The dispatch screen in SOVA allows you to see live, up to the minute activities of your security team and track their movements in real time on a map. Our BackTrack feature accessible from this screen and discussed in detail below also allows you to view historical data going back to your first recorded activity in SOVA. You will find this to be a very useful tool in your investigations.

Core functionalities:

1. The green square shows a count of active users. These are users that are in motion, or have recorded an activity within the last 30 minutes. Clicking the green square filters the activity feed and map to show only those users. Clicking the " Refresh " button reverts to show all activities by all users.
   
2. Conversely, the red square shows a count of inactive users. Like the green button, this can be clicked to filter the map and feed to show activities by inactive users only. This is useful to keep eyes on users who could be in distress. Users move from active to inactive status when they have not posted an update to the activity feed and/or their device has been motionless for at least 30 minutes. Resuming activities would move the user from inactive to active status once again.
   
3. The Search button gives access to our exclusive BackTrack feature. Clicking that loads an interface showing colored pins around a map, representing user activities where each user is shown in a unique color. Placing your mouse over these colored map pins reveals details about that activity in a tooltip popup. In the BackTrack screen you are able to set a date range to show specific activities of interest which may be used during an investigation. While in the BackTrack screen you will see a button labeled "Heat Map". Click that will show a visual representation of activity levels at the various locations around your property. Tools within the Heat Map interface allow you to select regions of the map (draw a shape around areas of interest) which produces a report identifying the activities within the region. Another exclusive tool by SOVA to add to your investigation toolbox. Watch the video below to see the BackTrack and Heat Map features in action.
   
4. The " Cast Pic " feature in SOVA allows mobile users to capture and send pics automatically to all logged in mobile users, along with text notes. For example, let's say one of your officers is reviewing CCTV camera from the security base and sees some activity by a suspicious person that she wants to communicate to all users in the field. Traditionally, she would need to radio users and give a physical description and location of the individual. SOVA improves upon this protocol by allowing the dispatcher to snap a quick pic of the CCTV camera image that she has on her screen, and "cast" this pic to all users instantly where the image would appear on their mobile devices, even if SOVA is not running in the foreground! The dispatch officer later could click the Cast Pic button from their web console shown in the screen above to show all pics shared by the security team over time. See Cast Pic in action in SOVA Mobile.
   
5. The " EE SMS " button allows a dispatch officer to send SMS blasts to all users who are enrolled to receive these communications. Use this to send quick text messages to all of your employees letting them know  for example that due to bad weather, the property they intend to provide security services for is not accessible due to road closures and that they do should take the day off. Other uses would be to blast out a text message to all employees during an active shooter event, or any other emergency taking place at your property. Learn more by reading the article about employee emergency SMS notifications.
   
6. Clicking the name of the logged in user allows modifying their profile, changing their password, etc.
   
7. The activity feed automatically posts all reported activities by your security team in real time with the most recent recorded event appearing at the top of the list. Clicking a users image will update the map to the position that they were at when recording that activity. Clicking the same image a few rows below will move the map to show their position at that point in time. Also, if you scroll to the bottom of the activity feed, you will be presented with a " Load More " button. Click that to load more of the past activities by your security team.
   
8. Clicking a users name (shown in blue) will open a popup with a summary of activity by that user since they last logged in to SOVA.
   
9. Clicking a task or activity name (shown in gray) will open a popup showing additional details of that activity. For example, if a user records a "Suspicious Person", clicking that activity name would show a popup with the location of the activity, and any details the officer added when recording the activity.
   
10. Allows changing from default satellite view to map view. This is useful at times since the Google interface shows a 3 dimensional image of the building, and sometimes the position of the user does not make sense. The 3D view might show them on the South side of a building when in fact they are on the North side (since in 3D view, by default you are always viewing from the South looking North).
    
11. The timer is always in motion and shows the elapsed time since the last recorded activity by any logged in user. After an activity posts, the timer returns to zero.
    
12. The current position of the user. The user's map pin would correspond to the top-most entry in the activity feed. Right clicking a user image on the map opens a menu with a few options (some of the others are visible but currently disabled, like the ability to covertly control the users microphone and video camera). The features below are currently available when right clicking a users image on the map:
    
    • Send a user a text message to their mobile device
      
    • Force logout a user if they forget to logout at the end of their shift
      
    • Track a user. Activating this feature hides other user pins and also the activity feed for all other users so you can concentrate on the selected user, without the interference of other users being seen on the map and feed.
      
13. The dispatch fly-in module. The arrow color is blue by default. If it's red like in the example above, it indicates that dispatch has recorded a task for a user more than 30 minutes ago and it is not yet completed. Click this to open a screen that flies in from the right where you can select an officers name, task, location and add notes of the dispatched activity. Currently, your mobile users do NOT receive these dispatch tasks. You would communicate with them via radio to inform them that a task has been issued to them. After they radio that the task is complete, you are able to close the task from the dispatch module. Users are able to self-direct tasks by adding those into their mobile device as well, and in this scenario, dispatch would not be needed to record dispatched tasks. They would simply radio an officer to dispatch the task, and the officer in turn would record the task start and task completion themselves in their mobile device. SOVA allows you the flexibility to setup dispatch however you want, using one of the two methods described here.
    
14. Enroll your managers and send emergency alerts in two clicks of a mouse using the "E-Notify" feature. Our exclusive emergency notification service can be setup to send email, SMS and automated voice calls to a list of recipients to ensure all key assets are informed about an emergency. Before use, you must setup your list of recipients in the Communication screen , using the "E-Notify" tab.
    
15. Clicking the orange human figure at the bottom of the map allows rotating the Google Map orientation. NOTE: if you have initially geolocated your tour checkpoints using a 3D view, then rotating will likely distort positioning of your users. If you Geolocate in 3D view, it's best to remain in the default orientation in satellite view.
    
16. Allows zooming the map in and out. Clicking and dragging the map will allow you to re-position it, same as any other Google Map.