Kodit
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Education
Asset Identification
Know your Asset Base
To many Educational professionals, the term Asset Management conjures up thoughts of admin heavy work with no real end value. The tendency is to switch off, as though it has nothing to offer them or their educational establishments, being too time-consuming and providing little return. We at Kodit aim to destroy such misgivings and identify the value in ‘getting it right’.
Advances in technology firmly consign such sentiment and challenges on Asset Management to past history. Asset Management is the key value protection measure for any managed service initiative today. Schools and the education sector are not exempt from this fact.
The current initiatives within education look to identify and realise cashable and non-cashable savings are gathering momentum. This coupled with the rise in clustering relationships between schools within an area, is providing a unique opportunity for all cluster members to benefit from the vision and leadership of one. Within schools, the BECTA initiatives and guidance on ‘Institutional Infrastructure’ makes strong reference to asset management and the benefits associated with ‘getting it right’.
Certain aspects of choice will always exist with regard to initiatives but in the area of Asset Management or more accurately, Operational Equipment Management, there is a compelling duty to know what the school has, where it is, who has it and its operational status e.g. working, in repair, lost, written off, assigned to (name) and so on. Historically this would have been a nightmare of administration for staff, and many spreadsheet systems will have been tried and failed in the past. In today’s. mobile environment, however, the ability to deliver such a service without paper, either within the school or as a hosted service with web access, guaranteed 100% accuracy of information and tailored management reporting is now very real.
The delivery of such a service can have profound benefits for the individual schools, cluster members and LEA’s alike.
Typically, Asset Management relates to the equipment used in schools, be it a laptop computer, desktop suite, a phone, test equipment or tools, audio and recording equipment, speakers etc. This may also extend to loan equipment and /or leased equipment. Furthermore this information can be used in support of PAT testing records, and legislative compliance with respect to the WEEE directive.
In dealing with this large variety of equipment, the geographically dispersed nature of events such as moves, adds, changes and servicing makes recording these a difficult process to accurately manage. Using an intelligent Asset Management solution with a mobile update and interrogation facility can increase the efficiency of the service delivery and be an invaluable aid for the responsible member of staff or team in the performance of their duties.
Rather than purchase individually, advances in technology mans that any number of schools could subscribe to a common solution across the internet. This allows cluster schools immediate and unlimited use of a proven asset and operational equipment management solution. Using such a solution, along with current technical offerings for mobile data, is now achievable even for the smaller schools within a cluster as they piggy-back as small users of the overall service. The basic requirements are for a mobile handheld device, such as an intelligent mobile phone, a mobile network contract that supports voice and data, coupled to a subscription to an inventory management solution provider.
In the field of Asset Management in schools, there are several areas of application for which intelligent mobile Asset Management is very well suited. Examples are;
Fixed equipment;
A school has a suite of equipment and is obliged to know concisely and consistently the location and current status of all equipment deployed within the school. By adopting an intelligent asset management solution this school would benefit from having a fully up to date view of the equipment deployed. This would include details about the equipment (serial number, model, type, warranty, etc.), the location and contact details of those responsible for any personally assigned items, the site and also any test or service history for that specific equipment item e.g. PAT testing.
Mobile equipment;
Mobile equipment could be anything from personally-assigned kit through to loaned equipment between schools. At a glance, partner schools can see where loan equipment is located currently and who signed for them – as the pda allows for signature records to be held for each transaction. This makes it very easy for repatriation of equipment and avoids dispute. It also provides evidence of the loan and could be the foundation for more activity in this area.
Top tier managed service provider;
A top tier school might choose to provide a managed service to smaller lower tier units within a cluster. Any school providing a managed service needs to be able to provide 100% accurate reports regarding equipment under management or loan. At the moment paper record systems would preclude this being a credible offering. The submission of paper records and possible billing issues are further barriers. Another issue with the paper based record structure is that should a client school request a work review it can take considerable time to recover records of work (trawling through weeks of paper work) before actually answering the query. With an intelligent asset management solution, this could be provided with one click of the mouse and thereby open up a whole raft of collaborative opportunity within school clusters and within whole LEA’s.
These three examples would all benefit from having an intelligent asset management solution in-house:
- There is better record keeping regarding what has been installed at a school location, when it was installed and when any warranty may run out. This allows for greater warranty value return.
- The user will be able to structure any maintenance or service work better and greatly improve break/fix performance.
- Reporting on activity will be more accessible to the school management team and administration teams, thus allowing for greater transparency across the schools’ organisation with regard to the current level of activity, any common problems with equipment and/or users can be highlighted through a dashboard report.
- Equipment security is enhanced and a further deterrent put in place with active monitoring and secure tagging using Loss Prevention Certification Board accredited tags.
- Compliance proofed assuring performance against Waste Electrical Equipment Directive (WEEE) requirements and the record keeping requirement on PAT testing.
- Finally, additional revenue opportunities can be gained e.g. extending warranty periods on equipment which is included under a managed service contract. It can also identify common equipment suites across schools that together make up a much better commercial proposition when it comes to regular maintenance and service contracts
It is worth emphasising out that each system user is fully audited up to and including any change they make. It is also possible to restrict read or write access and individual viewing rights.
