{"id":19801,"date":"2023-03-16T13:30:58","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T13:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.topdesk.com\/en\/?p=19801"},"modified":"2025-10-24T23:35:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T22:35:48","slug":"locating-missing-chromebooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.topdesk.com\/en\/blog\/locating-missing-chromebooks\/","title":{"rendered":"How Asset Management Tracking Software can help school board IT leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

School board IT leaders, it\u2019s okay if you don\u2019t know where all the Chromebooks are. And, if you\u2019re like most school districts, you have difficulty tracking the whereabouts of all your devices and technology. What\u2019s important, though, is that you recognize that lack of asset tracking is a problem.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The solution<\/h2>\n

The solution to the\u00a0asset management<\/a>\u00a0problem is how to keep track of devices and assets as you move forward. This starts with setting up a process to keep track of your inventory. Once you establish a process for creating order, your asset management tracking efforts can work for you.<\/p>\n

However, when you\u2019re constantly getting updates from many different sources (operator information and data from spreadsheets), it\u2019s hard to accurately keep track of all assets in and throughout the school district.<\/p>\n

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Get started \u2192<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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The first step to asset management success<\/h2>\n

A wholesale audit is not how you locate all of your assets. Today\u2019s audit is only as good as the moment the audit is completed. Tomorrow that audit is no good, and the inaccuracies begin again because assets are always moving. The most important first step is getting the IT team to agree on a process for how to update asset management processes internally.<\/p>\n

Total buy-in is essential to\u00a0asset management success<\/a>. The entire IT team must be on board. To begin, use the asset information you have available. With IT team buy-in and follow-through, changes in asset ownership are detected and you\u2019ll be able to locate and track all your Chromebooks and other technology in a relatively short period.<\/p>\n

Who was the last logged-in device user?<\/h2>\n

An excellent place to start is by asking who the last logged-in device user was. Then identify the difference between the last person who logged in and the last person to whom the device was assigned (students switch Chromebooks). Asset management inventory is updated when a Chromebook moves from one student to another or one school to another.<\/p>\n

When current ownership is determined, the IT team must update or reassign with whom or where the device now belongs to. Updating this information as it is determined creates a living audit, vital to ensuring you know where all your Chromebooks and other devices are.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a simple solution: place all information in one platform in one location, and make asset tracking simple and easy to manage going forward!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Get started with best-of-breed asset management!<\/h2>\n

With\u00a0TOPdesk<\/a>,\u00a0you can set up a notification so that when an asset\u2019s information is imported into the solution, future events are triggered. For example, after a tracked Chromebook becomes inactive or goes unused, TOPdesk archives the Chromebook and identifies it as not having been located or used on the school district\u2019s system within a pre-determined amount of time (say, six months).<\/p>\n

Give it a free try,\u00a0here<\/a>!\u00a0Once a device is pinged as inactive, TOPdesk can email the last logged-in user to ask if they have seen the device or message a technician, notifying them to contact the last logged-in user.<\/p>\n

The benefits of automated asset management<\/h2>\n

Likewise, IT leaders can update or reassign the asset, schedule it for maintenance, and keep the living audit up to date \u2013 all within TOPdesk. Putting everything on a centralized, uniform platform like TOPdesk makes asset management easier to manage and maintain. Automated asset management delivers tangible value for education\u2019s IT managers.<\/p>\n

The benefits are striking, including:<\/p>\n