BDS is a provider of custom solutions for the advanced copying, printing and document management needs of modern businesses. They also offer a maintenance program for their client’s entire office device servicing needs. Focused on implementing the most advanced processes available in the industry, their wide range of products and solutions are designed to improve their customers’ bottom line.

BDS relies on their IT department to power this mission and AssetSonar is a valuable tool for ensuring seamless IT equipment management and support across their remote employee base.

Switching to automation, speed, and accuracy with AssetSonar

The company was previously using spreadsheets to track their IT equipment. Information existed in silos and was highly susceptible to human error. When Sunny Singh, Sr. Director of Information Technology, joined the company in 2020, he wanted to implement an agent-based discovery system that could scale as the company grew.

Sunny had implemented AssetSonar twice before at previous organizations and was well aware of the advantages offered by the software.

“Some of the challenges we used AssetSonar to alleviate were IT asset tracking and management,” explains Sunny. “Due to the remote nature of our environment during Covid, I wanted something that was agent-based.”

Currently they are tracking their entire IT inventory with AssetSonar. This includes everything from devices such as laptops to peripherals including monitors, headsets and webcams.

Tracking hardware lifecycle for better forecasting and budgeting

One of the most important use cases for BDS is the ability to track the complete hardware lifecycle. Using the information and reporting capability within AssetSonar, Sunny is able to easily and efficiently track multiple variables for accurate forecasting and budgeting.

“As I did our budget, AssetSonar was crucial for running forecast reports based on various fields like warranty,” explains Sunny. “I knew exactly which equipment was going to end of life based on the purchase date and that gave me a very good idea, very quickly, of how many laptops we have to replace this year.”

He explains that since AssetSonar is a dedicated system and he can control who has access to it, he finds the information within it highly trustworthy and useful while making critical business decisions.

With reliable forecasting via reports, Sunny is able to save valuable time and in turn provide reports to management about the cost, location, and assignments of their IT equipment. Sunny explains:

“All the different parameters that we track within the system allow me to report on them very easily and accurately.”

AssetSonar/Zendesk integration offers efficiency, business intelligence

AssetSonar’s powerful integration with Zendesk has been instrumental in streamlining ITSM workflows across their organization. Now whenever they receive tickets from employees, they do not need to leave Zendesk, or even the actual ticket itself.

Sunny explains that if someone is having a hardware issue for example, it is easy to just go to the AssetSonar applet and get more information. With just a few clicks, he can easily see the hardware details, how long it has been in custody of the ticket generator, and what other equipment they have in their custody.

The ability to track information on a hardware level is a key differentiator for Sunny. He gave the example of a laptop that had ongoing issues with the trackpad. A user raised a ticket about this particular item which was then checked, declared to be working fine, and put back into circulation. This was followed by the same complaint from a different user.

Since AssetSonar tracks these issues with the Zendesk integration on a hardware level, on the actual item level, Sunny could review the service history of this laptop.

“I can see that we have pulled this laptop twice for the same issue, so now I have business intelligence to pull that laptop out of circulation and send it in for service,” he explains.

For BDS, this integration has closed the loop within hardware lifecycle management, provided great visibility, and has proven to be extremely helpful to the agents.

“It is so valuable to have that level of insight that an IT director should be looking at that use case as just a standard offering,” says Sunny.

Facilitating a remote team with seamless centralized tracking

AssetSonar has been critical in helping BDS manage a fully remote team with every employee’s location being individually tracked within the system.

BDS started leveraging locations seven months after deployment and while they were initially just tracking one or two locations, with all employees now working remotely, they are currently tracking 22 locations. This way they always know where their IT assets are, who has custody of them, as well as the exact worth of IT assets at any particular location.

According to Sunny, this information can be leveraged for seamless onboarding and offboarding workflows as well. For example, if he knows exactly what sort of equipment an employee needs to return, he can make tailored arrangements to have it shipped back.

“It gives me a very high level of business intelligence within that very specific offboarding workflow that I can pass along to HR or escalate to the employee’s manager,” explains Sunny.

Winning with AssetSonar: Customized for BDS workflows

BDS has used the powerful customization capabilities within AssetSonar to log and track information per their unique requirements. Sunny gave the example of a custom field called “status” that is used to track laptops and computers – from the time a machine is received, added to AssetSonar, imaged, and prepared for deployment. Once a machine is ready, the status is updated to RTD (ready to deploy).

The entire team has visibility into these assets and their status so they can plan accordingly. For example, if there is only one machine that is currently RTD but there should be five to ensure smooth workflows, his team knows that they have to go immediately and prepare four more machines.

A particularly useful aspect for Sunny is the ability to report on the customization, which is another differentiating factor for AssetSonar. Sunny comments:

“A lot of platforms don’t offer reporting on customization, they just have the standard reporting and you have to run multiple reports to get the information you need. With AssetSonar, custom fields became something that is part of the system instead of just on the periphery.“

Likewise, they use Groups to create logical sets of items. If items such as webcams for example, are grouped together it is easy to calculate available stock for accurate forecasting moving forward.

The future with AssetSonar

Sunny believes that AssetSonar is just the right product to help them scale their business.

“AssetSonar is an integral part of our support platform, both on the front end supporting actual users and on the back end with maintaining inventory and stock levels,” explains Sunny

They will be expanding their use of the product to utilize more functionality in the future.

“I love the product and think it works really great,” concludes Sunny.