Will Code For Device - Winner
Pocket Helpdesk
Gary Hoehn
Necessity is the mother of invention. We have a web based helpdesk application that our 60 techs use for all of their activity. The problem is that they go to remote sites and have to print out a list of tickets before they go and then maintain scraps of paper with notes as to what they did. When they return to the office, they must then enter their notes in the helpdesk application.
My submission for “Will Code for device” falls squarely in the camp of usefulness. I will have a Web service running on our intranet (but for this sample I have an internet site so you do not have to create the database and web service to test it).
The basic technology that I use is retrieving a dataset from the web service and storing this as XML on the local device. The techs can then be “offline” and have access to the history on all of their open tickets. As they work on the problems, they will also be able to append their actions to each ticket. When they return to the office, they would then upload their actions, clear their locally stored data and retrieve any remaining open tickets to start the cycle all over again.
Besides the obvious boost to productivity, I believe I can save a $100 a year just in printing cost for each tech.