The Aurora Group work with IRIS Assets to strengthen asset management across 12 sites

With 12 sites spread far and wide across the country, The Aurora Group were on the look-out for an effective school asset management system to improve compliance and efficiency for their busy teams.

The challenge

Central IT Technician for the Group, Elliot Moss, acknowledged the challenges of managing both physical and intangible assets across the Group

“Guaranteeing the appropriate management of assets across multiple sites is a sector challenge. It’s not always practical to pop over to one of our schools or colleges on the other side of the country to check in on things.”

“IRIS Assets centralises our asset management and provides an overview of each organisation with unrivalled user-friendly functionality that I haven’t seen from other solutions.”

Launching the solution

“When we launched the system three months ago, our priority was statutory documents. We’re a relatively new organisation and this past year our attention has been on centralisation. IRIS Assets instils reliable processes whilst providing total transparency of a sites’ position, at any given time.”

“We’re now moving on from statutory documents and intangible items to physical assets. This has been a learning curve for our team; since go-live, we’ve realised the true potential of the system for supporting every aspect of asset management. When we scan something in, it becomes an asset, be it a fire extinguisher, health and safety documentation or IT equipment.”

“The actual process of adding assets to the system is easy. Once we had determined the degree to which we would utilise the system – for example, we are not going to tag every chair, but we are going to produce a video of the room – it is very easy to complete the process. I walked around with a health and safety officer the other day; they scanned an asset, named it and then went back to their desk to complete the detail in the system. It’s such a practical and simple way of managing time.”

IRIS Assets in practice

“The ticketing system is a huge benefit. There are many systems on the market that are nowhere near as simple or user-friendly. For example, I spent just one hour showing a team member around the system and he hit the ground running! Within a week he had scheduled over 40 tickets and even provided details to people on-site to raise tickets for him, to let him know when items were broken or required attention. The asset management is great, but the ability to create calls off your assets is fantastic – it’s the main benefit of the system, in my opinion.”

“People no longer need to walk their site carrying folders and paperwork. A digital log is far more secure. We don’t need to store historical documents in filing cabinets and cupboards and, as a result, I now have visibility of data and reports online – relevant information is at my fingertips in moments.”

Meeting expectations

“We’re quickly finding just how helpful IRIS Assets is on a day-to-day basis. Site managers now have a daily to-do list that can be overseen at head office. This level of reporting eliminates the risk of human error – there’s no chance of something being forgotten, neglected or misplaced. Teams know what needs to do be done each day, what is coming up and what needs to be completed in a month or years’ time. As such, we’re well placed to plan and manage resources.”

“Uptake across the team has been positive and we’re looking at additional ways the system could benefit the Group in the future.”

“I would recommend IRIS Assets to any school. The value for money and level of functionality available is fantastic.”