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Software and Hardware for Domestic Energy Assessors

Submitted by: MikeC (Admin) on 09-Mar-07 02:53:33 AM

There's no escape, issuing Energy Performance Certificates is a technological business, which, along with the benefits of higher productivity, decreased duplication of tasks, accuracy and compliancy, also come concerns over cost, annual licence fees, ease-of-use, reliability, security, and RdSAP compliancy... hence the need for this technology section.

Mobile Devices - Things to Consider

You can find mobile devices in the hardware section.

At the time of writing, developers are working on enabling PDA's, "e-Pens" (electronic pens) and Tablet PC's for use in-the-field by DEA's. Presumably, some of these devices will allow your energy assessments to be instantly uploaded and processed, without you leaving the clients home. Whilst there are obvious benefits with that feature, it does mean you have to be super-accurate in your reporting as there will be no second chance to proof-read later... and that could prove costly down-the-line!

Security

Several points of note you need to consider here:

  • Theft
  • Security of personal data
  • Physical loss
  • Data loss
  • Damage

You should seriously sit down and formulate a policy that you, and/or your staff, can look-to should any of the above eventualities (plus others) occur. There should be a series of events that are triggered according to what's gone wrong. For instance, if your mobile device allows connection to a server, you should have a policy that makes any changes necessary to prevent connection by a thief. That might involve contacting your connection-provider and/or changing passwords. So in addition to what might seem the obvious:

  • Where is the telephone number to contact the connection provider? Hopefully, not on the mobile device - or at least, not solely on the device!
  • Do you need to inform any of the governing bodies? Who and how do you contact them? - You need to know!
  • How much information was on the device? You need to know what information is vulnerable and what action to take. How will you deal with assessments not yet processed?
  • Passwords - Which ones need to be changed? It's not uncommon to need several passwords these days - Some are more important than others; which ones

They are just some of the considerations you should think about in formulating your policy. A good policy thinks beyond the immediately obvious to ensure minimum downtime, client protection, business protection as well as, if applicable, employee protection... and of course, to get the wheels of business rolling again.

Back-up Data

You saw that coming didn't you! Well, as boring as it is, it's likely that as a practicising DEA, you'll also be practising under the shadow of the Data Protection Act 1998, which we can talk about again, but the upshot is; your client's data needs protecting... securely!

... and that means securely away from fire, floods, hurricanes, visiting guests, kids, cats and angry spouses (or employees)!

Have a back-up policy and stick to it. Should anything bad happen, you'll know exactly what is at risk as a result, and how much "back-tracking" you need to do in order to get back up to speed.


clairezuk
Posts: 1
Comment
eTech Smart EPC
Reply #1 on : Sat January 05, 2008, 20:18:06
eTech Solutions has a mobile PDA solution which as described in your post allows you to submit the data and get the SAP rating while on site.

I see you mentioned in the article that you need to be super-acurate as there is no second chance to correct data, this is not the case with the etech system, as you can get your SAP rating without marking the survey complete, which then gives you the oportunity to reflect on your findings later, and then mark complete when satisfied.

The etch pda system also generates a full site note document with photo evidence (taken with the pda) taking the hard work out of putting everything together. Etech also store your data for 15 years so that is another benifit.

http://www.etech.net

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Domestic Energy Assessors

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