Getting Started with Workforce for ArcGIS

Question

Workforce for ArcGIS is a mobile solution that uses the power of location-based decision making for better field workforce coordination and teamwork. Organisations using Workforce for ArcGIS benefit from:

* Everything you need on one device: Mobile workers can easily view and process work assignments, provide updates on work status, and inform others of their location, all from one device
* Greater agility: Using real-time and location-based information, dispatchers can assign and prioritise fieldwork on the fly and ensure that work is assigned to the right people at the right time 
* Increased productivity: Replace time-consuming and error-prone manual workforce management processes, reduce downtime, and keep projects on schedule

In this webinar, Michael Kelly (Technical Sales Engineer) of Esri Ireland will highlight some key aspects of the solution, provide a walk through of its features and demonstrate how to get started.

Schedule

* Workforce for ArcGIS Overview 
* Scheduling and assigning Tasks 
* What's created behind the scenes?
* Using Workforce for ArcGIS with Collector for ArcGIS, Survey123 for ArcGIS, and Navigator for ArcGIS

Audience

* Users interested in learning more about Workforce for ArcGIS

MichaelKelly · Answer

The slide deck from the webinar is available here. Below are some resources that may be useful:

* Product Overview Site
* Documentation* Sneak Peak

* Application Sign In
* Scripts

MichaelKelly · Answer

Webinar Q&A

When will Navigator be available on android?

We are expecting a beta Android version of Navigator to be released at the end of March.

Assigning large amounts of tasks? Is it possible to automate e.g. need to survey 9,000 street lights?

Absolutely, there are REST Endpoints for all of the associated Workforce layers so points and attributes can be pumped in as necessary.

Can you give details on which CRM's it integrates with?

A schema of the Workforce feature services has been made available here. CRM Integration would require you to sync via the REST Endpoint. If you would like to discuss further, please get in touch.

What costs are involved for workforce on every workers phone, using Esri cloud for data and Survey123?

A named user for each field worker/dispatcher is all that is currently required.

How good is the Navigator App in Ireland, especially in rural areas?

For Irish navigational data, HERE 2014 Q2 data is used. To use this data in Navigator, you have to download it through the app - the map package is 585MB in size. This caters for any navigation within the Republic of Ireland. I would suggest you test this out and see if it caters for your needs. See here further details regarding Navigator Map coverage. Note that you can route using maps created by Esri in the current release of Navigator. Future releases of ArcGIS Pro will support the creation of custom maps that can be used in the app. This includes support for routing on custom roads.

Does the app work in offline mode? For example, if I wanted to use Navigator, and Survey 123 within Workforce when completing a project offline will it still work? What happens if you don't have 3G connectivity?

Workforce is intended to be an occasionally connected mobile application where its value is in coordinating the activities of the field worker and notifying the back office when work is completed and where the field worker is located.

With the initial release, viewing and acting upon work assignments will require a connection, as will logging of location and setting of working status. Navigating to work assignments is supported offline as is the completion of work using Collector for ArcGIS (once appropriate datasets have been downloaded to the device). Moving forward it is intended that client side caching of work assignments and location logs functionality will be added so that if you temporarily lose Internet connectivity on your device you can continue to using the Workforce app.

Am I right in saying that where you link out to Survey 123 (or Collector) to complete a survey you will end up with 2 features. One identifying the assignment in Workforce and one being the completed Survey 123 survey. Does it maintain a link between these?

You are indeed - the Survey123/Collector and Workforce datasets are separate. At the moment there is no link between these.

Is there any integration with portal, now or in the future?

Workforce for ArcGIS is not currently supported with Portal. However it is planned with the 10.4.1 release of Portal.