Check in/out items?

[biztech]

I know inventory has been discussed in the thread already but i was curious what you all used to track internal items? For example we ahve a few "tech laptops" that get carried around as needed, some cable tracing tools, label makers, etc... We were typically finding items getting left onsite occasionally and after asking we would find where they were left, would be nice to see a nice check in check out software where a tech could come check out an item they needed for the day, week, or project, and then check it back in when done. Could see reports or alerts when something has been checked out to long, etc...
Any thoughts or suggestions?

[nattivillin]

Sounds like a great idea for a software based tool. Now we just use a good ol' xls.

[natrat]

It would be a good idea - we rent laptops to clients and tracking this easily would be great.

[lpopejoy]

You rent laptops? Is that profitable? ...do you just do it while you are working on their machine...?

[natrat]

It is where I live which is one of Australia's most desirable holiday locations especially for the well to do. I rent out at $9 per night or $50 per week and there are a lot of people who lose, forget or break their laptop when on holiday who need one for work, or keeping an eye on their stocks etc. Have had one laptop out for 6 weeks and counting so far, and it cost me $150 so do the math :)

nathan

[lpopejoy]

Ahh, great idea! Very cool! Do you have Labtech installed on those laptops so you can track them if they get stolen or support them if they need remote support? :)

[natrat]

hehe no but i have the clients credit card details and a signed T&Cs form. For remote support I'm now using LogMeIn Rescue, which is expensive but utterly brilliant. I'm paying for it with another local firm to halve our costs until i get the volume of remote work to justify its expense. It's over $1000 a year which isnt much when you do heaps of paid for remote work but i don't quite have the volume yet. You can do a 30 day trial, check it out. You can reboot customers machines and auto log back on, get to safe mode, log off as one user and log on as another, and the session can be started lots of ways, my fave is giving the customer a 6 digit pin and they to to logmein123.com and type it in and thats it, i can connect.

anyway back to the laptops - i also have an image of the laptops so when each gets back i just dump the clean image on via the network from Windows Deployment Server.

Also rent out pre-pay wireless mobile broadband sticks too although not so much as most resorts have wireless.

cheers
n