Stop the Technology Chase: Keep Track of Your Assets with Asset Panda

In 2013, the School District of Philadelphia released an internal audit stating almost $200K worth of district-owned assets had been lost from just 11 schools in the 8th largest school district in the nation. Among the lost assets were computers, cameras, and musical instruments.

School districts and educational institutions around the country lose thousands to millions of dollars each year simply due to inaccurate asset tracking. For K-12 schools, asset tracking comes in the form of maintaining a comprehensive inventory list of school supplies that are assigned to specific schools, departments, classrooms, teachers, and students.

If maintained properly, this inventory list should provide you with the status of all documented assets:

• What is the asset?
• Where should the asset be?
• Who has the asset?
• What state is the asset in?
• When should the asset be replaced?

The Old School Way of Tracking Assets

Computers.

Calculators.

Software.

Teaching tools.

Musical instruments.

Athletic equipment.

Even pencils and paper.

Everything has to be documented. In today’s remote schooling environment, this has never been more critical.

Unfortunately, too many school districts still depend on spreadsheet solutions to track and chase their technology assets. This results in a multitude of issues.

IT departments have multiple people manually updating the same spreadsheet, overlapping one another, and losing track of who input what data. This creates documentation with dirty data because too many people have touched it with little or no accountability in it. And just as worse, this documentation has no historical data, so you cannot use the past to inform the present or plan for the future.

The bad news is that this unorganized approach leads to inefficient tracking and disrupts the lifecycle of the asset. The good news is that there is a better solution available right now - one that is more accurate, efficient, and transparent. Plus, it saves you money.

Mitigate loss. Improve workflows. Simplify processes. That’s the key to rock star education.

Asset Panda offers asset tracking software that enables you to track your assets quickly, easily, and efficiently.

Transitioning from a spreadsheet solution to asset tracking software is an eye-opening experience for some institutions. Oftentimes, schools find they don’t have half of the inventory listed on their spreadsheets. They’ve either been retired or lost and no one updated their status. School officials also find that many of their devices aren’t assigned to the right person or the right location.

With Asset Panda, you’ll know where every piece of technology should be, who it’s been assigned to, whether it’s designated as on- or off-campus and its current lifecycle status, giving you unprecedented visibility into your asset inventory.

Barcode scanning and streamlined processes for checkouts and returns also mean your 1:1 deployments will be quick and pain-free.

Financially, asset tracking software removes the need for manual data entry for each device, giving you more bandwidth to focus on more critical projects.

Asset Panda also helps you stay in compliance, providing you a clear provenance of each device so you know where each one came from.

Plus, being able to track the depreciation of each device will help you forecast spending in the next budget so you’re never caught short-handed when you need to replace technology.

Education Asset Tracking in the Age of COVID-19

The COVID-19 virus forced K-12 schools across the country to radically change their approach to teaching and remote education quickly became the norm. The strain this placed on school systems was enormous, not only from the teaching perspective but from a logistical standpoint, as well.

To provide students with the technology they need to thrive in this new normal, schools have found themselves with double and triple the number of devices as they had previously. Getting these devices tagged, cataloged, and ready for deployment would be a monumental task for a spreadsheet solution.

However, Asset Panda’s asset tracking software cuts that effort down exponentially with asset tagging and scanning.

Check-out/check-in through a mobile app creates a contactless process that allows your students to pick up or drop off their devices simply by scanning a barcode to indicate they have it. Schools can also empower their teachers and students to audit their devices in the same manner.

Students can also log into the system and report any issues with their devices. Not only does this trigger a notification or trouble ticket but it also logs the problem into the device’s history. The same happens when IT resolves the issue, providing a detailed history of issues and repairs for the device that follows it through its lifecycle.

You’re teaching the next generation. Trust us to bring you next-generation technology.

It’s time to drop your antiquated spreadsheet solution and upgrade your asset tracking with Asset Panda. Tracking your technology assets gives you the transparency you need while providing your teachers and students with dependable devices that allow them to thrive in this new world of remote education.

To learn more about how Asset Panda can help you track your assets efficiently, forecast spending, and prepare you for another year of remote learning, click here.