how can ipad change your business? (service)

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brantmacga

brantmacga

Señor Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Former Child
so i decided to look @ the ipad earlier since its in the news everywhere. i wondered how this could be beneficial to a service company, specifically on residential service?


a couple of thoughts that first come to mind;

we could build an interactive pricing guide (for us flat-rate contractors). probably something along the lines of scanning the whole catalog into a bookmarked, searchable, .pdf format. i haven't looked much into writing apps for these things, but being pretty decent with computers, i could probably come up with something better than a .pdf.

we use pocketclock for time keeping, and they have an iphone version; it should work the same on ipad from what i'm seeing. it looks like all iphone apps work on the ipad.


load up the .pdf version of the code book and other reference material.


and the most interesting part, to me, would be the ability to have some type of multimedia sales tool. you could load pictures of previous jobs for the customer to browse.

you could have safety videos and things of that sort. maybe pics and videos of damages that occurred from ignoring problems. burnt devices, panels, structures, whatever.

we have several catalogs of things we sell that could be loaded into this thing for the customer to look at. instead of toting a bag of materials in, just lay the ipad on the table and let them browse through it.


anyhow, i'm just soliciting ideas from other members.

what could you use it for?
 
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brantmacga

brantmacga

Señor Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Former Child
another use could be some program to help techs keep track of sales. they could check it at a glance to make sure they're meeting their weekly goals. it would be nice if it could break down jobs between material and labor sales.


i thought about using it to print invoices, but right now i like the carbon-copy triplicate invoice/contract that the customer has to sign before work starts. printing invoices would require printing extras to make sure everyone has a signed copy. maybe there's a way to make that work. and i don't even know that you can print from the thing either.
 
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brantmacga

brantmacga

Señor Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Former Child
also looking @ windows 7 tablets. not sure which one would do the job best.


does anyone have any general experience with either of these?
 
W

wireguru

Senior Member
would be nice to have searchable NEC on it, could have ampacity and conduit fill charts on it, or maybe a conduit fill calculator, stuff like that.
 
brantmacga

brantmacga

Señor Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Former Child
the new blackberry tablet was officially announced today. From what I've read on the specs so far, I would like this far better than an ipad.



so to get the list in order, so far we're looking at:

time tracking
flat-rate pricing index
multimedia sales tool
invoicing
inventory control

having a way to exchange the invoice and inventory data with the office systems could save a couple hours work in the office every day. and the inverse of that would be having the ability to load quotes back into the device instead of digging the originals back out of a filing cabinet for the tech to have when they go back to perform work quoted earlier.


It seems some of you are poking fun at this, and thats okay, but share some serious thoughts on it if you can. If you don't think its a good idea, tell me why. I'm just asking questions here.
 
LEO2854

LEO2854

Esteemed Member
Location
Ma
brantmacga said:
the new blackberry tablet was officially announced today. From what I've read on the specs so far, I would like this far better than an ipad.



so to get the list in order, so far we're looking at:

time tracking
flat-rate pricing index
multimedia sales tool
invoicing
inventory control

having a way to exchange the invoice and inventory data with the office systems could save a couple hours work in the office every day. and the inverse of that would be having the ability to load quotes back into the device instead of digging the originals back out of a filing cabinet for the tech to have when they go back to perform work quoted earlier.


It seems some of you are poking fun at this, and thats okay, but share some serious thoughts on it if you can. If you don't think its a good idea, tell me why. I'm just asking questions here.
Click to expand...
IS that the same size as a regular blackberry?
 
ptonsparky

ptonsparky

Tom
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
I am serious about being able to read the screen in daylight. I am computerized up the wazoo (sp) and have had two laptops neither of which I can use outside without shading the screen. I use my Droid for job time but it is small and hard to see/use unless in the shaded cab of a vehicle. A larger touch screen would be great, if I can see it.
 
M

MJW

Senior Member
ptonsparky said:
I am serious about being able to read the screen in daylight. I am computerized up the wazoo (sp) and have had two laptops neither of which I can use outside without shading the screen. I use my Droid for job time but it is small and hard to see/use unless in the shaded cab of a vehicle. A larger touch screen would be great, if I can see it.
Click to expand...

I just did an experiment with mine. The sun does effect it and makes it difficult to read. It seems like it is easier to read than my droid or laptop when in direct sunlight. It is also easier to manipulate its position than a laptop. I can turn my back to the sun and it becomes quite readable.
 
cowboyjwc

cowboyjwc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Simi Valley, CA
Can you get a privacy screen? My wife has one on her computer at work. She is a CSR and deals with a lot of personal information. The screen is attached to her monitor and you can only read it, if you are looking straight at it.
 
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