Full Circle Magazine FR

TITRE / Running A PC Repair Shop With PCRT As a Linux user, chances are you’ve been asked by friends and family to repair their computer. If you’ve considered or started a business repairing systems, one of your challenges is repair management and customer relationships. PC Repair Tracker, PCRT, is a PHP-based computer repair tracking system. As the name implies, it’s tailored more to the PC market. (aside: The PC moniker always annoyed me because PC is any Personal Computer, including Apple systems. But for the purpose of this article, we’ll go with the standard of using it to mean IBM-compatible systems).

TITRE / Faire tourner une boutique de réparation de PC avec PCRT

En tant qu'utilisateur de Linux, il y a des chances pour que des amis ou votre famille vous ait demandé de réparer leur ordinateur. Si vous avez envisagé ou réellement démarré une entreprise pour réparer les systèmes, l'un de vos défis est la gestion des réparations et la relation avec votre clientèle. PC Repair Tracker, PCRT, est un système de suivi des réparations d'ordinateur en PHP. Comme son nom l'indique, il est mieux adapté au marché des PC. (aparté: Le surnom PC m'a toujours embêté parce PC signifie tout ordinateur personnel, y compris les systèmes Apple; mais pour les propos de cet article, nous resterons dans les standard d'utilisation pour désigner les systèmes compatibles IBM).

PCRT is web based, so accessing it from just about anywhere is easy because you can just use your tablet, notebook, or a system you have stored elsewhere in your shop. At our computer recycling project, we have 8 workstations (Xubuntu systems) on KVM switches (Keyboard Video Mouse), so we can switch between the workstation and the computer we’re repairing. PCRT consists of 2 modules, a repair module for tracking computer repairs and a sales module for adding parts to inventory. PCRT is quite comprehensive, tracking a lot of information about clients and their equipment. For example: when checking in a new repair, you’re asked the standard client name, phone, and address information, but also additional contact information (cellphone/work/email/SMS), the preferred contact method, the priority of the repair, the asset/device/model number, when the repair is scheduled for, what other accessories were included (keyboard, mouse, cables, display, etc), any passwords they might have, commonly experienced problems (viruses, noisy fans, screen replacement), where the client found your shop, and their computer information (CPU, RAM, Hard Drive, Operating System). There’s even a spot for their Windows product key.

PCRT utilise le Web, donc y accéder de n'importe où est facile parce que vous pouvez simplement utiliser votre tablette, ordinateur portable, ou un système que vous avez placé quelque part dans votre boutique. Pour notre projet de recyclage des ordinateurs, nous avons 8 postes de travail (systèmes Xubuntu) sur des commutateurs KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse), afin que nous puissions passer du poste à l'ordinateur que nous réparons.

PCRT se compose de 2 modules, un module de réparation pour le suivi des réparations des ordinateurs et un module d'achat pour ajouter des pièces à l'inventaire. PCRT est assez complet, recueillant un grand nombre d'informations sur les clients et leur équipement. Par exemple: lors de l'enregistrement d'une nouvelle réparation, vous êtes invité à entrer le nom standard du client, son numéro de téléphone, et son adresse, mais aussi des informations de contact supplémentaire (téléphone portable, travail, e-mail, SMS), la méthode de contact préférée, la priorité de la réparation, les numéros de matériel, de périphérique et de modèle, pour quand la réparation est prévue, quels autres accessoires ont été apportés (clavier, souris, câbles, écran, etc), les mots de passe qu'ils pourraient avoir, les problèmes rencontrés couramment (virus, ventilateurs bruyants, remplacement d'écran), où le client à trouvé votre boutique, et les informations de l'ordinateur (CPU, RAM, disque dur, système d'exploitation). Il y a même un endroit pour les clés de licence Windows.

When you check in a repair, you can assign that repair to any technicians you’ve entered into PCRT. Technicians are assigned on the Repair > Settings > Manage Users screen. One annoyance is that PCRT displays passwords in plain text and doesn’t require the admin to enter the password twice, but this just means you do it without anyone around and it’s a very minor annoyance. I checked the mysql tables and the password is hashed in the table. If you enter an email address for your technicians, you can notify them by email when you check in a new repair. Once you’ve checked in a system, PCRT opens up a browser window to print out a repair claim ticket. This is where PCRT gets really cool. On the repair claim ticket is a QR code which client’s can use to check the status of their repair if you’re using PCRT on a web site. (We use PCRT on our Intranet, not the Internet, so we don’t use this functionality). At this point you can also take photos of the equipment using a webcam or upload photographs and screenshots you’ve taken through other methods. This comes in really handy in a busy shop where equipment doesn’t always arrive in the best condition. It’s also handy for showing physical faults the client might not be aware of.

PCRT assigns an assent/device ID# and a work order number. To mark devices which are associated with the work order, you can print out asset labels using a Dymo label printer. Other printers are not supported. We get around this by taking the client’s printer repair claim ticket to our Zebra printer workstation where we scan in the regular barcode, which is the work order ID. We then print out multiple work order IDs on our Zebra barcode printer for each asset we’re checking in. Repairs normally sit on the “Waiting for Bench” screen until a technician changes the status to “On the bench.” Next, assign the bench you’re working on from 1 of 4 benches (default, but you can change this). The administrator can assign different benches in the Repair > Settings screen. If you missed printing the claim ticket, you can print it again on the work order screen. The work order screen is where technicians document the actions they take to repair the machine.

Repair reports, thank you letters, price cards, checkout receipts, asset and address labels can also be printed or emailed to the client. Sometimes we have a repair that starts as a low priority but ends up becoming more urgent; priority can also be changed on the work order screen. Although clients can check on the status of their work order (if you have PCRT on the Internet) you often have to communicate with them about your findings (bad sectors on the hard drive, faulty stick of RAM, dust clogging up the CPU heatsink, bad DVD-RW, etc.). Beside the Priority drop-down is a Call/Contact status drop-down where you can choose from one of: Not Called, Called, Sent SMS, Sent Email, No Answer, or Awaiting Call Back. PCRT also keeps a history of this beside the call/contact status so you can check back on previous communications. Below the client and work order information is the computer information section that contains details like CPU, RAM, Hard Drive size, Operating System, Windows Product Key, any accessories, and any asset photographs. Asset photographs can be uploaded from pictures previously taken or from an active webcam. Asset photographs can also be deleted. It’s worth noting that when you print a repair report, it’s also possible to print a report with all asset photographs. By default PCRT only prints the highlighted photograph. The highlighted photograph is the main photograph for the item. If you leave PCRT sitting on the work order screen for a while, it switches to the repair touch screen which lists all the orders currently on the bench.

Most of the actions you perform on a repair are below the computer information section. This section is divided into 4 sub-sections: Scans, Actions, Installs, and Notes. PCRT comes stocked with a bunch of default scans, actions, installs and notes. As of PCRT v 1.38, Scans consists of 15 different anti-malware/registry programs, 12 different actions, 5 different installs, and 11 different notes. But if the scan, action, install or note you want to perform is not listed, PCRT has a section to add a custom scan, action, install or note. The most recent version of PCRT has added a new section below the Scans, Actions, Installs and Notes section where you can add a timed task. Below the timed task section are a couple of notes sections, one for notes for the customer, the other for technician-only notes. Technician-only notes come in really handy when you want to add a note for another technician that shouldn’t appear on the report for the client.

The Scans, Actions, Installs and Notes you add appear in the next section. When you add a Scan you normally enter the amount of infections found. That number appears in this section along with the program used. Actions, Installs, and Notes all have information associated with them that gets printed for the client. You can customize the message that appears for the client. For example, the Memory Tested information default message is “The memory or RAM in your computer was tested with a very extensive test to make sure it is free from defect. Bad memory can cause random crashes. Your computer passed these tests.” You could remove the last part and add information about bad RAM. The last section on the work order can be used to enter billing information. When you add a billing information item, charges appear just below the computer info section. Once you’ve added up all the billing items, you can create an invoice for the client. PCRT has a quick-items section on the side for items you commonly bill for. By default PCRT comes with Virus/Spyware Removal, OS Reload, Data Backup, Minimum Bench Fee, Tune Up Bench Fee, Component Install and Install CD-ROM.

I’ve only covered a tiny portion of PCRT for this article. PCRT supports d7 integration, client email service reminders (for tune-ups, etc.), several payment plug-ins, customer source tracking for marketing, inventory management, sales and technician reporting, multiple tax rates, and the list continues to grow as PCRT grows. PCRT is written in PHP, but it isn’t free (as in beer). At the time of writing, PCRT costs $200 U.S.D. This price includes a year of updates after which there is a $125/year renewal fee. Our refurbishing project bought PCRT just shy of a year ago. Since then there have been two major updates (from 1.36 to 1.37 and 1.38) and about 9 point updates. PCRT is actively updated and continues to add new features. For us it’s been well worth the money even though we barely use a fraction of the features.