Year in Review, & Looking Ahead to 2019
Dear Valued Limo Anywhere Customer,
As we enter 2019, I would like to briefly provide a recap of 2018 and highlight a few items that are in store for this year.
Over the past 12+ months, I have had the great pleasure of meeting many of you and listening to what you would like to see from Limo Anywhere. While opinions vary, there are several prevailing themes:
- Better user experience (simpler, more intuitive, more efficient)
- Improved system performance (fewer service errors and issues)
- Expanded integration with other solution providers in the ecosystem
- More automation and self-help tools to reduce the need to call support
- Additional training opportunities to maximize value and use of our software
I’ve also had the opportunity to evaluate our team and technology to implement a wide array of changes that will further improve how we operate. Earlier in the year, we restructured the business, hiring new talent and promoting several individuals into key positions to best equip us for long-term success. While it has been challenging at times, I am pleased to say that we are beginning to see these changes bear fruit.
What we have delivered in the past 12 months:
- We have released several solutions and enhancements to our portfolio.
- ORES 4.5, Bus Anywhere, new reports (e.g., aging, passenger activity), relaunch of white label passenger apps, dispatch mobile app, rate improvements (e.g., intelligent quoting, removal of address validation in shopping process when not found), new website templates to compliment your booking engine, new API enhancements for partners
- We have increased our service coverage and developed new support materials.
- Launched “around the clock” support, 24/7 support, developed new knowledge base material and online tutorials, hosted several online and in-person training sessions
- We have begun implementing platform enhancements to strengthen our system’s performance.
- Significantly increased our IT spend in 2018 with the explicit focus of improving, optimizing, and modernizing our end-to-end environment
- Introduction of 56 changes which pin-pointed areas of improvement to reduce errors, increase availability, and increase performance across Limo Anywhere
- Preliminary results indicate an average reduction in system error messages of over 50%
- We have integrated several new tools to better serve the needs of our customers.
- New user testing software to gather analyze design impacts and collect feedback prior to formal launches, new support and back office software to provide future self-service capabilities (e.g., edit and update your own billing profile, including credit card payment). To do this, you can use the software testing services at FortySeven47.
- We have established new partnerships and expanded others to provide new value-added solutions and services.
- LMC, Limo U, Century Business Solutions, Addons.LA
What’s on our immediate radar in the coming few months:
- Completion of our new Reporting & Analytics module beta test and full production release
- Launch of our new Driver App (Driver Anywhere)
- Launch of our new payment API and Square swipe integration
- Additional support tools and improvements (e.g., new online chat feature and self-help guides)
- Continued enhancements and upgrades to tech stack (22 additional improvements in queue)
What we are focusing on the remainder of the year:
- Better communication on upcoming enhancements
- Frequent and formal user testing prior to product releases
- Significantly improved system performance and responsiveness
- New innovative solutions and key improvements to core functionality
- Rate and reservation management simplification (e.g., geo-fencing, better logs, etc.)
- Payroll processing efficiency improvements (e.g., batch processing)
- Augmented affiliate management capabilities (e.g., easier search, greater automation)
- New self-service tools (e.g., password reset, credit card updates)
- Deeper/broader partner integration (Square, Century, Addons, SummitQwest, etc.)
- More training opportunities to get the most out of our software
- Earlier in 2018, we polled our customers and asked what area requires greater focus/attention and the resounding reply was additional training opportunities.
- We then conducted a formal survey and found there to be widespread interest in attending a comprehensive “bootcamp”’ to increase users’ proficiency in our software.
- Based on this feedback, we are proud to be hosting our very first Limo Anywhere Academy user conference next September here in DFW.
- This event will be highly exclusive, highly tailored, and highly immersive – with over a dozen sessions across multiple topics, all conducted by our LMC and Limo Anywhere staff.
- Such dedicated onsite training at an individual customer level would typically cost $5-10K+, but centralizing this event provides us the ability to offer the same level of depth at a much better price point (early bird registration is only $299).
- Space is limited, so you’ll need to act soon. We hope to see you there
As you can see, 2018 was a very busy and productive year, with much in store in the coming 12 months. We are fully committed to executing the plan above and are very excited for the future.
Here’s to a safe and prosperous 2019, and as always, thank you for your business.
All the best,
Sean