How to Use Shelf for Tracking Development Kits and Expensive Materials During Demonstrations and Trade Fairs

Tracking development kits and expensive materials during demonstrations and trade fairs is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, these items are often expensive and critical to the demonstration or exhibition, and losing them can result in significant financial losses. According to a study by the Event Marketing Institute, the average cost of lost or stolen assets during events is $2,500.

Secondly, these items may contain sensitive information or technology, and losing them can compromise intellectual property and put the company at risk. In fact, a survey by the Information Security Community found that 60% of companies reported experiencing IP theft due to lost or stolen devices.

Finally, demonstrations and trade fairs are often crowded, and it's easy for items to go missing or get misplaced in the chaos. A study by the International Association of Exhibitions and Events found that 75% of exhibitors experienced asset loss or theft during events.

Asset management software can assist with these challenges

To avoid these risks, it's essential to have a proper asset management system in place. Shelf.nu is a cloud-based asset management software designed to help businesses manage their assets efficiently. The software offers a range of features, including asset label creation, QR code scanning, and check-in/check-out functionality. With Shelf.nu, users can easily create an asset inventory, assign assets to specific individuals or teams, and monitor their status in real-time.

Steps to create an asset reservation for an event or demonstration with Shelf:

1. Create a shelf account.
2. Set up a team environment (request a trial if needed).
3. Create your initial set of assets or import them via CSV.
4. Add team members to your environment to assign custody to.
5. Create a new booking draft on the bookings area of your workspace.
6. Select the assets you want to reserve and click Save or Reserve.

How bookings work in Shelf.nu

How shelf bookings work is, our system looks at all assets on your database, we check assets which are not under the custody of a person. The assets have to be available that is why we do this check. Moreover, we check if an asset administrator has not toggled the 'do not use for bookings' button - which prevents the asset for not being shown on the booking area.

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The 'do not show for bookings' toggle on the asset page can be used for the following use cases:

• The asset has arrived to a warehouse/team but it is not yet ready to be used (needs calibration/setup/etc)
• The asset has been used for a while, but it is not functioning correctly - the toggle can prevent users from reserving or checking out the asset

Once you have selected the assets you wish to book, you can click on Save or Reserve.

If you select Save, you can come back to your booking later - it is saved as a draft.

If you click on reserve, you have made a reservation which is official. We will send you a mail as a confirmation of this reservation and you can move on with your day. If someone tries to reserve the same assets on a similar date/time our system will not allow it to happen. The assets will not show at all to the next person trying to book equipment.

Checking Out and Checking In a Reservation

A booking can be checked out at the moment of the reservation. You can do this before the start time has kicked off but this comes with a risk of taking items off the availability of another person, so please proceed with caution. If you check out an item before its original start date you might prevent others from being able to check out their reserved assets. When they try to make a checkout they will see that some items are not available for their reservation.

As an administrator, you can check in a booking if it is ongoing at any time. Meaning that you can check it back in even if the end time has not been reached. Why do we allow this? Because, you could have ended up an event earlier than you had planned and the items are back to their available state for someone else to book out.

Once your items are checked back in, your reservation gets marked as complete and you can leave the assets wherever you and your team agreed to. Now, you can go on with your day knowing that you responsibly took the items out and returned them back in!

Benefits of Using Shelf.nu

Using Shelf.nu for tracking development kits and expensive materials during demonstrations and trade fairs offers several benefits, including:

• Reduced financial losses due to lost or stolen assets
• Minimized risk of intellectual property theft
• Streamlined asset management processes, saving time and reducing stress
• Improved team collaboration and responsible custodianship
• Real-time monitoring and tracking of assets

Shared asset management is hard, many start with an excel sheet and quickly realize that, after trying to keep a tidy inventory sheet. Things get messy.

That's where we come in. We at shelf are obsessed with asset related operations and are here to serve with technological solutions to make this process easier and faster.

Want to try shelf? Get started today. You can use our booking feature by enabling a team plan or asking for a trial.

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