Table of Contents
The Scenario
The client is a leading multinational company. Its flagship capability involves providing technology-related solutions to clients worldwide. It attracts and retains the best people in the industry. As part of employee development and enabling them to stay abreast with the latest technology, it operates a Library, which is a repository of as many as 2000 very expensive and authentic books on the entire gamut of industry-specific subjects ranging from general management to technology to interpersonal skills. It manages the entire book inventory via a Library Management Software application, spanning the entire lifecycle of book lending typical of a library such as from checking out to eventual return of books.
The Challenge
The existing software could not manage the book inventory adequately and entailed tremendous documentation. On top of that, certain expensive books could not be accounted for, due not necessarily to personnel integrity issues but to the inadequacy of the system per se. All of this led to unsuspecting employees receiving notifications for all the wrong reasons, or worse, fines being erroneously deducted from their salary.
Solution
RFID-based tagging was introduced that seamlessly interfaces with the existing Library Management System. More significant is the fact that the solution is cloud-compatible, thus making it not only more ubiquitous but also ever more manageable. The solution exploits the IoT concept where each book is affixed with an RFID sticker that delivers IoT capabilities, as well. Under the new system, the employee ID was RFID enabled too, so when a book is checked out it captures the details of each transaction specific to an employee. The entire process of issuing and return of books is now down to just a matter of a single step. All that needs to be done is just swipe the book and tag it to a specific employee and the system does the rest including the recording of transaction details with the stakeholders namely HR and Admin being in the loop and taking over.
From here on, the management of book inventory is email driven. Among other features, one more notable feature is the solution’s capability to calculate the duration of lending based merely on the number of pages that the book contains. It even sends out email and SMS alerts to employees as the dates for return of books become due.
Result
- Hassle-free check-out/check-in of books.
- No missed schedule of return of books, thanks to the email/SMS-based alerts.
- No employees being incorrectly tagged or fined for books they have not checked out.
- One less grey area for HR/Admin to manage that might be the cause of employee dissatisfaction.
- Inventory control of books now ever more robust, immediate and hassle-free.
