Guide Overview
The following document is designed to give administrators an overview of the following Spare Pool Management App topics:
Not what you were looking for? Perhaps this other guide will help:
- Working with Spare Pool Assets on Tickets – A guide designed to give users an overview of assigning spare units out on tickets that they are working.
Guide Index
You can use the following links below to quickly navigate to a specific section in this document. To quickly return to this index simply use the Return to Index link located at the end of any section.
Accessing Spare Pool Management
The Spare Pool Management App provides districts with a way to create spare pools for use during prolonged system repairs. This enables agents to quickly and easily assign out loaner devices on tickets and automatically document when this spare was issued out as well as when it is returned to district control.
To access the Spare Pool Management, begin by selecting Assets > Spare Pools > Dashboard or Manage from the left navigation bar.
Clicking on the Dashboard option will take you directly to the Spare Pool Dashboard page. From here, you can access utilization statistics for individual pools, as well as data on the most utilized, overstocked, as well as any pools with higher than normal utilization.
Clicking on the Manage button will take you directly to the Spare Pool Management page. From here, you can manage your spare groups, pools, and assets.
Spare Pool Permissions
Alongside the spare pool functionality, this app also introduces two new permission selections. This allows administrators the ability to set which users can manage spare pools as well as which users can issue spares on tickets. As with all permissions, you can set these on a case by case basis or in bulk through a custom site policy.
Creating a Spare Group
A spare group is a set of one or more spare pools. You should generally design your spare groups around very broad filter settings such as a model or model category.
To add a new spare group from the Spare Pool Management page, begin by clicking on Add Spare Group on the right side of the page.
From here, you will need to enter a name for your spare group.
Next you will need to identify what tickets you want the spares in your spare group to appear on. This is done by adding filters using the Add Filter button on the right side of the page.
If you want to allow your spare devices to be editable while part of a spare pool, including the ability to freely assign and unassign devices to users, you can uncheck the Assets are Read-Only button.
Once you have completed setting up your spare group remember to click Save.
Adding Spare Pools
Spare pools are designed to give districts another level of potential specificity when setting up a Spare Group. For instance, when you setup a Spare Group, you may want to specify what units are available at a location if the group was created with multiple locations in mind.
Please note that, regardless of whether you would like to add additional filters, you will need to setup at least one pool to use the spare feature in tickets. To add a new spare pool to any Spare Group, begin by clicking on Add New Spare Pool on the right side of the page.
From here, you will need to enter a name for your spare pool and select the physical location.
Next, although not necessary, you can add additional filters to your spare pool at this time as well. To do so, click the Add Filter button on the right side of the spare pool.
Once you’ve entered a name for your spare pool and added your ticket filters, click Save.
Managing Assets in Spare Pools
You can manage assets assigned to your spare pools from the Spare Pool Management page. Clicking on any option in the Spare Pool section will open the list of current devices in that pool.
Selecting one or more assets in any pool will bring up the bulk Assign/Unassign Spare Pool for you to click on.
In the pop-up window, you can now either choose a new pool to move the asset to, or remove it as a spare asset entirely.
Suggested Spare Group Setups
The following section will detail a couple of common Spare Group types. The core setup of a Spare Group will generally follow one of two basic structures: locally managed or centrally managed. These are by no means the only setups, but most groups will end up being a variation of one or the other.
Creating Locally Managed Spare Group(s)
For some districts, spare assets are set aside for each location with the intent that the onsite technicians will manage their pool of assets locally. In these cases, the suggested filter settings for your group would be structured something like this:
- Spare Group – Add the asset filter Model Category: [Category] or Model: [Specific Model]
- Spare Pool #1: Select the location when creating the spare pool and add the location filter Location: [Location #1]
- Assign out specific assets for Location #1 to this spare pool.
- Spare Pool #2: Select the location when creating the spare pool and add the location filter Location: [Location #2]
- Assign out specific assets for Location #2 to this spare pool.
- Repeat this setup until all locations are accounted for.
- Spare Pool #1: Select the location when creating the spare pool and add the location filter Location: [Location #1]
Creating Centrally Managed Spare Group(s)
For some districts, spare assets are created with the intent to have the entire spare pool managed from a single centralized location (like the central office or technology department). In these cases, the suggested filter settings for your group would be structured something like this:
- Spare Group – Add the asset filter Model Category: [Category] or Model: [Specific Model]
- Spare Pool: Select the [central location] when creating the spare.
- Assign out specific assets for [central location] to this spare pool.
- Spare Pool: Select the [central location] when creating the spare.
