Education admin shouldn’t be a hassle – asset management can help

It wasn’t the news we’d been hoping for, but when the decision came, it was inevitable that schools in the UK would not be reopening following the Christmas 2020 break. With new strains of COVID-19 entering the UK and new cases skyrocketing, the need to protect pupils and teachers alike was recognised. Asset Management software can really help your school.

As we move into the second month of the third national lockdown in the last year, and March 8^th continues to be discussed as the very earliest date that schools could fully reopen, facilities, admin and support staff alike are finding themselves dealing with ever-increasing workloads and administration concerns alike.  

From hardware and software tracking to health and safety concerns, the running of a school can be complicated enough when your staff contingent is on-site, but attempting to simultaneously manage the complexities of in-person and remote learning environments brings a whole new host of challenges. Trox state that using a trusted asset management system can reduce educational asset loss to around 5 percent – a significant statistic when you consider that UK schools are currently loaning out many of their assets to assist with home-schooling.  

This is where intuitive, cloud-based technology could really help – our IRIS Assets solution for schools can streamline your admin tasks and improve day-to-day operations when you’re trying to monitor, manage and maintain your school’s tangible and intangible assets across multiple locations.  

To support, we’ve put together our top five areas of additional admin that could be significantly reduced by utilising the right school asset management software:  

1.) Hardware and software  

IRIS Assets allows you to physically tag your school’s hardware, from laptops and iPads to monitor screens, and keep a digital log of their whereabouts at all time. You can keep a register of how many computers are allocated to each classroom or year group, and even save a list of what hardware is currently out on loan to students and teachers that are working from home. You can plan ahead for when items need updating and even replacing using the tagging system.  

Any software that is currently being used can also be digitally tracked and managed, with the ability to set workflows that can remind you of important contract and renewal dates. 

2.) Physical classroom assets  

Alongside hardware, other physical school assets can also be tracked and managed, including chairs, desks, projectors etc. IRIS Assets can offer you the ability to physically tag and monitor these items individually, or upload a video of each classroom showing exactly what assets should be attached to each room. This is a feature that our customer The Aurora Group have utilised effectively to both successfully track items and to manage their facilities team’s time.  

3.) Building maintenance  

The physical school building requires a huge amount of monitoring and maintenance, including ensuring compliance with estates PPM and carrying our regular building maintenance surveys. Asset management software allows you to record the safety and condition of buildings and identify any risks, alongside scheduling surveys, planning maintenance dates and estimating potential costs. Compliance requirements can also be made easy by scheduling alerts to make sure that compliance can be met. 

4.) Contract management 

External data supplier fields make it easy to track, monitor and manage third-party information. Set up reliable workflows to alert you to supplier renewal dates, leaving yourself plenty of time to successfully negotiate or change suppliers if needed. You can even create your own digital inventory of internal policies; including health and safety; procedures, and instruction documents.  

5.) IT ticket tracking  

IRIS Assets can even act as a remote IT ticketing system for your school, dealing with both on-site and remote IT requests. By digitally tracking your hardware, if a teacher logs a ticket against their laptop, you can quickly find the item in question, view its history and ensure that the issue is swiftly dealt with.  

Your ticketing system can be run as a separate channel to your main asset management area, alerting facilities and IT teams when a ticket is raised, allowing colleagues to communicate through the platform and escalate tickets if required. Our customer Staploe Education Trust successfully run their whole IT operation through IRIS Assets.  

IRIS Assets makes asset management and compliance easy. Centrally manage and track your school's assets and statutory compliance across single or multiple locations, and access this invaluable data from anywhere and on any device.