Asset booking for cars

October 27, 2008 8:53 AM

My organisation has entasked me with installing a computer-based car booking system. We have roughly 14 cars. We currently use a huge whiteboard to manage this. But we imagine it could be easier to manage if people used a computer to query a database via an asset booking GUI. At least one of the computers ought to be a touchscreen installed somewhere central with a super easy GUI for those who are not so computer-literate. Access control an advantage (registered users, etc). Ability to leave messages about what's wrong with the cars - and equally see what others have reported - a wonderful thing. Also a real boon could be the ability to tell the system, I want a car from then to then - what's available?

So..does such software exist, and if not, are my only options coding it myself or using a rentacoder site? Could existing software be modified to this purpose? How does one build a GUI for a touchscreen? Just make big buttons?

Hope someone has tried this before. Thanks as always for any and all help.

posted by dance to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Well - if you already use Exchange/Outlook, you could do something similar - just swap out "meeting room" for car booking.

I've seen companies use Exchange/Outlook for meeting rooms, projectors, laptops, etc.

That being said - I'm sure any calendaring system could work, instead of people you just create some "vehicle" entries and then the user can select those to book appointments with.
posted by jkaczor at 8:57 AM on October 27, 2008

Or - search for "library software" - I'm sure there is something out there.

Why a touchscreen? Don't your users already have computers?

But - a touchscreen is fairly easy - it just acts like a mouse, so you build a GUI using whatever tools you would normally, except - make the buttons/input fields really large - and then try to use "pick lists", "drop-downs", "radio buttons" instead of detailed text entry.

It would be nice to actually have a couple entry points (GUI's) into the system - a touchscreen would make it difficult to allow textual reporting on "problems" with a particular car - as well, you would probably need an admin/overview interface too.
posted by jkaczor at 9:01 AM on October 27, 2008

Hi...exchange/outlook a possibility, but only half of our staff has an account, and the exchange server is only available to people served certain IPs... in addition it's too much of a hack. It sacrifices too much functionality. But I guess if I don't find something better it's an option. But then I don't want to go digitizing for the sake of digitizing. If the whiteboard is more functional than the computer I am quite happy to leave things as they are.

Why touchscreen? So that those without access to a computer in their office can come to a central place in the organisation and book a car that way. These people are also likely to be the most technophobic, hence the touchscreen idea to make things easier for them.
posted by dance at 9:34 AM on October 27, 2008

I found more relevant links by searching for car reservation rather than car booking. Here's the best lead so far.
posted by dance at 10:59 AM on October 27, 2008

Currently investigating RentACoder
posted by dance at 12:53 PM on October 27, 2008