This is an update to the applications that we are very happy with. It is a great many small quality of life improvements, bundled with a couple of major changes that make this update, as a whole, more than the sum of its parts.
This also marks a slight change in the way we develop, bundling more pieces together, to make a cohesive launch pattern. Previously, we may have launched these features piecemeal, making an almost perpetual discomfort for users, always dealing with changes. The new approach will condense the learning and introduction to new things into a smaller window. This will make the changes easier to understand and more approachable.
Now for the nuts and bolts. Here is what we are adding to the apps with this update:
The first major change is going to be a slew of improvements to our reporting tools. The first is expanding all “time” listings in the reports to include seconds. For instance, a previous list may have said 4:32 PM, and it will now say 4:32:24 PM. We understand that we have clients that require this type of precision, so it will now be available.
Report filtering has gotten some attention as well. You can now select more than one alert type when narrowing the “Alerts” report down. Relatedly, all filters will now be reflected in the URL of the report, meaning you can return to this pre-filtered version by returning to the same URL. This is an excellent way to “save” your views that you often use.
We are also adding a “Copy Link to Report” button to make this process as easy as possible. This is a way for users to access a specific report with a simple link. If you only want to view the speeding alerts that come from your team of drivers? Perfect, you can now create that report and go straight to it from the copied link. There is a lot of variety with what you can do with these filters, and this is a perfect time to reach out to one of our experts to see what filtering can do for you and your team.
This is also a window into being able to schedule a report, by creating the custom link and setting a weekly reminder to view the report. An easy way to stay on top of all the data generated by your trackers.
Several months back, we expanded the ability to share your account with associates and employees with our User Roles feature. Since then, we have added new refinements to enhance the flexibility of user roles. This new flexibility allows for you to limit any new users access to the boundaries on your platform.
For instance, if you have boundaries around locations that simply do not need to be revealed to certain users, then you will be able to set those limitations now. When a user is limited from seeing boundaries, they will not see them on the map, be able to create new ones, or get alerts about boundaries. It is a full limitation. This can be of use to our users that want to share temporary access to their clients. An example might be a rental company, who wants to share tracker location but not the boundaries around important company locales. Think of this as an upgrade to give you further control over who can see what on your GPS platform. Control is always good.
A common concern we see across our users is the fear of a GPS unit being stolen, tampered with or unplugged while in use. The technology being used to monitor your valuable assets being vulnerable is never a good feeling. This new alert is designed to minimize the fear of a tracker being disturbed, by giving you an immediate alert if a tracker is disconnected from its power source.
This is a powerful alert. Giving you the peace of mind that the GPS tracker will be in its place, to do the needed job, is vital. Whether you are monitoring employees in work trucks or keep an eye on a fleet of vehicles for sale on your dealership, the data this provides can be key in keep those assets safe. When monitoring employees, seeing a disconnected OBD indicates something that should assuredly be investigated.
This is a great feature that will be available for all trackers that are connected to a power source, including the OBD, HW, HW GL300 or GL300 with M4/6 cases. This added layer of protection for the trackers themselves will free up even more placement options for our GPS trackers. One often forgotten potential outcome from tracker placement is simple deterrence. If you are using the GPS trackers to monitor employee usage of company vehicles, the employee knowing the tracker is there will lead to improved performance and limit any unwanted behaviors. With this alert, you don’t have to worry about being left in the lurch if anyone unplugs the device.
This another improvement that comes directly from a client request. The web application currently has a disconnect between the tracker list and the main map. When you search for a device in the tracker list, the map stays static, showing all devices. Going forward, we will implement a dynamic map, that is filter and zoom according to the searched trackers.
This seems like a minor addition, but the time spent filtering and moving the map really adds up. So, not only does this solve for folks using naming conventions to segment trackers, it also increases productivity across all users.
The ability to quickly filter out noise, in the form of tracked assets you do not need to view, is vital. This is the next evolution of that in our web app and are excited to roll it out.
This is another improvement that allows users to maximize the effect of a strong naming convention to segment their trackers. If you add a keyword to the name of the tracker, say a location, you can search by that keyword and bring up all the trackers that share it.
This is another productivity improvement, designed to help manage large amounts of trackers easily and let you filter out noise at scale.
A little clean-up with some icons and other minor fixes.
We have our next major update planned out and will be slowly releasing more details as it takes shape. We are very excited for what happens next.
| Web version | 1.19.0 |
| Mobile version | 5.13 |