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CASE STUDY

Scalable Asset Control Solution from ASAP Systems Meets Octo Consulting Groups’ Expanding Needs

OCTO CONSULTING GROUP

Founded in 2006, Octo Consulting Group has been providing efficient and agile IT solutions to clients in the defense, health, intelligence, and security markets. The company recently moved its company headquarters and is opening two new offices in the greater Washington DC Area and Atlanta, Georgia to better serve clients in those regions.

Octo’s success and expansion spurred a hiring boom, as well as the purchasing and redistribution of several hundred IT assets worth over $200,000. It was up to the IT department to account for the location of new and existing assets throughout the duration of these structural changes and beyond. In order to supervise and control this increased asset movement, the management decided it needed a comprehensive inventory and asset management solution.

“As a business with a high ceiling for growth, we found ourselves in need of a scalable inventory system to effectively and efficiently track all of our assets across multiple locations,” explained Cameron Brent, IT Manager at Octo Consulting Group.

COMPANY:Octo Consulting Grouphttp://www.octoconsulting.com/

INDUSTRY:Information Technology Consulting

BUSINESS CHALLENGE:

Finding a scalable and barcode-based asset tracking system to automatically log the movement of assets, especially equipment issued out during employee onboarding.

SOLUTION:Passport Asset TrackingPassport Mobile

BENEFITS:

• Optimized employee onboarding process related to equipment loans

• Automated asset transaction record-keeping

• Ability to organize and easily find assets in a centralized database

• Instant add-on modules for changing needs

Case Study Overview

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ASAP Systems | Inventory Management and Asset Tracking

CASE STUDY

THE CHALLENGE

Not only was Octo having trouble locating individual assets, but also the process of searching for individual items was unnecessarily time consuming. During the beginning of the transition, management became aware that many assets were poorly tagged, out of place, or missing. It dawned on the organization that they did not have a system with effective inventory management protocols in place. Without a system, finding an asset was a cumbersome chore that took time away from the IT team and impeded workflow.

“We preferred to manage time more efficiently, rather than purchase more assets to meet demand,” added Brent, referring to the added expenses incurred from losing track of equipment.

Up until the time of the move and expansion, the organization had been struggling with monitoring asset movement because they relied on spreadsheets and lists. This method proved ineffective since logging and updating the information associated with each inventory transaction was a tedious and error-prone manual process. Therefore, the absence of an automated way of accurately collecting and compiling their inventory and asset data left the organization vulnerable to potential property loss.

FITTING THEIR NEEDS

The IT team searched for an inventory solution that could scale to fit the company’s current and future inventory needs, optimize their employee onboarding process, and integrate with their active directory.

With the expansion looming, Octo was concerned with finding a configurable system that they could implement right away and build up as their needs and infrastructure changed. Brent stated, “We didn’t need a system that required work and time to piece together. Nor did we want an out-of-the-box offering that included too much of what we don’t need, or too little, leaving us looking for more.” Due to the timing of the project, the team didn’t want to have to jump through hoops in order to get the system up and running. In addition, finding a system with useful add-ons and configuration settings would save them money in the long run.

Once a new employee joined the team, the company wanted to be able to easily tag and check out assets to that person. New hires received IT equipment such as projectors, monitors, computers, and tablets to be used temporarily. The length of time employees required with assets varied by project, so the organization wanted to track when assets were issued and when they were due to be returned. Such functionality would help the IT

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ASAP Systems | Inventory Management and Asset Tracking

CASE STUDY

department maintain accountability over assets even as employees changed locations.Such functionality would help the IT department maintain accountability over assets even as employees changed locations.

An added bonus for the organization would be if it could connect the new system with their active directory. The integration would allow the system admin to save time importing employees’ contact information and passwords from their internal network. That way, Octo could begin allocating assets to employees in the database, and employees could log into the system without needing to create a new password.

THE SOLUTION

ASAP Systems provided Octo with a barcode and location based asset control solution that fit their needs. The organization was enabled to uniquely number each asset with a barcode label and track its movement. Employees quickly took advantage of their new ability to automate asset-related transactions and recordkeeping by simply scanning barcode labels. In addition, Passport allowed Octo to access the data in a centralized database that the company could control and organize as they required.

“ASAP Systems made it significantly easier for us to manage and track where our assets are, who is responsible for them, and helped us better allocate our time,” expressed Brent.

A Scalable Long-Term Solution

After meeting with an ASAP Systems engineer for an online product demonstration, Brent and his team concluded that Passport offered the most complete and scalable inventory solution. “We felt the Passport system easily met our needs and it included a number of different add-on modules that would allow our asset tracking system to grow,” stated Brent. Octo selected the modules they wanted to start using right away, easily removed unnecessary features free of charge, and looked into the add-on modules that could provide further value down the road. Ultimately, the asset tracking system provided the firm with short-term tools during their initial expansion, as well as long-term options.

Optimized Employee Onboarding Process

With sporadic asset requests from employees and various asset usage lengths, the company benefitted from the flexibility of Passport’s check in/out functionality. The IT department simply needed to check on an asset’s availability in the database, then scan the asset barcode to issue it out, before selecting the employee name it was assigned to. As a result, the department reduced the time and hassle of onboarding employees while improving their asset control.

Superior Customer Support

“The support offered by the ASAP Systems team and the training made it an extremely smooth setup and transition to this inventory system. Our employees using the system got acclimated quickly and are learning more every day. The learning curve was minimal with the continued support from ASAP in the process,” conveyed Brent.

For more information on inventory and asset tracking systems for the IT Consulting industry, visit

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