Responding to global disruption may not be something your business was really prepared for. Even for those businesses that felt ‘prepared’, the unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused us all to rethink. The rapid and drastic impact on our everyday lives, social distancing and a large-scale move towards working from home gives us all plenty of food for thought as to how to move forward from this in a stronger, more adaptable way.

As businesses with a drive to succeed and continuously improve, we must ask ourselves: What can we do to make ourselves more robust? How can we streamline our operations? What changes can we make now that will help us to be better prepared should we ever be faced with something like this again?

Here’s a quick rundown of just some of the things we can all think about and act on now to create a better tomorrow.

1. Create or Update your Disaster Response Plan

Many businesses have a disaster response and recovery plan as part of their business continuity planning. However, even those businesses with existing plans in place will have learnt plenty from the COVID-19 pandemic. We now all have the benefit of hindsight and can look back at what could have been done better and what can be done better moving forward. 

To be better prepared, it’s worth considering these main areas:

Remote working – In recent years, there has been an increasing trend in the UK of remote working or working from home. However, many businesses were reluctant to move towards a more flexible style of working for fear of unmotivated staff, decreased productivity and loss of morale. However, in the aftermath of COVID-19, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that almost 50% of the UK workforce are now working from home. 

Although this isn’t surprising, given the circumstances we find ourselves in, it’s fair to say businesses as a whole had a big surprise when they were forced to work this way. Looking to the future, what will your plan of action be? Will you introduce a more flexible style of working so that any future disruption has less of an impact on your team?

Streamline your operations – From a financial perspective, especially given that we’re seeing what could be a record contraction of the UK’s GDP, it’s never been more important or urgent to streamline processes, ensure robustness and plan for the future.

2. Move towards Contactless Products and Services

How you approach and manage this will heavily depend on what business you’re in. At itemit, we design and build asset tracking software which is available with zero contact. We also sell physical QR code asset tags to complement the software so other than switching our delivery processes, we’ve been lucky enough to continue business as usual. 

The process of responding to social distancing and the lockdown for us was far easier than for many other businesses. If your business is unable to deliver its products or services remotely, then this period of change has been far more challenging. However, we are firm believers that there is always something that can be improved. Beforehand, perhaps you were a regular onsite visitor with clients or to give presentations or demonstrations? Now, remote demos and video calls have become a part of everyday life – why not make this a permanent switch? Not only are there time and money savings for your business, but just think of the benefits to the planet! 

What other opportunities is the ‘new normal’ throwing up for your business when it comes to customer support and product delivery?

3. Introduce Asset Tracking Software to Prepare for Remote Working

For the first time in modern history, it’s become clear that for many companies, an office isn’t essential to get the day to day work done (although of course, they still have great social benefits). So, like many businesses in the aftermath of COVID-19, you may be weighing up the options of staggering a return to the office or even long term partial or complete remote working.

When it comes to managing a remote workforce, there are plenty of things to consider: communication, motivation, morale and tracking IT hardware – to name just a few. Now, we can’t help you with all these aspects, but we can ensure you track your assets effectively. itemit is an asset management system that lets you keep track of your fixed assets and IT assets with ease.

The best practices for managing IT assets given to remote workers is as follows:

• Ensure all assets, hardware and equipment are logged in your system
• Assign assets to members of the team, so you know who has what and where it is
• Ask staff to scan assets regularly to stock check them
• Record when assets are returned to the business

To find out more about managing hardware given to remote workers, check out these blogs. 

The future is uncertain but what we can be certain of is that we will face challenges moving forward. We hope this blog has helped you to consider opportunities for improving processes that will ensure your business continuity is as robust as it can be.

Our friendly team are on hand to advise you and help you get set up remotely. itemit’s asset tracking software can help you mitigate financial risks and maintain transparency over productivity. To find out more, you can contact us at team@itemit.com or fill in the form below.

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Equipment management software gives your business a clear overview of what assets and equipment you have, where they are and their condition. By logging your equipment and tracking how it’s being used, what its status is, whether it needs maintenance or not and where it was last seen saves you a lot of time and money. 

Is it time you took back control of your equipment? Here, we’ll cover how to use the itemit equipment management software and throw in some handy tips and tricks along the way.

Step 1: Log and Tag your assets

The first step is auditing your equipment and adding them to your equipment management software.

There are a few things you can do here. For example, if you already have an asset register, you can take advantage of the itemit data import service to translate this asset register into itemit in one go! We’ll ensure you’re making the most of itemit’s best features too!

Overall, the best practice is to tag your equipment as you log them as this saves you so much time. In addition, you greatly minimise the chance of ghost and zombie assets, and you can start tracking your assets sooner.

Step 2: Add Crucial Asset Information

After you’ve logged your equipment, you’ll want to add crucial information. This can be user manuals, warranties, insurance details, anything.

Step 3: Start Tracking

The next step is to start tracking and updating asset data in your equipment tracking software. Now, every time maintenance is required, an asset is booked out, or an asset moves location, all it takes is the scan of an asset’s tag to update this information.

What’s Next?

So, you’ve started tracking your equipment. What’s next? How does this help? Effectively, now, you’ll want to continue updating your equipment’s data.

There are two ways you can do this.

1: Monitor Asset Usage

Firstly, updating information and editing asset data helps you monitor the usage. This way of monitoring a piece of equipment shows you the history of a specific asset. For example, if you’re fixing an asset, you’ll be able to use the asset’s history to diagnose what might have caused the problem. If you see that the asset has required several fixes, you’ll know you can think about decommissioning and replacement.

2: Use and Export Reports

Converse to specific equipment tracking, using reports in your equipment management software shows you bulk changes and trends. Equipment management can, therefore, show you the micro (changes to a specific asset) and the macro (changes to all of your assets).

Reporting can display where a group of assets have been, and it can help you verify that every asset has ended up where it needs to be. For example, if you’re moving from one construction site to the next, reporting will show you any assets that might have been left behind.

How does Equipment Management Software Save you Money?

There are a few key ways:

• Fewer lost assets
• Fewer duplicates purchased
• Money saved on asset retrieval
• Less asset downtime
• More efficient decommissioning processes
• More visibility of an asset’s lifecycle

Try itemit for free today

So, what are you waiting for? Start your free trial of itemit today, and we’ll throw in some free QR codes. See for yourself how much time and money you can save with itemit! Simply complete the form below.

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An asset management system gives you more control over your business assets and your business’ workflows. With an asset management system, you’ll be able to:

• Monitor asset changes
• See who’s using assets
• See where assets are
• track equipment maintenance
• and more!

There are a few fundamental features that your asset management software must have to give you the most benefit. These will allow you to streamline your processes and increase the responsibility your colleagues feel for your assets across your whole business.

Tagging Assets for Location Tracking

One of the primary purposes of asset management is to know where your assets are. This is achieved by tagging your assets. Different asset management systems allow you to use different types of tags. At itemit, we believe you should be able to use whatever tags you like. With itemit you can tag your assets with:

• QR codes
• Barcodes
• RFID tags
• GPS tags **COMING SOON!

Asset tags allow you to scan and immediately see the asset’s digital record. For example, if you’ve stuck a QR code asset tag onto an asset, you need only scan the tag using itemit’s built-in QR/barcode scanner to view and start editing the asset’s information. 

What’s more is that every time you scan this tag, the asset’s location and the user who scanned the tag will also update, showing you specifically where your assets have been. This allows you to map out historic asset movement and use for better, more specific future planning.

Categorising Assets by Type, Location or Assignee

The ability to group and categorise assets is crucial in any asset management system. We’ve worked closely with our existing clients to ensure the features you need are readily available in itemit. For example, if you want to track your IT assets separately to your fixed assets, the itemit ‘collections’ feature allows you to do this with ease! Simply categorise your assets for easy management and reporting.

In addition, if you have a large office, or if you’re onboarding many new members of staff, a crucial feature your asset management system should have is an assignee feature. itemit offers you a quick and intuitive way to assign equipment to staff members. That way, you’ll always know who has what. 

Check out our quick tutorial video that shows you how to use the itemit assignee functionality!

Equipment Booking and Checkouts

Check in check out software or equipment booking software is a great addition to your asset management system’s features. If you can book assets in advance, you can signify to your team that they won’t be able to use the asset. As a result, you and your team will never double book an asset and have the added guarantee that your assets will be available to you when you need them.

It couldn’t be easier, here’s how it’s done!

Maintenance Reminders and Issues Management

When it comes to equipment tracking, maintenance is crucial. So, being able to set reminders for routine or pre-emptive calibrations and maintenance means that you never miss a date. Then, if a piece of equipment requires reactive maintenance, simply raise an issue using the itemit issues management feature and manage incoming faults from the itemit web portal.

Reminders and issues management both minimise asset downtime, keeping your business running more efficiently than without this level of transparency.

Customisable and Exportable Reporting 

Finally, and arguably most importantly, you need an easy way to run customisable reports. After all, what use this all this data if there’s no way to analyse it. The itemit reports feature was built with flexibility at its core. This means you can run reports and filter by any of the standard properties but also by any of your own properties. The handy saved reports feature lets you save these reports for quick and easy access in future! Here’s a quick look at how this works.

What now?

The itemit asset management system has all of these features and more. If you have any questions, give us a call on 01223 421611 or drop us an email: team@itemit.com.

If you’re looking for more information, why not check out some of our other blogs.

The beginner’s guide to IT asset management software

What are the benefits of a fixed asset register?

A guide to everything you need to know about asset tags

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or, download the itemit app to get started

Asset tagging and tracking save your company time and money. With asset management systems, you can log and monitor where your assets are by using asset tags.

Asset tags streamline and speed up your maintenance, auditing, and asset management processes. How do asset labels work? Effectively, you attach a unique tag to your physical assets and use that tag to link your asset to a digital profile.

This way, when you scan an asset’s tag with your asset management app, its digital profile will open, ready for you to book the asset, add issues or maintenance information, or update its financial information.

Here’s how you can tag and track your assets:

However, there are a few different types of asset tags. The principle of tagging and tracking your assets is the same, but some tags work differently.

Barcode/ QR Code Asset Tags

Barcode asset labels and QR code asset labels work in a similar way. These are the cheapest option for your asset tracking processes. This is because barcode and QR code asset labels help you track last seen location, and last known user.

This creates a full audit trail of where all your assets have been, and who has interacted with them. So, using your asset management app, you can scan a barcode or QR code asset label using your phone’s camera. This will open the profile for editing, but will also update the asset’s last seen location and the user who scanned the asset.

RFID Asset Labels

Many of the ways you can use RFID asset labels and QR codes overlap, as both create an audit trail via last seen location tracking.

However, RFID asset labels work a little bit differently as they don’t require a line of sight to be scanned. You can also have passive and active RFID tags, which affects readability, and there are many different types of RFID tags and readers.

In general, the context you’ll use RFID asset labels for asset tracking and management is with a smaller, hidden RFID tag and a third party hand-held reader. This is great for high-value asset tracking, as you can hide an RFID tag in a way that you can’t hide a QR code asset label.

The process of asset tracking is the same as QR codes, but you’ll scan the tag with a third-party RFID reader.

To find out more, read our blog about QR codes Vs. RFID asset labels.

GPS Asset Tracking

GPS asset beacons give you the most accountability possible. This may not be necessary for your business, depending on how far assets travel regularly and how much additional accountability you need before you start seeing a return on investment.

However, if your assets do travel a long distance frequently, or if you need pinpoint accuracy for asset location, GPS asset tracking can help.

GPS asset beacons can show you where your assets are at all times in real-time. These tags work with a sim card which then communicates with your asset tracking system. These are the only tags that require batteries, although third party RFID readers require charging.

At itemit, we have multiple asset tagging and tracking options. GPS tracking capabilities are coming very, very soon, but you can already get stuck in with barcode, QR code, and RFID asset labels today, all you need to do is ask! Contact us today.

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or, download the itemit app to get started