Tracer Pro Pak

Tip #4: Security

From appliances to equipment, if it is portable, it can be stolen. Companies can easily monitor their assets, as well as recover stolen or missing items, using GPS technology. GPS technology allows you to create virtual fences and alerts you when something leaves an area. Security guards and video cameras are expensive and only partially helpful. You will never have to waste money on replacing missing equipment when you can simply track it down.

Cross Posted from http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Management/How-to-Make-LocationBased-Applications-Work-for-Your-Enterprise/  Jaap Groot

Many large residential property management companies are on a buying spree for smaller well run companies.  Although the geography might change from Florida to California, most of the persistent problems can be grouped into 3 categories:

1. Service: Planned community residents want more and more service from their managers.  The quality of your follow up on Maintenance and repair, returning calls and correspondence will be among the top reasons your communities will either stay with you or start shopping around.   Unless you have a huge spike in your fees, price is not a material factor as most companies in a region are about the same in their pricing.  So it often comes down to perceived quality of service. 
   

   GPS enabled Location Based Phone

    

2. Deed restriction violation management: Managing the labor intensive logistics of documenting the violation, determining if this is a first or repeat offence, sending the appropriately worded letter out and tracking everything if the issue goes to legal.
3. Providing your board members and or residents with a secure web site where they can view accounting, architectural review requests and work orders is becoming an increasingly important to cater to a more web savvy customer.

Tracer solves these problems

Tracer allows managers to enter maintenance and work order information on their smart phones.  Tracer’s location aware technology goes beyond just giving GPS driving instructions, it helps the manager automatically connect the repair or work order ticket with the right geographical location with fewer mouse clicks.  Tracer knows how to treat repairs under warranty differently from non-warranty repairs.  Tracer knows how to show your managers the list of approved vendors for each community and can even transmit the work order to the vendor’s email or fax machine within minutes, with a photo and accurate location.  Your managers can spend less time chasing paperwork in the office and spend more time in the field, building better relationships with your board members and helping you keep and improve your business.

Deed restrictions: Tracer helps your manager document the violation, view violation history and send the details, with a picture, to the office for letter printing and mailing.

Web Portal:  Tracer helps you take your internal information and choose what you want your board members to view. A configuration panel allows you to manage who can view what.

Building appreciation and good will with your board members: What good is it if your managers are working hard but your community board members don’t notice?  With a few clicks Tracer produces detailed reports of activity for the month for your boards reading pleasure and appreciation.

We asked small business owners like you what types of challenges they faced in a slow economy coupled with rising costs.  Of the many things you described, we grouped the challenges that we could solve into 3 categories:

1. “When my technicians are out in the field, they are under billing:  For example, if they spent 1 hour and 45 minutes at a client, they are reporting back 1 hour and 30 minutes.  I can’t be sure how much of this is going on, but I can guarantee that it happens.  With 18 technicians, if a quarter of them did this every week, it is costing me a fortune in lost revenue.”
2. “My technicians do not show up on time.  Often, this is because the previous job ran late and it just causes a domino effect which hits customer service.  Customer service is critical right now because my competitors are dropping their prices to get business.”
3. “It takes 20 hours every week to take the paper tickets from my field technicians and have it entered in my inventory and accounting systems.  And when we purchase parts and materials, it is difficult to make sure it is all being billed out to the customers.”

Tracer solves these problems. 

1. We go beyond just showing you where your technicians are. Tracer uses smart location aware systems to automatically determine when a job starts and ends.  If Tracer’s start and end times vary from your technician, Tracer will alert you.  Tracer uses the same systems to track office time and travel time.
2. If your technician is projected to arrive late at an appointment, Tracer will send a message to your dispatcher so you can either solver the problem or inform the customer ahead of time.  Your customers perceive an advance warning of a late appointment as superior customer service.  They don’t get that level of service from their other vendors. (You don’t from your vendors, your customers don’t either).
3. Your technicians use their smart phones to complete the details of their work including parts and materials used.  This information is transmitted directly to your office allowing you to invoice and close the work order quickly and get paid sooner.

Much of Property Management is location specific.  Using Mobile Phones with Tracer Pro Pak location based solutions makes sense.  Document violations, repairs and communications with a few clicks on your Windows Mobile Hand Held Smart Phone with GPS Vehcile Tracking.  As with other applications, incorporating location awareness into Property Management ends up using less paper, and less gas.  A win for everyone!

The challenges with facilities management can be addressed more effectively with location based solutions.  So much of the information in the facilities management industry are associated with assets or problems that are location specific.  With a Windows Mobile Powered hand held GPS Phone, much of that data can be made more actionable with a environmental cost;  if the manager who finds the problem can document it on his mobile hand held with GPS info so that the vendor can get to it with GPS navigation , think of the paper saved by digitizing the work order and think of the gas saved by quickly finding the location without driving all over.   A win all over the place for facilities management.

With all its inefficiencies, we have to thank the government for creating the location based solutions industry.  GPS capability was pioneered for military operations and made mainstream in part by the FCC’s 1996 Enhanced 911 Initiative requiring that cell phone carriers provide emergency responders with the location of mobile users making 911 calls.  Today, compliance with this requirements has created a growing location based solutions industry where pocket pc and hand held smart phones running the Windows Mobile Software can provide a wealth of location aware information.

If you don’t have one of the new AT&T Mobile phones (see previous post) don’t fear.  Google has released a new mobile search tool to help track down 2008 Olympic results quickly from your mobile phone. It also set up a mobile Web site specifically so followers of the games can peruse results and events at leisure. Let the Games begin!   Click for details

So with a Windows Mobile handheld pda, equiped with a Bluetooth GPS for vehicle tracking and the Tracer Pro Pak Software, not only can you complete work orders, check locations, update your payroll, invoicing and inventory systems from the field without paper, but you can keep tabs on the 2008 Olypics games half way around the world! How? Click Here

LG VU

The 2008 Olympics can be viewed on your ATT Wireless smart phone or PDA (These devices do not support the Windows Mobile Pocket PC software).  AT&T is an official marketing partner of the 2008 Olympics and is the only carrier with live coverage.  The LG Vu and the Samsung Access hand-helds support the content.   The  blueroom site showcases AT&T 2008 Olympic content.  Niether phones have GPS capability and while they may be great for 2008 Olympic viewing, they fall short of a true business device that can be used with the TracerProPak GPS tracking system.   The Blackjack II, however, provides a full keyboard GPS navigation and the Windows Mobile® 6 Pocket PC software.

2008 Olympics Lisa Leslie

2008 Olympic News Update:  The Womens Basket Ball: Saturday at 8 pm (United States Vs. Czech Republic)  Players include Los Angeles native Lisa Leslie, perhaps the best female basket ball player to play the game.  Lisa Leslie will make her fourth consecutive Olympic appearance in Beijing, where she’ll seek her fourth straight gold medal. With another title in 2008, Leslie would become the first female basketball player to win gold at four consecutive games.  If you don’t have an AT&T smart phone PDA with or without GPS software, click here for details:

As the economy slows down, service companies recognize that they have to control costs.  They can not raise prices in this economy, so vehicle tracking with GPS becomes attractive.  Simply put, when a worker leaves the office, no one knows if he or she took a 1 hour lunch break or a 1.25 hour lunch break.  If you have 15 field workers, each taking an extra 15 minutes on lunch on your dime every day, it amounts to quite a bit. (18.75 hours to be exact and assuming a payroll plus benes of $25 per hour - that amounts to $470 per week).  Mr. Service Company Owner: You could be driving a Mercedez S Class and pay for the gas and insurance for that with money left over. 

With GPS Vehicle Tracking, you not only know where your workers are in real time, you also know their top speeds and where they have been.   If you choose a Windows Mobile tracking system, your workers can complete job tickets, work order forms right on their phones instead of paper that needs another employee to process at the office.  (This is called Forms Automation).  The phone sends the information right into your payroll system, invoicing system and inventory system.  You could eliminate upto 20 hours a week in paperwork and increase your accuracy, timeliness and reliability. 

And we have not mentioned a lower environmental impact with less paper.

For more information, call 888-281-4588 or email customerfirst@tracerpropak.com

Sprint recently released the new Palm Treo with Bluetooth, GPS maps and navigation running the new Windows Mobile 6.1 software.  Unlike previous Treo’s running the Windows Mobile software, this Treo brings the useful shortcut feature from the Palm Treos.   And unlike the IPhone, the Treo battery can be easily replaced in the field by easily snaping open the battery cover.  

Tested by Tracer Pro in Hillsborough County, the Treo 800W proved to have less dropped calls than the Iphone on the 3G network.   (Switching off the 3G on the Iphone minimized the dropped call).  GPS turn by turn navigation with Garmin like maps was a breeze (turn by turn is not available on the IPhone without the purchase of additional add on software).  While a great improvement over the previous Windows Treo, the Treo browser still does not hold a candle to the IPhone Safari Browser.  The overall screen clarity of the IPhone still has all other devices beat not to mention the automatic change in orientation from portrait to landscape which the Treo does not have.

Also new with this Treo is Stereo Bluetooth and embeded Wi-Fi.  This PDA Phone is a great value at $249.   Installing the Tracer Work Order Software turns this device into a great Vehicle Tracking business utility for companies in the Landscape, HVAC and Real Estate Property Management industries.   Sales Force Automation is also improved with Tracer’s GPS compatability which integrates GPS information into the users work flow (so the user does not have to open a separate application to make use of GPS, navigation or map functions).

Highlights
Mobile versions of Microsoft Office, Outlook and Internet Explorer
Wireless Email - Corporate and Personal
Key Features
Sprint TV® enabled
Speakerphone
Built-in camera
Web, email capable
Bluetooth
External display
GPS enabled
Memory card slot
Broadband speeds where available