Tracking people - IT solution?

Discussion in 'Chit-Chat' started by Cheung, Dec 15, 2007.

  1. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    Hi,

    Bit of a special problem I have. Wonder if anybody can come up with some ideas that I can follow up.

    I have four people in a team who work seperately but these four people rarely meet. But it's important that they each know where each other's location is on a day to day, hour to hour basis. Sometimes assignments come up at very short notice i.e. even less than an hour, for which one will have to cover. If one of the group is not free, then another will have to cover.

    Obviously, that means coordination on whereabouts is needed. In order to be more efficient in covering assignments, the team needs to know where each other will be. Say person A receives the assignment, he needs to be able to see very quickly person B and D is busy, so that he can directly C (who he can see is free) to cover. That way only one phone call is made.

    The current system is to just keep ringing people up to ask them if they are free. So this is quite inefficient.


    Basically, I reckon the timetable plan would look something like a spread sheet. For each day, the hours go in one column and then person A, B, C and D each occupy another column and fill in their whereabouts. Something like an excel file would be able to do it.


    There are a couple of solutions:
    1) build a webpage with a big spread sheet which people will access periodically and fill in the details of their booked assignments. It's good in that you only fill in the details once and everybody in the team can find out where each other is and what future appointments there are.

    2) Each member of the team gives their schedule to a central coordinator. This coodinator will summarise the collated timetable and then will fax the timetable out each evening before the next working day.

    Equipment - pretty rudimentary - basically a mobile phone. However, upgrades to mobile/PDA phones can be arranged for a better efficiency.

    Problems:
    1) webpage - not all members of the team have wireless access to a webpage (but they could do it via the telephone). Team members are not savvy enough to maintain a website.

    2) fax - just cumbersome and not 'realtime' enough'. If the timetable changes during the current day, then phone ringing will still be needed.

    One solution I thought of was to get each member of the team to input their schedule on a miniexcel file, then that gets cc'd over the telephone to each others PDA phone. That one gives a problem of many excel files sent around and appointments might be missed properly.

    The webpage workflow is good but are there any other alternatives to a webpage? Basically, the solution would have to be similar to a whiteboard which shows everybody's timetable. It gets automatically updated on the run. Team members can look at the whiteboard remotely.
     
  2. newjazz

    newjazz Regular Member

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    use database & SMS solutions! (PC + GSM modem + Database Application required)

    Each user can update their activities and whereabout via SMS. And If you need to find out current activities for each user, you just need to send SMS command and you gonna get replied on your mobile phone.

    Other SMS command that you can build such as:
    - Who free now?
    - What is "user a" doing now
    - etc
     
  3. Oldhand

    Oldhand Moderator

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    The solution suggested by newjazz seems to be the right fit :)

    If you were using Macs, the easy and cheap, cheap solution would be to use iCal. :rolleyes:
    In fact, we use it here (in tandem with OmniPlan - again, for Macs)...
    ...and we keep track of a whole team of engineers and technicians working on projects in different countries. :)

    Merely by sharing one calendar (or several), each person knows what the other is doing, where he is and when he will be finished with the current job. :)

    However, internet access is a must :(
    And, yeah, Macs too :p

    This might sound dumb... but, have you tried Google Calendar? :cool:
     
  4. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    Am I right in that you mean have the PC continually on at home with a GSM modem (haven't heard of this before - wireless router is different, right?). Which database application? Simple is better!!:D
     
    #4 Cheung, Dec 15, 2007
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2007
  5. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    Internet access not assured unless we get cheaper wireless modems. That solution is still 2 years away. Hence, some sort of solution using the mobile phone. Is some connection by 3G any better?
     
  6. newjazz

    newjazz Regular Member

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    I do not know whether there's any available software out there.
    But it's possible to develop an application and make use of GSM Modem (connected to PC/server), and whenever there's an incoming SMS, this application will read the SMS and do whatever necessary and return back the result via SMS to the user.
     
  7. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    OK, so how to 'develop' an application?

    You mean write a program using code?
     
  8. newjazz

    newjazz Regular Member

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    yeah man... you have to write ...
     
  9. Oldhand

    Oldhand Moderator

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    No internet access? :confused:
    But the gateway PC will still need internet access if you need to configure the MMSC. :(
    SMS will still work. :)
     
  10. newjazz

    newjazz Regular Member

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    Yeah, if you only make use of GSM Modem, you don't even need internet access.
    But what you need is GSM line.

     
  11. Oldhand

    Oldhand Moderator

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    Cheung, this case study might be of some help :)
    http://www.activexperts.com/asmssrvr/casestudies/stjoseph/
    Not really :)
    To use its MMSC, the gateway computer must be accessible over the internet.
    To retrieve MMS, the phones must connect to the MMSC's HTTP port ;)
     
  12. newjazz

    newjazz Regular Member

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    Ah, ok..

    the one that you mentioned here was actually using a "better" SMS server.
    this is not using a standard "GSM Modem". Because the problem with GSM Modem is: it cannot send too many SMS within a minute. it just too slow.

    But, GSM modem is the cheapest solution for "small group of user".
    In the example given in your URL, the no of user are quite big.

    Therefore, if you read the article there, you can find these statement:

    One of the requirements is throughput: it may not take more than 5 minutes to send out an SMS message to hundred students. This throughput cannot be achieved with a GSM Modem (a GSM can send out only 1 message per 5 seconds maximum). Therefore, St. Joseph College subscribed with an SMPP provider (Clickatell). It's throughput is around 10 messages/second.

    But for Cheung case (3-5 users?), it will be too expensive to buy SMS server. GSM Modem will be good enough.



     
  13. Oldhand

    Oldhand Moderator

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    You missed my point, sir :)
    It was about the MMSC.
    As I said, SMS will still work.
     
  14. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    Hmm, had a look a that. I don't think it fits the requirements very well.

    The SMS can only give limited information.

    What I need is to for people to see the whole day time table for the whole team so that everybody knows each person's location, what time slot they are busy, what times they are free. This applies to future dates as well for booking purposes.

    Bookings may turn made anywhere between 7am and 12midnight. Each team member will receive bookings. So it's important that each person can view dates, see the free time slots and then add to the team's calendar. There must be minimal delay e.g. 5 - 10 minutes for the information to be accesible (or sent) to the other team members.

    A macro that automatically sends a notification when new bookings are made is good. But the whole timetable needs to be viewable for clarity.
    GSM access to a webpage is one solution but I don't know how to build a website for this.

    I would think a macro that sends the whole timetable (in whatever format) each time an alteration is made is a better solution. If the new file can be resaved and automatically named with the date and time, that would be great. That way, each team member has an upto date copy. If it can all be done on mobile phone, a very important advantage is that it gives backup security as 4 people have upto date copies. One person might lose their phone and need quick backup of the timetable from other team members.


    One thing I would be uncomfortable with for a central PC to handle it is the issue of reliability. The PC or GSM modem might break down, crash, have power supply interruptions etc.

    BTW, thanks for the suggestions so far. It helps me clarify the requirements which I hadn't articulated before. Any further ideas?
     
    #14 Cheung, Dec 15, 2007
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2007
  15. ksooi

    ksooi Regular Member

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    Cheung,

    If you guys can afford it, contact CSL. I think they have a solution for it using PDAs...
     
  16. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    Really?

    OK. Thanks
     
  17. newjazz

    newjazz Regular Member

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    Well, I guess the only way is using internet + WAP.

    You can access information thru WIFI or GPRS.

    and you can use "Push" email technology in PDA phone such as blackberry or Palm Treo. so, whenever there's an update in time table, email alert will be generated and sent to whichever user that you want to notify and user can view full detail via internet/WAP.


     
  18. kankan

    kankan Regular Member

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    with some model of mobile phone (at least Nokia S40/S60 phone). one can just add his own schedule into the calendar as meeting with some convention for the subject, e.g. [your name]: -testing xxx, and send the calendar item to other 3 person via sms. when others receive the sms, just save it to their calendar.

    all 4 person will get same, something like following in their calendar:
    10:00-12:00, locationA, [A's name]: testing xxx
    10:00-13:00, localtionB [B's name]: meeting with xyz
    10:00-15:00, localtionC [C's name]: fixing problem yyy

    from the calendar, one will know who is available then.
     
  19. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    Thanks Newjazz and Kankan.

    Very interesting stuff.

    Just came back after talking with one friend. He suggested a commercial server which does cater for needs such as mine. Might not be very expensive. He admitted there might be problems with stability with the ISP.

    Kankan. That sounds very close to what I need. Another option to explore.:)
     
  20. Oldhand

    Oldhand Moderator

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    Sounds inexpensive... and I didn't know that either :p
     

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