How Location Intelligence on Mobile Drives Efficient Field Operations!

A mobile app acts as a connecting catalyst to take the physical world to the digital world. It is developed for enhanced consumer experience and to make functioning quick, easy, and convenient.

An ideal mobile app usually is-

• User-friendly in terms of navigation despite minimum technical knowledge
• Representing the Brand colors
• Scalable and Robust
• Having an intuitive UX and multi-level privacy
• Efficient with less to no lagging time

and a lot more!

The Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Phones App satisfies all the above criteria and more.  Maplytics, the popular 5-star rated geo-mapping app on the Microsoft AppSource, can be downloaded, accessed, and used within the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Phones App. It strengthens businesses with the unfathomable power of Location Intelligence and related geo-analytics.

Being able to avail all the operations of an all-inclusive platform on a hand-held device while being on a constant move is extremely fulfilling and helpful for the Field Services Teams. The reps do not have to move around with heavy files, or external devices with a plethora of data, or do not have to re-visit the office after every meeting to report the minutes of the meeting and increase travel time. Saving fuel costs, and conquering appointment schedules as planned, while enjoying a work-life balance is liberating and motivating for the reps.

Team Maplytics is on a constant move of updating and upgrading the look and feel of the Maplytics section in all possible manners to enrich the user experience further and make browsing productive.

Let us have a long look at the improved avatar of the mobile app and its functionality!

Detail Map, Heat Map, Map Buttons

Users can use the ‘Detail Map’, ‘Heat Map’, and ‘Map’ buttons available in the main menu of the ‘Accounts’ section seen on the dashboard to utilize the features of Maplytics on their mobiles in a below manner-

    

Proximity/ Radius Search

The CRM records within a specified radius can be visualized on the map using the Radius Search or the Proximity Search feature within Dynamics 365 CRM. The Layer Menu is displayed on the Map, at the bottom of the screen and the button to enable it is at the top left corner. Any of the Layers can be enabled or disabled as per requirement.

The Directions and the Search button at the bottom are gatekeeping buttons for multiple other functions. To keep the UI clean and aesthetic, all the functions are integrated into these two buttons.

The icons on the right help in resetting the map, detecting the current location of the app user, and changing the view of the Map from Road to Aerial.

The color palate of the icons and other symbols represent the new brand colors of Maplytics. Concentric Proximity Search can be worked with in the same manner.

Category Filter

Users can categorize the CRM data based on any specific attribute of any Entity. The categories are represented by the newly added Category Filter icon on the left of the screen below the Layer Menu option. Any of the category options can be enabled or disabled to alter the view.

      

Set GPS Location as the current location

The user can also specify the GPS location of the user using the app on the phone by clicking on the specified button. The mobile location needs to be enabled in the mobile for this action to go through.

By default, the ‘Current Location’ field fetches and shows the address stored in the Maplytics Personalized record of the logged-in user.

Tooltip Card

Every Pushpin will display the record name, and address, as well as the contextual data defined in the tooltip section of the Maplytics Configuration when the record is double-clicked. The user can open the record, check in/out, and perform other such actions using the available quick actions button.

A double click on the pushpin opens up the Tooltip card associated with it.

    

Contextual Menu

To get a contextual menu on the map, long click anywhere on the map screen. Pushpin Contextual menu provides interesting additional options. These options provide popular features in Maplytics like Set as Current Location, Origin, and Adding to Route, etc.

A long press on a pushpin enables the contextual menu.

Set As Origin:

Selecting this option will set the address of the pushpin as the initial location of the route to be plotted using the Optimized Routing Feature

Set As Destination:

Selecting this option will set the address of the pushpin as the final location of the route.

Add to Route:

This option will set the address of the pushpin as a middle waypoint of the selected route. For example, if the users already have Point A and Point B selected in their route, and click on the Add To Route option, then Point B will become Point C, and the address of the selected pushpin will become the Point B of their route.

Set As Current Location:

This option is used to set the address of the pushpin as the current location, which can be used for proximity search. For example, if the user wants to plot all the leads that are within a radius of 100 miles from a particular record then the user can click on the Set As Current Location option to set the address as the current location and then the user can plot the client records around this location.

This option also removes the additional step to type the current location manually for the proximity search.

Save Template:

Users can save the plotted search criteria as a template, which can be directly opened instead of searching on the map again. This gets available by clicking the Directions button at the bottom.

   

Optimized Routing

Another essential feature of Maplytics is Routing across multiple waypoints. Using the Contextual Menu options, the users can add multiple waypoints to their journey.

Clicking on the Directions icon/button at the bottom left of the Detail map screen leads to the multi-purpose routing screen. Once multiple waypoints have been updated, click on Go to plot the Optimized Route on the Map.

Users can revisit their travel directions on Google Maps or the Waze App

     

Save Route & Plot Saved Routes

Users can save the plotted routes from the Microsoft Dynamics 365 App for Phones and Tablets and use the ‘Open Saved Route’ option in it to plot the saved routes and reuse them.

The saved routes are visible in the form of a list with names provided and can be opened easily. Each route is assigned to a specific rep.

   

Along the Route Search

The user can search the records along the route in the app, in the same manner as on the Desktop Browser by selecting the Along the Route option in the Routing Screen. The miles/kilometers can be specified on the Routing Options screen and all the records up to that number of miles/ kilometers can be visualized on the Map.

   

Visualization Dashboards on Mobile

The users can delineate their Dashboard views for Maplytics and include them as web resources in the regular Dynamics CRM Dashboards. Maplytics, by default ships with 6 pre-defined Dashboards for various Sales and Service Modules.

Users can now view the categorized data in the form of donut charts on the respective dashboards. The feature is available for both Detail Map and Heat Map and allows the user to choose a ‘measure’. By default, ‘count’ is the measure for display which could be changed to any of the available category options. For an account entity, with Detail Map and revenue selected as the Map Type and the Measure, a donut chart can be displayed as follows.

  

In today’s VUCA World, change is the only constant, and not just the aesthetic interface but also the overall functionality and User experience of an App needs to be updated constantly to sustain its relevance. Team Maplytics will continuously keep working on advancing the wonderful features further. So, stay tuned!

In the meantime, to learn more about Maplytics, its applications across industries, and other enriching functions, do visit our Website or the Microsoft AppSource. For more details, you can visit our Blogs, Client Testimonials, and Video Library.

You can connect with us at crm@inogic.com for more information on Maps for Dynamics 365 CRM, a free trial, or personalized demos.

Till then,

Happy Mapping!

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