Dispatch
From the first call to the right crew.
Bring service requests, assignments, schedules, and job progress together. Give dispatchers a clearer picture of what needs attention, who owns it, and what happens next.
Service requests
A dispatcher logs each incoming call as an Incident Call: one record that holds the building, device, customer, caller and priority. A call can be dispatched only when a maintenance contract or an approved proposal covers the work.
- A five-step form: Call Identifiers, Building & Device, Mechanic Assignment, Job Type and Notes
- Choosing a building fills in its customer, and its superintendent as the caller and phone, without overwriting what the dispatcher already typed
- The next call and dispatch numbers are filled in for each new call, stay editable, and a number already in use is refused
- Priority is low, normal, high or critical, alongside the customer work order, ticket type, job type, status and notes
- Calls are tied to a building, so they can be shown on a map as well as in a table
- Until the work is authorized, the call cannot be saved with a mechanic, and a proposal can be started from the call
Scheduling and assignment
The dispatcher chooses the mechanic for each call from the company's roster: the people with the Mechanic role. Once a call has a mechanic and authorized work, it becomes a dispatch and moves from Incident Calls to the Dispatches board. Unassigned calls stay on Incident Calls.
- A Schedule board with Calendar, Unscheduled, List, Mechanics and Map views, and day, week and month calendars
- Dragging a dispatch onto a day or time slot sets its start
- Reassigning or rescheduling updates the same dispatch instead of creating a new one
- An assigned dispatch is sent to the record the field app reads; a call with no mechanic never becomes a job there
- Unassigning or removing a dispatch takes the job off the mechanic's phone
- Route stops scheduled to a mechanic and awarded proposal phases also become dispatches on the same board
Operational visibility
The Dispatches board groups work into Assigned, Review and History tabs, each with a count, and can be searched, sorted and shown as a table or a map. A job lifecycle view follows each job from Authorized to Closed and flags steps that are overdue, blocked or failed.
- Each row on the board shows its source: Incident, Proposal, Route or Other
- Opening a dispatch shows what the mechanic reported: actual start and finish, total time and work performed, with a link to the time log
- An in-app notification appears when a dispatch is assigned, reassigned, unassigned, submitted for review, completed or cancelled
- A follow-up dispatch can be created from an existing one and stays linked to it
- An Action Items console tracks shutdowns, follow-ups, recommendations, equipment orders and required notifications, each of which can be linked to a dispatch
- Saving or deleting a call, and creating, assigning, rescheduling or cancelling a dispatch on the Dispatches board or Schedule, writes an entry to the activity log
Connected workflow
Dispatch hands work to the field app and to service operations. Each mechanic's phone shows only the dispatches assigned to them, and finishing a job on the phone sends it to the office for review.
- The phone receives the address, site contact, problem description, the dispatcher's notes and the planned parts list
- Start and finish taps on the phone are recorded, and the duration is worked out from them
- Job time recorded on the phone appears in the Time Logs view, which refreshes every minute
- An assigned call becomes a job of its type (Maintenance, Repair, Inspection or Modernization), or the job of the approved proposal that covers it
- Field progress moves the proposal phase or route stop a dispatch belongs to: Scheduled, In Progress, then Complete
- The dispatcher console's navigation also includes customer and building records, proposals, inspections, maintenance contracts, modernization, repair and purchasing
How it works
Five steps from the call to completed work.
The dispatcher logs, checks and assigns the call. The mechanic reports from the field, and the office reviews what comes back.
Request
A dispatcher logs the call as an Incident Call with its building, device, customer, caller, job type and priority. The call and dispatch numbers are filled in.
Review
A maintenance contract or an approved proposal has to cover the work before the call can be dispatched. A proposal can be started from the call.
Assignment
The dispatcher picks a mechanic, and sets a start time in the New Dispatch form or by dragging the dispatch onto the Schedule. The call becomes a dispatch and a job, and goes to the mechanic's phone.
Field updates
The mechanic sees only their assigned jobs and taps Start and Finish. Finishing sends the dispatch to the office for review, with the actual times and work performed.
Completion
The office approves and completes the dispatch on the board, and a linked follow-up can be created. The job lifecycle view carries on through Invoiced, Paid and Closed.
Connected
Works with the rest of Vertra
Get started
See how dispatch fits your operation.
Talk to Vertra about how your office handles calls, mechanics and schedules today, or follow the roadmap to see what is coming next.