It's like herding Macs

June 10, 2008 2:04 PM

How would you design and manage a system for lending out (and getting back) laptops within a medium-large company?

I have become responsible for about 15 laptops that are in constant use, on an ad hoc basis, in an office with massive staff turnover (due to the nature of the business).

The only existing booking system is a shared Outlook calendar. Laptops are supposed to be booked, taken from an unmonitored cupboard, and returned to the same place. Malicious abuse of the system is not a problem – it's a nice friendly company – but there's no incentive to comply and chaos consequently ensues. I spend too much time tracking down what's supposed to be free and isn't, or telling people they can't have laptops that are in fact available.

I'd like to implement some sort of system with clearer incentives to comply. I'm not sure if there's an effective technological solution (Automatic reminder emails? Account lock outs?), or whether some softer, psychological approach will work.

How's this sort of thing handled in your company? What would you do to get a handle on this situation? Are there other technological solutions you'd recommend? Web-based booking? Strongly worded, passive aggressive notes on every laptop?

posted by godawful to work & money (5 comments total)

I'm hoping that someone will come up with a better solution than this, but I think you're going to have to take more control over the process. Lock the cabinet, have people come to you for the laptops and follow up with them if the laptops are returned late. You'll also avoid the risk of an unlocked cabinet with $15,000 of easily resealable merchandise in a high turnover business.

On the technological side, if you've got Exchange, you can create auto accept resource calendars that automate the process to a degree, but don't do anything to solve the late return problem.
posted by cnc at 2:56 PM on June 10, 2008

Are people taking them home and not bringing them back? Maybe you could set up a script, so that the laptops have to connect to the office network every 24 hours (or other number of your choosing) or they will lock themselves down. When the laptop connects to the office network, it registers on a log somewhere, noting who logged in using that laptop - giving you an up to date list of who has what, and ensuring no-one keeps laptops away from the office for more than 24 hours. When a locked down laptop connects to the network, it unlocks and of course is noted on the logfile.

If they stay in the office all the time, just do the log file thing so you can see who has what.
posted by Joh at 3:23 PM on June 10, 2008

Could any system work if it was to be followed? Meaning, are there enough laptops to go around, to meet the needs of these users? Is there some as yet unstated reason why these aren't getting returned on time? Are there certain machines that are in greater or lesser demand due to some feature or defect? (Like, is everyone trying to get the new one? Or are some of them faulty?)

After determining that, you might just define better rules, especially if you find a reason why they aren't getting returned promptly. Might be as easy as telling people to book them for as long as they possibly *might* need them, so as to not over promise and under deliver to the next person.
posted by gjc at 5:14 PM on June 10, 2008

if you follow the path Joh suggests, this tech info library article on login hooks and Mike Bombich's logintrack.sh script might be a helpful starting point...
posted by russm at 5:34 PM on June 10, 2008

I asked a similar question? Link

Maybe it will help
posted by bleucube at 5:38 PM on June 10, 2008