In the facilities industry, new technologies are popping up left and right. Modern solutions maximize mailroom efficiency, and facilities managers are finding confidence in minimizing time spent on traditionally arduous tasks and replacing them with innovative solutions. If you are an enterprise or higher education institution with a current package tracking system in place, expanding your existing offerings can result in significant benefits. One of our favorite additions? Smart lockers. Smart lockers are a fantastic way to expand your tracking system while alleviating stress for both facilities managers and employees/students. Today, our team of operations software experts at SCLogic discuss three reasons you should integrate smart lockers with your current tracking system and how Intra makes these integrations seamless to help you propel internal growth. 

Smart Lockers Offer Convenient and Expedited Delivery Options

Whether you’re working in an enterprise or campus mailroom, there is one thing that students, employees, and staff alike hold dear, time! If you have any experience with an outdated mailroom, you know how frustrating it can be for all parties when there are seemingly endless lines, with mailroom employees shuffling back and forth to search for packages in an unorganized mailroom. Mail and packages can quickly become misplaced, and without an efficient system in place, such as the use of smart lockers, this is costing your team time, money, and relationships with employees and students. By utilizing smart lockers, mailroom employees can assign designated lockers to individuals and automate package pickup by sending a text or email notification when mail is placed in a locker.

Additionally, this allows for individuals to pick up their package at a time that is most convenient for them, without having to wait in long lines before the mailroom closes or at peak times during the day. Instead of students or employees struggling to remember a traditional locker code or manual key, many smart locker integrations will send a code and locker number via text or email to make package pickup easily accessible. Finally, smart lockers minimize contact between individuals and mailroom employees, reducing the need for additional employees at any given time, and improving contactless delivery options for large organizations or campuses.

Smart Lockers Are Customizable and Space-Saving

If there is one thing that all mailroom employees despise, it is an unorganized mailroom. Many times, this is of no fault to the mailroom employees. When budgets across departments are low, facilities and mailroom advancements are often overlooked. For large-scale organizations, many stakeholders don’t realize just how much money can be saved and how much growth can be accomplished with simple improvements to their facility’s process. While implementing smart lockers may seem costly upfront, the long-lasting benefits surely outweigh the initial investment. 

Many smart locker companies offer customizable solutions, installing lockers to fit your current mailroom setup or discovering an even more optimized way to increase space within your current setup by removing unnecessary storage. Rather than only having storage inside your mailroom, smart lockers can be placed in common spaces such as lobbies or hallways for easy access to package pickup. Plus, we know how important an aesthetically pleasing space is for modern companies, which is why many smart locker companies offer branding for enterprise businesses and universities. With SCLogic, our operations software integrates with a variety of smart locker platforms, including: 

• Hublok
• Luxer One
• MyPup
• Smiota
• Parcel Pending
• Variocube
• StrongPoint
• TZ SMArt Lockers
• Gantner
• Metra.si 

Smart Lockers Can Be Used for Improved Asset Management

While this may not be the first use of smart lockers to come to mind, recently, there has been an uptick in the use of smart lockers for asset management. While smart lockers can be used for students and employees throughout a campus or facility for mail and package pickup, they can also be a fantastic tool for storing and transferring assets across your organization. For example, employees working in a hybrid workforce setting can request laptops or other devices to be picked up from a smart locker. Additionally, smart lockers in universities can be used to distribute textbooks and other technology for course use. By integrating these uses with our Enterprise and EDU Asset Logistics Workgroups, your team will be able to easily monitor the transfer of assets, asset rental and check-out, asset audits, and more. Not only does this create efficiencies in your asset logistics workflows, but it allows your team to pull data on asset usage by individual or department and monitor any gaps or inefficiencies with asset maintenance or return. 

Smart Lockers Adapt to Multiple Organizations for Unique Usage           

Last but certainly not least, one of the greatest benefits of implementing smart lockers is their ability to adapt to usage in multiple sectors. While some of the most popular uses for smart lockers include installation in traditional office spaces and universities, sectors such as healthcare and government agencies have seen extensive benefits from smart locker usage. For example, healthcare facilities have been using smart lockers to minimize contact with other hospital workers and patients and have turned to smart lockers for testing kits and medication retrieval. Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists alike have been utilizing smart lockers to distribute documents, lab tests, and medications safely, improving security through technological advancements during a time when staff is minimal, and the future of the pandemic is still uncertain. 

For government agencies, especially law enforcement, incorporating smart lockers into your current tracking system is a must. Not only do smart lockers provide a chain-of-custody for each piece of evidence or document filed within your facility, but controlled access can be granted to individuals or departments within the facility as well, and data can be easily pulled to ensure that regulatory compliance is met. For other government agencies, the transfer of documents, sensitive materials, or technology can become increasingly challenging to monitor and transfer with adjusted and hybrid schedules. By utilizing smart lockers, government agencies have been able to interact with co-workers and constituents to transfer forms and sensitive documents safely. At SCLogic, we’ve worked with government agencies for close to three decades, and have made it a priority to craft our software using the most secure standards for government compliance, so that with any integration or venture your team takes on, you can do so with confidence in your operations platform. 

 Learn More About Locker Integrations with SCLogic

  Whether you are looking to implement an entirely new logistics software system or just looking to expand your current system with modern integrations, SCLogic has you covered. Working with clients in sectors including healthcare, government, entertainment, manufacturing, higher education, and more, our team of passionate developers has made it a priority to create each version of Intra with each customer’s unique needs in mind. Our most recent release, Version 8, offers a mobile-first interface, streamlined workgroups, and an enhanced employee experience to guide your team into a new era of facilities management technology. To learn more about our platform and smart locker integrations, email [email protected] or schedule a demo with one of our team members today.