Digital Asset Register & Asset Management Software
Buckinghamshire Music Trust
How an educational charity gained total oversight & control of thousands of vital service assets, saving hundreds of admin hours
An online asset management software system operating in less than 3 weeks
- Accurate data drives successful grant applications
- Check-in/Check-out process for allocation
- Specialist tracking for high value items
- Planning for school demand ewsier and more efficient
- Accurate data drives successful grant applications
- Maintenance & processes, simpler and faster
- Detailed, bespoke reporting saves time
- Revenue-generating opportunities created
The Requirement
Previously a part of Buckinghamshire County Council’s education department, Buckinghamshire Music Trust (BMT) became an independent charity in 2018, responsible for music education for children and instrument provision across the county, both in schools and in their own music centres.
Organisational change can be a challenge, even more so when you don’t inherit proper asset details, have no idea what assets you have and much of that knowledge has left with staff.
When the Trust left the council and became a standalone charity, there was no-one at that time who had logged all the school instruments. The Trust simply didn’t know what they had. For a number of years, the Trust did what it could with teamwork, spreadsheets, emails and manual counts but it was a huge task to keep track of thousands of instruments not only across their 3 music centres, but also those loaned out to all their schools, as well as individuals. With the introduction of the National Plan for Music Education with funding for new resources, the charity now needed to know what they had and in what condition before they could apply for funds to buy new equipment.
“With our check-in/check-out system, we know where everything is. We don’t have to raid the cupboards anymore.
We can generate a report at a click of a button. So, next year when orders come in we will be able to say; ‘Yes, we do have enough trumpets.'”
As a charity, BMT didn’t have the resources to set up their own asset management process with an off-the-shelf SaaS software system themselves. To manage the project successfully, the Trust was looking
for someone who had the experience to easily set it up for them and quickly translate what they needed into their own customised set-up.
The Trust selected Assettrac to deliver a customised system that would achieve the following objectives:
- Create a digital inventory of thousands of items across all music centres, hundreds of schools & individual hire
- Track and record the location of each instrument
- Provide the ability to manage asset lifecycles by logging condition, status, maintenance and replacement
- Have a workflow to manage equipment loans to children across the county
- Quickly audit all instruments at any point for more efficient resource allocation
- Create bespoke reports of inventory levels, locations, depreciation, maintenance and even PAT Testing
- Workflows for managing maintenance and servicing.
Process
Fast, simple implementation meant the Trust was up & running in 3 weeks
The Trust had a tight deadline to audit and tag all instruments at the end of the school year in advance of orders for September. This meant the asset management software needed to be specified, configured, implemented and trained within 2.5 weeks for staff training. With first meetings at the end of June, Assettrac was implemented within the deadline in July.
65 teachers and admin staff were trained on the system for the auditing and tagging day. All members of staff were new to the system but successfully tagged and logged over 3,000 instruments, about 75% of the stock.
The Assettrac team provided further support on the day when the Trust identified further customisations that they needed such as logging PAT testing data.
“The advantage of Assettrac over any DIY online system was the team on the end of the phone and the expertise.”
Client Outcome
The customised asset management system simplifies the management of assets across the Trust
- Successful grant applications
Fast, custom reporting allows the Trust to quickly run inventory reports of stock, allowing them to apply for funding for exactly the instruments they need each year.
- Maintenance & replacements process
The digital process streamlines admin, saving time. From check-in/check-out to broken instruments, maintenance and replacement, there is a clear process and lost instruments are a thing of the past.
- Plan for school demand is more efficient
When orders for the next academic year come in each July, the Trust can plan and allocate resources accurately to meet demand.
- New revenue-generation opportunities
The Trust's customised system will be developed further to enable it to drive revenue by loaning out assets such as its extensive libraries of music and orchestral scores.
- Huge time-savings in admin
From annual resource planning to daily management of instruments, maintenance and replacements, the system has dramatically cut paperwork and admin time.
- Track & manage high value items
High value instruments have custom tags, helping the trust keep track of these key assets.
- Detailed, bespoke reports save time
Reports for the Arts Council, grant applicaitons and other third parties are now created in just a few clicks.
Set-Up & Support
“With the greatest respect to our team, we’re musicians and educators, we aren’t IT experts at all. The advantage of Assettrac, over a DIY online system, was the available support by phone and video and the expertise received.
When we reviewed other systems, many seemed to be designed to set up yourself or for very specific types of organisations and as a result, we didn’t need all the functionality available. Assettrac tailored the system to exactly what we needed and removed what we didn’t.’ We didn’t have to learn how to structure and implement it, they did it for us,” explains Fay Hayhurst.
“This means we have a system that is more useful for us, making it more user-friendly and faster to use for teachers that aren’t tech savvy, and could be wondering what information they need to log and when.
And on a final note…
“I wish we’d done it sooner! Because it’s been really, really helpful and we’ve been using it for things we didn’t previously imagine. It was a smooth process and a really great customer experience.”