Digital Control Inc. (DCI) was founded in 1990 by longtime friends, colleagues, aeronautical engineers, and avid pilots John Mercer and Peter Hambling. Their goal was to offer the most advanced horizontal directional drilling (HDD) locating and tracking system in the market. HDD technology enables underground drilling to install utilities such as fiber optics, power, gas lines and water with minimal environmental impact.
Offering a premium range of products that facilitate HDD operations, DCI has expanded operations to several countries now and has over 230 employees worldwide.
From SharePoint to EZOfficeInventory – the transition to automation
To support these expanding operations, the DCI IT team is managing an inventory of 650 items across their multiple locations. Before implementing EZOfficeInventory, the company was using a combination of different softwares and homegrown systems to track the IT equipment. Of these, SharePoint was the main software where they maintained inventory lists.
Since SharePoint is not a dedicated tracking software, Gordon Williams, IT technician at DCI, explained that the limited functionality was causing inefficiencies and problems. Gordon recognized that the IT department could not be run efficiently with information scattered across disparate systems. DCI needed a centralized platform with real-time updates that the whole team could access. After conducting extensive research and comparing different softwares, they came across EZOfficeInventory. After a detailed analysis of its capabilities, the company found it to be a perfect fit for their needs.
They are now tracking all their IT equipment which includes everything from computers, printers, to peripherals such as cables and mice, within EZOfficeInventory.
Seamless integrations with Okta and Zendesk enhance operations
One of the biggest selling points for DCI was the powerful EZOfficeInventory-Zendesk integration. DCI was already using Zendesk as their main ticketing system and this integration has significantly enhanced their onboarding process.
Gordon explained that the IT department gets tickets assigned whenever there are new employees hired and these tickets include essential information such as which hardware needs to be deployed to a new employee. The ability to link tickets directly to assets in EZOfficeInventory helps them track an asset more efficiently as it is assigned out to a user.
Another compelling selling point for DCI was the Okta integration since they were using SAML single sign-on connection and other inventory management systems did not offer this option. As EZOfficeInventory integrates with Okta, DCI employees don’t have to remember different passwords for multiple applications. They can now easily use a single password, with improved security access to their applications.
Accurate tracking leads to improved efficiency
Since the implementation of EZOfficeInventory, the IT team has gained powerful control over office equipment. It is easy to keep track of who has custody of which equipment within the team. EZOfficeInventory also enables DCI to retire and dispose of the assets that have completed their lifespan in an efficient way. Overall, the software has improved the productivity and efficiency of the IT team.
Efficient access control across global locations
As Gordon’s team is the sole IT department for the entire company, they track IT equipment across the global locations. This is where access control within EZOfficeInventory has been useful.
Gordon has given user permission to one key player from each international office to add and update assets within the system. The rest of the team at that particular location has view-only capability so they can have access to the information relevant to them such as assets checked out to them. Tracking equipment across international locations and multiple time zones is a difficult task made easy by a consolidated tracking platform.
Great support led to successful implementation
Switching from SharePoint to EZOfficeInventory was initially a challenge for DCI teams since it offered much deeper functionality compared to the systems they were using previously. However, the EZOfficeInventory support team was extremely helpful in getting them up and running quickly. Gordon says that he can always connect easily with the support team for quick and efficient issue resolution.
“Customer service wise, EZOfficeInventory has been better than a lot of other companies ” says Gordon.
The future with EZOfficeInventory
DCI is excited to try out more EZOfficeInventory features such as custom reports in the future. The company is looking to scale and grow significantly in the future and sees EZOfficeInventory as a helpful resource to help their IT team maintain control over equipment and remain efficient across their global locations.
