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This is a subject close to my heart and one I’m going at pretty hard right now.
The aim is to create an open standard for data transmission back to any call handling agency or manufacturer in a .CSV file as it’s simple, cheap and almost universally useable. All we need to do is decide on the standard format that the data is transmitted in and come up with a way to get the computers to initiate a comms session via the web automatically at preset intervals.
Almost any dbase can dump info into a .CSV file, which means that systems you already have most likely can be adapted to do this easily and, importantly, cheaply.
That may sound complex, but it’s not really, it’s actually pretty simple stuff these days.
That’s stage one, getting the information on status back, there’s a lot more in my head to do with this but I’ll stow it for now in case it ends up being an “information overload” situation.
I have spoken with a few people about this today, as in WP’s/manufacturers etc and they are all extremely interested in this idea, it’s low cost, low tech stuff that could save both the repairers and their clients money, so there’s no losers here. I will be speaking to more manufacturers etc as time goes by on the subject but if you are interested then let me know either by email or PM on the site, especially manufacturers, insurers or work providers as if we all employ the same comms method to get the information back to you it’s going to save us all a lot of trouble. And, let’s face it, I’m sure live updates direct from repairers systems has to be an attractive proposition for little or no cost? 😉
More on this as I get it.
K.
I decided not to as I don’t want NESN or GBDAR etc. to know what we’re up to just yet and until we have some sort of concrete agreement on a standard for this data.
But what do you lot think?
K.
The idea in principle is good, but will some people not be frightened off when they have to actually commit some money to an idea.
I am a firm believe you have to speculate to accumulate but it will need more than a handful to make the idea work
I already have ISDAL, AIS and Servevast onboard with the idea. Just think how much that would save in time reporting alone let alone anything else.
Kevin is going to speak to Tony Brown at MFI and I’ve still to get someone in D&G as well to see if they’re interested, I don’t think they’ll say no somehow since the others are already falling over themselves for this. Oh and I’ve put the feelers out to Paul Greenberg as well and they appear interested too.
The point is that other than the initial dump of information to an application to send the data out there’s no cost, only savings on admin. So it may cost a few quid to get the info dumped at regular intervals as that would probably require some programming but it should be very easy to do.
From what I know of it you use Mark’s system, I’m sure he’ll be interested in saving some admin time spent answering stupid questions as well so the cost is again reduced and likewise for other popular systems.
The thing is, we have to start somewhere and this could well be one way of getting the rates up. 😉
K.
Re: I was gonna post it but then I thought about it a bit…
Shit !!
I missed this thread altogether until now.
I, and couple of others (can’t remeber exactly who now) spoke to Richard Dalley about this sort of thing at the meeting and he thinks it would be a great step forward for the industry, it helps everyone basically, we all heard him say that the manufacturers etc want almost live information on the service work, which we already know as they constantly request daily updates etc, which, to be honest I can see why. If they get even one customer phone with a complaint or query, they have to make umpteen calls to find out wtf is happening, and more often than not, we end up having to phone engineers to get more info on jobs to answer their questions.
Real time updates on jobs is the only way forward with service software IMO, and Connect are striving towards it as far as I know. I may find out soon as I am quite tempted to take RF up on his offer, but only in a small area, even if it’s just to have a look at the software they have developed, anything is better than NESN’s call manager 😉
Come to think of it, anything is better than NESN full stop.
Dave.
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