Using Tablets For Manager SE

[a&mauto]

We are thinking about getting tablets for electronic inspection sheets (including Mobile Manager). Does anyone have experiences, good & bad, with tablets? Which brands work best?

[marcdaniels]

Well you say electronic inspection sheets including mobile manager. Are you going to use mobile manager or another e-inspection? If your using mobile manager they recommend a certain tablet that works well with them. I'm sure Mike will share with us that one as I forget which one it is. We are using an e-inspection program in our shop now and actually when I looked at the different options at first I was all tablet but then quickly rethought my process as a good tablet can cost some big money and the techs can be prone to accidently damaging them or better yet leaving them behind in a vehicle. We ended up opting for netbooks. They have full windows OS so I can use the network printers, there small enough to fit on workstations nicely and they work great for our e-inspection. When tech needs to take a pic of something his smartphone is always by their side so thats not an issue.

[MRISICH]

Hi Adam,

Here's what we recommend for optimal use with Mobile Manager Pro:

- An Android 4.22 or better with 5 megapixels or better rear-facing camera
- Samsung 10 inch
- Nexus 7

Hope that helps.

Thanks,
Mike

[a&mauto]

Thank you for the info.

[kingwoodshell]

Adam, we've been using the tablet since I believe June. Its absolutely amazing. We still use our PC's for most of the service writing, but use the tablet and several Android phones for performing the inspections. We had a best summer in over 20 years. The customer's love it. You can set up Lube Sticker Pro to perform advanced scheduling so every maintenance item you do that is repeated every x miles you can click one button and it sets the recommended service and future appointment for you. The customer support is the best I've dealt with in the automotive industry. Since May I've visited with 5 or 6 different people there including Mike. I've used tablets with other programs....Bolt On is the easiest and most reliable. Adam feel free to contact me if you want more insight. FYI the return on investment....well lets just say that I paid for my years worth of subscription with two weeks worth of sales during the summer.

Regards,
Dan

[Gary R]

We have been using tablets for a while. The printed reports look very professional and add validity to the customer recommendations. The one point I would add is that you should also get protective cases for the tablets. We use Otter Boxes.

[motley06]

We use the Nexus 7 for both techs and service writers... They work great, just wish we would have picked up a tablet that had flash built in for taking pictures of leaks, etc. Also, flash would be helpful when scanning the VIN (sometimes you have to get a flash light or just using the worldpac scanner on our phones).

[nickscarcare]

Can the Mitchell program be run on those tablets as another workstation? I just hired a counterperson, and am looking at adding a pc or something in the shop so I can look up parts etc in the shop and not have to keep coming up front. A tablet would be excellent for this!

[brianp87]

I missed it. We only use pc's for the workstations. I like to be wired up to make sure there are no issues. Wireless is temperamental I would think for the management system

[Pauls Automotive]

I was going to reply but have limited experience with that. I did load mitchell onto a tablet and it did work but we never really used it all that much.

[murraymotive]

Can the Mitchell program be run on those tablets as another workstation? I just hired a counterperson, and am looking at adding a pc or something in the shop so I can look up parts etc in the shop and not have to keep coming up front. A tablet would be excellent for this!

Mitchell won't run on a tablet because it has to be on a set number of Windows OSes, but the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 is a tablet/PC hybrid that can accomplish portability, touch screen and having full use of a PC. - Amazon Link

[brianp87]

The surface we got for in the shop runs a different operating system but I do not think I got the pro version so be careful

[kingwoodshell]

Can the Mitchell program be run on those tablets as another workstation? I just hired a counterperson, and am looking at adding a pc or something in the shop so I can look up parts etc in the shop and not have to keep coming up front. A tablet would be excellent for this!

Nick, you can use the tablet to write service. The only thing you won't be able to do is click on your vender buttons to check parts pricing, availability and order them. In other words it will be just like it was before we all got spoiled. I'm surprised Mike hasn't chimmed in here again. I'll try to reach out and confirm this. We've just had our busiest November in our companies history. I do apologize for this late response.

[nickscarcare]

Does Mitchell run with Windows 8.1 ok? I may just get a laptop, but they all come with Windows 8.1.

[ricmorin]

No problem here. We have 2 laptops and 2 desktops all running 8.1. And a few 7 machines as well.

[timbre4]

Does Mitchell run with Windows 8.1 ok? I may just get a laptop, but they all come with Windows 8.1.

Depends on where you shop; there are PLENTY of Windows 7 laptops out there. For example, I have a Dell store here in Nashville putting them on eBay everyday: http://www.ebay.com/usr/dell-official-s ... 7675.l2559

[murraymotive]

The surface we got for in the shop runs a different operating system but I do not think I got the pro version so be careful

It has to be a Surface Pro 3. All the prior editions used a Windows mobile OS. SP3s run Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit.

[a&mauto]

Well, it took a few months but I finally pulled the trigger and got hooked up thru Bolt on Technology. We bought 3 of the Google Nexus7 from them already loaded and ready to use out of the box. We have been playing with them and we have some training scheduled for Monday morning. Pretty cool so far.