Since meeting with BCU in 2022, the university has increased its Smart Lockers by 6 new installations, providing an additional 144 bays to its students. The partnership with BCU and LapSafe® remains strong as we continue to support their existing Smart Lockers and future goals.

Customer Profile

With around 31,000 students from 100 countries (HESA Student Record 2021/22 © Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited) Birmingham City University is a large and diverse place to study. The university is made up of four faculties, each covering a range of subjects and specialisms.

BCU is a long-standing customer of LapSafe® previously using our mobile Storage & Charging Trolleys. They started down the road of self-service laptop loans with an initial pilot of a 48-bay Diplomat Pro™ Smart Locker back in 2014. BCU has added to that every year since growing the estate.

In 2017, we visited the university and met up with its then IT Quality Manager, Paul Davis. Here Paul discussed the institution's experience with LapSafe® Diplomat™ Pro Smart Lockers.

Smart Study Space

The big driving force for us using LapSafe® has been to optimise learning space for students. To increase the study space available, we decided to loan out laptops to students and reduce the PC workstations across the campus. This has allowed us to increase study space available and by installing the LapSafe® Diplomat Pro™ we’ve allowed students to borrow a laptop whenever they want.

Seamless LSM Integration

Integration with the library management system has been important to save us from having to duplicate all the student records and avoid maintaining separate systems. It also lessens staff training as they already know how to use the library management software. A real key thing is for students to have access to a device whenever they need to use it.

Convenient Data Connectivity

Data connectivity function of the lockers has been really important as it has enabled us to manage such a large estate of laptops, keeping them up-to-date and connected to the network for security updates etc.

Bespoke PC Finder Service

BCU’s home-grown PC Finder service enables students to find a computer that’s available anywhere on the campus. BCU’s Development Team worked closely with the LapSafe® team to link to the LapSafe® ‘Availability Dashboard’.

The introduction of LapSafe® Availability Dashboard enables BCU to publish real-time stats for their students so that they can find a Diplomat™ Smart Locker that has laptops available to borrow across the site. This saves students from having to queue or wander around the university looking for availability. View the BCU Finder Service

It gives me great tools and reports to see how the Diplomat Pro™ Smart Lockers are functioning across our considerable estate. We can see when and where devices are being, and what the peaks and patterns of activity are; thus, telling us when to expand the service. We also worked with LapSafe® to customise the user interfaces to ensure they met our requirements.

Student & Staff Feeback

The students really love the self-service laptop loans and there has been such a high demand for it across the campus, we have grown the service, year on year. Talking to the students, both the anecdotal feedback and the impact on our NSS scores have been really positive.

It’s not just students who can borrow laptops; installed in the staff room in the Joseph Priestley building is a 48-bay Diplomat Pro™ Smart Locker. Loaning laptops to the staff has enabled a reduction in the number of desktop PCs making better use of the space available.

Creative Colours

As BCU have expanded their service, they have been able to model the lockers into the buildings, using sympathetic colour schemes. However, they went all out with their installation for the Curzon Library, with rainbow-coloured doors on the Smart Locker. This 48-bay Diplomat Pro™ loans MacBooks to students who need access 24 x 7.

The BCU & LapSafe® Partnership

We’ve really built on our relationship with LapSafe®, they have grown with us and the technical support we have received has been excellent. LapSafe® has shared with us their road map and software development plans for the future and we are excited.

The University has big ambitions to grow the estate and the size of the student population. LapSafe® is going to be a key part of growing the service and enabling us to offer that transformational service to students. Besides maintaining our market-leading position as the World’s largest university user of the Diplomat Pro™ self-service Smart Lockers, are to start using the flexibility that USB-C charging offers us so that we can mix and match the devices we use across the estate.

Thinking of Investing?

Visit our Smart Lockers page for more information or use our Contact Form to discuss your requirements with our friendly team.