Successware Mobile now can utilize your technicians’ device locations to provide services. There are 3 major benefits to using the Geolocation features:
1. Technicians will be automatically marked onsite when they arrive at the location.
2. Technicians that attempt to arrive to or leave from the service location while out of range of the service location will provide a notification on the dispatch board.
3. Office staff can see the location of the technician through the Google Map feature in Successware.
The Geolocation uses the technicians’ device location within 0.5 miles. This is limited to make sure the battery life is kept as high as possible while also balancing accuracy.
If the Geolocation feature does not seem to be working, you will need to make sure that the Geolocation permission is enabled, and the technicians’ devices have the location permission enabled.
Device Permissions
In order to have Successware Mobile use the Geolocation feature and report that information to Successware. There are two criteria:
1. The Geolocation Accessibility option must be selected on the Successware Mobile Administrative site. This is a global permission for all technicians.
2. The Devices must allow Successware Mobile to have access to the Location. This is a local permission on each technician’s device.
Successware Mobile will ask your technicians if they want to enable this permission. You should have them enable it, but if they do not, you can use the next sections to enable the permissions.
If these permissions are not setup properly, the Geolocation feature will not work properly.
iOS Permissions
If you need to enable location permissions on an iOS device:
1. Navigate to your device’s settings.
2. Scroll to find the Successware App in the list of Apps on the left-hand side of the screen. Tap on it.
3. Tap on the Location permissions group.
4. Select one of options: Always (recommended) or While Using the App.
Android Permissions
Android devices settings are more varied by the phone model (Samsung, Google, etc.). These particular steps are performed on a Samsung device, and while the exact look may different, the general steps will still be performed.
To make sure your steps are enabled:
1. Navigate to your device settings
2. Navigate to the app settings page.
- Some devices might have an Apps and Notification section.
3. Navigate to the Successware Mobile App, and tap on it to open it.
4. Within the device settings, tap on the permissions section.
5. Tap on the Location Settings group, and make sure Location settings are selected.
6. Make sure that the user has permission for Location access. We recommend choosing the Allow only while using the app permission.
Viewing Technicians’ Locations
To view the Google Maps feature:
1. Right-click on an employee or job while on the dispatch board.
2. Select Map (Google) and select one of the following:
• Selected call…
• Selected employee…
• Current positions…
3. You will be able to view Google Maps with your technicians showing up.
Your technicians will be shown with a symbol of a truck. As long as they have the Geolocation permission enabled you will see a globe icon near the Employee Marker.
If you do not see the globe indicator on the marker, this technician doesn’t have Geolocation enabled and the marker is an approximation or their current service location.
4. You can either manually click refresh or click the Auto-Refresh option at the top of the screen.
Needs Attention: Technicians Arriving or Departing out of Range
If your technicians try to arrive or depart out of range of the service location, you will receive a notification on the dispatch board.
They will first get one of these prompts to acknowledge that they are trying to arrive or depart out of range.
On the job on the dispatch board, there will be a small red icon with a yellow exclamation point icon. This means that something about the job needs attention. Note that this is also used for warnings or the 10-8 notification, so not every use of this means the technician arrived or departed out of range.
To see why the job needs attention:
1. Right-click on the job.
2. Select Attention…
3. The Needs Attention field will appear with whether they arrived or departed out of range and their location.
- If the user arrives out of range and then 10-8s or departs out of range, the text will be changed
- There are reasons that the system may detect that the device was out of range, but really wasn’t including if the reception is bad or if the service location is a new construction location.
4. If you want to remove the notification, you can uncheck the Needs attention checkbox and click OK.