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V1 to V2 Product Improvements

Rick Seemann Updated by Rick Seemann

Read Time: 10 mins

Sonar's legacy version is quickly approaching the end of life. To start taking advantage of all the improvements in Version 2 of Sonar, reach out to your Sonar Update Project Team! Just email SonarUpdateProjectTeam@sonar.software to book your Update Readiness Assessment today!

Below is a summary of some user improvements over our legacy software that are now available in the newest version of Sonar.

Custom Reporting

In V1, any custom reports were limited to whatever you could fit in a single SQL query. In the new system, Sonar's Business Intelligence tool is embedded directly into the software, allowing for more than 6500 data relationships to be exposed. In addition to better access to data, multiple reports can be combined in custom dashboards so that all data is accessible in a single view. There is also the ability to set reports to be emailed or sent via SFTP at a regular interval, or when specific thresholds are met.

Sonar Field Tech App

Instead of viewing the instance in a mobile browser session, a new application has been developed for iOS and Android. This enables field technicians to see all jobs booked today as well as up to two weeks out in a list view. Features include:

  • offline cache to store job data and automatically update to Sonar when connectivity is re-established
  • barcode scanning to add or remove inventory from accounts or network sites
  • adding custom tasks for the field technician to complete for each job type, including adding pictures or other files as a requirement to complete the job successfully
  • account and contact information that can automatically open GPS, phone, or email applications

Inventory

Users can now use a barcode scanner to scan multiple models and move them all at the same time, instead of on a per-model basis. We have also added Internal Locations for Inventory Locations so that shelf labels can be added.

IPAM

Although IPv6 was available in V1, the newer version allows you to automatically create IPv6 subnets in any IPv6 supernet at the time of assignment. This allows for much simplified IPv6 deployments by field technicians at the time of installation.

Billing Tools

Several small improvements were made to billing tools and the account view:

  • Account > Transactions now show the running balance of the account at the time the transaction occurred.
  • Deposit Slips also now include a subtotal for each selectable payment and calculate the total as payments are selected.
  • Batch payments will now search for name and account ID in the same field, instead of needing to select that field.

Advanced Filtering for Accounts, Tickets, Jobs, and Inventory

In V1, all filters were hard-coded for each different aspect of the software. While we believe we made good considerations for these filters to be useful to most operators, in the new system you can set custom filters for each of these pages and save the filters either for yourself, or to be added for the entire team.

Roles

V1 had several role permissions for each segment, but were still quite generalized to that specific module. In the new software there are over 350 unique permissions so that you can really provide access to only what a user requires to do their work. Some example permissions include:

  • Only view inventory assigned to accounts and network sites that you have permission to view, to yourself, or assigned to a vehicle that you are a driver of
  • View generated FCC exports
  • Perform an action that creates an account transaction (e.g., a payment, debit, discount.)
  • Assign inventory to accounts, yourself, or a vehicle you drive
  • Allow user to check themselves into a job

Serviceable Addresses

In V1, an account needed to be created to have an address you could assign inventory to. In the new software, inventory can be assigned to serviceable addresses, which accounts can be attached to and detached from. In this way, billing, payment, and customer information history can be separated from inventory and physical location history. So new accounts can be added to old serviceable addresses and the inventory and monitoring history for the lifetime of the address is maintained, reducing truck rolls and support time spent searching for old account information. Serviceable Addresses also support file uploads, custom fields, and can have custom statuses set – enabling you to indicate serviceability status on any address you like, even if it has never had active service installed. Optionally, you can link your Serviceable Addresses to your Network Sites, clearly indicating where it gets (or can get) service from.

API and Webhooks

V1 used a RESTful API which allowed for many sorts of custom integrations to be built. The new software has a GUI that is entirely generated using the GraphQL API. This means that if you can see it while navigating in the instance, you can use the API to see it or change it from another server. In addition to this, any event that takes place in Sonar is capable of firing a webhook to a remote server. Pairing these two things together means that effectively any type of custom integration is now possible to create.

V2 introduces a native option to have your customer invoices printed and mailed. Whereas V1 required you to maintain a relationship with a 3rd party vendor, leveraging this functionality in V2 is as simple as turning it on in your system settings, and configuring your preferred payment method.

Dynamic Time Zones

To provide more flexibility while scheduling jobs, viewing technician availability, and pulling up table details, Sonar V2 introduces the ability to dynamically display multiple time zones simultaneously. This functionality is available in different areas including Accounts, Network Sites, and all throughout the Scheduling pages.

Dispatch View Sorting & Filtering

By popular request, V2 introduces the ability to easily search and filter both the Jobs and Technicians in the Dispatch View of the Scheduling area.

Enhanced Voice Billing Features

To more easily support the billing and taxation of the often complex cocktail of debits that form a Voice Service, V2 introduces the "Voice Service Generic Parameter" (VSGP) concept. Think of these like a sub-service of a Voice Service, allowing you to define and maintain unique pricing and quantities of these VSGPs on an account level, streamlining the administrative work required to sell Voice Services to your customers, and dramatically improving the efficacy of reporting on this data.

Expanded Custom Field Support

V2 supports the following Entity Types for Custom Fields:

  • Account
  • Contact
  • Generic Inventory Assignee
  • Job
  • Network Site
  • Purchase Order Item
  • Serviceable Address
  • Ticket

Purchase Orders

Use Sonar V2 to manage the inventory purchase lifecycle end-to-end. Store Vendor information, link Inventory Models to Vendors to establish supply-chain relationships, and track the purchase price of your SKUs. With this information stored, you can generate Purchase Orders directly in Sonar, complete with the option to establish a request/approval user hierarchy to ensure proper purchasing controls are being enforced. Once a Purchase Order has been approved, Sonar can also take care of emailing the order to your Vendor. The final step in the Purchase Order lifecycle is allowing you to receive the Purchase Order Items, which automatically create corresponding Inventory Items within Sonar, logging information such as the Purchase Order they are linked to, purchase price, and more. Finally, Sonar can also help you determine your future purchasing needs by reviewing the new Purchasing reports, which can reference the target min/max inventory levels defined by location directly on your Inventory Models.

Scheduling Week View

The highly requested Week View is a new subset of the Scheduling module that will list all technicians, their scheduled jobs, drive times, blockers, and scheduled time-off within a specific selected week. Its primary usage is to provide a quick overview of availability, with the option to quickly toggle to the Dispatch view to carry out any desired edits.

Scheduling Validation Override Permission

Users with the new "Update a job skipping validation" permission enabled on their Role can override any typical programmatic restrictions/violations (Including: Availabilities, Blockers, Geofences, Job Overlap, and Time Off) when they schedule a job.

Single Sign On via Google & Microsoft

Introducing the ability to leverage Google & Microsoft as Identity Partners, allowing Sonar users to log into their instance via Single Sign-On (SSO) using their Google/Microsoft account, rather than entering their Sonar username & password. 

Communication Tools

This new app area consolidates all communication-related tools and configurations together, vastly improving related workflows. This section also introduces the ability to view all outgoing customer communication at an instance level. Create mass messages, set triggered messages to be sent when future events occur, and easily access the settings to configure related items such as saved messages and categories without having to delve deep into the admin settings panel where these configurations used to live.

iCalendar Integration

This feature allows users to generate an iCalendar link to synchronize their Sonar schedules to external calendars. Scheduled jobs, blockers, and time off are all loaded as events in your external calendar of choice, providing a hyperlink to the related Account in Sonar to easily access the fine details pertaining to the event.

SMS User Notifications

V2 introduces an integrated path to easily enable SMS functionality to deliver system notifications to your users. Whereas V1 required you to maintain a relationship with a 3rd party vendor, leveraging this functionality in V2 is as simple as turning it on in your system settings, and configuring your preferred payment method.

Configurable Landing Page Preference

This quality of life feature enables users to configure which area of Sonar they want to load when they first log in, or open it in a new tab. In addition to selecting between different areas for this setting, users also have the option of Sonar taking them back to the last page they were on, seamlessly allowing them to pick up where they left off.

Custom Map Overlays

Upload your own KML files to display custom data on Sonar's maps via user-toggled layers. These layers can contain geographic data in the form of points, lines, and polygons. Beyond that, any custom data attributed to the file's included features is displayed in the sidebar when the feature is clicked, making the possibilities nearly endless when it comes to displaying outside datasets in Sonar.

Job Type Conversion Workflow

Ever created a Job, only to later determine it was created using the wrong Job Type? In V1, this meant deleting the Job and recreating it under the desired Job Type. V2 allows you to easily edit the existing Job, converting it to the target Job Type with only a couple of mouse clicks.

GPS Vehicle Tracking Integrations

Integrate with 4 popular vehicle telemetry providers (Linxup, Track Your Truck, Verizon Connect, Zubie), allowing you to see the position of your vehicle fleet in real-time by referencing your maps (main map & dispatcher view map) in Sonar. From here, you can click on the vehicle to view additional information provided by your GPS vendor (such as vehicle speed, ignition status, mileage, etc.).

Aggregated Tax Option for Invoices

Enable this Billing Default setting to simplify your invoices. Instead of listing each tax alongside its related debit, taxes will now appear in a dedicated "Taxes/Fees" section, summarizing all taxes collected by type.

Additional Currency Options

135 new currencies are now supported by Sonar!

Bulk Voice Billing Data Uploads

Add dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of new Call Detail Records, DIDs, and Voice Provider rates simply and easily by uploading CSV files via Sonar's web interface. Sophisticated data validation is performed as part of this process, allowing you to ensure the new entries are being added as intended.

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