When importing jobs using Verizon Connect® Dispatch, each of your jobs must take place at a marker representing a real-world geographic location. These marker locations might already exist in Dispatch, or they might need to be created during the import process.
If a marker already exists at a location, it is possible to accidentally duplicate it one or more times if your import file is not configured correctly. This duplication will increase your management load, reduce routing efficiency, and cause confusion.
To avoid duplicating your markers, follow the guidelines below:
If you are an existing customer, and you have previously created or imported jobs and markers, you should include the ID of the existing markers at which your jobs occur in your import file.
You can find the IDs of your existing markers by opening the Markers screen (under the Main section of the menu) and then filtering on the names of your markers.
Marker IDs are shown under the 'ID' column of the markers grid. If you do not see this column, hover your house over the headings row, then click any of the downward-facing arrows that appear. Click the 'Columns' menu item, and select the 'ID' checkbox. You will need to include this ID value under the job.location_id column in your import file, or a duplicate marker will be created at the location.
If you are a Verizon Connect Scenarios user, you can also find your marker IDs by clicking the name of a marker in the Scenarios Markers grid and looking for the read-only 'Marker ID' field on the dialog box that opens.
If you are a new customer (that is, you have not use the importer before) you can use any value you choose under the job.location_id column (and marker name under the job.location_name column). This ID can be whatever you want (but should typically be something that makes sense to your business), or even an external key value.
You can also choose not to include the job.location_id column at all, or specify no value if you do. If no value is provided, Dispatch automatically creates a marker for you at the job location (street address or latitude and longitude coordinates) you specify. This marker will have an automatically-generated marker ID. Once you have imported the job marker once, importing the same marker in the future with either the same marker ID or using exactly the same address will not duplicate the marker.
Regardless of how the marker ID is chosen or generated, it is important to note that in the future when you create other jobs at the marker, you should include this ID, or a duplicate marker will be created.
In all cases, when you give the importer a job.location_id value in your import files, it will check whether a marker already exists with this ID. If it finds a matching marker ID, it will use this marker as the job location. If it does not find a matching marker ID, it will create a new marker and give it that ID.
To learn more about the columns that are supported in import files, and the steps required to import jobs and routes in Dispatch, read the help topic. If you have unanswered questions or concerns, speak to your Verizon Connect support representative.
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