Genie Ventures specialises in digital marketing and publishing. Their four extremely successful brands fit a variety of purposes while serving their ultimate goal of innovation with enthusiasm.

Broadband Genie was the UK’s first dedicated broadband comparison site. Genie Goals works as a cutting edge marketing consultancy service for the retail sector. Office Genie was the UK’s first marketplace for shared deskspace. Finally, the Genie Shopping Network drives to increase sales for online retailers.

Their work is innovative and varied, but their team spirit and hard work has helped them win an ever increasing amount of awards.

About Genie Ventures

The company has grown since the launch of Broadband Genie in January 2004. Four years later, the company was fully founded, moving into a bakery to work out of.

Since then the company has simply continued to grow, now employing over fifty people and working on a top floor office in Cambridge. Operating principally in the UK, Genie Ventures now also operates in European and US markets.

The brands they work with have also improved from the start, including Google, Sky, Amazon, and Calvin Klein. Their work ethic and team spirit is reflected not only by their successes, but also by the growth and camaraderie of their workforce.

What they do

The two main things Genie Ventures does are: own and operate a variety of successful websites for clients; run an impressive performance marketing agency.

These two goals have different teams working on them and use the different brands that Genie Ventures has created, but overall everyone is working towards the same goal. The results have spoken for themselves.

It is important, therefore, that their company utilises up to date, fast and diverse IT equipment to ensure their connections and consultancy is instant.

The Problems

With a lot of IT assets and a need to keep up to date in an online market, difficulties relating to keeping records of laptops, chargers, and monitors arise. With no IT asset management software, keeping records became difficult.

This is partially due to a laptop’s usefulness diminishing over time as more and more space is used up and, crucially, slowing down over time. This is partially due to the natural wear and tear of things, and partially due to the fact that technology is moving forwards at such a rapid speed.

Because of all of these factors the team developed a need to be able to run reports on their asset data to get a better understanding of their asset register. Information such as when laptops were bought can help in terms of both efficiency and cost. Without a simple way of displaying this information, such as clunky or inefficient use of a spreadsheet, laptops that need replacing could fly under the radar.

The Solution: IT asset management software

The solution for Genie Ventures was simple after someone on the IT team suggested the company use itemit.

Now, Genie Ventures can simply categorise and track their IT assets. Using it for their laptops, laptop chargers, monitors and tablets. The most helpful feature for them is the fact that they can quickly and easily see when assets have been bought, so that replacement is easier when an asset approaches the end of its useful life.

The ability to work remotely and track shared assets is also helpful, meaning that items assigned to various members of the team are tracked and there is a greater transparency of who has what, where, and when.

Should an asset break, it can get through the process of getting fixed faster, as it can immediately be flagged up as a broken asset, meaning there is less admin and less of a need for going back and forth between colleagues.

In the future, Genie Ventures plans on adding more and more detail about their laptops in order to both assist the finance team with their work, and also to keep a closer eye on, and subsequently get more out of their assets.

With itemit’s IT asset management software, asset tracking became much simpler for Genie Ventures.

Recommendation

The team at Genie Ventures reports itemit as being helpful, easy to use, and that they recommend it to other businesses. They reported that there was nothing they would improve.

When we asked Gabriella Crow, the Office Administrator at Genie Ventures for a Testimonial, this is what she said:

“itemit has been such a great help to our company – It has been so useful for keeping track of all our IT equipment- we also use it to run reports which helps us with identifying which laptops might need replacing soon and which are the newest etc.”

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Meadow Vale Foods is here. Serving up the tastiest chicken at cash and carries and wholesalers throughout the UK and the EU. Their mission is clear: leave none without chicken.

About Meadow Vale Foods

Meadow Vale Foods is part of the Meadow Vale Holdings Group. This is part of the Lloyd’s Animal Feeds Group.

The Lloyd’s Animal Feeds Group is the largest independent innovator and supplier of animal nutrition. With perfect liaison and communication, Meadow Vale Holdings can work as a fully autonomous business, while also interacting with and taking advantage of the group’s strength.

Meadow Vale Foods supplies chicken via wholesalers and cash and carries throughout Europe. Their products are tasty and fresh from the farm. They even offer artwork for freezers or menu ideas to deliver the best quality chicken possible.

What they do

Offering a wide range of chicken products and services, Meadow Vale Foods is where to look if you’re selling chicken.

Need to spice up a menu? Check out their catalogues or their site!

They offer a mixture of ranges, from food for pubs, restaurants, cafes, hotels, to bars and takeaways, and even travel and healthcare!

Not only this, but they’re also supporting the fish and chip industry and have been for over 25 years, offering delicious chicken bites to add to any seaside menu.

Because of their range of products and their reach, food shows are essential to show off their tasty chicken.

The Problems

However, due to the amount of food shows, there are a lot of potential asset tracking problems.

With a lot of assets, from the plates to the bowls to the cooking utensils, simple asset tracking is essential to save time and to make sure there’s much less loss of equipment or duplicates.

Without an asset management system, there’s a strong possibility of losing track of who is in charge of what. Without this knowledge, equipment is much more likely to go missing.

When you’re on the road showcasing your product, if a prop goes missing, the quickest option is to buy a new one. When this happens there’s a strong possibility that the “missing” prop will turn up again, meaning that both time and money has been wasted on buying a duplicate.

The Solution: An asset management system

The solution is simple! An asset management system.

With our simple, creative asset management software you can track equipment, props, food, and who’s in charge of it all.

If there’s a lot of assets floating around, getting washed, being used and so on, with asset tags and asset tracking, knowing the status and location of everything is easy.

Using our durable QR asset tags, keeping track of plates and props is simple. Just stick a tag to a prop, scan it in and update it’s status, assign a location, then link it to a staff member.

This way you can know which staff member has what booked out with a simple check of your phone, and you can know where everything is left too!

When everything is quickly and easily set up, it’s just a matter of scanning and updating. Less lost items. Lots of saved time.

Recommendation

When we asked Shaun, the Marketing Executive at Meadow Vale Foods for a Testimonial, this is what he said:

“Great product with great customer service on hand whenever we have an issue, highly recommend.”

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Need to get down the street or across the world? Mobility as a Service solutions can help!

No matter the distance, services such as Fleetondemand can get you there, providing you or your business with the best value for money leasing and hiring and other mobility services.

So how do they get people across the world? A lot of time, a lot of laptops, and a lot of assets.

About Fleetondemand

Fleetondemand is at the heart of the drive for mobility. They provide solutions for Mobility-as-a-Service (MAAS).

They provide enterprise technology applications to a variety of different automotive services, including vehicle leasing, rental and service providers in both B2B and B2C markets.

It’s not too dissimilar from asset management, then, except instead of their assets being mostly physical objects or machinery, they track the different services to get you the best travel rates possible.

The idea is to make travel more connected to the user and more accessible, hence, mobility as a service. So, you can pay for miles instead of taxes or finance on a new car!

What they do

Using software and algorithms, Fleetondemand compare, use, and contrast different mobility services.

With this information, they can provide their customers, whether they’ve individuals or companies, with the best mobility services possible.

Their vision is to help shift away from the idea of travel and mobility that has existed for years.

Instead of freedom only being allowed for those with the car, the private jet, the money or the job, a drive for mobility can help everyone have the freedom to go wherever they’re needed.

The Problems

This creates a unique challenge, though.

Due to how much work they do from offices, laptops and phones in order to create and maintain a service that can take people anywhere, how do they maintain this equipment?

While all the work onsite is going offsite, how do you maintain what is onsite as much?

Because of this, they needed to track their PCs, CCTV cameras, televisions, mobile phones and tablets in a more modern and easy way. This is especially as the company is still growing in their drive for mobility.

They wanted a clear and concise way to manage and store their asset data, managing, tracking, and updating information across all of their office equipment.

Without IT asset management software, data collection and management was an almost impossible task.

The Solution: IT asset management software

In order to save time on tracking and maintaining their equipment, Fleetondemand looked to IT asset management software for help and found itemit.

They’ve said it’s helpful, easy to use, and that they would recommend it since then.

So how has asset tracking helped?

The asset management software has helped to manage their IT assets in a way which is enjoyable and massively time efficient.

Using our asset tags, they’ve kept their office assets in order. With itemit’s easy to use and simple user interface, keeping everything in order became a pleasure.

Since downloading the app, Fleetondemand has reported that they’ve saved at least 20 hours that would be spent finding, researching, or attempting to maintain their fixed assets.

Fleetondemand says that the best and most helpful asset management feature itemit provides is the fact that it’s a mobile app! With the app and the web portal, they can track the assets that track their mobility schemes and drive for mobility without being tied to a desk.

Also, as their company grows, and as their work becomes more complex as technology does, the need to be adaptable is clear. This is helped out by IT asset management software.

Recommendation

When we asked Luke Creighton, the CSC Executive of the company, for a Testimonial, this is what he said:

“Powerful reporting tools, a great mobile app and high quality QR tags provide a fast and highly accurate way of storing and tracking our most valuable assets plus fantastic customer service! All in all, this is great value for money. The simplicity of the app design allows ease of use which you are able to pull out of your pocket to update your assets at any given moment! Fantastic!”

He then went on to say they will be using itemit for years to come.

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Mountaineering isn’t always the safest hobby. Out of nowhere harsh weather conditions or unstable rocks can turn a hike into an emergency. Luckily, the Rossendale & Pendle Mountain Rescue Team are here to help.

Saving lives on a day to day basis, here’s how they keep track of their critical assets to get moving faster, and keep people safer.

About Rossendale & Pendle

The Rossendale & Pendle Mountain Rescue Team is a charity made up entirely of volunteers.

They respond to 999 calls quickly and efficiently, and cover an area of around 350 square miles across East Lancashire, Pendle, the Rossendale Valley, and some parts of Greater Manchester.

It’s not just about mountain rescue, though. The team also assists in a lot of other call outs including missing person searches, or helping the ambulance service in the harshest of weather conditions.

They work effectively with different rescue teams and sometimes use dogs to ensure the fastest rescue possible.

What they do

Saving hikers, bikers, walkers, and more, the Rossendale & Pendle Mountain Rescue team respond to any and every emergency they can help with in the area that they cover.

Searching for casualties or heading straight to their location to help out, the team work with ambulances and other emergency services to ensure as much safety as they can provide.

Rossendale & Pendle are always trying to be a part of the community as well and make their presence known to keep as many safe as possible. This means they also offer advice and put on charity events to both raise awareness of their work and to raise money to save more people.

The Problems

A lot of equipment is needed, though.

A big problem facing the team was the fact that equipment wasn’t recorded effectively. Because their assets are so varied and were untracked, knowing all of the assets that they did and didn’t have was an immediate challenge.

Because of their enormous team size as well, volunteers were being given a huge variety of expensive assets, and because everything wasn’t tracked effectively, a lot of assets ended up lost or unaccounted for.

Spreadsheets aren’t effective in a time sensitive situation. Neither are notepads or simply someone’s memory. Pen and paper was what was used before itemit.

Knowing what kit is needed and where it is creates a challenge in itself, and when lives are being saved, collecting everything together quickly and distributing it is paramount.

The Solution: itemit’s asset tracking system

Rossendale & Pendle Mountain Rescue team started to use our asset tracking system.

Now, instead of simply wondering where kit is or trying to find it, it’s a lot easier to keep everything in the right place and much more findable.

The team use our asset tracking software and asset tags to manage Rescue kit, medical, personal kit and collection tins mostly. It’s used by multiple team members for greater flexibility of how they use the asset tracking system.

Variety is no longer a problem as with itemit, assets including helmets and medical kits can be categorised, meaning that tracking groups of assets is a lot easier.

Not only using it to inventory their rescue service assets, they also use itemit to audit their equipment and add reminders for renewals and inspections. This means they don’t have to spend as much time wondering where anything is or what its status is.

Knowing who has what is helpful, especially as the team could add reminders of when assets were due back, as well as links to user manuals and comments on asset pages.

The team also worked with itemit to create customised tagging options: a thermal sticker for clothing assets and an all-weather tag for solid assets such as helmets.

It is also important that a constant WiFi connection isn’t needed, meaning that under conditions in the middle of a search, itemit is still functional, updates simply sync when connectivity resumes!

They plan to look into using RFID tags and RFID readers in the future so that it’s easier and more effective to track assets in the field.

Knowing which volunteer has which asset also makes tracking a lot easier, and knowing what to use for each search and rescue task. Each team member has a profile to show who has what and when, then value inspection dates and other useful information, such as first aid kit expiry dates, can also be added.

Recommendation

When we asked Andy Bradshaw, the team’s Secretary and Press Officer, for a Testimonial, this is what he said:

“We need to be able to track, catalogue and audit assets within a rescue team and Itemit is both easy to use, cost effective and intuitive! We have a lot of plans for the future and this solution is key – we can’t recommend the app or team enough.”

itemit has also helped the team by creating a “a full overview of assets at the click of a button” and has been able to “audit and track assets easily.”

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When the future is being created, it’s more important than ever to keep track of the tools and equipment that are helping to build it. This is well known by Professor Simone Hochgreb of Reacting Flows.

Reacting Flows is a research group in the University of Cambridge’s Engineering Department. Their goal is to better understand the physics of reactions during energy conversion. With this understanding they plan on taking the applications everywhere, ultimately creating a more efficient energy conversion process, and less emissions with more economical energy convertors.

Of course, this requires a lot of equipment both large and small. Not only this, but with a consistent rotation of students, this equipment is a lot more difficult to track and inventory. It is also imperative that equipment isn’t mixed up or misused. To help with these difficulties and potential problems, Professor Hochgreb reached out to itemit. Find out more about the problems, and the solutions, below.

About Professor Hochgreb

Simone Hochgreb is a Professor of Engineering currently working in Cambridge University. In the past, however, she has worked all over the place, including in São Paulo and Princeton.

Her research has been related to combustion engine performance, chemical engineering, and auto-combustion. This knowledge has developed into her current research projects, where not only does she teach a large amount of students, but also investigates problems facing humanity today.

Cambridge University’s mission statement involves serving the needs of society, whether it be artistically or in terms of science or engineering. This environment has both motivated and cultivated incredible research, such as Professor Hochgreb’s.

Hochgreb Lab research

The research Professor Hochgreb is undertaking requires so many different assets and unique pieces of equipment in order to work. As she is trying to replicate energy transfer and use what her team discovers in a real world environment, realistic and repeatable conditions are greatly needed.

For conditions to be repeatable and realistic, the correct equipment is imperative. Not only this, but the risk of a loss is a big one to take. A lost piece of equipment not only sets back wallets, but it could also affect the legitimacy of the tests. A loss could mean the repeatability is damaged or destroyed, meaning hours of research could be lost. Careful planning and hard work help Professor Hochgreb and her team prevail.

The team uses a wide range of equipment. From larger assets such as lasers, scopes, and electronic boxes needing constant maintenance, to medium equipment such as detectors, to smaller assets such as optics or optoelectronics. Keeping these assets categorised and carefully looking after them is of the utmost importance.

Professor Hochgreb is working on something massively important. She is researching towards the ability to create more efficient energy transfer. It doesn’t need to be said how much this is needed in our current situation. As Professor Hochgreb creates breakthroughs, she moves us all closer to a more energy efficient world where less energy and pollution is lost during combustion, thus making energy sources cheaper and more productive.

The Problems

As there is a lot that has to go right, there is also a lot that can go wrong. There’s a lot of pressure on keeping equipment maintained and inventoried so that it’s less likely to get lost, it continues to work, and it isn’t mixed up with similar assets.

These problems increase financial and time pressures, as lost assets need to be replaced and missing assets need to be found. In a University Engineering atmosphere, time and money are crucial, and wasting them on avoidable situations was becoming a frustration for Professor Hochgreb. There’s also a possibility of using expensive equipment that needs to be maintained and monitored. It can be stressful to think about the status of equipment like this and there are a range of ways to increase peace of mind, but some are more effective than others.

A rotation of students also creates potential problems, worsening the already problematic time and financial constraints. A rotation creates the possibility of more lost or misplaced assets. There’s more time spent on inventorying and making sure each rotation has the correct assets at the correct times and on making sure things don’t go missing.

New students must also quickly ease into their University careers and start learning. This means that knowing the assets that are available to them needs to happen quickly, as does learning how to use these assets

The nature of having unique, but similar looking assets also created issues with inventory. With two pieces of equipment that look almost identical, but that do very, very, very different things, it’s crucial to make sure you’re using the right one at the right time. Before the ability to simply scan and read which asset it is, there was more of a need to physically inspect and find a certainty that the asset being used is the correct one. This is time that doesn’t need to be wasted, and a risk of human error is still present with physical inspection.

Without equipment tracking, all reports and information became very unweildy, very quickly.

The Solution: Equipment tracking

Professor Hochgreb stumbled across itemit by chance. She saw an air conditioning unit at the University of Cambridge being tagged by a colleague and, following a swift conversation with her colleague, contacted us here at itemit to see if she could use the tool to tag and inventory all of her lab assets too and of course, we were delighted to help!

Before she found out about us, Professor Hochgreb had been looking for a low cost solution to track her lab assets, but found that elsewhere it was always either inadequate or too top-heavy.

Professor Hochgreb uses itemit with two user licenses, inventorying and tracking her equipment with a co-worker. She tracks her assets in order to link them to user manuals, to keep track of necessary maintenance, to know where assets have been left, and in order to know where assets are when groups of students move from room to room.

Also, Professor Hochgreb is adding her students to itemit with its new features so that they can see where assets are and read the manuals. This means that they can quickly find assets and quickly learn how to use them, ensuring no time is wasted on research.

Unique QR tags suited Professor Hochgreb’s purposes better, and so she has bought 200 QR asset tags. RFID tracking is a possibility with itemit as it can help find things that cannot be seen, but not always necessary depending on a user’s individual purpose. As the QR tag system has worked, Professor Hochgreb has been using itemit for over a year (since September 2017) and has renewed her membership for another one.

Less things go missing and there are less replacements needed, and so less money is spent. Not only this, but as it’s possible to look through the inventory with ease, now all it takes is a quick check on the phone to see if an asset is needed, or if it is already owned. No more duplicates!

Recommendation

When we asked Professor Hochgreb for a Testimonial, this is what she said:

“We are using itemit to track laboratory equipment. We were looking for a simple, inexpensive solution when we came across itemit. The itemit team have been really helpful in getting us off the gates. So far we have logged about a hundred items, along with their locations, links to their manuals, and how to use them. Now all our researchers looking for something just need to consult the inventory to know whether we have something and where it is!”

Her colleagues also reported that they were very happy customers, and that the app had been incredibly helpful for students both old and new.

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