A new revolution in field staff coordination

In the management of mobile field staff, location finding has tremendous potential to bring about significant efficiencies and savings. Knowing where your resources are currently located would enable you to direct them more effectively. For example, if a service organisation receives a customer call, they will be able to quickly identify which of their field personnel is nearest to the customer and direct them accordingly.

"Path Finder" is a system for location finding by interfacing with mobile phone technology. It was developed on the Java platform in order to facilitate application portability. Most of the development work was done in Sri Lanka. The resulting product works with the extensive network of Dialog GSM to provide users with an innovative, user-friendly tracking system for personnel and vehicles.

Functionality

Locations of your resources are plotted on a map on your computer screen in your office. The "path" traversed during the day is also represented on the screen. Paths pertaining to movements on previous days are stored for future reference.

The system may be configured to automatically chart the location of your resources (vehicles, staff etc) with a predetermined periodicity.

When your help desk receives a call from a customer they will be able to identify the field sales/service person who is currently nearest to the customer and divert the call to that person.

The user friendly interface of the system facilitates zooming and panning of maps to easily locate resource persons.

Messages may be transmitted from the computer direct to the mobile phone of the user as a text message.

Cost structure

The system is easily affordable. At the central point, only a computer with an internet connection is required.

One time cost could be as low as US$ 120 per tracked resource (for a minimum of 10 resources). The running cost is Rs. 3 per tracking request.

Tracking technology helps you to:

* Know where your sales/ service staff or vehicles are located at any time.

* Route field inquires to the staffer currently nearest to the customer.

* Record the travel paths of your sales/ Service personnel.

* Save your fleet travel cost and time.

* Improve security.

* Communicate with field staff via text messages typed into the central computer.

* Improve response time and customer relationship management.