What's in this set of topics
This set of topics covers the SoftwareCourier feature of the Questra IDM Application Suite and is intended primarily for users who have been assigned the Site Visit Admin permission. These users are referred to as site visit managers, and the Site Visit Admin permission allows them to create site visits and assign them to field service technicians. (Field service personnel might be called something other than "technicians" at your company.)
Field service technicians will have been given Site Visit User permission and, when logged into the Questra IDM Application Suite, can view the site visits assigned to them. Typically, however, a field service technician will use the Questra Courier application installed on his or her computer to deliver site visits to devices at customer locations. (For Questra Courier usage information, see the Questra Courier User Guide.)
About disconnected devices and site visits
A disconnected device is any device that is not connected via the Internet to the Questra IDM Application Suite's Enterprise server and, therefore, cannot communicate with the server, as a connected device can. Although a disconnected device is usually capable of connection, it may typically be disconnected or connected only to a local area network that is not Internet-accessible due to network or policy issues. Despite its being a disconnected device, it is "intelligent," just like any connected device that the Questra IDM Application Suite manages.
Because a disconnected device cannot communicate with the Enterprise
server, it is not possible to deliver messages and content (e.g., files,
software updates) to it or to retrieve messages from it
Here is an overview of the site visit process:
A site visit manager, using the Manage site visits task (the SoftwareCourier feature) of the Questra IDM Application Suite, creates site visits for any disconnected devices to which messages (e.g., file transfers, software package distributions) and their associated content need to be delivered and from which messages and content need to be retrieved. The site visit manager assigns each site visit to a specific field service technician.
Sometime soon afterward and at a location where Internet access is available (such as an office or hotel), a field service technician connects a laptop to the Internet and launches the Questra Courier application. Questra Courier interfaces with the Enterprise server to see if the technician has been assigned any site visits. If there are any, the technician downloads the site visits to the laptop. Then it's time to go on-site.
Having arrived on-site, the field service technician connects the laptop directly to a disconnected device or to a local area network to which disconnected devices belongs. He or she then launches the Questra Courier application and activates the site visit. Questra Courier delivers the messages and content to the device(s) and picks up any messages and content to be returned to the Enterprise server. When finished with this and any additional site visits at the same customer location, the technician exits the application and disconnects the laptop.
Having concluded the on-site work, the field service technician returns to a location with Internet accessibility, connects the laptop, and launches Questra Courier once again, this time to reconcile the results of the site visit(s) to the Enterprise server. During this synchronization process, the devices' messages and content are returned to the server.