We use Ayanova in our service organisation and use the workorders as a way to file our paper Field Service Reports which we fill out by hand in the field. As Ayanova has no off-line availability I was wondering if the API kit would enable us to create an import module that would be able to convert a digital Field Service Report form (e.g. Excel file, xms or so) directly into a  workorder?  This would save us a lot of time entering data manually. It would also enable us to use Ayanova worldwide with our agents. (Sending in FSR's from all over the world seems a bit outdated nowadays to my opinion). I use Ayanova v3.6. Do you guys happen to have a list of existing utilities already created by other users?

Thanks for your support.

Dick Vanderkolk

Hi Dick, yes, absolutely you can do that easily with the API.  The AyaNova program itself uses the AyaNova API so anything you can do by hand in AyaNova you can automate using the API. 

We are aware of many users that use the API but none to date have sent us in their code for others to use.  If they did we would put them in this forum.

Note that AyaNova has no offline ability because we have so many options for entering work orders live from the field.

Hi Dick, you've inadvertantly hit upon something we feel *very* strongly about and since I haven't been up on my soapbox for some time:

AyaNova doesn't have offline ability by *design*.  It's not an oversight on our part.  The original software that we wrote for in-house use that was the genesis for AyaNova many years ago was designed for offline useage.  Every service person had a notebook computer and would sync up their work orders back at the shop. We put a lot of thought into it and the software we wrote worked perfectly for that purpose, we were quite confident and proud of the software unfortunately  over time it proved to be disastrous.

It was a mess not because of the software but because of human nature: computers got stolen or lost or crashed losing valuable data, people would neglect to sync up for way longer than they were supposed to affecting billing and inventory, I could go on an on about the trouble with it (loss of revenue, big screw ups with inventory missing or unaccounted for etc etc) and we were a small shop with less than 20 technicians, I can only imagine that multiplied over many more, but suffice to say it turned us into very ardent supporters of live data at *all* times via remote entry if necessary. 

After that experience we put a *lot* of thought into how to find every possible way to avoid an offline delayed synchronising system because of our experiences with such a system.  It's such a core part of our thinking that AyaNova for windows can be remotely run over the internet it's supported right in the program, also we have the web interface and now even a cell phone interface all because of our experiences with delayed synchronisation.

Also as the developer of the software we can't pick and choose what features or data we would include in an offline system and many of our clients have *huge* inventories and histories that they would want to have at hand and up to date in an offline situation (we're talking gigabytes here) which we would have to try to find some way to support on limited platforms which is just not practical. 

Having live access to up to the second information is the way we decided to focus all our efforts.  It's simple, reliable and 99% of the time a perfect fit for remote technicians.

An offline interface has been asked for over the years and we've avoided it like the plague because we don't want to be responsible for offering a system that will lead to the same problems that we experienced, particularly in this age of nearly ubiquitous wireless data access.

That being said I *know* there are cases where it might still be useful, there are still places where there is no wireless service although less every year, so remote techs can not use products like our WBI web access interface or simply remoting with the standard AyaNova which supports it built in.  I'm sure you may find some interest in it if you made it into a product and I have no issues at all with listing it here in our 3rd party solutions area etc. 

I just implore you to keep in mind the potential downsides and try to minimize them any way you can in any system you come up with.  Keep in mind human nature at all times.

Thanks,

/Dick

Cheers!

- John