In a world where technology is at the heart of modern education, keeping track of IT assets is no small assignment. For Benenden School, a leading independent boarding school in Kent, managing over 1,900 devices across classrooms, offices, and student loan programs became increasingly challenging with an outdated, legacy tracking method. Faced with inefficiencies, (the dreaded) lost assets, and time-consuming manual processes, the school needed a smarter, faster, and more reliable solution. The big lesson? Using itemit’s intuitive asset tracking software has transformed asset management into a seamless, intuitive and future-proof task for Benenden. Crucially, their team can now focus on the real task at hand: delivering groundbreaking education.
Who Are Benenden School?
Nestled in the heart of the Kent countryside, Benenden School is one of the UK’s leading independent boarding schools for girls. With a reputation for academic excellence and an unwavering commitment to innovation, the school has always embraced cutting-edge technology to enhance both learning and operations. Recognising that technology is now an essential pillar of education also means that IT assets such as interactive smartboards, desktops and laptops have become as critical as pens and paper. Schools must know what condition their assets are in, as well as which assets are in the custody of staff and students at anytime, on any day. Beyond this, supporting the learning of thousands of boarding and at home students with their out of classroom study also requires a seamless equipment loans program.
However, with over 1,900 assets in circulation, ensuring that every device is accounted for, updated, and in the right place at the right time is no small feat. Previous methods such as spreadsheets (or heaven forbid paper based forms!) just weren’t cutting it. For Zafer, Lead IT Technician at Benenden, keeping track of the school’s digital assets was becoming a growing challenge. The existing system was slowing the IT team down, leading to inefficiencies, making audits and lifecycle tracking unnecessarily time-consuming. With so much to focus on and an exceptional program to consistently deliver on, the school needed a smarter solution, fast!
The Challenge: A System That Just Wasn’t Making the Grade
Before turning to itemit, Benenden School was using a SharePoint spreadsheet to track its IT assets. While it worked in theory, in reality it had become a cumbersome, unreliable system that created more problems than it solved. The IT team felt weighed down by red tape, which was achieving nothing.
Whilst spreadsheets were once the most efficient tool for asset tracking, those days are long gone. Tracking assets through a spreadsheet for Benenden meant manually entering data, often leading to delays and inaccuracies due to human error. Furthermore, if a device was moved, misplaced or reassigned, updating the details of the device often became an afterthought going through several staff members, ultimately leading to confusion and misplaced assets.
When it came to crucial audits, the IT team frequently struggled to generate accurate reports on asset locations, values and lifespans. This made crucial financial and compliance audits harder than they needed to be, sucking up time that the team could be using to develop more innovative solutions to improve their educational offering.
One of the key pieces that was frustrating Zafer was that when the school loaned devices to students whose laptops needed repairing, manually managing who had what (and for how long) often resulted in gaps and inefficiencies. Whilst students main interests were always protected and delivered upon, the work required by the team to support this delivery was cumbersome and time consuming.
Benenden ultimately needed a modern, intuitive system that would give them real-time control over their assets, eliminate the pains of outdated tracking methods, and make managing equipment loans a clear, simple and stress free system for all involved.
The itemit Solution: Smart, Seamless, and Instant
Recognising the need for precision and efficiency, Benenden School adopted itemit, a powerful asset tracking system designed to bring order and clarity to their IT asset collection. The transition was seamless, thanks to itemit’s import feature, meaning their data could be transferred to itemit with very little effort. In addition, Benenden opted to use itemit’s Active Directory Integration to streamline the adding and management of their user base. The benefits were felt immediately.
