St John’s Grammar Takes Progressive, Automated Approach To Teacher and Student Safety and Support

St John's Grammar Takes Progressive, Automated Approach To Teacher and Student Safety and Support
By Smartpath marketing
July 23, 2008

MEDIA RELEASE

St John's Grammar Takes Progressive, Automated Approach To Teacher and Student Safety and Support

Sydney, July 23, 2008 - St John's Grammar School in South Australia has demonstrated its proactive approach to improving the safety and support structure for its 1020 students, teachers and other support staff with the implementation of a Web 2.0 helpdesk and asset management solution from Smartpath, the asset and maintenance management and helpdesk software and SaaS (software as a service) provider.

St John's Grammar School will use Smartpath's Loc8  for preventative and routine building, maintenance and service delivery management with the objective of facilitating easier communications between the teaching and administrative staff and maintenance staff as well as improving analyses of KPI reporting.

Founded in 1958, the Anglican Independent School has around 150 teaching and support staff.  To support a school of this size, featuring an Early Learning Centre, Junior and Secondary Campuses, St John's Grammar needed to have a better process in place to manage approximately 150 maintenance and IT support requests logged each month than the previous manual system. It also needed to streamline the way IT and maintenance staff was physically managing their time among the three campuses.

Loc8, Smartpath's powerful web-based asset and maintenance management and helpdesk application, will catalogue the location, value and condition of the St John's non- fixed assets, including computers, desks, data projectors, TVs, videos, whiteboards, filing cabinets, chairs and bookcases, as well as fixed assets such as the location of smoke detectors, security systems, exit lights, walls, windows, ceilings, carpet and flooring, among others.

Dustin Fisher, Infrastructure and ICT Manager at St John's Grammar, reviewed a number of available software tools  and, appropriately, found Smartpath's web-based offering via the internet. He had four straightforward criteria for his helpdesk, asset and maintenance management software package:

• Cross-platform functionality as the school has Mac and PC computers
• Requests to be handled via email for ease of job logging and workflow management
• Comprehensive asset tracking for fixed and non-fixed assets and;
• PDA integration for property ground staff who use handheld scanners and to effect efficient use of their time.

"Our checklist was straightforward and Smartpath, with its Loc8 solution, met all the criteria. We needed visibility into our asset and maintenance management to uphold safety standards at St John's, while having access to a helpdesk system that is easy for everyone to use and that improves efficiency all round," explained Mr Fisher. "We particularly liked the fact that Smartpath is an Australian company as it means we have access to local technical support if required, and we have been invited to provide feedback into Loc8's ongoing development."

"Schools are accountable for student and staff wellbeing while on school premises so it's vital infrastructure and equipment are regularly maintained and kept in good working condition. Australian education facilities are also increasingly being assessed on a number of key performance indicators, especially as more international students come to study here, so reporting tools play a strong part for St John's," said Phil Hare, General Manager at Smartpath.

In future, St John's Grammar will also use the information contained with Loc8's Helpdesk to track the relationship between an asset and its predicted maintenance, failure and replacement points for improved infrastructure management.

For more information, please visit http://www.smartpath-software.com or telephone 1300 651 315.