School Inventory Software

[GavRob]

Hi am new to the forums. i appologise if i have posted in the wrong place but can any one help?

The school have asked me (Network Manager) to find a new inventory system for the school, at the mo they use an excel spreadsheet. not the most high tech method i know.

We would like a hand scanner, barcode printer and different user accounts with different access rights, if any one can recomend a system that they use it would be much appricated.

Oh and if the company do training that would be even better cheers and of course the finance department want it to be as cheap as possible (as always)

Tahnks GavRob

[webman]

There's the Hardware Management System from MST Software (from our very own forumite Metalmonkey) but does not have the barcode interface you're after. I've also just started working on a web-based hardware inventory but once again will not have the barcode functionality.

[Geoff]

I use OCS inventory.

http://ocsinventory.sourceforge.net/

[mark]

How about free! :P

OCS Inventory Is free and runs on LAMP and Windows.

Personally i'd really really like something that would act as a dual PAT test database and IT repair log/ Helpdesk. Not much to ask I think!

[GavRob]

Cheers guys, what i am after is somthing like a wasp system that the admin staff can use to track everything in the school that cost over £50, i am sure they won't mind paying some money.

[plexer]

Don't most barcode readers have the ability to input what they scan as text? therefore you go to the serial number field on whatever system you use and scan the barcode then fill in the rest of the details?

Ben

[plexer]

Mark: Have a look at:
http://glpi.indepnet.org/article.php...cle=43&lang=en

In conjunction with OCS does that fulfill your requirements?

Ben

[mark]

I'll give it a go! - Thanks!

On the PAT test thing, my idea is that anything new that's electric goes to the pat test person first, is tested and added to the inventory. All repairs to electrical items should be logged, and known to the tester.

Schools have to do PAT testing, so it seems mad to be duplicating the work.

[Andrew_C]

The PAT regime (using Safety 1st) is the way I track kit I am responsible for, but due to manglements shortsightedness this doesn't include everything in the school.

[plexer]

Last year we contracted our PAT out to the LEA I think who got a firm in. The hassle of doing it is just a nightmare I haven't got enough time with everything else that goes on to do it.

Ben

[Geoff]

County send people in to do PAT testing every 12 months here.

[mark]

Science Tech does it here, Caretaker before him - we have our own tester and everything's recorded on a Lotus Database.

[u8dmtm]

We use an online inventory system which is part of our Intranet Portal which also encompasses machine service logs so that we can build up a service history of problematic items etc. I developed it and it supports barcode scanning because barcode scanners turn the data into numbers anyway. It runs on IIS 5 and 6 and can be integrated with Windows Authentication so that different users have different levels of access (e.g. full, add but no delete, different areas, read-only).

[CyberNerd]

PAT testing - don't get me started. County insist that its done by one-particular firm and cannot be done by anyone else (so I'm told by SMT). Firm charges £1 per lead for PAT testing. Even the bloke who came to do it said its the most massive scam he's seen as it only takes 2 sec per test.

[Andrew_C]

Even the bloke who came to do it said its the most massive scam he's seen as it only takes 2 sec per test.

Then he's not doing it properly, and should be sacked! You MUST do a thorough visual inspection of plug, socket & cable before connecting to the tester. The tester should pass a high current through L&N and earth for a prescribed time (10 secs?) and then test the insulation resistance and polarity of the lead. Still money for old rope, but not 2 seconds! (And if you think watching paint dry is dull... )