Syncing Calendar and Contacts to Field Techs

[HCHTech]

I have two techs in the field and one office person in my small mobile operation. I use Outlook here on my two office computers. Currently, I sync contacts and two calendars between these two computers using Sync2, then manually sync each computer to one tech's phone (both are Droid Razrs) each morning. One computer uses VZOrganizer, and the other computer uses Companionlink.

This hodgepodge arose because I grew from a one-person operation. I already had Outlook and it was so easy when I was by myself.

I need to move to a more scalable system of keeping my field techs updated. I'd like to have over-the-air live updating so the new contact and appointment information can get to the techs as it comes into the office - no more manual syncing. Ideally, I'd like all calendars on each phone so the techs can know where the other is working. Also, whatever I land on has to continue to work when I add more techs.

I have about 3,000 contacts in my database, and I currently use a few hundred Outlook tasks to hold common instructions & notes, etc. I have been hesitant to put my customer data in the cloud, but I can get over that.

How are other shops handling this task? What softwares & procedures do you use to update field techs when they are in the field?

 

[acscva]

I would take a look at Zoho CRM....Great contact manager and they offer free version for up to 3 users.

http://www.zoho.com/crm/

They offer sync to outlook but do charge like $3 per month.

 

[JustInspired]

At the moment we use a bit of a cobbled combination of PCRT, Outlook and Google Calendars. Oh and gSyncit for Outlook/Google. It seems to work pretty well for what we need at the moment.

 

[drpcfix]

Microsoft's exchange hosting is great - $4/month per mailbox, 20GB mailbox size - you can all stay in sync perfectly..

If you get into many of the partner programs you can get it for free

we started hosting our own exchange server, but if we did it again today, we'd buy it from microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/compare-plans.aspx

 

[coffee]

Right now Im using google calander and can login from the shop and put the call in GC. Then there is a spot that you can add others so that it goes to their calander. However, Im a one man show here. But its very useful so that I just get my calander on my android phone when Im on the road and have all the information that I need to go to the next call.

This seems to be what alot of others are using and it works well.

coffee

 

[Tech in SC]

We use Google Calendar as well. I have an app that automatically syncs my iDevices with the calendar info in real time.

 

[roborobs computer repair]

Google calendars is the way to go. I have mine linked and have great results also handy in that you can sync to phone's calendar and have the location sent direct to navigation.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Exchange Server
As a computer tech, you probably get Microsoft technet and/or action pack.

 

[HCHTech]

Thanks everyone. I think exchange is off the table for me. I've contacted Zoho to check them out, and I'm working through what might be the best configuration for Google apps. Since we use Android phones, the integration with Google *should* certainly be easiest. $5/mo/user seems pretty good.

I'll let you know how I make out.

 

[nightkingdoms]

I would use a total Google solution for what you're talking about.

Google Calendars... Create a different calendar for each tech under the same Google account. Use the desktop version at the office, sign-in on the Androids and select only their calendar and they see only that. Office gets client, fills-out the info in Calendar, auto pushed to all devices and can setup reminders that you send for the techs when the Calendar entry gets added (Email, SMS, PopUp Notification, etc).

Google Contacts (if you didn't know, can be accessed at http://google.com/contacts)... Import all of your contacts in there. It will integrate with your Calendars and if your account is signed into the Androids, they have all the contact info as well. So they can see and contact clients as need be.

Any change you make for Calendars or Contacts on the web/desktop version or on the Android devices gets automatically updated and sync'd across everything in real-time. Best of all, it's free. 2nd best of all, it gets you away from Micro$oft. If something ever happens to your computer, Outlook is toast. If you're using Google, you can access it anywhere even if your computer's toast. ;O)

 

[uprighttech]

We use Google Apps pretty heavy...email, calendar, drive, etc. But I have always been frustrated at the lack of a simple way to share contacts. I would love to have a public contacts repository where we can all add and modify contacts like Exchange. Found a couple of Marketplace apps that might do what I'm describing, but the implementations all seem a little bit clunky. Anyone have a good solution for this? We use the free version of Apps.

 

[nightkingdoms]

You can manage your contacts on a single account using Google Contacts. If that account is signed-in on your Android phone, you can do it on there, too.

When you add a new contact in Android, at the top, you have the option to select the contact type, as seen in the pull-down option here:

You just select it, choose your Google account and instead of it being "saved" on your phone, it gets added to Google Contacts. Then it's available online as well as any phone that is using the same Google account. So, if you add the contact online, it gets autoloaded to the Android phone automatically. If you add it as a Google-based contact on your phone, it gets updated online and any other phone using the same Google account.

I have all my contacts on my phone as Google contacts. Mainly, if something ever happens to my phone, I won't ever lose them. And if I need to get a new phone, I simply sign in with my Google account during setup and it pulls down all my contacts. It's magic. ;O)

 

[callthatgirl]

Currently my team is using Outlook and we all share calendars via Google with each other so we can view easily. We have a ticket system for client information.

I am moving to hosted exchange with GoDaddy here on Thursday. I just want to view everyone's calendars in my Outlook, I'm not a fan of Google calendar. It's not as user friendly for our needs.

I am looking at zoho too for CRM coming up here as well.

 

[nightkingdoms]

I just want to view everyone's calendars in my Outlook, I'm not a fan of Google calendar. It's not as user friendly for our needs.

Just as a side-note, if you have everything in one account, you can create unlimited sub-calendars. On the techs' desktops or Androids you just select the one for the tech while, you, could just have all of them selected. Another interesting thing I never worked with is that Google Calendar has a thing called Appointment Slots you can add that people can actually book onto your calendar live. Just FYI. ;O)

 

[PR Tech]

We use pcrepairtracker.com and Google Calendars. We use OneNote to keep extensive notes on clinets that is shared on SkyDrive with all techs.

 

[HCHTech]

Just as a side-note, if you have everything in one account, you can create unlimited sub-calendars. On the techs' desktops or Androids you just select the one for the tech while, you, could just have all of them selected. Another interesting thing I never worked with is that Google Calendar has a thing called Appointment Slots you can add that people can actually book onto your calendar live. Just FYI. ;O)

NK, we might need to chat privately - it sounds like you have this all figured out. In my reading, I didn't get that you could have multiple simultaneous sign-ins to a single free account. That problem was solved by moving to the paid apps account, where you could create multiple accounts and share contacts among them.

So, just to clarify, you create a single free google apps account (with your contacts and multiple calendars), have simultaneous access from both the office and multiple phones in the field, with all data shared/updated live?

 

[nightkingdoms]

Yes. Google recognizes that people have more than one device (e.g. work phone, personal phone, tablet, etc.). So you can be signed into multiple locations. In fact, you can be signed into more than one Google account on a computer or smartphone (I'm signed into 3 right now).

Create a Google account for your business. In Calendars, create a sub calendar for each tech. Add that account to each smartphone. In the calendar settings on the phone, change their view to just their subcalendar and they have a personalized calendar just for them.

On the desktop end, you can see all calendars and create/modify those calendars and add reminders which get autosync'd to the phones. Say, a tech finishes a job, they can edit the calendar entry to say they're finished and the office will be able to see it shortly after.

For contacts, you just add or modify them online at the office and those go to the phone. As long as an added contact is added on the phones as type Google and not Phone, it uses the online address book.

 

[DavidF]

I'd be lost without being able to access my Google calendar and contacts from whatever device I'm in front of at the time.
Once you're happy with whichever method you settle on, don't forget to sell it to your customers. It's a great way for them to save time and money as well as make a few dollars for yourself.

 

[DavidF]

Oh, I should also mention that I've found Astrid Tasks to be a great tool for Gcal as well.

 

[HCHTech]

I spent some time this weekend getting my contacts and calendars imported to Google. I've converted my own phone to using this data as the main contact list and calendars. So far, so good.

I've shared my tech's calendar with his gmail address - I'll be working with his phone today or tomorrow. I'll let you know how I get on.

Personally, I LOVE the instant updates and the return of 2-way sync on my phone, and getting rid of the 2 different sync softwares on my computer has sped up the boot time quite a bit.

The last bit is how to handle the tasks. There is no easy way to import tasks from Outlook to GTasks. You can get the task title, but not the notes.

I use Outlook tasks to hold various tech data in the notes section - things like email settings for the half-dozen or so ISPs here, various command-line commands, notes about various softwares, POST Beep codes, Dell error light codes, common router default passwords, etc. I probably have 2 or 3 hundred of them.

I looked at gogtasks to sync Outlook to Google tasks, but I'm looking more for a one-time transfer rather than an ongoing sync.

It occurs to me Google tasks might not be the best application to make this information available on the phones. I definitely need to have it shared & synced among all phones. Maybe even password protected if I decide to keep anything secure there. What app or method would/do you use for this kind of job?