Asset Panda

Commentaires: We had an incredibly diverse inventory. Fields for one asset didn't necessary make sense for many other assets, which just about every inventory solution we slogged through demos trying out couldn't handle. At first I found their 10 table (group) limit rather restrictive, but once I figured out how I could leverage their system into a functional schema, it was as incredibly robust as if I'd built the database myself - and fast for a cloud solution. Now I don't need to spend unthinkable amounts of time building a LAMP solution from the ground up, or paying someone to do it for us, and all without hardware to worry about either. It's an expensive solution, but it will guarantee a worthwhile ROI when you do the math and realize the costs of creating a solution as powerful as they have yourself. And you get the Apps too!

Avantages: We had control over our basic database schema from the beginning. Asset Panda looks and feels like a turn-key inventory solution to our users, but we designed and built how it works for our own custom and niche needs, without a developer and without expensive licensing and hardware. If you factor in those costs to achieve the same control and quality that Asset Panda achieved out of the box, it easily pays for itself.

Inconvénients: Some of the features built for everyone are forced on everyone. Session timeouts that are way too fast have been a problem. If it times out while viewing a report, it will take you back into that report with no way out instead of just taking you to your default list view. More complex searching in the List View is lacking right now. You can get complex with reports, but you can't run actions on reports' results. The good news is they've been very receptive and responsive to feedback. Not once have they said "this is how it works and we don't plan on changing it." which is refreshing. Most of our feedback is submitted for future feature requests.

Commentaires: 1) Gone are Move-Add-Change (MAC) forms that technicians would lackadaisically fill out (and if they did the penmanship turned the whole process into guesswork any way)
2) Asset repository can be updated instantaneously with a few taps on the SmartPhone
3) A decent attempt to impose some standardization
4) Reporting is only limited based on the type of data enter
5) Saves time

Avantages: Definitely barcode scanning with the mobile application; the software could not be easier to learn and use. Audit feature is really nice so the history of seeing how people screwed up what they did with an asset is right there. Nice repository for contract and warranty information.

Inconvénients: Sometimes app barcode will scan successfully but item will show up as not in AP, but when you do a text search of the code you just scanned it will display. Software does not prevent people from entering information incorrectly or uniformly ("garbage in, garbage out"), but that is a personnel issue. As mentioned in the "Pros" piece, the software itself is remarkably easy to learn and use and takes little time if engaged with the process properly for moves/changes. Software does not seem to have a depreciation component for automatically calculating inventory values from year to year (helpful for finance divisions). Not sure what the calendar feature would be used for, but that's not so much a "con" as it is more of a Scooby Doo "RHUH?" question.