Does any software like this exist ??

wiggyuk · 22 Sep 2015 at 09:47

Hi all I need some advice.

I work for a AV company, we are subcontractors for schools, casinos, gyms etc we install projector systems, interactive whiteboards etc.

We have a hand full of clients who we deal with and we have 3 or 4 teams on the road daily.

At the moment when a job is completed the engineer will take out a paper customer signoff form, fill the details out

Address
Tested & working etc
Job details
Equipment serial numbers and room numbers
Warranty details, numbers etc
Customer & engineer signature

I have recently tried to digitize this by coppying the forms into a PDF fillable form that the engineer fills out on his laptop and gets the customer to sign on the touch screen panel or whiteboard that's been installed and then save it to a PDF printer and save in a shared google drive so the office can print/email it off to get paid for job.

Is there there any software that exists like a database that the engineer can go through step by step and fill the data out, and then export it to our customers form for the customer to sign and it saves in a shared location for the office to print/email etc and all the data is saved and easy to access and view/print again in the future.

Sorry its long winded but trying to explain the best I can... Thanks in advance.

thenewoc · 22 Sep 2015 at 11:06

You really want someone with some business process software skills. Something like jBPM could do this as you basically design the process and form to collect the data and then it would shunt it on to the next stage in the process / work flow. Instead of getting a signature it might be better to capture the customers email address for whoever their end has responsibility for sign off and then email a completion summary for them to reply to in a certain way to signify their signature. All the data would be captured into a database and it along with the software would be hosted on a server. A lot of bpm software you can put a wrapper around the creation to create a smart phone app for it too.

If you currently have an Oracle database server then 'FOXopen' is also worth a look at. An open source project from the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change.

dreamcat4 · 24 Sep 2015 at 11:20

It's highly likely you would have to pay for some commercial software.

Maybe try looking at the Foxit PDF tools.

For the uploading side of things. You will also need a commercially-acceptable cloud storage provider. Who your company can accept e.g. for storing client information, Data Protection Act etc. OR company run servers which have their own cloud storage software on them back at base (behind company firewall).

wiggyuk · 8 Oct 2015 at 10:17

What about a access database that creates a form that can be signed using a touch screen, is that possible

TubbyGreg · 8 Oct 2015 at 21:26

Database report is basically what your looking for. Look into a good DBMS

darkblade · 12 Oct 2015 at 15:31

What's your budget? How many engineers do you have?
Your best bet would be a cloud based CRM system that supports tablets/mobile devices.
This will also provide you with opportunities to help you automate a lot of your processes in one go, not just the job completion paperwork.
The details captured from this can be also used to help with future support calls by having all details to hand in one place (serial numbers, locations etc) for all customers requesting support, instead of various PDF forms.