Parago: a success in Cheshire
This case study focuses on six primary schools in Cheshire that have implemented Parago from Parago Software, and reaped the many benefits of such a solution.
Contributors include –
- Meadow Community Primary School
- St Albans Catholic Primary School
- Malpas Alport Endowed Primary School
- Alsager Highfields Community Primary School
- Parkgate Primary
- Upton Priory School
Challenge
The six schools contributing to the case study previously utilised paper based reports or spreadsheets to record asset information. Both St Albans Catholic Primary School and Meadow Community Primary School performed 12 monthly audits of their software. The remaining four schools reported that they had never performed a software audit before. Sally Woodward, ICT Coordinator of St Albans Catholic Primary School said: “We were continually worried about the risks of fire and theft, and the resulting difficulty in proving that assets and licenses actually existed. We were keen to address Software Asset Management (SAM); therefore we were looking for an effective asset logging system.”
St Albans, Malpas Alport and Upton Priory reported that they were confident that the schools' software was being used and licensed correctly. Parkgate, however, were not so confident that their software was being licensed properly. Both Meadow Community and Alsager Highfields reported a slight doubt stating that the schools were only partially happy that their software was being appropriately used and licensed, respectively.
With regards to general asset management, Meadow Community Primary School, St Albans, Parkgate and Alsager Highfields correlated that a general inventory took place annually. Malpas Alport stated that an audit of general inventory was carried out monthly. These findings highlighted the fact that the schools in Cheshire were aware that both software and general asset management must take place in school. However, they were all looking for a product that would save time and allow their teachers to do their job without the worry of time consuming auditing.
All six of the schools reported that their administrator/technician performed the audits; however they explained that it was a highly lengthy procedure often taking many days to complete.
Solution
Cheshire County Council purchased Parago in the autumn of 2006. For 18 months the council subscribed to Parago for all of its schools. Having proved to be a great success, the schools now subscribe themselves.
Parago is a powerful computer discovery and software licence management system, specifically designed to meet school budgets. The software asset management system is easy to use and offers each school an aesthetically pleasing visual interface.
Five of the schools highlighted that their main reason for purchasing Parago was for the General Inventory feature. Malpas Alport however, stated that it was keen to purchase the product for Computer Asset Tracking.
Sally Woodwards of St Albans said: “We fully believe that all establishments need to keep an asset register. We feel that the use of Parago is a highly intuitive and attractive way of recording not only hardware, but software as well which helps identify licence protocol for software packages.”
Benefits
The key finding from the case study of the schools was that Parago was viewed as representing good value for money. This addresses one of Parago Software's key objectives; to provide a cost effective solution that suits all schools' budgets. A repeated remark from the schools was that they would recommend Parago to other schools and Local Authorities, due to its easy to use system. The schools felt that Parago was a well presented package. The system provides the schools with instant access to detailed information on hardware and software located on the whole site, from one central point.
Meadow Community Primary School was keen to state that the school received highly positive comments when it was visited by its LA regarding Financial Management Standards in Schools (FMSiS).
The schools were also eager to report that they felt that it would be very useful if LAs were given an allowance, to provide help and support to schools on asset management.
