How can Alerts in Asset Tracking Software Improve Team Collaboration

Email Alerts and Asset Tracking Software

Asset and Inventory Management is the heart of every business and centralizing it across multiple departments in an organization is the key towards maintaining the whole business cycle upbeat. An important part of this cycle is to stay up-to-date with all the business activities, run a smoother team communication belonging to different departments. Email alerts have always been the most prominent source of communication. About 43 percent of the respondents in a survey stated that they subscribed to company e-mails so they could keep up-to-date with all the activities.

But what makes these alerts helpful in asset management? Saving capital, time and cost are the main benefits of centralized asset management, but there are multiple ways a business can earn more benefits and higher ROI. We’ll focus on the way where alerts can be utilized for better asset management!

The Trend of Checking Emails

According to a survey held in 2016, 91.1 percent of the respondents stated that they like to check their email via laptop or desktop computer, making these two the most used devices to access emails.

Source: Statista

Did you know? In 2015, 232.8 million internet users sent an e-mail at least once per month. In 2019, the number of monthly U.S. internet users is projected to grow to 251.8 million monthly users.

Benefits of Email Alert Subscriptions in Asset Tracking Software

– Always stay up-to-date while you’re away from work

– Keep the stock levels optimized

– Improve Asset Visibility across the organization

– Enforce best Asset Management practices

– Stay proactive in all events and jobs

– Experience business automation and transparency

Types of Alerts and Usage in Asset Tracking Software

Item Alerts

One of the most subscribed alerts in asset management include notifications on different activities on items. They can range from check-in/out (also known as asset assignments), request for check-in/out, extension in checkout, items overdue for check-in, etc. These are used to inform the users which item had been checked out or checked in which enables them to take actions on it. You’re always aware of the events that involve different types of items. Additionally, if there is an item that has been checked out indefinitely and you are unsure if the user still has it, you can always verify possession of that item. The user will receive a notification. An email alert can be sent for audit requests. We all know how audits can be and be a step ahead always help.

What’s the best way of tracking low inventory thresholds? Set up inventory alerts! An asset tracking software comes with low inventory alert functionality. Inventory level alerts are sent out once your item availability reaches a set threshold. All business owners prefer to receive a heads up whenever the items are consumed, near to being consumed totally. For example, you would like to receive a notification if a big event is coming up and you have reached a low inventory stock in the warehouse. Another example can be having 2000 water bottles sent to two different events in the same city and receiving a location-based low inventory threshold when one of the locations is running out of water bottles. This way you can arrange more stock. Same way you can now notify yourself when the items you have in your store or garage are getting low.

Actions such as asset retirement or reactivation, and deletion can also generate email alerts.

Purchase Order Alerts

It is crucial for asset tracking software to have purchase order management capabilities. This will not only help them lower redundancies and enhance asset productivity but will also improve the way they do business with their vendors. Most of the solutions out there cater procurement management separately but a few have it as a module integrated with inventory control system. We all agree that every stage of an asset i.e. from acquisition to retirement must be logged. Therefore, whenever an item reaches a low-level count, replenishment is required.

When you have the ability to send purchase orders directly from the asset tracking software, it becomes vital to receive alerts on all the activities involved. Some common actions that generate email alerts regarding purchase orders include:

– Items that are requested from vendor and now pending delivery

– Items marked as received from the purchase order list

– Items received from the vendor

Services and Maintenance Alerts

When businesses opt for an equipment tracking software, maintenance management is the feature they close the deal on! They look for preventive maintenance, seamless equipment management, insightful maintenance reports, and solid asset assignments without delays. Preventive maintenance requires a business to always stay up-to-date with asset working levels in real-time.

Did you know? As per Statista survey, in 2009, the revenue of machinery maintenance & heavy equipment repair services in the U.S. ranged from around 29 billion U.S. dollars.

You’ll always stay ahead if you are keeping logs of asset repairs and maintenance. A medium 50-unit sized apartment building will require regular maintenance. Using a bulldozer on the field means you’ll have to keep check of its optimum level working condition. One day of faulty equipment is equal to a significant loss. You’ll still have to pay for the labor and there’s one more day added to your completion schedule. What works? Subscribe to email alerts and set recurring service alerts on heavy equipment. Receive alerts when an equipment requires a monthly service check. Let staff users add service records on the field. You can also set multi-format custom fields for items and carts if supported by your asset management solution, including fields for dates and drop-downs. It’s similar to what recurring service alerts do.

Reservation and Scan Alerts

Asset management can be long and confusing when getting your tasks done. This is where asset tracking software could come in handy. Not only does it let you see who has access to which equipment, but it can also allow you to reserve items for future use, and even order some more! Scheduling is your way to effective team collaboration. Reserving items are helpful in avoiding conflicts and providing clear insights. And to be sure that one item isn’t requested for check out by multiple users, you can always configure reservation alerts where being an admin you can be proactive in accepting/rejecting reservation requests and know days before when an item is reserved for a check out. This and more can be done using an asset tracking software.

Configure emails to be sent when a scan is carried on an asset label. This type of alert is called scan alert. Normally, this email will include detailed information on where the scan was carried out and IP of device used to scan. The geo location may not always be accurate given that the end user may block or spoof the location of their device. It all depends on the kind of technology the asset tracking solution supports.

You can also choose to receive alerts based on your preference of item groups and business locations.

More Features that can Boost Team Collaboration

Custom Notifications: Send email-based reminders for specific events, choose which alerts get sent out, and customize email content for each alert type. You can choose to customize the way you send emails across the organization. Email templates can be configured. You won’t have to send all those boring emails with robot-structured content. Either use a precise way or just add more details to it. Personalize them your way. Don’t let your employees receive alerts that don’t grab their attention.

Alerts for Admins and Staff Users: Not all notifications are for all employees. Some of them can only be sent to the owner and administrator. Within an asset tracking software, you can restrict users to receive only a certain alerts or emails for actions they are involved in. This filter downs the information for you and restricts users to access confidential data. Admins and users also have the choice to subscribe for daily digests on the activities they are involved in and receive newsletters on the latest upgrades done to the solution.

Use of Dashboard Calendar: Dashboard is an on-screen display that usually appears on the app main page. It lets you view all the recent ongoing activities and different information which have been pulled from the system’s database. Stay up-to-date with all the business activities like which items are reserved for this week, items overdue or who performed what action.

Send Scheduled Reports: You can schedule custom reports to be sent to company users with the help of asset tracking software. This is a great way to ensure everyone is up-to-date on the latest asset data and eliminates time spent gathering, compiling, and sharing this information with relevant parties. Report and document automation through business process automation software can address several problems.

Send Email Alerts from your Company Domain: You can choose to send email alerts from an email address that belongs to you or your company. This reduces spam activity that may be perceived to originate from your domain, which is known as source address spoofing. Also, it will drive the traffic directly to your domain. Setup an SPF record in the asset management solution you’re using and start sending emails from your company’s domain.

Choosing the Best Asset Tracking Software

Automated asset management alerts can be achieved by implementing a robust asset tracking software. It provides monitoring capabilities that ensure administrators, staff users, and vendors are provided with real-time inventory updates.

EZOfficeInventory is the leading asset tracking software used by SMBs and enterprises all over the globe. You can track and manage your equipment seamlessly. We cater different types of email alerts that can be customized to fit your business requirements. Stay updated and improve communication to achieve better asset management.

For more assistance, drop us an email at support@ezo.io.