Knowledge Base

For most people, getting started with Flow Mobile Surveying is simply a case of registering and downloading the mobile app. Then away you go. 

However, if you work at a larger organisation —like a Council or Housing Association —you'll likely have stricter rules around the types of external apps and websites you can access.

This guide is for IT Administrators responsible for installing new software systems and keeping their organisation safe from external threats. In this guide, I'll explain how Flow Mobile Surveying works under the hood and the internal policies we follow.

Technical Infrastructure

There are two parts to the software:

Our Software as a Service (SaaS) platform, Flow Mobile Surveying, has two distinct parts that work together to give you the whole experience.

• The Mobile App —surveyors use the mobile app to capture on-site data during their survey. You can download this from the App Store (iOS users) or the Google Play Store (Android users).
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• The Dashboard —office-based staff use the dashboard for scheduling, quality control, and printing reports. You can access this from a modern web browser such as Google Chrome.

Multi-Tenancy

Flow Mobile Surveying is Multi-tenant, so a single instance of the software and its supporting infrastructure serves multiple customers. 

Each customer shares the software application and also shares a single database. Each tenant’s data is isolated and remains invisible to other tenants. Features that we develop will be available for all of our users, and we have a public feature roadmap where you can request features that are important to you.

This type of technical architecture is common among SaaS companies like ours, as it makes the software scalable and easy to maintain.

BUT Templates and Layouts are Unique to Your Company

Our core SaaS platform is Multi-tenant. However, your Templates and Layouts are unique to your company, which means we can change them without affecting other Flow Mobile Surveying clients and vice versa.

• Templates —determine how you collect form data for a specific service (e.g. Asbestos Surveys or Fire Risk Assessments). We can customise templates to let you collect the data that’s important to you.
  
  
• Layouts —determine how a report looks. A single template may have multiple layouts (e.g. Management Survey or Demolition Survey) that allow you to create different reports using the same template data.

When we set up your company account, we usually copy one or more of the default Templates —and any corresponding Layouts —from our template library onto your account.

Since these copied Templates and Layouts are unique to your company (rather than being shared with other companies), we can make any necessary tweaks and changes without affecting anyone else.

Technical Requirements

General IT Permissions:

To use Flow Mobile Surveying, your staff will require permission to:

1. Install the Mobile App —your staff must be able to:
   a) Access the App Store (iOS) or Google Play Store (Android)
   /and/
   b) Download the app (see links below)
   * Play Store > Flow Mobile Surveying
   * App Store > Flow Mobile Surveying

2. Access our website and any third-party systems that our software relies upon.
   You must whitelist these URLs on your firewall

Internet Requirements:

• The Dashboard requires an internet connection since it relies on a browser and the internet to make database queries to our cloud-based servers.
  
  
• The Mobile App is designed to work offline —when working offline, the app will store any unsynced data locally on the staff member's phone or tablet device. Once they establish an internet connection, it will automatically sync data to our servers, becoming visible on the dashboard to any office-based users.

Learn more about working offline.

Software Requirements:

Dashboard users —must install a modern web browser on their computers. Otherwise, there are no additional software requirements.

• We recommend installing Google Chrome if possible —this is what we use internally for development, so it’s often the best user experience. We’ll pick up bugs quickly in this browser.

• Alternatively, any other modern browser, such as Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Safari, should work fine.

Mobile app users —No additional software is required (besides the mobile app).

Hardware Requirements:

The mobile app should work on any modern Android or iOS phone or tablet device —with the caveat that it must be able to access the Google Play Store or App Store so staff can download the app.

Please note: Cheaper devices, like Amazon Fire tablets, may not allow access to the Play Store, so you won’t be able to install the app.

Learn more about recommended and supported mobile devices.

Security and Confidentiality

Internally, we are working towards our ISO 27001 accreditation (the international standard for managing information security) —we expect to complete this accreditation by Spring/Summer 2024.

Until we gain this accreditation, please rest assured that we follow the best industry practices for data security. We take data security very seriously and treat your data the same way we treat our own.

• ‍Learn more about our security and confidentiality
• View our ISO 27001 Trust Page (shows that we're currently working towards this certification)

User Authentication

We authenticate users with the Email and Password chosen during the Invite and Registration process. New users can only register with the allowed email (the email that your administrator entered when sending the invite). The new user must choose a secure password when completing the registration form.

We use Google for User Authentication, so you can expect Google-level security when using Flow Mobile Surveying. Security is a complex subject, so offloading user authentication and authorisation services to specialised vendors is a routine practice among SaaS companies like ours.

Google is well-versed in user authentication and securing data at rest. They manage database security better than most organisations, and we expect that their security is airtight.

Please note that —although we don’t currently have Single Sign On (SSO)— since we use Google for security, we can leverage Google’s knowledge in things like OAuth, SSO, and OpenID in the future, should we choose to implement those authentication methods.

Vote for Single Sign On (SSO) on our public roadmap

Managing staff leavers:

If a staff member leaves your organisation and you want to block their access to Flow Mobile Surveying, a dashboard administrator must either:

a) Revoke their permissions (if you expect the staff member to return) 

/or/ 

b) Block their user (if the staff member has left permanently).

We suggest you include this information in your internal policies to ensure these steps are followed correctly when a staff member leaves your company.

User Permissions

There are three distinct levels of permissions which you can toggle off/on independently for individual users:

• Mobile —toggles access to the mobile app.
• Dashboard —toggles access to the browser-based dashboard
• Administrator —toggles access to admin-level features like billing, user management, and auditing.

Learn more about user permissions

Important Documents and Policies

We have many documents and policies, but here are some of the most important ones our clients regularly ask us for.

• Backup Policy
• Terms and Conditions
• Privacy Policy

Getting Support 

We pride ourselves on our support. If you want to notify us of any support issues or request any changes, you can raise a support ticket via the dashboard or email. Or call us on 0191 432 6211

If you want additional information about anything covered in this document or topics we may have missed, please contact support@flowmobile.app.