Need Help w/ Company Software

[Koala]

Okay Nibblers,

Here's the story:

I currently work at a company, where we unload cargo and load it into ocean containers. I was hired as a dock personnel assistant. I then moved on to being in charge of all the data entry and taking pictures of all completed work and storing it on our computer. Once I got the hang of it, I then made suggestions on many things as to how everything is being entered on the computer to the programs that were being used, paperwork, etc. All my suggestions have one way or another solved problems.

The company currently has an IT guy that goes around maybe yearly. I'm sure he remotes in every month or so, idk. His last trip was a month ago when he was told that the WiFi Signal is too weak in many certain areas (big yard) so he replaced all the routers in the company, which is a total of 3 (all different SSID's on the same channel ). He was unable to configure our router, I'm not sure why. He was anxious to leave and couldn't figure it out. He then suddenly just left, without saying a word. When he was called, he said that the router doesn't work and he would need to replace it when he comes back in a month...a MONTH. I then took it upon myself to fix the router issue, to which I did.

Now, the higher people there want more of my suggestions on how to run everything better. Here's what I need help with. Currently, in my department I work with Office Spreadsheets which I have auto-sync'ed to a Dropbox account. It works really well for what we use it for. All files and pictures are stored and are easily accessible. I create a file with information on Dropbox and drag-and-drop the images and it's stored there categorized by Year - Month - Day.

Now, here's the problem. The BOSS had this IT guy I mentioned earlier work on a tablet app for a very long time. They were mentioning how it will "change our life" and what not. I was given a brand new tablet with the software installed. How was it? Terrible. They can't build an app without knowing what is being done in our procedures. I was told to use it to which I declined. I went back to logging information the way I customized it myself. The top manager there likes me but he said that the BOSS came up with that app idea and feels like that's the perfect solution.

I am not suggesting to have Dropbox as a backup solution, I want to find the best solution to store all of our pictures and spreadsheets and provide our Customers with their own portal to their pictures or information. If I setup all the computers that work with our department, it'll be a total of about 20 computers. Seeing as how all computers will have to be auto-sync, will it bog down? Is there a software out there that I don't know about?

I know I'm missing perhaps a lot of information that's needed for your help but I have a stuffy nose and can't think to clearly at the moment.

Thanks!

 

[Tech Savvy]

Maybe setup a NAS with cloud access, give each client their own folder and a username/password, the user only has access to their folder and nothing else.

It's a bit more expensive than something like Dropbox though.... Just a bit

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[Koala]

Maybe setup a NAS with cloud access, give each client their own folder and a username/password, the user only has access to their folder and nothing else.

It's a bit more expensive than something like Dropbox though.... Just a bit

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I've never played with an NAS, I've only read about them. Having our own "cloud" at our facility will certainly be faster than Dropbox. Is there a certain brand I should stick to?

 

[Koala]

Will Dropbox suffice for let's say 30 computers? I'm worried about speed

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

and provide our Customers with their own portal to their pictures or information.

This part, im confused about this part. How do you plan to do that using drop box?

 

[nlinecomputers]

Sounds like you need a real database running on a real SQL server. Find a programmer and put it on Azure or AWS.

 

[Tech Savvy]

I've never played with an NAS, I've only read about them. Having our own "cloud" at our facility will certainly be faster than Dropbox. Is there a certain brand I should stick to?

The western digital my clouds are pretty intuitive. Personally I like the netgear Ready NAS pro series, but they are on the pricey side. I think some people on here like synology, but I've never used them. I've used the buffalos before and they are eh.

So I would say you can get away with the western digital, it's cheap, reliable and intuitive.

@ComputerRepairTech he's probably sharing the folder with them as read only. Sending the llink directly to their email.


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[Tech Savvy]

Will Dropbox suffice for let's say 30 computers? I'm worried about speed

Your Dropbox should be fine, your counting on the reliability and performance of the Dropbox servers, not your own computer.

Basically Dropbox automatically syncs your Dropbox folder with their own server which you share to your clients.

I don't think it will be an issue. Dropbox has thousands of users. Colleges even use it. Hell kinkos even has an integration to their copiers and printers. The only issue I foresee is multiple people working on /accessing the same files the same time. DropBoxs main functionality was designed for. Syncing files across multiple devices, not collaboration.


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[Koala]

This part, im confused about this part. How do you plan to do that using drop box?

I worded that incorrectly. I meant authorizing certain files and pictures for specific groups, I know that's possible through Dropbox but will it be efficient, I'm not sure.

 

[fencepost]

I want to find the best solution to store all of our pictures and spreadsheets and provide our Customers with their own portal to their pictures or information.

If you have a current commercial system for customers to submit and track their orders for shipping, then you may need something to let you attach photos to their orders.

If you're doing it all with spreadsheets, etc. then you are likely going to need either custom development or a commercial (or open source?) package to do that. There are some open-source systems that may be a viable path to go down, but I'm going to say right off the bat that you're not the person who's going to be able to implement them - even if you can develop the technical skills, there's a lot of business knowledge that goes into planning and implementing that kind of system as well.

Unfortunately unless you're the owner's child and heir presumptive, you're out of luck. A lot of this is going to be business process stuff for "doing it right," and you're going to get huge pushback because of your current position, because politics. Put differently, if their business processes are so screwed up that the guy they hired to keep track of HR stuff for dockworkers builds a better replacement then everyone above you in the company is going to be embarrassed. You may be able to salvage it by looking into some options (e.g. open source ERP & CRM packages like Tryton) and seeing what might fit with how you work, but the best you're going to get out of it is involved in actual implementation.

You might also be able to work the "doing it right now" angle by looking into user-focused photo management systems that allow you to give each customer an account, and within that account you create a folder for each order and upload the images into that folder - probably tagging each image appropriately with order number, container number, maybe tags for types of contents. That's something you can likely do with easily available open source software, it's likely easier for customers than an app, it doesn't change your current backend systems of photographing, etc. much but just adds a step of "here's where I upload the photos," and it stays away from questions of "why isn't this integrated with my order?" Depending on your systems you could even dump a PDF of any customer order documentation into the same folders.

 

[Koala]

Your Dropbox should be fine, your counting on the reliability and performance of the Dropbox servers, not your own computer.

Basically Dropbox automatically syncs your Dropbox folder with their own server which you share to your clients.

I don't think it will be an issue. Dropbox has thousands of users. Colleges even use it. Hell kinkos even has an integration to their copiers and printers. The only issue I foresee is multiple people working on /accessing the same files the same time. DropBoxs main functionality was designed for. Syncing files across multiple devices, not collaboration.


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Yes, I understand how Dropbox works. As mentioned, so far it runs very well but I am trying to figure out the best solution.

"not collaboration"
Although it is implementing more collaboration features, I believe it works well within our team. Always room for improvement of course.

 

[Koala]

Sounds like you need a real database running on a real SQL server. Find a programmer and put it on Azure or AWS.

Currently they have a database that's so old and inefficient that I brushed it off the first few weeks I started working here. I found Office 365 w/ Dropbox much better. Going to look into your suggestions, sir.

If you have a current commercial system for customers to submit and track their orders for shipping, then you may need something to let you attach photos to their orders.

If you're doing it all with spreadsheets, etc. then you are likely going to need either custom development or a commercial (or open source?) package to do that. There are some open-source systems that may be a viable path to go down, but I'm going to say right off the bat that you're not the person who's going to be able to implement them - even if you can develop the technical skills, there's a lot of business knowledge that goes into planning and implementing that kind of system as well.

Unfortunately unless you're the owner's child and heir presumptive, you're out of luck. A lot of this is going to be business process stuff for "doing it right," and you're going to get huge pushback because of your current position, because politics. Put differently, if their business processes are so screwed up that the guy they hired to keep track of HR stuff for dockworkers builds a better replacement then everyone above you in the company is going to be embarrassed. You may be able to salvage it by looking into some options (e.g. open source ERP & CRM packages like Tryton) and seeing what might fit with how you work, but the best you're going to get out of it is involved in actual implementation.

You might also be able to work the "doing it right now" angle by looking into user-focused photo management systems that allow you to give each customer an account, and within that account you create a folder for each order and upload the images into that folder - probably tagging each image appropriately with order number, container number, maybe tags for types of contents. That's something you can likely do with easily available open source software, it's likely easier for customers than an app, it doesn't change your current backend systems of photographing, etc. much but just adds a step of "here's where I upload the photos," and it stays away from questions of "why isn't this integrated with my order?" Depending on your systems you could even dump a PDF of any customer order documentation into the same folders.

Currently they're using a commercial software for tracking/charges/fees/fuel , etc. The software they're using is expensive and is very slow and not open-source. I am not trying to change their program and they understand that, this is a separate operation. Well, the user-focused photo management system you described is very similar to how Dropbox is working right now it's just that I don't have our customers linked to anything that will trigger them. I want to do a bit more research and find out if this is the way to go or not before doing so.

 

[Tech Savvy]

Yes, I understand how Dropbox works. As mentioned, so far it runs very well but I am trying to figure out the best solution.

"not collaboration"
Although it is implementing more collaboration features, I believe it works well within our team. Always room for improvement of course.

Very true they are implementing more. I love dropbox. Another option would be the NAS, but I think you'll be okay with Dropbox. Maybe others have some ideas and can chime in.


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[fencepost]

Currently they're using a commercial software for tracking/charges/fees/fuel , etc. The software they're using is expensive and is very slow and not open-source. I am not trying to change their program and they understand that, this is a separate operation. Well, the user-focused photo management system you described is very similar to how Dropbox is working right now it's just that I don't have our customers linked to anything that will trigger them. I want to do a bit more research and find out if this is the way to go or not before doing so.

OK, so linking in with the operations side is pretty much not going to happen - which is good, because that increases the complication and politics immensely.

If you look at gallery-style software, I'm going to suggest looking at Piwigo because it's actively developed and you can likely drop it onto a cheap hosting account of your own to experiment with it before committing to anything. Features I'd look for are the ability to have users who can't actually make any changes to galleries or photos that they own, plus the ability for admins to place pictures into those galleries. I say that because from the screenshots it looks like the access control features are pretty lightweight, so you'd be working around things there.

Frankly the other class of software that matches what I think you're looking at is used by photography studios (and possibly in the past by people doing by-request online porn). You want to be sure there's no user access to other users' content, you don't want people making changes, etc.