“Every repair or maintenance job you can imagine doing on a home or property, we do,” says Prestige Managing Director Lyndon Hakopa.

Locate+ combines GPS vehicle tracking technology and Navman Fleet Manager software with Telecom’s nationwide mobile data network.

Always on top
With the new system, Prestige’s dispatch team knows where each vehicle is within the 027 coverage area so they can allocate jobs according to who is closest and available.

“It’s huge. For example if there’s a job like checking and changing a battery for a smoke alarm we can ‘geofence’ the area within five kilometres of the address and immediately see who’s closest.

“They may only be around the corner and that means we don’t have to send someone out from our Hastings or Gisborne branches, which saves time and mileage on round trips,” says Mr Hakopa.

The system provides transparency for dispatchers because they see where staff are working and this means the business can look for efficiencies.

“If we notice someone is making four or more trips a day to the same supplier for parts it’s a good indication we need to be better organised about the parts staff are carrying or the information being provided to them.”

Improved time management
Prestige aims to introduce another feature of Locate+, which is the ability to electronically dispatch jobs, as text messages, from a central database to mobile data terminals in each vehicle.

“Field staff will be able to confirm when they have received the job and keep the dispatcher updated on their progress, what parts were needed and when a job is done.

“Our ability to provide our clients with up-to-date information on the status of each job is very important for our business, and we will also save on paper work and administration because we’re removing some of the steps that need data entry.”

“It will increase our accuracy and we can invoice clients as soon as a job is finished,” says Mr Hakopa.

“Locate+ is great for us because we can be more proactive in how we manage our staff and business and provide our clients with better information.”

November 2006