New Report Upload Technology

1

Hi everyone,

We have developed a report upload, report management and customer service feedback system for both single operator inspection companies and multi-inspector companies and would like some feedback on the technology before we begin selling it.

The system was designed to enable the upload of three different report types at once with the ability to name these reports, whether it is a mold report, termite report or home inspection report, etc. you name them yourself. Once the inspectors/you upload your report, the Realtor and/or client entered in association with that report receive an automated email with a user name and system-generated password. Before clients or Realtors can download and view the report you have posted, they must agree to your inspection agreement a second time (You put your own agreement in through the company module). This helps in limiting your liability!

This technology has a Realtor log in, client log in, inspector log in and inspection company log in, all with different functions. Here is a brief overview:

Inspection company module:
The inspection company has the ability to add and search clients, Realtors, reports and inspectors. Once an inspector enters a client or Realtor or uploads a report, they are available in the company module. It allows total customization of your account and post/pre-inspection agreement. You can also upload reports and extend the validity date for reports from this module. Companies will be able to generate reports of every client that accepts the post/pre-inspection agreement as they access the report.

Inspectors Module:
Inspectors log in to upload reports, and add clients and Realtors. If clients are already added by the company then inspector merely selects the client from a drop down and uploads the report. The automated email with a link to the site and user names and passwords is sent to both realtors and clients, if inspectors choose to include the realtors. When reports are uploaded, inspectors will set the “inspection dates” and “valid until” dates. The maximum amount of time a report can be stored on the system is 14 days. But the report can be uploaded again at a later time if the inspector needs to do so.

Client and Realtor module:
Clients log in with the user name and password emailed to them. They must accept the post/pre-inspection agreement before accessing the report or reports.

Once they open the report, there is an “ask the inspector” and a “feedback” function which are sent directly back to the inspector and company email addresses in the system. These functions will also help with liability management as you build your business.

Please go online to www.myinspectionreport.com to register for free and use the system for free until we have it finalized with your feedback!

These functions are also available with Virtual Inspector, however, this is a completely separate system.

Please let me know of any feedback you may have via email at cdemsky@inspectiondepot.com.

Regards,

Catherine Demsky
Director of Sales and Marketing
Inspection Depot, Inc.
cdemsky@inspectiondepot.com

2

I like the concept and will certainly test it out. Now for the most important question for us, what will our costs be to use your service?

3

Neil,

Good question. From our discussions with Nick (Gromicko), our goal right now is to keep it as affordable as possible for every inspector. We are not positive on price, but our initial hope is that it will be around $100 a year per inspector registered if paid in full. That comes out to about $8.33/per month, per inspector for UNLIMITED report upload.

The reason we are not positive, is due to the fact that while we have load tested the server, user load testing is not complete. If each inspector gets on and uploads 100 reports a day at 10 MB each, we don’t know how that will affect the speed of the system.

As soon as testing is complete and we have lots of feedback from you all, I will let you know the first-year price difinitively.

Like everything though, the early bird gets the worm! Those who register now will get the price quoted here.

Thanks for your feedback.

Catherine

4

Hi Catherine,
It is nice to see you on the board again. That sounds like a great product, I can’t wait to try it out. Tell Michael I said hi.

5

I uploaded a word document (windows 2000 pro).

When I tried to download file as the “customer would”… the file downloaded
as a text copy of the “download page” instead of the inspection text
I uploaded.

It appears there are a few bugs.

But… I like the idea of the contract page being clicked on
before the customer has access to the inspection. This is
a big plus for protecting the inspector.

Suggestion:
Because each Inspector will be uploading different kinds of files
to the server… it might be a good idea to have an instruction
section inserted above each file so the Inspector could tell
the customer how to open their report after it is downloaded.

Each customer may not be able to handle the files in a ready
fashion if these instructions are not present at the time of
downloading.

Keep up the good work

6

John,

Thank your for your feedback. I spoke with some of the programmers this morning, they are checking that out. You are supposed to be able to upload Word documents, but apparently there is a glitch right now with them downloading. Keep trying, they’ll be working on the glitch all day. One thing they asked, are you downloading from the same computer you uplaoded from? Most times this wouldn’t be the case, but for testing it certainly is. PDF files don’t seem to give any problems.

The idea for instructions is great. I’ll definitely have those put up.

Thanks again!
Catherine

7

Catherine,
Your registration form is not accepting Canadian postal code and neither is your contact form within. Is this trial only for the US?
Thanks

8

Good point,
Yes, right now it is only for US, I will have our programmers look into adding Canadian zip codes. Sorry about that. I’ll post when and if we can do that.
Catherine

9

John,

I have had programmers and office staff test the system, and we have not been able to replicate the error you had with a Word document. Could you please try again with a different Word document (perhaps it was corrupt?) as well as a pdf file.

In our sister inspection company, we have had two of our inspectors using the system for the last week and have not had any problems. We’ll keep trying on this end and let you know if we find anything different.

Thanks again,
Catherine

10

When I use the Firefox browser I get the same problem
(the downloaded file is just a text version of the download page itself,
instead of the inspection.doc file)

When I went over to the Internet Explorer (Windows IE) browser the
correct file and format was downloaded.

THE PROBLEM seems to exist with the Firefox browser.

If your customers are restricted to just the IE Browser then this
would be good instructions to place on the download page.

Also… it would be helpful for newbies to have a step by step
instruction page on how to get up and running with instructions
for regestration, uploading, cover page, downloading, etc…

Thanks.

11

For what it’s worth I uploaded 2 Word documents and then downloaded them as a client would. Both seemed to work fine for me.
*Update 1: I see where John & I were responding at the same time. I was using IE when I tested it and will go try Firefox to see how it responds.
Update 2: Using Firefox, the download response was somewhat cryptic and asked to select a pgm to open the download or to allow a download to my computer w/o opening the file. I could not identify the correct pgm link to immediately open the file so I downloaded it to temp storage and then was able to properly open it with Word. I agree, using Firefox for this is cumbersome at best.
*

12

Perhaps each inspector could indicate their own personal
text to instruct the customer as to what kind of file will
be downloaded (such as pdf file, doc file, etc…)

Then the customer could go to the correct program
to execute (open) the downloaded file once they
arrive on the cutomers computer.

Example:

<Your inspection report is formatted as a .doc file and
can be open with Windows “Word Pad”.>

Some peoples computers will do this on auto, but others may
find these instructions helpful.

13

I can’t imagine why anyone would use anything other than a .pdf file. It’s the most widely accepted format available and the worst case is that the client has to download the .pdf reader but he’s most likely already got it.

14

Mike…HTML is the format of the future…:smiley: …What HomeGauge uses…:smiley: …Instant Report!

15

The key to that is ‘format of the future’ and I don’t disagree with that. If the client doesn’t allow or know how to allow HTML thru his e-mail account then he won’t get it. If your willing to have the occasional client need a little hand holding then that’s fine.

16

Mike…That is why I use HomeGauge they convert the HTML (so people see words and pictures), why other software doesn’t is beyond me.

17

Awesome, maybe HomeGauge has successfully figured out how to make sure everyone gets the ‘picture’ version. That’s great!

18

Michael is right, the most widely accepted format is a pdf file, not only that, but one of the safest for you as a home inspector as it cannot be edited, or can be set so that it can be edited with a password. HTML is the newest and is certainly great, but it, as with Word documents can be edited.

We use pdf reports for liability purposes.

Firefox has always had issues with pdf files downloading from Websites, now it seems Word documents as well. We will put some instructions on the downloading page for Realtors and clients letting them know that if they are using this browser they may experience problems getting to their report.

Thanks for all the wonderful feedback! Keep it coming!
Catherine

19

Absolutely, I am in agreement with Michael B. I never send reports out in any editable format. Firefox will always download PDFs from a website if you right click and use the “Save Link as” option.

20

It also works from the ADOBE PDF printer option.