The City of Helsinki's Education Division has been able to track down the majority of around 18,000 missing digital devices used at schools and daycare centres at the beginning of the year.
The division carries out equipment inventories in different stages every year. They catalogue items including computers and monitors as well as digital projectors.
According to Yle Svenska, the inventory is a major undertaking, as it needs to confirm the location of thousands of devices at more than 600 addresses — as well as at more than 300 daycare centres and 100 schools.
In January, the division learned that 18,000 digital devices were not accounted for. However, a follow-up inventory tracked down around 14,000 of them.
The Education Division's Executive Director, Satu Järvenkallas, said she was pleased with the results of the inventory.
"Considering its size, we succeeded well in finding the devices that were missing at the beginning of the year," Järvenkallas said.
Previously, inventories were decentralised and carried out manually. However, in recent years the effort has been done electronically, by monitoring devices connected to a central database.
The process of tracking down items involved comparing the digital and physical inventories about their location. According to Järvenkallas, there is no single reason why the devices are missing.
"There are many reasons. Schools have moved, computers have been sent to be recycled and the inventory system has changed. Some devices are so old that their serial numbers cannot be read anymore," she explained.
Currently around three percent of the division's information and communications tech has still not been accounted for. These devices are thought to be either being repaired or awaiting disposal, according to the Education Division.
Going forward, in order to further reduce losses, the City of Helsinki's digital devices need to be digitally registered as soon as they are put into use.
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