After more than 13 years as a Follett customer, Santa Ana Unified School District’s Tami Davis was confident their transition from Follett Destiny® Textbook Manager to Follett Destiny® Resource Manager would be a wise move. She knew the value of her district’s technology resources (and the importance of keeping track of them). However, she didn’t anticipate how easy the transition to Resource Manager would be, or the numerous benefits that would come with the implementation.

“Our experience with Follett Destiny Textbook Manager had always been great,” explained Davis, the district’s librarian. “For over a decade, we tracked textbooks easily and saved tremendous amounts of time and expense.” With the implementation of the district’s 1:1 initiative – and with it a whole new inventory of expensive technology equipment – Santa Ana USD’s administration realized the importance of tracking and monitoring all devices. They turned to Follett once again to ensure the same accuracy and cost savings they’d experienced with Textbook Manager.

Making the transition from a system that tracked textbooks to one that tracked all resources had the potential to be complicated and inconvenient. However, as Davis reports, the process was surprisingly simple.

Because we transitioned our textbooks into Resource Manager rather than using both databases, we saved our district just over $20,000.

“We had a very smooth process planning the original implementation of Resource Manager with Follett. Their advice and the training they gave us were very helpful,” she shared.

With the district’s tracking and monitoring needs in great shape, smart utilization of the budget and staff time were two concerns crossed off the worry list, through the myriad benefits the district looked for and received in adopting Destiny Resource Manager. “The crucial incentive for us in adopting Resource Manager was the ability to import item records from a vendor spreadsheet. We needed that feature,” Davis said.

The hours of library staff time saved due to this feature, Davis explained, were significant. Also, the searchable serial number field in Resource Manager saves much effort and frustration. The district also appreciates what they call the “granularity” of Resource Manager’s access levels, which helps everyone easily use the system and stay focused on their own tasks.

“We can give our computer techs access to only the technology templates, while our library techs have access to the full system,” Davis explained. “When band instruments and science kits are added on, the department chairs and teachers will have access to those templates only. Not only does this help everyone ‘stay in their lane,’ so to speak, it also makes the system easier to use and easier to train by limiting the visible options.”

Davis is excited about the money-saving potential of new projects that may unfold with the use of Destiny Resource Manager and about how detailed it allows the district to be in tracking, ordering wisely, and avoiding costly mistakes. “Because there are so many more options for detail-level tracking of items and so many more staff involved, we’ll have more accurate numbers and locations for our holdings,” Davis explained. “Eventually we will be purchasing fewer replacements, and those we do buy will be more targeted to our known needs.”

Looking back on the decision to make the transition from Destiny Textbook Manager to Destiny Resource Manager, Davis makes sure to recommend Resource Manager to other districts.

It has saved huge amounts of staff time, and it has empowered us to easily inventory many different types of items that had previously been tracked in spreadsheets or on paper.

Interested in making the switch from Destiny Textbook Manager to Destiny Resource Manager? Learn more.