Scheduling Individual Technicians

MyDispatch is an ideal tool to organize work orders and tasks for individual technicians.  Each technician is assigned work orders that are scheduled with the customer.  These tasks are created in EBMS or MyTime and accessed by each technician on a Windows tablet using MyTime.  Managing these service tasks, appointment date and time, and due dates as well as task details are scheduled by the manager or dispatcher using MyDispatch.  

Setup MyDispatch and MyTime

Complete the following steps to setup MyDispatch for a service department organizing individual technicians:

  1. Install MyDispatch on the dispatcher's or manager's MS Windows desktop, tablet, or laptop that will be used to organize or schedule tasks.  MyDispatch requires the MS Windows 10 OS and is downloaded from the Windows Store.   

  2. Install MyTime on MS Windows tablets or laptops that will be carried by individual technicians.  Configure MyTime for the remote connection to EBMS using the Advanced Communications which does not require VPN or a WLAN.  Review MyTime > Setup > Connections and User Settings for configuration instructions.

  3. Assign users for either (or both) MyDispatch for dispatchers and MyTime for technicians within EBMS by selecting Labor > Labor options > Apps from the main EBMS menu and completing the following:

    1. Configure the homepage for individual dispatchers:  Review MyDispatch > EBMS User Configuration for steps to configure MyDispatch app settings for each dispatcher or manager.

    2. Configure the homepage for individual technicians:  Review MyTime > Setup > EBMS User Configuration for steps to configure the MyTime homepage and settings for individual users (workers).

Using MyDispatch and MyTime

  1. Launch MyEBMS on a MS Windows device.

  2. Select MyDispatch from the MyEBMS menu to open the following 3 panes:

    1. The schedule pane:  This pane displays the daily schedule for the managed workers.  Review Creating a Schedule for more details on the schedule pane.

    2. The list pane:  This pane displays user defined task lists that allow the user to drag tasks to the daily schedule pane.   Review Task Lists for more details on these convenient lists.

    3. The map pane:  identifies the map location of the technician using MyTime.  Tap the user's name to communicate the technician's location from MyTime to MyDispatch.  Reduce the size of this pane to allow the width of the task lists to increase if the map is not used.  

  3. Identify the Managed Workers list.  Adding or removing workers from this list is done within the dispatcher worker record in EBMS.  

  4. These user defined lists are important to keep tasks accessible to the dispatcher.   Review MyDispatch > Setup > EBMS User Configuration to add or remove workers and the multiple task lists shown in pane B.  Some recommended list queries when scheduling technicians:

    1. Unassigned:  Advanced query expression:  substr(id, 1, 3) <> '($)' .and. trim(emp_id)=trim(' ') .and. completed =.f. .and. PRIORITY <> 'Pending'

    2. Unscheduled:  Advanced query expression:  substr(id, 1, 3) <> '($)' .and. (trim(dtos(start_date)) = trim(' ')) .and. completed=.f. .and. PRIORITY <> 'Pending'

    3. Overdue: Advanced query expression:  substr(id, 1, 3) <> '($)' .and. completed=.f. .and. end_date<>stod('        ') .and. end_date<date()

    4. The queries listed above may be able to be accomplished by using the simpler Set Query dialog although the advanced queries can easily be copied from this documentation to the advanced query dialog.  

  5. Set the date to view the schedule for future dates.

  6. Use the tool bar add or delete a task or refresh a list.  

    1. Tap or touch and hold on the task list to create a new task

    2. Tap to refresh the schedule and lists immediately.  Tap settings to adjust the automated refresh rate.

    3. Tap to or touch and hold on the task list to delete a task