Three more companies are already planning to use it in 2014.
The first company to adopt the new software was Angel Springs, which rolled it out to all depots before summer 2013, and almost 200,000 deliveries have so far been made using it.
Commercial director John Murphy said: “We have close to 90 drivers using it every day, and it has significantly streamlined the whole end-of-day process. The next day’s route can be prepared in advance of the drivers return and it is then a simple matter of pressing a button on the phone to synchronise (ie upload that day’s deliveries to the server and download the next day’s). Any printed PODs required are automatically emailed to the customer as a PDF file, complete with signature.”
Database Workshop MD Alison Peters said: “We have had mobile POD software since 2006. It was originally written for Windows devices, but when this reached its sell-by date, we decided that Android was a far better choice for its replacement. Android had 81% of the market in Q3 2013 and is available on a huge range of devices, many of which can be had free of charge with a mobile phone contract.”
The new system connects wirelessly to the network, allowing several drivers to upload/download at the same time. This avoids the bottleneck and occasional hardware problems of the old Windows system, which required the device to be plugged into a cradle to transfer data.
New features in the current release include the ability to phone the customer using the downloaded number, and to enforce the recording of batch numbers against any product types. Device and data management within ProWat are also much improved, and there are further improvements planned for 2014.
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