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

It has drawn together so many of the separate systems that have been necessary for being able to deliver the courses and has increased turnover, accountability as well as portfolio management.

Some of the users were very resistant to change in old methods but this was overcome through perseverance and training.

Overall, it is a good product that ticks many boxes and suits our needs better than other similar products currently on the market.

The customer facing interface is good. Most students are able to navigate the booking process with little intervention from Administrators. Students appreciate being able to browse/ book equipment, anytime 24/7. Various tools enable Administrators to automate many tasks which were previously managed manually.

The single instance version is a lot slower than our separate instances were. Some areas within the single instance are not separated so that data relevant to a store is only seen by that store. You have to sort through all UAL data to get to the info you require. The sheer volume of data seems to slow things down. The image section loads very slowly. It would be great if each store were able to categorise images to make searching a particular store's images faster. At the moment, all images share a folder.

It is a superb package. We have been using extensively for the last 6 or so years and it has never let us down. In fact the constant improvements are a bonus and the company are very open to suggestions on how to improve things or make things more user friendly. There are many parts to SmartHub that make it incredibly useful to whatever you need it for, be it bookings, maintenance schedules, COSHH provision, training schedules etc. One final bonus is the compatibility it has with Deister key cabinets. The two systems work together fantastically well and have solved crucial problems for us when it came to room access.

Smarthub is a fantastic all-in-one package that lets covers bookings (of both rooms and equipment), maintenance scheduling, COSHH provision, training schedules and much more. The ease of use is very good too and it really isn't hard to learn and understand the bits that, on first look, don't seem to make sense. The support from the team is also marvellous.

The 'tokens' aspect could possibly be better, but I only say that as we have quite a complicated usage system here, with different tariffs for different days of the week and for different resources.

Our experience has been really positive and one of the main reasons for that is how quick and thorough the support has been throughout. Any issues we face are dealt with super fast and we're never stuck with a problem for very long.

Smarthub gives us incredible oversight of our stock and room assets and allows us to manage them in a way that would be impossible without it. We take 100s of room bookings a week and Smarthub makes the process seamless. It allows us to track our stock and keep tabs on what conditions its in as well us giving us a place to promote and organise workshops and classes. It's invaluable to how we run our facilities.

There is very little I dislike about Smarthub. It can take some time to learn the ins and outs of it but once you're up and running, it becomes second nature. Maybe it would be nice to have a system for scheduling that allowed copy and pasting of bookings using a Month Calendar view, but that's being really nitpicky.

A steep learning curve, once hurdled unlocks a powerful and impressive assert management tool. Customer support fixes bugs and are always receptive of new ideas and feature requests.

Smarthub provides a comprehensive selection of tools and functionality to meet the needs of any asset manager. Recent updates to improve user UI have enhanced experience and allowed a greater level of customisation to the service.

With its wide breath of functionality, some sections are underdeveloped and require further fine tuning. Recent addition of Power Bi integration has improved reporting for asset management, but reporting functionality needs to be expanded to include system wide reports.

We were sold this as a replacement for a simple service booking system. This was repeatedly made clear at all steps, and we were assured that the product would be able to meet our exact requirements. It didn't. After many weeks of implementation and back-and-forth with Siso we ended up with an overly complex system (for both our customers and AV technicians), and a clunky technician interface that has actively made it more difficult for us to provide our service.

Works well as an asset database. Can add images to assets.

Overly complex interface for what we need. Missold as a service booking system, where it's actually asset-focused. Interface seemingly designed mobile first, with no thought for efficient desktop (large screen, keyboard and mouse) workflow.

Siso is so easy for our users to build and, while we are still in the early stages of implementation, it has made equipment booking and lab space booking extremely easy. While we have had our challenges, the team behind SISO are amazing. They are quick to respond to queries and are always happy to hop onto a call to talk through an issue.

Some of the administration is often difficult to figure out, and is clunky in places. In my opinion, there is room to improve in several places (Training and Custom forms come to mind), but I have no doubt that they will improve all aspects in due course.

Very effective and efficient. Suits the use within our environment as well as having a suitable App. The scope of the system and it's ability to be customised is also appealing.

Ease of use, ability to manage users, assets, rooms and locations. As well as issuing equipment.

Booking form customization and ability to embed booking forms for approval at the point of booking in a more effective manner.

Siso has been a beneficial asset to our team, as it fulfils all our requirements such as equipment booking, room booking, recording training, risk assessments, and much more. The team at Siso are always accessible and ready to help with any problems or queries. They are proactive, prompt, and efficient in resolving any issues that arise.

One of the best features of Siso is that it allows us to manage our equipment and link it to the required training. This ensures that only those students who have completed the necessary training can book the equipment, which is a very useful tool for managing our resources. Tracking and maintaining records for health and safety purposes has been made easier with Siso.

Navigating Siso's dropdown menu can be challenging due to the similarity of many categories, which makes it difficult to locate the required item while doing site administration. Additionally, the mobile website could be more user-friendly as students often use their phones to book equipment and complete risk assessments.

It's great on day to day basis. We are utilising every aspect of it, it helps with all department bookings and needs

Store desk equipment collections, manage bookings for checking upcoming reservations, scheduling chart for visual kit reservation viewing - (however it would be good if that would display quantities of kit, we know that we have 5 cameras, but students don't know the quantities)

Every time we put in a feature request, we don't get a reply about it. When we end up raising a ticket about normal issue, we get told that this should have been done in feature request form and the update is already out. We have created quite a few feature requests but never got a response, just closed ticket.

overall positive, I i see the potential and the possible ways it will improve our workflows but it seems a long way until i get there

The amount of customization, modern options and the automatization. It was recommended to me by other people already using it and I see the potential, if set up correctly. I like the good customer care and prompt replies I got so far for any little question. I appreciate the direction toward more modern and streamlined interface. I wish the documentation was more consistent and up to date thought.

The convoluted and outdated looking interface (sometimes it feels like I'm using a win xp era website I'll be honest, and no, round buttons and fade animations are not all a modern design needs). It is more of user-interaction design issue rather than a lack of services available on the platform. Often I wished for a direct link to the knowledge base from the "alt text" description when hovering over a toggle or menu. Often I wished I had asked for more help for the initial set up / migration to get siso online with the bare minimum options. The amount of options often are often overwhelming and difficult to interpret.

It does what it says on the tin but UCL doesn't really use it to its full potential

UCL uses the Smarthub admin tool not student facing. We use it to track our staff members so that we can respond to callouts quickly and efficiently. The tracking tool allows us to do this

Smarthub can be a little clunky. you are not always sure that the action you have just made has working or not (mobile tracking is the key feature). Some asspects like asset set-up requires to many different steps to achieve, such as time availablility fixed location.

Very positive, have been using for 10+ years now without too many problems that couldn't be resolved.

Great way to manage resources. Fantastic for maintenance.

Can be quite slow at times to load up certain pages.

Very positive. Excellent support from the Siso team ([sensitive content hidden] etc). We have also never had an serious issues or outages.

We use it increasingly every year in the management of our kit and specialist spaces. Our department is particularly complicated from a permissions perspective. This would be impossible to manage without the functionality provided my Smarthub.

Nothing in particular. The Risk Assessment workflow I suppose - it doesn't really fit with the wider protocols we have to follow here (I imagine it is perfect for other scenarios).

Without smart hub there would be a process that required admin burden.

The ease of the system for tracking assets and associated loans

The expansive communication settings, templates etc can be a bit complex. However the support team are very helpful.

I love using Smarthub, everything is so logical and easy to find and set up. If I do have an issue or a query support is really fast and helpful.

How easy it is to us, both as a user and from the admin side, Really easy to add new items and set rules for them. Being able to add user credits to spend on room bookins is invaluable for us.

In the Store Desk, after adding the users name, the field doesn't always jump down to asset, sometimes it goes to collected by, if you havn't noticed you can start scanning items which are then not added.

Since the support services I haven't had an issue with SISO, anything I have faced has been resolved quickly and easily. The recent update has brought any suggestions I would have had to reality.

The organisation it has given my job. Everything is tracked and seamless with my work flow now. I have immediate access to the assets, their current software and where they have been. My annual reports have gotten far easier as it is simply an export now than weeks of paperwork.

The initial start up was a massive take on, at that point I was not made aware of the support services though. It can be a learning curve for staff and students to get to grips with due to the amount on offer

A lot of different function can be adapted.

Speed of the system, it's very slow and our students are raising the issues constantly. Report function is very weak.

it's not terrible but not the most enjoyable to use. it has some good functionality but also so frustrations. System outages seem to have happened more frequently than I remember with our old system.

The visuals for the schedualing chart to see bookings currently and into the future. The integration of risk assessment, associating them with bookings and putting digital training in place to force users to interact with it before they book kit.

clunky, booking times can be strange, timings aren't always clear, issues can be caused by not booking at key times, scanning kit in and out is slow if you have lots of kit, it will randomly assign assets if you double scan one by accident.

The best part about Smarthub is that you can issue and return equipment in real-time, whilst making sure users have the adequate training and induction to make sure they are safe using the equipment. Users booking equipment must have had training and induction in order for the system to allow them to pre-book it. We can also setup risk assessments against equipment or facilities bookings to monitor it's correct usage.

Smarthub can sometimes be a little complicated, this is mostly because it has so many functions and can be customised thoroughly.