UK-based developer of transport infrastructure management software systems, Yotta, has launched a new mobile version of Alloy, its next-generation connected asset management platform.
Now available for use on tablets, smartphones and other connected devices, Alloy Mobile will help drive operational efficiencies for council and local authority highways maintenance teams carrying out inspections or simply working on assets: engineers fixing street lights, for example, or repairing road surfaces.
The new Mobile system supports all existing Alloy modules including Asset Core, which sits at the heart of the platform and enables the creation of custom assets. Now available to users in the form of an app, Alloy Mobile is fully integrated with the main Alloy platform, which was launched in 2017.
Designed from the outset as an enterprise-level cloud-based system, Alloy allows users to achieve greater connectivity between assets, people and organizations. It provides rich, server-based mapping and Mesh functionality that embraces sensor-connected assets, allowing users to cross-examine them to further enhance decision making.
Alloy Mobile is currently available on Android mobile devices, with support for the iOS operating system due to be introduced soon. Yotta says that in the future it intends Alloy Mobile to evolve and accommodate the different types of work that a local authority does every day. Its capability will also increase over time to accommodate new customized assets, developed from scratch within the main Alloy platform.
“With Alloy Mobile, we were looking for a way to make it easier for council staff working out in the field to quickly take advantage of all the benefits of Alloy,” explained Manish Jethwa, Yotta’s chief product and technology officer.
“Partly, it’s about ease of use. Field workers can simply open the app on their phones and immediately receive a list of work that has been assigned to them for that day, while being able to quickly and easily submit updates as they complete their identified jobs.
“As we did with the main Alloy platform, Mobile has been designed from the ground up so the two can be fully integrated. You can do work on your own account in the web-based Alloy system and you immediately see that populate on the mobile solution and vice versa.
“It’s also very much about richness of functionality. Users can look up the full inventory of assets held on their network. If they identify an issue or an anomaly, they can review the inventory remotely and see if a record of it already exists. If not, they can create a record of it so that it is planned into the maintenance schedule, or just correct a difference between the record and the reality.
“This drives up user productivity and, by helping deliver more accurate data about assets, supports councils’ decision making. Another key benefit is that users can continue to work offline when no mobile connectivity is available. All changes made are immediately synchronized the next time they go back online.”
