Cherwell District Council, based in Bodicote, Oxfordshire employs over 1000 staff, and as a Council, is more aware than most of the need to invest its funds in the most effective way possible. In 1998, an internal audit was carried out at the Council’s offices to record the existence, location and responsibility of all moveable assets.

This exercise highlighted the need for a much more efficient and effective fixed asset management system, which is why Cherwell District Council looked to Hardcat for assistance.

Before Hardcat was introduced, the Council relied solely on their staff to keep an ongoing record of all IT assets within their offices. This was a time consuming task and one which did not have set guidelines outlining how the items should be recorded. This left the system open to error and inaccuracies. Having examined and researched a number of options, the Head of Internal Audit was asked to find a suitable Asset Management System for the Council. After much research, Hardcat was found to be the most cost effective package to suit all necessary requirements of the Council.

With Hardcat fully installed, extra resources were taken on to maintain the asset inventory as this practice had not been addressed before. Initially, this extra resource was seen as an added expense but this soon paid for itself by way of revenue being saved by the comprehensive tracking of all Council IT assets by Hardcat.

The Council now carry out an on-going audit on a weekly basis with a planned two full audits of all Council properties being anticipated to occur every year.

The benefits of Hardcat are still becoming apparent months after the initial implementation. David Warrack, Head of Internal Audit at Cherwell District Council commented "if implemented across the organisation’s assets, the potential for savings from undetected losses should be quite substantial."

David continued by saying "The main benefit of using Hardcat to record and track IT equipment has been in enforcing accountability, accurately recording and valuing what the Council actually has, and assisting in monitoring the accuracy of IT asset data maintained by the Council’s Facilities Management contractor." Once the relevant staffing and costing implications have been looked into, Hardcat may eventually be used to track other assets within the Council.

Hardcat’s reporting function is now being used by various departments, within the Council offices. Section Heads use the reporting facility to track the IT equipment that they are responsible for and Accountancy and Internal Audit staff use the reports for costing and audit purposes.

With Hardcat now installed, Cherwell District Council is now confident that it has full control over its entire collection of IT equipment. Reports are precise and every piece of equipment is accounted for. David Warrack, commented "There is no doubt that the installation of Hardcat has, and will continue to, keep an accurate record of all assets entered onto the system. Hardcat will also help the Council save money which can then be put to good use elsewhere within the organisation".