Binghamton University Uses LabStats To Track Thieves

Online, January 26, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Cheryl Tarbox of Binghamton University has recently completed a case study with Computer Lab Solutions of her experience with LabStats. LabStats has successfully provided Tarbox with user login and duration statistics in her various computer labs so she can demonstrate to administration when and how her labs are being used, but LabStats has also provided her with statistics that help her to prevent theft in her labs.

An unintended use found with LabStats was its ability to help her University's Police Department investigate various crimes of fraudulent credit card use to hardware theft by providing data of the most recent check-in times and user logins. This information reveals who was last on a machine and for how long, thus helping police to determine who was most likely to have committed a particular crime.

LabStats also helps Tarbox's Public Computer Labs Manager to keep track of her Student Consultant's hours worked by comparing submitted time sheets to data in LabStats to confirm the hours worked.

LabMaps, a LabStats plugin that displays computer availability, is also used extensively at Binghamton University. The school currently has two different implementations of LabMaps; the first is a series of maps that is displayed exclusively on a 40" display outside their largest lab, the Bartle Library Information Commons. This 40" display scrolls through a series of pages that show all of the public computing labs and classrooms on the main campus. Timely content is displayed either alongside these maps or on separate pages that scroll between the maps. This information is mostly geared to the students and may range from campus-wide announcements to the ITS system status. This map can be viewed at http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~ctarbox/blic.htm.

The second LabMaps implementation is a series of web pages that are open to the public and have a list of all the school's labs. Each of the lab pages lists the current map, the hardware that is located in the lab, and the current operating system(s) for that area. Also included is a link to the software database so users can search which software is installed in a particular lab, and a link to the system that manages room reservations for each area. These pages can be found at http://pods.binghamton.edu/livemaps.htm.

LabStats has been a tremendous tool for the administrators, technical staff, student employees, and users at Binghamton University. It has allowed them to gather the data needed to track usage of computers, labs, and logins, and they are very satisfied with their purchase.

For more information on LabStats, visit http://www.computerlabsolutions.com.