Inspiration - 20 Years as an Automotive Professional has left me with ideas for shop solutions. Every day I am inspired to add another feature to the program so it is always evolving.
What it does - Installs on one central server, or pc, and is accessed via other devices over LAN, or wifi, via web-browser for access.
The program helps coordinate workflow via Appointment Scheduling & Workflow Management - Take down every piece of information about why someone is bringing in a vehicle while being able to look at the current & future workloads at the same time. Finalize the customer's appointment and drag and drop it/assigning it to a specific technician of your choice at a specific time of day of your choice)
The program creates an estimate for the service writer to fill in, quickly print for the customer to sign (may be adding digital touch-screen to sign w/ email customer copy in future release) as well as a Job Ticket for the tech to record his findings with. The system has an early development version of it's estimating/job-ticket/repair order/invoice build & print system which also references parts and labor inventory assets catalogs intending to also show related sales metrics simultaneously to help the service writer build fair estimates (this helps the business and the customer when suppliers change their prices suddenly for example).
When the program creates its paperwork, it also generates a Digital Vehicle Inspection which the appropriately assigned technician can then login and modify as they perform their inspection. The digital vehicle inspections also include picture & video upload, with a photo editor for things like writing on an image to illustrate where a problem lies for a customer. If a tech doesn't fill out a a section of the inspection, don't worry Mr. Service Writer, the E-mail To Customer and Print Previews only show areas that were filled out by the tech, so an empty/uncomplete-in-appearance inspection is never shown.
The program has an In-House Messaging feature. If a service writer is stuck on the phone, but has the mental bandwidth to also be attempting to write an estimate or get a question answered for a customer but maybe doesn't have all the information, he can hit the Ask Tech A Question button, which keeps the question related the specifically opened job ticket and sends a notification to the technician's work device. He can then respond blankly, or fill in custom text of his choosing. Same goes for the technician with the Raise A Hand feature, which blankly (or with custom text entry from the tech) notifies the service writer that he is needed in the shop or sends any message that the tech writes directly to the writer's workstation browser. All history is viewable on admin/manager accounts, service writer accounts can perform all daily duties but have limitations on views and settings, and techs can modify and add/delete inspections, but have read-only access in other areas as to not over-ride administrative plans and so on. Future versions may include features such as technician's ability to request time off for work in a documented safe place, or other such related requests that a business may want to record properly.
The program has 2 openai apikey-driven programs I have created called TechBrain (technician AI diagnostic-consultant tool) & ServiceBrain (service writer AI consultant/service writing & customer translation/explanation assistant tool) which are newly being developed & integrated into the program. These programs attach to each specific job, where the technician can copy manufacturer information from troubleshooting articles, along with pre-filled vehicle information/customer's concerns (for vehicle's that have been appointment-scheduled & checked-in) where the tech simply has to click 'ask techbrain' then enter his findings/questions and receive guidance from the openai model of the admin's choice. Cost calculator & AI model selection settings incorporated. The ServiceBrain feature is for service writers. It takes the technician's findings from the digital vehicle inspections, the estimate/job-ticket/repair order & technician's findings that are automatically pulled from anything tied to the inspection or from any additional text the service writer inputs or questions they may have, and spells it out for the service writer. It provides key selling/talking points when speaking with the customer and interprets findings vs repairs recommended suggesting key talking points when selling the job to a customer. It also suggests what to write on final paperwork, with the option to auto-fill findings/recommendations/repairs performed.
## How we built it
Not much programming knowledge here. I know how I wanted the system to work, and why. Codex did the rest (along with my pocket book for upgrading my subscription, lol).
## Challenges we ran into
Sometimes prompts have to repeated numerous times to get a feature to work, or have to worded or presented in a different context. But with persistence Codex has seemed to fulfill majority of my prompt requests, or at least explain if there is a reason it cannot.
## Accomplishments that we're proud of
I am currently working on development & launching of this program in slightly different formats, with availabilities for several different business models/sizes.
## What we learned
There's so much more to technology/programming that I missed out on working only on vehicle's for the last 20 years. But there's also a lot that I've learned that's given me a unique foundation to build from.
## What's next for Dragon's Digital Software
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