If there is a specific time of year that facilities managers dread in higher education, it’s university move-in and move-out. The influx of parents and friends helping students move back home or to their next apartment can be daunting for staff. It can cause extensive wait times for students and an unorganized campus without efficient technology. Thankfully, operations software platforms, such as Intra, have gained popularity in the higher education sector, offering a comprehensive solution to solve your most pressing pain points. Today, our team of university facilities software experts at SCLogic provides insight on how you can proactively prepare for a university move out with the help of FM technology.

Create an Organized Campus Asset Management Strategy

One of the university staff’s major time and money savers (and costs) depends on their current asset tracking and management strategy. When preparing for student move-out, optimizing your asset management plan will make the transition easier for both students and staff. If you are currently working with a manual or outdated asset management plan, chances are you’ve lost a significant amount of money over the years with misplaced and non-returned assets such as laptops, textbooks, and more. Many asset logistics departments aren’t even aware of their current assets, let alone have tracking notes and communication about the health of these assets. As a result, students take or misplace assets, and facilities staff have little to no insight into when each asset requires maintenance, leading to a reactive team unable to create a long-term management strategy.

With Intra’s Asset Logistics EDU Workgroup, we’ve set out to expedite the most frustrating daily workflows for asset managers. Through this workgroup, asset managers can configure lists of assets that require tracking and monitoring the lifecycle of each asset to conduct preventative maintenance, ensuring that there is little to no downtime for assets being transferred. According to Gartner, every minute of downtime can cost your business anywhere between $5600 and $9000. We know those numbers are staggering, which is why we’ve provided a solution to minimize the likelihood of downtime through asset monitoring. For university move-out, our Asset Logistics Workgroup will help you keep track of rentals and returns from current students, organize asset disposal and re-use strategies to improve sustainability efforts and transfer asset ownership amongst departments or from one student to another. Additionally, asset managers will be able to monitor KPIs and SLAs each year to identify patterns, gaps, and potential solutions to maximize the lifespan of assets being given to students or faculty. Finally, storage visibility will be improved, helping your team prepare for an influx of assets during move-out and an expedited asset transfer process once the newest class of students moves in. 

Maximize Mailroom Efficiency for Student Move-Out

This may be an area that is often overlooked, but preparing your university mailroom for student move-out using FM software is imperative for a successful move-out process for both staff and students. Consider this, as a mailroom manager, your mailroom is piled high with packages waiting to be picked up, little to no organization of how to contact students, and seemingly endless packages waiting to be shipped out before move-out. With students moving to an off-campus apartment or spending time abroad, they likely do not want to spend an extra trip dragging all their belongings home with them before moving into their new place. If your team is working with outdated mailroom software, students are left with the inability to move efficiently, and staff is left with an unorganized and filled mailroom with no way to properly forward packages. 

Investing in a university mailroom operations software platform like Intra alleviates many of these frustrations and creates a seamless move-out process that decreases stress for all parties. Not only does our Student & Faculty Mail Workgroup offer internal package tracking, but it also offers workflows including External Ship Requests, Address Forwarding, and Forwarding Preferences. Through Intra, mailroom faculty can update student addresses easily as they move off-campus or graduate. Students can also choose forwarding preferences detailing if and how they want their mail and packages delivered. Your mailroom will remain organized and updated as you cycle packages through your campus, and students will remain happy knowing their packages will arrive to them safely even after they leave campus. 

Maintain Oversight of Your Entire Campus During Move Out

When preparing for campus move-out, prepping for an influx of visitors can be difficult, especially for large-scale state universities. Post-COVID, visitor tracking has become the norm, but this can be difficult and often frustrating for universities using outdated software. Without adequate tracking, visitors are left to run rampant across campus, and hectic move-out situations such as parking or dolly and pallet rentals can be exacerbated. To prepare for move-out, consider splitting move-out times and days for specific buildings, minimizing the number of visitors that need to be on campus at one time. This also minimizes stress for faculty members having to check visitors in quickly and safely.

By utilizing Intra’s Campus Services Workgroup, facilities managers can track visitors securely by having staff submit visitor requests and allow visitors to check-in and create a visitor badge via a kiosk. Furthermore, staff members can create flags for unwanted guests to ensure that there are no security issues during high-traffic times such as move-in and move-out. Included in our Campus Services Workgroup, we offer a Facility & Room Inspection Workflow, which is perfect for move-out for both students and faculty. Facilities managers and department heads can quickly request inspections to ensure that move-out was completed successfully and classrooms are prepared for the new semester. Optional workflows in this workgroup provide FMs with supply closet management and equipment services solutions, just to name a few!

Streamline Your Move-Out Process with SCLogic

Campus move-out can be a stressful experience for all parties. With heightened safety measures and increased technology use amongst students, ensuring that your university remains organized can be a daunting challenge without proper software. Investing in FM software, such as Intra, is a huge step in modernizing your campus for the future of education and ultimately alleviates many of the pain points FMs face daily. After working with universities for over 25 years, we’ve realized just how vital university facility success is, which is why we offer an entire branch of our software dedicated to improving college campuses across the world. If you’re ready to take the next step and conquer move-out with confidence, email [email protected] or schedule a demo with one of our team members today.