Software Lists

[karenf]

How does everyone keep and maintain a list of software required for each subject in school and therefore for which IT rooms? Do you have a form for HODs to submit each year or a shared spreadsheet or alternative? In a new school and struggling to get a definitive list of subjects that use IT rooms nevermind the changes to courses next year etc. If anyone has a working system or any tips I'd much appreciate some advice.

Many thanks

[Frodo_Baggins]

If you don't use a deployment system like PDQ\SCCM\Intune then would recommend starting from scratch and sending out a form to staff asking them to fill it out stating that If not filled out then the software wont be on the machines next year as your "re-imaging" over the summer.

For Departments using the rooms it may be best to check the timetable in your MIS.

[Steve21]

Obviously it depends on storage/licensing (Adobe as an example) but where possible we try to install items in all suites

 

There are too many covers/moves etc that then need items installing for those lessons to make it worth while restricting them

 

Or kids who want to do extra homework/catchup etc in libraries/after school

 

Steve

[CHiLL]

We use SCCM to deploy out software to collections and have a collection for each IT suite, with software deployed to it. This allows me to easily see what software is being used by viewing the deployments tab of the collection. However, a computer can be a member of specific collections, so I can either view the deployments of each collection (such as "All Workstations", "All IT Suites" and "IT Suite 01"), or I can view a specific machine from an IT suite in SCCM and see what deployments are hitting just that machine.

 

Not directly related to software in use in specific rooms, we have recently liaised with our finance department and created a Microsoft List that contains all IT-related/adjacent contracts, which they can edit too. Information that is in the list includes things such as supplier, contract end date, cost, who/which department it's for, who requested it, whether it's an auto-renew contract, cancellation period, which budget is used, etc. This came about after years of not being told that software or subscriptions that required MIS linking, etc had been purchased or losing track of who is responsible for software after staffing changes.

[jthompson]

It's quite a small 'list' for us, so it's basically only documented in as much as most of it is GPO-based deployment (each piece of software being deployed has its own dedicated GPO, so the GPOs' scopes tell us what is being deployed where).

 

Only a couple of bits of classroom software aren't being deployed automatically here (SOLIDWORKS and Cubase). Our workflow for reimaging a machine is trivially short, but carries a note to remind us that classroom machines in DT will need SOLIDWORKS and music machines will need Cubase.

[DaveTheTech]

I used groups within MDT when I was managing this.

No matter what you do, there will always be a handful of use cases where you just need to remember that certain teachers require extra software.

 

Its always good when you get to go:

"Here's your new PC, dont worry I have installed a, b and x. So its just like your old one"

 

I'd deploy the software mid year via NetSupport as that was easiest and update MDT whilst I went.