Asset Panda

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.

We have not experienced any difficulty with the availability of the product (downtime) and think the flexibility is the strength of the software. The import feature works very well and reporting is very intuitive. We still have a way to go with implementing some of the finer points of the software namely bar coding. We were also implementing a new EHR and Accounting software at the time which reduced some of the features we did not implement.

Avantages

The ability to customize the fields and change them to fit your needs. It was a SaaS type solution and not terminal based on local servers. We also have accounting software, document management software, and Electronic Medical Record software and we have the least amount of issues with Asset Panda.

Inconvénients

Support is mostly thru emails, but this is true of our EMR software as well, which is the primary software most of our employees use everyday. Therefore, what I dislike a little is more of an industry trend. The positive side of it is assistance is documented. Actually, we haven't had to use support that much.

We went from school based inventories to a district-wide inventory. Technology equipment now is delivered to the Central Office, inventoried, and tagged before it goes to the school. This has reduced equipment loss and increased accountability. With Title I monitoring this year, we were able to easily answer questions and show that we were being good stewards of our funds.

Avantages

AP allows me to share the workload for keeping up with our technology inventory. I have created users at each school who are responsible for maintaining and verifying the inventory at their site. I also like the ease of adding new assets and the ability to edit records from my phone if necessary.

Inconvénients

I found that most of the problems I initially had with navigation and setting up the barcode generator were quickly solved with the help of online support.

We ended up renewing with Asset Panda after they fixed all of my previously mentioned issues in the original review further below. I think it's fair to provide an assessment of our use since.

Avantages

Asset Panda has all the features and price point that make it one of, if not the best, asset management tool that I've come across. We explored a few options when we were having so many difficulties and no other vendor I spoke with was able to offer me all the features that Asset Panda has at the same (or a better) price point.

I am cautiously optimistic that our experience will continue to be a pleasure. An asset management tool should be something that just works and not something you have to fix problems with daily. Our data is very valuable and its integrity is of the utmost importance due to our 1:1 initiative.

Active Directory sync has worked flawlessly over the past 6 months. Importing and updating of assets through their import tool is incredibly easy. Though I fully recommend using XLS sheets as I have had issues using CSV sheets.

The mobile application is still hands down one of the best applications I've used on iOS. The barcode reader reads quickly and accurately. Features like group scanning, filtering, and running actions are seamless.

Avantages

We love the ability to see all of our tools, search by type or specific tool, track where they are and/or who has touched them last.
The fact that our guys on site are able to use the phones or tablets they already had to complete the cycle counts for us was also great!

Inconvénients

We like that we can create our own reports etc. but don't love that we've had to pay for support in building them after our initial implementation.
Our new customer success specialist [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] has been really helpful with this.