July 8, 2022 | Valence, France
About IUT of Valence
The IUT of Valence offers a range of training courses and professional licenses. Both tertiary and secondary courses provide students with strong professional skills and a solid general culture – an essential foundation for adapting to a constantly changing environment. As a part of Grenoble Alpes University, IUT Valence and its 1,200 students, 60 research teachers and 200 contract teachers collaborate with many partners to “accompany the evolution of society.”
Challenge: Inefficient Manual Device Management
With a focus on the future in everything they do and offer (including 4 BUTs – GEA, TC, Computer Science and Networks and Telecoms), IUT Valence has to have many readily available and fully charged devices available for all of its students and teachers. Managing mobile devices in a very manual way was leading to costly inefficiencies, lost or damaged devices and a time-consuming effort from the IT team.
Solution: Smart Charging Lockers
After comparing lockers from other manufacturers, IUT Valence found FUYL Tower™ 15 smart lockers by LocknCharge were a much better value for the money. They were also easily available on the MatInfo platform* – the leading HigherEd sector marketplace in France. In June of 2021, the university purchased two FUYL Towers to serve two distinct functions:
- Equipment loan mode: IUT Valence had some equipment available for short-term loan for specific needs.
- Self-service mode: Students could securely store and recharge their personal computers or other small devices. Each bay is equipped with a mains socket and USB type A female to make this possible.
Results of the Smart Locker Program
The FUYL smart lockers quickly and easily lent themselves to additional workflows for the university, as students, teachers and the IT team gave highly positive feedback right from the start. After less than a year with the FUYLs in service, David Chechat, Assistant Ingenieur du Centre de Ressources Informatiques, saw a growing demand for devices.
Mister Chechat also noted that the FUYL smart lockers have helped IUT Valence in so many expected and surprising ways:
- Established a better student experience
- Enabled a new service to students so no student is without a device
- Saved time for IT team
- Tracking users with RFID badge made it easier for IT team to know where devices are and eliminated risk of lost devices and accessories
- Highly evolutive software allowed the set up of new workflows to meet new demand
- Easy to deploy, easy to manage and easy to use
What’s Next for IUT?
IUT Valence has plans to deploy more devices for the next school year, and also plans to use the FUYL’s API feature in the future as the project develops. As a forward-thinking university, having a future-proof and forward-thinking partner in LocknCharge is a perfect fit.