[qcgreywolf]

I am looking for a piece of scheduling (business) software that has a visual component, similar to Google Calender. I -require- the following data fields and features;
- Start / End date
- Contact (Person)
- Contact (Phone Number)
- Company
- Company #
- 6 additional data fields (descriptions, numbers, and other data)

The ideal piece of software would have the capability of importing/exporting a very large contact list.

I would like to be able to at least visualize the data over a calender and would prefer to be able to also move the blocks around on the calender by dragging them, similar to Google Calender.

I need the 'events' (scheduled items, or whatever the application calls them) to be searchable by any of the data fields, especially the company, company # and the flexible data fields.

I would be overjoyed if there was an app that shows a pool of 'waiting but not yet scheduled' events. (A customer has called and requested something and is awaiting scheduling).

A little background, I am currently using an Excel spreadsheet to handle all of our companies service tech scheduling. It serves its function and is very searchable and capable of filtering data (lists, tables and such), but it is absolutely not very 'visual' nor is it convenient. I am at a crossroads; either I am going to delve into VBA to make fields, formulas and data auto-populate from a very large (unfinished) database and continue to deal with the raw data or find an already existing solution that is much more elegant and visual in nature.

Any ideas?

[tickle]

The only way I know for sure, you are going to get software like this is custom made to your specific requirements, and that being said, you would have to contact a software company.

[slapshot_oi]

Web developer here. Considering the core of your desired application is just a scheduler, your best option is to find (and if all else fails, create) a web interface for Google Calendar.

The extra data you require would be strored in the Description field of Google Calendar's events as JSON.
[CODE=JSON]
{
"name": "John Smith",
"company": "Foobar Inc.",
"company_phone": 5559029983,
"phone": 5559903302
}[/CODE]
JSON is an ideal storage format because the information you want to store is simple and JSON is understood by every programming language out there. There is no need to create or an adapt an old database to store this data. I used to think there should be a database for everything, until I started using cloud services. Database programming is becoming a thing of the past.

Also, Google Calendar has a RESTful API, so, third party applications can query and manipulate calendar data.

Like I said, find a web application by searching Google for "open source interfaces to Google Calendar". I guarantee that in the past someone had the same needs as you do now.

Don't reinvent the wheel by coding an ad hoc scheduler and don't use VBA script... it just sucks.

[tickle]

So, you are saying Slap that this is not a job for a special application designed by a tech? Because it is my experience that any scheduling procedures, moving people around, products, or whatever require a special application.

Just asking. I am not all that unfamiliar with scheduling applications.