| Dear Steve,
The time has come, I have been clicking and
typing way more than any inspector ever should - my
review of a limited number of software packages is
finally complete. Over the last 6 months I have
been buried neck deep in software features from some of
the industry's best developers. The review I am
going to submit is just that a review which is based
solely on my experience and personal preferences.
As an inspector myself I have a style and business
process for performing my inspections that is unique to
me -something that I have developed over the four years
I have been inspecting. The integration and use of
a software package should fit your business process
rather than you fitting your business process around
your software. The concept of adaptability is what
I let drive my evaluation of each of the
programs.
SPECIAL
NOTE: The software programs that you see
reviewed in this article are all programs that I have
used in the field on real inspections. I didn't
just want to take a demo program look at some features
and give an opinion. I wanted to evaluate each of
these programs in real scenarios. There are many
other programs available that I did not review for a
variety of reasons. I elminated some for lack of
flexibility in their user interface or
customizations. I eliminated some for lack of
industry standard features. Some of the programs
not included in this review are good programs and meet
the needs of their inspector clients they just don't
work for me.
|
| HomeGauge |
SUMMARYI
have been a HG user for several years now, although I
have experimented with many programs along the way, HG
has been my primary package. The two overriding
features that swayed towared Hg were its template
building flexibility and ease of use. HG is one
software package that is so easy to use that even a
novice computer user can be up and running in no time at
all. PROS and
CONSThis software package is an excellent
choice because of its ease of use, flexibility, and
excellent feature set. A few notable features I
would like to call out are the Pocket Version( has one
of the strongest Pocket version of the four I reviewed),
Smart Comments, Easy Template Modifications, and its
Picture handling capabilities.
POCKET HG. I
found the pocket version of the HG software to be easy
to use because of the similarities in feature, function,
and form of the desktop version. One concern you
always have with pocket software is performance. I
found the program to be very light on its feet and there
were no noticeable lags or hiccups. It interfaced
well with activesync. The lack of an edit feature
for Pocket HG comments is one con that I wish was
included with the package. As it stands you can
edit comments only on the desktop and save your template
back to the Pocket HG version for the next inspection.
SMART
COMMENTS. The ability to have a smaller set
of comments and re-use bits of content can be a powerful
feature. That is exactly what the Smart
Comment/Sentence builder feature of the HG software
does. You can literally build a custom comment on
the fly in three to four click of your pen or
mouse. One con regarding the smart comments is
that you may have to click several times to complete a
comment. The result is you have less comments
overall and can be more precise but lose some
efficiency.
EASY
TEMPLATE MODIFICATIONS. The ability to do
business your way is a strong feature of this software
and it isn't difficult even for the novice user.
This software has the easiest template creation
user interface of the bunch. The print function
for the program uses microsofts print engine for
internet explorer. Therefore all styles are
controlled by a CSS file which has
limitations.
PICTURE
CAPABILITIES. We have all heard that a
picture is worth a thousand words then what are three
pictures worth. That is how easy it is to use the
"add a picture feature" in HG. You will find that
you will add more pictures in your reports because it is
that easy to use. The program also boasts on the
industries best picture editors built right into the
user interface (no third part software
required).
|
| 3D Inspection System |
SUMMARYVersion 10
of the 3D Inspection System really caught my
attention. This program is really full featured as
you would expect for version 10 product. One of
the strongest aspects of the software is its Office
Management feature set. Here you can find
integration with Outlook, Quickbooks, and you get a full
set of sales, marketing, and business
reports. PROS AND
CONSThe 3D software package has been around
since the days of the DOS operating system.
Correspondingly, the feature set for this program is
incredibly diverse. There really isn't much you
can't do with this program. The office management
features are the best of the group evaluated.
OFFICE
MANAGEMENT. The office management features
include the ability to interface with online schedulers,
industry standard accounting software like Quickbooks
and Peachtree, personal information managers like
Outlook, and other systems through the data
interface. You do have to pay for the premium
product if you want the full complement of office
management features.
USER INTERFACE.
Every software developer talks about how to build a user
interface that makes is powerful and easy for users to
get to all features. The 3D program really makes a
go of it with their UI. From one screen you can
change forms, headings, subheadings, and get to menu
items (inspection comments). The designer really
does not believe in clicking or pop up windows. I found
that this user interface is one of the faster ones in
terms of getting from thought to clicking your
comment.
CUSTOM
FORM STUDIO. 3D is a form based program and
all of those forms can be modified in a seperate but
powerful utility that they call Custom Form
Studio. I really like their ability to move
comments around using the multi-select feature. This
feature speeds development of your
template.
POCKET
3D. The Pocket 3D version of the software does an
admirable job. One of the challenges it faces is
that the desktop version is so feature rich (consumes
resources) that you just can't fit all of that into the
Pocket Version. For 3D I think I like using a
small tablet over the Pocket PC but it does an admirable
job of collecting data.
|
InspectVue
Residential
|
|
SUMMARY
The
narrative database is a powerful selling feature for
Porter Valley Software's InspectVue Residential
inspection software. I found the narratives to be
complete, well written, and both inspector and client
friendly.
PROS
AND CONS
The software is a solid piece that
should do most inspectors well. The strongest
aspect of this program is the included industry standard
narratives.
INDUSTRY STANDARD
NARRATIVES.
The narratives included
with this program make it attractive to newcomers in the
business. One of the hardest skills to learn is
how to craft a good narrative that is informative for
the client, accurate, and keeps yourself out of
court.
INSPECTVUE
MOBILE.
The mobile version of the
software is very capable. It has most standard
features like report merge so you can work as a
team. One area of improvement that should be made
on this package is it requires a SD card to transfer the
libraries. I found the process to be cumbersome
and time consuming. I am certain it will improve
with time but for now I consider it a knock against an
otherwise good program.
USER INTERFACE.
The user interface is good. The ability to add
and edit comments or headings/subheadings on the fly is
built into the system. You can add up to four
pictures per narrative which should be sufficient for
most applications.
INSPECTVUE
EDITOR. The package comes with a component
to build your template called Inspectvue Editor.
One limitation that I noted was that you could not add
more sections to the program. It does come with 21
available sections which should meet the needs of most
inspectors but other programs do have unlimited
sections/form capabilities which gives inspectors
maximium latitude to create a template that works for
their business.
|
| InspectExpress |
|
SUMMARY
If you like
Microsoft Word, then you will love Inspect Express. This
software uses a form set approach to add comments to a
template driven word document that you can customize
using the world's most powerful word processing
package.
PROS AND CONS
If you
are looking for a niche piece of software and all you do
is home inspections (no mold, infrared, other types)
then you should take a look at this software. For
the price it does an awesome job.
WORD LIKE
CAPABILITIES. If you like to have maximum
control of your layout, fonts, headings just like in MS
Word then this software may be for you. It uses a
series of forms which are customizable to collect the
data and kick out a word document when you are
done. From there you can create a PDF, upload, hit
send and you are done.
POCKET EXPRESS.
The pocket version of the software works well and is
very similar to the desktop - small learning curves are
good. Of the four systems evaluated, the pocket
version is the quickest to move through in terms of
speed of navigation. It syncs well with the
desktop version. I would consider this one of the
strengths of the entire package.
USER INTERFACE.
The UI is form based, so if you don't like MS Word
forms, this one may not be for you. I have
personally used this software and don't mind the form
based approach. One issue I did run into was I
often will walk away from a report at night. If
your computer reboots (ms security updates) picking up
where you left off can be a little tricky - no data loss
just the nature of Word forms.
PICTURES. The
picture capabilities are a mixed bag. The
thumbnails are too small to see which slows me
down. However, the annotation capabilities are
good. I would not consider this aspect of the
program to be its strongest feature.
|
|
|
Use this area to provide your subscribers
information about your organization.
Sincerely,
Steve Ramos
Envirovue Home
Inspection
| | |
Note from
Editor
|
 |
Thank you for taking the time to
read this newsletter. I trust you will find
the information useful. I encourage you to visit
our sponsors websites as they are the ones who make this
newsletter possible with their financial support.
|
3D Inspection
System
|
Visit Our Sponsor
|
| |
