Category Archives: Anywhere

New key field: “External ID”

The following update is interesting for the IT administrators of all those companies who synchronize portatour® Anywhere with their existing ERP/CRM system via the API.

In addition to the “Portatour ID”, which is assigned automatically to each customer record by portatour®, you can now add an “External ID” to each customer. Typically, you will use the customer record ID from you existing ERP/CRM system.

The ID fields (Portatour ID, External ID) can be used together or individually in order to enable a clear assignment of imported data records to existing customers during subsequent data update imports. Of course you can still use custom fields as keys for data update imports. However, using the new field “External ID” offers the following differences:

  • Just like for the “Portatour ID”, portatour® also guarantees for the “External ID” that no duplicate IDs do exist in a user’s database. Custom fields do not offer this validation.
  • As for the “Portatour ID”, portatour® also prohibits the subsequent modification of the “External ID”. Thus, once the “External ID” has been set for a customer, it remains stable and can neither be changed via the user interface nor via an import or the API.
  • The “External ID” is displayed in gray on the bottom right of the customer detail page. This enables a better identification of customers, especially for support cases within your company.
  • The “External ID” must not be longer than 40 characters and only allows letters, numbers, and the following special symbols: ‘-‘, ‘_’, ‘{‘, ‘}’, ‘.’
  • The “External ID” is case sensitive, i.e. the ID “ABC123” does not equal “abc123”.
  • By knowing a customer’s “External ID” you also know the URL of the customer’s detail page in portatour®. It is https://my.portatour.net/a/Customers/Details/H<ExternalID>. You replace <ExternalID> with the data record’s “External ID”, e.g.  https://my.portatour.net/ a/Customers/Details/Habc123 in the case of “abc123”. This allows directly linking to customers in portatour® from you existing system.

We recommend to import a customer’s “External ID” immediately during the first import. To do so, simply assign the respective field in the import assistant.

In case you already have customers in portatour® and want to add an “External ID”, then carry out an “update import” during which you use an existing field (e.g. customer number or Portatour ID) as a key field and at the same time allocate the field “External ID”.

Be careful when allocating “External IDs” as they cannot be changed retrospectively. In case you make a mistake, you can only go to “Options” and select “Delete data > External ID” and thus remove the “External IDs” from all the data records of the user.

Conclusion

You decide whether you want to use the “External ID” or not. The “External ID” offers a stricter handling of keys. A preview of the coming portatour® updates makes the use of the “External ID” highly attractive though: We are currently working on the possibility to import appointments. The “External ID” will make it easy to implement the relation between appointments and customers.

September 2015 Update

Today we have installed a new update of portatour® on our servers or released it for download respectively. Please find detailed information in the following two news:

Automatic extension of the planning period in case of overnight stays

The planning algorithm of portatour® has been upgraded to trigger an automatic extension of the planning period in the case of overnight stays on the way, which guarantees that the schedule will end at the home location. This increases the schedule quality.

Example: On Wednesday you update the 1-week schedule, i.e. until the Tuesday of the following week. On top of that you allow overnight stays away on the weekdays. In this case portatour® automatically extends the planning period until the Friday of the following week to guarantee that the schedule ends at the home location.

This will already be hinted when setting the planning period in Schedule > Scheduling parameters:

Scheduling-Parameters-Extended

Hints:

  • If the planning period is set to less than one week, i.e. between 1 and 6 days, there will be no automatic extension. Thus, we recommend a planning period of 1 week.
  • Users of portatour® in combination with Salesforce, Dynamic CRM or Connector have to install the latest version to be able to use this new feature (Download for Salesforce, Download for Dynamics CRM).

Restrict period for the export of call reports

Up to now, it was only possible to export all call reports in one go from portatour® Anywhere. From now on, the export feature optionally allows the input of a period to make sure only the reports of that period are exported. This reduces the file size and speeds up the process. For the export go to Reports in the menu, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the Export button.

Export-Reports

Hints:

  • The portatour® Anywhere API also allows the limitation of the exported reports from now on. Use the new parameter maxPastDays in order to enter the number of the required calendar days in the past, e.g. maxPastDays=7 in order to only export reports of the past 7 calendar days. If you export the reports on a regular basis, we recommend to use this new parameter to speed up the process and reduce the transferred data volume. Please refer to the API instructions for more information.
  • The export of call reports directly from portatour® Anywhere is only possible if you use portatour® Anywhere without a system hosting the data (e.g. Salesforce, Dynamics CRM, Connector). If you have a data host system you can export the reports from there.

Exporting the schedule

With today’s update of portatour®, it is now possible to export the current schedule as Excel or CSV file.

Go to Schedule and scroll to the bottom. Click the new button Export > As File. Select the desired format and click on Download.

Schedule-Export-Context       Schedule-Export-Popup

 

The downloaded file contains all lines shown in the current schedule: suggested visits at customers, fixed appointments, drives, breaks and waiting times, departure and arrival for each day. Also, a summary for each day and for the whole plan is included.

By choosing the option “include customer data” or “include appointment data”, the exported lines for appointments and customer visits will include all data fields of the related customers or appointments respectively.

Schedule-Export-Export

 

Exporting the schedule is a useful feature for everyone who wants to archive the schedule, forward it to third parties or process it electronically.

Hints:

  • For the automated processing of schedules in enterprises with 2 or more field reps, exporting the schedule is now available as part of the API. Read the API documentation to find all details on the new “ExportSchedule” function.
  • The options “include customer data” and “include appointment data” are not available for users who lack the permission for data export or who are using portatour® Anywhere in combination with a host system (Salesforce, Dynamics CRM, Connector).

Extended permission system

Companies who have used portatour® with two or more field reps already know the classification of users into the authorization levels “user, supervisor and administrator”. With today’s update of portatour® you can now toggle access to over 15 portatour® program features based on the existing authorization levels.

Manage Permissions

This is where you administer permissions:

  • If you are the administrator of a portatour® Anywhere account with two or more field reps, click Menu > Options > Permissions.
  • If you are the administrator of portatour® for Salesforce, install the latest version (download for Salesforce) and then administer the portatour® permissions in Salesforce via portatour® > Options > Permissions.
  • If you are the administrator of portatour® for Dynamics CRM, install the latest version (download for Dynamics CRM) and then administer the portatour® permissions in Dynamics CRM under Settings > portatour® Administration > Anywhere permissions.

This is the effect of restricted permissions:

  • If you set a permission to „All Users“, the feature can be utilized by users, supervisors and administrators. This is the default setting. No restriction is applied.
  • If you set a permission to “Supervisors & Administrators“, this feature can only be executed by supervisors and administrators – in fact even when the supervisor or administrator logs into another user account. This means the supervisor or administrator may even access the respective program feature in a user’s account if the actual user has no permission for it.
  • If you set a permission to “Only Administrators“, the previous bullet point applies to administrators only.
  • If you set a permission to “Nobody“, the feature is deactivated for everyone, even for administrators.

The purpose of restricted permissions:

  • Maintaining data integrity: If – for example – you automatically and regularly import your customer data from your company’s ERP system, it might make sense to restrict the deletion and editing of customers or the manual import of customers in portatour®.
  • Requiring consultation: Restrict the affected feature if you consider it necessary for users to consult a supervisor or administrator before changing certain data and configurations (e.g. execute data restoration, change report settings).
  • Hint: Only restrict the functional scope for users to the extent you consider indispensable. Excessive restrictions will have an effect on the usability of portatour®.

Please note:

  • The restriction of “Edit call report history” means that no call reports may be created, edited or deleted for past days.
  • The restriction of “Transfer data” means that no customers (incl. appointments and reports) can be moved or copied between users via customer mass editing.
  • Changes of permissions in Salesforce and Dynamics CRM will only have an effect after the next synchronization with portatour® Anywhere.
  • There is no permissions administration available for single user licenses. They can still use all program features as usual.

We are pleased to offer an additional instrument for adjusting portatour® to your company’s requirements by providing the new permissions administration. Do you have feedback? Simply send an e-mail to feedback@portatour.com.

Getting more out of portatour® with the new application check

Automatic route planning software can only be as good as the data and settings it is fed with. In addition, the software only achieves its full potential if it is used properly.

We from the portatour® team want you to achieve best results with portatour®. Therefore, we have added the “Application Check” feature to portatour®. At the push of a button portatour® automatically checks more than 35 criteria regarding data quality, scheduling parameters, territorial characteristics and usage hints. Over the past years, our team has identified the typical road blocks which frequently arise during the introduction of automatic route planning and summarized them in a comprehensive criteria catalogue.

As a result of the application check you receive an inspection report with detailed information which criteria have been met and where improvements are recommended. Click the respective line to learn which specific problem has been identified, its effect and how you can solve it, and – for enterprise accounts with several users – which users are affected.

Application Check EN

This is how you get to the portatour® Anywhere application check:

  • If you are an administrator or supervisor of an enterprise account click the new menu item “Organization > Request report”.
  • If you are a field rep request the portatour® report as usual in the options. From now on, it will contain your personal application check at the end.

PS: Please install the latest version of  portatour® if you use  portatour® in combination with Salesforce or Dynamics CRM (download for Salesforce, download for Dynamics CRM). After that, the administrator can also start the application check directly from Salesforce or Dynamics CRM respectively.

In-house feedback button

When you introduce portatour® in your company it is – especially in the initial phase – decisive for success to tackle users’ questions and problems quickly and easily. In order to better ensure that, corporate clients with purchased licenses now have the possibility of configuring a feedback button in portatour®. As an administrator you simply go to the “Program Settings” in the options menu and enter the e-mail address to which the feedback mails shall be sent – e.g. to the internal project supervisor. The feedback button will always be displayed for users on the bottom left corner of the screen.

In case users have questions about using the software or scheduling, they can simply click the feedback button and describe their problem. The current portatour® report is automatically attached to the feedback mail and contains both the current schedule and the new application check. Optionally you can also attach files, e.g. screenshots.

Feedback EN

In case the project supervisor cannot answer a question, the supervisor can send it to the portatour® support team under support@portatour.com who is available as “2nd level support”.

P.S.: Please install the latest version of portatour® if you use portatour® in combination with Salesforce or Dynamics CRM (download for Salesforce, download for Dynamics CRM). The configuration of the feedback button is carried out by the administrator in the portatour® organisation settings. 

Longer notes field for call reports

Due to many requests, the note field in the portatour® call report has been extended from 254 to 1,000 characters, i.e. it now offers four times the space for your text protocols.

PS: Please install the latest version of portatour® if you use portatour® in combination with Salesforce or Dynamics CRM (download for Salesforce, download for Dynamics CRM) in order to apply the extension. 

May 2015 update

We have released an update of portatour® on our servers and released new downloads.

You will find detailed information about the improvements in these two articles:

We wish you a productive time using these new features and are looking forward to
your feedback, which you can send us to feedback@portatour.com .

P.S.: Should you be using portatour® in combination with Salesforce, update to the newest release (download for Salesforce) to access these features.

New maps 2015 with improved driving time estimation

We have updated our map material to the current state of 2015.

At the same time we improved the driving time estimation of the schedule calculation. For the first time, the driving time of a street segment will be estimated based on historic driving times collected by navigation system providers and mobile telephone carriers from the movement patterns of millions of drivers.

These improvements, together with changes in the road network may affect driving times between customers, so we recalculated them for you in portatour®. Some users might notice the change when updating the schedule for the next time.

Through this update, one part of portatour® changes: at Options there are Driving Speed settings. Previously, you were able to enter an absolute driving speed here (i.e. in miles per hour). From now on, you set how your driving speed relates to historic average driving data. For example, “on highways I drive 10% faster than the average”.

 

DrivingSpeeds

We are happy that this update improves the schedule quality considerably and adds additional optimization to the routes created by portatour® for you.

Hints:

  • Real time traffic information (for example: traffic jams caused by accidents) are not considered in route planning.
  • The historic driving times are always the average value of the whole working day. For road segments that have diverting driving times during rush hours the daily average is used as a basis for calculation.
  • Should you suffer by slow traffic based on “rush hour” traffic in cities, we recommend adapting the driving speed option on city roads, for example to “30% slower”.
  • Should you have adapted the driving speed settings already before this update, your settings have been automatically converted to the new setting.