When AssetFinda became part of Univerus’ Unity Solutions suite, there were lots of ideas in the hopper. Some of these ideas had been planned for a while and were a significant part of a response to customer feedback. The new crew messaging feature that’s recently been integrated into the Unity Mobile product is one of those features and will provide a whole new level of communication between crews out in the field and Head Office.
The new feature is aimed at enhancing interactions between crews, dispatchers and their dispatchers. The new ‘push’-based messaging service includes:
- Support for internal notifications from head office
- Information from newsfeeds and updated weather reports
- Notifications and updates on jobs and locations
- Social messaging (team events, get-togethers etc)
Because of its flexibility and mobility, text (SMS) is fast becoming a main method of communication between crews in the field and staff back in the office in combination with the Unity Mobile app. Notifications can be received on mobile phones, so that workers in the field can be instantly updated. For example, if an abrupt change in weather conditions is impacting on jobs, they can be informed immediately and receive an updated schedule. Likewise, if the crew are all needed back at the office for an important meeting, they can be instantly notified using the new push notification service even if they are not using the app.
Notifications can be sent to multiple crews at one time. For our larger crews that have multiple people out in the field, this is a highly effective and efficient way of notifying them all at the same time. Not only that, but all messaging is recorded and saved, so that it can be referred to again if necessary.
Dispatchers can also check to see if messages have been read by the crews they were sent to. This capability is an important part of today’s Health & Safety requirements in the field; if the dispatch has an urgent message for any given crew (or for all of them), the message can ‘break in’ in the middle of a job and request acknowledgement. If there is an emergency, and the message isn’t acknowledged, dispatchers can then take action to contact the crew in question.
The new crew messaging service is part of an extensive new range of functionality in the Unity Solutions suite, aimed at creating better management of work crews and assets in the field
If you’d like to find out more about the new messaging service, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
