Service Accent

348 Pages·2009·9.11 MB·English

Service Accent
Installation and Setup Guide
Version 4.13 Build 205
June 2009
Legal Information
All rights reserved. No part of this document shall be reproduced or transmitted by any means or
otherwise, without written permission from Vantage Computing Limited.
This document is provided “as is” and all expressed or implied conditions, representations, and
warranties, including any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-
infringement, are disclaimed, except to the extent that such disclaimers are held to be legally invalid.
Trademarks
Service Accent is a trademark of Vantage Computing Ltd.
All product names mentioned in this documentation are the trademarks of their respective owners. This
document also includes the trademarks, trade names, and service marks of companies other than
Vantage Computing Limited.
The product described in this document is distributed under license, restricting its use, copying,
distribution, and decompilation. No part of the product or this documentation may be reproduced in any
form by any means without prior written authorisation of Vantage Computing Limited.
contents
1 Introduction About Service Accent .......................................................2
The Service Accent Document Set ...................................3
About this Guide ..............................................................4
Documentation Conventions ............................................4
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Contacting Your Support Provider ...................................4
2 Installing Service Accent Hardware Requirements ...................................................6
Installing the Database .....................................................7
Installing the Application ...............................................12
Running Service Accent Data Router ......................17
Installing Pervasive.SQL ................................................20
Installing Pervasive.SQL Workgroup Engine ..........20
Installing the Pervasive.SQL Server Engine ............25
Running Service Accent for the First Time ...................26
Entering your License Key ......................................26
Configuring the Database .........................................26
Removing the sample database ................................26
Create a blank database ............................................26
Running Service Accent .................................................27
Navigating in Service Accent .........................................28
The Button Bar .........................................................28
Using Multiple Windows .........................................29
3 Defining Administrative Maintenance Settings Setting Hours Of Business Cover ...................................32
Setting up Charges .........................................................35
Setting Up Escalations ...................................................40
Setting up email alerts in escalations .......................46
Setting Up Service Levels ..............................................48
Creating Warranties ........................................................63
Creating and Modifying Categories and Codes .............64
Defining Work Control Categories and Codes ..............66
Creating and Maintaining Job Codes .......................66
Designing a Colour-Coding Scheme for Job Codes 73
Modifying Stock Source Property Colour Codes ....74
Status Codes .............................................................76
Creating a Job Status Code (manually applied) ......79
Analysis Codes .........................................................84
Extension Reasons ...................................................98
Recall Reasons .......................................................103
Response and Fix Reasons .....................................108
Ad-hoc Events ........................................................114
Defining Billing & Financial Categories and Codes ....120
Nominal Codes .......................................................120
Department Codes ..................................................125
Purchase Order Processing Codes ..........................130
Sales Order Processing Codes ................................136
Credit/debit cards ...................................................146
Payment Types .......................................................151
Defining Contracts Categories and Codes ...................156
Contract Type Categories .......................................156
Cancellation Reasons Categories ...........................161
Subcontracting Reasons Categories .......................167
Defining Stock & Inventory Categories and Codes .....173
Stock Categories ....................................................173
Copyright © Vantage Computing Ltd 2009. All rights reserved Service Accent Installation and Setup Guide i
contents
Stock Commodity Codes Categories .....................180
Locations Categories ..............................................185
Lease Profiles .........................................................191
Defining Other Categories and Codes ..........................196
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Delivery Methods ...................................................196
Engineer Teams ......................................................201
To-do categories .....................................................207
4 Defining Administrative Settings Adding Countries, Regions, and Areas ........................214
Countries ................................................................214
Service Regions ......................................................218
Sales Regions .........................................................225
Areas ......................................................................231
Post Codes ..............................................................238
Company Details ..........................................................245
Defining System Settings .............................................246
Modifying System Settings ....................................247
Modifying Customer Information ..........................248
Modifying Financial Information ...........................250
Modifying Contract Information ............................253
Modifying Inventory Information ..........................260
Modifying Work Control Information ...................263
Modifying Stock Control Information ...................275
Modifying System settings Information ................280
Setting Up Taxation .....................................................286
Setting Up A Single Rate Of Tax ...........................286
Setting Up Tax Codes For Non-European Countries 289
Setting Up Tax Groups ..........................................291
Setting Up Tax Categories .....................................293
Taxes Billable to Customers ..................................294
Taxation Settings ....................................................295
Setting Tax Defaults for Other Areas ....................296
Set Up Notifications ...............................................297
Configure Modules ................................................297
Adding User Groups and Users ....................................298
Access Rights .........................................................298
Viewing Who is Currently Logged On ..................302
Changing User Access Rights ......................................303
Miscellaneous ...............................................................304
5 System Tools Using the Event Viewer ...............................................312
Viewing System Events .........................................312
Viewing License Details ..............................................314
Using the Recycle Bin ..................................................317
Viewing the Recycle Bin .......................................317
Permanently Deleting Records ...............................318
Restoring Deleted Records .....................................319
Importing Data to Service Accent ................................320
Using Form Designer ...................................................325
Accessing Form Designer ......................................325
Creating a Form .....................................................327
Implementing a Form .............................................328
Using the language wizard ...........................................329
Verifying the Database .................................................332
Copyright © Vantage Computing Ltd 2009. All rights reserved Service Accent Installation and Setup Guide ii
contents
Viewing Table Data ...............................................332
Verifying the Database ...........................................333
Verifying the Database Aggressively ....................335
Exiting Service Accent .................................................338
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Using macros ................................................................339
6 Appendix A Frequently Asked Questions ........................................341
Copyright © Vantage Computing Ltd 2009. All rights reserved Service Accent Installation and Setup Guide iii
contents
contents
1
chapter
Introduction
Welcome to Service Accent.
Service Accent is Vantage Computing’s class-leading enterprise Service
Management System.
This chapter contains the following topics:
• About Service Accent
• The Service Accent Document Set
• About this Guide
• Documentation Conventions
• Contacting Your Support Provider
Copyright © Vantage Computing Ltd 2009. All rights reserved Service Accent Installation and Setup Guide • 1
Introduction
About Service Accent
You need to operate your service department at peak efficiency, and that
means being in control. Service Accent from VCI will help you make your
service easier to manage.
Here's how:
• Service Accent manages and simplifies field service, contract
administration, preventative maintenance, billing and order processing.
• You can share customers, purchases and invoices with your financial
application (Specifications vary depending on your financial package)
to give you total financial control.
Service Accent is a solution to help you maximise you efficiency and
increase your customer satisfaction.
Having important customer information at your fingertips can be the
difference between a good customer experience and a bad one. When
logging and administering service calls using Service Accent you will find all
of this information exactly where you want it. Is the customer covered by a
service contract? When is their next PM visit due? Is this job chargeable?
These are just some of the questions that the Service Accent system
already knows the answer to.
Producing monthly, quarterly and annual invoices for service and
maintenance contracts is not the most exciting activity you have to look
forward to this month; but it is one of the most important. Administering
contracts is one of the most time-consuming and frustrating parts of
running any service-led business. Service Accent enables contract invoicing
to be run in minutes rather than over hours or even days, it will allow you
to manage your contracts more aggressively, producing renewal reminder
letters and automatically applying annual price increases for example.
Small touches like warnings that a signed contract has not been received
back from the client or that their contract has produced a loss over 2 of the
last 5 years enable your business to reduce time, save money and increase
profitability. It's not sexy but it is vitally important to both you and your
clients.
It's all well and good entering data into a database, even one as easy to
use and intuitive as Service Accent. The real challenge from a management
perspective though is can you get meaningful, up-to-date management
information from the system that enables you to make accurate, timely
decisions about your business.
Service Accent comes complete with a suite of over 150 ready made
reports that have been devised and honed during 15 years service at over
250 client sites worldwide. Being able to identify your most and least
profitable contracts, even down to the individual item of equipment means
that you can make changes confident that they will have a positive impact
upon the financial wellbeing of your business.
First time fix rates, equipment uptime/downtime and engineer/technician
productivity reports are a mere taste of the real-time information that is
available with just a few clicks of your mouse.
2 • Service Accent Installation and Setup Guide Copyright © Vantage Computing Ltd 2009. All rights reserved
The Service Accent Document Set
The Service Accent Document Set
The Service Accent document set consists of the following guides:
• Service Accent Installation And Setup Guide – this document
describes how to install and configure Service Accent.
• Service Accent User Guide – this document describes how to use
Service Accent.
• Service Accent Online Meter Billing Setup & User Guide - this
document describes how to configure and use Service Accent Online
Meter Billing.
• Service Accent Sage Live Link - this document describes how to
configure and use Service Accent Sage Live Link.
• Service Accent Dynamic Mapping - this document describes how to
configure and use Service Accent Dynamic Mapping.
• Service Accent Remote Monitoring & Billing - this document
describes how to configure and use Service Accent Remote Monitoring
& Billing.
• Service Accent Remote Console Installation & Setup Guide - this
document describes how to install and setp the Service Accent Remote
Console module.
• Service Accent Wireless Setup Guide - this document describes
how to install and setup Service Accent Wireless.
• Service Accent Wireless User Guide - this document describes how
to use Service Accent Wireless.
• Service Accent Mobile User Guide - this document describes how to
use Service Accent Mobile.
• Service Accent Remote Customer User Guide - this document
describes how to use Service Accent Remote Customer.
• Service Accent Remote Engineer User Guide - this document
describes how to use Service Accent Remote Engineer.
• Service Accent Remote Email Setup & User Guide - this document
describes how to configure and use Service Accent Remote Email.
• Service Accent Messaging Setup & User Guide - this document
describes how to configure and use Service Accent Messaging.
• Service Accent SMS & Email Notifications Setup & User Guide -
this document describes how to use Service Accent SMS & Email
Notifications.
Copyright © Vantage Computing Ltd 2009. All rights reserved Service Accent Installation and Setup Guide • 3
Introduction
About this Guide
This guide consists of the following chapters:
• Chapter 1: Introduction – describes Service Accent, documentation
conventions, and Vantage Computing contact information
• Chapter 2: Installing Service Accent – describes how to install,
configure, and run Service Accent
• Chapter 3: Defining Administrative Maintenance Settings -
describes how to set up basic administrative maintenance elements of
Service Accent
• Chapter 4: Defining Administrative Settings – describes how to set
up the basic administrative elements of Service Accent
• Chapter 5: System Tools – contains instructions on using the event
viewer, managing the license, maintaining the database, and using
Service Accent with third party applications
• Chapter 6: Installing An Evaluation System – describes how to
install an evaluation system of Service Accent
Documentation Conventions
The following icons highlight particular sections.
Caution – failure to observe the caution described in this section may
prevent Service Accent from operating properly.
Note – sections highlighted with this icon contain pertinent information,
such as exceptions to the preceding steps or sections.
Hint – sections highlighted with this icon contain hints or suggestions.
Contacting Your Support Provider
Web site:www.serviceaccent.com, click on support and assistance
Telephone and Email details will be provided by your support provider.
4 • Service Accent Installation and Setup Guide Copyright © Vantage Computing Ltd 2009. All rights reserved