February 2006
University of Prophesy Introduces Dispatch Open Courses
Group Classes Allow Top Quality Training at Affordable Price
Scheduled Dates at Training Center in March, April 2006
Prophesy Transportation Solutions Inc. leading provider of fleet management software for the trucking industry recently expanded their roster of Dispatch course offerings to meet the demand for training among Prophesy’s rapid-growing base of customers. New course offerings include a series of Dispatch Open Training Courses, which are ideal for new employees of existing Prophesy Dispatch Customers, and existing customers in need of a refresher on their software. These open courses allow multiple companies to attend training in a classroom-style environment, at a price lower than traditional private training.
Upcoming Prophesy Open Training Courses will be held on March 6-7, and April 6-7, 2006. Prophesy customers should call 800.776.6706 to reserve their seats. Additional courses will be scheduled to meet demand.
Prophesy Open Training 2-day courses follow a fixed agenda, covering the software basics including:
§ Creating Rate Schedules
§ Setting up Goods, Customers, Equipment Codes, Trailers,
Tractors, Lessor/Brokers and Drivers. How to associate
defaults to save on data entry.
§ Booking Simple Truck loads, Multiple Customers on a
§ Load, Creating Frequent Loads.
§ Dispatch Board Set up and Management
§ Loose Shipments (Multiple shipment loads)
§ Check Calls and Advances
§ Split Loads
§ Printing and Posting Freight Bills and correcting posted bills.
§ Driver's Settlements
§ Posting Fuel Taxes
§ Reports
§ Utilities
§ Lab: Building and managing loads, freight bills, drivers pay, reports.
§
Interfacing to QuickBooks® Pro. Or using Prophesy Accounting
Customizing vs. default accounts.
§ And much more!
“Our Open Training courses have quickly gained popularity with our small to mid-sized customers,” said Prophesy President Edward J. Forman. “This option allows these users to secure the high quality training that our customers have come to expect from Prophesy, while allowing them the flexibility to send individual employees to training as needed.”
About the
University of Prophesy
Fueled by sales of their best selling DispatchSeries software,
Prophesy Transportation Solutions, Inc opened the state of the art University
of Prophesy training facility in August 2005, to accommodate the needs of their
growing customer base. The new space tripled the company’s capacity to train
users of their top-rated dispatch solution.
The state of the art facility allows Prophesy to offer an increased roster of course offerings, including intensive training on the system as well as advanced instruction on key options such as mobile communications, EDI, Internet Shipment Status, and Fleet Maintenance.
Prophesy, The Total Solution for Trucking.
More trucking companies use a Prophesy software solution than any other brand on the market today! Quite simply because Prophesy Transportation Solutions has built the industry’s leading total trucking software solution, designed to manage every facet of a growing trucking operation with integrated, comprehensive and easy to use features that ensure unsurpassed efficiency and greater profit.
For more than 20 years the Prophesy name has represented quality, reliability and affordability for the trucking industry. Prophesy products offer reliable control over daily trucking operations, yet are easy for growing trucking companies to implement, integrate and afford. This approach allows our users to build upon their total solution as their needs grow. For more information on the Prophesy Total Solution for Trucking, visit us on the web at www.mile.com today!
Prophesy Introduces On-Site Software Implementation Team
Mobile Software Consultants Travel to Customer Site to Jump-Start Implementation
To meet demand of the fastest growing dispatch software customer base in the industry, Prophesy Transportation Solutions Inc has added a new division to their customer training and implementation team. The Prophesy On-Site Implementation division encompasses a team of mobile consultants dedicated to getting the company’s new customers up and running quickly, while assisting with setup of proprietary information such as accounting/QuickBooks configuration, populating database (customers/resources/goods/rates), managing loads, billing customers and paying drivers.
“Prophesy DispatchSeries software is widely known to be the most user-friendly trucking software package in the industry”, said Prophesy President Edward J. Forman. “However many of our customers are so busy handling fast growth that they want and need assistance onsite to get them up and running immediately. We created our Implementation Team to minimize growing pains by walking customers in need through the migration process firsthand. This helps some of our newer customers to move their existing information into the powerful Prophesy system without missing a step.”
The Prophesy Implementation Team will assist with:
§ Setting Global Preferences
§ Populating Database
o Creating User Accounts
o Creating Custom Rate Creating Customer Records
o Creating Driver Records
o Creating Carrier/Lesser/Broker Records
o Creating Tractor/Trailer Records
o Creating Goods Records
§ Managing Loads and Shipments
o Loads – Booking, Changing Status, and Completing
o Loose Shipment
§ Dispatch Board
o Setting Preferences and date ranges
o Searching
o Using
§ Accounting
o Computing Driver Pay
o Printing and Posting Fright Bills, Driver Pay, Advances, Fuel Taxes, Maintenance
o Quickbooks Export
o Reports – Standard Report, Custom Filtering, Exporting Data for Analysis
§ Utilities
o Importing and Exporting Data
o Setting up User Defined Mileages, Geocoding, etc.
o Clearing User Views, and Flags
Prophesy, The Total Solution for Trucking.
More trucking companies use a Prophesy software solution than any other brand on the market today! Quite simply because Prophesy Transportation Solutions has built the industry’s leading total trucking software solution, designed to manage every facet of a growing trucking operation with integrated, comprehensive and easy to use features that ensure unsurpassed efficiency and greater profit.
For more than 20 years the Prophesy name has represented quality, reliability and affordability for the trucking industry. Prophesy products offer reliable control over daily trucking operations, yet are easy for growing trucking companies to implement, integrate and afford. This approach allows our users to build upon their total solution as their needs grow. For more information on the Prophesy Total Solution for Trucking, visit us on the web at www.mile.com today!
SQL Server Interface Reduces Dispatch Processing Time by up to 36%
Offers Added Security & Reliability for Prophesy Dispatch Users
Most Prophesy Dispatch users should consider our powerful SQL Server database capability. This feature allows dispatch information to be hosted in a Microsoft SQL (Structured Query Language) Server database, affording users greater speed and database integrity and multi user management .
Users will notice immediate improvements in processing speed, when using SQL Server. Tests run by Prophesy reflected an increase in dispatch processing speeds of up to 36%. “These increased speeds translate into superior processing efficiency and reporting capacity for our Dispatch users,” said Prophesy President Edward J. Forman. Other key features include advanced automated management tools that enable users to maintain the reliability of their database using advanced maintenance checks as well as automated backup capabilities and much more stability and reliability in general when compared to Access.
Long-term benefits of using the SQL-Server version of Dispatch, lie in scalability. As your company evolves, the dispatch system will continually build a knowledge base of valuable historic information that will be used to optimize your decision-making for marketing efforts, backhaul optimization and customer profitability analysis along with many other functions to increase revenue and/or profitability. The most efficient and reliable way to manage this data is to empower your Prophesy Dispatch system with a SQL Server database. It should be noted that Microsoft® has recently made their SQL Server software available at no cost to most smaller users. This should be considered by all customers, except those running very small operations with minimal growth strategy.
To learn more about the Prophesy interface to SQL server, please contact your Prophesy Representative at 800.776.6706 or email moreinfo@mile.com.
Mobile
Comm Customer Focus
Storage
Services, Inc – Byron, GA
Storage Services, Inc. of Byron, GA has grown steadily since their incorporation in 1998. Today the eight year old company runs 12 trucks in the Southeastern United States, and they are implementing new technology to help keep up with demand. “We have always tried to stay ahead of the game technology-wise, said Angie Stanford, Office Manager. “Our success has come from our ability to change with the times.”
In 2005 the company implemented Prophesy TrackerSeries software to meet their mobile communications needs. The Tracker system allows Storage Services to account for the movements of their trucks and drivers automatically through the easy to use Prophesy GPS-enabled mobile communications system.
“There was never a question of what Mobile Comm system to go with,” said Stanford. “We have always been happy with Prophesy. Their products have always met our needs while being extremely cost-effective. When it came time to implement a mobile communications solution for our fleet , the first thing we did was call Prophesy to add on to our integrated system.”
While initially implemented as a risk-free way to track their fleet, the Prophesy Mobile Comm system has proved useful to Storage Services in a number of ways. “The system really does benefit both our dispatchers and our drivers,” said Stanford. “Our office staff uses the system to monitor stops and speed, assist with driver retention incentive plans, and of course to tell our customers where our trucks are. The system also works to the drivers benefit by tracking wait time, and offering proof of on-time delivery.”
Prophesy Mobile Comm is fully web-enabled, allowing users like Storage Service to simply log on to a secure website to pinpoint the movement of their mobile resources with a few mouse clicks. In addition, comprehensive activity, mileage and stop reporting features allow users to ensure that their mobile assets are used as intended… effectively and efficiently.
A customer since May of 2003, Storage Services also relies upon Prophesy solutions for Dispatch, EDI, Fuel Tax Calculation, Mileage, Routing, Driver Logs and Driver Management to operate their growing business.
For more information about the Prophesy mobile communications solution, please click here or contact your Prophesy Representative toll-free at 800.776.6706.
New
to TrackerSeries!
Customer Land-marking on Map
Prophesy has added Customer Landmarking to our Tracker website. This allows our users to create customer/location landmarks and display them on the map. Users can now see their customer locations in relation to their driver's location. Benefits include:
§ Improved customer service – if the driver is running late and the customer calls the dispatcher, users can notify the customer of the current truck location, and estimate the time of arrival.
§ Ability to identify backhaul opportunities by seeing where customers are in relation to drivers.
Find this new feature under your existing login by simply clicking on the “customers” tab at the top of your screen. Please contact your Prophesy Representative at 800.776.6706 for assistance.
New
to TrackerSeries!
Phone Exception Reporting
Prophesy has added Phone Exception Reporting to our Tracker website. This new feature provides our Mobile Comm users with a powerful, easy-to-use phone management system that monitors which phones are currently running the Prophesy application, which phones are tracking properly, and which phones are running on a low battery. A report is auto-generated on the Tracker website and sent to dispatchers and management (and optionally to the driver’s phone) so they can take proactive measures to address the issue. Features include:
§ Fully configurable reporting criteria to control which days, hours and conditions are being scanned for.
§ Hourly reports sent to up to 5 email addresses, pager, etc.
Find this new feature under your existing login by simply clicking on the “setting” tab at the top of your screen, and then selecting “phone exception reporting” … Please contact your Prophesy Representative at 800.776.6706 for assistance.
New
to TrackerSeries!
Prophesy Mobile Comm Runs on New Nextel® Phones
§ Prophesy Mobile Comm runs on the new i355 and i560 phones by Motorola®/Nextel®. The i355 is a monolith, rugged handset that replaces the i58 and i88 series handsets. The i560 is the first rugged clamshell handset supported by Prophesy Mobile Comm.
§ Prophesy Mobile Comm currently runs on the i58, i88, i275, i355, i560, i710, i730, i736, and i830 handsets. Prophesy plans to support the new i605 handset soon.
§ If you have purchased these models, please contact Prophesy at 800.776.6706 to set up your phones within your Prophesy TrackerSeries account.
New
to TrackerSeries!
New Flat Rate Data Access Plan from Sprint®/Nextel®
Plan allows unlimited data exchange at one flat rate
Sprint/Nextel now offers a $10 flat-rate Unlimited Data Access Plan. The new $10 flat-rate plan replaces the previous Data Access Plans that were tiered by monthly bandwidth usage (1MB for $9.99, 5MB for $19.99, etc.).
For $10 per month per phone, the new unlimited plan allows for
more data transfer between the dispatcher and mobile phones, and
also allows the mobile phones to upload to the Prophesy server
much more frequently (on average every 5-8 minutes).
We recommend that you check your Sprint/Nextel monthly statement to see if your phones have been switched to the new $10 Unlimited Data Access Plan, and then contact Prophesy to adjust your upload settings.
As always, please feel free to contact Prophesy at 800.776.6706 with questions or for assistance in securing plan changes.
New
to TrackerSeries!
Now Available: Mobile Comm SDK for OEM partners
Prophesy offers a Mobile Comm SDK for OEM partners. The Mobile Comm SDK allows third-party dispatch applications to easily integrate with Prophesy’s Mobile Comm solution, at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time.
The integration allows users to dispatch loads and scheduled itineraries (over 40 data fields) to drivers' mobile phones where the information is displayed and updated by drivers and then automatically sent back to the dispatch system (along with detailed GPS tracking information) for further processing.
The SDK integration also includes the power of Prophesy's web-based tracking solution that allows users to track the activity of their mobile resources from any Internet-enabled PC. This powerful feature is ideal when users are away from the office and need to manage their mobile resources remotely.
To learn more about this powerful OEM solution, please contact your Prophesy Representative today at 800.776.6706 or email moreinfo@mile.com.
How to Maximize Your Mobile Comm Investment
TRACKERSERIES USER TIPS
To get the most out of your Prophesy Mobile Comm system, we recommend using the following tips. (Please note: detailed instructions are available in the Prophesy Mobile Comm Reference Manual):
§ Always perform a “soft exit” when shutting off the Prophesy application on the phone, or when preparing to power the phone off. Perform a “soft exit” by going to CHOOSE OPTION/EXIT/YES in the Prophesy application.
§ Keep the phone charged at all times to avoid interruptions in service and data loss.
§ For the best GPS tracking results make sure the phone is positioned in an unobstructed position in the vehicle, close to the glass (ideally in a suction mount attached to the dashboard or windshield).
§ Set the phone up to Auto-start the Prophesy application each time the phone is powered on.
§ Take advantage of “shortcut” keys to launch and resume the Prophesy application.
§ Take advantage of the new Phone Exception Reporting feature on the Tracker website to receive automated emails for phones that are not checking in with the server, not getting GPS, and phones that have low batteries.
§ The team at Prophesy is committed to helping you maximize your investment in your TrackerSeries Mobile Comm Solution. Please do not hesitate to contact us at 800.776.6706 or via email at support@mile.com with questions on how to best use the system.
Coming
Soon!
Integration with TaxTally
§ Prophesy will soon release an enhancement to our TaxTally product to make use of GPS tracking as an alternate way to calculate quarterly fuel taxes. Prophesy Mobile Comm customers can take advantage of this functionality by tracking their fleets with their mobile phones. The movements of the vehicles are captured on the mobile phones (GPS) and sent back to TaxTally where they are used to calculate fuel taxes. Scheduled for release in 2nd quarter 2006.
Coming
Soon!
Enhanced Mobile Comm Customization
§ Prophesy is working to enhance our TrackerDispatch product so users can customize and reorder over 40 data fields that are sent to the mobile phone. This allows for a much greater degree of flexibility and lets users fine-tune the Mobile Comm product to suit their particular trucking operation. Also scheduled for release in 2nd quarter 2006.