Field Service Management groups are sets of users or agents, who perform specific tasks. Configuring your field service groups efficiently enables you to align the right skills and resources to the right tasks.

There are several types of user groups that serve different capabilities. The most common types include user groups for agents and dispatchers. These user groups are essential for organizing and managing the tasks and responsibilities of field service agents.

Additionally, you can create optional group types based on your specific needs, including user groups for initiators, managers, territory planners, and more. For example, you can create user groups for qualifiers to implement an additional qualification step to review and approve work orders. By setting up these groups, you can assign the appropriate roles and users to each group. The roles assigned to the group are automatically inherited by the users within that group, so you don’t need to individually assign roles to each user.

For more information about Field Service Roles, see Roles installed with Field Service Management.

For information about assigning a role to a user group, see Assign a role to a group.

Location also plays an important role in configuring field service user groups. It ensures that qualifiers, dispatchers, and agents only engage with tasks that align with their assigned locations and groups.

There are a few good practices when creating groups:

  • Create one group for administrators and assign the admin role to this group only.
  • Create as many groups as needed in your organization. For example, create a staff group for each geographic location, function, skills, and product models, such as building maintenance or building security. Assign the necessary users to those groups, and then assign the staff role to those groups.

Example user group setup.

Table 1. User group setup
UserLocationsUser GroupsUser Group RolesGroup Relationship
Agent1 San Diego SD Agents wm_agent Receives work order tasks from SD Dispatchers
Agent2 Los Angeles LA Agents wm_agent Receives work order tasks from LA Dispatchers
Agent3 San Jose SJ Agents wm_agent Receives work order tasks from SJ Dispatchers
Agent4 San Francisco SF Agents wm_agent Receives work order tasks from SF Dispatchers
Dispatcher1 San Diego SD Dispatchers wm_dispatcher Assigns work order tasks to SD Agents
Dispatcher2 Los Angeles LA Dispatchers wm_dispatcher Assigns work order tasks to LA Agents
Dispatcher3 San Jose SJ Dispatchers wm_dispatcher Assigns work order tasks to SJ Agents
Dispatcher4 San Francisco SF Dispatchers wm_dispatcher Assigns work order tasks to SF Agents
Qualifier1

San Jose

San Francisco

 NorCal Qualifiers wm_qualifier Qualifies work order tasks for SJ and SF Dispatchers to assign to SJ and SF Agents
Qualifier2

San Diego

Los Angeles

 SoCal Qualifiers wm_qualifier Qualifies work order tasks for SD and LA Dispatchers to assign to SD and LA Agents

Setting up user groups for agents

Set up user groups for agents to execute the dispatched tasks for specific locations with the required parts and skills to work on the assigned task.

Before you begin

Role required: wm_admin

Procedure

  1. Navigate to All > Field Service > Group Management > Work Groups.
  2. Click New.
  3. On the form, enter the name for the user group.
  4. Right-click and save.
  5. Use the following tabs to add additional information to the agent user group.
  6. Click Update.

Setting up user groups for qualifiers

Create a qualifier user group to review and qualify work orders to ensure that the work order tasks are created.

Before you begin

Role required: wm_admin

Procedure

  1. Navigate to All > Field Service > Group Management > Qualifier Groups.
  2. Click New.
  3. On the form, fill in the fields.
  4. Right-click and save.
  5. Use the following tabs to add additional information to the agent user group.
    OptionDescription
    Roles

    Assign one or more roles from the list of available roles to the user group.

    For more information on roles and assigning them to user groups, see Roles installed with Field Service Management and Assign a role to a group.
    Group Members

    Assign one or more qualifiers from the list of available qualifiers to the user group.

    For more information on assigning group members, see Add a user to a group.
    Groups Create a child user group.
    Locations Covered

    Assign one or more locations from the list of locations to the qualifier user group.

    For more information on assigning locations to a group, see Assign a location to a group.
  6. Click Update.

Setting up user groups for dispatchers

Set up dispatcher user groups to dispatch tasks to agent user groups in order to meet the needs of specific areas.

Before you begin

Role required: admin

Procedure

  1. Navigate to All > Field Service > Group Management > Dispatch Groups.
  2. Click New.
  3. On the form, fill in the fields.
  4. Right-click and save.
  5. Use the following tabs to add additional information to the agent user group.
    For more information about Field Service Roles, see Roles installed with Field Service Management.
    OptionDescription
    Roles

    Assign one or more roles from the list of available roles to the user group.

    For more information on roles and assigning them to user groups, see Roles installed with Field Service Management and Assign a role to a group .
    Group Members

    Assign one or more dispatchers from the list of available dispatchers to the user group.

    For more information on assigning group members, see Add a user to a group.
    Groups Create a child user group.
    Locations Covered

    Assign one or more locations from the list of locations to the dispatcher user group.

    For more information on assigning locations to a group, see Assign a location to a group.
    Assignment Groups Covered|

    Assign one or more agent groups to the dispatch user group.
  6. Click Update.

Additional user groups

You can set up other types of user groups.

In addition to setting up Field Service specific user groups, you can set up user groups for managers and initiators. For example, you can set up an initiator user group to create a new work order or you can create a work order from other record types, such as problem, incident, change, or project task. For more information on setting up other types of user groups, see Create a group.

Example

Table 2. Example of additional user groups
UserLocationsUser GroupUser Group RolesManager-Initiator Group Relationship
Manager 1 San Diego SD Managers wm_manager Manages SD Initiators
Manager 2 Los Angeles LA Managers wm_manager Manages LA Initiators
Initiator 1 San Diego SD Initiators wm_initiator Creates work orders for SD Qualifiers
Initiator 2 Los Angeles LA Initiators wm_initiator Creates work orders for LA Qualifiers