IT Asset Tracking for School Districts
Reliable solutions for reducing data inaccuracies, improving data transparency, and streamlining overall operations.
K12 Asset Management
Asset management software provides a centralized and comprehensive view of all school assets, including computers, cameras, musical instruments, cleaning supplies, equipment, buses, chairs, desks, and other consumables.
School districts frequently track thousands of assets, often with low-tech solutions that require immense manual entry time and predispose essential data to inaccuracies. With ever-increasing quantities of educational assets in this digital age, schools are looking for new ways to improve their asset management solutions.
How does School Asset Management Software work?
Asset tracking software is a tool that schools can use to manage their IT assets. It works by assigning a unique identifier, such as a QR code or barcode, to each asset and tracking its movements and history. Here are some key features of asset tracking software for school districts:
- Automatic calculation of spending associated with each asset, allowing departments to stay within budget requirements.
- Ability to view an asset’s history, from purchase to disposal, to make smarter purchasing decisions in the future.
- Easy scheduling and management of maintenance performed on an asset to determine when it needs to be replaced or retired.
- Barcoding mobile computers to save time when moving items or performing inventory.
- RFID technology to track asset movement or location with portable RFID readers or fixed RFID portals.
By using asset tracking software, K12 schools can manage their budgets more effectively, ensure compliance with state and federal regulations, and reduce the risk of lost or stolen assets.
What types of scanners are used for IT asset tracking?
Schools commonly use barcode and RFID scanners for asset tracking. Barcode scanners use laser or camera technology to read barcodes on asset tags, which can be customized for specific asset types, sites, and funding sources. This type of scanner is cost-effective and easy to use, making it a popular choice for schools. On the other hand, RFID scanners use radio waves to read RFID tags on assets, which allows for quick and accurate inventory audits of entire rooms. RFID scanners are more expensive than barcode scanners, but they offer greater efficiency and accuracy for asset tracking.
Advantages of using asset management software for school districts?
- Comprehensive view of school assets
- Easy data collection and reporting
- Tracking of device repairs and maintenance
- Resource optimization
- Increased visibility into assets for compliance and accountability
- Improved asset safety and security
- Streamlined procurement and inventory management
What are the benefits of an IT asset tracking solution for school districts?
Implementing an IT asset tracking solution for school districts has numerous benefits, including:
- Improved record-keeping and accountability for all school assets, including equipment, supplies, and IT assets
- Prevention of theft and loss of crucial assets, saving districts money in replacement costs
- Easy scheduling of maintenance and repairs, ensuring assets are always in good working condition
- Customizable systems that work for all types of schools, from small rural facilities to large urban K12 schools
- Real-time digital accountability for teachers, students, administrators, and families, providing complete transparency and oversight
- Compliance with state and federal regulations, ensuring districts are meeting all necessary requirements.
School Asset Tracking: Case Study
The Challenge
Cedar Falls School District tracks nearly 25,000 assets to facilitate the learning of their 6,000 enrolled students. Cedar Falls had been managing all 25,000 assets on a database that was only accessible by one person, creating the following challenges:
- Extensive manual updates
- Time-consuming inventory management
- Limited data transparency, even for simple information such as date of purchase
- Data inaccuracies
With goals to reduce this wasted time and money from duplicate purchases and data discrepancies, Cedar Falls was looking for a solution that enabled quick, easy, and thorough asset management with user-friendly barcode scanning technology accessible to many administrators.
The Plan
The Asset Vue team worked with Cedar Falls to implement Asset Vue Inventory as a cloud-based database system for the school district. Using their current barcodes and equipment, the Asset Vue onboarding team validated and structured the existing data to ensure accuracy and efficiency.
Drawing from Asset Vue’s extensive data center experience managing large quantities of assets, the implementation of Asset Vue Inventory with barcodes is a comprehensive solution that was configured to best suit the asset management needs and time- and cost-saving goals of the Cedar Falls School District.
The Results
With implementation taking only a week–including complex data validation for the 25,000 assets — Cedar Falls is now able to manage their assets with increased speed, efficiency, and ease using Asset Vue Inventory, providing the following benefits:
- Equipment only needs a simple scan to update its location or assignment
- Elimination of all manual data entry
- Ability to scan barcodes with a phone using Asset Vue’s mobile app
- Easy access on the go and across different campus buildings
- Data transparency and easy data retrieval
- Savings of up to a week in repair times with accurate inventory information
Cedar Falls also reports significant time saving across the board and has especially benefited from Asset Vue’s unique barcode scanning technology. Updating inventory used to take several days, and with Asset Vue Inventory it now only takes a couple of minutes.