Contributors include —

• The International School and Community College (ISCC)
• Bordesley Village Primary School

The Background

Located in Birmingham, the International School and Community College (ISCC) is a mixed school made up of 1,000 students. The school prides itself on the state of the art ICT suite, owning a total of 700 computers. As a newly designated Business and Enterprise College, the school aims to embrace the challenge of unlocking the potential and raising the expectations and achievements of all its students.

In comparison, Bordesley Village Primary School is naturally a much smaller set up catering for a student population of 434, 3-11 year old boys and girls.

The Challenge

The two establishments faced a very different set of challenges due to the difference in size and number of owned assets of each school.

Mick Clune, ICT Systems Manager of the ISCC, explains: "In order to manage the numerous computers that we own, our ICT technicians were already making use of asset management software, however the system was proving to be highly time consuming. With so many computers we were finding it very hard to keep track of all the licences and assets that were being used in the school.

The software licence compliancy was managed through the use of an Excel spreadsheet, but this was proving to be a very monotonous, termly task for the ICT Helpdesk Support Officer. We also found it very confusing dealing with all the different licences. The language used in the licence agreements is extremely difficult to comprehend, which was a daunting job in itself. We were very aware of the licensing laws regarding informal disk swapping, unlicensed lending and counterfeit packages so we felt strongly about finding a solution which would track all of these areas for us."

At Bordesley Village Primary School, the school was fully aware of the benefits of Software Asset Management (SAM), however it found itself in a hit or miss situation. Software information was not correlated correctly and there was no central register other than paper based documents and customised Excel spreadsheets for recording and registering information.

The Solution

Both establishments soon began to realise that a more competent and up-to-date management system was desperately needed, in order for the schools to maintain their efficiency.

Their dilemma was solved when they became aware of education sector specific Software Asset Management. They both investigated the options and very quickly realised that Parago was exactly what they were looking for.

Mick Clune says: "All the boxes were ticked for our requirements: computer asset tracking, software asset management and general asset management. It addressed so many of our needs too: developed for schools, it is easy to use and teacher-friendly. The language used is specific to the education sector and makes it simple for us to understand. With daily automatic updates, we can very easily and quickly track all the software and hardware on and off the school premises. This provides us with peace of mind that our students are using correctly licensed software as well as accessing safe and appropriate software. It is the school’s intention to create and maintain a safe and happy learning environment and this Software Asset Management solution helps us to thoroughly fulfil this objective."

Bordesley Village decided to use Parago as their SAM solution when Birmingham City Council trialed the product. The school was looking for a cost effective and efficient method of tracking their assets. The school now fully believes that all establishments need to keep an asset register. It also feels that it is a highly intuitive and attractive way of recording not only hardware, but software as well which helps identify license protocol for software packages.

The Benefits

Following implementation, ISCC secured many benefits. To organise and manage their assets is such a simple job now as they have trust in their management solution. Mick Clune adds: "It has proven to be a highly successful installation and a great development for all the staff and students at ISCC. We look forward to our Ofsted inspection, where we will be showing the software’s benefits. We are very proud to be demonstrating this software."

Bordesley Village Primary School feels that Parago is a well presented package. The system provides the school with instant access to detailed information on hardware and software located on the whole site, from one central point. The school benefits greatly from the printed reports, to satisfy audit and other bodies who require detailed information. No longer is a full time member of staff required to manually audit the hardware and software at the school. Parago saves time and allows the teachers to do their job to their utmost ability, without having to worry about the time consuming task of auditing.

The system also allows the school to implement a much stricter monitoring of software and compliance with licensing regulations.