DATA TRACKING & INVENTORY WEBINAR

AUGUST 25, 2009



CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Hello everybody. This is

Carolyn, and I want to welcome all of you to the webinar.

We're very excited that you're on. And we're also excited

about this topic.

Martha Rust was the lead for this, and she's done

an outstanding job getting all this lined up. Right now

you should see the main screen, which actually says "Data

Tracking and Inventory." Martha just refreshed; so that

should be what you're looking at.

And I see that Caroline is on board with us today.

Caroline, I appreciate you being on with us and was

wondering if you wouldn't mind just giving everybody a

quick tour. Oh, did you already do it? Okay. Excellent.

Never mind.

So great. I have a few updates that I wanted to

share with you before we get full fledged into the webinar.

The first thing is that I hope that everyone has

signed up to come to the conference and is planning to

come to the Pass It On Center and NATTAP collaborative

national conference on AT reuse.

It's going to be September 15th through the 17th in

Atlanta at the Omni at CNN Center. I really hope that

y'all are going to be there.

Also we are still taking applications -- or

nominations for awards. If you have somebody that you

think has done an outstanding job in the field of AT, or if

you believe you've done a great job, if your group has been

environmentally friendly, you know. We've got seven

different categories, and we would love to have more

nominations. We've got quite a few, but it's always good

to have some more.

So please go ahead and send those in. You can

actually find that nomination form on our website if you go

to our home page and just follow the links there.

And we're also doing two sessions and going to have

a booth at ATIA in Chicago. And we're excited about

working with ATIA again on that. And so we'll be in

Chicago in October. And we'll update you on other things

that are coming up as they happen.

Lots of things are happening with the Pass It On

Center, and we're excited that so much positive is going

on. It's exciting to see so many programs grow.

I just was out seeing Project MEND in San Antonio,

and I was so impressed at how far they've come and glad

that Jerry's going to be on the presentation today to be

sharing more information with you.

So without further adieu, I will turn this over to

Martha.

Martha, take it away.

MARTHA RUST: Thank you, Carolyn.

And again, just welcome. I'm so excited to see

some of you guys on the webinar this afternoon. Y'all are

in for a special treat. I've already previewed all the

slides, so I definitely know y'all are in for a special

treat.

We have some really great speakers lined up for you

today: Jessica Brodey; Clayton Guffey with the Arizona

Assistive Technology Project; Jerry Rivera with Project

MEND in San Antonio, Texas; and also Michael Freehill and

Carla Walker with Paraquad.

So we want to go ahead and get started because we

have a lot of information that I know that you'd like to

hear.

So one of the first things I would like to do is

going to just go over our agenda for the webinar for today.

We're going to talk about the importance of data and

inventory tracking.

Here with the Pass It On Center we've had lots of

questions regarding how to track inventory that comes in,

how to put in the data. Then Jessica is going to be going

over policies and procedures for that.

And then I've asked Arizona, Project MEND, and

Paraquad to talk about three different types of how they

track their data and inventory just to give you guys a

couple of different options that are available.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Okay. So we all know that data

is extremely important. It really does tell your story. I

say this all the time here with the Tools For Life team and

also with our Pass It On Center team is, if it's not in the

database, if we don't have data, then it didn't happen, as

far as I'm concerned.

So being able to track your data and knowing what

you're tracking and being able to do that in a way that's

really consistent, it's extremely important.

It can lead to more funding. It can also be a

marketing tool. It can help people really understand what

you do and how you do it.

And it's very important because it can also open

your doors to working with a variety of people. And also

making sure that you know what trends are happening within

your own program and being aware of how those trends move

forward and move your project forward.

So one of the tools that we wanted to introduce you

to is our Pass It On Center knowledge base. The

presentation today, the webinar today, is actually going to

be in the knowledge base, thanks to Kimberly Griffin and

also Trish Redmon ^ sp, as are all the webinars that we've

done.

But we have very specific information within our

modules about things like data and inventory tracking. So

where you would actually find this is under "Program

Operations."

And you can find links to different forms. You can

find, you know, tools that one would use for filling out

applications and all of that so that you can feed positive,

good information into your data collection tool. So that's

where you would find all that.

The other thing is several of you have asked, and

several folks have been asking all along, about tools that

are free that somebody could just pick up and use. And

this is our Tools For Life data collection tool.

We do have lots of different activities that we

collect data on that are related primarily to what RSA, the

Rehab Services Administration, wanted. And it matches very

nicely with their MIS system and also with what NISAT is

collecting.

So basically you can -- if you would like to, you

could use this. We built it, and it's for you to use if

you would like to. Very simple tool.

You would actually enter your information. You

could enter it specifically on individuals if you want to

track those activities. There's a "Customer Activities"

screen that was just on.

And then this is the "Equipment Inventory" search

so that you can actually go in and see what equipment is

out there. This does require that somebody enters the

equipment. That's one of the issues that a lot of people

have. But you would have to enter the equipment. And once

again, y'all can use this if you would like to.

Kansas has also been very open to letting folks use

their system. And this is the Kansas Assistive Technology

project, AT for Kansans. And this is their inventory tool

right here. It has all the equipment information.

And we appreciate, Sheila, you pulling this

together for us -- these slides.

So as you can see here, it actually tells

information about what's the equipment worth, what exactly

is the equipment. It also tracks transactions, which is

very, very helpful, so that you can see where a piece of

equipment went from one location to another.

It also helps because, if you do have equipment

that maybe has a recall on it, then you'll be able to track

that very quickly. And that helps with liability that

Jessica is going to touch on in just a few minutes.

There's also a really cool future within Kansas's

database that I really like. And this actually allows

people to see photos of exactly what they're getting.

It's one thing to describe, you know, "Here's a

Jazzy chair," or, "Here's a computer." But if you can't

see, you know, how much has that been worn? Not all Jazzys

are equivalent; not all computers are equivalent. And this

way you can get a visual so you have an idea of how much

has this been used? Has it been lightly used or really

used?

So we really appreciate Kansas helping us out with

that and wanted to make sure that you all have access to

free databases.

If you would like more information about our

database, you can contact Martha. She'd be happy to help

you with that. And if you would like more information

about Kansas's database, feel free to contact Kansas

directly.

I'm going to introduce Jessica Brodey now and turn

this over to Jessica. Jessica has been outstanding in

helping us on so many levels. And so she's going to take

it away, walking you through the importance of your

policies and procedures when it comes to inventory

management and tracking.

Thank you, Jessica.

JESSICA BRODEY: Thank you, Carolyn.

I'm going to talk a little bit today about policies

and procedures for inventory management and tracking. And

everyone keeps thinking that it's like a broken record.

Why policies and procedures? Why policies and procedures?

But I really do want to emphasize the importance

that part of what you're doing with inventory and tracking

is trying to gather information. And having set policies

and procedures helps you gather that information and helps

protect you against liability.

So Carolyn was just talking a little bit about

recalls. I'm going to talk about how those policies and

procedures play in.

We strongly encourage you to develop policies and

procedures for inventory management and tracking. My

recommendation is that your policies should include what

information is tracked and how.

So when you're setting up your policies, you should

specify all the information you want to track and at what

stages in the processes you want to track it, where you

want it entered, how you want it entered.

Consider including the stage of process and

location of the equipment. For example, if you have new

equipment, consider putting information about it being

stored in a warehouse or at its location; consider putting

information about the equipment being sanitized or that

it's not sanitized or that it's out for repair.

Tracking can include where it came from; internal

changes, such as what you've done to the equipment, if it's

been evaluated for refurbishment, if it's been sanitized,

if it's been placed.

It can also help you track what happens to the

equipment afterwards. Have you done follow-up with the

client? Is the client satisfied with it? Has this

equipment been finished by the client, and it's ready to be

turned back in again?

Within your inventory tracking and management

system, classifications are going to be critical. Do you

classify your equipment and how? Do you have mobility

classified one way and AAC and durable medical equipment --

is that how you break up your classifications?

But you can segregate and classify your information

in your inventory and tracking system. And why that's so

critical is that, from all this information that you put in

and how you classify it, you're going to be interested in

aggregating information.

So as you're developing your policies and

procedures and thinking about what you want people to track

and how you want to track it and when in the process you

want to track it, you want to think about what information

you want to aggregate.

Do you want to aggregate all the different types of

equipment? Do you want to aggregate where it is located at

any given time? Do you want to aggregate how long it takes

you to process the equipment? Do you want to aggregate

information about what steps your equipment is going

through so that you can report out about that information?

Your procedures should include more specific

information about when and how to update the inventory and

tracking system.

Next slide, please.

And that is so critical because, if you have

procedures about what things you want to track but you

don't know when and how you're going to input that

information, your inventory tracking system isn't going to

be successful.

So think of your policies and procedures as a means

to accomplishing the end of tracking your data. It gives

you your framework for how to do that.

There are going to be a number of topics I'm going

to discuss today to talk to you about developing your

policies and procedures. And these topics are all relevant

for how you're going to ... (audio skipped) ... inventory

and tracking.

Liability, allocation of resources and inventory

movement, data collection, insurance and loss claims,

recalls, emergency preparedness and response.

Next slide, please.

Financial/taxes and disposal recycling.

And I'm going to talk individually about each of

these categories now.

Liability is the one issue that comes up over and

over again. And one of the things that I think is really

important to remember that your best defense to liability

is any information that you have as an organization that

shows that your organization has complied with good

practices and procedures such as your organizational

policies and procedures.

So when you're setting up your inventory and

tracking system, it's also a good way to document the

things that you're doing that are right and good.

For example, if your inventory and tracking system

documents when things are going through sanitization or

documents when things are being refurbished or when things

are being evaluated or that -- when things have been

evaluated by the checklist, that's all ways that you can

prove later on that you complied with your good practices;

that you did each of these steps; that, in fact, the

equipment was sanitized.

So if ever there was a question later, you can say,

"Well, according to our inventory and tracking system, that

piece of equipment was sanitized on June 15th." And it's a

way that you can really back up any claims that you might

have to protect against liability.

Another thing that's kind of relevant is intake of

equipment, the condition and assignment of the path.

So when you're documenting this stuff, you may want

to document right at the intake what condition is it in,

what path is this piece of equipment going to go on? Are

you going to send it to repairs? Is it bypassing repairs?

Is it just being sanitized?

So if you've got different ways that you handle

equipment, you can use your system to document what

particular path this piece of equipment is going to go

down.

You can document, as I said, your repairs or

refurbishing, whether it's been sent out or done in house.

You can also document distribution to clients.

Next slide, please.

And it's also really important, with whatever data

you put into your system, that you secure the privacy of

the client data and keep the data server physically secure

from other people breaking in.

Another topic that's relevant is your allocation of

resources and inventory movement. You can use your data

management -- your inventory tracking system to help your

determine information about your acquisition ... (audio

skipped) ...

You can collect information that aids in

determining what equipment you should be acquiring, what

your needs are, where the overstocks are.

You can also use your inventory tracking system to

look at donations. The tracking is relevant for marketing.

It's also relevant for tax information.

So when -- if there's ever a question about

donations and whether they went to the right purpose, you

can say, "Oh, yes. That piece of equipment was received on

X date. It was refurbished. It was donated and used in

this way. Or it was disposed of because we weren't able to

do anything with that."

And that really is relevant for people on their

taxes. If there's ever an audit done, they could come back

and check with you to find and out what happened to that

equipment ... (audio skipped) ... off on somebody's taxes.

The other thing that's really relevant for your

tracking system is there could be a reason that you need to

know where is the equipment right now, and what state is

that equipment in?

And I don't -- and by "state," I don't mean

physical state. I mean what stage of the process is that

equipment in.

An example of that might be, as we'll talk about

later, with respect to emergency preparedness and planning.

You don't just need to know how many wheelchairs do you

have on hand. You need to know are those wheelchairs

sanitized? Are those wheelchairs in the warehouse? Are

those wheelchairs already repaired, or how close are they?

Where are they in the process, and are they really

available for distribution?

The other thing that this data is really relevant

for that can help you along the way in sustainability even

is talking about the number of days and length of time that

your equipment is being processed and what steps you go

through and where the equipment is located.

Next slide, please.

Your ability to aggregate this equipment is very

relevant. And the reason I'm talking about all these

purposes is that, as you develop your policies and

procedures, you want to think about what data you want to

collect from your inventory processes.

And you need to write that into your policies and

procedures so that you are creating and collecting the

right information and that you have it plugged into your

processes at the right stages along the way so that

everyone who works for you and who's doing this knows what

to input and when to input it so that, when you get to data

collection and aggregating the data, you have it available

to you.

Insurance loss. Now, the inventory and tracking

system is critical if your program ever suffers a loss

directly. And the reason for that is that you have all the

equipment insured, and there's a replacement value for

that.

It helps you quantify what was lost. You can say

exactly how many pieces of equipment, where they were, and

frankly what stage were they in.

And when you're calculating the replacement cost,

if you already have a piece of equipment that was repaired

and you already have that equipment that was sanitized,

there are hours of labor involved in getting the equipment

to that point; there are -- that equipment is more valuable

fixed up than broken.

So as you're going to report out your loss, it

really helps to be able to say, "No, no, no. I had three

wheelchairs, but they were worth X amount," or, "To replace

it with another wheelchair that is ready for distribution

is going to cost X number of dollars." And that could even

include man hours that you have to pay someone to get new

equipment up to speed.

And you really kind of need to be able to identify,

in the event of a loss, where that equipment is in process

so that you can fully realize your insurance claim.

Next slide, please.

And that's really one of the more challenging

processes to have to do.

We've talked a little bit about recalls. A good

inventory tracking system allows the programs to find

equipment that is the subject of recall.

If you have equipment and it's all piled up into

some back warehouse and you have no idea specifically

what's in there, then you can't either notify your

consumers of equipment that you've distributed to them that

has been recalled; nor can you go in the back and say, "We

have three wheelchairs that are the subject of recalls.

I'm going to go in and pull them and take care of it."

An inventory and tracking system really allows you

to know what's there, to know what you're looking for, and

to go ahead and respond when recalls come up.

Next slide, please.

And frankly, this is so critical to be able to do

that.

... (audio skipped) ... emergency preparedness and

response. And your inventory tracking system could really

be a critical tool in your ability to respond.

For example, is your inventory tracking online? If

you're out in the field, if you're at home on a weekend and

you get that call, can you check your inventory online and

be able to tell any kind of responders what you have

available? And do you have -- can you tell them what's

ready? Is it sanitized? Can it immediately be deployed?

If you are one of the programs that have satellite

offices, can you tell them which location this equipment is

at? And is this a database that you may want to be able to

grant permission to a rescue worker in the field to be able

to examine and look at?

The sufficiency of the information in your database

and your inventory and tracking system is so critical

because, if you can't respond to say how many wheelchairs

you have, if they're clean, and where you're going to pick

them up from, it is very hard how to go ahead and respond

in an emergency because you can't give exact information.

And the last thing anyone wants to be doing in the

middle of an emergency is digging through your warehouse

and trying to figure out how many pieces of equipment you

have and whether or not it's been sanitized and if you have

to go and sanitize it now.

Because maybe it's Bob that's responsible for

sanitizing all the equipment, and he knows by looking at it

whether it's been sanitized, but you don't necessarily know

what Bob's done.

And then I guess finally how often -- and this is

part of your processes -- is how often do you keep your

database up to date? And that is really also critical with

respect to emergency preparedness and response.

You can go on to the next slide.

Because if your equipment is not -- if your list is

not up to date, then it is very, very difficult and

challenging to go ahead and tell people what you have.

Because you might say, "Oh, according to our

system, we have five wheelchairs." And when you go and get

there, it turns out you don't have any because they've been

distributed. Then that database isn't very useful.

Financial information and taxes. We talked a

little bit about this before. If donations are made to

your program and you're giving some kind of a receipt as a

nonprofit organization to individuals who are donating

equipment so that they can write it off on their taxes,

there's potentially responsibility on the part of your

program to show how that donated equipment is used.

And if you cannot connect individual donations to

what's happening to them, that could potentially be a

problem for whether or not people can write off these

donations on their taxes.

So any kind of tracking that you can provide of

equipment that comes in, whether it's by serial number or

whether it's even just by type, your ability to go back in

and aggregate that information and respond to people about

how that donation was used is very critical.

And sometimes even just having total numbers.

"Well, we received 1,500 wheelchairs. And of these 1,500

wheelchairs, we distributed 1,400 of them; we have 50 in

our warehouse; and another 50 needed to be disassembled and

broken down either for parts or to be disposed of."

That information is going to help people, when they

make donations, in supporting the claim that they donated

something that was being used to ... (audio skipped) ...

It's also relevant to the valuation of your

program. How much is collected through your programs?

What is the state of that equipment? What steps does your

equipment go through? Which really helps you tell what are

the costs for refurbishing. What equipment is

redistributed? What remains behind? What is disposed of

as end-of-life equipment?

If you don't have in your policies and procedures

ways to quantify that in your inventory and tracking

process, then your ability to provide that data and explain

the value of your programs to try and either help with

sustainability and get some investment or to explain the

benefits and the pros of your program --

Has everyone lost audio? I've got one person that

says they've lost audio. Okay. Sorry.

If you don't have that data to sort of back up the

valuation of your program, it is very, very difficult for

you to prove the benefits and the worth of your program.

So for that reason, I think it is very critical in your

policies and procedures to consider all these different

areas and to work out what exactly you want to collect with

respect to your inventory and tracking system and break

down in your procedures where in your process for fixing

things up, for distributing things you're going to enter

into that data to your inventory tracking.

And that's, I think, my last slide. We can check

and make sure. Oh, one more. I apologize.

Recycling. Again, you want to be able to track

what equipment is sent out, where is it sent, what money

comes in from that. So if you're getting paid for sending

things out. Or is there a cost for disposing of your

equipment?

And then this information -- are there ways that

you can leverage this information to reduce your disposal

expenses? For example, can some of this stuff be written

off on your taxes?

Can you bring in -- if you know that it costs a

certain amount of money to dispose of things, are there

charges you can levy somewhere else in your program to make

up for that and reduce those expenses? Can you find out

that, if you're disposing of X number of things, is it

cheaper to do it in bulk? Could you sell it instead?

It may help you do a cost-benefit analysis to best

determine how to minimize your expenses. And again, all of

this putting them into the program and really helping you

know what's happening to your equipment and how often it's

happening is relevant to figuring out what you collect.

So if you know that it turns out that 50 percent of

what you bring in goes towards disposal and recycling, and

there's a lot of heavy cost associated with that, then

maybe it's going to tell you that in your processes you

need to be pickier about what you accept in the first

place.

And your inventory and tracking system can really

help you maximize the efficiency of your program.

So with that, I'm going to turn it over.

MARTHA RUST: Thank you, Jessica. That was great

information.

I know that Caroline and us here at the Pass It On

Center have definitely worked with a couple of programs on

how to use the insurance for loss before. So thank you so

much.

Now we have Clayton Guffey. He is an assistive

technology specialist with the Arizona Technology Access

Program, AzTAP. And he's going to go over the Rental

Vision software that they use for their program.

So I'm going to release the mic and let you take

hold of it, Clayton.

(Brief silence.)

MARTHA RUST: Hey, Clayton, are you there? I was

wondering if you're having some mic problems.

CLAYTON GUFFEY: Hello. I'm having some technical

difficulties with my microphone.

My name is Clayton. I'm with AzTAP in Phoenix.

And we use Vision Forecasting software called Rental Vision

to manage the equipment in our AT demo and loan program.

Thank you. All right. Now we're set.

Vision Forecasting is the company that produces

this software. They are based in England. Essentially

they sell and market a variety of softwares for managing

rental and loan inventories of a variety, including costume

shops, libraries, video rental places, those types of

things.

The company, since they are in England, is

primarily accessible by website and e-mail only.

Next slide, please.

Here I have pulled up just a quick picture screen

shot of the main web page for them. So it will give you a

visual cue if you want to go there and take a look at them,

later on after the presentation, that you're at the right

place.

Next slide, please.

Okay. Rental Vision, as a software, from Vision

Forecasting is designed for the management of DVDs and

tapes for Rental Vision stores.

We use a slightly modified or customized version of

their base software. The major modification that we've

done to it is we added a printable loan contract for our

borrowers of our equipment, something that they can sign.

And I have a screen shot of that later on.

The best way to paint a picture of the software --

next slide, please -- is to go through the screen shots of

the major screens of the software. And I'll do a

description of each one as we get to it. That gives you a

good feeling for how the software works and really what it

looks like.

Okay. Here we are at the home screen for Rental

Vision. This is the base screen, and everything is

accessible from here. If you see, it's a Windows format.

So it uses a toolbar along the top. It also has icons.

And each one of those icons represents a different feature

or application within the software.

Actually, the words up top there -- the loans --

"Customer," "Loan Items," "E-Mail" -- or the icons will

work interchangeably. So you can use either set of

commands to get to where you want to in the software.

Next screen, please.

This is a screen shot of the lower part of the home

screen. And here you can ask the software to give you

messages for the day, things you need to attend to. It

will also keep track of the most popular or top ten loans

that you've made. So it's got some custom -- ability to be

customized there.

Next screen, please.

All right. Here we are at the way it manages

customer information. Of course you can add new customers,

and it keeps track of them essentially by customer number.

We just do it sequentially, one through -- I think we're at

probably 325 or so now.

This is me. I'm customer No. 15. You can enter

all the customer information here: address, where they're

at, their contact information, any comments you want to put

about them. Also it logs their last visit, if they're an

active or inactive customer.

You can see what current loans they have for

equipment. You can view their history off of the tabs,

everything they've checked out before. It's also easy to

make updates here.

Each one of these fields is customizable, so you

could change the field value to be whatever you'd like it

to be.

Next slide, please.

Also you can add a photo of the person if you

wanted to in that screen.

The next major facet of the software is managing

the inventory, not only keeping track of customers that are

borrowing but also the items that you have.

And you can really pick, once again, the item ID

number. We decided to start with the 50,000. So we manage

our equipment by the 50,160 in that set of numbers. We

keep inventory by item name.

And once again, all these fields are customizable

to really reflect what you want to collect from the

software. So here we have the Tango, which is a pretty

popular communication device.

Logs the manufacturer, the value. We keep track of

the serial numbers here so that information is always

readily accessible if we need it and the device is out.

For NAU we keep track of the property control number.

The nicest thing about this part of the software is

we keep track of all of the device periphery equipment, all

the things that come along with it: the power cords, the

manuals, the screen key guards. Anything that comes with

it, we keep track here. And it helps us know if we have it

or if we don't -- or if it's missing.

Down in the "Status" it will show if an item is

active or checked out. You can also code it if it's out

for repairs. There's a variety of options there to help

you keep track of exactly where your item is; if it's out,

if it's in, or what's happening with it.

Once again, "Loan History" on the side. You can

see where or who has checked it out in the past. It will

give you a complete list of everybody that has accessed

that piece of equipment.

Next slide, please.

You can also put a picture of the item up there.

And you can identify a location if you have alternate sites

of where that is.

This is a search field for a piece of equipment. I

did a search just for "touch" within our software, and

everything with "touch" in the item name came up in that

search field.

You can search on all the different parameters, all

the things you see down there in the below, where it says

"Items to show results in," are choosable as search

options. So you can have those displayed when you do a

search or not.

You see we just have four things I think checked

there that we see for a search. So lots of different

search parameters and ways to access your information about

what's in your inventory.

So this shows obviously if the device is available

or if it's checked out, what category it's in, and of

course its inventory number and title. And then whatever

you want you would just chick on and do "Show Details."

Next slide, please.

Okay. Here, obviously if people are checking

things out, they need to be able to reserve things so we

can have it available for them when they come in or if we

need to ship it to them.

This is view or modify reservations. So once I've

made a reservation, I can go in and see the day's

reservations, what I need to have ready for folks. You can

also delete or change this reservation if you need to.

So the software Rental Vision has a feature to go

in and make a reservation for an item.

Next slide, please.

All right. Here is the actual screen to check out

a piece of equipment. I've identified myself as the person

checking it out. You'll see my customer details there.

And I'm checking out the Quicktionary II Spanish

pen/translator.

There we've logged our loan time as two weeks. So

it automatically comes up. Of course we can change that by

double clicking on that line if we want to make it later or

sooner.

So we've entered the item. Over there on the right

there's a green checkmark. We click "Complete," and it

will then check out the item and log it to that customer.

Next screen.

Yes, we do have a question about barcodes.

Rental Vision does have the ability to do barcodes.

And you use a handheld scanner to log -- to check something

out with the barcodes. So that's actually a little bit

later in my presentation.

All right. Here is a loan agreement that we have

that prints out when people check out a piece of equipment.

It identifies who they are and who they're with and what

exactly they have and also with each item that comes with a

piece of equipment and their due date.

Next slide, please.

This is the bottom part of our loan agreement, and

it has our disclaimer on it, the terms of agreement for

borrowing the equipment.

Next slide, please.

Okay. When an item comes back in, it's easy to do

a speed return on it. Once we've ascertained that

everything's there and all the equipment has been returned,

then we just do a return. We enter the inventory number,

click "Return." And you'll see there the date loaned and

the date due and the return status. It will say "On Time"

or "Past Due."

It just logs the piece of equipment back in, and

it's back in our inventory, and we know where it's at. So

it's easy to return equipment.

Next slide, please.

All right. From Rental Vision you have an option

of lots of different reports, ways to track the information

within it. Of course you can pull reports on current or

active loans. You can do daily or days that you have items

for reservations. So you can pull those and manage them.

You can keep track of or list overdue loans. You

can manage your entire list of active or inactive customer

or active or inactive equipment that you have. You can

print out a complete inventory or catalog of all the

devices and equipment you have. Or you can do it by

section or category of equipment.

Next slide, please.

Rental Vision is also pretty customizable in

regards to lots of different reports depending on what your

unique data tracking needs would be.

For this presentation I just printed out one of the

reports. This is for current loans. And this is all

equipment that we have checked out. It has the item code,

the item, name, the date loaned, and the date due, and the

customer number that has it checked out.

All the other reports have confidential information

on them, so I really couldn't print out or make available

any of those reports. But this gives you an idea of one of

the reports that Rental Vision will print out in regards to

the equipment.

Next slide, please.

All right. Every software has pros and cons. The

Rental Vision features that we really like that are most

useful to us is we have the ability to upload the data file

that comes out of Rental Vision.

It goes into a Microsoft Access format, and we are

able to save that, convert it, and upload it to our AT demo

and loan program website pretty easily. It takes me about

a minute or so to do. So then we transfer our inventory

from Rental Vision to our AT demo and loan site so people

can go in and see what we have available for demonstration

or for loan.

The next nice feature is we can log items out for

repairs to let us and the program know if it's out or not

available or it's been lost or stolen and we're in the

process of replacing it or something like that. So you can

really keep track of where your equipment is and what

status it's in.

We also like that it has a detailed section of what

comes with each piece of equipment. It's so important to

keep track of all those power cords and manuals and

everything for a device. Because even one little piece of

equipment can render something useless if it's not there.

Next slide, please.

Some other continued features that we like from

Rental Vision are it's very easy to delete or update

inventory items or customer information. You just go in

and do edit, and you can make any changes you want.

You can also easily purge items if they're no

longer there. You can delete it and reuse the inventory

number. And same with customer information, although we've

not purged any customers from the database.

You can search by multiple parameters of an item:

manufacturer, location, one part of the name, price. All

kinds of different things if you want to. And also we keep

the device software and serial numbers in one location so

it's always accessible so we have that information for

repairs or updates.

Next slide, please.

All right. Computer compatibility information for

Rental Vision. As I said earlier, it's a Windows product.

It works well. We use Windows XP, and we have no problems

with it. Very reliable. It works all the way back to

Windows 98.

Version 10 was released in April '09, and it is

compatible with Windows Vista for any of you that are using

that. And version 10.1 will work with Windows 7. And they

expect that to be released this fall prior to the Windows 7

release, which is scheduled for the later part of October

right now.

It may or may not work with a Mac. We have never

tried it. But the information I received from the company

said that it may work, but they do not officially support

it running with Mac software. So it's a Windows-based

software, and it will not work with Linux-based systems.

Next slide, please.

Okay. You can also do some basic add-ons to Rental

Vision software, the basic version. Rental Vision Reporter

will allow you to customize reporting for really anything

you need it to give you. So that's an additional add-on.

You can also do something called Rental Vision In

Store, which is a kiosk where customers can search your

inventory or database, and it may or may not be applicable

depending on if you have people come in, walk-in traffic

looking for things.

Also Rental Vision Online, you can have a web page

where users can access your inventory. They can reserve,

request items, et cetera, by the website.

Next slide, please.

And of course those are available for additional

cost.

The base price of Rental Vision is $599. An

additional site license is $299 per one. And there's a

yearly maintenance fee of about $169, and it's more for

multiple sites.

For those of you that may be interested in Rental

Vision, there's a version 10, which is available for

trial -- for non-actual usage trial; just for investigation

trial -- at the company website under "Rental Vision" and

then "Download." So it's pretty easy to find and access.

Next slide, please.

You can do customizations to it. As I said, Rental

Vision is pretty customizable just under the base version,

depending on just changing the fields around. But

structurally if you wanted to do different things, you

would need to probably pay for a larger standalone version.

So small changes can be done within the base

version of the product for not a whole lot of additional

charge. And more major changes would need to be done in a

new standalone version.

The nice feature is that, if groups decide to go

together, they can combine and share the cost of the

modified or the standalone version.

Next slide, please.

All right. The contact information for Vision

Forecasting is there. The website, visionforecasting.com.

And the e-mail address. And like I said, all the product

inquiry and support is done via e-mail. They do not have a

1-800 number. And the contact person there is Dave Wilde.

Next slide, please.

And if there's any questions -- I'm going to

release the mic; this is my contact information -- if you'd

like to follow up with me about any aspects of the

software.

I'm going to go ahead and turn it back over to

Martha.

MARTHA RUST: Thanks, Clayton. That was very

(inaudible). There are a couple of questions up in the

box.

Do you know how much for an online customer search?

CLAYTON GUFFEY: Sorry. I had some problems

getting the mic back.

No. Are you talking about the Rental Vision

Online? I do not know what the additional charge for that

is. You would have to contact the company for that

information.

MARTHA RUST: And what about the system working

with multiple locations?

CLAYTON GUFFEY: It does. We actually use it in

two locations. But you have to have multiple site

licenses. The software exists on whatever computer you're

using it at your location. So there's no -- as far as I

know, no data transfer between the systems if you used it

in two places. You would have to use them independently.

But if you had a second location, you would have to have an

additional site license.

MARTHA RUST: I hope this is better. I'm pretty

close to the mic now.

Thank you, Clayton.

And if anyone has any other questions, please feel

free to raise your hand or go ahead and type in that chat

box.

And thank you again, Clayton. That was very

interesting.

I do not know of any other AT program out there

that is using Rental Vision. So if y'all are out there

using it, I would love to know.

But this was very informative and very neat. Thank

you again.

Next we have up is Jerry Rivera from Project MEND

in San Antonio. And Project MEND is a medical equipment

network for people with disabilities.

So I'm going to release the mic and pass it over to

you, Jerry.

JERRY RIVERA: Can everyone hear me fine? Test,

test. Okay. Great.

So my name is Jerry, and I'm with Project MEND in

San Antonio, Texas.

And what we use here -- I'm just going to go ahead

and jump right in -- is QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit

Edition 2008. You can actually purchase this on TechSoup,

and it's setup for nonprofits. The program itself,

QuickBooks, is about $1,200. But on TechSoup you can

purchase it for about $100.

Now currently we only have one location, and we

have five licenses inhouse. And we can use QuickBooks all

at the same time.

Next slide, please.

Just a real quick run-through. Our mission is to

provide low-income persons with disabilities with

refurbished donated equipment. And of course that's for

everyone's self-sufficiency and independence.

Next slide, please.

We basically have two programs here that we manage.

Our DME program, durable medical equipment. And through

this program we're able to refurbish used equipment and

redistribute to the community.

Now, our fitted mobility program, this service

allows us actually to give direct-line payments for

orthotics, prosthetics, diabetic shoes, cranial helmets,

any type of item that is deemed custom made for a client.

Next slide, please.

And our clients include everyone -- just about

everyone: children, adults, seniors, veterans, military

personnel and their families. So anyone in the State of

Texas. And we are unique to the State.

Now I'll jump right into the QuickBooks.

Now, once a client has submitted all the

documentation and is deemed eligible for services, our case

managers will then proceed to create a case for that client

within QuickBooks.

So they'll first log on to QuickBooks with their

assigned username and password. And once they've logged

on, they'll be in the customer center. Once in the

customer center, they'll have access to view the customer

center. And QuickBooks provides a quick glance of the

customer's name, demographic information, and transaction

history.

Next slide, please.

So here is the first screen, the customer center.

Once you log into QuickBooks, this is the first screen shot

that you'll see.

And if you can see, the arrow's pointing to

"Customer Center." Once you click onto that -- next slide,

please -- QuickBooks will then open up the customer center.

Now here, once you click into customer center, you

can view some quick information. So highlighted is

Christus Spohn Hospital. You'll have some quick

demographic information up to the right-hand side. So

you'll see the mailing address, the customer name, and a

quick transaction history of what's happened with that

client.

Next slide, please.

Now, once we're ready to enter a new client in the

customer center, we'll click on "New Customer & Job," and

there'll be a drop-down menu, and we'll be able to choose

to enter a new customer. Once that window is open, we

enter the data into the designated fields.

Now, we have two tabs that we work with. It's a

"New Customer" and the "Additional Info." The "Additional

Info" tab is customized based on limited fields that

QuickBooks allows.

Under that section, the case managers can begin to

enter any information that it's asking for. And, of

course, once you click "Okay," we'll have created a new

client within QuickBooks.

Next slide, please.

So here you'll have a screen shot of the customer

center where we'll begin to enter a new customer into

QuickBooks.

Next slide, please.

Here within the customer center we'll have the

address information, which we'll enter all the demographic

information: name, address, city, state, what county they

live in, and their phone number.

Now, it's important for us to gather this

information since we do service all of Texas. We want to

be able to locate these clients in the future.

Next slide, please.

The "Additional Info" tab. Now, in this tab we're

able to customize some of the other demographics that we're

collecting -- some of the other client information that we

need as part of the program.

Now, the limitation in this portion of QuickBooks

is that it only gives us a certain number of fields to

customize. So for our purposes, we've captured the most

important fields; for example, ethnicity, sex, date of

birth, of course the intake date, and our City of San

Antonio District, county precinct, and of course the social

security number.

Next slide, please.

Now, once that client has been entered, we press

"Okay," and we come to this screen shot of the client. And

if you'll notice again, it's a quick reference to a

highlighted client on the left, some quick demographic

information. And the client is now ready to be linked with

the DME they received.

Hello? Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?

Okay. I'll just speak up a little.

Now, if you notice in this screen shot, there's no

transaction type for this client. This basically means

that nothing has happened to this client. This client

hasn't received any DME.

Next slide, please.

Now, once we're ready to link the client to the

DME, we go ahead and go into "DME Order" in QuickBooks.

Now, under the "DME Order," we're able to link the client

to the DME they received.

Next slide, please.

Okay. So there is "DME Order" on the screen. We

are pointing to it.

Next slide, please.

Okay. This is the window that opens up once you

click on "DME Order." Now, if you notice, to the left

under "Customer Job," I have chosen me. There's my

demographic information. And the rest -- or some of the

other fields have been automatically populated with

information. And that's one of the great tools about

QuickBooks.

Now, under "Class" we'll go ahead and enter what

funding stream that client is under. And of course we'll

make sure the order number and the date are correct.

Next slide, please.

Now we begin to enter the DME that the client

received. Under "Item ID Number," these numbers have been

already predesignated. So, for example, 15017-18, everyone

knows here that that number is specifically designated for

a manual wheelchair of 18 inches wide.

And of course each piece of DME is tagged with a

serial number, and those are specific to each piece of DME.

And the rest of the information is already preloaded into

QuickBooks. And it populates on its own, so the rate and

the amount of $150 for that wheelchair, that's a

predesignated amount set by the accounting department.

Next slide, please.

Okay. So now we have a quick view of the client,

the demographic information, and the transaction history

for that client.

Next slide, please.

How do we use the data that's collected in

QuickBooks, of course, to track client demographics, track

the inventory? We're able to track donated DME versus the

DME that we issue every program year.

We're able to match the client to the DME they have

received. So if we need to look for a specific piece of

equipment that's been issued, we can enter that unique

inventory number and pull up the DME and see who's received

it.

Again, we can also assign donated values in order

to demonstrate total cost savings to the community. So if

we need to show specific grantors or fundors how much total

cost in DME we've distributed free of charge, we're able to

run reports using QuickBooks.

I got a question: Is equipment inventory also in

QuickBooks? Can you repeat the question too?

Yes. The equipment is preloaded into QuickBooks.

Our warehouse department actually receives donations and

logs the equipment into QuickBooks. The case management

staff is able to issue that equipment that is prelogged

into QuickBooks.

Next slide, please.

Our pros, the pros of QuickBooks. Of course it's

extremely user friendly. There are a lot of icons and

buttons set up to easily access certain portions of

QuickBooks that we can use.

It's definitely an upgrade from our previous data

collection system, which was Access. In my opinion, you

have to be somewhat of a programmer in order to

successfully use Access. I don't know how anyone else

feels about that, but that's my opinion.

And it helps us link our customers directly to the

inventory they receive. The reports are easy to create.

And QuickBooks has great security control. So that's a

feature that it has. So depending on the staff using it,

we're able to limit them or grant them permission to

certain areas of QuickBooks.

And QuickBooks is realtime and interactive. What I

mean by that is, if the warehouse loads equipment into

QuickBooks, the case management staff is able to see what

is physically on hand in realtime.

So a case manager can take a call from a customer

and, in turn, tell them, "Yes, we have five wheelchairs

that are 18 inches," or, "We have hospital beds available."

The other great thing about QuickBooks is, once a

piece of DME is issued, the case manager takes that piece

of equipment out of inventory, and everyone can see that

transaction in realtime.

Next slide, please.

The cons of QuickBooks. The custom data fields

that we're able to use are minimal. So we can run some

great reports, but we can't run awesome reports. We can't

specifically run other reports than what has been already

previously set up.

Also there are other programs and software that we

haven't tried to utilize yet in place of QuickBooks. For

example, an inventory scanning system. We haven't

implemented that, and of course because of funding.

And the number one con of QuickBooks is it's an

accounting program. It's for numbers tracking, and it's by

no means a case-management program. We're not able to go

into depth when it comes to case management and follow up

and see where the client is at with the program. It's very

limited as far as case management goes.

Next slide, please.

So here's a link to our client documentation in

case anyone is interested. It gives a short spiel on what

documents we need and what documents a client can bring for

that specific piece of documentation we need.

Next slide, please.

How do we collect documentation. So we have a

specific process that we follow. And basically we make it

part of our eligibility process in order to collect all the

documentation we need. And of course this helps us with

our credibility and liability when concerned.

One of the pieces of documentation that we

absolutely need and is nonnegotiable is a prescription from

the doctor or a hospital professional. Any other piece of

equipment we can definitely substitute; for example, a

Social Security and ID for a hospital face sheet which has

all that demographic on there.

Next slide, please.

Here are some of our quick stats. If you notice in

'06, the orange bars, we served right under a thousand

clients, and we've been steadily growing. In 2008, last

year, we served right above 1,400 clients.

And also the blue bars to the left. In '06 we gave

out a little over 1,500 pieces of DME. In '08 we gave

3,000 pieces of DME. So almost double.

Next slide, please.

Here is one of the pieces of equipment we use for

sanitizing, and we coined it Scrubzilla. It's our

Hubscrub.

Next slide, please.

Here's our warehouse in San Antonio, Texas.

Next slide.

And that's it. Thank you very much. Any

questions?

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Hey. Thank you so much, Jerry.

You and Cathy and your whole team do such a great job. We

really appreciate that.

This is Carolyn. And I wanted to ask if -- I know

that QuickBooks is actually something you can buy pretty

much off the shelf. I know you can also get it from

TechSoup and any other places that are very friendly in

working with nonprofits.

What I'm wondering is, as far as the screens and

creating some of those screens, is that something that you

would be willing to share with your peers around the

country if they needed help with that as far as the fields

and the formulas and the things that you've actually

created?

JERRY RIVERA: Yes, definitely so. We have a

contracted IT person who actually helped us set up the

QuickBooks system. So we'd be more than happy to share

this information with you.

Of course, this isn't the best system out there.

As you can see today, there's some other great

presentations. But it's so far been working for us.

We want to eventually go into a scanning system

which would streamline the whole process of donating --

distributing DME. I'm sorry.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: This is Carolyn again. And I

know that QuickBooks -- or at least what I've read is that

they are moving towards barcoding or they do have some

barcoding features.

So are you hoping to integrate that within your

database?

JERRY RIVERA: This is Jerry again.

Yes, yes. Definitely so. Again, QuickBooks is

more a numbers type of program. And we need something that

is geared towards case management so we can do follow-up on

the equipment and not only inventory it through QuickBooks

but be able to offer some great customer service and case

management.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Excellent. Okay. Well, thank

you for your willingness to share the way that y'all built

that database. We sure do appreciate it.

Martha?

MARTHA RUST: Yes. Thank you so much, Jerry and

Project MEND. We really do appreciate it. Found it very,

very interesting.

Now we want to ask Paraquad -- we have Carla Walker

and Michael Freehill -- to talk about their database

inventory and tracking system that they use.

And so I'm going to release the mic and pass it

over to you guys at Paraquad.

CARLA WALKER: Okay. Thanks for having us. We

appreciate it. So we can -- we'll go quickly through this

so that we have time for questions for everyone.

We can move on to the next slide.

I'm going to start by talking to you a little bit

about an Access database that we designed when we were

really just doing the AT reutilization program. And it

actually worked really well for us.

And so anybody that's maybe got a little bit of a

smaller program or just kind of wants to look at some

different free options. I know Carolyn had mentioned the

Tools For Life. And Kansas project had a free database.

This is also a database that you can have and I believe has

been shared with Pass It On Center.

So just real quickly, it's an Access database that

we have transitioned out of. Now we're using Brightree for

both our reuse program and our repair services.

Next slide, please.

The reason to kind of move on to a different

database Mike's going to talk about.

But the Access database is just a part of Office

Suite. And you can maintain different databases made up of

what they call objects. So we use tables, forms, and

queries to run information about our reuse program.

Next slide.

So the forms -- the tables that we like to use were

the intake where we basically get information about the

equipment itself, the donation, and the recipient that's

receiving that information. And you can edit any of this

on the screen. The tables allow you to store all that and

pull it up.

You can go to the next slide.

And what we're going to see there is just a screen

shot of the type of information that you might see on the

equipment. Like for a power chair, the make, model, and

serial number is just a portion of the screen. So it's a

real basic listing.

If you go to the next slide, it will show you kind

of what the data-entry form looks like. So for donation

form is what we have up on the screen there.

Real easy data entry. If you have somebody, maybe

a volunteer helping you out, we were able to train people

really easily to do data entry for that.

And then the next slide talks about doing the

queries through this, which were very easy to do. For

example, how many manual chairs are available; how many

have been distributed or disposed of.

And that was one of the things that we liked a lot

about the Access database for the reuse program was that it

was easy to do queries, easy for data entry, easy for

pulling information.

But it just wasn't enough for us when we started

our repair program. And so Mike's going to talk to you

about Brightree, which is a database that we purchased.

It's a web-based system.

And while -- one of the downsides of it is that the

inquiries aren't always as easy to run. Sometimes there

are extra charges for something specific. And the price is

up there.

It served our needs a lot better for inventory

tracking and billing and case management. So Mike's going

to talk about the details of that.

Go ahead to the next slide, please.

Oh, you went backwards. Go forward. One more.

There we are. Thank you.

I'll hand it over to Mike Freehill, who's our

repair services coordinator.

Go back one slide, please. Thanks.

MICHAEL FREEHILL: Okay. So like Carla was saying,

when we started our repair program, we needed something a

little bit more than our Access database to start tracking

inventory. And we started getting more into billing

insurance companies for parts, so we needed billing

software also.

So as we looked online, we came across Brightree,

which, like I said, the core of it is for billing, and then

it also has the inventory management; rentals, which we use

for our loaners; and barcoding, which was really big for

us.

And now they've even come out with software where

you can take a handheld on the road with you, scan

something there, and it instantly puts it into the

software, uploads it to the software. So that was very

important for us.

Like I said, it is web-based, and so there's no

software that you have to install on your computer, which

is nice. We're able to access it 24/7, and it's regulated

by the administrator when you want somebody to access it.

Next slide.

When starting Brightree, there is a lot of training

involved. So they want you to be completely familiar with

it by the time you're done.

So they tell you that you'll be trained in about

120 days. It's a total of about 20 hours altogether. You

get one trainer assigned to you, and you usually meet about

once a week for a couple hours going over different modules

so you get familiar with it step by step.

The basic package is about $599 a month for three

consecutive users, which means you can have as many users

as you want, as many different locations as you want, but

only three people can be on it -- logged in at one time.

So as we got bigger, we had to go past that and go

up to the next package, which was the six-user package. So

again, we have probably about nine people -- nine to 12

people that access it, but only six can be on it at one

time.

And then it also includes service and support 24/7.

Next slide. Next slide. Oh, there it is.

So that -- this is the website to brighttree.com.

You can go on there and look at some features available.

They do have demonstrations available on the website. And

also you can call and sit through a demonstration, which is

usually I think about an hour and a half, two hours. But

they go over all the features of Brightree.

Next slide.

Is that better?

On the next slide you'll see what the web page of

Brightree looks like if you go to look for more

information. It tells you all the -- some of their

features.

And actually this is kind of a previous version of

it. So they've actually upgraded from this. So there's

actually quite a bit more features that are now available

too.

Next slide.

And on this next one it just gives you kind of a

brief look at what our inventory parts page looks like.

Now, this would be a reuse item that we have. The way we

designate our part numbers here would be R for reuse and

then shower chair abbreviated. BK is for a shower chair

with a back. NP means nonpadded. And then -400 means for

a 400-pound weight capacity.

Then the item type you have whether or not it's

serialized, nonserialized. For everything in reuse is all

serialized.

From there you have different item groups that we

can sort it into so we can run reports later. Then we have

it purchased and active.

And then also we can put a depreciation value in

there if we want. So we can set it for five years. Over a

five-year period or however long we put it, it depreciates

that down to zero if it's like a new item.

We can put what manufacturer it is, the part number

of it, any customized user fields.

And then below that is pricing. So we can

either -- we can put what our suggested price is in there.

And actually below that, which the screen doesn't

show, is location -- warehouse location. So we can add

multiple different locations. And it shows on there how

many of that item is at what location. So we can look at a

glance to see who has what. And I think that's it on that

page.

And then next slide.

Brightree does so much more that we just didn't

show on here. And if you guys have any further questions,

you can always ask either myself or Carla.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Okay. That was excellent.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. Great

presentation. Y'all have been excellent at sharing

information with us before. And so thank you again.

As Carla said, that's a very generous offer, you

know, talking about sharing their information and how they

built their system and what fields they have and all of

that. Thank you, Carla. Very generous, as always.

So we've got a lot of folks on with us today. What

questions do y'all have? And feel free to ask any of those

questions.

Okay. While y'all are thinking about your

questions, I did want to let you know that we have a

survey. The Pass It On Center is doing a survey, and it

is, as Jessica was talking earlier about the importance of

emergency management and all of that, and looking more at

your response in a national coordinated effort of helping

folks around the country who are experiencing emergencies.

Elliot Harkavy does a great presentation. And he

really opened my eyes to -- I didn't know that there are

65,000 different emergencies every year in the United

States. That's quite a bit from just the house fire down

the street or a hurricane or fire -- you know, wildfire,

what have you.

So we really would like for you to fill out this

survey and give us your thoughts. Let us know if you've

been involved in emergency response. And I'm going to go

ahead and put the link up for you.

And it looks like we do have a question. And the

question is: What data loan program is required for

federal reporting?

And actually I saw that Brian and Rob are on. And

so if one of you want to tackle this question, that's fine.

If you're not able to -- if you don't have a mic, I can

also answer the question if need be.

Okay. I am not seeing -- I know that Rob and Brian

are on, but I didn't see their hands go up. So it may be

that they don't have a mic.

If -- Rob or Brian, if you have a mic or if you

would like to respond in the public-chat area, that's fine.

To answer your question as far as what's required

from the federal reporting side, basically it's that you

actually answer all those questions that you find within

NISAT or within MIS, which is the Rehab Services

Administration's -- their data-collection tool.

And several of these actually do address that. The

Kansas program does. Georgia, our program data system, is

actually pulled exactly from NISAT.

I know that Deborah Cook in Washington State is

actually looking at web-based tools -- other web-based

tools that answer those questions too. And we're going to

be including her in our conversation even more. We've had

conversations with her in the past.

So those are -- I know Kansas and I know Georgia

definitely answer the federal reporting when it comes to

Assistive Technology Act programs and their AT reuse

questions that they have.

Some of these others actually take it to a

different level. I feel certain, Clayton, that yours

answers these questions obviously. And if somebody else

would like to jump on and, you know, let us know if your

tool actually does answer those federal-reporting

questions, that would be great.

It looks like Brian is actually trying to jump on.

So I'll release the mic. Thank you.

Okay. So Brian actually said that he's having some

microphone problems.

We understand, Brian. That happens.

If you go to the website, the link that's up there,

it's rsamis.edu.gov\choose.cfm, then you can find the

specific fields that are required.

And if you need more assistance, feel free to

contact us at the Pass It On Center. We can also give that

information to you.

Allan, did that answer your question? Great. All

right.

And Linda, you have a question too. You were

wondering what point numbers of equipment loaned and reused

do you feel the need to have a specialized database.

Actually, Jessica, if you want to jump on about

this, I have found that the more organized you get, the

more efficient in some ways that your program becomes, and

then your numbers do grow.

To answer your question, when we were creating

ReBoot, that was one of the first things that we did is

create a database so that we could track all of this

equipment. And the program really did grow.

At that point we were only reusing a hundred PCs,

and we felt the need. There are groups that are doing less

than that in the numbers of 30 or 40, and they're finding

great benefit from having a data system.

Jessica, do you want to jump in about this

question?

And Paraquad, thank you for answering it. You said

fairly low. It becomes necessary to gather the data after

a few hundred devices.

Jessica.

JESSICA BRODEY: Hi. I do think that probably with

pretty low numbers it becomes necessary to have a database.

When you say specialized, it doesn't necessarily have to be

some kind of thing that's been tailored to your system.

You can probably very easily use something as

simple as Excel to do a lot of your database inventory

tracking or an Access database, things that are readily

available that you can to set up and account for your

inventory.

So in terms of a money investment, with a little

bit it may not pay to have a tracking system with a

specialized database or something that you can scan in or

using any of that kind of equipment.

But I think for very early on, for the financial

benefits, for being able to justify what your program is

doing, there isn't a whole lot of added expense and time

once you have a system in place. And I do think even just

very simple forms of tracking is very relevant and will

give you a lot of good data to be able to move your program

forward.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Thank you so much, Jessica. I

really appreciate that.

Linda, does that answer your question?

And also Brian came back on, and he said feel free

to contact him directly at brian.bard@edu.gov about this --

oh, sorry ed.gov about this.

Linda, so glad that that helped.

Any other questions that y'all have at this time?

All right. I would like to thank our presenters.

Outstanding job.

We continue to grow in this area and learn more.

And we are definitely going to have a session at the AT

reuse conference in September focused on this information.

These presenters will be live and in person, and

we'll be glad for that. So you can actually get more

information directly from them.

And you can also contact all of them. We

appreciate y'alls willingness to share. That's one of the

wonderful things about working within the AT reuse

community is how amazingly generous all of you are.

So thank you all. Thank you very much for joining

us today.

And I especially want to thank Martha Rust. She

did an outstanding job pulling this together. This is a

big effort to get the webinars up and running, and I

appreciate her taking this one on.

So thank you, Martha.

Any closing thoughts from anyone else and Martha?

MARTHA RUST: Again, thank you all for joining.

And thank you, Carolyn.

I did enjoy putting this together because we had

fabulous speakers. And I'm so lining up to get autographs

when I finally meet a couple of you guys in September. So

thank you again for joining the webinar.

We will have this up on our website, the

passitoncenter.org website in a few weeks with the

transcription and everything. So again, if you have any

questions, please get ahold of us here at the Pass It On

Center or any of the speakers today.

And I hope y'all have a great afternoon.