Thinking of getting an i-pad for business use. I'm wondering if those of you that are "tethering" your i-pad to your phones hotspot ability, is your phones battery life suffering? How is it working out? Did you get an i-pad with ATT service option? I haven't got one yet so I wonder if I should pay the extra $ for the option. My plan is to get the "hotspot" option for my Sprint phone and also have the ability to use my laptop using the Sprint "hotspot" when needed.

Also wondering of all the uses that you guys are finding for the i-pad in the business (filing notes, bids?, job portfilio, catalog look up ,etc). Show certain apps that may apply to bid, etc.

Thanks!!

 We use Ipads for invoicing, bidding, etc.  One of the goals for 2011, is to go completely paperless.  I can't answer in regard to the batteries and hotspot.  We use the Att Service.  

As far as the apps go, we just use the photos folder for portfolio pics.

The main apps I use everyday.
1.  Notes-  To take notes obviously.

2.  SignMyPad- Gives the customer the ability to sign the agreement in PDF format.  Gives us the ability to email the signed agreement to their computer, and to our office while we're standing in their home.  No more paper invoices.

3.  LogMeIn Ignition- We use BidMagic proposal software, I can login to my machine at the office, pick the "package" that best fits the installation and make any adjustments that may be needed.  (You'll want to have some packages set up in your proposal software, so that it doesn't take too long to make adjustments)

4.  Quickbooks App. for receipts, etc.

I think the biggest advantage that the ipad has given us is that we don't have to tell the customer that we'll get the bid back to them in a couple of days.  They have the proposal available to them while we're standing in their home during the initial meeting.  So if we need to make any adjustments, we can do it on the fly.

Here are some things I know longer have to worry about because of the ipad.

1.  Customer asking us to "just send the proposal in email" and then never hearing from them again.
2. Making a 2nd trip to go through completed proposal with customer.
3. 1 trip, saves gas and time.
4. when we make adjustments in the home,  the customer has a more collaborative feel to the installation.
5. I don't have to worry about the client Googling every product and trying to beat me up on the price of each item.
6. I receive a signed agreement and a deposit during the first meeting.

With that being said, the majority of our installations are between 1-3 days.  My market is 20k and under (the majority between 5k-8k)......We don't do huge multi-multi-multi zone systems, it's just not our market.  With those types of systems, I think you would possibly be doing yourself a disservice if you had a proposal ready in 5 minutes because their are alot more variables.  In our typical installations, the only variables are the model of receiver, and quality of speakers,  everything else stays primarily the same.

Hope this helps.


 

Battery absolutely takes a hit.get an extended battery, keep it plugged in, or take spare with you. It is so nice though. I use it literally every day

How is there service been?


How do you save notes that are job/ client specific?
Do you have access to a "customer file" possibly so in the future a tech can check past notes electronically? This would be a goal of mine, just not sure how to impliment it.


How has BM software been for you. We have it, but haven't got it up and running yet. Anything you would recommend to impliment it/ getting it going easier? I see you recommend "packages" as a base to get a bid started.

I have a Jailbroken iphone with att and a wifi iPad. i only use the tethering when needed because the battery dies quick. You could also tether via USB, or using the mywi app you could decrease the transmit power of the wifi antenna and that will make the battry last much longer. I only take the iPad to new customers or in special cases. I show pictures of previous jobs, demo the Crestron App, demo Lutron App, Whiteboard to draw sketches and save, and sometimes invoces.

The battery in my Evo takes a hit when I tether but I only need tethering for about 30 minutes a day.

O/T - Notes is fine but a PITA when you are taking down information, try Penultimate with a Pogo stylus. Much, much better for me to have notes handwritten on the iPad than to try to type information.

Sorry, im going to slightly hijack your thread.

Thanks for the list of apps, i have actually moved to a simpler yet far more efficient way of QB...its the online version and my new accountant LOVES it. I like it because i can log in with my blackberry at the gas station or fast food joint etc.

I was going to purchase a new ipad but on the day of going out and buying it rumors surfaced about the ipad2 so i am going to wait to get that.

I am collecting my expenses for 2010 and had no idea how much we spent on paper, and were a small shop. with what we spent in paper last year (had no idea until i added it up earlier) amounted to 3/4 of the cost of an ipad.

That's exactly what we use.  Quickbooks connect.

It works ok.  I don't have any complaints.  

 All of the clients are in contacts on the ipads...it has a notes section, that is easily added to.  Each client is in there, so for example, if we get a call mid-day for a service call and we have somebody in the area, I can send him over, I don't need to give him the address, because it's in the Ipad, he's got their phone number, and by the time he arrives, I will have sent the invoice into his email, he just pops it open, has the customer sign it.



If the technician has any notes about the system, he can easily add them into the contacts section


I like BidMagic alot.  It's easy to use, the proposals look very nice, and once you set up your list of packages and parts, you can truly knock out a small family room home theater proposal in a matter of about 5 minutes.  I also attach the maintenence agreement on the back of the proposal.  Works great.  In order to get it going, just sit down with it for an afternoon and watch the video tutorials.  Its really very easy to use.

Thank you all for your input. I was ready to pull the trigger (again) but SignatureSV has me thinking of waiting for the i-pad 2 to come out!!! I believe it's rumored to come out in April,@#!. I really don't want to wait but the new features may be worth waiting for.

I've been using Bid-Magic for a couple of weeks now, and I'm very, very impressed. Used to use D-Tools, which was huge and cumbersome and just unnatural to use. BidMagic is so much easier and the reports are really simple to edit.

also keep in mind iphone and ipad coming for verizon. im not sure if either carrier has dibs on ipad2 but i do know it will be available with CDMA (verizon) FYI

You Absolutely MUST plan for the day when things will fail and leave you not only paperless, but recordless.

Admittedly, I'm talking now about a mainframe and a multi-store retail outlet, but when they got their IBM 360 they expected to be paperless but were soon printing three-inch thick reports on that wide wide paper they used to use back then.

Back to today, back it up. Then back it up again. You can store eveything in the cloud, but I'll bet that some day we"ll add the word "lightning" to our understanding of what happens in the cloud.

i want one to demo Sonos, Radio RA, Control systems. Not to mention bid presentation and installation photo slide shows.