Equipment list management with Connect2

Equipment list creation is an important part of many undergraduate media and arts courses. Firstly, there’s a need for students to build and manage lists of equipment when producing videos, films and other media production assignments. They will need to build out their kit, beginning with the right cameras then ensuring all lenses, cables, batteries, rigs, tripods etc are included.  

At the same time, equipment inventory lists are an important focus for staff supporting these students. Staff need to be confident they understand the volumes, location and status of their stock at all times. It’s vital for maintaining a good supply of all the items students need. But as you’d imagine, managing inventory for the whole department and multiple projects at any one time, it’s not an easy task.

Here we explore how Connect2 software combines these key list management functions, making project kit lists and equipment inventory pools easy to manage and maintain.

Vital help for students

With Connect2, students can browse all the items they need for a project, adding them to their cart to build a single comprehensive equipment list. The interface is highly visual, so they can see they are selecting the right items. Items can be added and removed without fuss. When ready, they simply hit Create booking, and reserve all items in a single online transaction.

What’s really important here is that instructors and professors can also see the list they’ve compiled. This way they can advise students accordingly. They should be able to do this before students have even picked up the list of gear from the equipment store. It’s a great low key way to support students while having peace of mind they are using the right resources. Staff should be able to control which inventory students are able to view and book in the first place too. Of course, all this is possible with Connect2!

With Connect2, students have the following advantages:

• It’s easy for them to manage their equipment list to suit their schedules – they can organize a convenient time to pick-up all items with a single booking, remove or add items, or change the collection time – there’s no need to juggle multiple reservations to fulfil their list
• It’s simple to repeat complex equipment list requirements – just use the Copy and Recurring reservation features to reserve the same items for the next project
• It’s much less fiddly for staff at the checkout desk – there’s just one equipment order to look up per student and it’s easy to quickly add more items to the booking at pickup time if needed

Equipment list support for staff too

Connect2’s equipment list functionality helps alleviate pressure in the equipment store. Several students with long kit lists can turn up at the same time, but staff can be prepared. With advance reservation of long equipment lists made easy, staff can get a head start, preparing each kit list before pick-up time. And they can intervene if it seems students have forgotten to include key items of gear in their lists.

But there’s more… While staff can effortlessly assist each student (no matter how long the kit list!), they can also confidently manage large amounts of stock for the whole department.

 Staff can:

1. View equipment inventory lists by category across all stock
2. See loan information, service status and future availability for all items throughout each list
3. Quickly identify each individual item and see how it fits into the wider inventory list
4. Easily add new items, maintaining equipment lists in manageable categories

Plus there’s huge amounts of other data supporting comprehensive inventory management, with a rich database of activity and intelligence always rapidly building. It’s all part of the approach to equipment list management with Connect2!

In conclusion

With vital equipment list support, Connect2 helps students turn their plans into reality – moving from equipment list planning to actual live video shoots. By combining vital list building and reservation functionality, together with key inventory management tools for staff, equipment lending services run like clockwork. Make every creative project a success with Connect2, contact us today to find out more.