Inventory within school districts, just like businesses, help to generate value. Just as companies rely on accurate inventory count and maintenance to help drive budgeting, the same can be said for school districts. Asset management is a valuable aspect of running an efficient business or school and is often overlooked.
An asset management program can go a long way in helping your school district make better business decisions. Asset management creates a governance program for the lifecycle of tangible assets. School districts can use it to help track items such as desks, chairs, sports equipment, music instruments, lab tools, laptops, servers, and more. If you can stick a barcode label on it, it can be tracked! Here are five benefits to asset management that help ensure that your students and faculty have access to the instructional equipment they need. Our experience is that the majority of school districts are looking for a barcode solution and that’s what we address below. If you’re interested in an RFID solution that tracks your assets in real-time, feel free to contact us to discuss a solution tailored to you.
1. Save Time with Seamless Integration
Manually tracking your inventory through Excel or other spreadsheet programs leaves room for errors and lacks accountability. It is challenging to ensure that the data shown on the spreadsheet is the most accurate and who has made any changes. With asset management tracking, there is no guessing that you have the most up-to-date information on the status of your inventory.
Asset management software simplifies inventory tracking through barcodes, or asset tags, that are adhered to all necessary equipment. Through scanning the barcode labels, your inventory manager can quickly create a record of each item. The record can integrate with your student information system and purchase order or accounting software, allowing you to:
• Effortlessly track any incoming shipments of equipment
• Know the location of existing assets down to the room or student
assigned
• Audit your existing inventory
• Accurately calculate depreciation for upcoming budget
considerations
• Check-in / check-out assets
2. Improve the Lifecycle of Your Assets
When thinking about asset tracking, it goes beyond servers, laptops, and computers. Asset tracking can be used for classroom furniture, music instruments, sports equipment, textbooks, projectors, and anything that can be moved and is valuable.
Not only does asset management software allow your school district to have a centralized database for locating your inventory, it can also serve as a service hub for understanding the lifecycle of your equipment, including:
• Email reminders for specific events; i.e. an asset’s end of life
contract date
• The ability to identify patterns of faulty equipment or unreliable
manufacturers by tracking the lifespan of assets
• Tracking out-of-commission IT or instructional equipment and
ensure proper disposal
3. Perform Efficient and Accurate Audits
Audits can be challenging, especially when many school districts have had to pivot quickly to remote and hybrid learning. Even in pre-pandemic times, audits can be time-intensive, requiring staff to take time away from educational tasks and necessitate manual data entry and inventory counting. The more assets your district has, the more time it can take.
A robust asset management system saves time, money, and resources due to the increased visibility without manual effort. Inventory managers can easily report on missing and misplaced items and follow up with the last known location. School districts no longer have to rely on the inaccurate data of paper trails and spreadsheets and now have the capability to:
• Create consistent data records
• Streamline accountability processes through role-based security
privileges
• Provide a high-level view of current and future equipment needs
4. Safekeeping of Equipment and Data
School districts of all sizes may have many visitors, students, and faculty coming in and out of the buildings, causing equipment to get lost, stolen or misplaced. Schools administrators can gain better control of their inventory with access to real-time monitoring.
While each school district will have its own set of needs regarding security, asset tracking can provide valuable options for a peace of mind including:
• Safe storage solutions for out-of-commission physical assets to
ensure data security
• Permission-based asset controls, allowing only specified users
access to records
• Mobile app solution to track inventory wherever and whenever
5. Better Manage Budgets
School districts are tasked with managing a large variety of assets, and the risk of human error can result in billions of wasted dollars. Unfortunately, school districts have been in the news for accounting errors, accountability discrepancies, and expensive oversights. An asset management software solution can catch inaccurate data early on, avoiding the devastating effects on funding and budgets.
With accurate tracking by simply scanning barcodes, school districts can guarantee the inventory availability of the technology and equipment needed and provide real-time reporting on the asset lifecycle to make more informed budgeting decisions. Tracking through asset management software benefits school districts budgets by providing:
• Transparency in fund allocation
• Asset lifecycle management
• Efficient use of faculty time
• Reduction in missing equipment
Asset Vue’s experience in IT, hardware, and physical asset management have helped various industries identify weak spots in their inventory management. Asset Vue can work with your administrative team to find the solution that best fits your needs and budget, ranging from simple barcode tracking to fully automated RFID tracking with real-time alerts as assets move. Our robust solutions can be easily translated to school districts, providing simple deployment and exceptional customer support for a comprehensive asset tracking program.
