Case Studies and Success Stories of Companies using Asset Management Software Effectively

Introduction

Asset management software keeps one record of every piece of equipment a team owns: what it is, where it is, who has it, and when it is due back. The case for it is easiest to see in real teams, so this post collects short summaries of published Shelf case studies. Every number below comes from the full case study it links to.

Case studies from teams using Shelf

CES Utility Solutions: a lost $70K drone kit, recovered

CES Utility Solutions inspects utility infrastructure with drones. A case holding about $70,000 of drone equipment was lost when a security strap on their truck failed. A passerby scanned the Shelf QR label on the case, submitted the "found" form, and CES got the kit back within hours. Read the CES case study.

Fabel Film: zero double bookings

Fabel Film is a commercial video production company in Tilburg, the Netherlands, managing 238 assets. Gear planning used to live in the technical director's head. After moving bookings and kits into Shelf, the team reports zero double bookings, and producers and crew can see availability without asking one person. Read the Fabel Film case study.

ResQ: 4,000+ contact center assets across two sites

ResQ, a contact center operator based in Hull, UK, runs two sites a long way apart with more than 4,000 PCs, headsets, monitors and other devices. Agents used to fill in multi-field spreadsheets to take equipment home. With Shelf, IT assigns work-from-home kit with one phone scan, and a colour-coded location layout means a search covers at most 10 devices. Read the ResQ case study.

Kansas City Art Institute: moving from Cheqroom without new labels

KCAI's Media Center lends equipment to students and prints its labels on DYMO LabelWriter printers. When it moved from Cheqroom to Shelf, Shelf updated its scanner to read the externally generated QR codes, so the team kept its printers and label workflow. Read the KCAI case study.

Purdue University: drone fleets across three programs

Three Purdue programs, including the School of Aviation and Transportation Technology, use Shelf for drones, sensors and research equipment, with nearly 100 team members across three workspaces. They logged 632 asset bookings in the first four months, and advance booking replaced a system that only allowed 24-hour holds. Read the Purdue case study.

HAARP: research instruments from seven universities

The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program in Alaska hosts instruments from seven universities, from aurora cameras to radio receivers. Spreadsheets could not be searched or filtered well. Custom fields let each instrument type keep its own parameters, such as shutter speed for cameras and operating frequency for receivers, in one system. Read the HAARP case study.

Industrial Artifacts: 10,000+ one-of-a-kind items

Industrial Artifacts, an antique mall and auction house in DeKalb, Illinois, tracks more than 10,000 unique items across two buildings and pulls 360 to 400 auction lots a month. It moved 8,860 items off Sortly in under two weeks, keeping the barcodes already on the shelves. Read the Industrial Artifacts case study.

What these teams have in common

• One record per item. Each piece of equipment has a page with its location, custodian and history, so nobody has to remember it.
• Labels that do the work. A QR code or existing barcode on the item opens its record, for staff and, in CES's case, for a stranger who found it.
• Bookings instead of memory. Fabel Film and Purdue reserve equipment ahead in Shelf, instead of relying on a shared agenda or a 24-hour hold.

See all published stories on the case studies page.