AXLR8 Checkpoints Rev 4

AXLR8 Checkpoints Rev 4

We are delighted with the field testing of revision 4.0 of this device following client feedback – mostly from the security and retail field marketing industries. More information on the dedicated AXLR8 Event Staffing website.

All weather

AXLR8 Checkpoints are weather resisitant even in a very rainy country like the UK. We will also test them in cold countries soon to see if they can get through minus 30 cold snaps in Canada or Scandanavia. Not sure we will bother testing at 10m under the sea – even if it would make a good picture! The AXLR8 Checkpoint would survive in high pressure salt water for around a year, we believe. We would need to research sealants for longer than that. However, if you had mobile guards or countercover staff down there, then the scanning device would also need military specification sealing. We think about these things so you don’t have to.

Surface Attachment

AXLR8CheckPointV4
AXLR8CheckPointV4

It seems that small seemingly insignificant changes are more expensive than you would imagine but also more satisfying for us when done. If your client does not allow you to attach your proof of attendance check in and check out devices on to the walls with screws (the original designs) then we have 100% back surface for adhesive or double sided tape or velcro. Too many options to list. The AXLR8 Checkpoints may be customer installed. Obviously, do a “patch test” on a single device first if you use glue with chemicals that may contain acids or other corrosive chemicals. This caveat applies to the client’s wall or other surfaces too, of course. Some of these devices are under counters and several are in cupboards.

No power or network cabling

These devices are passive and so they do not need electricity or any network cabling. Staff checking in, out or about, just need a BYOD device (reasonably up-to-date iPhone or Android device) which virtually all of your staff carry with them, anyway.

Low deployment costs

Live powered networked intelligent scanning devices are expnsive to install and maintain. Where you need an intelligent networked device internet and electric suply plus battery back up and plenty of local memory, the costs are normally £1000 minimum to purchase, install, wire up and connect to the net. They are then vulnerable to weather, power and internet interruption, vandalism, etc. So insurance and maintenance are necessary. They do help if you have hundreds of staff with swipe cards as the cost per staff check in is low. We have relationships with Paxton and Almas Industries if you need this sort of swipe/ biometric device installed and we keep up-to-date on new products on the market all the time. However, AXLR8 Checkpoints are around £150-£300 installed and maintenance is basically occasional replacement due to landlords or clients restrictions on adesion methods on their walls or other surfaces. There are also cheaper share survices where AXLR8 have identified, for example, that three countercover agencies and one security firm all have staff working at the same location and all need the same check in, out and about recording functionality when their staff are working.

Wokingham Theatre expands seating layout

We are delighted to have completed the work on the new expanded theatre auditorium seating plan for Wokingham Theatre’s seat booking system. We met this morning and set the new bigger seating configuration live for September bookings.

Well done Wokingham Theatre! You could probably double the seat numbers and still sell out every performance!

Everyone at AXLR8 has enjoyed working for you over the years and seeing the club grow and, not least, the many wonderful perfomances we have attended.

AXLR8 at Cannes 2019 Film Market

Following up with several fast growing Film Sales Agents around the world who showed interest in the AXLR8 Film Rights system.  Many will be able to replace their present disparate systems including CRM, mailing, Film Rights and many spreadsheets with one comprehensive AXLR8 Film Sales system.

Looking forward to speaking with you soon and hope everyone ‘s trip went well.

AXLR8 Dashboard functions

AXLR8 Dashboard functions

We recently launched a new set of functions for building dashboards.

The functionality is being provided to beta clients and some new clients now.  It will soon become widespread.

AXLR8 Dashboards will address two key UI issues we have been working through in the last four years.

Cx Dashboard

The CEO and Cx suite (board, VPs, etc.)  will want different dashbards to the functional dashboards we have as standard in the project. A staff booker will log in to an overview of campaigns and a sales person may log in to their active deals. Howver, a CEO or COO may need a couple of graphs and two buttons to take them to some areas of P&L detail or other KPIs for the business such as client feedback scores.  Previously, we have built these as custom developments and they have been expensive and mostly only applicable to one specific customer.  Now AXLR8 can quickly model and deploy different dashboards for different directors/executive officers.

Functional Dashboards

These are the dashboards that would be used by specific staff and managers to achieve their job objectives on a daily basis.  For example a warehouse manager may need to know tools availability and testing schedules for the purposes of kitting out vans during each week with safe, servicable tools.  A talent manager may wish to see how many applicants came in over night and how the talent pool stands including whose SIA licence paperwork or work visas are coming up for renewal.

We will follow up with an article with some Use Cases in different industries.

AXLR8 Dashboards

AXLR8 has been working on a broad UI improvement strategy over the last four years.  AXLR8 Dashboards are one of the main planks of that strategy.   Apart from developer team alignment, creative new look and feel approaches and UI standards, the main UI development areas include:

  • Operational Apps which interact with the AXLR8 enterprise data in your company  – built for
    • Android tablets and smartphones
    • iPhones and iPads running Apple iOS
  • Specialist portals for field staff
  • Simplified vertical market portals for specific job roles including finance brokers, request managers and asset/warehouse, transport and maintenance staff
  • AXLR8 Report Builder UI evolution
  • AXLR8 e-Learning
  • APIs to other systems extending access for users (e.g. integrated credit check searches for sales people or integrated proposal entry for finance brokers)
  • AXLR8 Dashboards

AXLR8 Dashboards are customisable by AXLR8 Support Consultants.  In Q4 2019 we plan to add the skills into the AXLR8 Super User training course deliverables.  Many AXLR8 SuperUsers will be able to customise these AXLR8 Dashboards for their board directors to see their KPIs and metrics as well as for operational and field staff in specific professional areas such as broking, job tracking, government information request management, talent management (including  Applicant tracking, vetting and and staff bookings), sales, maintenance, and many more.

What is an AXLR8 Dashboard?

AXLR8 Dashboards are overview screens making access to your information quicker and easier.  The AXLR8 Dashboards Manager allows the Super User or Consultant to:

  • customise a view (e.g. an opening view after login) of the system with only the buttons, graphs, etc. that a user or group of users needs
  • cascade more reports and dashboards when that user clicks through to them

This is best illustrated with examples of how dashboards are used.

Who needs AXLR8 Dashboards?

Use case: CEO dash

CEOs often identify 5-10 key metrics they need to run the business and identify trends.  Most great CEOs also want to dig into the detail.  So an opening screen with these key metrics and buttons leading to reports and data on the main functional areas of their business: sales forecast, sales league table, customer satisfaction survey feedback, delayed projects, bookings, etc. can easily be made for the Cx who would normally not engage with systems.

Use case: Warehouse Operations dash

In this specific area, the people in the warehouse are agents for any business critical processes and for change and evolution.  To make a system easy for them to use, it must be built with their vocabulary and each function must be accessible from a simple menu or set of buttons:  Book goods in, what equipment needs a PAT  or PUWER test, what items are in repair, how many of those drills are available, which vehicles need an MOT (TuV, etc.), how many perishable items are three months from disposal.

Use case: Talent Manager dash

In one company this could mean a dashboard of applicant tracking data, in another it might be extended to vetting, staff surveys, staff work metrics and discipline.  Yet another manager may be using AXLR8 e-Learning to develop staff and needs to make sure goals on staff numbers with certain qualifications are achieved.  Talent managers will have differing goals from company to company and AXLR8 Talent Managment and ATS, Vetting and other functions need to be customised for each company’s needs.

Use case: Customer Support dash

The Support Manager, or Operations Manager will be measured by the Cx level managers on many critical metrics.  This dashboard can be customised so that buttons and graphs on the opening page may show graphs of or allow access to such items as:

  • Map of where my maintenance staff are today
  • Current customer satisfaction feedback scores from AXLR8 Surveys and similar AXLR8 functions
  • Any tickets or requests that have taken longer than target response or resolution times

 

AXLR8 Film Rights Sales System

The AXLR8 Film Rights Distribution system is aimed at film sales agents world wide.
It will be soft launched at the European Film Festival 2019 in Berlin (Feb 6-12th, 2019). Then it will be officially launched in Cannes during the Film festival there in May 2019.

  • Revenue and sales forecasting
  • Creation of a DM (Deal Manifest) short form distribution agreement
  • Creates and archives this and the LFA (long form agreement) with standard IFTA agreements or your own documentation
  • Sales order processing and payments accounting
  • Collections emails automatically chase debts using AXLR8 Debt Chaser
  • Full reporting of “Avails”: Films available in different territories
  • Records film titles distributor agreements for specific territories and prints out fully bespoke agreements including MG (minimum guarantee), expiry of distribution, etc.)
  • Records when film titles distribution rights will end for your reseller and hence when a film distributorship is up for renewal.
  • Reminders of film distribution review dates and expiry
  • Allows interfaces with your website
  • Newsletter broadcasts to clients and others
  • Sales and marketing tools
  • many more features

The system requires no server or other systems investment. That is because it is hosted, managed and backed up on AXLR8Cloud. It is offered to clients as a subscription service (SaaS).  So you just need a browser on your PC Mac, Tablet, iPad or smart phone.

Please contact AXLR8 if this is of interest and you would like a demonstration.

AXLR8 Geofencing for Staff Attendance

AXLR8 have a proven reliable track record in the BYOD geo-location of staff using smartphones. However, geofencing has always been reserved for our asset tracking modules.
Now our staffing agency clients and others in construction, debt collection, and many other verticals want to be able to stop people checking in for work at remote locations unless they are actually there.
Unfortunately, there has always been a tiny minority of remote workers who check in on time but are actually a mile or more away from the place where they are being paid to provide a service. In a couple of cases, people have checked in for a work day at a retail outlet demonstrating products and it has been proven by the AXLR8 system they were still at home. Reputations take a long time to build in staffing agencies. Those guys wreck an agency’s hard earned reputation and they have nowhere to hide if they attempt to defraud an AXLR8 client using AXLR8 Proof of Location systems.
Please contact us for more details.

AXLR8 commercial client GDPR

AXLR8 have produced the following AXLR8 GDPR document for clients in the commercial sector – especially those who use direct mail with our Newsletter Builder and other tools in B2C markets.

It also refers to a new AXLR8 Data Cleaning document.

Staffing Clients

Those in staffing will find it useful as there are some pointers about adding the Opt Ins to your staff contracts.  It seems reasonable to ask staff to read email in order to see what what work is coming up, confirming/ changing shifts and so on.  More is available on our specialist staffing website at http://staffing.axlr8.com.

For example, we will be covering data retention periods and especially applicant data and data about terminated staff (with and without payment history.

Government  Clients

AXLR8 are creating special new SAR 30/60/90 Information Request Types.  More details are on the way to government users of our FOI systems.

AXLR8 Telephones will be down on Saturday 10th March

If you have called in on any of our 01344 776500 lines, you may have noticed an intermittent crackle that has worsened over the last few days.

Open Reach are coming in at some point on Saturday aftrenoon 10th March and the 01344 776500 main lines will be down for at least an hour or two as they test and replace.

This problem does not seem to affect outgoing lines (which you should be able to use as well) starting 01344 75354x (e.g. 01344 753540 and 01344 753541 plus several DDL lines.)  If we are not answering and it is urgent, please email  or use a director’s mobile phone number.  Just to confirm, Helpdesk answering times are 9-5 M-F excluding English public holidays.  However, for foreign clients and in emergencies, we can be contacted most evenings and weekends and public holidays.  I cannot remember a time when this has ever been abused.