A recent article in the Gas Safe Register magazine, Registered Gas Engineer, highlighted the development of gas related software, i.e. mobile phone applications, or Apps for short, which are now available for the mobile phone. But are they any good or just a gimmick?
Over the last 10 years or so the mobile phone has had a major effect on the working day of a typical gas installer. Although there are many that still perhaps perceive the mobile phone as a nuisance and something we could do without there can be no argument that its use has major advantages for the installer. For instance, it has allowed the installer to be readily contactable by his office or customer and be able to send and receive emails and access the internet for appliance information. As the on-going development of the mobile phone pushes the boundaries of communication it is difficult to see how anybody could survive in our business without one.
And now of course we have the App, the phone resident applications that will allow your mobile phone to be used for a massive variety of tasks. The list is almost endless ranging from reading bar codes to identifying the planets in the sky, to using your mobile as a spirit level or compass, to ordering goods on-line to booking air line tickets. You name it and there is probably an App available (or being developed!).
Everyday it appears somebody somewhere develops a new 'app' - and the majority of them are either free or a very low cost. But what is available for the gas industry? Well here are just a few that are available now.
EasyGas by Tysoft
Includes landlord's reports and warning notices etc which can be printed directly onto plain paper with a company logo and scanned signature.
Of course we have no idea if any of the above are any good - only the users would know if it was money well spent. What would be nice is if there is any of you out there that have used any of these products and are willing to share you opinion with the rest of us? So if you have a comment please let us know.
Of course there may be plenty of other Apps available that would make a gas installer's life easier (and reduce the requirement to have a filing cabinet bigger than your tool box!). Same again - if you have an App that you think does the job please let us know using the contact email above.
And what of us, Vipergas? - We are after all a communication company that has pioneered the field in the use of on-line technology to deliver technical information. Well, our developers have not been idle and we currently have on-test our own App. This will allow you to download our publications to your mobile phone so you can access the information on your mobile phone without the need to go on-line.
A major step forward we believe in making technical information readily available and at a fraction of the cost of published materials. The biggest advantage is that as with all Apps it gets updated as and when we make changes to our publications.
Ah there must be a cost I hear you say! Well of course there is - there's no such thing as a free lunch and just like you we have to charge something to stay in business. However, the costs compared to replacing printed publications are out of all proportion. However, we believe we can deliver regularly updated technical information to your mobile phone, without the need to go on-line, for a price that makes it a no-brainer for you and still provides us with an operating profit to stay in business.
Watch this space for more news and details of the release of the ViperGas app.
PS Apologies to all of you who are up to speed with Apps, but some of us are still coming to terms with mobiles that are not the size of a house brick.
Keywords: vipergas mobile apps gas industry mobile apps apps mobile vipergas
