Get a bigger “win” with your WinCan survey
When WinCan first released a software package into the sewer inspection industry in 1990, they were able to boast that they “created this market“. 30 years and over 8,500 installs later, WinCan sits proudly at the top of the drain inspection survey market, and has been a popular feature on Scanprobe’s flagship pipeline inspection camera, the Maxprobe, ever since it was released back in 2015. And at Scanprobe we’re not ones to rest on our laurels when we’ve got a good thing; we strive to develop the next big thing…
As readers of our blog will have seen, a mere 3 years later and we have released our company’s and the industry’s first ever mobile app to connect up to a drainage camera, mina Survey. Released in September 2018, it was initially only available to iOS device users, until February 2020 when a much enhanced mina Survey was released onto the Android platform. So our loyal legion of customers who weren’t on Apple were now able to take advantage of this new technology. But this blog post is meant to be about WinCan, so why are we talking about mina?
Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.
Henry Ford
Because the mina Survey app allows WinCan survey users to deliver a WinCan report directly from the control box, to the mobile device, and then to their customers or colleagues in minutes, at no cost. Whilst the PC software requires a paid subscription, if you create a WinCan report on a Maxprobe camera system, you can get a fully formatted PDF report, (with photos, diagrams, digital drawings and survey information) in a matter of minutes, all through the free mobile app. The feature has proven hugely popular since it was released, because, well, it saves both money AND time.
With WinCan being the industry standard, it made a lot of sense to enable mina to support their reporting function. A lot of our customers that use WinCan tend to have a support team back in the office to read, format and deliver the results of a pipeline survey to the end customer, and this process from survey to office to customer causes delays. Thanks to WinCan and mina Survey working together, this delay can be minutes, rather than days.
Vernon Pain, UK Sales Manager
and delivered to your customer in minutes
How to make use of WinCan with mina is very simple, all you need to do is follow these steps:
- Download mina from the App Store or Google Play Store.
- Perform your WinCan survey.
- Enable your mobile device’s Personal Hotspot.
- Connect to your device via the WiFi screen on the Maxprobe.
- Finalise your WinCan report.
- Open the mobile app.
- Click “View and share Inspection System reports”.
- Click “Request report”
- Follow the instructions on the screen.
- When the report has been received, press “More” to rename and view it, or “Share” to, well, share it!
This means you can supply a WinCan survey to your customer whilst still on site, without needing to format all of your data into report or pay for any additional software packages. All because you chose to purchase a Maxprobe push-rod camera system from Scanprobe, and unleashed the power of mina Survey.
mina is here to revolutionise the pipeline inspection industry!
Initially released in October 2018 at the No Dig Live trade exhibition, mina was showcasing it’s built-in pipeline inspection survey drawing package but hinted at a greater level of connectivity. That greater level is here, as with this latest update mina now boasts the ability to connect your Apple iPhone or iPad to your Maxprobe (UK, RSA & Europe) or Explorer (USA) wirelessly. And with this comes a brand new way to interact with your customers…
The connection options available with mina Survey
A wireless connection between the Maxprobe/Explorer has opened the doorway to streaming live video from your pipeline inspection system to your Apple mobile device, simply through the mina app, as well as enabling the user to send full WinCan or mina survey reports to the same device, to then share by whatever means the device has. This could be anything from a simple email client, WhatsApp, Dropbox or GoogleDrive – any form of file transfer application, as well as the built-in services on Apple mobile devices. This latest development of mina has removed the long delays usually incurred when waiting for the survey file to be delivered back to the office, processed into a readable format and then delivered to the end customer, a process which could take days and also involves the cost of the PC software. With mina, the pipeline inspection engineer can complete this entire process on site in a matter of minutes, delivering a full WinCan or mina survey report to the customer, being able to explain any details face-to-face and closing off the job there and then. And this is a completely free app! As if this wasn’t enough, mina’s live streaming functionality enables the pipeline inspection engineer the opportunity to show their end customer a live image from inside their pipework without having to take them out to the manhole itself. For the customers who are not aware of how the pipework system works, this feature removes any confusion about exactly what the problem(s) are, or gives a visual confirmation that any problems have been corrected, all from the comfort of an iPhone or iPad screen.
This is not the only customer-friendly feature of mina, as the built-in drawing package also serves to help everyone involved, both customers and colleagues, to understand the complexity of the pipeline inspection survey which has been undertaken. After all, more often than not the pipelines are not in clear view, so to be able to provide a clear digital survey drawing on site in a matter of minutes will only serve to put your customer’s minds at ease. Better still, connecting your Apple device to your Maxprobe via the FREE mina app enables you to integrate your drawing into your WinCan or mina survey report, adding additional clarity seamlessly!
So why not download your free copy of mina today from the App Store and add extra detail and value to your survey!