The Client
At Excell Data, great customer service is the key to success. The company provides consultants and project-based services to client companies throughout the United States. Excell issues IT assets like computers, monitors and printers to employees for use on the job.
The Challenge
Excell deploys hundreds of computing assets among its workforce and retires a number of aging IT assets each year. As the company and its assets grew, detailed information was not recorded correctly, and it became increasingly difficult to track where and with whom each asset resided.
Excell’s IT manager tracked a handful of IT assets with a spreadsheet to record serial number, location, and the responsible party for each piece of equipment. As the company grew, managing its expanding fleet of assets became much more time-consuming and difficult to accomplish manually with confidence. When a batch of new laptops arrived, for example, it took hours to capture and input the relevant data. Worse, some of the hand-keyed data was entered incorrectly.
“Mistakes were made when data was manually entered into the spreadsheet,” said Maurice Fuller, Executive Director of Operations for Excell. “Serial numbers can be difficult to read and record. Was it the number 0 or the letter O? Was it a lower-case l or a capital I? We were spending too much time on a spreadsheet that wasn’t working for us.”
Tracking ongoing asset data with the spreadsheet was also a challenge.
“Spreadsheets are not transactional, so we didn’t have the ability to quickly look up when or with whom assets had been deployed,” Fuller added. “This problem was compounded by the accelerating growth of our assets.”
The Solution
Excell sought out a software solution that would improve the asset tracking process. The company chose Wasp's asset management software, which helps organizations save time and eliminate data entry errors associated with manual processes. Wasp's asset tracking software allows customers to track and manage valuable company assets, conduct audits, and instantly access managerial reports.
“Right away, Wasp's asset tracking software simplified our asset lifecycle management,” Fuller said. “We could track when assets were checked out, which assets were in for repair, and who had received assets in the past. Wasp's asset tracking solution gave us the tools to increase accountability and ensure compliance with our policies and procedures.”
As the company’s asset count continued to grow, Excell decided to enhance the solution by adding a Wasp mobile computer. With the mobile computer’s barcode scanning capability, everything from deploying laptops to performing a systemwide audit can be accomplished more quickly and accurately.
“The mobile computer has unquestionably made our technicians more efficient and the process even more accurate, thereby lowering our risk through standardization and proper documentation,” said Fuller.
In the past, Excell’s auditing process was inefficient and time-consuming. It required an IT technician to walk around with a printed report, comparing serial numbers on the report against actual assets.
The Result
With Wasp's asset tracking software and mobile computer, the audit process can now be completed quickly and painlessly. By scanning barcoded asset tags with the mobile computer, technicians can capture, access and verify each asset’s information – without disturbing employees to move equipment or ask questions.
“A process that previously required five to 10 minutes per office can now be completed in less than two minutes,” Fuller said. “Since it’s fast and accurate, Wasp's asset tracking solution allows our technicians to get more work done, yielding several thousand dollars of annual labor savings.”
Finally, with Wasp's asset management software, Excell can make more informed decisions about when to buy and decommission IT equipment.
“Wasp's asset tracking software gives us a dashboard view of our assets,” Fuller said. “We have real-time visibility into the status and location of our assets. We know where assets have been deployed, as well as the rate at which they are being repaired, returned and redeployed.""
“Plus, we have summary views that show how our various asset classes are aging and depreciating,” Fuller added. “With Wasp's asset tracking reports, it’s straightforward to make well-informed, strategic decisions to optimally manage our assets and maximize ROI.”
