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Mobile
applications.
A suite of off-the-shelf mobile applications are available or a custom
application can be provided. Rapid application development tools support the
customisation of existing applications or the development of new applications.
The development environment is based on Microsoft Visual Studio .NET with
extensions for mobile applications. Mobile applications are designed to
support a specific business process and are targeted at the typical skill
levels of field users. Adaptors to a range of leading enterprise applications
are also available (e.g. SAP, Peoplesoft, Siebel, JD Edwards). An adaptor
development toolkit supports integration with any enterprise IT system. |
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GIS
Integration.
Mobile applications can be extended with the addition of intelligent vector
maps extracted dynamically from the corporate GIS. This is supported by a
server component that is configured to dynamically extract the spatial data
for an application and a field component that provides the field user
interface to the maps. |
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Job
Routing.
Where optimisation of travel distance and time per resource is required, a
street-level routing capability can be provided to sequence jobs by optimal
travel distance per field worker. |
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Scheduling and Dispatch.
This capability is necessary where it is important to the business to make
optimal decisions on the allocation of work to field staff in real time.
Scheduling is the process of optimally assigning work to resources based on a
range of business parameters and constraints. Dispatch is the process of
confirming and implementing the assignment of the work to a field resource.
Dispatch can be automatic (supported by scheduling) or manual (no automatic
scheduling). Scheduling and dispatch can also be enhanced through the addition
of spatial data that provides a visual representation of the status and
location of resources and work and supports accurate schedule optimisation
taking account of spatial factors such as travel time and distance.
Manually-initiated dispatch can also be performed from the map-based display
using a simple drag-and-drop technique. |
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Real
Time Tracking and Monitoring.
This
capability is important for customers who wish to continuously capture
information about staff or assets in real-time from the field. Any required
information can be gathered from the field in addition to location and speed
information, e.g. temperature in a refrigerated van, door open/closed, etc. A
configurable rules engine together with an alarm management module supports
field monitoring applications that are easily configured to customer
requirements. Alarm monitoring rules can combine spatial data with other
information that is either job-related or is obtained from the field. A
map-based display supports the intuitive visualisation of real-time
information captured from the field. |
