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College of Marin Streamlines Asset Management System
The College of Marin in California has deployed new asset management software across all of its labs and classrooms in an effort to reduce expenses without negatively affecting students or faculty.
California public universities and colleges have faced budget cuts over the past few years, and in February 2012, an additional $149 million was cut from the budget of California community colleges. At the time, The IT team at College of Marin had been using an Excel spreadsheet to track and manage its resources, a method that the team found very time consuming and inefficient. They also weren't managing software licenses at all. In response to the cuts, the College of Marin's IT team began looking for a better way to allocate its IT resources while maintaining its service to the college's community.
"We were in desperate need of a technology solution that would provide a holistic view of our IT environment--from tracking software licenses to eliminating redundancies," said Maryann Kaehler, system support administrator for College of Marin, in a prepared statement.
Kaehler and her team selected BMC Track-It!, a help desk and asset management platform from BMC Software. They have been using it to retire old assets, reallocate software licenses, and maintain historical records to ensure better asset control, compliance, and reporting.
"And best of all, we don't have to use a spreadsheet anymore," said Kaehler.
The team also uses BMC Track-It! Email Conversation Management to track communications between users and technicians.
"All the information we need is in one place. Now that we no longer have to search through old emails, we can simply append and process work orders as soon as we receive them," said Kaehler.
The College of Marin is in the process of going wireless, and once that system is in place, Kaehler plans to implement BMC Track-It! On the Go and BMC Track-It! Web to manage and monitor work orders from anywhere.
The College of Marin is a two-year community college located in Marin County, CA that serves approximately 10,000 students each semester.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].
