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Keys, spreadsheets and clipboards: Is Your Locker Management Obsolete?
“That’s how it’s always been”, said the tired security manager, hesitatingly.
There’s no better answer to the question of why do you still use manual keys and spreadsheets for locker management? It’s a status quo that’s costing larger businesses millions of pounds every year (no joke) and putting them a step behind the competition.
Having worked with some of the largest retailers on the planet, we have an intimate awareness of the issues and headaches caused by outdated and labour-intensive locker management. We designed eLockers locker management system to transform the industry, and that’s exactly what it’s doing.
Last year, one of those major clients recouped 81% of its annual spend on locker management and reported significant improvement in staff productivity and enjoyment.
Table of Contents
How traditional locker management works
Most businesses use spreadsheets to keep track of which locker number is assigned to which employee. The spreadsheet doesn’t track any other details or add extra value to the business, and yet these locker networks are still absolute chaos to manage.
The spreadsheets are enormous and disorganised. They take an age to load. They’re not updated regularly enough and, quite often, companies have no idea how many lockers they have, what condition they’re in, and whether staff are sharing lockers or have their own.
eLocker does this differently
The growth of IoT technology has transformed locker management. Our electronic locker system – eLocker – records every detail of each locker in a cloud-based, easy-to-access platform. Security staff can assign lockers, view usage data, programme access cards, access analytics, and perform a host of other functions through this portal.
It’s intuitive and requires just an hour’s training to use. For busy and stressed security teams, using a smart, cloud-based management portal is a no-brainer. Even without the considerable financial savings generated through smart locks, the online platform makes the lives of security and administrative staff much more productive and less stressful.
Integration with smart lockers
The most tangible financial expense with traditional lockers is the repair and replacement of keys and locks. In a time and motion study we found that swapping one locker key can take 4 people and cost up to £40, pureley down to the administratie burden of ordering, replacing, removing the old barrel and adding the new one, the full audit is here: Click Here
People lose keys all the time – that’s just something we have to deal with. Unfortunately, most businesses keep poor track of the spares and the time spent locating them adds up. When there’s no spare, a locksmith is required to replace the lock and furnish new keys.
But repairs are even more costly. Traditional locks suffer regular mechanical failures, from chipped keys to barrel malfunctions; for companies with thousands of lockers the costs quickly pile up. Not only that, but it’s a dull, demoralising job for your security staff.
Smart lockers to the rescue!!
Our smart locks do things differently. For a start, they use secure contactless technology to eliminate physical keys and old-fashioned mechanical locks. The many issues associated with replacing and repairing malfunctioning parts is eliminated in a single stroke. The smart system uses access cards which take seconds to programme and which can be replaced at almost negligible cost.
Not only that, this system is simpler, more secure, and more productive for users.
The impressive power of digital locker management is impossible to deny. It’s clear that manual management with keys and spreadsheets is already obsolete. In order to streamline processes, make financial savings, and bring companies truly into the IoT era, companies need to take stock of their own surroundings and see if a new locker management solution is right for them.