SCHENECTADY, N.Y. — Transfinder will release an upgrade to Routefinder, its flagship routing solution, later this year, the supplier announced on Monday.

Routefinder PLUS will provide users with access to advanced geospatial and routing engines and an extensive catalog of detailed maps, said Antonio Civitella, president and CEO of Transfinder.

“This is the product our clients and the industry have been waiting for,” he added. “PLUS will revolutionize every school transportation office that gets their hands on it.”

Routefinder PLUS is being tested and is currently in the feedback stage with input from clients, prospects, industry experts, and internal personnel.

PLUS is the first Transfinder product to be built on ESRI technology. Based in Redlands, California, ESRI is a global supplier of geographic information system software, web geographic information systems (GIS), and geodatabase management applications.

The tools that PLUS provides include boundary planning, custom maps, directions, map editing, map layers, parcel and address points, and routing.

Users can access one tool at a time or access all of them at one time. They can also edit maps for a variety of travel scenarios, such as weekday morning pickups or afternoon drop-offs, and will have guidelines suggesting “preferred,” “restricted,” or “prohibited” areas.

“Smart Routing,” a new term being introduced within PLUS, includes such key actions as “Smart Stop Sequence,” which identifies the best sequence for a stop, “Smart Stop Assignment,” which determines which trip a stop belongs to, and “Smart Asset Allocation,” which optimizes trips by minimizing vehicles, distance, and ride times.

Transfinder provided a glimpse of Routefinder PLUS at its Annual Client Summit in April. Civitella said that the final touches of the new product will be completed this year.

The school bus routing software developer also recently unveiled Wayfinder, its in-vehicle app that can assist in building and adjusting routes and providing navigation to clients who use Transfinder’s Routefinder Pro.