (as well as in the Service Assignment and Technician screens). By using Crowd API, crowd owners can build their own portal and integrate this with Field Service Management.

Various settings are available to set up the solution for Crowd Workforce

Overall Crowd Workforce Settings can be maintained under Settings & Configs → Crowd Workforce → Crowd Workforce and consists of the following:

  • General Settings
  • Skills
  • Partner Groups

The general settings general settings consist of the following:

  • URL Settings: Here you can customize the Partner Portal URL and the URL used for partner registration
  • Partner Status: Here you can manage and customize partner statuses
  • External Links: Here you can define external links displayed on the partner technician page

The Crowd owner can manage the skills that can be assigned to partner technicians. Under the Crowd Workforce Settings tab, the existing skills can be to "Shared". In the Partner Portal, the partner admin can only select and assign skills for their technicians which have been "shared" by the crowd owner.

When the crowd owner has multiple managers to manage different partners, the contact information can be managed using partner groups. Before using this feature, define a business partner group with the type "supplier" in the Master Data app. Then, in the Crowd Workforce Settings (under Settings & Configs → Crowd Workforce → Crowd Workforce), select a contact person for each partner group. Finally, in the My Connections tab, go into the partner details and assign the partner group to the subcontractor. The corresponding contact information will now be displayed in the partner portal.

The Crowd Service dispatching process requires certain steps, which can be supported by business rules.

When dispatching an assignment to a partner, the following steps are mandatory:

  1. Crowd owner confirms partner dispatching.
  2. Crowd owner notifies partner dispatching.
  3. Partner manager accepts assignment.
  4. Partner manager releases assignment to technician.

This process can be customized based on your specific business scenario. If it is not desired to manually perform certain mandatory steps, you can use the business rule or Crowd Partner Dispatching API to automate those steps. Dedicated business event are provided for each step above, and for other Crowd events, so that business rules can be triggered by them. Example business rules for the mandatory events can be found on the SAP Help webpages.

Challenge Question

Challenge Yourself: Putting Your Knowledge to the Test

In this lesson, you'll have the opportunity to apply the concepts and knowledge you've gained throughout the unit. We've designed an engaging Challenge Question that will put your critical thinking skills to work. Take a moment to reflect on what you've learned, and then use that understanding to craft your own unique solution to the question at hand.

To make the most of this exercise, we encourage you to write down your answer on a separate piece of paper. This will help you organize your thoughts and measure your learning progress. When you've completed your answer, compare it to the expert response provided. This will give you valuable insight into how well you've grasped the material and where you might need to focus your attention for further growth.

Remember, this is an opportunity to apply your understanding in a practical way, so don't hesitate to think creatively and explore different approaches. Your active participation in this lesson will reinforce your learning and prepare you for success in the real world.

Scenario:

You are the Field Service Manager of a growing HVAC repair company. Recently, due to unprecedented demand for your services, you've decided to leverage SAP's Crowd Workforce feature to outsource some of your service requests to skilled contractors in your area. However, you've never used this feature before and need to set it up correctly to streamline operations.

Task:

  1. Identify key roles within the Crowd Workforce system and explain their responsibilities.

  2. Explain how you would set up Crowd Service within your company in order to start outsourcing work to partner technicians.

  3. Discuss how you would manage the Crowd Workforce settings for your company, and how you would use these settings to manage skills, partner statuses, and other essential information.

  4. Detail the process you would use to onboard new service partner organizations.

  5. Outline the workflow for confirming partner dispatching, notifying dispatching, accepting assignments by the partner manager, and releasing the assignment to the technician.

  6. Share how you would utilize business rules to automate specific steps in the process, to improve efficiency and ensure a smooth workflow.

Expert Consultant Response

  1. In Crowd Workforce system, the key roles include the crowd owner, the crowd partner manager, and the crowd technician. The crowd owner, in this case, the HVAC company, is responsible for inviting new partners, reviewing their details, and assigning activities. The crowd partner manager, a representative from the outsourced company, is responsible for registering their technicians and managing tasks assigned. The crowd technician is the individual who actually executes the tasks.

  2. Crowd Service can be set up by ensuring the licensing, enabling Crowd Workforce for the HVAC company, setting up the admin policy groups for the crowd users, creating and updating the necessary business rules, and setting up the crowd partner acceptance timeout for your company.

  3. Company settings can be managed under Settings & Configs → Crowd Workforce → Crowd Workforce and include setting up company logo, crowd name, crowd description, acknowledgment setup, URL settings, partner statuses, handling external links, managing skills that can be assigned to partner technicians, and defining partner groups.

  4. Onboarding new service partners involves sending an invitation to the potential crowd partner admin, who would then register basic data about themselves and their organization. The partner admin would then, within their accessible partner portal, complete their company information and upload relevant information about their technicians. The crowd owner reviews the submitted data and can request changes before approving. The registered partner technicians receive the login credentials for the FSM mobile applications.

  5. The workflow would start with the HVAC company confirming partner dispatching and notifying the partner. After acceptance of the individual assignments by the partner admin, and release to the partner technicians, the partner technicians can perform the assignments on their mobile apps.

  6. Review which steps of the service execution process need to be done manually, and which steps can be automated. Use the provided sample business rules as a basis to automate the steps that can be rationalized.

Lesson Recap

The unit mainly focused on the concept and application of Crowd Workforce within SAP Field Service Management. The primary takeaway points include:

  1. Understanding of Crowd Workforce: This feature allows companies to effectively outsource work to external technicians, enabling the efficient management of workload by leveraging skills outside of the organization.

  2. Roles in Crowd Workforce: Various roles, including crowd owner, crowd partner manager, and crowd technician, each with their particular responsibilities, play a significant part in the efficient functioning of the Crowd Workforce.

  3. Setting up and Configuring Crowd Service: Key steps include inviting and onboarding partner organizations, registering and approving partner technicians' details, setting up predefined permissions, business rules, and specific company settings.

  4. Managing Crowd Workforce Settings: Essential settings like managing shared skills, defining partner statuses, personalizing URL settings, and setting up external links are crucial components of efficient Crowd Workforce management.

  5. Dispatching Assignments: The process consists of confirming partner dispatching, notifying dispatching, and the partner manager's acceptance and release of assignments, streamlining service provision.

  6. Automating Processes: Business rules are set up to automate specific steps, thus improving operational efficiency and ensuring seamless workflow.

Linking these elements to the unit's objective, the learner gains a comprehensive understanding of how Crowd Workforce can bolster the company's service provision capacity, manage skill gaps, and handle workload peaks. While ensuring seamless operations, even if some tasks are outsourced to freelance or subcontractor technicians, maintaining high service quality and customer satisfaction.

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