SafetyChain Mobile App: Over-the-Air Updates for a Streamlined Experience

Keeping Your Digital Plant Running Smoothly with Agile Updates

We are pleased to announce the recent release of Over-the-Air (OTA) update functionality for the SafetyChain App. This strategic enhancement is designed to provide your teams with more immediate access to critical fixes and performance improvements, ensuring your operations remain as stable and efficient as possible. By leveraging OTA, we can deliver essential updates directly to your devices, minimizing disruption and maximizing productivity for your operational processes.

1. OTA vs. App Store

Understanding how your SafetyChain App receives updates is key to maintaining peak operational efficiency.

2. SafetyChain's Use Cases for OTA

Our OTA strategy is focused on ensuring the continuous, reliable performance of your SafetyChain App.

• Bug and Defect Fixes: OTA is our primary method for quickly addressing and resolving any software bugs or defects that may arise, ensuring your teams can continue their work without interruption.

• Performance Enhancements: We use OTA to push optimizations that improve app speed, responsiveness, and overall efficiency, ensuring a smooth experience for your frontline users.

• No New Features via OTA: It's important to note that SafetyChain will not deliver new features or significant UI changes via OTA. These types of updates will always be delivered through a full App Store build.

• Scheduled Cadence & Ad Hoc Pushes: We maintain a periodic cadence for OTA updates to consistently deliver improvements. For more critical issues, we can deploy ad hoc OTA pushes to provide immediate resolutions, safeguarding your operations.

3. User Experience

We've designed the OTA update process to be as unobtrusive as possible for your teams.

• Automatically Applied: When a device running the SafetyChain App is connected to Wi-Fi and the app is opened, any pending OTA updates will be applied automatically in the background and immediately available upon login.

  • NOTE: Initially, operators will have the option to install the OTA update. In the near future, we will be making this a mandatory update that will be pushed automatically.

• Minimal Disruption: This automated process minimizes downtime and ensures your teams are always working with the most stable and efficient version of the app.

4. MDM Considerations: Optimizing Your Setup for OTA

For our customers utilizing Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions, it's crucial to configure your setup to allow seamless OTA updates for the SafetyChain App.

• Allow Network Traffic: Ensure your MDM does not block network traffic to SafetyChain's update servers. This may involve whitelisting specific domains or IP ranges associated with our update infrastructure. Your IT team can work with SafetyChain support for any necessary details.

• Avoid Restrictive App Versioning: Some MDM configurations can enforce strict app versioning, which might inadvertently prevent in-app OTA updates. We recommend reviewing your MDM policies to ensure they permit the SafetyChain App to update its internal components without requiring a full re-deployment through the MDM platform for every minor fix.

• Enable In-App Updates: Confirm that your MDM policies allow applications to perform self-updates or in-app updates. This ensures the SafetyChain App can leverage its OTA capabilities effectively.

• Benefit of MDM: While OTA works independently, MDM can still be leveraged by IT admins for initial app deployment, broader security policy enforcement, and remote device management, complementing our agile update strategy.

5. The Benefits of OTA for SafetyChain Customers

SafetyChain's OTA update strategy is designed with your operational continuity and efficiency in mind.

• More Consistent Performance: By rapidly addressing bugs and defects, we ensure the SafetyChain App delivers reliable and consistent performance, day in and day out.

• Fewer App Store Updates: You and your IT teams will experience fewer instances where a full App Store update is required, streamlining your app management processes.

• More Immediate Fixes: Critical issues can be resolved swiftly, reducing potential downtime and ensuring your frontline teams have the most stable tools available at all times.

• Enhanced Productivity: Your users benefit from an app that is continuously optimized, allowing them to focus on their tasks with minimal interruptions.

• Reduced IT Burden: Less manual intervention for updates means your IT administrators can focus their time on other tasks.

SafetyChain is committed to providing a robust and dependable application that evolves with your needs, ensuring your digital plant operations remain efficient and secure.