Dossier Systems (www.dossiersystemsinc.com) used the occasion of its annual Dossier Summit to introduce Dossier 6.5 – the latest, feature-rich version of the company’s flagship software. The 27th Summit, Dossier’s annual User Group Conference, is taking place now in Philadelphia.
The company is a leading provider of intuitive fleet maintenance management software solutions for the surface transportation industry.
Bob Hausler, Dossier’s vice president of marketing and technology, says Dossier 6.5 “adds significant user benefits, while building on technology infrastructure enhancements introduced in versions 6.3 and 6.4. The most visible feature is a new notification system, called Active Alerts, which alerts personnel – such as drivers, operators, fleet managers and dispatchers – about events and/or status changes.”
Other major enhancements include expanded Standard Repair Time (SRT) tools and reporting, extensions of the External Work Management workflow and new Accounts Payable (AP) tools, plus additional and improved partner integrations.
Exception management
Active Alerts is all about time management, learning that action is needed sooner and dealing with issues in the moment instead of later, Hausler explains. It informs the right person that something needs to happen or that a status has changed. “Dossier has always been structured around exception management.
“The software’s Daily Reminder Dashboard doesn’t tell you that you have 500 units that don’t have a PM due, it tells you about the 50 that do. Active Alerts takes that philosophy to the next level and pushes those notifications out – automatically.”
Active Alerts provides information about PM events – due and overdue, work requests and In/Out of Service status changes. The alerts can go to an individual, a group of people for a given unit or globally.
“Everyone is being asked to do more with less,” notes Hausler. “Active Alerts makes it easier for fleets. Instead of making the time to check something, Dossier will electronically ‘tap your shoulder’ and give you the info.”
SRT tools
Dossier 6.5 also has an enhanced suite of Standard Repair and SRT tools. The new SRTs can be used across multiple sites for evaluation against company or OEM standards.
All templates fully support VMRS (Vehicle Maintenance Reporting Standards) coding standards for parts, labor and work accomplished. An expanded array of reporting tools not only shows technician performance, but also shops’ compliance with using SRTs for repair jobs.
Recognizing that more companies are using external service providers, either exclusively or in combination with their own shops, Hausler says Dossier’s External Work Management option now allows creation of an Authorization directly from a Work Pending item. Additional unit info is now associated with Authorizations, such as PMs and Work Pending requests.
A new FinanceLink export has been added which informs finance departments about completed work by external providers, and helps streamline the AP process.
Partnerships
“We are more focused than ever on partnering,” states Jack Boetefuer, CEO of Dossier. “We continue to leverage the recent technology additions to Dossier to enable us to add and strengthen relationships.
“We have released the DCloud-based integration with another new telematics partner, GPS Insight, and expect to announce several more integrations in the next few months.
“Our integration with McLeod Software, which has been extremely successful and has many joint customers, has been enhanced in Dossier 6.5 and now delivers an expanded array of data fields that are transferred between Dossier and LoadMaster Enterprise.”
Adds Hausler: “Dossier 6.5 contains many additional customer-driven changes and enhancements, including an expansion of Dossier’s already very rich library of reports.
