Case Study: Ohio University and Connect2
Kat Frazier and Wynn Yoder, School of Film Equipment Circulation Center Co-Managers at Ohio University, talked to Lorensbergs about their experience using Connect2 for equipment orders, processing and kit maintenance.
It had been a year since commissioning Connect2, and there was lots to share about how students and staff had been benefiting from the introduction of the new system:
“Connect2 has not only improved our department logistically and how we circulate equipment, it has also vastly improved our general atmosphere, attitude and vibes. We are now much calmer and more resilient. This improvement in atmosphere has been the most striking and important difference that Connect2 has made.”
Support for doing a job well
At the Equipment Circulation Center, staff are focused equally on student support and equipment management. It’s their job to ensure that the center is operating efficiently with all equipment in good working condition and all student orders processed and fulfilled successfully. As part of this, they constantly review and adjust the systems in use.
“We are really pleased with how Connect2 has supported both our main areas of focus. It means we can help students quickly and effectively, while keeping equipment repairs and other back office duties up to speed. It’s brought much greater professionalism to how the service is run.”
With Connect2 the center is always fully functioning, providing a top level of service and without any nasty backlog of work:
“Connect2 has brought calm and order to what you could say was a Wild West environment at times! Now students know rather than only hope they will receive all the equipment they need.”
A better system and improved atmosphere
Before Connect2, the equipment center’s environment was at times not as harmonious as it should have been. With a large inventory of equipment, issues around the condition or whereabouts of items could escalate into lengthy queries that caused tension amongst staff:
“Now we can see where items are or who checked them out or in, which student still has it in their possession etc. It’s all transparent, with all our questions easily answered in the system. There’s no need to question other staff which can risk creating a suspicious atmosphere.
“Mistakes are rare and easily identified before they become actual problems. For example, it really helps that each staff member has their own account in Connect2 and you can easily see who has checked in or out each item.”
Saving time while supporting students
Checkout times have been dramatically reduced and orders easier to organize through Connect2:
“The whole experience of ordering equipment could be quite daunting for students as their kit lists can be over 100 items for some projects. Without support from Connect2, it tended to be a big and stressful part of pre-production. It’s a much more manageable part now.”
Connect2 has destressed the environment and provided a more creative atmosphere:
“It’s easy for students to build their kit lists in Connect2 and reserve all they need. Then at the desk, staff are ready with the correct items to checkout to them.
“Each order takes around half an hour less to arrange and process. It’s clear what each student has booked and checked out. It’s also clear when they need to return items, with email reminders to help them keep to schedule. Check-in time has also halved.
“A new cinematography course that started last year involved getting ready some huge equipment orders. But with the students using Connect2, it meant that the backend of the School was well organized and able to keep up.”
More creative and better organized students
“The equipment ordering process is now so much improved, students are doing better at their assignments, and taking on more personal projects too. They’re much more likely to do these now, for example create their own personal films as it’s no longer a big deal getting hold of the equipment. It’s a massive boost to their university experience.
“It’s been a quick development too. Students adapted very quickly to using the Connect2 system and love the fact they can see what’s available and what’s not right away.
“If they make mistakes ordering the wrong items, it’s part of the learning process and easily rectified in the system. If they are late back with kit, Connect2 allows some room for error, giving them 3 strikes before any action is taken. It creates the right expectation for a positive learning journey.”
The restrictions applied through Connect2 are helping students prepare for tougher conditions when renting equipment in the real world beyond Higher Ed:
“Already with the professionalism it brings, Connect2 has made our room into an actual equipment rental space instead of just a student space.”
Favorite features: Availability and discovery
Understanding availability of equipment is one of the top reasons for liking Connect2 at Ohio University:
“Students need to know if an item is physically available for the dates they need it for. If it’s not, then they can create some workarounds. Usage is going up now, so understanding availability is key and Connect2 makes this easy.
“The use of the cart in Connect2 and then the calendar booking step really helps students to find a suitable timeslot for their loan of the equipment. It helps them do this despite having such large lists to manage.”
Being able to begin a booking from entering any fixed project dates is also very useful, so that students are only browsing the resources available for that time.
“Support for the discovery of new and more sophisticated kit is another reason why we love using Connect2. Freshmen are being more incentivized to progress on their courses, exploring in Connect2 the kinds of equipment they’ll have access to later in their sophomore year.
“It’s possible they would be losing enthusiasm without this visibility while starting off on more basic equipment. But now they can see it will lead to using more exciting items, such as the Blackmagic Design pocket 4K and 6K Pro cameras and DJI RS 3 Pro Gimbals.
“In Connect2, they can see these items before they are able to actually check them out. It helps them to retain their sense of wonder and actually helps validate their choice of major with so much to look forward to. It fuels their ambition to become better filmmakers.
“Even senior year students are benefiting in this way as they are able to see when new equipment is added to the store, and it’s motivating them to continue advancing their skills.
“Does it help with student retention? With all this I would say yes, Connect2 definitely plays a role here.”
Key data for managing inventory
The Equipment Circulation Center manages over 1300 items. Many items are organized into collections in the system for easier management:
“Connect2 helps us to manage and view the inventory at both the collection level and also the individual item level. So you can understand usage data in both cases and manage resources in this way.
“If you can see there are more broken items than available ones, we flag this to our director and get replacements before it causes issues. This happened recently with some of our audio equipment.
“If we can see some items are always out and we need more of them, we can also make a request. Before, we had to rely on anecdotal information and hearsay, now we have the hard data! It’s great having the visual representation of the data in the Connect2 charts too.”
Repairs and maintenance support
Repairs and maintenance are an important part of the Equipment Circulation Center management role. However, it was difficult to juggle this work with the orders and checkout part of the job too:
“Before using Connect2, we put so much energy into tracking what was going in and out, and yet still we were missing items. With this hectic workload, there wasn’t much time left for repairs.
“Sometimes you would notice a kit bag left to one side with no obvious explanation and so no way to quickly resolve what is actually a returned broken item.
“Now with students making their own bookings in Connect2, the orders part of the role is more hands-off for us and we can react more quickly to items returned broken.
“It’s an important part of the role as we were hired for our respective areas of technical expertise: sound and audio, and cameras and lighting – to be able to maintain the equipment and carry out repairs.”
The team use Connect2 for managing repairs as well as student equipment orders. The system offers an easy repair workflow and generates related data that has proved very useful for them:
“With Connect2, staff assess items coming back in, add a note and enter it in the maintenance log. This automatically takes it out of circulation and stops anyone requesting it or booking it when it’s not there.
“When you view a collection of equipment online, it’s clear which items are still broken or in maintenance, how many are already in use, and which ones are ready to go out again. The status of each item is made obvious in Connect2, with total quantities given across sets of inventory.
“These logs then provide a record, so that if an item that has a breakage history goes out and comes back broken again, the student won’t necessarily be held responsible for it. The damage can be correctly assessed and attributed. And if you find an item set to one side there will always be an explanation, just by looking at its record in Connect2 it will always provide details of any breakage and repair needed.
“There are fewer broken items at any one time, as we have an efficient process for repairing them as part of the system. Plus the data Connect2 provides means we can stay on top of applying for replacement funding whenever it becomes important.”
A great new partnership
“Connect2 is not just great as far as the software goes, it also comes with amazing service – the human element of being a customer is something that makes a big difference. Everyone at Lorensbergs has been great each time we’ve been in contact. It includes the tailored training, quick response to answers, and friendly approach of the account and support teams.
“The training we had was really useful. We had already been using Connect2 as both students and as workers in a lead up to a change of staffing. When handing over, we had some formal training which was good to have and very enjoyable.
“However, we found that the system had already been easy to grasp, even doing much of the backend stuff was fairly intuitive. Some training videos were also useful in adding to our knowledge of the system.”
Advice on choosing Connect2
In summary, Connect2 has brought an easier workload and better focus for staff, better supported and motivated students, and an all-round more positive and creative atmosphere at the School of Film:
“When looking at Connect2, you could never estimate the value of the change it brings. It’s many times over and above what you would be able to anticipate just from looking at its software features. The benefits Connect2 brings will always be greater and we fully recommend you use it.
“It’s enabled the School of Film to spend less time on logistics, enabling it to become more creative and so live up to its fine arts name within its major.”
“Student satisfaction is a big area that we are always trying to improve upon. Connect2 is orders of magnitude better than anything we used in the past. It allows us to always help students, including checking out pieces of equipment to them extremely quickly!”
