Mobile Application

Overview

This article describes the StreetSmart mobile application, including all of its features, how it is used by mobile workers and which information is submitted from the app, and then can be reviewed from the web portal.

Introduction

The mobile application is the main component of the product - it is being used by field workers: merchandizers, delivery workers, construction workers, home health care workers, etc. They use the application to log their working time, trips, submit jobs, invoices, forms, and track their GPS location. All this information is being transferred automatically to the StreetSmart servers and then can be reviewed by managers and administrators on the web portal or transferred to 3rd-party payroll applications via web services.

Description

Once the company bought a StreetSmart subscription, workers can install and activate the mobile app. Depending on the customer (company) needs, workers may be using various StreetSmart features. Let's review an example of a day of a worker who uses all features of the mobile app. Let's call the worker John.

At the beginning of the day, John opens the mobile application and starts the application, he starts his shift right away and checks jobs assigned to him by the company.

Each job includes the name of the task, location, distance and the scheduled start time. 

Then, the worker tracks his trip to the job location to get reimbursement for the mileage. A photo of the users odometer can be used as proof of the traveled mileage. Also, once a trip is completed, the optimal route from the start to the endpoint is calculated and the number of miles or kilometers is compared to the number reported by the worker.

Once the worker arrived at the location, he starts his job in the application and gets down to work - the time spent to complete the job starts tracking.

Jobs may contain from 2 actions (Start and End job) to more than 10 actions in case the customer wants to track how much time was spent on each action (e.g., diagnose equipment, remove broken equipment, install new equipment, test the equipment after installation).

Also, a form, which needs to be completed by a worker, can be attached to any job action. Customers can also create ad hoc forms that can be completed by workers when needed. For example, a worker completed a job but a customer wants to order another service/item to be delivered on another day - the worker submits all the provided information via a form from the mobile app.

Workers can also create invoices to bill customers for performed services and used parts while completing a job.

Once all services are done, the worker can complete the job in the StreetSmart app and start a trip to another location. 

Workers can also create jobs from the mobile application if this option is enabled for a job type. Normally, jobs are created from the web portal.

GPS location of the worker is tracked all the time while the application is active and is transferred to the server every 15 minutes (by default).

Managers and admins can check worker status and location from the web portal any time. Also, managers can check the activity log for each worker. 

Additionally, managers or mobile supervisors can use the mobile app to start and stop shifts for workers within their team. In this case, workers do not need to have a StreetSmart service and mobile app activated.

Managers can also configure the mobile app to start automatically during hours of operations. However, this option works only on Android devices and feature phones.

Common Issues

Activation Issues

The most frequent issues are related to the activation of the mobile app and usually are caused by the following reasons:

• Worker is entering the wrong PIN or phone number (which is not associated with their account).
• The app cannot connect to the StreetSmart Server.
• The phone does not have an active StreetSmart package.

If a worker entered a PIN for another user (e.g., when a mobile device is handed from one user to another), their activities will be tracked under the wrong user account.

If the PIN number is not required to activate the app and device override is enabled and a worker activates a number that was previously activated under another worker, the number/device will be activated under the old account. In such cases, the worker can perform clear activation, or the manager can deactivate the device from the web portal and the worker will need to activate the app again.
Note: If you are in a call with a worker and they need to perform clear activation or clear record store (which have similar functionality), you can deactivate the device from the web portal and have the worker activate the device from scratch.

If the device override is disabled, workers will be able to activate the app only when the device is deactivated by a manager or administrator.

Server Communication Issues

Customers may report various issues that are caused by the fact that the device is not syncing with StreetSmart servers:

• Forms, jobs, timesheets are not displayed on the web portal
• Jobs, locations, forms are not displayed in the mobile app
• Device is not tracking or not communicating with the server

If a customer wants to know why a device stopped communicating or tracking, they (and agents) can check mobile application logs, which shows events when the user turned on/off GPS location tracking, airplane mode, powered off the device, or when the battery level was low and device may have turned off itself.

Note: There is a known issue that devices Kyocera Dura XV cannot track worker's location unless the bridge URL is changed. You can try to update the bridge URL when other devices are not tracking as a last resort solution.

Other Common Issues

If users installed StreetSmart on a device that is not part of the Supported Devices list and face issues where certain features of the app do not work as expected, we can provide limited support (following existing solution articles) and we cannot report these issues to the Engineering team.

<supportagent> New devices are added to the list of supported devices when Verizon (our biggest customer) contacts BU and requests to perform testing of a device. Testing is done by the BU in the US (using Verizon cellular network) - if no issues are found, the device is added to the supported list.

</supportagent>

If the app is not functioning as expected on a supported device (workers cannot close the app, submit form, or complete job, etc.), the issue might be caused by corrupted cache files and the worker needs to clear record store in the app. If this activity or installing the app from scratch does not resolve the issue and you cannot find any other root causes, please submit a request to support including debug logs provided by the customer for the affected device. Make sure you are using the latest version of the StreetSmart application.

<supportagent>

Such issues need to be elevated to Engineering.
Note: The customer must be using the latest version of the mobile app - to be able to report an issue to the ENG team. 

</supportagent>

Another issue is that a Low Memory error message may be displayed when there are a lot of applications or browser sessions opened on the device.

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