The post How to Manage a Worrysome Winter Workload by Using Okappy appeared first on Okappy.
]]>As the cold winter draws in, the giddy days of summer seem long gone and talk turns to storms and heavy snow. Cold weather and poor conditions brings new challenges to many companies. On the plus side, many businesses have an influx of work as a result – especially if they deal with heating or plumbing.
However, dealing with a large influx of new jobs can be daunting. What’s more, winter travel conditions mean that mobile workers can be delayed by traffic and congestion.
So how can Okappy help you deal with increased job demand in winter?
Using a central job management system means you can get a complete overview of all open jobs. That means you can divide the workload more easily, which is vital during busy periods.
When a new job comes in, you can allocate it to the right worker based on what they are doing, where they are, and what jobs they have lined up.
It also eliminates the need for paperwork, keeping your stress levels from rising.
Okappy‘s radar mapping function gives you a bird’s-eye view of the local area, and will show where traffic and congestion is building up. Thanks to real-time GPS tracking from the Okappy mobile app, it also shows where your workers are.
Knowing where your workers are means you can strategically allocate jobs so that employees don’t get caught in traffic. Spend less time communicating with drivers
A sudden influx of work usually means you’ll need to give jobs to employees throughout the day. With Okappy, you can enter a job into the system and allocate it to your workers with a click of your mouse.
They’ll get an instant alert sent to their Okappy mobile app – meaning you don’t have to spend time calling them or writing out job sheets.
Okappy can help you manage your workload by reducing the amount of time you spend on the phone with customers. The system allows you to send SMS messages to customers whenever there is a problem or delay, so you’ll have fewer people ringing for updates.
When customers do contact you, you’ll be able to deal with their calls quickly. Every job’s status is updated live by your workers, and you can see each employee’s location through real-time GPS tracking. With a couple of clicks of your mouse, you can see how long each driver is going to be and pass the information on to the customer.
During busy periods, trying to check the progress of every single job can be overwhelming. Okappy enables you to find out any time there is a problem without actively monitoring every worker.
Using the Okappy mobile app, workers can update each job’s status any time there is a problem or delay. Your overview screen will be updated to show which jobs are running late, and you can set Okappy to give you notifications or SMS alerts in these instances.
The upshot is that you don’t have to spend time tracking every job – leaving you free to focus on other problems like unpaid invoices.
Check out all the features of Okappy’s job management software and how it can help your business.
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The post How to Manage a Worrysome Winter Workload by Using Okappy appeared first on Okappy.
]]>The post Traffic and the school run appeared first on Okappy.
]]>The summer holidays are over and when you see the volume of traffic on the roads during the morning rush hour commute to work, you really know about it. In the school holiday weeks isn’t it great when commute times drop dramatically, simply due to parents not driving children to school. According to recent Trafficmaster reports, this constitutes a 10% reduction in traffic. Increased congestion in the mornings as a result of school run traffic causes average journey times on some roads to triple in length. Is this a reason to consider staggering either school or business hours to cut the peak traffic periods? Will this be the next government white paper?
The congestion only happens briefly and is worse in the morning when school, office and retail commuting join forces on our highways and byways. Yet, on short sections of main and local roads, it can create significant delays, irritation and extra vehicle fuel gulping.
Philip Hale, spokesman for Trafficmaster, comments: “School holidays cut traffic on our roads by about 10 per cent, from a combination of parents taking holidays and not driving their children to school, but the effects vary widely.”
It seems sensible then for drivers to do all they can to avoid adding to the problem, by making detours from congested areas. “Knowing when and how your route will be affected and what alternatives there are could also save you significant time, money and frustration from getting caught in jams,” Mr Hale concludes. And it would also help the environmental cost of more CO2 emissions and fuel consumption. Road rage might reduce too.
We can all partake in intelligent driving. By using advanced GPS or satellite navigation with real-time traffic data, vehicle tracking, speed alerts and congested zone reports, offering an alternative route. You can also log on and get live traffic information on the PC at home or in the office.
Denis Chick, Trafficmaster’s Director of Communications, said: “There are now two peaks, at 8am and 9am during school term time, effectively extending the rush hour period by a further hour.
I can believe it. Well, it’s unlikely any of us can deter parents from ferrying children back and forth to school; after all, rightly or wrongly, most of us do this, concerned about safety and security. I guess a vehicle tracking device with real-time traffic monitoring and the ability to send and receive alerts is one good answer. It doesn’t cost a fortune either which has to be good news for busy businesspeople stuck in those school run jams.
Be great to hear your comments…
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]]>The post How to get success with life balance appeared first on Okappy.
]]>How temptingly tantalising, escaping the 9 to 5 drudge to become your own boss…
Yep, don’t think I haven’t been there, stuck in that boring predictable routine of employment, what a nightmare. But – and this is where we get serious – the reality of running your own company can be mighty demanding, especially on your time.
Ok, let’s be honest and make some fairly blunt statements: we entrepreneurs, company directors, general managers, call us what you will, we’re all marching in the same direction…to that sparkling little jewel at the top, called success. It’s your own special bubble and it’s not going to get easily blown away. Not if you’re made of the right material, the raw and solid stuff.
So far, so good; your self-made man dream is bursting to leap out and I’m not here to forestall you. Yet, there comes a time in every entrepreneur’s life when a voice inside screams: ‘Enough!’Nothing wrong in that…providing you listen, and take action.
Actually, having a good balance between your professional and private life will increase your motivation and productivity. There you have it in a nutshell, a healthy work/life balance. Er…how?
I am going to give you just 3 useful tips. There are others but no point piling it all on you at once:
Set achievable targets for different aspects of your work and personal life.
Stick to this strategy for about 3 months; you may be surprised at how your working hours become more productive. The aim is to get you shutting your office door gently, but happily.
How cool is that. Can’t stop, I’m off to see my friends at the sports club oh, and on to a great family barbecue afterwards. Wey, hey…it’s business as usual tomorrow.
Find out more about Okappy Job Management, how it can save you time and improve your work life balance.
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]]>The post How a tracking device can help with time management appeared first on Okappy.
]]>‘It’s all right for him, he’s got the time to succeed’ and you have exactly the same number of minutes and hours in a day to do the same. Have you thought of a GPS tracking device?
Well, every business owner knows the value of having the right tools to do the right job at the right time. If he wants to make a profit and stay in business, investment in such tools is a must. Yet many company directors don’t realise how much indirect time gets wasted in a working day that, with a low-cost investment, could easily be prevented.
Fuel bills mount when drivers are waiting at traffic hold ups, with a running engine on idle time. If they had known in advance about a major road incident blocking, they could swiftly have diverted and saved you a fair bit on fuel.
Working schedules often change at the last-minute. What job is being re-allocated to whom, why didn’t you get the message in time? The mix up not only lost minutes but the boss has to make phone calls to get it sorted and more time is lost in doing so.
Get the picture? Well, there’s a mountain more time being lost in a working day.
Naughty employees cannot resist using a company vehicle for unauthorised use. How much petrol is wasted making that diversion to visit a friend or nip to a store for some handy out-of-town shopping? Ok, not all employees are bad but all are human.
Maintenance schedules can be efficiently monitored, recorded. Regular checks, using the web-based software mean less time wasted on major break downs and repair. It’s so toddler simple you will kick yourself for not getting a device sooner when you no longer have to rely on your driver to bring you a report or waste time chasing him. With a GPS vehicle tracking system you will know exactly where any of your fleet are at any time of the day. How cool is that? Better maintenance means lower fuel bills too, simple.
Stolen assets are often overlooked in time management costs yet is the fleet owner’s perennial nightmare. You cannot recover the lost profits from theft, even when insured, because how do you make up for the loss of time in discovery, recovery, form filling and phone calls? Oh, and on top of that, the lack of business directly due to the stolen item.
Like choosing the weather, it’s impossible to create time. Yet everyday thousands of business owners put themselves through this misery, forgetting the inexpensive device that can track the items and locate in a matter of seconds, compared to hours, days, weeks, months…or never?
Now for the latest tracking technology on the market: check out the iPhone app, pioneered by a renowned vehicle tracking company, it offers huge potential at a super attractive price.
Vehicle tracking units can now be purchased in portable form too, so no need to install…and more time-saving!
Find out more about GPS Tracking and job tracking from Okappy and can how they can help you’re business.
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