The Client

The University of Oxford was the first university in the English-speaking world. For nine centuries, it has been providing education to people from all parts of the world. And the university is not a typical campus; it has buildings across the entire city of Oxford and depends on an extensive telephone network to keep each department connected. The network has more than 28,000 telephone extensions managed by 11 employees.

The Challenge

Until recently, all phones in the network were run on an outdated analog system. With the growth of new technology, there was a need to upgrade equipment and phones in all university buildings across the city to VoIP systems. This ongoing process resulted in a large influx in stock, making it a challenge for the Telecom department to keep track of the quickly changing inventory.

“If you could physically see the stock you needed, then it could be used,” said Jemima Spare, IT Support Officer for Telecoms. “There might have been a few spreadsheets but for the most part stock control was purely done by visual means. We would be completely out of important equipment in stock rooms before we were notified to order more. Also, there was not a tracking system for items, making it impossible to know where new phones were being installed.”

After dealing with these inventory issues for months, the University of Oxford’s Telecom department decided it was time to find a solution to its inventory control problem.

The Solution

The department looked at a few inventory tracking systems, including Wasp's inventory management software, before making a decision. Wasp was the clear choice due to its ability to track various items across multiple stock rooms, ease of use, and being quick to implement.

“After looking online at different tracking systems, we decided Wasp was the best solution because it fit our needs perfectly,” said Spare. “Financial regulations required us to have a robust stock control system while needing to know what should be reordered and where items were located across the city. Wasp was able to provide all of this with its unique barcode labeling solution.”

The University of Oxford’s telecommunications department has been using Wasp’s inventory solution for two years. After implementing Wasp's inventory management software, it was instantly apparent how successful the Wasp program was going to be for the department.

The Result

“All of our equipment already had barcodes on them with the product and serial number details. Wasp’s program makes it very easy to use existing barcodes and enter them into Wasp’s stock database,” said Spare. “That said, Wasp was also able to create labels that added additional details, such as the purchase order number.”

Before the department implemented Wasp’s inventory solution, when a piece of equipment was taken from a stock room without record, it was nearly impossible to find it again. Now that the department has the ability to see the activity of each item in the system, missing equipment can be easily traced and invoiced. Wasp has provided the University of Oxford’s telecom department the ability to operate much more efficiently.

“Before Wasp, each person was probably wasting two to four hours a week tracking inventory. Now, the department looks more professional. When someone comes in looking for a piece of equipment, we can instantly look at the database, see what we have, where it is and what we need to order without taking hours to locate something. With all the benefits we’ve experienced through Wasp, we plan on using the inventory solution well into our future.”