Post by thread:[OT] Field tech software

Anyone got any software recommendations for tracking field tech jobs and so on? We have equipment that occasionally break, as stuff tends to do. The machines can phone home with certain faults, or they may be customer reported via a call centre. In short, a fault is logged, techs get a message, one accepts the job, it gets fixed (or not), fault clear and customer advised if need be. Current using Xora.com, which works but has a few annoyances, such as a timestamps being wrong (it reports the server time, which is in another country...), needs an app installed on the techs phone, weird default settings such as jobs expire in 12 hours, so faults reported on the weekend tend to get missed etc. Xora does all that GPS/GPRS tracking which we don't care about. We want web based (mobile version a plus), which can be accessed by techs, the (outsourced) call centre and admin. Some API for updating data (eg adding equipment reported faults) and data extraction is needed too. I'm increasingly disliking the 'click this button to save to XL' stuff, people have better things to do. Basic reporting, exceptions reports (fault not cleared after 2 days etc) is a definite. What do you use? Even "they all suck, we built our own with Outlook forms, SQL Server & IIS" is helpful. Tony

Tony Smith wrote: > Anyone got any software recommendations for tracking field tech jobs and so > on? > > Mantis? I have used it for a few things, but I have only scratched the surface of the available functionality. I know that it does some of the things you want (Mobile, etc). You should at least look at the web page .... http://www.mantisbt.org/ Rolf

> >> Anyone got any software recommendations for tracking field tech jobs > >> and so on? > > > > Mantis? > > [...] > > http://www.mantisbt.org/ > > I second that. Very stable, lots of functionality out of the box and > reasonably easy to extend the (PHP with SQL database) code. Bug tracking could work. I looked at Mantis ages ago, but I'd forgotten about it. I'd have to add a fair bit to Mantis to get it to do what I want, eg adding in scheduled maintenance (not something bug tracking does) and so on. In this case I can throw money at the problem rather than hack together something myself. A rare experience, I must say. I guess I'll keep rummaging thru the glossy websites that have little content, and their typical poorly written manuals - "The Event screen is where you can view and edit Events" - like well duh. So what actually is an Event then? I was amused to see one solution that essentially duplicated Outlook in a web browser. Maybe it was Outlook. Tony

Tony Smith wrote: >>>> Anyone got any software recommendations for tracking field tech jobs >>>> and so on? >>> >>> Mantis? >>> [...] >>> http://www.mantisbt.org/ >> >> I second that. Very stable, lots of functionality out of the box and >> reasonably easy to extend the (PHP with SQL database) code. > > Bug tracking could work. I looked at Mantis ages ago, but I'd > forgotten about it. > > I'd have to add a fair bit to Mantis to get it to do what I want, eg > adding in scheduled maintenance (not something bug tracking does) and > so on. I don't look at Mantis as "bug tracking" only; it's a pretty flexible task scheduler, too. Not sure what you mean by "adding in scheduled maintenance", but there's a (sometimes surprising) lot that Mantis can do out of the box. (It also has grown since ages ago :) Gerhard

> >>> Mantis? > >>> [...] > >>> http://www.mantisbt.org/ > >> > >> I second that. Very stable, lots of functionality out of the box and > >> reasonably easy to extend the (PHP with SQL database) code. > > > > Bug tracking could work. I looked at Mantis ages ago, but I'd > > forgotten about it. > > > > I'd have to add a fair bit to Mantis to get it to do what I want, eg > > adding in scheduled maintenance (not something bug tracking does) and > > so on. > > I don't look at Mantis as "bug tracking" only; it's a pretty flexible > task scheduler, too. Not sure what you mean by "adding in scheduled > maintenance", but there's a (sometimes surprising) lot that Mantis can > do out of the box. (It also has grown since ages ago :) Recurring task might be a better description, "Go do this every Monday" type stuff. Most likely someone has added it somewhere. Most of this software these days seems to be more interested in tracking the workers, not the work. I don't care all that much if they spend all day at the pub so long as they fix what's broken. Tony

Tony Smith wrote: {Quote hidden}>>>>> Mantis? >>>>> [...] >>>>> http://www.mantisbt.org/ >>>> >>>> I second that. Very stable, lots of functionality out of the box >>>> and reasonably easy to extend the (PHP with SQL database) code. >>> >>> Bug tracking could work. I looked at Mantis ages ago, but I'd >>> forgotten about it. >>> >>> I'd have to add a fair bit to Mantis to get it to do what I want, >>> eg adding in scheduled maintenance (not something bug tracking >>> does) and so on. >> >> I don't look at Mantis as "bug tracking" only; it's a pretty >> flexible task scheduler, too. Not sure what you mean by "adding in >> scheduled maintenance", but there's a (sometimes surprising) lot >> that Mantis can do out of the box. (It also has grown since ages ago >> :) > > Recurring task might be a better description, "Go do this every > Monday" type stuff. Ah... That's different. Even though you can put dates on items, Mantis isn't really a scheduler; it's a tracker. > Most likely someone has added it somewhere. You're right. See <www.mantisbt.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4469&p=11430&hilit=recurring#p11430>. Run the script from a scheduler at the required frequency. This was under the first few hits using "recurring" as search term in their forum. One thing I like about Mantis is that it's well organized and has good documentation. Some plugins: http://deboutv.free.fr/mantis/ > Most of this software these days seems to be more interested in > tracking the workers, not the work. Not Mantis, at least not as I see it. It helps track the issues and their way to resolution. Whether you resolve them in a pub or at home in your underwear is irrelevant :) Gerhard