This guide is meant to help you understand the steps needed to migrate from using the legacy Zello desktop app to the Dispatch Hub. After performing these steps, we hope you will be able to realize the many benefits of Dispatch Hub, like the ability to immediately connect drivers to the first available dispatcher, reduce chatter by having dispatchers and drivers talk 1-to-1, and more. Learn more. 

Zello PC App	Dispatch Hub App

Step 1: Test Dispatch Hub 

The goal of this step is to familiarize yourself with the app, making sure you are able to establish a link, place calls and respond to them, and provide some basic training to dispatchers prior to rolling it out to your fleet more broadly. 

1. Open your Zello console on the web to create a dispatch channel. When the channel creation menu opens, select the last option, "Dispatch Channel."
2. Add several users to the channel, including yourself, to play the roles of dispatchers and drivers. We recommend starting with two dispatchers and two drivers.
3. Download and install the dispatch app on at least one computer.
4. Launch the app and sign in using the credentials of one of the users you added to be a dispatcher.
5. Have your two "driver" users sign into the Zello app on mobile devices. You can send them a SignOn link via text message from the console, or share the username and password you created in step 2. 
6. Try the dispatch channel by having "drivers" on their mobile devices speak into the dispatch channel.
7. At the other end, you should see the messages from drivers appear in the queue on the Dispatch app. Log in on another computer, using the second dispatcher's credentials, and you will see the same queue in the channel.
8. You can now accept the calls, respond to them, and close them.
   
   

Note: No changes on the driver side are required -- drivers will automatically see the test dispatch channel. In order for drivers to see new mobile app features (showing call status), they will need to use a recent version of the app so, if some drivers don't see them, they need to update their Zello apps.

Step 2: Planning your fleet deployment 

Once you are happy with the performance of the solution, you can start planning for deployment to your fleet.

If you have a relatively small team and operate from only one location, you may want to create a single dispatch channel in which to conduct your dispatching operations. If, on the other hand, you have multiple teams of dispatchers managing separate workloads, like different cities or different business lines, you may want to consider creating multiple dispatch channels. Each channel will be able to support a shared load of incoming calls from drivers, broadcast communications, and a team of dispatchers working together.

For very large teams (several hundred users or more), you may want to consider creating CSV files with users and channels to be able to easily create the structure that reflects your business the best.

Step 3: Deployment

Once your channel structure is ready with users, you can start communicating with your staff to have them install or upgrade to the latest app, and modify their workflow:

1. Share the link to install the dispatch desktop app to all your dispatchers. They should be able to install it on a Windows PC or Mac, and connect into one (or more) dispatch channels you've created in the planning step. You can find the link in the channel details page of your management console.
   
   Note: The dispatch app doesn’t support 1:1 communication, so the new dispatcher usernames must not be included in team channels, in dynamic channels, or as direct contacts.
   
   
2. Let drivers know which dispatch channel they should be connected to and remove them from non-dispatch channels. If you still want to allow drivers to communicate among themselves, you can change the channel type from "team" or "dynamic" to "hidden" instead. 
3. From now on, all drivers should call dispatchers using the dispatch channels. Their calls will not be sent to other drivers. Only dispatchers will receive drivers' calls. 

Step 4: Monitoring

At least initially, we recommend you monitor your dispatch channel(s) by adding yourself as a dispatcher as well, whether you plan to answer driver calls or not, to be able to assess whether the concepts of driver call receiving, answering, and closing are well understood by all dispatchers.

Using Message Vault (if it is enabled in your subscription), you can also replay conversations from your network to ensure users are adopting the system without any major hurdles.