What is computer aided dispatch software?
Short answerComputer aided dispatch, or CAD, is software that call centers use to log incoming calls, find the location and assign the nearest available unit, such as an ambulance or patrol car. Home service businesses use a lighter form of the same idea: assign the job to the nearest qualified technician.
The explanation
CAD systems grew up in emergency services and transport. A call taker enters the incident and the address. The system suggests units, tracks their status in real time and keeps a log of every action for later review.
The shared idea with a service business is the board. A job comes in, the dispatcher sees who is free and close, assigns it, and watches the status change from en route to on site to done. The differences are scale and stakes. A plumber's board has ten jobs a day, not thousands of incidents.
If you run a service company, you do not need an emergency-grade CAD tool. You need a scheduler with drive time, skills, a crew phone view and customer messaging. Buying public-safety software for a plumbing shop would add cost and training with no benefit.
What to watch for
- Overbuying a heavy system for a ten-job day.
- Assuming public-safety software suits field service.
How Apex does it
Not a scheduler feature
Apex is not a public-safety dispatch system. It is a scheduler for service businesses, with route ordering and drive time between stops, and it does not handle emergency call taking or unit tracking at that scale.
Apex Flow Scheduler is in early access. See how we label status.
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