Many ServiceDesk users have just a few technicians and trucks. If your operation is larger, you may have more than one dispatcher controlling different sets of techs. As these dispatchers contend with their respective tasks, they may notice that the DispatchMap becomes a bit cluttered with each of the many technician's different routes simultaneously displayed.
If yes, DispatchMap clutter can be greatly reduced (and simplicity of view enhanced) if each dispatcher primarily sees the routes and jobs of only the particular technician group he or she is managing.
The method we’ve designed to accommodate this is very simple. Within each technician Properties windows in the Ctrl-F1 Settings form (click on any tech's name in the roster of techs to bring up that window for the tech), there is a box labeled "Focus Group #"
In that box, simply insert a number to identify a group number that you want a tech assigned to.
Then, in the DispatchMap, if wanting to filter your view to quasi-hide technician-routes other than those in a particular group, just hit "Alt-F" on your keyboard (the "F" is for Focus Group). You'll be prompted to enter a Group Number. Enter the number and voila, you'll see it is only technicians within the group number you have indicated whose jobs and routes will show in full-vivid color. All others will be faded to a pale grey that nearly disappears into the background.
If you wish to go back to normal display, just hit "F" on your keyboard again, and pick "0" (zero) as the desired group number (essentially, 0 means to apply no focus-group filter).
As one more element, it may be that one or more office persons would like for his or her own DispatchMap display to automatically default to a particular focus-group-number filter. If so, it's easy to set for this. Simply, in the Ctrl-F1 Settings form's green local section, and in the box where you place the name of the desktop's ServiceDesk username, add (as a "third word," essentially) the focus-group-number that you want to have that user's DispatchMap automatically default to filter on.
Even if you set a default as per above, any such user will remain free to toggle to other focus group filter settings, as per prior description.
Please note that filtering on basis of focus groups is not the only such filtering basis that is available in the DispatchMap.
On 9/1/2020 we introduced filtering by applicable zone (see here).
At the same time, we also introduced ability to filter by an ad hoc selection of multiple techs (again, see here). (Single-tech filtering has long been available.)
