Our experience of Smarthub has been great, across an extensive period of time. We're now into our sixteenth year as end users and have found the team at Siso be to extremely proactive (in the rare instances should system failure occur) and receptive to our emerging needs as end users. Without Smarthub, we couldn't work with the level of effectiveness we currently enjoy. It's paramount to the continued success of our complex resourcing operations.

We've been using Smarthub since 2008 across our combined specialist media operations at Staffordshire University, encompassing several campuses. In that time, it's become ubiquitous across media resourcing within HE. Our initial fact finding operation rated Smarthub comfortably the best tool for our end user requirements, and it's subsequently developed and grown to meet our emerging needs. Smarthub represents the brain of a highly complex resourcing dynamic at our university and without it (and the capabilities of the team who administer it), we would be well and truly floored! The fact that we've never once questioned moving away from Smarthub during the 16 years in which we've used it should speak volumes - it was our 'go-to' tool yesterday, is today, and all but certainly will be for years to come!

There's very little not to like about Smarthub, and even if gripes are identified, the team at Siso work extremely proactively to remedy them with the end user in mind.

Overall, the product has served us well over the last five or six years. There are features that have really helped us improve our operations but there are also areas that need improvement which Siso have always been receptive to hearing.

The granularity of the system helps us to be confident that the assets are going out and coming back into the store in the right condition. The induction video feature with training that automatically applies following a questionnaire has been very valuable and I believe is quite unique to Smarthub.

Although improvements have been made, the UI is not as simple as we would like. Also, the check out functionality is not easy to navigate when you have more than one item to check out within the same family. Ideally, as someone at the front desk, you would want to be presented with Canon 5d x 10 (for example), rather than seeing Canon 5d ten times on the screen.

While the core framework of the system is there and shows promise with its integration across stores and courses, ongoing or worsening experiences with the above mentioned issues, particularly loading times, has made the staff experience working daily with Falmouth Stores frustrating and embarrassing as user-facing staff. There is much to be improved upon and the most confusing aspect of this is that the majority of these issues should by all accounts be fixable and resolvable with basic changes to the system, load speeds, user interface and search functions. I anticipate Siso will take on board this user feedback for a better, more fluid overall experience.

Multiple tabs of activity possible (Stores Desk, Asset Management etc) without crashing. Integration potential with necessary support materials such as Risk Assessments, although these need to be more fluid. Custom manage/edit booking criteria in the Manage Booking tab useful for upcoming/overdue counter activity. Streamlined fines system has been useful but frequent errors occur requiring additional work at the counter to remove and reset.

The system is unforgivably slow during the most basic and essential daily tasks we need it for- changing between pages, scanning assets, searching and creating bookings. As counter staff we have had to endure countless hours watching and waiting for the loading circle to finish and it has become a very vocal point of protest among the students we deal with on a daily basis. It is quite embarrassing having to wait at the counter in a room full of people expecting their equipment loans or returns all watching a circle going round and round for minutes at a time. The search feature is atrocious - if you type one keyword in the wrong order (it clearly functions by reading exclusively left to right with all info necessary in between as opposed to picking out keywords) the desired asset cannot be found. Searching between categories is again tedious and slow, particularly on the student facing Dashboard. We also now have a situation where particular rules have been put in place to prevent Siso overwriting or deleting timetabled bookings implemented by the Uni's timetabling system. When Siso was originally advertised to us, it's main selling point was the fact that the Uni timetabling system integrated perfectly with it. Now we have timetabled bookings that are imported in stages throughout the year, overwrite existing bookings and rules meaning we can't give out facility items unless it is within a 15 minute period of the booking starting as this will cause errors and faults with the timetabling system. It is a horrendous set of rules necessitated by two systems that do not speak to each other and leaves the capacity for human error and mistake as a very real possibility in causing massive issues with the bookings these systems are meant to streamline. There are also multiple tabs and pages within the system that are completely irrelevant to our daily operation and just clutter the overall user experience. On a daily operation front - any booking clashes and availability issues are not listed beyond a warning that assets 'are not available' without showing when and where the clash occurs. This should be a basic feature that is part of the system for both staff and students. Scheduling chart does not allow the quick editing of premade bookings for last minute alterations that are required on a frequent basis. As mentioned the most important aspect is the loading times which quite simply are not up to scratch for a modern booking system causing wait times for simple asset check ins and check outs extending to extreme lengths. Despite having enquired multiple times over these loading speeds we are yet to see any improvement since the system was first implemented. Additional small user issues include aspects such as the cursor/selection box de-selecting when attempting to scan assets and return times/renew times defaulting to 00:00 on any given date as opposed to refreshing to the current time or pre-agreed booking permission length. Again these should all be fairly straightforward to implement and programme. As counter facing staff we are also frequently questioned by students with complaints over their user experience, which is not fair considering our own daily tasks. While our team remains professional and sympathetic, there is no clear and defined reporting or feedback portal to Siso for students and they feel cut off from the process and their willingness to engage opinions for a better day to day user experience. A customer portal should be better implemented to user opinions and feedback can be submitted and acted upon.

I had a great experienvce with Smarthub havinng setup 2 systems from stratch and being administator for 3 systems over teh last 4 years. It has made lab management so much easier.

Going away from paper forms and spreadsheets Smarthub manages everything in one place

It does take some time and training for both staff and student users to set up and use the system

very good at signing in and out equipment but it is slow and unresponsive most times when self hosting

not able to sign items out to rooms, just users lots of different tabs to find what an asset has been doing rather than one comprehensive page which should show past present and future bookings, all asset details and users which you can click on to see what they have booked in the past