There is now a 20 minute walk-through demonstration of our new landmark capabilities here.
Thanks to 2-3 months of hard work by our developers, GPS Insight has released the next version of our landmark capabilities (not that they weren’t already better than most).
This is a REALLY big deal [kind of like Ron Burgundy, Anchorman]:
Why? We have consolidated all 6 types of landmarks into a single, all-purpose landmark — previously we had:
- Circular “typical” landmarks
- Polygon shaped landmarks
- Circular Geofences [big]
- Polygon Geofences
- Routing Landmarks
- Imported Landmarks
Now there is just one, with a much nicer 2D interface for creation:
Just enter an address (or choose the “create landmark” button from any stop on a report or detail point on a map):
Then enter an address, put it in satellite/hybrid mode, and then move the “pin” or check “Polygon” and draw an EXACT polygon geofence, then change the color, etc. You can even “lock” the landmark so other users may view, but not change it.
We even allow you to place the “pin” where you will want us to route your vehicles — e.g. the address/driveway, etc., even if you geofence the entire parking lot and/or building which you want to depict. This helps when we give you directions, etc Note the “circle” around the polygon — this helps us to speed up your reports/queries, and certain reports use the circle, and some are more accurate and use the exact polygon.
Next, you can make and assign landmarks to LANDMARK GROUPS, and assign users to them as well.
Select the users, then choose the permission options, then drag them to the new group:
Then assign landmarks to the group by individually shift or ctrl-clicking them, then drag and drop onto the appropriate landmark group:
You can choose an existing landmark group to help filter, or if you use Google Earth, you can automatically select/restrict from the list by pasting an “impromptu” polygon into the “Filter by Polygon” box:
Then only the landmarks in that list show up:
Choosing both the “Arizona” group and the “Chicago” polygon yields zero landmarks, as it should [as much as I wish my native Chicago were here in my new home Arizona's climate]:
If permissions need to be changed or removed, it can be done by clicking the “pencil” (edit) icon for that group and making the necessary changes, then saving:
So, this is a basic walk-through of the new GPS Insight landmark creation/grouping/permissioning. Since GPS Insight is very heavy in the usage of landmarks with alerts, reports, and mapping, this is a big step for us and has been a very long project to complete.
It opens up tremendous possibilities for the future of GPS Insight, and the next “step” will be to allow our customers to create and populate their own custom categories and attributes, then assign them to landmarks as well as vehicles, stops, trips, and schedules.
This will allow HIGHLY custom capabilities either on your own or with our help, to provide the following type of functionality:
- Alerts letting Supervisors know when non-parts trucks stop at vendors for more than 30 minutes, unless they are in an exception group [e.g. keeps drivers from spending too much time eating doughnuts at the vendor who brings in Krispy Kreme every day]
- Alerts letting the Manager know when drivers take their vehicles to their own home during the day, during the work schedule, vs. at night, when it is necessary
- Automated route creation based on landmarks when the branch, day, route, and priority (or AM/PM) are columns in the imported spreadsheet
Our customers may import spreadsheets of landmarks, and these custom attributes and categories will soon be supported, simply by classifying each column of your customer list (e.g. yearly revenue, type of customer, gate codes, etc.).
All these custom attributes and categories will also show up shortly on the map for dispatchers’ easy reference (e.g. is the nearest truck certified to work on a particular type of condenser, truck, etc.?).
This is a long blog article — thanks for making it this far. It’s hard to wrap up 3 months of intense work in just one article. Documentation and training will be available, as well as an online Flash video demonstration soon.
As always, thanks for your interest and ideas — most of these requirements came from customers who we listened to in 2008. Please email us or call us with questions or comments.
Thanks,
Rob.