How SaaS-based Equipment Management Can Improve Your Business Operations

Modern business operations demand speed and accuracy.

Whether you are an IT company wanting to enhance your management or manage inventory for your business, a SaaS-based solution is key to achieving this. 87% of supply chain and logistics companies presently use the software as a service to smoothen their operations. It’s no surprise why.

However, read on if you’ve been wondering how exactly SaaS helps you gain better insights into your logistics and supply chain department. This article lists five ways a SaaS-based equipment management solution benefits your business. However, before diving into the benefits, let’s understand what equipment management software is.

What is equipment management software?

Have you ever heard about a tool that monitors and tracks all equipment, schedules its repairs and gives you real-time data when delivering equipment? That tool is equipment management software. The tool offers several features, from showing the inventory’s graphical representation to providing real-time asset updates.

Equipment management software helps businesses in the following ways: 

• It addresses issues almost immediately
• Keep a tab on all equipment activity
• Link small equipment to the vehicles that travel every day
• Bid farewell to spreadsheets and paperwork
• Enables team collaboration

Now that we know what equipment management software is, let’s look at how it can improve your business operations.

Daily deliveries become easy

Technology will accelerate the logistics and supply chain industries as the clients’ and consumers’ needs keep changing. SaaS platforms will essentially help businesses be more accountable and adaptable in the long run. The easiest way SaaS brings this change is by reducing the hassle in daily deliveries.

For instance, consumers today need instant gratification which puts supply chains under pressure. So if you want to enhance deliveries, there’s a seemingly increasing need for adaptable SaaS solutions. Doing so will help businesses prioritize customer expectations, ever-growing demands for omnichannel distribution and sales and simplify the increasing complexity in the global supply chain.

Minimized operational discrepancies

Enhancing accuracy for any business operations can be done in two ways: increase or better the resources or minimize the discrepancies occurring with existing assets. Businesses that utilize the power of data analytics to make more data-driven decisions are more likely to succeed.

SaaS helps businesses with predictive analytics that can be applied to real-time data and enhance inventory management. With the help of automation, supply chain operations no longer need to use manual procedures or unnecessary paperwork. This digital transformation largely impacts the business’ overall cost and profitability.

The Machine Learning (ML) and Internet of Things (IoT) benefit

IoT has enabled smartphone-based and GPS-enabled applications and sensors on vehicles. This is proving to be head-turning in the logistics and supply chain department. Every software and smart gadget used in the global supply chain is a data source. Businesses use these data sources to gather insights and optimize the necessary operations in the supply chain.

Machine learning is also in demand. Since the global supply chain requirements get more complicated, the margin of error automatically increases. ML provides businesses with several advantages like learning addresses and cleaning them at each delivery to reduce the delivery time. With ML and IoT, businesses can optimize operations, reduce costs and increase productivity.

Makes equipment management mobile

Any task managed mobile is managed easy. 

SaaS-based systems are ideal as they offer services via a mobile phone. This makes it easy for the managers and end users to be updated with the information on time. For instance, if a vehicle undergoes a malfunction on-site and needs immediate repair, the employee on the site could easily notify the vendor about the incident.

The repair could then be scheduled through the maintenance management app. This ensures your assets undergo the least possible damage and they’re back to functioning properly in minimal time.

Through the app, sending multiple repair requests is also possible. This saves time, speeds up the process, and reduces paperwork needed all at once. By saving time, you can enhance customer experience and reallocate crucial business resources to other areas.

Maintain recurring schedules easily

Enhanced collaboration is a positive byproduct of using SaaS-based solutions. It ensures you don’t miss out on the needed maintenance by scheduling recurring maintenance. For instance, you can set recurring repairs of certain assets while also defining the start and end dates of the schedule. Moreover, your asset could be sent automatically for maintenance through the software.

Ease in maintaining recurring schedules also enables you to keep detailed service records. This data can help you make more informed decisions in the future. For example, through the records, you know that asset X takes more time and frequent repairs. With this bit of information, you can work toward minimizing the time and increasing the efficiency of your IT operations.

These records can also highlight bigger problems in asset management or notify smaller issues that could turn big in the future if left unaddressed.

Makes business sustainable

Saving the planet is, after all, the ulterior motive for any business. Along with offering digitalization, businesses need to plan for sustainability to thrive in the long run. By using cloud solutions, this purpose is achieved. Your resources will dramatically reduce, and resource savings will increase. At the same time, the usage of paper has become very rare.

Since organizations don’t need to invest much in setting up complex IT infrastructure, much energy is consumed. All of this combined overall leads to a reduction in greenhouse gas levels and their adverse environmental effects.

Overall Enhanced Inventory management

Supply chain management is a crucial part of all business operations. A simple delay in finding a spare part of an asset can cost you a consumer. Plus, it could be extremely frustrating and time-consuming as well. A Saas-based solution can help you better manage the inventory in the following ways:

• It lets you set maximum or minimum inventory stock thresholds.
• Track inventory using QR codes, barcodes and other identifiers.
• Lets you maintain vendor details to track the supplier.
• Enforces role-based access to maintain security and confidentiality
• You receive notifications when inventory levels go low

Depending on your business needs, you can choose a SaaS solution that expedites the maintenance process and ensures you have enough inventory levels. Moreover, all concerned members get updates about asset repairs and maintenance, which fosters transparency among internal members of the organization.

Choose the right tool to get the benefits

While the article enlists the benefits of using a SaaS-based solution for supply chain management, choosing the right tool still lies with you. You need to be certain of your business requirements and the current challenges your business faces in supply chain management.

For instance, some assets in your company may need frequent repairs, and you may need to know why. In this specific case, you need to look for a SaaS tool that notifies you as and when an asset demands a repair. This will help you know the frequency of repairs needed and the potential reasons for it.