Smart Lockers for School Device Lending: Kingsway Case Study

Relief teachers don’t have time to wait for a laptop — and neither does IT. At Kingsway Christian College in Western Australia, device lending had become a daily drag on the IT team. Each loan took three to five minutes, there could be as many as 25 loans in a day, and the manual records weren’t always accurate.

So the team replaced the counter-based scramble with a ForwardPass smart locker system. Laptop pickup became a quick, self-serve handoff that didn’t depend on an IT technician being free at the right moment — and it’s built on proven foundations, too.

ForwardPass is part of the broader LocknCharge family of device solutions, built on the heritage of 20+ years in device charging and management.

Kingsway at a glance

Kingsway Christian College supports more than 1,500 students and around 280 staff. Like many schools, it relies on shared devices to keep teaching moving — especially when relief teachers step in and need a laptop and charger immediately. The IT team wanted a process that was fast for staff, but also easy to manage and easy to trust.

The problem: Device lending worked, but it constantly interrupted IT

Before smart lockers, lending a laptop was fully manual. When a relief teacher needed a device, someone in IT had to stop what they were doing, locate a laptop and charger, make sure the device was ready, help the teacher get set up, and then record the loan in SharePoint.

The time cost wasn’t the only issue. Because the logging was done by hand, details could be missed or entered incorrectly — names, dates, and return status. Over time, it created a pattern every IT team knows well: lots of “quick requests” that break your focus and pile up across the week.

The change: A self-serve pickup that keeps the day moving

Kingsway introduced a ForwardPass smart locker system and moved lending to self-serve. Instead of waiting for IT, relief staff could scan their card, a locker bay would open, and they could take a ready-to-use device.

That single shift changed the rhythm of the day. Teachers weren’t delayed, and IT wasn’t pulled away from support work just to manage routine handoffs.

What made it stick: The loan record updated automatically

Speed mattered, but visibility mattered just as much. Kingsway needed a reliable way to know who had each device and when it was due back — without relying on someone to remember to log every detail.

To solve that, Kingsway used Microsoft Power Automate to connect the smart locker to SharePoint. Each locker bay was linked to a specific device in SharePoint, so when someone checked a laptop out, SharePoint automatically recorded who took it and when it was due back. The record also kept a simple history of past borrowers.

They also planned for the times when the usual process wouldn’t work. If a staff member didn’t have a card, IT could still grant access through a simple form, and the system would generate a one-time PIN for secure return — while keeping the SharePoint record up to date.

In short, Kingsway’s setup delivered three things at once:

1. Self-serve pickup for staff
2. Automatic tracking in SharePoint
3. Less manual work for IT

The results: Under a minute per loan, and time back for the IT team

The impact showed up quickly. What used to take three to five minutes dropped to under a minute — about a 75% reduction. On busy days, that saved the IT team more than an hour they would have spent on device loans.

Just as importantly, the work became more predictable. Lending stopped being a constant interruption, and the records became more consistent. IT could focus on real issues instead of routine handoffs, and only step in when something actually needed attention.

What’s next: Expanding beyond relief staff

Once the staff lending workflow was running smoothly, Kingsway began looking at where lockers could help next, including secure charging and other student-facing needs. They’re also exploring a kiosk-style experience that automatically assigns a bay, making the process even simpler for users.

What other school IT teams can take from this

Kingsway didn’t just speed up lending — they made it less dependent on IT. The locker handled the handoff, the system handled the record, and IT got back time to focus on higher-value work.

That’s the value of a ForwardPass smart locker system in a school environment: secure, fast device access with clear accountability, without adding more pressure to the helpdesk queue.

Explore ForwardPass for K–12 device lending and charging workflows.