Tonight at 10:00PM ET we will be rolling out Field ID 2013.3, our third release of 2013. We have been working on some great new features for Field ID that won’t be ready until May so we decided to put only a few small improvements in this release while we steam ahead towards May.

Android will be released with the Web tonight and iOS will be released as soon as Apple has approved it.

On the Web here are the improvements being rolled out tonight:

• Last Event Date on Search is now sortable. This now fully restores all functionality to Last Event Date.
• When you have attachments on Assets and Events there will be a link allowing you to download all of the attachments in a ZIP file.
• Some customers were having problems viewing and accepting User Registration requests – this is now fixed.
• Division names that have colons in the name were causing problems on the search selector.
• Pre-Defined locations are now associated with the Manage Customers / Job Sites permission instead of Manage System Configuration.
• Add “Unassigned” option to mass update Assigned To
• An issue where some users were getting multiple email notifications – this is now fixed.

On iOS / Android we have moved towards bringing all the features from Windows Mobile to iOS / Android. Here is the list of new features:

• Support Auto Generated Serial Number format on Single and Multi-Add
• Support Auto Attributes on Single and Multi-Add
• Support Add Asset History – add will now remember the values you typed from the last asset identified
• Fixed scanning RFID during Mass Event
• The Pre-Defined location list is now searchable

We are excited to bring these features to the new platform. They have been requested by multiple customers.

As we get closer to our May release watch this blog for some previews of the new functionality – we’re all really excited!

We have released a small upgrade to iOS and Android this morning to fix two bugs:

• Creating Schedules in combination with User Groups were not displaying locally
• If a User Group was updated on the web the mobile would sometimes have problems syncing the Users to the App

This release is available on Google Play now and the Apple App Store later this morning.

Today we will be releasing the upgrade for iOS and Android. We have brought some new features and a new look to our App.

Updated Design

This release we were adding some features which required an additional item in the menu. We took this opportunity to update the design of the menu, the color scheme throughout the app and cleaned up some of the icons for consistency between phone and tablet versions.

We have replaced the green and red online offline indicator with a new sync icon. If you are online the sync icon will be bright white and if you are offline the icon will be greyed out.

Mass Event

We have brought the popular Mass Event to iOS and Android. There are two ways to complete a Mass Event. The first is when you complete a Mass Add you will see the ability to Save and Start and Event.

The other way is to use the Wizard from the left menu. Click Events to get started. Simply scan or enter and identifier in the search and build your list of assets you would like to perform an event on. You can add up to 250 assets at once.

Support for User Groups, Assigning Actions to Read-Only Users, and Assigning Assets to People

We added support for User Groups which is a new way to segregate your data based on what group a user is in. As well, you can now assign actions to Read-Only Users and you can Assign Assets to the user User Type “Person” for asset tracking.

We are excited to provide the details of our newest Field ID Release, 2013.2 coming out Tuesday, March 5th at 10:30PM. The Field ID iOS and Android Apps are also being updated and will be available later this week (separate blog post with these updates coming soon).

Here are the major Field ID Web Changes:

Multiple Dashboards + Printing

We have added the ability for users to setup multiple dashboards with a redesigned interface for adding widgets. When you look at your dashboard you will see that the widgets drop-down has been replaced by three buttons.

Starting at the right you will see a “Dashboards” Button. This will allow you to manage your dashboards and create new ones. Next, is Widgets. This is where you can add or remove widgets to to your dashboards. The third is a print icon that will let you print your entire dashboard. For best results we suggest that you enable “Print Background Colors and Graphics” on your Print settings.

Assign Read-Only Users to Actions

Based on customer feebback you can now assign Read-Only Users to Actions. Since Read-Only users can’t perform the action in Field ID they will get an email outlining the action that they have been assigned. Once the Action has been completed it will be the responsibility of the person who assigned to action to go into Field ID and mark it as completed.

As always, if you would like the person who is assigned the action to actually complete the action in Field ID this person must be a Lite or Full User.

User Groups

One of the most powerful features of this release is User Groups. User Groups allow you to create groups for specific users in Field ID for the purpose of:

• Data Segregation – Users who are in Groups will only have the ability to see events performed by other members of the group. For example, John is in ABC Contractors Group. John can perform events and see other events performed by members of his group. However, John cannot see events performed by their competitors XYZ Contractors.
• Action and Event Assignment – Scheduled Events and Actions can now be assigned to a User Group instead of a individual person. Each member of the group will get an email indicating that they have been assigned a Event or Action and it’s up to someone in that group to complete the task.

As well you can set the User Group on the Users XLS import and export and report on User Groups.

To get started with User Groups look under Setup > Owners, Users & Locations. To get help or to see if User Groups are right for your account please contact Field ID Support.

People

We have added a new User Type to Field ID called “Person”. When you add a new User to Field ID you will see you have the option of adding a Person.

A person is a named person in Field ID that will be visible when Assigned Assets for personal responsibility. The “Person” User Type cannot login and cannot have actions or events assigned to them.

When importing and exporting through XLS this new user type is available.

Other Improvements / Bug Fixes

• Fix Last Event Date not showing up on Search (Phase 1)
• Priority Dashboard Widget wasn’t showing new Priority Codes
• N/A score was counting towards total score and percentage
• Recurring Events were not creating this years event the first time
• Fixed problem with Searching for Closed Events with Location
• Completed Events Widget didn’t show tool tips
• Allow “Sets From Result” on Event Edit
• The hover over on Event KPI will show the cursor pointer

We hope you love this release. The entire team has put a lot of hard work into it. It will be released on Tuesday March 5th at 10:30PM. Stay tuned for details on the iOS and Android improvements.

Dear Customers,

It’s with great excitement that we can now officially announce that the Canadian subsidiary of Master Lock Company LLC, has acquired N4 Systems, Inc. (Field ID).

We are truly excited about this new partnership and hope you will be as well.

For you, this acquisition will mean many great things.

1. More Features – Field ID is committed to adding more features and helping you to easily manage the complete safety lifecycle. This acquisition will mean more development resources for our team, which means we’ll be working to bring you new features faster. New Lockout-Tagout functionality is one new feature we are already working on. And that’s only the beginning.
2. Even Greater Support – We are adding more support resources to ensure an even better experience with Field ID. We pride ourselves on having amazing support, and we expect it’s only going to get better in the future with increased global support.
3. An Amazing Team – The Field ID team that you’ve grown accustomed will remain with the company and are committed to making Field ID even better for you. This includes the management team. Of course, Field ID will remain in Toronto, Canada.

To read more about this acquisition, please read our blog post at Modern Safety and the official press release at the links below:
http://blog.fieldid.com/2013/02/its-official-master-lock-company-acquires-field-id

http://www.fieldid.com/about-us/press/master-lock-acquires-field-id-safety-software

We are truly excited about the future of Field ID, and we hope you are too. Thank you again for your continued support. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Somen Mondal and the Field ID team.