Sébastien Labrie has been appointed Managing Director
Trois-Rivières, May 28, 2020 – We are happy to announce a big change for the ProgressionLIVE team. After more than 8 years in the business, Sébastien Labrie, a recent shareholder, vice-president of sales and customer experience, continues his ascent and becomes Managing Director.
His experience in team management is used in his new role. But Sébastien will always remain involved with our partners. He couldn’t think of losing this privileged contact he loves so much.
If you know Sébastien, you know he’s a team guy who hates it things are not going forward. He sees no problems but rather challenges. Recently in place, the Sébastien effect is already being felt … and it’s positive.
“When I arrived at Diffusion, my goal was to get involved as much as possible. After the shareholding, it was the logical step to my involvement in the company. », Sébastien Labrie.
Now that he is a shareholder and general manager, what will be the next step in his domination? Who knows? One thing is sure, we are all very pleased with his new nomination.
Sébastien Labrie became a shareholder at Diffusion Integrated Solutions
Trois-Rivières, November 14, 2019 – We are proud to announce the arrival of a new shareholder at ProgressionLIVE. After more than 7 years in the company, Sébastien Labrie, vice president of sales and customer experience, was ready to take on new challenges. As of October 30, 2019, he officially became a shareholder.
Sébastien has been working at ProgressionLIVE since 2013. He quickly managed to carve out a place by chaining up the ranks: administrative assistant, technical support, salesman, sales manager, vice president of sales and customer experience, etc. Sébastien is a pillar of the company who quickly understood that his involvement and his leadership bring us a lot.
His background and experience are essential to the development of the different markets that ProgressionLIVE aims for. “Sébastien has built strong relationships with our customers and partners and we are confident that he will help us achieve our ambitious goals! Becoming a shareholder was a natural step.” Louis-Philippe Poulin, President of ProgressionLIVE.
“I act as if it was my business since the first day I started working there, I am extremely happy to be in the management team with Louis-Philippe and Nicolas.” Sébastien Labrie.
About ProgressionLIVE
ProgressionLIVE is a dispatch software and a mobile task management application for employees on the road, developed by Diffusion Solutions Intégrées. Founded in 2006, the company has more than 400 customers across Canada and more than 11,000 users who create more than 100,000 jobs daily.
The MCEE 2019 show’s “Canada’s largest plumbing, HVACR, hydronics, electrical and lightning expo”.
Reading time 1:30 minutes
What is the MCEE 2019?
Every two years, in Montreal, the largest trade show is held for any company involved in building mechanics, electricity or lighting: Mécanex / Climatex / Expolectriq / Lighting (MCEE 2019).
Indeed, MCEE 2019 brings together more than 6,000 visitors and more than 400 exhibitors from Quebec, Canada and the United States. There are multiple solutions, thousands of products, free conferences and new ideas.
When is the MCEE 2019?
The next edition of the MCEE 2019 will be held April 24 from 10 am to 7 pm and April 25 from 10 am to 4 pm at Place Bonaventure in Montreal.
Visitors who wish to come to the show can register for free before April 23, 2019. After this date, the cost of registration will be $ 25 per person and the sale will be on site only.
ProgressionLIVE will have a stand!
As a field service management software, ProgressionLIVE will have a stand at MCEE 2019. Companies in fire alarms, security, heating, air conditioning, electricity, plumbing, refrigeration, telecommunication and ventilation will be able to visit us at the stand#3046.
2 iPad Pro / 2 Bose sound systems
The show offers you the chance to win one of four wonderful prizes by simply touring the show. So, visit the exhibitors and you could win one of two iPad Pro or one of two Bose sound systems.
Other useful information
For location and available parking, please visit the show Location page.
You can also download their mobile app (MyEventPlan) from the Play Store or App Store for a complete list of exhibitors, room plan, available conferences, calendar, notes, notifications, and more.
Nathalie Sarault was named general manager last December.
Changes Within the Company
During the last year, several changes have occurred at ProgressionLIVE. Indeed, the creation of a Management Committee and an Advisory Committee has led the management of the company to make changes to its structure to ensure its growth in the coming years. Thus, last December, Louis-Philippe Poulin delegated the role of General Manager to Nathalie Sarault who occupied that of Project Panager. Note that Louis-Philippe will continue to assume the presidency and will focus on the strategic positioning of the company.
10 Years of Management Experience
Our new General Manager has 10 years of management experience, including a six-year General Manager position with the Organisme de bassins versants des rivières du Loup et des Yamachiche (www.obvrly.ca). In addition, Nathalie’s training is characterized by management skills development training in 2012 and a semi-private training in human resources management in 2015.
From Technical Support to General Manager
Within the company, Nathalie held many positions before becoming General Manager last December. Indeed, when she arrived in 2016, Nathalie started technical support to learn how ProgressionLIVE works. Then, she went on to replace the product’s quality assurance, where she tested the various features of the software. Then, she held a position of Project Manager for more than a year, where this experience will be very useful in her role as director of customer integration that she has held for a few months.
Finally, Nathalie has been named General Manager, where she will focus on the implementation of decisions made by the Management Committee. It will also convey strategic directions, vision, mission and values in a concrete way to the different departments. Nathalie is an example of the advancement possibilities that Vie@ProgressionLIVE offers.
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Here are the next planned developments based on our assessment of the most requested features in the first quarter of 2019 and the load of our programmers in the coming months. Indeed, we have selected four (4) features out of the Top 10 Features for the next three months. We should be able to make these improvements to our ProgressionLIVE product by April 2019.
1.New Button to Send the Work Order at Any Time
First, we plan to add a button inside the window of a task. This would send the work order in PDF version at any time and regardless of the task’s state to the client. This way, the dispatcher or the administrator could judge himself the best time to send it.
2.Display of an Alert Window in Case of Problem With a Client
Second, we plan to add a comment field in a client window. This would make it possible to enter any relevant comments for dispatchers. For example, if the customer doesn’t have good credit with the company or if the customer doesn’t want a given human resource to do any work on their facilities.
3.Indicators, Windows and Additional Possibilities With our Priority Comment System
Thirdly, we plan to improve our priority comment system by adding: a popup window on the web interface, when there’s a priority comment; an icon for a task in List and Schedule mode when there’s a comment in a task; and an indicator on the web interface that allows to quickly visualize the number of comments in a task. In addition, we would allow the creation of comments on mobile devices.
4.Displaying a Message to the Dispatcher When a Task is In-progress
Fourth, we plan to display a notification to the dispatcher when he tries to edit a task and it’s in progress. We are also studying the possibility of preventing the modification of an ongoing task.
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Results of a Survey Conducted Last December With Our Customers
Last December, we conducted a survey with our customers to find out their interest in new features to develop. These were invited to vote for their Top 10, ranking in order of preference the features they would like to see developed first by our programmers. The survey was accessible via our newsletter and our web interface between December 5 and 22, 2018. We share today the Top 10 Features of the results obtained and those that will be developed during the next quarter.
10
Prevent the Progress of a Task on Mobile if Another is in Progress
Current Feature
To date, a user on the mobile application is, by default, able to progress a task, even if another is in progress. For example, if a job is at the “Started Jobs” state and the user has’nt completed the job, they can open another job and progress it to “On the Way” state. This can cause oversights and tasks cannot be closed in time.
Potential Feature
We had considered the possibility of preventing a user from progressing a task, if a previous one wasn’t completed, using a new configuration. Thus, any task should be progressed to the “Completed” state before it can change the state of another task.
Note : 4.44
However, this additional feature is the least requested among all those offered in our survey. In fact, 47% of respondents rated this feature in 8th, 9th or even 10th position. Thus, with the lowest average of 4.44 / 10, the ability to prevent the progress of a task while another is in progress ranks 10th in our Top 10 Features.
9
Data Validation of Task’s Fields
Current Feature
Currently, the fields of a task have no restrictions on the data entered (e.g. alphanumeric characters, character limits, range of values, etc.). Thus, it’s impossible to have standards in the creation of tasks for some of our customers.
Potential Feature
Potentially, we would add the possibility of having a validation of fields according to precise criteria. (e.g. The field must have a value between 1 and 50 or the field must contain a maximum of 50 characters.) Which would allow to have standards in the creation of the task and to have precise and valid values.
Note : 4.72
Despite the fact that this option is presenting de facto in several applications, it seems that it’s not appreciated by our customers. While only 2 respondents out of 134 placed it in 1st position. That’s why with an average of 4.72 / 10, data validation for some fields ranks 9th in our Top 10 Features.
8
Hide Unused Tabs in Some Windows
Current Feature
When opening a popup window for the creation of an item in our web interface, it’s possible to enter information in several tabs. However, many of them are rarely used (e.g. Actions, Assigned Employees, Associated Products, etc.).
Potential Feature
We proposed the possibility to hide unused tabs in the Tasks, Clients, Locations and Products windows. Thus, these tabs could be hidden or displayed at the customer’s wish and according to his needs.
Note : 4.83
However, this opportunity didn’t impress our respondents, while only 16 respondents out of 134 ranked it in 1st or 2nd position. In short, with a score of 4.83 / 10, this possibility doesn’t even reach an average rating of 50%. That’s why the Hide Unused Tabs feature in some windows ranks 8th in our Top 10 Features.
7
Improved Assistant Module
Current Feature
The Assistant module currently allows you to assign a task to more than one human resource at a time. Indeed, it’s possible to assign the task to a main human resource (e.g. team leader) who’s then in charge of the task. It can add, modify and delete elements of the work order (if it has the required permission). While the assistants are read-only on the task and they can only enter their time entries (if the Time Sheet module is enabled).
Potential Feature
Thus, the improvement of the module would consist in the addition of a filter for the assistants in the List and Planning mode. This would filter the tasks of a particular assistant in these modes. In addition, we would add an icon on mobiles when there is an assistant in the task.
Note : 4.89
Unfortunately, this feature didn’t attract our customers since it was ranked first by only 4 of our respondents out of 134. In short, the improvement of the Assistant module obtained a score of 4.89 / 10 and ranks 7th in our Top 10 Features.
6
Put Mandatory Fields Under Conditions
Current Feature
In the current version of ProgressionLIVE, it’s possible to put mandatory fields in a task, a client, and so on. For example, it may be mandatory to enter a customer’s name or job summary. However, it’s not currently possible to set one or more required fields according to another.
Potential Feature
This is why we analyzed the possibility of putting conditional fields under condition(s). (e.g. The field “Work done” is mandatory, only if the field “Work to be done” is filled in or the field “Reason of non-delivery” is mandatory if the quantities are not all confirmed.)
Note : 5.04
This possible improvement was appreciated by many of our respondents, but its position in the rankings was quite mixed. We can even deduce that at 50%, this feature would be appreciated by our customers. In short, with a rating of 5.04 / 10, placing mandatory fields under certain conditions is ranked 6th in our Top 10 Features.
5
Improved Time Sheet Module
Current Feature
Since its creation, our Time Sheet module has been serving many of our customers. However, some custom developments had to be developed for some of them because it didn’t meet 100% of their needs. For example, it didn’t effectively manage overtime and work teams.
Potential Feature
Our idea of improving the module was the ability to manage the minimum times per task; manage overtime (half and double) to prevent users from changing their time entries after a given state; and duplicate time entries on mobile devices between employees, to simplify management of work teams.
Note : 5.80
Despite the fact that this module is complementary to our basic ProgressionLIVE solution and incurs additional costs, our respondents are quite receptive to its improvement. Indeed, more than 30% of respondents have placed this improvement on the podium of features. But with 22 respondents placing it at the bottom of their rankings, the improvement of the Time Sheet module is ranked 5th in our Top 10 Features.
4
Notification When Adding Information on an In-progress Task
Current Feature
Currently, if a dispatcher attempts to add information to a current job, it will be lost if the mobile application isn’t refreshed.
Potential Feature
Thus, our solution would be to display a message to the dispatcher indicating that the task is in progress or to prevent it from modifying an ongoing task.
Note : 5.85
Surprisingly, this notification was highly appreciated by the respondents of our survey. Indeed, 44% of them placed it in 1st, 2nd or 3rd position, against only 19% in 8th, 9th or 10th position of their classification. In short, the ability to add a notification when adding information about an ongoing task ranks 4th in our Top 10 Features with an average of 5.85 out of a possible 10.
3
Improvement of the Priority Comment System
Current Feature
Our new priority comment system has been a hit with our customers since it was launched a few weeks ago. Indeed, when a comment is categorized priority by the dispatcher in a task, the user can see a popup appear when he opens the task on the mobile application.
Potential Feature
Thus, the improvement of this functionality would consist of the addition of a popup window on the web interface, when there is a priority comment. In addition, it would be a question of adding an icon beside a task in List and Planning mode when there’s a comment in a task. Then, we would add an indicator on the web interface that allows to quickly visualize the number of comments in a task and allow users to create comments on their mobile devices.
Note : 5.89
As mentioned above, this feature is greatly appreciated by our customers and the possibility to improve its operation is also appreciated. Indeed, 63% of respondents ranked it in the top 5 positions of the ranking. In short, with a rating of 5.89 out of 10, the improvement of the priority comment system occupies the 3rd position of our Top 10 Features.
2
Alert Window in a Task in Case of Problem With a Client
Current Feature
To date, ProgressionLIVE doesn’t support client management when creating a task. For example, it doesn’t warn when the client chosen in a task has any particularity.
Potential Feature
Thus, we would add the possibility to add a comment in the client (e.g. In case of bad credit, don’t send this human resource, etc.), which would be displayed when a task was created for this client.
Note : 6.48
Simple functionality, but that seems to greatly attract the desires of our respondents and our customers. This would allow for better internal management of tasks in your organization. That’s why 29 respondents ranked it in 1st place and only 24% ranked it in 7th position or more. In short, the ability to add an alert window to a task in case of a problem with a client occupies the 2nd position of our Top 10 Features with a score of 6.48 out of 10.
1
Added a Button “Send by Email” in Task’s Window
Current Feature
Currently, the PDF work order of a task is sent, by default, to the client when it’s completed by the technician and signed by the client. It is therefore not possible to send the work order by email to the client at another later or previous time.
Potential Feature
Thus, we would potentially add a button that would send the work order in PDF version at any time and regardless of the task’s state. This button would be located within the task itself and a dispatcher or administrator could judge himself the best time to send the work order.
Note : 7.08
The “winning” feature of our survey is unquestionably this one, while 50% of respondents gave it a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place. Thus, with a score of 7.08 out of 10, the addition of a button “Send by email” in the tasks which allows to send the work order at any time occupies the 1st position of the features that our customers would like to see develop by our programmers.
The rain didn’t stop the festivities in Saint-Alexis-des-Monts!
ProgressionLIVE was, for a 6th year in a row, official sponsor of the traditional Méchoui of Saint-Alexis-des-Monts. The event took place on September 2nd in a similar temperature to last year’s edition. However, it is not the unpleasantness of Mother Nature that would prevent the 140 employees, customers, partners and friends from feasting on this annual meeting.
There was not only mechoui on the menu!
– Upon arrival, delicious poutine was offered by Nathalie, a ProgressionLIVE employee and her husband, Jean-Sébastien.
– A little before supper, Louis-Philippe, Dorlay and Audrey had prepared spring rolls with a sauce to lick our fingers.
– In accompaniment of the gourmet méchoui, prepared by Rémi, Guy and Guy-Olivier, the guests were entitled to many salads made by Gabrielle and Manon.
– What about desserts, delectable donuts and homemade ice cream sandwiches, concocted by Gabrielle.
– All this good food was accompanied by gin cocktails from the distillery Wabasso, made by Guyaume!
– Finally, at the end of the evening, Jean-Sébastien and Nathalie had put their hands in the dough by preparing succulent potato chips with different flavors.
What would a mechoui be without music and games?
Between services and later in the evening, guests were able to attend many performances by the Jeff Patry Band, accompanied by our drummer-in-residence and ProgressionLIVE employee Mathieu. These last ones gave a whole spectacle, although our dear Mathieu fought a virus. In addition, guests were able to have fun at various games, including inflatable games for youngs and olds.
A word from the organizer
Despite uncertain weather and high risk of rain, we were so prepared that everything went very smoothly! The band was excellent, the food excellent and the mechoui, one of the most tender of the recent years! – Louis Philippe Poulin
Special Thanks
The Méchoui of Saint-Alexis-des-Monts would like to thank Alexandre for the logistics of the event and Jean-Gabriel for the realization of the following video:
Thank you all and see you next year!
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Try ProgressionLIVE integration in Zapier before everyone else!
Since a few months, we are working on the development of a ProgressionLIVE application for the Zapier platform. Thus, after a first phase of development, we are ready to launch our application in prebeta phase. This phase is not available to the general public and is by invitation only. That’s why you will not find our application on the zapier.com website. However, we offer our loyal customers to test version 1.0.1 before anyone else.
Indeed, before making our application available to the general public on Zapier, it must be tested by at least 10 users. That’s why today you are lucky to be among the first to test ProgressionLIVE on Zapier. Later in this article I will explain how to get access to this prebeta. But before, let’s see what Zapier is, how it works and what you can do between ProgressionLIVE and Zapier.
What is Zapier?
Zapier is a platform that automates recurring tasks by connecting applications to each other. Thus, more than 1,000 applications are available on the platform, such as Google Calendar, GMail, MailChimp, Facebook, etc.
How it works?
An integration between one application and another in Zapier is called a Zap. A Zap is easy and quick to set up and you do not have to be a programmer to do it. The platform works primarily with Triggers and Actions. Thus, where a user configures an action to be performed in one application based on an event in another.
Source: Partner Kit, Zapier In this case, the new Facebook Lead Ads lead acts as the Zap’s Trigger and the addition to the MailChimp list is Zap’s Action.
What can you do with ProgressionLIVE and Zapier?
Available Events
There are currently two (2) possible events in this integration:
Perform an action when a task changes state;
Perform an action when a task is updated.
Available Actions
There are currently six (6) possible actions in this integration:
Create a task based on an event;
Create or update a customer based on an event
Create or update a contact based on an event
Find a product based on an event
Find a customer based on an event
Find a location based on an event.
Here are some examples of possible Zap between ProgressionLIVE and common applications:
MailChimp: Create or update a client in ProgressionLIVE (Action), when there is a new registrant in a MailChimp list (Trigger);
GMail: Send an email to info@progressionlive.com (Action), when a task is updated in ProgressionLIVE (Trigger);
Google Calendar: Add an event to a calendar (Action), when a task is progressed to the Sent State (Trigger).
Step by step tutorial
ProgressionLIVE – Trigger
1- Click on Make a Zap!
2- Type ProgressionLIVE in the search bar Choose a Trigger App and choose our app
3- Choose one trigger in Select Progression LIVE (1.0.1) Trigger section
4- Click on Connect an Account and type your web adress in Account URL field and your API Key (find it in your ProgressionLIVE account)
5- Set up options in Set up ProgressionLIVE (1.0.1) State
6- Fetch and Continue
ProgressionLIVE – Actions
1- Type ProgressionLIVE in the search bar Choose a Action App and choose our app
2- Choose one action in Select Progression LIVE (1.0.1) Action section
3- Click on Connect an Account and type your web adress in Account URL field and your API Key (find it in your ProgressionLIVE account)
4- Edit template in Set up ProgressionLIVE (1.0.1) Task
Review of improvements since its acquisition and future projects
On June 1, 2017, Diffusion Integrated Solutions announced the acquisition of Logimpact. The latter was then developer of CourrierPRO transport and logistics software. On the one hand, the former owner of the company, Alain Lavoie, was looking for dynamic entrepreneurs who wanted to take over his business.
On the other hand, the objective of Louis-Philippe Poulin, owner of Diffusion Integrated Solutions was to continue its expansion, consolidate its client base and increase its presence in the field of transport and logistics. Twelve months later, ProgressionLIVE developers can say mission successful, while many improvements have been made to the solution.
A new dedicated employee
One of the improvements has been to dedicate a human resource to CourrierPRO to ensure Mr.Lavoie’s transition. Thus, in mid-March, the ProgressionLIVE team named their former Technical Support Manager, Cédric Sozzani, as Project Manager CourrierPRO. In fact, since March 19, Cédric is in charge of new installations, installation of updates and software change requests.
New warehouse management module
Recently, we deployed a new module for CourrierPRO: the Warehousing module. As a CourrierPRO user, this module allows you, among other things, to rent space in your warehouse, manage inventory and make deliveries for your customers.
So you can send and receive inventory from your customers and charge for the space in your warehouse. In addition, it allows you to rent space in your warehouse, manage inventory and make deliveries for your customers. So you can send and receive inventory from your customers and charge for the space in your warehouse.
New CourrierPRO Warehousing Module – CourrierPRO
10 new customers and 6 software updates
During the past year, we have obtained nearly ten (10) new customers of our solution CourrierPRO, from the fields of transport and logistics. With its additional customers, CourrierPRO currently has more than 50 clients, most of whom are based in Quebec. In addition, we have made six (6) updates to our software during the same period.
Extension of technical support opening hours
As a result of increased customer and product improvements, we have extended the hours of support for CourrierPRO. These are now in line with ProgressionLIVE, Monday to Friday, 7 am to 7 pm (EST). Our technical support agents are available by phone at 1-866-670-0516, by email at support@courrierpro.ca and by online chat on our website.
Upcoming software improvements
Finally, in this wave of improvements, we are now turning to the second year of CourrierPRO in the ProgressionLIVE family. Indeed, we have several projects in mind and some of them are already being programmed. To that end, we recently convened a few clients for a focus group to discuss what improvements they would like to have in our solution.
Among these, there is a module for optimizing routes, timesheets, tracking packages, rescheduling deliveries and redesigning the client web platform. In short, the development of CourrierPRO is far from complete and we intend to evolve our solution for years to come.
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CourierPRO Launches New Warehouse Management Functionality
Warehousing Module
In the last year, we worked on programming a new warehouse management module. So, we recently launched the Warehousing module, which is now available to CourrierPRO users who wish to purchase it. Contact Technical Support for pricing and training by our Project Manager.
As a CourrierPRO user, the Warehousing module lets you, among other things, rent space in your warehouse, manage inventory and make deliveries for your customers. So you can send and receive inventory from your customers and charge for the space in your warehouse.
Indeed, our CourrierPRO software allows you to make stock receipts, to process the orders of your customers and to charge monthly rent for the space occupied by your customers. You are able to manage your warehouses, locations and quantities of products (pallets, parcels, units) of your customers.
Using the module, the billing of storage charges is simple and easy to use. You are therefore able to charge your customers for rent. In addition to invoicing a receipt or a shipment of stock, by product type.
Finally, your customers may also have access to a web portal. The latter allows customers to view their inventory of products in your warehouses and see their invoices. The web portal also offers the possibility to generate reports.
About CourrierPRO
CourrierPRO is a management software specialized in transport and logistics efficient for tracking parcels and pallets. Reference in transport and logistics for over 35 years in Quebec, CourrierPRO was acquired in May 2017 by Diffusion Solutions Intégrées, which also develops ProgressionLIVE dispatch software.
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