Enhancements
Scheduler improvements
Have you tried out the new scheduler yet that we introduced in version 2.2? If not, try it now! If you've tried it out already, well, we've already made it even better in the following ways:
1/ we've improved the responsiveness of the display. Turn your phone on it's side or view the scheduler on an IPad or computer, and you'll see it changes from a single column to 4 columns making it easier on the eye when the screen real-estate is available.
2/ head on into the Settings and you'll see we've added some new options:
i) Display staff on separate lines: rather than displaying the staff names in a comma-separated list, you can tick this box if you want each staff member to appear on it's own line.
ii) Display customer data on separate lines: similar to i) but for customer information
iii) Display staff known as: you can save space when staff names are shown by turning on this option so the Known As field is used rather than First and Last name for staff members. If a staff member does not have a Known As entry, their First and Last name is shown instead.
iv) Staff selector: we've added each staff member's name to the selector so, now, in addition to the options already there, you can choose a particular person's schedule to view. Now your staff can choose their name to personlize their view so they can see, at a glance, their course and trip schedule for the day, week or month. Or you, the admin, can choose to see a particular staff member's schedule to see if they're being over-worked or if they're slacking.
Issues Fixed
1/ we've fixed an issue whereby, if you added/updated course attendance info while you were in off-line mode at the dive site with no internet, changes were not sync-ed properly on your return to civilization.
2/ the notifications settings page was not displayed properly in some circumstances on mobile devices
3/ the notifications settings page didn't work correctly when the time period was changed from minutes to hours.
4/ Lookups information (e.g. the list of staff members, course types, boats, etc.) were not refreshed properly in some circumstances if changes were made in EVE back at the store.
Note: please see the IMPORTANT info at the bottom of this section about upgrading EVE Pro.
PIC On Line
Authorized users can now use PIC Online in EVE Pro on their phone, tablet or computer. You can choose which users can use PIC Online with the "Can Use On-Line PIC" privilege in EVE and can indicate if they can use it just for their own students or for all students with the "EVE Pro: Can use PIC Online for all certs (not just those belonging to employee)" privilege. To get started, you'll also need to configure their EVE Pro Store record in EVE with your PADI SSO credentials. i.e. open an employee's EVE Pro Store record in EVE and, in the PADI Pros section on the right, choose the main store in the "Use Credentials from" selector.
That's all. Now your employees can certify students at the dive site immeditately after successful course completion.
Emailing Temp Cards
As in EVE, you can print temporary cards after submitting PICs. But, even better... imagine you're the instructor on a PADI Open Water course, relaxing in the pub with a happy group of newly certified divers. You take out your phone, log into EVE Pro, mark the course as complete, submit the PICs to PADI in a couple of clicks and, presto, each student's phone buzzes as their temp card is delivered to them by email.
In the accompanying email, promote your product of the week, provide links to your EVE OnLine booking pages for future courses and upcoming dive-trips, etc., etc. so you catch those new divers when their interest in diving is at its highest.
For this feature, you'll need to assign a signature graphic to the Employee record in EVE for everyone that'll email temp cards. That signature graphic will be burnt into the temp card as shown in the screenshot above. Once you have a suitable file containing their signature (e.g. jpg, png, etc.) assign it to the employee on the Employee form in EVE by drag and dropping the file onto the "Signature file URL" text box.
OLPC
As in EVE, you can now open the OLPC page on padi.com straight from EVE Pro. Just make sure appropriate employees have the "Can launch PADI's Online Processing Center (OLPC)" privilege and that the SSO credentials are set as described in the PIC On Line section above.
Pro Chek
Just like in EVE, you can now open the PADI Pro Chek page on padi.com straight from EVE Pro.
We know all too well what a huge task it is to schedule courses and trips at a busy dive store and get instructors, dive masters, boat captains, etc. assigned to work where and when they're needed and when they're available. Until now, you've probably done something like this:
1/ create all the course/trip dates and times in advance - maybe for the first month or two at the start of the season.
2/ export all the information to Excel.
3/ copy and paste it into Word.
4/ convert it to PDF.
5/ email it to all the applicable staff.
6/ wait for their onslaught of emails back, telling you when they want to work.
7/ plug it all into EVE, trying to manage all the conflicts along the way.
Now, how does this new way sound?
1/ create all the course/trip dates and times in advance (sorry, you still need to do that).
2/ notify your staff that the schedule is ready so they can take a look on their phone (or tablet or computer) and mark which courses/trips they want to work.
3/ at your convenience, look in EVE to see which staff members have made which requests and simply change status from Pending to Confirmed, where applicable.
4/ get on with something else more interesting or just sit back and relax.
That's right, you can transfer the bulk of the workload from your shoulders to those of your staff! This is made possible by the new Scheduler feature in EVE Pro which lists upcoming courses and trips (e.g. daily, weekly, monthly) and lets users request which ones they want to work and what role. The requests are added in a Pending state to the staff section of each course/trip in EVE and with a couple of clicks you or your scheduling person can update Pending status to Confirmed. Back in EVE Pro, each staff member can see in real-time where and when they're scheduled to work.
IMPORTANT: Sometimes, when we release upgrades to EVE Pro, we'll do two complementary releases that serve slightly different purposes.
The first (please pardon the techie mumbo-jumbo) is called a "Hot Code Push" (HCP). This gives an instant update of the main features of the app. When you start EVE Pro, you'll see a message that an update is available and you can tap Install to instantly update it.
The second is the "hardware build". This is required if we've added new 3rd party components that can't be installed by the HCP. To install this kind of update, you’ll go to the App Store or Google Play (depending on your device) and update there like with other apps. In this release, you'll need to do the latter to get the OLPC and Emailing of temp cards to work on your mobile device.
Release Date 26th August 2019
Enquiries
It's now possible to create a new Enquiry directly from the Enquiries card on the Customers page.
Certifications
You can now open a certification record by tapping on it in the Certifications card on the Customers page.
SMS
Since the first version of EVE Pro, you've been able to decide whether text messages should be sent using the phone/tablet's native (i.e. built-in) SMS (in which case the device's owner pays for those messages as part of their plan) or whether they should be sent via Twilio (in which case you, the store owner, will pay for those messages on your Twilio account). When we changed, the SMS routines in EVE Pro version 1.1, we allowed users to choose whether the text message should be sent to staff members and/or customers when a group text is sent from a course or trip... but only when using Twilio. We've now extended that feature for those of you using native SMS.
In addition, the logged-in user will no longer be included in the recipient list when group text messages are sent from courses and trips.
Places Available
In the summary card at the top of courses and trips we now display the Customer Count (i.e. number of people currently enrolled) and Places Available.
Release Date 30th July 2019
Improved “card based” User Interface.
All information entered for a customer, course, trip, etc. can be seen at a glance without having to go hunting through tabs for it. Related information is grouped together into ‘cards’. Each card shows just the information already entered for the customer, course, trip, etc. e.g. in the screenshot below, there’s no field showing for Home phone number since Suzie has not supplied it. Once you go into “Edit mode”, all available fields become visible so you can enter that Home phone number later.
Advanced searches
In addition to the quick searches that were already present, we’ve added Advanced search pages so you can easily find the customer(s), course(s), trips(s), enquiry(s), etc. in which you’re interested.
More Customer information
We’ve added more of the information about each customer that’s already in EVE. In addition to what was present before, you can now see customer popup notes, enquiries, certifications, trip enrollments, items purchased, rental profile, equipment owned, gift cards, accounts receivables info, insurance details, doctors report information, club memberships, tax exemptions, PADI marketing options, Last purchase date, …. and Customer reports,
More course information
Similarly, we’ve now added more information about each course using the same, card-based UI. Once you open a course, all the information about it is at your fingertips. Which customers owe money? Which instructors are teaching which modules and when? Which rental equipment needs to be prepared? Which classrooms, pools need to be booked? It’s all there at a glance.
More trip information
Just as for courses, all the trip information is there for you using the same, space-friendly UI.
Quick and Easy Student navigation
If you’re viewing the students enrolled on a course and open the customer page, you can now swipe left and right on your phone or tablet to move to the previous and next student record.
Cancelled courses and trips are better highlighted
Quick Links
Where appropriate, pages in View mode now use links so e.g. the Customer or Course Type page can be loaded directly from the Certification page by clicking a link; so, now you can navigate through EVE Pro in the simple, intuitive way you use on a website.
Text Messaging enhancements
In addition to being able to send texts and emails to course and trip customers, you can now send to staff on the course/trip as well. In a few taps you can choose to send to all customers and/or all staff or choose individuals.
Page Load
In the past, to speed up page load, EVE Pro loaded list data page-by-page. E.g. if you did a search that returned 200 customers, it would show 30 at a time and you had to click Load More at the bottom to load the next 30. We’ve now added an auto-load feature so, when you scroll to the bottom of the list, the next page is automatically loaded.
Support for iPhone XR display.
EVE Pro now utilizes the entire screen area on XR and XS phones from Apple.
EVE Pro versus EVE Pro Plus
In the previous version, we made a distinction between EVE Pro and EVE Pro Plus. EVE Pro Plus gave access to more information than EVE Pro – i.e. a ‘Plus’ user could see all customers, not just those (s)he taught; could see all courses, not just those on which (s)he was the instructor, etc. In this version, we’ve removed the distinction and it’s up to you, the store owner, to decide what information each EVE Pro user can see. i.e. we’ve added privileges so, in EVE, you can define the level of access each user will get in EVE Pro.
Student image rotation on iOS
You might have encountered cases in the existing version of EVE Pro where student images, once uploaded, appeared rotated by 90 degrees on iOS devices. Newly uploaded images will now have the correct rotation.
64 bit support
EVE Pro now has 64-bit support.