certification software

[buttonmoon]

Hi Does anybody know of a thread which discusses the pros and cons of the different certification software. I need it for commercial inspections but may need other forms at some point.

Thanks

 

[buttonmoon]

Or does anyone have any thoughts on the subject?

 

[Baal]

We get a few demo versions of software packages at the training centres and the one that's impressed me most recently is Formfill 9 by Castline.
The new kid on the block is PIRform but it seemed a little 'buggy' when we last tried it.

 

[Tom Creed]

Without a doubt you guys should take a look @ flycert.co.uk its still under development but will knock the socks of anything else =)

 

[RWJ]

Without a doubt you guys should take a look @ flycert.co.uk its still under development but will knock the socks of anything else =)

Thank you for the blatant self ad Tom ^^^^

You shouldn't really be advertising on the forum....
Have you thought about becoming an official forum sponsor???

Drop DAN a PM or Contact Us - Electricians Forum | Electrical Advice Forum | An electrical forum for electricians in the UK | Electricians Forum

Of course you'd give the forum members a generous discount?

 

[Tom Creed]

Hey - didn't mean to be SO blatant!
If it gets off the ground I'll definitely look into sponsorship.

& i'll also look at a deal for forum members - in the mean time anyone who is interested in testing the software with a free account can drop me an email.

 

[Graeme Harrold]

Had a quick look, but think Ill stick with PIR Form for now. A clip board can get thrown round site, my Laptop cant and I aint spending £2-3K on a rugadised version. PDA and mobile phone screens are too small, plus my printer is back in the office, again defeats the purpose of spending extra time on site thats not needed. Ipad would get nicked,and its just another delicate piece of kit to carry. MFT's are out with testing memory, so back to office, download and print. Good concept, but I fear you may have trouble with it catching on because of the IT issues. PIR Form is £70 so you would have to be way better and charge between £5 and £10 per month and thats at the bottom end of your scale.

 

[Tom Creed]

Thanks Graeme, I totally agree with your points. I too wouldn't choose anything other than pen and paper on-site - which is why I've designed on-site printable forms that take a fresh approach to the process which (from my personal experience so far) speed up that side of the process. I expect the feedback regarding price point to come in similar to what you've said.

Emailing certificates with digital signatures to clients surely is a time saver - granted, carbon pads can be handed over immediately, but if dealing with letting agencies for example, doing PIRs on a regular basis could be simplified with email. Not to mention producing duplicates & converting all data into an installation certificate.

The software I am designing is trying to take a new approach - simplifying the forms layout, speeding up the in-office admin time for typing up certs & concentrating on the user's experience...

I hope you take another look further into the development process and can give me some feedback then. =)

 

[Tom Creed]

i also quote from PIRforms website: "Price - £75 per licence (you will need 1 licence per PC)"

this issue with licences is with all other software available - with flycert you'll be able to log in to your account from any computer or device. There's no software to install, no files to store on your computer... it's all online, securely stored of course.

and unless you're a oneman band - carbon pad certs have to be signed by the tester and qualified supervisor for the co. whereas with my software the different people can login, check the data, add their digital signature & the cert/report can be emailed or posted...

 

[IQ Electrical]

Thanks Graeme, I totally agree with your points. I too wouldn't choose anything other than pen and paper on-site - which is why I've designed on-site printable forms that take a fresh approach to the process which (from my personal experience so far) speed up that side of the process. I expect the feedback regarding price point to come in similar to what you've said.

Emailing certificates with digital signatures to clients surely is a time saver - granted, carbon pads can be handed over immediately, but if dealing with letting agencies for example, doing PIRs on a regular basis could be simplified with email. Not to mention producing duplicates & converting all data into an installation certificate.

The software I am designing is trying to take a new approach - simplifying the forms layout, speeding up the in-office admin time for typing up certs & concentrating on the user's experience...

I hope you take another look further into the development process and can give me some feedback then. =)

We're converts to on-site data entry, using Formfill and a netbook on periodic inspections saves doing the job twice.

We also do the PDF's with digital signatures too, clients are well impressed and it saves us time, everyone's a winner!

Without blatant advertising, what exactly are you doing differently to Formfill that would benefit us as a business that tests around 300 circuits per week on periodic inspections?

 

[Tom Creed]

I think my forms are designed better to speed up the process of form filling - of course you don't HAVE to use the printable on-site forms. you can save the website to a netbook (so you don't have to rely on an internet connection) enter the data that way, then when you have signal, submit the form - the Qualified supervisor can then immediately log in & add his digital signature and email to the client...

I hope you might be interested in taking a look once I have a usable version available to test.

 

[IQ Electrical]

I think my forms are designed better to speed up the process of form filling - of course you don't HAVE to use the printable on-site forms. you can save the website to a netbook (so you don't have to rely on an internet connection) enter the data that way, then when you have signal, submit the form - the Qualified supervisor can then immediately log in & add his digital signature and email to the client...

I hope you might be interested in taking a look once I have a usable version available to test.

I'm interested in anything that speeds up the process but I must say it would take something special to improve on our present system.

 

[Tom Creed]

well please drop me an email- [email protected] and I'll contact you in due course =)

 

[IQ Electrical]

well please drop me an email- [email protected] and I'll contact you in due course =)

Have done.

 

[lowfields71]

Hey,
I've been heavily involved with the testing side of things for around 15 years now and tried quite a few packages from form fill through Click to Amtech. I've no loyalty to any of these but would strongly reccomend Amtech if you can afford it, much much more than just a document production package and so so easy to use, it isn't cheap but in my opinion is the best there is, the 'validation' function makes quality control of reports and certificates so easy and the design side of the package is very helpful, you also get a mobile licence as part of the deal plus many many more functions making producing and archiving proffesional reports etc so easy.
I found the NICEIC's 'click' package very user unfriendly and 'form fill' a real drag. The Hollycroft package is quite good and very cheap (I think it was around £90 but that was 2 or 3 years ago) if all you want is a program to fill out the forms and it also offers a decent office package with quote templates etc, simple word format documents.

Regards