FlexiQuote’s new off-site system

Quoting is an essential part of running a panel shop. While it would be convenient to be always able to use a computer to quote at your desk, the reality is that sometimes you have to do off-site quoting. Consider the following situations:

You regularly go to the insurance company’s customer service centre to inspect the jobs and quote. You also have staff quoting other jobs back at the workshop. How do you maintain both types of quotes on your computer system?
Or you are the owner of a panel shop and you need to go overseas, for holiday or otherwise. But no one else in the workshop can quote properly. Even if your staff can fax you details of incoming enquiries, how do you enter quotes remotely into your workshop computer?

Perhaps you are a paintless dent repairer (PDR) with a small team of mobile technicians busy quoting at the various hail-storm disaster regions Ð using the FlexiQuote dent quoting program on a tablet-PC or laptop computer. When the technicians are hundreds of kilometers away, how do you get the various quotes back to your headquarters at the end of each day?

Do you end up quoting into the late evening hours every day and you’re not able to spend time with your family at home. Or can you go home at normal finish time, have some quality time with family, then spend a couple of hours to enter new quotes or fine tune some existing quotes?

If you can relate to any of the above, then FlexiQuote has the technology and solutions to help you.
By using the off-site module on a tablet-PC or laptop computer, you can synchronise to the host computer and integrate the off-site quotes into the main system.

FlexiQuote gives you the flexibility of either synchronising instantly via an internet connection (internet brings the whole world into a single network, whether you are half way around the world or just the next suburb away), or waiting untill you are back at the workshop to synchronise into the local network.

In the case of instant synchronisation via the net you can send the quotes back to base before the tender deadline. In other cases you may prepare a handful of quotes then synchronise via the net at the end of each day. On average it takes five seconds to transfer a quote Ð unless images are attached which may take a bit longer.

By using the techniques of FlexiQuote’s Remote Desktop (FlexiQuote can set this up for you at a modest charge) you can remotely control the host computer and enter quotes as if you are in your own workshop. This is a cheaper solution than the first one because you do not have to buy the off-site add-on. The disadvantage is that while the remote control is in action, no-one else can work on the host computer. And it is probably not suited to the mode of operation of PDRs.

By using the off-site module with a pocket-PC (a calculator size computer) you can synchronise off-site quotes after arriving back at the workshop. Unfortunately synchronisation via the Net is not feasible and you cannot print the quotes until you are in the workshop.

The FlexiQuote off-site module has made due allowance for images attached to quotes. If need be, images attached to the existing quotes on the host computer can be copied to the tablet-PC so that they can be viewed off-site while you are finalising those quotes.

Enquiries, Tel: 1300-765162.