In the past few weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted day-to-day life in most countries across the globe. Governments are rapidly imposing lock-downs and calls for social distancing continue to rise.
Thousands of businesses have temporarily shut down their physical locations for the safety of their employees, customers, and communities. While some businesses may be well prepared to move towards remote operations, others are struggling with this sudden shift. Here are 5 ways you can use asset tracking software to make this a smoother transition.
1. Communicate via customized emails
As your business makes the transition from on-premise to remote operations, it is essential to maintain efficient communication with your employees and vendors.
With the ability to send customized emails straight from the software, you can communicate tasks more effectively to your employees. For example, there are reports you need to send to the finance department so they can analyze them and come up with cost-cutting strategies. You can directly generate the reports and email them to the relevant employees, adding a note about what you want them to do, and any deadlines.
Similarly, you can reach out to vendors. You may want to halt the delivery of purchase orders during these times. Or you could want to talk about all the precautions vendors should take when delivering your items. You can carry out such communications via customized emails from within the app.
2. Auditing assets
Now more than ever, you need to efficiently use your assets and ensure you can track and protect them from anywhere. Want to ensure that the new laptops you purchased are safe? You can easily get access to this information by simply sending custody verification requests to the relevant employee(s).
Once you send the custody verification request using the Audit feature, the custodian can acknowledge possession. To prove possession, they can also scan the asset label directly using the mobile app.
If the asset isn’t with them, or it’s damaged, lost or stolen, then the custodian can deny that they have possession of the asset. They can also list the reason as to why they denied the request.
3. Extend check out durations and edit reservations
While we’re all practicing social distancing, it doesn’t make sense for your employees to come to the office simply to return items they had previously checked out. But what alternatives do they have if the check-in date is approaching?
Also, as your office moves towards remote operations, no one will be physically present to process equipment returns.
Instead of causing confusion, you can simply extend the check-out duration for your employees. Now, they won’t have to show up at a closed equipment room and you won’t have to worry about equipment returns for a while. Furthermore, no one will get bogged down by emails about overdue equipment return.
Likewise, you can also cancel or postpone upcoming reservations. Since users can’t come and pick up their reserved items, you can easily cancel or edit the reservation dates.
Read More: Set an Effective Remote Work Policy for Your Business
4. Generate and analyze reports
As we enter uncertain economic times, control your budget, reduce waste, and lost inventory through accurate reporting.
With the numerous reports available, you can improve business decisions by making sense of complex asset management data. Using our in-depth reports and analytics, you can understand reservation trends, maintenance needs, and checkout volume.
Choose from several existing templates or generate custom reports that offer customizability along with comprehensive data. You can identify connections between different data sets, and get specific details important to your workflow.
5. Use the mobile app
With the mobile app, you can take care of all remote operations no matter where you are. It simplifies workflows and ensures that you have access to all important information, all the time.
You and your team can easily check items in and out from the app, without having to go into the office to fill out any paperwork. If an item requires a service session, that can be managed from the app as well. Moreover, before checking items out, you can easily view the service history of the item so you can decide accordingly.
The mobile application enables you to take several other beneficial actions as well, such as creating reservations, extend checkout duration, take mass actions, end a service, and more.
Documents are also available for use. You can download documents from the app, thereby giving you easy access to information. Similarly, you can upload relevant documents as well if you wish, to provide useful resources for your employees.
At EZOfficeInventory, we’re here to help
We realize that businesses around the world are facing unprecedented challenges due to the spread of COVID-19. This is going to be a period of significant transition for all of us.
At EZOfficeInventory, we are committed to helping you succeed during this uncertain time. If you have any questions, please contact our customer support team at support@ezo.io. We are always available to help.
About EZOfficeInventory
EZOfficeInventory is the leading asset management software. It enables you to track, maintain and report on equipment from anywhere, at any time.
