Workspaces: Open multiple users in different browser tabs

This update is intended for administrators and supervisors.

Previously, to open the account of a field rep in portatour®, in the user list you had to click the entry “Log in as this user” . This menu entry has been replaced by “Open workspace“.

Here are the advantages of the new workspaces:

  • It is now possible to have portatour® open in several browser windows or browser tabs at the same time and to see the workspace of a different user in each window/tab. This allows you to quickly switch between field reps at any time in the back office.
  • If you create a bookmark in the browser while you are in the workspace of a given user, the bookmark also contains information about the respective workspace. That is to say, when you click the bookmark, the workspace of the user in question opens automatically.

New Maps July 2021

Today we have updated the map data and traffic flow data on our servers.

Changes in the road network and driving speeds may affect driving times between customers, so we recalculated them for you in portatour®. Some users might notice the change when updating the schedule next time.

In addition, when displaying maps in portatour®, the loading times might take a little longer since the map details need to be downloaded to your device again.

Major June 2021 update

After an intensive development period, we have rolled out a major update of portatour® today. To read details about the new features, scroll down or use the following links:

Extensions especially for administrators of company accounts:

We wish you much success with using the new features and are looking forward to your feedback at feedback@portatour.com.

Display of and allowance for road closures

portatour® is now aware of current road closures and automatically takes them into account when calculating schedules. As such, necessary detours are taken into consideration when planning driving times. There is no need to change any settings in portatour®.

To display current road closures, proceed as follows:

  • Open the map.
  • In the top right corner, click the cogwheel icon.
  • Set the “Traffic” selection box to “Traffic: Road closures only”.

Road closures are displayed in black and marked with the following symbol:

Zoom in on the map to see closures on smaller roads.

portatour® updates the road closures once a week, usually on Saturdays. When doing so, portatour® also loads and takes into account future road closures expected for the coming week. This is helpful since as a user, your schedules are calculated into the future.

Display of probability of congestion on the map

For several years now, portatour® has been using historical speed data for the calculation of driving times. This data is collected by navigation systems and mobile phone providers by measuring the movement data of millions of road users and is provided for respective road sections. Road sections where the traffic flow data often shows congestion or slow traffic are either avoided or planned with longer travel times when calculating schedules. Traffic flow data is updated in portatour® on a quarterly basis.

What’s new with this update is that you can now display the affected street segments as follows:

  • Open the map.
  • In the top right corner, click the cogwheel icon.
  • Set the “Traffic” selection box to “Traffic: Typical for work days”.

Roads that are shown in red have a high probability of congestion on work days and are therefore evaluated judiciously when planning travel times.

Reminder: In the Options under “Driving Speed” you can further influence driving time. More about this in the online help.

Days off in the portatour® Report

In the “Call Reports” section, if there are any appointments, they are displayed for days where no report exists. This is especially useful for days off (vacation, holiday, etc.), as there is no longer any need to create an extra report for such days, provided that there is already an appointment on that day.

Extension of the API documentation with field descriptions

This enhancement is intended for developers who use the portatour® API for automated data exchange.

In the API documentation you can now find the field descriptions for each of the import calls, including the technical names for each field. You will need these if you manually edit the import configuration file. This is helpful, for example, if you add a new custom field in portatour® and want to map it for import via the API.

You can switch the language of the descriptions directly in the documentation. The technical field names for the import are language-independent.

Importing Options on a per-user basis

This enhancement is intended for administrators and API developers who regularly import user data in portatour®.

The user import now allows the import of the following options per user in supplementary columns, in addition to the home location:

  • Working hours
  • Work break settings
  • Overnight stay settings
  • Driving speed
  • Standard scheduling parameters of the user’s customers
  • Standard business hours of the user’s customers

You can see a description of the individual fields and the permitted values in the import wizard by clicking the (i) symbol of the corresponding field. Alternatively, you can find the description in the API documentation for ImportUsers.

It is not possible to export these fields.

New Maps February 2021

Today we have updated the map data and traffic flow data on our servers.

Changes in the road network and driving speeds may affect driving times between customers, so we recalculated them for you in portatour®. Some users might notice the change when updating the schedule next time.

In addition, when displaying maps in portatour®, the loading times might take a little longer since the map details need to be downloaded to your device again.

December 2020 Update

Shortly before Christmas we published a minor update for portatour®. Below you will find a description of the new features.

Map: More colors for displaying customers

It was already possible to color customers on the map not only according to urgency, but also according to other criteria, e.g. industry.

As a reminder, here’s how to proceed:

  • In the main menu, click Customers.
  • Click the map icon.
  • In the top right corner, click the cogwheel icon.
  • In the color selection box, select the desired criterion according to which you want to set the colors.

The assignment of colors to the different crtieria occurs automatically, whereby the limit was previously 5 colors. With this update, the color palette has now been extended to 20 colors. Here is an example:

Map: Hide customers by color

Regardless of which criterion you used to color the customers on the map, you can now hide or show all customers of the same color with a single click.

This is useful if you want to focus on individual colors on the map and avoid them being concealed by others.

Proceed as follows:

  • If the legend with the color overview is not yet open, click the legend icon at the bottom right.
  • To hide or show the customers of a certain color, click the eye icon to the right. The icon toggles between gray and blue.
  • To hide or show all customers, use the eye icon in the all row.

Edit customer reference of appointments and tasks

To edit the customer reference of an appointment or task retroactively, open the edit window. The current customer reference is displayed at the top.

Click the pencil icon to create, change or delete a customer reference. When changing the customer reference, the subject and address of the appointment can also be updated, if desired.

Typical use cases:

  • The appointment was imported and does not have a customer reference yet.
  • The appointment was mistakenly assigned to the wrong customer when it was created.

Note: If portatour® is connected to data sources in Salesforce, Dynamics CRM or Veeva CRM, the customer reference cannot be edited retroactively. Make the change in the source system or delete the appointment and recreate it with the correct customer reference.

New filters in the extended customer search

The following filters have been added to the extended customer search:

  • Call block: not blocked today
  • In “My Places”: any| no | yes
  • Accommodation : any | no | yes