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Watch Your Assets continued page 2
10/5/2005
That includes video and data projectors, laptop and fixed computers, digital cameras, touchscreens, Web cameras, PDAs, photoplay devices, and any sort of switch that can be computer-controlled. Without tracking and/or monitoring software, Gregory says, there’s simply no way a large institution can handle the sheer volume of equipment a network or AV administrator often is responsible for. With the right product, anything in the classroom that can be added to the network can be not only tracked, he says, but also controlled.That’s evident at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus, where Gregory is an engineer and department manager for Classroom Technical Services, within the Office of Classroom Management. He uses AMX Meeting Manager (www.amx.com) to manage equipment in 65 buildings: 300 classrooms across three campuses, spread over seven-plus miles. The department uses Meeting Manager to track and troubleshoot every piece of equipment under its control—often allowing a repair to be scheduled before a problem hits. (Because classrooms are laptop-ready at the University of Minnesota, the software is used more to monitor the classrooms and ancillary devices than the computers themselves.) Once a Meeting Manager network is set up and all devices are connected, the software collects information from each classroom and sends it to a server for storage. At the university, the data can then be used to generate reports as specific as a printout of all rooms with projectors whose lamps are within 50 hours of burnout, for example. Or, system errors can be gathered from all projectors so that the central help desk can respond appropriately. Reports can be integrated into a scheduling system, allowing an administrator, for example, to track how much use a given piece of equipment gets—whether it’s a data projector, a computer, a VHS deck, a DVD player, or a camera. Gregory can then compile numbers for upper management, regarding how certain equipment is being used.
“We can then make informed decisions about our investments in technology,” he says. “Without this, we’d have to deal with everything anecdotally; you’d have no sense of what’s actually going on in the classroom.”
Another benefit of this type of IT asset management: Because the network is used to monitor classrooms 24 hours a day, seven days a week, “We can assign a tech to go out and fix a problem before classes start,” Gregory says. “That can happen before a faculty member even reports it. So, we can achieve a much higher uptime in the classroom.”
And in the event of a serious problem—unauthorized removal of a projector from the network, for example, or an extended outage—a text message can be sent to pagers and cell phones of specified staff members. If a theft occurs, a report can be sent directly to campus police.
Remotely Effective
At University of the South (TN), the small liberal arts institution where Wayne Bussell is the system administrator for computer labs and classrooms, an IT asset management suite, NetSupport (www.netsupportsoftware.com), and remote system management provided by NetSupport Manager, are saving the school both time and money. Even better, the savings started almost as soon as the products were installed.
