Portland State University’s Environmental Science Department Ditched Spreadsheets for a More Reliable Way To Track Assets

Portland State University’s Environmental Science Department did their own internal research and found they needed a better way to track vital equipment and instructional materials.

Asset Panda Solutions:

• Check in/Check out status
• Data Import
• Work orders/ Maintenance
• Customized calendar
• Role-based settings
• Customized reporting
• Unlimited custom fields
• Unlimited actions
• Customized notifications
• Inventory Management
• Leased Equipment Tracking

Customer since: June 2016

Located in the heart of downtown Portland, Oregon, Portland State University is a public research university with the mission to "let knowledge serve the city" reflecting our dedication to turning ideas into action. More than 27,000 students from all backgrounds bring diverse perspectives to our classrooms and campus life. We are proud of our world-class faculty, groundbreaking research and international reputation for excellence in sustainability, community engagement and innovation.

I use Asset Panda to maintain a web-based inventory for the Environmental Science department. We use it mostly for instructional materials and shared research equipment. Before Asset Panda, the department was using an Excel spreadsheet and was constantly losing or misplacing supplies. We were spending time searching for items that were lost or misplaced, and spending money to replace them because we simply couldn’t keep track. There was no real accountability and the spreadsheets were prone to errors or duplicates.

Because our assets are both centralized and distributed in classrooms, it’s vital that we have an up-to-date working knowledge of where our assets are at any given time. Asset Panda has really changed the way we work – for the better. It gives me peace of mind that our inventory is safely categorized and that usage will be logged. Having our data stored in the cloud instead of several spreadsheet versions has made a huge difference. I can log into Asset Panda anytime, from anywhere and know that the data is reliable and current, which was not the case when we were using Excel spreadsheets. Guesswork is a thing of the past.

There are many features of Asset Panda that make it more convenient for our tracking needs. The mobile capabilities are especially useful when I’m out of the office and in the classroom or in other areas across campus. I don’t have to wait until I get back to the office to find out where assets are. It’s all accessible right there on my own smartphone or tablet.

Asset Panda gives us the ability to improve the functions as we adopt new procedures to track our inventory. Being able to manage user roles so that professors, grad students and staff have fixed access is another great benefit of the software. Asset Panda works as we need it to work and is customizable and flexible to change with our specific needs.

– Kale Clauson, Lab Manager