April/May 2007

MapMechanics is a new name to achieve a presence in the world of mobile task management and job allocation.

A system called MapMechanics Mobile has been unveiled, and the first big application has been rolled out with ISS, a facilities management company, which is using it on a major contract with Northern Rail (more in Keeping Track, page 36).

The system can combine routing and scheduling, mapping, wireless communications, real-time satellite navigation and vehicle tracking in a single package. Some components have been developed in-house by MapMechanics, while others represent best-of-breed applications. These include routing and scheduling, satnav, call handling and contact management.

The nerve centre of the system is Mobile Commander, which controls communication between mobile devices, integrating the output from the various elements of the system. This interacts with local versions of the system loaded on the mobile units, which will usually be Windows Mobile-based PDAs.

 

Vehicles are fitted with a PDA cradle equipped with a GPS satellite location device, which links to the PDA's satellite navigation software. Mobile Commander passes the call coordinates for each visit to this system, so drivers can be shown the route to the next call automatically.

The use of communications and location technology means that it is also easy to include a basic tracking system into the package.

Although new to mobile applications of this type, MapMechanics has been around for twenty years. It specialises in map-based technologies, geographical analysis and routing and scheduling systems, and its portfolio includes the GeoConcept GIS and the TruckStops routing and scheduling system.