Technology deployment in small business question

[Hellotalkie]

My dad is a small business but growing at a steady pace. He has about 25 workers, 5 leaders. He wants to cut back on using paper as he makes individual schedules for his leaders and then the leaders use their own paper for logging for the day. It adds up! He also wants his employees to start logging electronically

I was thinking of my dad buying the cheap original ipad 3g's, maybe around 5 of them. Have them registered with a Google calendar account. My dad could push his calendar to the individual ipads. The employees can log what they do for the day into the 'event' for the calendar and my dad would receive them.

An att 250mb plan is 15 a month.

Can anyone think of a better or more efficient way of electronic portable communication etc...

 

[aceO07]

The cost of 5x $15 data plans per month ($75) is more than 30x 30 sheets of paper a month ($20?)?

Also the workers would need to know how to use the ipad for data entry, and not break them. Also they have to know how to type on them.

Since there's only 5 ipads, the leaders would need to type all the data in or they would need to pass it to each worker for them to type in. Not optimal..

edit: corrected for number of ipad.

 

[Hellotalkie]

The cost of 5x $15 data plans per month ($75) is more than 30x 30 sheets of paper a month ($20?)?

Also the workers would need to know how to use the ipad for data entry, and not break them. Also they have to know how to type on them.

edit: corrected for number of ipad.

It wont only be used for calendar, sorry. Also will be used to access online irrigation systems, emails. We're trying to avoid a cell phone data plan as those are 2-3x more expensive.

And lol it will take maybe 5 minutes to teach them how to enter stuff into a calendar and they can read english and type on a keyboard.

Just looking for alternatives.

 

[deadlyapp]

Can you get an ipad without data and just have it attached to the wifi in the building?

It seems more cost effective to just have a single computer designated as a clocking in computer and purchase an inexpensive program to record the time.

http://www.complete-time-tracking.com/purchase/pricing.htm

 

[Hellotalkie]

Argh i'm hitting myself for not being so detail in the original post.

The leaders w/ crew members are on the field which means no wifi. Thats why we need 3g.

And its not a clocking in and out issue. We have a time clock, its more of a digital schedule with electronic logging. So my dad doesn't have to sort through paper work, he can access it electronically whether it be at home or at work.

 

[Fritzo]

That is actually THE way for small business to go. Everything cloud based, no internal infrastructure. Google Apps will be a decent choice because it rolls email, collaboration, and document creation all rolled into one. It's very cheap to set up as well.

(BTW- I consult on this stuff for a living )

 

[Hellotalkie]

That is actually THE way for small business to go. Everything cloud based, no internal infrastructure. Google Apps will be a decent choice because it rolls email, collaboration, and document creation all rolled into one. It's very cheap to set up as well.

(BTW- I consult on this stuff for a living )

I was looking into the google chrome books. They're a tad too expensive right now, 500 for the netbook, 20 for 3g when it comes to be available. I do like how you get 100mb free but with it being completely cloud based, i'm sure that will run up quickly Also since it'll be on the field, a touchscreen is easier to maintain than say a keyboard where its susceptible to dirt, debris, etc...

I can get the 3g original ipad for 319 from cowboom (ordered 3 already). Bought cheap otterbox cases off amazon ~15 a piece. The ipads will be locked down and only be able to access the calendar and certain websites.

Just want to make sure i'm going into the right direction.

 

[aceO07]

Since it's more than just schedules, there could be a benefit. You could test it with just a couple of leaders and see how they like it and how effective it is.

 

[sdifox]

what is wrong with a smartphone?

 

[Hellotalkie]

what is wrong with a smartphone?

Let me write something more in depth.

My dad owns a landscaping company

25 employess, 5 crew leaders.

The crew leaders drive the trucks and direct the crew members.

The crew leaders right now receive a hand written day schedule from my dad in which in return the crew leader fills out a work log for that area.

At the end of the day my dad has about 25 work logs.
______________________

What we need to happen

We want everything electronic. Everything.

Schedules and work logs. The crew leaders are on the field all day so they are suppose to complete a report at the end of each job.

I am trying to figure out the most cost effective and most efficient way of handling this problem.
My idea was to deploy ipads to the leaders, have google calendar manage the worklogs and schedules. The leaders will enter the work log into the calendar event and my dad could easily see what happened that day and what went well or wrong.
The ipads will be capable of accessing irrigation control sites, email etc...

So my question is, do we continue buying ipads or is there a more cost effective way of handling this situation.

Btw cellphones are much more expensive and I would say more susceptible to being lost and damaged due to the smallness of the device.

 

[Fritzo]

I was looking into the google chrome books. They're a tad too expensive right now, 500 for the netbook, 20 for 3g when it comes to be available. I do like how you get 100mb free but with it being completely cloud based, i'm sure that will run up quickly Also since it'll be on the field, a touchscreen is easier to maintain than say a keyboard where its susceptible to dirt, debris, etc...

I can get the 3g original ipad for 319 from cowboom (ordered 3 already). Bought cheap otterbox cases off amazon ~15 a piece. The ipads will be locked down and only be able to access the calendar and certain websites.

Just want to make sure i'm going into the right direction.

Chromebooks are a DOA product. Normal laptops are fine. Tablets may work OK unless they have to type a lot.

 

[ViviTheMage]

You'll soon find iPads are not meant to be in the 'field'. They'll break, get dirty, malfunction....we've tried it in a small group here. Our field guys think everything is a tool, and use it as such...and tend to be harder on it then they would an 'electronic device' if that makes sense.

I wouldn't roll it out full boar, test it with 1-2 people first, never just roll something out without testing.

 

[Ns1]

Chromebooks are a DOA product. Normal laptops are fine. Tablets may work OK unless they have to type a lot.

normal laptops = still need to buy 3g access

 

[Ns1]

You'll soon find iPads are not meant to be in the 'field'. They'll break, get dirty, malfunction....we've tried it in a small group here. Our field guys think everything is a tool, and use it as such...and tend to be harder on it then they would an 'electronic device' if that makes sense.

I wouldn't roll it out full boar, test it with 1-2 people first, never just roll something out without testing.

dude, they're using iPads while fixing the washington monument.

 

[Oyeve]

Smartphone or some PDA, tablets too costly and probably will break easy in the field.

 

[ViviTheMage]

dude, they're using iPads while fixing the washington monument.

everyone's environment is different, have them test it first.

 

[sdifox]

Let me write something more in depth.

My dad owns a landscaping company

25 employess, 5 crew leaders.

The crew leaders drive the trucks and direct the crew members.

The crew leaders right now receive a hand written day schedule from my dad in which in return the crew leader fills out a work log for that area.

At the end of the day my dad has about 25 work logs.
______________________

What we need to happen

We want everything electronic. Everything.

Schedules and work logs. The crew leaders are on the field all day so they are suppose to complete a report at the end of each job.

I am trying to figure out the most cost effective and most efficient way of handling this problem.
My idea was to deploy ipads to the leaders, have google calendar manage the worklogs and schedules. The leaders will enter the work log into the calendar event and my dad could easily see what happened that day and what went well or wrong.
The ipads will be capable of accessing irrigation control sites, email etc...

So my question is, do we continue buying ipads or is there a more cost effective way of handling this situation.

Btw cellphones are much more expensive and I would say more susceptible to being lost and damaged due to the smallness of the device.

so you cannot create work orders from the office, send to crew head, he just check off items done and by whom?

If you are going to do process re-engineering, may as well think a bit further.

 

[xanis]

Let me write something more in depth.

My dad owns a landscaping company

25 employess, 5 crew leaders.

The crew leaders drive the trucks and direct the crew members.

The crew leaders right now receive a hand written day schedule from my dad in which in return the crew leader fills out a work log for that area.

At the end of the day my dad has about 25 work logs.
______________________

What we need to happen

We want everything electronic. Everything.

Schedules and work logs. The crew leaders are on the field all day so they are suppose to complete a report at the end of each job.

I am trying to figure out the most cost effective and most efficient way of handling this problem.
My idea was to deploy ipads to the leaders, have google calendar manage the worklogs and schedules. The leaders will enter the work log into the calendar event and my dad could easily see what happened that day and what went well or wrong.
The ipads will be capable of accessing irrigation control sites, email etc...

So my question is, do we continue buying ipads or is there a more cost effective way of handling this situation.

Btw cellphones are much more expensive and I would say more susceptible to being lost and damaged due to the smallness of the device.

I still don't get how you're getting to 25+ work logs with only 5 crew leaders. Why do they need to fill out a separate log for each area? If I were you're dad I'd do something like this:

1) Create 1 Excel document per crew leader. This one document contains all of the work areas for the day and is stored on Google Docs.

2) Crew leaders keep track of the hours through the day via old-school pen and paper. Notepads and pens are cheap.

3) At the end of the day, crew leaders report back to the office and enter the hours into their Excel documents. Since the spreadsheets are already online, your dad can access them all from his account.

This approach isn't exactly what you're looking for, and it sure isn't that high-tech, but it virtually eliminates all paper and it costs absolutely nothing.

 

[Gibson486]

That is a pretty expensive proposal....