Pot pal?
Asking a student if he/she currently has a specific school “pot pal” is likely to result in something of a blank look. The problem is that even if you reverse “pot pal” and instead ask the student if he/she has got a specific laptop the look is likely to be the same.
In short, what you are looking for doesn’t matter. If it is missing, denial of all knowledge is the standard response.
The rule is simple: if a laptop goes missing, it is (in the minds of most students) as if it never existed. Pot pal and laptop may be opposites in spelling but once they have gone, you can be sure no one remembers the item at all.
If proof were ever needed of this, a survey last year showed that over 85 percent of schools questioned reported that they had “lost” something of value belonging to the school in the last year, and had not immediately been able to account for that item.
Worse, some SBMs stated that sending messages to teachers asking if they had certain items gave much the same result as asking a student. As one manager said, “No one wants to admit that they have taken a couple of laptops or calculators for a lesson and not returned them.
“So what happens is that they sneak the equipment back into store without admitting it was them – which means we are searching for things that have already been returned.”
This is why more and more school business managers are introducing asset tracking. It saves time and money and leads to better utilisation of assets because you are able to better track maintenance and service records as well as other valuable information.
By including a barcode on the asset label, you can easily keep track of all assets. And at times when you need to send your assets out of your school premises for repair or other purpose, your asset labels differentiate your assets from other similar assets.
Asset tracking allows schools to track what assets it owns, where each is located, who has it, when it was checked out, when it is due for return, when it is scheduled for maintenance, and the cost and depreciation of each asset.
Getting the right asset tracking advice
Dantech is an acknowledged supplier for more than 15 years to both industry, government departments and the educational and health sector of asset marking products including, asset labels and security labels.
With a high reputation built over the years on customer satisfaction Dantech can provide help and advice with your asset tracking requirements contact Dantech on 01354 688 488 for expert and unbiased help and advice.
Published on Friday 10th May 2013