Category Archives: [Archived]

Protection of Physical Information Assets using Custom Fields [Archived]

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An updated version of this blog post is available here.

Here’s an interesting insight from one of our customers who is using EZOfficeInventory for the protection of information assets.

Through the use of custom fields that have both history and staff user edit enabled, they are able to track why and when an asset is being checked out. In addition to the default tracking associated with check-in and checkout, the firm has ensured adequate protection of information assets that primarily constitute of:

  1. Access keys
  2. Computers
  3. Printed documents related to Intellectual Property
  4. Portable Magnetic Drives

The company setting was changed from its default of ‘Full’ to ‘Limited to Checkout’ and arbitration was ‘Enabled’

Extending Inventory Management through Custom Fields [Archived]

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An updated version of this blog post is available here.

We’re excited to announce the launch of a much-awaited feature, custom fields. Custom fields enable enhancing the data associations of an asset. This facilitates tracking different types of assets as well as ensuring any specific business data points are catered to. As an example, for tracking office car fleet you may want to add mileage as a custom attribute.

To add custom attributes, use the following steps:

  1. Click on settings (currently only available to the account owner, although will be available to all admins in the coming days)
  2. Select the Custom Attributes tab
  3. Click the button ‘Add Custom Attribute’

There are currently 6 types of custom attributes:

  • Single Line Text – Recommended option if you’re looking to add a generic field that has  alpha-numeric input
  • Paragraph Area – Similar to the description field for an asset, its allows for carriage returns and a larger area to enter information
  • Date Box – A field for entering dates
  • Number Field – A field for entering in numeric values such as price, mileage etc
  • Multiple Choice – A list of options from which a single item can be selected. Also known as radio buttons
  • Check Box -A list of options from which multiple items can be selected

When adding a custom attribute, you’ll further have options to:

  • Restrict its visibility to administrators. This is useful if the information is deemed confidential and should not be shared with staff
  • Make it mandatory. When adding an asset to the system, entry of this custom attribute will be required. For previously entered assets the admin will be prompted to respond to the custom attribute questions when editing the asset
  • Associate the custom attribute to a group. Currently, this cannot be select since it is planned for a launch in the next few days. This’ll allow for custom attributes to be added to certain groups, hence you may want mileage to be added to group Cars while RAM for group Laptops
custom fields

 

Managing Assets through Groups [Archived]

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An updated version of this blog post is available here.

Office inventory comes in all shapes and sizes. Ranging from large generators to small laser diodes. And if you find yourself managing inventory at all ends of the spectrum then use groups to your advantage.

EZOfficeInventory allows for assets to be associated with a group. All assets are part of one group or the other, and in case none is specified during asset entry, the ‘default’ group is used. The Classification view (second tab when viewing all assets) can then be used to browse through the groups and relevant actions such as check-in/out can be taken from within this view.

We’ve recently added filters to all sub-views of assets, including the group view to allow for further bisecting of data and for subsequent actions to be taken.

Taking a specific example, let’s say you need to track laptops in addition to the rest of the office inventory. Create a Laptop group and associate all laptop inventory items to it. From the Classification view, click the Laptop group and view the laptops and if needed further apply filters such as those laptops that are currently not assigned to anyone.

Similarly create a group for other item types such as Car Fleet, Furniture etc if you have multiple assets of the same type.

groups

Excel Import was never simpler! [Archived]

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An updated version of this blog post is available here.

Let’s assume you’re an office administrator or similar who is responsible for managing office inventory. Chances are you have an excel sheet that lists the inventory such as the name, specs, purchase date, price, product id etc. We won’t even mention the pain you likely face each time you open the excel sheet for updates or verification – possibly clutter, or haphazard and/or outdated. That’s why we built EZOfficeInventory!

Moving over to any other inventory system may sound daunting based on the number of items in the excel sheet, with the amount of typing and cross verification required.

To help with ease of transitioning over from excel based sheets to EZOfficeInventory, we’ve recently enhanced the excel import feature. To try it out, use the following steps:

  1. Click the ‘Assets’ tab
  2. Click on ‘Add New Asset’ button
  3. Click on ‘Import from excel sheet’
  4. Set the relevant asset property for each of the column names
  5. Preview the import and acknowledge to complete the import process
  6. You’re done!

excel import

Wasn’t that a breeze!

Updates via email alerts [Archived]

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An updated version of this blog post is available here.

Modern day systems require email integration i.e. the ability for users to be informed of actions via emails rather than needing to repeatedly log into the system to check for updates. However the downside of this being email overload. Recall the boy who cried wolf too many times?

We recently pushed functionality to customize the types of alerts you’d like to receive via email. This helps ensure that you only get the emails for activity types that you’re interested in. So say you’re interested in receiving emails related to checkouts but not Asset retires. Simply check the related action in the Alerts tab and voila!

And for those who’d like to receive a daily email digest rather than an email for each action, simply enable the ’email digest’ in the Alerts tab. All alerts will be sent around midnight Pacific in the form of a single email with the summary of all the day’s events.

Email Alerts

Tip: If you’d like to receive SMS for email alerts you can configure a filter in your email client to forward all emails from domain ezofficeinventory.com to the relevant email address of your mobile’s sms gateway (a number of which are listed here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_SMS_gateways)

First Post! [Archived]

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We’re moving to this blog (blog.ezofficeinventory.com from our twitter-only way of posting updates of all the new and exciting features. This should improve our ability to communicate with you – our valued customers!