Laptop Reservations

[chris68]

I know I've started a thread a while back about this topic, but here we go again about laptop fights.



I am in charge of three laptops for our department and well needless to say they are always out and are never enough to have in house.



Last time we had a fight with another department, and long story short management bought two laptops for their use only.



This time three people in Finance NEED to take laptops with them and another person is outside a different department.  He's claiming first come first serve that he had the laptop reserved first, and he also changed his itinerary on me without telling me for the same dates.  Two of the three laptops are going to the same location.  But this one person is being a stinker about wanting the laptop, however his department has a laptop that they will NOT allow out of the department due to confidential information.  I say the last person who needs the laptop not in our department is out of luck even though he reserved early.  



Just wanted to get your thoughts and opinions on this never ending saga of not enough laptops to go around.



Chris68

[Katie G]

Chris,

This isn't much in the way of "help", but...



In this particular situation, I could see his claim of first come first served as long as that's understood throughout the company, but if this character went and changed his itinerary without telling you and still expects to have a laptop at his disposal, well, tough luck, pal.   Were you supposed to read his mind?



Do you have Outlook or something like that where you could post the reservations so everyone can see who wants what when?  Oh, you'll still have some parties who seem to think it's their toy to take when they want, but you'd have something to point to and fall back on.



Sounds like what you really need is for someone to loosen the purse strings and buy another one or two laptops, but since I'm assuming that's not your decision to make, and probably isn't going to happen until you have a MAJOR crisis, you're going to have to find a way to DEMAND some cooperation.  It just can't work any other way.



 

[chris68]

Thanks for the input, and yes what usually happens is the people requesting the laptops will go into my boss and ask who has priority over which job to take a laptop.  Fortunately, I was correct because the other person was not in our department and the need was not as critical.



He did try to request it stating he made a reservation months ago, but to that end, business changes and some priorities change, that is what happened in this case, unfortunatey.



However, the person who got the laptop is trying to make other arrangements for this person who lost out on the reservation, which I think is extremely nice.  We have another department that has laptops and this person is considering bringing her own laptop in to use on a business trip so this other person can use one of theirs, which is also very nice.  So accomodations are trying to be made for this other person.



Yes, it is assumed company wide that reservations take priority, but what takes priority over reservations sometimes has to be the critical nature of the business they will be conducting, so in this case the boss ruled.



Whew, I am glad this reservation worked out for the best of everyone involved, though the person that lost his laptop reservation may not feel that way, but we only have three laptops and four people needed them, something had to give.



You are correct though, at some point some major thing will come up and we will HAVE to make other arrangements, but til' then the fights continue.  Maybe someday someone will get tired of being referree on these laptops too.



Thanks.

Chris68

[phoenix55]

This is probably no help right now, but the next time computers are bought, perhaps some thought should be given to getting lap tops with docking stations.  That solved our problems!  Not only are we not borrowing lap tops, but anything we're working on can be easily loaded onto our C drive and taken home.



I know they're a bit pricey, but how much time is being spent (by you and your boss and others involved) tracking them down, moderating, keeping the schedule, etc., not to mention how much work could be done if you could just take the darn thing home anytime you pleased!!!  Time is money.



 

[msmarieh]

Another alternative to consider is renting a laptop. We have several companies locally that do this.



This can also be a good way to cost-justify purchasing one (seeing how many days of rental is breakeven for owning one).



Marie