Wiltshire Constabulary takes pride in being the first County Constabulary to be established in the country - it was formed soon after the passage of the County Police Act in 1839. With its headquarters based in Devizes, Wiltshire, the Force currently employs around 2000 people in total.

The Constabulary needed to be able to demonstrate that none of their assets were going missing but without a dedicated fixed asset tracking system in place, they could not do this with 100% accuracy. Previously, the majority of assets were monitored by individual departmental systems and a basic coding structure was applied. However, in some instances, there was no system in place at all.

A management decision was taken to look into purchasing a suitable system that could track and record information on all fixed assets from initial purchase to eventual disposal. Having reviewed a number of products, it was decided to purchase the Hardcat Asset Management System as this product best suited their requirements.

Wiltshire Constabulary purchased the Core System together with the Barcoding, Depreciation and Preventative Maintenance modules. Two barcode scanners and barcode labels were also purchased. Once the system was fully installed and the relevant members of staff had been trained on how to use the system, an audit of all relevant equipment was carried out and the data collected was uploaded to the Hardcat System.

Approximately 7800 assets which range from general IT equipment such as computers and monitors through to firearms and specialist safety equipment can now be efficiently tracked. A new radio scheme will soon be introduced and the Hardcat system will also be used to track this sophisticated and sensitive radio equipment.

One of the main benefits to this particular police force, following the implementation of the Hardcat System, is that they have been able to set up a corporate asset register and tracking procedure. The Preventative Maintenance module is used to record when specific items of special equipment are inspected and checked. This ensures that the Constabulary give appropriate regard to improving Health and Safety reporting.

The system has been fully functional for just over two years, and already the benefits are clear and will continue to improve. Annette Watson, Asset Management Systems Administrator at Wiltshire Constabulary commented "The introduction of the Hardcat Asset Management System has definitely improved our auditing procedures. Although it is not yet possible to give an exact example of time saved, what I can say is that the savings will be significant".

Use of the Hardcat System is now being encouraged across the whole organisation, and in some areas its use may be mandated.

The installation of this system at the Wiltshire Constabulary has certainly been a success and the staff that use it there find it to be very effective. Annette added "The Hardcat products work well for us and I am happy to commend their use to others".