Phone for employee/contractor

cormie

Hey,
Just looking for any advice or tips on setting up a phone for an irregular employee/contractor. Basically, somebody doing very irregular work (could be 8 hours one week, could be nothing the week after etc) and I give them a phone to make calls to customers, check calendar entries etc.

I'm thinking, probably the best way would be to create a new google account, for example companyname001@gmail.com or something and just share the main calendar with this account.

It'd also be handy to be able to track where they are. Say in a transport business rather than ringing them up when they are working, just to check GPS status and then be able to relay to the customer arrival time etc.

Phone calls would be an issue too, I don't suppose there's something that would only allow calls to certain numbers?

Now finally is a choice of SIM/network.

Any suggsetions for a Phone/Text/DATA pay as you go sim that you could just top up a tenner every 6 months and would have decent rates for data/calls/texts both in Ireland and UK, and maybe the rest of Europe if possible too?

Any suggestions appreciated

PogMoThoin

cormie wrote: »

Hey,
Just looking for any advice or tips on setting up a phone for an irregular employee/contractor. Basically, somebody doing very irregular work (could be 8 hours one week, could be nothing the week after etc) and I give them a phone to make calls to customers, check calendar entries etc.

I'm thinking, probably the best way would be to create a new google account, for example companyname001@gmail.com or something and just share the main calendar with this account.

It'd also be handy to be able to track where they are. Say in a transport business rather than ringing them up when they are working, just to check GPS status and then be able to relay to the customer arrival time etc.

Phone calls would be an issue too, I don't suppose there's something that would only allow calls to certain numbers?

Now finally is a choice of SIM/network.

Any suggsetions for a Phone/Text/DATA pay as you go sim that you could just top up a tenner every 6 months and would have decent rates for data/calls/texts both in Ireland and UK, and maybe the rest of Europe if possible too?

Any suggestions appreciated

You should be able to create a Google account and lock it down. Google do Latitude for the GPS tracking, it continually updated your GPS to select followers. Most phones have a fixed dialing option.

cormie

Thanks for the reply

What do you mean "lock down" the google account and what about the "fixed dialing" too? Haven't seen any fixed dialing option on the phone?

Have latitude installed, would that be sufficient, or would I be better off getting one of the more advanced ones which can track the phone if it's stolen too?

scudzilla

cormie wrote: »

Thanks for the reply

What do you mean "lock down" the google account and what about the "fixed dialing" too? Haven't seen any fixed dialing option on the phone?

Have latitude installed, would that be sufficient, or would I be better off getting one of the more advanced ones which can track the phone if it's stolen too?

Latitude can be fixed so that the user of the handset can put his location as anywhere in the world, just in case ya didn't know

cormie

That probably wouldn't work then

scudzilla

cormie wrote: »

That probably wouldn't work then

Probably not, i know if my boss gave me a droid and i knew he was tracking it i would set my location as all sorts of mad places and blame technology.

Kxiii

You can use an app called Cerberusfor tracking. Its meant as any anti theft devise and the app can be hidden from displaying in the app drawer.

PogMoThoin

cormie wrote: »

Thanks for the reply

What do you mean "lock down" the google account and what about the "fixed dialing" too? Haven't seen any fixed dialing option on the phone?

Have latitude installed, would that be sufficient, or would I be better off getting one of the more advanced ones which can track the phone if it's stolen too?

Setup the Google account yourself and then you can lock apps on the phone with Android Protector.

You can set fixed dialling on any Android phone, call settings-> fixed dialling.

Latitude can easily be cheated or set to a fixed location, you may be better with another option.

cormie

Thanks again for the replies folks

Will have a look at the fixed dialing.

The tracking isn't to actually "check up" on anyone, it's more just to see how they are getting on without annoying them.

Kxiii wrote: »

You can use an app called Cerberusfor tracking. Its meant as any anti theft devise and the app can be hidden from displaying in the app drawer.

That looks like a very highly rated app, never heard of it before, thanks. $2.99 for up to 5 devices is great too! Do you know if it's accurate and easy to just check location?

Kxiii

cormie wrote: »

Thanks again for the replies folks

Will have a look at the fixed dialing.

The tracking isn't to actually "check up" on anyone, it's more just to see how they are getting on without annoying them.



That looks like a very highly rated app, never heard of it before, thanks. $2.99 for up to 5 devices is great too! Do you know if it's accurate and easy to just check location?

Mine seems accurate enough about 10m.

cormie

Cool, so at any time at all I'd be able to just go to the website to check the phones location without it interfering with the worker or anything? Could I even do it if it was turned off? Say for example if there was no reception on a boat from Ireland to France for example, would it show the location in the middle of the water I wonder? Worth a go anyway I guess, $2.99 for 5 devices is pretty decent

cormie

Just had a look at the Cerberus video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK9BkOzlFPE&feature=related looks good.

How can I be sure I've installed it to root though, or does it do it automatically?

cormie

What's the situation with Cerebrus if the phone is actually kept off? Is it possible to remotely turn it on?

Kxiii

cormie wrote: »

What's the situation with Cerebrus if the phone is actually kept off? Is it possible to remotely turn it on?

Not too sure only got the trial version myself last week, but its one app I intend on buying.

cormie

$2.99 lifetime license for up to 5 devices. I think I'll be buying myself

Another question I wonder, if you backup the img of the phone with nandroid and restore it on another phone, will this app work or does it need to be done beyond the backup/restore on each phone individually I wonder.

thebman

Check out the alternative tracking apps:
https://www.mylookout.com/features/missing-device

http://www.avast.com/free-mobile-security

Both free (I think Avast is better but you need root access I believe and I don't think Lookout requires it).

Others on their comparison chart:
http://www.avast.com/free-mobile-security#tab2

cormie

Thanks for that thebman, have already gone and purchased and installed Cerberus. The biggest downside to it, which is by no fault of Cerberus, is that my phone doesn't have a front facing camera, which I completely forgot about.

Does anyone know, if I create a new Google account and remove the old one, will it also remove all the apps downloaded with that account? I'd like to keep everything the same on the phone, just replace one Google account with another.

Also, any suggestions on the best network to go with for a PAYG sim with decent call/text/data rates in IRE and UK? If I'm only using the phone maybe 3/4 days a month, I don't want to be on a bill pay, but at the same time don't want to have to pay 2eur for a data connection to simply update a calendar or check GPS position ANNND at the same time, don't want to turn "mobile data" off at the risk of it ending up costing loads just doing simple connection stuff..

PogMoThoin

cormie wrote: »

Does anyone know, if I create a new Google account and remove the old one, will it also remove all the apps downloaded with that account? I'd like to keep everything the same on the phone, just replace one Google account with another.

You cannot change the default Google account without a factory reset.

cormie

Whaat?? Uh oh, so what would a factory reset wipe?

cormie

Just had a quick Google and it appears I might be able to just "clear data" in some of the Google apps, framework, gmail, play etc and it'll then ask me for new account info on set up I think? Hopefully...

PogMoThoin

cormie wrote: »

Just had a quick Google and it appears I might be able to just "clear data" in some of the Google apps, framework, gmail, play etc and it'll then ask me for new account info on set up I think? Hopefully...

That could cause problems and need a factory reset to fix

cormie

Not ready to do it yet, but may aswell try before doing a factory reset as if it does cause problems, I'll just have to accept a factory reset! Thanks.

Now to find a decent PAYG deal for 3/4 days a month calls/text/data use