Key Benefit: Reduce hardware costs.
Removing unused hardware from your inventory is a logical place to make budget cuts. Also, unused machines can be far more valuable if moved to a higher demand location. Historically, locating unused hardware has been a time-consuming process. Understanding which machines aren’t being used can help you optimize your IT spend and enhance your student’s experience with your public computing resources.
With Data Portability, you can identify underutilized hardware in a matter of minutes.
Related: How to Open the Hardware Usage Power BI Template
How find underutilized hardware:
- Open the Hardware Usage Template
- Open the What Machines are Unused tab at the bottom of the template
- Use the slicers at the top of the page to include all Groups, Station Tags, and User Tags.
- Click on the arrow in the Session Minutes (Total) column to organize the machines with the lowest use at the top.
- Identify the machines with little or no use by looking at the minutes used or Station Minutes Utilized % to determine which computers to remove.
Understanding your results
Machines with low Station Minutes Utilization %, or Session Minutes are not being used. These computers can likely be removed without anybody missing them.
Taking Action
This is a great report to publish to your lab attendants and/or help desk staff {link to “how to publish a power BI report” support article} so that they can easily find computers that have been unplugged or had the mouse, keyboards or monitors removed.
If you find a lot of unused computers, consider moving them to buisier locations (link to the “how busy are my labs” how to article)
Removing excess hardware:
- Opens up space
- Frees up budget and resources for other priorities
- Alleviates unnecessary maintenance
