Alesig Consulting Awarded GSA Schedule Contract

 Alesig Consulting recently received the GSA Schedule Contract.

Thanks To Google App Engine, Anyone Can Become A Web Hosting Provider

Would you believe it if I told you that you can start your own web hosting business on a scalable and reliable infrastructure for less than 10 dollars? All you need is a cell phone and your own website to advertise your services. Your cell phone will help you activate your account on Google App Engine (GAE). You can then setup 10 web sites per cell phone, since each GAE account allows for 10 applications. Your cost is the SMS text verification message and a site to advertise your business.

Such is the power of Google App Engine. And while we are not using it to host sites, we are actively using it for our various products. It is an ideal backend server. We are also engaged in one off projects with various clients. GAE has allowed us to make livable wages, more than any other service on the internet.

Why did we choose Java GAE? As a small company we mainly consist of programmers. We don’t have the luxury of hiring a host of IT professionals such as System Administrators or Data Base Administrators to maintain our systems. GAE eliminates the need for database maintenance and system administration. It is one of the quickest ways to go from prototype to production.

Of course GAE has some missing functionality, but over the last year Google has shown its commitment to bringing new features and improving infrastructure. In a future post I will delve into the features of GAE in more detail.

 

 

 

 

"We Will Be There Between 8 am And 5 pm."

This is one of the last things a customer wants to hear when they ask for an onsite service call for a broken appliance. Unfortunately, I was put in this predicament only a few days ago in the middle of a summer heat wave when our AC went on the fritz. Since we are in the business of building applications to improve customer service, I feel compelled to propose a solution for this service no-no in a world where the customer is supposed to be front and center.

In this day and age with the advent of smart phones and devices such as iPad, there is no reason that a customer should have to stay at home between 8 to 5 waiting for their service technician. While I would love an exact arrival time, even narrowing it down to a two hour window is a huge leap forward. How would I do it if I am a business providing this service to my customer?

First thing would be to equip all the technicians with a device with internet connectivity. This could be a smart phone like iPhone or an Android variant or even an iPad. The technician can get all their service tickets on one of these devices. There could be a few buttons such as “On my way to fulfill order X”, “At location X”, “Finished Order X”. This would give central dispatch or supervisors a real time view of order fulfillment along with precise location information.

A subset of this information could also be available to actual customers. E.g. you could display information such as “You are 4th in queue”, or “Your technician is on the way and will be at your home in the next 30 minutes”.  A best guess time window could also be published Based on minimum service times and distances. This information could be updated continuously on a website, or sent to the customer via email. When the technician clicks on the “On my way to fulfill my order” the system can immediately notify me about that and calculate a time of arrival based on distance from my home. While this information is not going to eliminate time windows completely, it is a great improvement over the 8 to 5 window. Also the technicians could use Square to charge the customers on the spot and send invoices via email.

Which brave service company is interested in partnering with us to do a pilot of the above mentioned system?