Tag Archives: Field Service Mobile

Microsoft Inspections

Installation

When trying to install the Preview of Microsoft’s Inspections by following this manual:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/field-service/field-service-preview

when executing the command from Step 5:

Get-CrmFlights -ApiUrl $url -Credential $cred

I got an error explaining that the module “Microsoft.Xrm.OnlineManagementAPI” could not be loaded. At line:1 char:1.

So I executed

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy AllSigned -Scope Process
which only allows an execution of signed scripts for this one PowerShell session.

Everything else worked fine and I got these solutions in the end:

Latest Field Service Version now: 8.8.28.50. Without Preview it was 8.8.23.24

Creating an Inspection questionnaire

Apart from some other data types you can use Entity Lookups:

For Number fields you can directly set a possible number range:

Files and Photos can be attached by users:

You can upload more than one attachments to the same File type question.

I like the way how Input place holder text can be provided:

Also the Other option is great. It shows a textbox only if the Other option was chosen (available for Dropdown, Checkbox and Radiogroup):

Great Preview functionality of the questionnaire is directly available from the editor:

Logic in Inspection Questionnaire

Basic Logic like show/hide or “make required” can be implemented:

Of course you can have more than one Logic definitions:

However what immediately came to my mind was the missing possibility to evaluate data input against other CDS/CRM data.

So let’s say I want to compare a date provided by the person filling in the questionnaire whith a date that is available on a Customer Asset record that is related to the Service Task or Questionnaire, how can we do that?

My first impression is that there is not yet any possibility like that available right now. It would be great if Microsoft can provide something similar to Workflows or Calculated Fields to provide some related record data here for display as well as for validation purposes [improve@Microsoft].

Even if you want to use the provided lookup for a logic it seems like you would need to provide a GUID since there’s no lookup in the Logic editor.

Also operators like “greater that” might not make any sense when comparing records/ GUIDs. So MS still needs to exclude them from possible options here [improve@Microsoft].

Service Task

Than you create your Service Task Type containing the Inspection questionnaire:

The questionnaire even gets displayed on the Service Task Type Form.

On your Work Order Service Task you’ll get another new field “Result”:

Also see the Clear Responses button in the ribbon bar. All responses are reset/deleted by clicking it.

Also the questionnnaire is displayed here and you can directly start filling it in here in your Browser.

Entity lookup: only records where the User has privileges for are displayed. Keep in mind: only “Name”-field of related record is displayed. Would be great if in future versions it can act like an usual lookup field in D365CE [imporve@microsoft].

Once published, an Inspection can’t be unpublished and edited anymore [however this is on Microsoft’s roadmap], but from the main menues Lnspection list you can highlight and than copy the Inspection and create a new version of it this way:

Mobile

In Mobile (Field Service Mobile Power App) it would look similar to this:

(Picture by Microsoft)
(Picture by Microsoft)

Microsoft’s Inpections als work on Resco based Field Service Mobile. To use it you have to donload a new Woodford Mobile Template, see/download from here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/field-service/inspections#perform-inspections-on-mobile

(Picture by Microsoft)

Run Power Automate Flows triggered by Inspection Responses

See here the video published by Microsoft, even if it is showing the deprecated D365 connector:

Roadmap

  • pages: allow to add your questions to an inspection “page” so that you can also skip whole pages
  • GA October 2020

Attention

According to Microsoft’s docs-article, Inspections cannot be exported and imported to other environments. Hope/expect that will improve as well [improve@Microsoft].

Sources / more information:

Articles by Dian Taylor (MVP) including Video recordings:

Manuals by Microsoft:

Installation manual (for preview version): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/field-service/field-service-preview

Comprehensive User manual including explanation of Power Automate triggered by Inspection responses: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/field-service/inspections

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Deprecation of Resco based Field Service Mobile App

Microsoft has announced the deprecation of the current Resco based Field Service Mobile App by June 2022.

From June 2021 on new Field Service setups have to use the new Field Service Mobile App which is fully made by Microsoft and in fact is a Model Driven App as we know it today.

The new App can be tested from Field Service Version 8.8.22.x onwards. In mobile App Stores (i.e. Google Playstore) the new app is called “Field Service Mobile (2020)” as of today.

There are some offline capabilities including sync filters already but it looks like offline logic implementation is not as easy and comprehensively possible as is it with the Resco based Field Service app. Also many other functionalities are currently missing, but Microsoft promises to catch up.

Some things that are still missing are: Push notifications, Geofencing and Location Auditing, Reporting, IoT Alerts, Remote Assist and MS Intune.

Interesting is also a new control called “Form Component Control”, which can be used to embed a Work Order form into a Booking form:

Will this be a general new feature which can be used for all other forms as well? – It looks like!

Resco will continue to evolve its Mobile Application Development Framework and will also continuously provide new features and mobile solutions. Resco already offers different mobile solutions and templates (i.e. an advanced Field Service template, Sales template, Route Planning, Inspections) that are working perfectly together with Dynamics 365 and will continue to do so after June 2022. That means by the time Microsoft catches up with current Resco technology there will be new functionality available for Users that stay with Resco as well. On the other hand also Microsoft is rapidly growing its Power Apps capabilities.

For now the direction to go would be for more sophisticated requirements and larger implementation projects Resco will probably be the better fit. For more simple / standard requirements Microsoft’s model drivel app could be worth to consider.

To sum that up – it will not be end of development for the excellent Resco Field Service mobile technology – it will rather be a separation between the Microsoft FS Mobile App and the Resco FS Mobile App. Of course we’ll eventually have to pay Resco separately if we want to use their enhanced solutions. But competition is generally good for the market and customer segmentation has always made sense.

Source and more information:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/field-service/mobile-2020-power-platform

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