MDSI Releases New Version of Advantex

July 27, 2006
MDSI Mobile Data Solutions Inc. has released Advantex 8, the next-generation enterprise workforce management solution

MDSI Mobile Data Solutions Inc. has released Advantex 8, the next-generation enterprise workforce management solution.

Advantex 8.0 is a step toward MDSI’s goal of providing a true enterprise-wide workforce management solution that manages all types of field work including service, maintenance, inspection, repair, trouble/outage, and construction. This release includes significant improvements to scheduling, workflow, customer configuration, and scalability – enabling MDSI to service both large deployments of 10,000 or more technicians, as well as deployments with less than 100 mobile workers. Advantex 8 includes more than 40 new features and major enhancements for managing work across the enterprise.

"Advantex 8 is a customer-driven product release. It has evolved from more than 13 years of real-world feedback managing day-to-day operations in field service companies worldwide," said Vince Burkett, president and CEO, MDSI. "Substantial improvements have been made to Advantex to equip customers with a complete, scalable mobile infrastructure that can be rapidly deployed, and immediately position them to improve customer service and lower operating costs. Advantex 8 raises the bar for workforce management solutions."

The migration of Advantex to the .NET Framework provides customers with the latest technology platform for planning, scheduling and executing all types of work across the enterprise. Advantex 8 meets the needs of different work groups and easily adapts to changing work practices as companies evolve and grow.

One of the major enhancements of Advantex 8 is the new optimized scheduling engine. With new scheduling components, Workforce Optimization and Workforce Availability, customers can significantly improve the efficiency of work order assignment. Workforce Optimization uses an enhanced scheduling algorithm to generate an optimal schedule taking into consideration latitude/longitude order assignment. Workforce Availability enables customers to drastically increase the volume of work orders and completion rates through a streamlined approach to recurring day-to-day tasks. The new dynamic geospatial scheduler helps automate complex scheduling decisions through a simplified and intuitive interface.

Advantex 8 also makes the move to a common mapping platform for the mobile and dispatch applications. Dispatchers and supervisors are able to see the location of their team and orders on the map; while technicians and crews can view their geographic areas, locate their work orders, and navigate to their orders using mobile devices. Viewing common geographic data across applications leads to faster diagnosis and trouble resolution, and enables dependable, responsive customer service.

"MDSI remains focused on aggressively implementing our product roadmap to better support enterprise-wide workforce management deployments. We are committed to providing our customers with an even greater return on their investment," said Burkett.

MDSI has already signed contracts to deliver Advantex 8 to eight new and existing customers in North America, Europe and Australia. "The early commitment to, and interest in Advantex 8 is very exciting. Not only do we have customers already contracted to implement the latest version, but we are seeing a tremendous amount of interest from our customer community to quickly adopt the next generation Advantex."

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