Question for the group. I'd like to see about having an app developed for use at my organization. Quick background I am GM for a small railroad with about 80 employees, most are in one of the "crafts" with a handful of managers.

What I'd like is an app where employees could snap a picture along with basic info (location, time/date, notes, etc) regarding a safety concern. This would log the event into an online dashboard where my management team could go in and sort the issues, respond to each, and show them closed out when appropriate. The ability to run a few basic reports from this dashboard would be nice as well.

I know what I want, but no idea how to get there. Any thoughts or suggestions from the group to help me get started?

One of my clients does this. Email in profile.

There is an app called Fulcrum that will do what you want. A bit pricey at just under $30/user/month. Not sure what enterprise pricing is available.

Use it to "test" needs vs desires and fine tune. Then get someone to build your app.

In general custom development is expensive. I would look for an off the shelf app(s) that will fill your requirements

Don’t know where Willow Park is, but if you’re near a university you may be able to get a serious student or someone in teh CS department to custom you a Java built app.

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:
In general custom development is expensive. I would look for an off the shelf app(s) that will fill your requirements

That's what I was wondering. All the off-the-shelf versions seem to be $20-30/month per user as ffips notes above. I can't afford that kind of price. Was hoping for an upfront expense and then maybe a yearly maintenance fee that would be more reasonable.

Hazard Scout is a safety app that does what you are interested in. You may be able to get the developers to strip out some functions you do not need.

Pulse solutions is the developer the will provide a free consultation for what you want to develop. I know we do not pay $20-30 per month per employee.

At one point in my software development career I was given the task of tracking problems, conceptually similar to what you're doing. Actually, more than once, for different clients.

Key question: Based on previous experience, what kind of volume would you expect? How many new items in a week?

I write software for a living, and while parts of this project are a little outside my skillset, it would be a good opportunity to learn something new. If you'd like to explore this option a little more, shoot me an email.

A photo taken on an android phone may have:

• date and time taken
  
• image name, size and resolution
  
• Camera name, aperture, exposure time, focal length and ISO
  
• Location data, lat/long and map
  

So a note and the photo should contain most of what you want.

"Text" this to a centralized location (say "problems@SigM4.com"). Run a scheduled reaper to "consolidate" them into a database. A web-app to allow browser based viewing/management and reporting.

Awesome, info everyone. I may reach out to a few of you as my schedule allows. Thanks again!

quote:

Originally posted by SigM4:

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:
In general custom development is expensive. I would look for an off the shelf app(s) that will fill your requirements

That's what I was wondering. All the off-the-shelf versions seem to be $20-30/month per user as ffips notes above. I can't afford that kind of price. Was hoping for an upfront expense and then maybe a yearly maintenance fee that would be more reasonable.

Can you have users or groups of users share logon credentials. That implies that a limited number of employees can access the app simultaneously but it will save quite a few $$$. Also, if you go custom development, have the requirements carefully spec'd before taking bids. Otherwise the project can turn into a never ending nightmare.

What about a dedicated slack channel?