Inventory and Life Cycle Advice

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Phillips, Patrick Allen

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Oct 16, 2014, 8:30:58 AM10/16/14
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I am new to my position managing the Multimedia Technology Services group in the School of Medicine at Indiana University. Support for the A/V equipment in our auditoriums, meeting spaces, learning spaces, and other common areas was previously provided by the group that preceded me which reported through the library Education Technology team. The former group, known as Presentation Technology Services was primarily focused on charging batteries, powering on equipment before lectures, handing out laser pointers, making sure presentations were loaded on the desktop, setting up PA systems for events, and then going back and closing up shop when events were complete. The team providing this service before me was not at all concerned with life cycle, equipment maintenance, or inventory.

 

When I took over this operation our mission and focus changed. My team is now aligned with the IT Support group for the School of Medicine and no longer under the umbrella of the library. My mission is multifaceted, but in general it is to provide more support for the technology in the rooms from projectors to TV screens and desktops and all peripherals in between and to decrease the amount of human intervention required to use these rooms. We are doing less hand holding of faculty and staff and trying to empower people to use these rooms without having to wait for us to get there and set them up before every event. One big way we hope to accomplish this change is by standardizing equipment and providing clear and concise documentation in each of our rooms to aid in the use of our technology.

 

I inherited this portfolio and unfortunately it did not include an accurate inventory or a formal life cycle plan. I am wondering if anyone in this group would be willing to share helpful hints for creating these resources and if anyone would be willing to share templates or tools that you use for life cycle and inventory management at your institution. What kind of information and to what level of detail should I care about our inventory? What key do you use for life cycle in regards to length of time to keep different equipment? What kind of information is important to present to school leadership when requesting life cycle funds that have not been previously considered?

 

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Patrick Phillips

Manager, Multimedia Technology Services

Clinical Affairs Information Technology Services

Indiana University

paap...@iu.edu

317-274-8870

 

Smith, Dwayne L.

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Oct 16, 2014, 8:52:11 AM10/16/14
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Hey Patrick,

 

Congratulation on the new position. I was in your shoes 12 years ago and struggling with this until about a year ago. After trying many products and ideas the one that seems to be working great for us is a simple Google form. The staff are required to fill the form out anytime they move any equipment. I now have a complete inventory of all my gear and a history of where it has been. Since they all have smart phones the form is easy to use and manage.

 

Sincerely,

Dwayne Smith, CTS, DMC-E
Classroom Central Senior Engineer
Information Technology Services (ITS)
Old Dominion University
1316 Perry Library
Norfolk, VA 23529
757-683-5940 (office)

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Blandino, Marina

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Oct 16, 2014, 9:02:26 AM10/16/14
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Hey Patrick,

I have been doing this for a little over a year now and I agree with Dwayne Google Forms is a great way to keep your inventory on track. I have 7 student workers who do maintenance weekly on classrooms, checking equipment and logging inventory. 

Once a year I go around to all the classrooms and create an excel sheet with all the asset tags, S/N, Model & Brand and also the year purchased if I know it. I use to have everything on one excel sheet but it was convoluted and Professors, Events and Academic Management always ask for specifics and I found it easier to separate them into their own spreadsheets. Examples: Classroom projectors, DVD players, LCDs, etc. 

In regards to technology planning for enhancements I’m not the direct point of contact for that, but from what I’ve gathered it’s usually between a 5-7 year rotation with hopes that funding is available and that we aren’t trying to upgrade 30 classrooms on a low budget. 

I’ve attached a couple examples. 

Hope this helps!



Marina Blandino
Help Desk Analyst- Classrooms
Goucher College
2013-14 Classroom Tech Projectors.xlsx
Projector Model and Corresponding Cross Reference.xlsx
Technology-Enhanced Classroom Rotation Schedule (10-04-07).xls

Smith, Dwayne L.

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Oct 16, 2014, 9:06:04 AM10/16/14
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Patrick,

 

Great examples, thanks for sharing!

 

Sincerely,

Dwayne Smith, CTS, DMC-E
Classroom Central Senior Engineer
Information Technology Services (ITS)
Old Dominion University
1316 Perry Library
Norfolk, VA 23529
757-683-5940 (office)

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jrcla...@gmail.com

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Oct 16, 2014, 9:15:37 AM10/16/14
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Hello Patrick,

This is a very broad subject to deal with.  You'll find lots of helpful answers to the questions above from well-qualified people, you'll just have to identify what works for your institution and staff.  From my experience, I can tell you that six years into my position as a project manager, we are still adrift without any inventory system, no established protocols for room maintenance and zero training requirements for staff.  It makes work difficult, and damn near impossible some days.  The tasks set about you are absolutely important and should be given plenty of thought at first, along with a steady hand during the implementation.

First, life cycle is as much about the stoutness of products you choose to implement as it is the technology curve.  We are currently in a 4/8 year cycle, which means we spec equipment that should last 8 years and change the projector out at the 4 year mark.  With the tsunami-like wave of technology breakthroughs and mobile trends, expecting anything to be relevant in 8 years is difficult.  We are now looking to do a 6 year refresh cycle of all equipment.  When speaking with your executive leadership, have an idea of what the pedagogical requirements of your faculty base are (as they pertain to instructional technologies), along with existing and future trends of device connectivity and content delivery.  It's always a good idea to cover your future ass in these conversations.

Inventory is important when it comes time to swap out defective equipment.  We spend hours trying to find stuff that we swear exists in our storage closets, but often the product in question has already been used and the defective product was never returned for repair or warranty exchange.  

As a side note, make sure your staff is reasonably well trained in all aspects of technology that you cover.  Without some assembly of identifiable responsibilities for staff, you end up with an office full of people who surf the web for 8 hours.  You may also want to consider aligning with a specific set of manufacturers to make life easier when planning and executing projects.

Bailey, Ernest L

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Oct 16, 2014, 9:32:40 AM10/16/14
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Patrick,

Congrats on the new position. My group moved from Academic Affairs to IT about 4 years ago. I had been managing the group when the change happened so it was a little different for me. We had a life cycle plan in place (it was not always funded, but the needs were presented and it helped prevent “surprise” failures of older equipment). We expanded the plan when we moved to IT (we now had a leadership group who understood that technology needed to be maintained and upgraded). I also know that Health Science campus has different technology requirements than most other types of campuses.

 

When developing a plan for scheduled replacement, consider all pieces of the puzzle, not just the major capital components. We have a life-cycle expectancy chart for each piece of equipment in our systems, developed around warranty and history, as well as input from this group.

 

I was very nervous about making the transition to IT, but it has been the best thing to happen to my department.

 

Ernie

 

Ernie Bailey, CTS
Manager of Classroom Technologies
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Information Technology Division
Voice: 501.686.5556
Mobile: 501.765.1725
Fax: 501.686.8352

 

 

From: av...@googlegroups.com [mailto:av...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Phillips, Patrick Allen
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2014 7:31 AM
To: 'li...@av-1.org'
Subject: [av-1] Inventory and Life Cycle Advice

 

I am new to my position managing the Multimedia Technology Services group in the School of Medicine at Indiana University. Support for the A/V equipment in our auditoriums, meeting spaces, learning spaces, and other common areas was previously provided by the group that preceded me which reported through the library Education Technology team. The former group, known as Presentation Technology Services was primarily focused on charging batteries, powering on equipment before lectures, handing out laser pointers, making sure presentations were loaded on the desktop, setting up PA systems for events, and then going back and closing up shop when events were complete. The team providing this service before me was not at all concerned with life cycle, equipment maintenance, or inventory.

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Joseph Bonchi

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Oct 16, 2014, 11:33:14 AM10/16/14
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All

I recieved the following note from our a/v installer:

" Crestron CapturePro HD isn’t providing feedback to the Extron Touchlink.  We are having an issue getting feedback because Extron does not have a driver for the CapturePro HD so our programmer had to develop his own.  We are controlling the recorder and I have made successful recordings when I tested the unit.  The issue is the buttons do not show feedback as to what state they are in.  We are continuing to try to resolve this."


Anyone else come across this issue?

J

 

Joe Bonchi, (bon...@njit.edu)

Assistant Director

Instructional Technology and Media Services

New Jersey Institute of Technology

GITC 0300

218 Central Avenue           Voice (973) 596-3005

Newark, N.J. 07102           Fax (973) 596-6465




Sent from my iPad
 

Jeff Clark

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Oct 16, 2014, 11:40:06 AM10/16/14
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Are you dealing with the first series of TouchLink, or the TouchLink Pro products?  If it's the first series, he's using "User Defined" commands in lieu of using a driver.  There's no way to get feedback in this scenario without having  Extron write a driver for the unit.  That is, assuming Extron still supports adding drivers to the TouchLink product platform.  We had a substantial fallout with Extron, so we never became involved with the Pro series.

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Jeff Clark

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Oct 16, 2014, 11:42:01 AM10/16/14
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Alternatively, you can fake the button feedback, but that's pretty useless if you plan on scheduling recordings through a different interface.
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