Help with Service Software

[tech2tech]

I am working on developing Service Software and would like to get some input on what would be helpful to have in it. Once the software is complete I will be looking for some companies to beta test it. The software will also be available for free to users of this forum.


So a quick overview of what I have in addition to the obvious data:
Separate input for billing address and machine address
phone app for technician
will track milage for expense report
Track inventory
web login for dispatcher at office
link that can be added to web page to allow customers to place service call online along with order supplies and report meter.


We will be adding some billing software and sales reporting to this also at a latter date.


I appreciate all feedback posted here or messaged to me serabout what you like or dont like about software you have used.

[NeoMatrix]

What is your proposed operating system/platform PC, Unix, Mac, Android,Debian?
What software programming language are you planning to use ?
What is the current project software development phase ?

[tech2tech]

Thanks for the questions. This is platform independent and currently going through debugging along with adding a few more features.

What I am looking for is input on what is beneficial for companies and techs. An example of this is we could add productivity reports for the office or we could add parts lookup for the tech so they can see if another tech has a part they need.

So any suggestions from a tech point of view or office admin is appreciated.

[KenB]

Maybe a secure upload section to store scans of network and machine settings?

A method to store address books and other config files?

These are all things that needlessly need to be rediscovered and recreated any time a machine gets reset for whatever reason.

Not sure about other brands, but Ricoh family machines (Ricoh, Savin, Lanier, Gestetner) all leave the factory with a "birth certificate" of what all the settings were when the machine was built. It is normally tucked under one cover or another, but is not replaceable should it get lost. It would be great to have a backup should the need arise.

[KenB]

If I read this correctly, you will be offering software that will be run at a dealer's location, correct?

I sure hope you are NOT suggesting a hosted ( by you, or anyone else) solution, are you?

Putting customer info ANYWHERE outside the limits of the local domain is suicide, on multiple levels, and could potentially have catastrophic results, regardless of promises of security.

In addition, what guaranty would there be that the software is not spyware, sending off precious info to an outside entity?

[NeoMatrix]

In addition, what guaranty would there be that the software is not spyware, sending off precious info to an outside entity?

Your spyware suspicion has some truth. There are many India based software companies are ready willing an able to knock up a quick Phone App for a few cents in the dollar. It cost virtually nothing to develop software in some of these countries, an even less to distribute it free on the internet.

I asked "tech2tech" a few software development questions and he seem to allude to the answers. I'm not sure if that was intentional or he was just too busy.... Our proposed software developer friend "tech2tech" had joined CTN in 2008; he has no rep points an very few posts. He has a few hardware question posts which means where not talking to an adware BOT.

I like the software ideas put forward by "tech2tech". I know first hand the time and effort required to develop a software application, and what our friend is proposing cannot be done in the short term by a single person. He would have to had a development team, or be using all 3rd party pre-development components, at a co$t of cause. With a development team he might get a prototype POC(proof-of-concept) version out there working in around 6 months. It would take a single person 12 months for a full POC version, and possibly 2 years to reach a beta version; 2.5 to 3 years for a stable release version and then (with platform changes) regular software maintenance updates for time ever on.

I hope his software can do what he/they have proposed... I like the idea....

[SwisSeV]

I really like the idea of an easy to use, tech focused software solution.
That being said, this induced my suspicious feels. Hope i'm wrong.

[tech2tech]

What I was looking for was just a little feedback from other techs who may have thought of some helpful feature or function that I have not. A little about me and the software... I am not from India I live in Texas and I am not out to get your service information or customer list. I have been servicing wide format equipment for 19 years and am tired of the paper work. I am a hobby programmer with limited abilities. My son is a software engineer and has been working with me on this for the last 6 months. He is a believer in Open Source Software so we did decide to offer a free version of the service software. We will try and get our money back on the Sales add on function and the Accounting function. The software is Cloud based and your data will be more secure there than on a server in your office. To access the encrypted data you will need to have the Desktop app with the security config file. But remember nothing is 100% secure. We have built more security into this than would ever be needed for the data we are storing. When the software is released if the company you work for decides to use it, you will be happy with all the features. Its like I have said 100 times when working on a machine "They should have had a tech help develop the machine for serviceability". That is what I am going for. A service program for service techs developed with the service techs input.