LaptopsAnytime
Transforming the Very Meaning of Collaborative ‘Computing’

How about a walk into the university library, computing lab, student center or other academic building, and operate an interactive kiosk to get a laptop dispensed! While the students can swipe-in (or scan-in) their university id cards and personal identification number to avail themselves a device, school administrators only have to purchase the kiosk equipment once and from then on, each checkout is free for students as part of the school computing infrastructure. Sounds smooth, doesn’t it! With checkouts numbering over one million annually and kiosks installed in 27 states nationally and 4 continents, Dallas, TX, headquartered LaptopsAnytime has made this a worldwide movement.

When Matt Bruscher, President and CEO of LaptopsAnyime was actualizing his passion towards Educational Technology, the higher education sector was still lagging a technological disruption. LaptopsAnytime’s revolution isn’t just about automating the laptop checkout process, but it is altogether a ‘move beyond desktops.’ While traditional desktop labs take up valuable real estate and require oversight, adding to an institution’s budget, LaptopsAnytime’s device dispensing kiosks offer a “one-to-many” access to mobile devices without any need for human intervention. “Our kiosks adapt to the ever-changing mobile device market and automates the checkout and return process while eliminating the risks of human errors,” points Bruscher.

While Traditional laptop checkout programs are manual and relies heavily on people consistently performing a multi-step process to check in and out a device, LaptopsAnytime’s kiosks eliminate this process through its automated checkout program. The firm’s kiosks operate 24/7/365, and through the intuitive user interface, students can easily select a device by swiping their ID, entering a password and the kiosk dispenses their device of choice in 10 seconds. Upon returning the device, the student simply needs to find an open slot and place the device back in and the kiosk completes the checkin process. The intelligent kiosk software will only dispense a device in working order with the battery at an acceptable level and upon return of a damaged device it can send an email to administrators alerting them of the issue and block the device from being checked out until it has been serviced.

At Drexel University, students often continued their studies throughout the night. But the timings of W.W. Hagerty Library were such that the university couldn’t provide an extension to its students, and the university was looking to offer a convenient way for the students to checkout Macbooks. The University needed round the clock availability for their current laptop checkout program.
LaptopsAnytime placed an automated checkout kiosk with 12 Macbook Pro laptops in the 24hour café connected to the library. In the first full month of operation, the kiosk checked out 1,150 Macbook Pro to students who used them on an average for 90 minutes. The fruition the university experienced resulted in the number of checkouts doubling quickly in a few months and soon after the universities added an 18 bay companion kiosk to bring the total Macbook kiosk offering to 30 devices.

From an adaptability standpoint, LaptopsAnytime’s current hardware design allows them to quickly adapt and configure the kiosk to accept the latest laptops from Dell, HP, Apple, Lenovo, and Google. For institutions, the hardware adaptability plays a key role as they can then set up individualized programs without incurring the extra cost of purchasing new devices.

Our kiosks adapt to the ever changing mobile device market and automates the checkout and return process while eliminating the risks of human errors

With kiosk stations that can contain up to 30 devices in five linear feet, the space savings, versatility of the devices and the industry reach, makes LaptopsAnytime a true disruptor in the computing space. The firm is currently working on a kiosk design that can give institutions more flexibility with longer-term checkouts and looks to automate the dispensing of items such as power cords, laptop bags, portable USB chargers, to be shared by all.