@MT_Jim Thank you for submitting your question! The idea of verification is to verify that the device is still working and being used by the assigned user. 

@nburke @CLindner 4103d3e rochester @TAnders @bbeaudette Do y’all have any advice for this district on how to best support asset verification?

Here is an idea about being able to verify the asset as you check devices in and out:

I would be happy to chime in!  I started our Asset Management Team here at our district so I hope I can be of some help. 

Verifying the asset is something we do to manage the assets in our district.  We treat student assets differently than all of our other assets though. For all assets, we verify it once we add it as a new asset, then we verify it once we assign it to someone and determine it’s location (we are a district with 6 buildings so there are many locations). 

But for student devices, we have a specific Chromebook audit setup in the Audit Manager that verifies those devices every 3 months.  It verifies that it is in service and is assigned to a student, and is a Chromebook.  There is already a Student Devices Policy there that exists that you can use that is set to verify every 6 months.  It just confirms that it is being used by a student and is active essentially. 

For other devices, like projectors, document cameras, TV’s, or other computers/equipment we want to do a manual audit on those every year to confirm:

Yes it is still in service

Yes it is still in the same location

Yes it is still in the same room

Yes it is still assigned to that same person

The reason for verifying your assets is mainly for three reasons:

1). It helps for us an IT department know what we have-what is still being used and what is not (whether it be in storage, recycled).  We need to know how much we have to establish a product replacement timeline and to know what to purchase.  It helps to know too when assets have reached end of life and need to be recycled-if it’s verified, we at least know the last date/time it was in a certain location to help us retrieve it.

2).  If you were to ever be audited, you would need to provide a list of what assets you have and knowing that they have been verified helps you have a more accurate record or count.

3).  It helps for support-if our technicians have to service anything, it is helpful to have the assets verified to hopefully ensure that the location/room/owner is still accurate and they can find the product easily. We have teachers here who kindly “swap” things between themselves so tracking things down can be hard, but if I look at the verifications, I can at least go to its last known location to start looking and asking.  

If you are new to IIQ I HIGHLY RECOMMEND doing the Incident IQ academy courses.  I did them all, even though I felt comfortable with the system, it really helped me understand what features exist, and how the system works and how options all tie together.  https://learn.incidentiq.com/all-courses/.  Under the Admin courses there is Asset Management Basics, Advanced Asset Management and more. Or search within the forum for Audit Manager or check here. 

@nburke Thank you for your response! It does make more sense now, so I really appreciate your time. I didn’t really think about it from the auditing perspective because that’s not my lane, but that would probably help my supervisor out tremendously. We also have the “swap” problem you mentioned. I guess I just figured that when we find out it happened, we either return the items to the proper owners or make the swap permanent and change it in the system. However, I now see the value of the systematic approach the device verification offers. I will also check out the courses you suggested. Thanks again!