Remote inventory management for WFH employees
In 2022, 55% of brands around the world will offer some opportunities for remote work. So why is it taking so long to adopt remote inventory management?
Before the pandemic, inventory management was a crucial part of business operations that aimed to always have IT assets and office equipment in the correct quantity and at the right time.
Companies would sometimes have an office manager with a physical list or excel sheet to keep track of every item and order new ones when necessary.
Other more technical companies left the task to the IT department, which would use outdated inventory management software to keep track of every device.
Now, these asset management techniques' are a financial and logistical liability.
The most prepared companies for remote work and distributed teams are adopting remote inventory management.
This article will discuss remote inventory management for remote workers, go over some best practices for remote inventory management, and provide some tips for managing your assets inventory.
What is remote inventory management?
Remote inventory management or cloud-based inventory management uses software to track and maintain a business' assets.
A remote inventory can help businesses avoid the many issues that arise with using a physical inventory when you have remote workers on your team.
Problems such as inconsistent inventory tracking, dealing with multiple vendors and manufacturers, and paying a lot of estate fees for decentralized storage facilities are bound to arise.
Warehouse storage and insurance are two essential costs to holding a physical inventory that will keep increasing when you have a distributed team.
A remote inventory management taps into a network of storage facilities for one flat fee. This makes it easier to pickup equipment from remote employees who are leaving or quickly send devices to employees who are onboarding regardless of their location.
IT departments or office managers can then reduce the time it takes to coordinate these essential operations and focus on more pressing responsibilities.
Best Practices For Your Remote Inventory Management
Managing your inventory remotely can save you and your business time overhead costs and make your processes more efficient. Here are some best practices for your remote inventory management;
Keep an accurate record of what you have
Having an overview or an idea of how much equipment you own is not enough.
Keeping track of your assets with a spreadsheet or legacy asset management software can lead to accounting errors, poor maintenance, and vulnerable devices when you have remote workers spread out in different cities or teams across the world.
Not to mention, when you are hiring and want to scale quickly, these inventory management techniques are time-consuming and require you to contact multiple vendors or storage facilities simultaneously.
Businesses can cut down on wasteful spending by keeping an accurate, complete, and up-to-date asset inventory using the dashboard of remote inventory management software.
You can log into the software on your mobile device or tablet with a single click to produce inventory analysis and audits when needed.
Track Usage
Having a distributed team means that your digital asset will be scattered worldwide. It is smart and essential to be able to answer the following questions about every piece of equipment.
If you can’t answer these questions about your IT equipment, then it might be time to get remote inventory management software.
- Who uses this particular piece of equipment, and which team are they part of?
- When was the last maintenance scheduled?
- What is the history of this equipment, and where has it been?
Spend smartly, but don't cut corners when it comes to quality
Never buy the equipment you don't need! Focus on spending money on the digital assets that only increase the productivity employees need so you can get the most out of your inventory.
On the other side, you might be tempted to pick out subpar laptop management or security software because the shipping fees are just too high for the products you want.
Don’t fall for this trap because you will end up with a bunch of devices that break down after a year of use.
With the right remote inventory management software, you can have access to a personalized catalog of state-of-the-art devices that are available regardless of an employee’s location.
When deciding what to add to your inventory, think about the following questions:
- What will this device be used for?
- Which brand are employees' favorites?
- Which equipment brands have you had negative experiences with?
Learn to fix even what is not broken
We don't have to wait for things to break down before paying attention to them. This is more true for laptops and other work-from-home equipment as maintenance is easier before things break.
Scheduling yearly maintenance checkups and monthly software updates can save you the time and cost of replacing a device or having to troubleshoot a security breach.
With remote inventory management software, you have end-to-end insight into all the recent software updates a device had and when it was last repaired. You can even order devices with remote access software installed for easy troubleshooting or setup for new employees.
Growrk's Remote Inventory Management Software
GroWrk is a remote inventory management software that is like your IT closet in the cloud. With GroWrk, you can say goodbye to all your inventory management problems. We provide:
- One powerful dashboard for collaboration
- Multiple storage facilities all over the world
- IT Device management
- Operations & IT Support
- Employee IT onboarding
GroWrk automates all the logistics headaches, so you can focus on the things that matter- providing value.
With the GroWrk dashboard, you can add your team, upload your current inventory, and fill in the gaps with our catalog. Want to send a device from your inventory in the U.S. to a developer in Colombia?
No problem, GroWrk can deliver, retrieve, maintain, and store equipment for businesses in over 150 countries, including China, Paraguay, France, India, etc. Growrk has over 11 warehouses located on 6 continents, with 5 more warehouses (Antarctica coming soon) beginning operations in 2022.
GroWrk provides remote access software for all of its devices should your IT department need to fix an issue remotely. They also offer 24-hour help-desk support for their customers should an issue arise with delivery.
For example, the US-based Remote Engineer hiring company GroWrk saved 65,000 dollars and over 304 hours by delivering home office equipment to 56 Remote employees in Mexico and Colombia in 72 hours.
Wrapping Up
Remote work has come to stay, and remote inventory management must replace the time-consuming traditional asset management processes.
Remote inventory management systems are a significant time-saver for companies that work in software and need asset management for large IT inventories.
Remote inventory has brought enormous innovations to the process of asset management.
GroWrk can help you solve your supply chain management problems, allowing businesses to focus on the important aspects of running a business, such as curating your brand, improving efficiencies, and producing results.
Grow remote with GroWrk. We provide and manage laptops, devices, other equipment, and services to remote teams in over 150 countries.
