Configuring Field Service Agent Efficiency

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Configuring Field Service Agent Efficiency

    Configuring Field Service Agent Efficiency in ServiceNow enables you to define and apply efficiency criteria for field service agents, helping you more accurately estimate work durations and assign tasks to the most suitable agents. Agent efficiency reflects how quickly an agent completes specific types of work order tasks compared to a standard timeframe. This ensures optimized scheduling and resource allocation by prioritizing agents who perform tasks faster than average.

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    Key Features

    • Agent Efficiency Values: Ranges from 0 to 2, where 1 means task completion in standard time, above 1 means faster, and below 1 means slower than average.
    • Estimated Work Duration Calculation: Uses the formula Estimated work duration = Planned work duration / Agent Efficiency to tailor task duration based on agent performance.
    • Multiple Criteria Support: Agent efficiency can be set for various task types per agent, allowing precise matching of agents to tasks.
    • Integration with Scheduling: Can be combined with Dynamic Scheduling for automatic task assignment and with Intelligent Task Recommendations for suggesting the best tasks to agents.

    Key Outcomes

    • Improved task assignment by selecting agents who complete specific tasks more efficiently, reducing overall task duration and increasing productivity.
    • More accurate work duration estimates that reflect individual agent capabilities, enhancing planning and customer expectations management.
    • Flexibility to configure and adjust efficiency criteria and values through plugin activation and optional rules, enabling customization to your organization’s unique service operations.

    Configuration Steps

    • Activate the Field Service Agent Efficiency plugin (requires admin role).
    • Create or modify Agent Efficiency criteria and assign values to agents.
    • Optionally, create or modify determination rules to automate efficiency value assignment.
    • Optionally, integrate with Dynamic Scheduling and Intelligent Task Recommendations to automate and optimize task assignments based on agent efficiency.

    Configure Field Service Agent Efficiency to define Agent Efficiency criteria and values for agents and more accurately calculate the work duration for a work order task or combination of tasks.

    Field Service agent efficiency is the pace at which an agent can complete a type of work order task. The values for Agent Efficiency for efficiency criteria range from 0 to 2, where a value of 1 signifies that the agent completes these tasks within the standard time frame. A value above 1 suggests the agent finishes these tasks faster than the average, while a value below 1 indicates the agent takes longer than the typical time needed to complete the task. Field Service Agent Efficiency for an agent can be defined for multiple criteria.

    Field Service Agent Efficiency uses the following formula to calculate the estimated work duration based on the planned work duration and agent efficiency:

    Estimated work duration = Planned work duration/Agent Efficiency

    Goal: Ensure the best-suited agent is assigned the task by considering the efficiency of the agents for these particular tasks and accurately estimate the work duration.

    Assume there are two qualified work order tasks that are ready to be dispatched, one for laptop repair and another for MRI machine installation.

    Agent Efficiency table:
    Technician Agent Efficiency criterion Agent Efficiency Planned work duration Estimated work duration
    Anthony Roy MRI machine installation 0.5 60 minutes 120 minutes
    Cindy Lisa Laptop repair 0.6 60 minutes 100 minutes
    Cindy Lisa MRI machine installation 0.8 60 minutes 75 minutes
    Alisa Chinoy Laptop repair 0.8 60 minutes 75 minutes
    Ray William Laptop repair 1.2 60 minutes 50 minutes
    Alex Ray Laptop repair 1 60 minutes 60 minutes

    Explanation: For the laptop repair work order task, the best-suited technician is Ray William because this technician completes this type of task 10 minutes earlier than the planned work duration.

    For the MRI machine installation task, the best-suited technician is Cindy Lisa.

    Configuration overview

    The steps for configuring Field Service Agent Efficiency are:
    1. Activate Field Service Agent Efficiency

      Activating the Field Service Agent Efficiency plugin (com.snc.fsm_agent_efficiency) requires the admin role.

    2. Create or modify Agent Efficiency criteria
    3. Assign an Agent Efficiency value to agents
    4. (Optional) Create or modify an Agent Efficiency determination rule
    5. (Optional) Configure Field Service Agent Efficiency with Dynamic Scheduling to auto-assign tasks to the agents. For more information, seeConfiguring Dynamic Scheduling .
    6. (Optional) Configure Field Service Agent Efficiency with Intelligent Task Recommendations to recommend the best suited task for an agent based on the efficiency. For more information, see Setting up Intelligent Task Recommendations.