It is advisable that all schools are ‘age aware’ and regularly update their IT equipment. This will ensure efficiency of teaching and learning (for both staff and pupils) and will support smooth running of important administration functions on and off site.
Lite and Enhanced audit options for schools
The challenge
It is advisable that all schools are ‘age aware’ and regularly update their IT equipment. This will ensure efficiency of teaching and learning (for both staff and pupils) and will support smooth running of important administration functions on and off site. Many types of computing equipment are now common place in schools but they do age and they do have a ‘shelf-life’. School staff and pupils could encounter severe problems if a school doesn’t have an informed asset replacement plan in place and budgeted for.
The solution
The ICT Service recommends that schools plan to replace all IT equipment every 3 – 5 years and to support this planning we recommend that a school undertakes an IT Equipment Audit every 3 – 4 years. The ICT Service offers two levels of IT Equipment Audit:
Lite – Desktops and Laptops running Microsoft Windows Audit
The Lite audit will provide schools with a high-level summary report. This summary report will show which desktop or laptop devices can be upgraded and which need to be replaced (but is restricted to desktop and laptop devices running Microsoft Windows).
- This audit takes place remotely and is run by means of a script that runs at start-up of a machine.
- The script will run for 2-3 weeks in order to capture the majority of devices.
- After this, the results are gathered and sent to our procurement team for advice on the possibilities of upgrade.
- We aim to share the results one week after the remote audit has finished.
- A Lite audit can be carried out at any point in the year.
Enhanced – Full ICT Equipment Audit
The Enhanced audit will cover all desktops, laptops, interactive whiteboards and projectors. A full device status spreadsheet will be provided to the school as an asset register and will include a full breakdown and recommendations going forward.
- This audit will be completed during one site visit (taking up to half a day) therefore all staff will need to bring in their devices to be checked during the visit.
- A member of The ICT Service Install Team will work from a school classroom plan provided by the school and manually check every device on site.
- We aim to share the results of the audit within one week of the visit taking place. This may be increased to two weeks for any necessary third party involvement.
- A member of The ICT Service Procurement Team will follow up the results of the IT Equipment Audit with a school visit or phone call as appropriate to discuss next steps or to make and/or explain recommendations.
- This audit can be carried out at any point in the year, but if planned to take place during the school holidays staff will be required to leave their devices at school or they will not be checked or recorded.
Availability
All schools in Cambridgeshire and the surrounding counties
