Maps Integration in an upscaled avatar within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Mobile App!
The face of Business has changed a lot in the past two years of forced house arrest. The need to physically meet clients/ partners has significantly reduced. However, with the world back in the first gear, yet again, things have started accelerating! Field Services has gently resumed its course and Field Appointments are back in fashion. Visiting clients for final deals, installations, servicing, and hardware issues are inevitable. Thus, scheduling and managing field service effectively is still one of the prime goals of a business for smooth operation. Providing all-inclusive packages/ apps that can plan the moves and be accessed from anywhere, anytime is a step closer to effective Field Service Management.
The Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Phones App falls under this category of apps with substance to make the life of the Field Services Team, easy! This app is compatible with all smartphones, tablets, iPads, etc., and is easy to use.?Maplytics, the popular 5-star rated geo-mapping app on the?Microsoft AppSource, can be accessed and utilized within the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Phones App efficiently. It introduces Businesses with the power of Location Intelligence and geo-analytics. Team Maplytics is on a constant move of updating and upgrading the look and feel of this treasured Maplytics section in every possible manner to enhance the user experience.
Recently, the?Maplytics Logo and the Website?were upgraded to a never-seen-before avatar in vibrant brand colors. Of course, Team Maplytics had to sync these updates with the Dynamics Mobile App! With the September 2022 release of Maplytics, an improved form of the mobile app was presented to the users. Let us have a detailed look at the improved look and functionality!
Detail Map, Heat Map, Map Buttons
Users can use the ‘Detail Map’, ‘Heat Map’, and ‘Map’ buttons from the main menu in the ‘Accounts’ section on the dashboard to utilize the features of Maplytics on their mobiles in the following manner. This has made the use of complex features easy for field reps while being on the go.
The client records within a specific radius around the current location of the user on the field can be plotted using the Radius Search or the Proximity Search feature within Dynamics 365 CRM. The Layer Menu is present on the Map, towards the bottom of the screen. It can be enabled using the Teal colored button at the top left corner. Any of the Layers can be enabled or disabled as required.
The Directions and the Search button at the bottom are the main buttons for a sub-menu of many other functions. To keep the UI neat and less cluttered, all the functions have coincided under these two buttons.
The icons on the right refresh the map, find the current location of the user and alter the Map view from Road to Aerial.
Concentric Proximity Search can be viewed in the same manner.
Users can categorize the CRM data using any of the available attributes of any Entity. The categories are represented by the newly added Category Filter icon towards the left of the screen below the Layer Menu icon. Any of the category options can be enabled or disabled to alter the display.
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 ‘Find my location’ button. The mobile location needs to be enabled in the mobile for it to be traced easily.
By default, the ‘Current Location’ field fetches and shows the address stored in the Maplytics Personalized record of the logged-in user.
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 of the meetings, and perform many such actions using the available quick actions button.
A double click on the pushpin opens up the Tooltip card associated with it that displays the record information.
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.
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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.
Set As POI Location:
This option helps the user to set the center point for the Point of Interest (POI) searches like ATMs, restaurants, Airports, etc. Once this location is set as the POI location, the user can search for different POI around this location.
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. ??? ?????
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 this ever-changing, volatile World full of uncertainties, adapting the change is the only constant. For intelligent users, it is not just the aesthetic interface that is important but also the overall functionality and User experience of an App. It needs to be updated constantly to sustain its relevance in the long run and remain preferred. Team Maplytics will religiously keep working on advancing the wonderful features furthermore. So, wait for it!
In the meantime, to explore Maplytics further, its unique applications across industries, and other enriching functions, do visit our?Website?or?the Microsoft AppSource. For more details, do check out our?Blogs,?Client Testimonials, and?Video Library.
You can connect with us at [email protected], anytime for more information on Maps for Dynamics 365 CRM, a?free trial, or personalized demos.
Till then,
Happy Mapping!