Time Zones

Time Zones play an important part in the ServiceOptimizer system. This section covers how they are set up and used.

Times in the Database

In the database there is no time zone specified for most date/time columns. It is the user of that information who has to decide which time zone is needed. Times are held in the time zone of the object (FRU, operative or region) which owns them.

The time zone definitions for all time zones covered by the ServiceScheduling instance are held in table Database sp056_time_zones, with a default value held in the parameters table Database sp083_system_parameters. ServicePower have preloaded sp056_time_zones with standard POSIX values. The user can load other values into sp056_time_zones provided they are compatible with the platform definitions. The values required for referencing from other tables is the tz_no, however a description of the time zone for any row of this table can be found in the field tz_long_name.

The default in tz defined in sp083_system_parameters is GMT, that is tz_no = 1. 

To run in a single Time Zone

The few lines below are all that are required to cause all operatives, regions and RUs to use the default time zone. 

update sp210_employees set tz_type=null, tz_no=null;
update sp057_regions set tz_no=null;
update sp058_responsibility_units set tz_no=null;
 
update sp083_system_parameters set value='<tz_no>' where name='tz_Default';

Setting up for multiple Time Zones

If there is a requirement to run across more than one time zone, each Responsibility Unit must be assigned to a time zone. Having assigned RU’s to time zones the next step is to do the same for Operatives and Regions. These may have different time zones from their owning RU.

Table sp083_system_parameters holds a number of default time zones types for each of the entity types where time zone is relevant and it is essential, therefore, that time zones are not defaulted without consideration of the settings in sp083_system_parameters. The default values in the table should be reviewed at installation time. The parameters are described below

As mentioned previously, there is an overall default time zone, tz_Default, which has been set to ‘1’ i.e. the time zone ‘GMT’. If an entity has not been assigned a time zone then the default for that entity type in sp083_system_parameters will be used. If that default has not been set then the overall default tz_Default will be used. The setting of tz_Default  should be reviewed at installation time and altered if necessary to a more appropriate value.  

Time Zone Parameters

There are a number of  parameters associated with Time Zones for many ServiceOptimizer processes, entities and APIs (see New Instance Set Up and Integration Guide), taking values from Local Time Type. The most important sp083_system_parameters and their meanings are described below.