Is Office 365 the answer?

[mazeroth]

I've done work with Access about 10 years ago, making some very basic databases for work. I now need to create a database for a friend's small business (5 employees) in which they repair HVAC systems. He would like this database to be able to:

Have each tech have their own parts inventory, which would come out of a central inventory and be moved into their inventory by him.

He would like to assign them work, and an e-mail be sent to them to notify them.

Store each customer's information, what components each HVAC system consists of (model numbers and serial numbers) and a record of what was done to each one.

Lastly, he would like it to generate finalized service reports to print out and hand to the customer that could be looked up at a later date. The techs would be able to put the parts in it they used, how many hours, and have this generate a service report and bill, if not covered under warranty.

This will all need to be done remotely by each tech, so this will need to sync with a master database.

I may be in over my head, and if so, I can tell him he'll need to get this professionally done. It's not needed for at least 6 months, and I have plenty of free time to get this done, so if you guys can let me know if Office 365 is the way to go, and how I should go about learning to do this the right way, I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Before you pay for it take a look at wps.

 

[mrjminer]

I've done work with Access about 10 years ago, making some very basic databases for work. I now need to create a database for a friend's small business (5 employees) in which they repair HVAC systems. He would like this database to be able to:

Have each tech have their own parts inventory, which would come out of a central inventory and be moved into their inventory by him.

He would like to assign them work, and an e-mail be sent to them to notify them.

Store each customer's information, what components each HVAC system consists of (model numbers and serial numbers) and a record of what was done to each one.

Lastly, he would like it to generate finalized service reports to print out and hand to the customer that could be looked up at a later date. The techs would be able to put the parts in it they used, how many hours, and have this generate a service report and bill, if not covered under warranty.

This will all need to be done remotely by each tech, so this will need to sync with a master database.

I may be in over my head, and if so, I can tell him he'll need to get this professionally done. It's not needed for at least 6 months, and I have plenty of free time to get this done, so if you guys can let me know if Office 365 is the way to go, and how I should go about learning to do this the right way, I'd greatly appreciate it.

When you say: This will all need to be done remotely by each tech, so this will need to sync with a master database. Do you mean they will need to do it offline, then have it synchronize with an online database at a later time? If so, it adds an element of unpredictability that is impossible to resolve (ie: tech 1 and tech 2 are both on calls and request the same part. Only one is available, but both techs would think it is available) and I would urge you to do require synchronization to a master DB at all times.

As for your question, there are tons, and tons of options for what you could use.

If using Office 365, you would need to use additional programming languages to do some tasks, or modify your thought process on the matter. For instance, there is nothing built into Office 365 that I am aware of to send an e-mail programmatically. However, you could alternatively have him use calendars / scheduling in Outlook. Then, the techs could simply view their calendar in Outlook, and he can update their calendars whenever he wants.

Access should accommodate your needs for database, but I am not familiar enough with it to know if you could tie in any data validation, or tie it into an excel pivot table with an access data source. Someone else would have to chime in on this, since you will definitely want some convention to ensure he and the techs don't enter invalid values. or be able to select out of stock items. Concurrency may be an issue here, as well.

The alternative to an Access/Excel solution would be to use ASP, WPF, or (yea, I know) WinForms to create a GUI, and possibly use SQL Server as an alternative to Access.

With your requirements, there is a lot you could get away with doing to cut corners, but you are probably still looking at a couple months minimum if you are learning as you go along.

If I were you, I would have him use Office 365 for Outlook, and wait to see what an Office guru here has to say about your other requirements.

 

[gsaldivar]

You might want to consider using a CRM platform for your needs. There are specialized ones for the service industry, but expect to pay several hundred to several thousands of dollars for a commercial platform. Before going down that road, I would first recommend taking a good look at a hosted open-source CRM like vTiger. With vTiger, you can manage your customers, parts inventory, jobs, quotes, invoicing, trouble tickets, marketing, and it allows you to generate a number of reports. QuickBooks and shopping cart integration are also available. This will get you 90% there. Because its an open source platform, there is no licensing cost involved, you pay only for the hosting service.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vtiger_CRM
https://www.vtiger.com/
https://www.vtiger.com/mobile/

You will find some areas that need to be customized for your specific business (such as the customer service report), but there might be reports or plugins available that can be added to your system to generate these for you. Otherwise, these custom reports may need to be manually added to the platform. In any case, once the system is built you just enter inventory, users, and jobs, and start assigning work. Each person can log in to the site from any location, and there are apps available for your mobile users. Because the system is hosted, the hosting company handles all the backups for you.

There are a few demo sites that allow you to log in and test drive the platform immediately, but I find that there are too many users playing with these servers for them to be of any use for evaluation purposes. Instead, I recommend signing up for a host that does the install automatically for you, and charges month by month.

Here is one that will get you your own vTiger instance for $7/month and would be ideal for testing:

http://www.arvixe.com/vtiger_hosting

Good luck!

 

[mazeroth]

Thanks for all the input so far! I'm going to do some research tonight.

 

[soldsoul4foos]

What G said. It sounds like the situation is your buddy wants you to 'whip something up' cheap. Well, good luck with that in the long run. If you do it on the cheap, you'll be supporting it on the cheap.

 

[gsaldivar]

The goal of using a CRM platform is to take something that does 90% of the job "out of the box" and modify it so that it comes as close as possible to what the client actually needs. These platforms are designed to be modified extensively, so that the end result approaches a perfect match for what the client is asking for.

Using an open-source platform eliminates ongoing license fees, and using a hosted solution means the solution is accessible anywhere and backups are handled for a very small monthly fee.

Once the solution is built, the OP simply creates user accounts for the client, and is free to charge the client an ongoing maintenance contract fee for the solution. Now all of a sudden there is a nice little stream of income coming in every month.

The skills that were invested into customizing the CRM are easily learned, and can go towards creating new solutions with the same CRM platform, or resell the solution to other HVAC companies. IMHO this would be a much better investment of time than reinventing the wheel in Access... :thumbsup: