May 2019 Release: Limo Anywhere

Yesterday, we released a major update wherein many of you experienced issues managing the details of certain reservations effectively and efficiently. While we strive to roll out new features and functions as flawlessly as possible, we did not live up to our own expectations here, nor yours, and we sincerely apologize.

This outcome was an unintended consequence of a new value-added feature that was released at the same time related to enhancing flight tracking abilities, something that many of our customers have been requesting for some time.

What happened?

• As a result of the release, a bug manifested wherein users could not delete any pickups after this first in routing, only modify them
• Users could only define one pickup and one drop off, which led to confusion in how to edit an existing routing where the pickup has changed
• Using “stops/waits” in lieu of pickups caused confusion with chauffeurs, and we did not anticipate the issues faced by our customers in making this change

Why did it happen?

• Specific user segments and use cases most common with retail, meetings and events, etc. were not thoroughly vetted in advance of deployment
• Subsequent bugs arose that were not caught during the testing process pre-deployment
• Inherent complexities with the back end systems led to an inability to immediately roll back

What are we doing about it immediately?

• We have already deployed a fix that reestablishes the ability for users to edit and/or delete any pickups, where multiple exist in a single route, following the first pickup
• We have communicated to our users a means by which they can associate pickups w/stops & waits in the notes section as an interim workaround for communication via Driver Anywhere
• Mid next week, we will release another update to return the routing behavior (e.g. reordering) as it was before
  • You will also be able to add as many pickups and drop offs as needed, as well as delete the first pickup

What are we doing to ensure it doesn’t happen again, and what’s in store beyond next week?

• Feedback from users that arose during yesterday’s situation brought to light ideas for new features and functionalities that we will be deploying in the near future
  • Examples include attaching passengers to routing and automatically updating pickup time based on the earliest flight’s ETA if there are multiple flights in the reservation.
• We are establishing formal user groups that represent each segment of our customer base to provide in-depth feedback in advance of every release to ensure we reflect all applicable use cases
• Improving our roll back procedures to ensure we have greater flexibility to immediately pull back releases if needed
• Establishing more rigorous quality assurance testing across all segment types prior to any given release

Why was this release so important to push out (in the bigger picture)?

• More granular and flexible flight tracking, as requested by a majority of our customers
• More seamless integration with third-party sources to drive more business for Limo Anywhere Operators
• Upcoming enhancements in affiliate management (e.g. ability to seamlessly farm out to operators on other software systems)

We understand that we have a very diverse array of customers who use our software in a myriad of ways that best fit their business.  This was a lesson for us to ensure that all possible user scenarios are thoroughly vetted and tested prior to releasing new features.  Further, our rate of feature/function deployment has increased immensely over the past year, which has required us to revisit our processes to ensure we can continue to scale without impacting quality. If you ever considered a Business setup in Belize you may have come to the conclusion that it is a perfect way to gain privacy and anonymity while doing business online. Same as many others in your situation have considered before.

Rest assured that our team has been working around the clock to resolve these issues as quickly as possible, and we will establish new/better processes to eliminate such disruptions in the future.  We will grow from this experience and continue to support your business success by providing the industry-leading solution.

Thank you for your understanding and support.  We will keep you apprised of our progress, and please continue to provide us with any relevant feedback through our new product board, which can be found here.