It’s time to upgrade to Windows 7… really it is.

Have you stopped for a moment, between fiddling with your Windows XP desktops, to consider the practical ramifications of running this outdated and no longer supported Operating System? You may be surprised at how much support time and resources are spent retaining it in your organization.

Sure, it still works and runs your existing programs. And yes, it will still work on those 10 year old computers, but at what cost?

The consumerization of desktop/laptop computers continues to bring prices down and features up as manufacturers compete for more business primarily through price. The benefit to you, the consumer, is that a new PC can be purchased for the rough equivalent of about 5 hours of modestly priced technical support. And how many times have you spent more than 5 hours, either all at once or piecemeal in resolving a computer issue.

Economics aside, consider what it really means when Microsoft “sunsets” an operating system, or it plain language, stops supporting it.

It does not mean that the software all of a sudden fails, nor does it mean that it will stop functioning at all in a steady state. In simplest of terms it means that Microsoft no longer does regression testing on new product releases. In other words, all patches, fixit utilities, service packs, hot-fixes, and new version roll-outs are not tested for backwards compatibility.

Due to the near infinite number of hardware combinations, system configurations, and software customizations it is impractical, if not impossible to test for backwards compatibility. Even assuring programs run on current Operating Systems is difficult enough. Furthermore, most new software is written or programmed for the new operating system architecture. Bottom line is you are on your own with Windows XP technical support.
In the back of your mind you probably know the upgrade is coming. But large upfront costs of purchasing and installing new workstations may persuade you to put it off. While that seems a reasonable course of action, the old saying of “Penny wise, pound foolish” really does apply. What you will begin to experience is support cost creep, an incremental, almost unnoticed, but constantly increasing expense to maintain your desktop/laptops.

Sadly, if your support personnel are paid on an hourly (break-fix) basis, rather than a support contract, they may not be motivated to push for the upgrade either.

Do yourself a favor, and do the upgrade to Windows 7. You’ll save money in the long run, and probably even in the no-so-long run. Even if you don't purchase new computers, do the upgrade! Windows 7 performs well on a large variety of not-so-new PCs
Now for some great news! The upgrade to Windows is very inexpensive for education customers. When you enroll in a Microsoft OVS-ES agreement for your school, you get blanket coverage for all computers in your organization. Furthermore, you also get a license to run Windows Office Professional 2010 on all of your computers in the school. Finally, there are many other software benefits you enjoy, such as work at home versions of the same software.

The cost of an OVS-ES agreement is determined by counting your full time staff and multiplying that number by $55.00 (approx.). Do the math and you will find this to be an extraordinary value. Windows 7, Office Professional, Core Client Access, and other benefits for a few dollars per PC.

It’s time to upgrade your phone system, start saving money, and get better service.

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is no longer an emerging technology with the promise of providing better features at lower costs, someday. It is a stable and widely accepted industry with significant hardware, software, and technical service adaptation. And it is much, much, less expensive that Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS). In addition to lower phone bills, you will also enjoy a smorgasbord of features previously found only with very expensive phone systems.

And cost savings on your monthly phone bills are just the beginning. You can also enjoy an efficient virtual receptionist that provides better call routing and more relevant information based upon whether your school is open or closed. You can take a handset home and appear to be in the office, you can answer and make phone calls from an (internet enabled) airplane at 35,000 ft while traveling to a conference or meeting. And your phone messages and faxes can be delivered to your email inbox and be reviewed on any mobile device. And this is just a very partial list of features. Every possible feature, including call forwarding, conference calling, extension transfer, music on hold, intercom, voice mail, etc. are standard features of currently available VOIP systems.

There are two general types of VOIP systems – on premise and hosted. Simply stated the difference is a function of where your call controller hardware is located. With an on-premise system this hardware is located within your building much like a traditional phone system, with a hosted VOIP system all of your call center hardware is located in a datacenter not in your building. Most of the advantages discussed in this article relate to a hosted VOIP system.

Hosted VOIP requires only two things to operate – a handset on your desk (or software on your computer) and an internet connection. Prices start about $25.00/mo per line and the service is managed completely on line. If you are doing new construction, VOIP significantly reduces both the cost and complexity of installing a new phone system. A VOIP handset can be plugged directly into a network cable, so rather than pulling both phone and network lines, all you need are network lines. And with a hosted VOIP system, rather than having a proprietary and expensive call controller mounted in your server room, you can now outsource that function to a provider that maintains all of the hardware you need, for a low flat monthly rate.

There are several scenarios where a hosted VOIP system is particularly beneficial. If you are leasing space in a building while facilities are under construction it is a tremendous idea. If you are expanding to a new building, it is also very practical. And if your staff routinely has remote work assignments or a use a satellite campus, a hosted VOIP system will greatly simplify your phone configuration.

The reason a Hosted VOIP solution is so flexible is because there are no physical space limitations to the system. You can literally install your office phone any place in the world that has a reliable internet connection. I recently relocated to temporary office for a few months. And my only action to transfer phone service was to unplug my handset, transport it to the new location, and then plug it back into the internet. At power-up, the phone was routed onto the internet and into my VOIP server and within minutes, my office phone system was relocated.

If you are managing e-Rate reimbursement properly, a hosted VOIP system is particularly beneficial, because the monthly service fees are always reimbursable as a priority one expense, regardless of your discount rate. The only priority two expenses are handsets, which can be reimbursed two of each five years, conditioned upon your discount rate.

Take a closer look at the cost of your telecommunication service and features, then compare available VOIP services. You will be surprised at potential money savings and service improvements available. Just think, you could have enjoyed time at home with the family this holiday while appearing to be in the office!  

 

Technology Management or Technical Support – there is a difference

In a perfect world, you would have a Chief Information Officer to help guide your school through the ocean of technology choices, and there are plenty. Desktops or Laptops, on-premise infrastructure or hosted, PC's or Macs (or a combination), and the list goes on. Decisions are heavily influenced by the premises you occupy, existing networking infrastructure, and the demographics of your student population. And of course there is the reality of your budget, your e-Rate eligibility, and the disposition of your board.

All of these decisions directly impact the form and function of your school and they should not be taken lightly. But are you the best qualified to make those decisions? And if not who is?

As it turns out, it might be your IT support company or not, it all depends…

Back at the turn of the last century (like early 1900's), my grandfather earned the nickname of Ray "Henry Ford" Hall, because of his ability to repair the early models of cars being then produced by the Ford Motor Company. Actually, he could fix just about anything. Apparently I inherited his insatiable desire to understand how things work and to a lesser extent how to fix things. At an early age, I was dismantling toasters, bicycles, radios, and just about any mechanical device that I could get my hands on. Like my grandfather, I could fix just about anything that was broken.

 
Fast forward 100 years, and consider the corollary in the world of technical support.

 
Entrance into the world of computer repair is wide open and similar to the mechanics of last century. Some of the cleverest technicians I have worked with have no post-secondary education, few certifications, and few credentials. Yet they can resolve computer issues with blazing speed and uncanny thoroughness. You may even have a few of them on staff.

That talent, as important as it is, has precious little to do with making sound technology management decisions. To prove my point, consider the evolution of the Chief Information Officer position. CIO's are becoming key executives at a growing number of companies. The increase in productivity generated by automation and information systems is driving significant profits to the bottom line. That lesson should not be lost in the translation from business to education. Every Charter School needs access to the guidance of a CIO.

I could easily make the case for financial reasons alone, having witnessed hundreds of thousands of dollars lost to poor decision making and execution of technology projects. But money aside, the weightier matter is the education of our children. Every moment a teacher is interrupted by a technical challenge or prevented from accessing a source of information or is required to spend time doing repetitive mindless administrative tasks, is a moment they are not educating my children and yours. And that is a real problem!

So have I convinced you to run out and hire a Chief Information Officer for your school? Good luck, the board will probably send you for a drug test! Seriously, how do you obtain the services of a CIO, when the going salary for a competent network engineer is 150% of your highest paid administrator! It's not a sustainable proposition.

 
The solution is simple and many of you are using the model already, just for different things. For example how many of you contract for special education services, school lunch programs, or financial management? Those are crucial programs that have wide adoption in the charter school community. So why not technology managers? I submit that it boils down to two reasons, money and expectations. In the above examples there are specific funds designated for such services and they pay for themselves. But expectations for technology management simply don't exist. IT staff fix computers; business managers, principals, board members, or PTO presidents make technology infrastructure decisions. Not true? I beg you to be candid about your own organization and what or who drives these policy decisions.

In a meeting with a school administrator, not long ago, I was shocked to hear her state that the only criterion for hiring technical support personnel was cost. "I will go with the lowest cost provider" she proudly stated. Upon digging a little further, I discovered she had hired her nephew instead and her comments were probably more for the financial manager sitting in the next room than for me. I have also observed principals being cajoled by the technology teachers into implementing wholesale changes in the computer lab, only to have that teacher leave the school within the year. I have observed software purchase decisions costing thousands of more dollars because of a lack of Academic licensing experience, and the list goes on.

The very best schools we operate were purpose built from the ground up and continue to have reliable, affordable, and relevant information systems. We submit that is because we have significant experience managing Charter School technology. We have also observed complete chaos at schools where technology decisions were made by well-intentioned principals who simply had no business making these kinds of decisions.

 
When searching for a Technology Manager, you should minimally have on your list of requirements experience, focus, and reputation. You need to work with someone with experience not only in educational technology, but Charter School educational technology specifically. Ensure that your management team has a clear focus on education and that you are not just one of a dozen different types of businesses they serve, and finally check the reputation of your candidates. Most of the time you find long term relationships exist with technology managers and the schools they serve; ideally they might well serve on the board.

Do your homework, be cautious about using well-meaning internal resources that have only basic skills, and check references of past and present customers. And finally, be sure you are working with a service provider who understands e-Rate, the federal reimbursement mechanism. Your technology costs can be dramatically lowered by structuring resources to maximize e-Rate reimbursement.
    

 

 

Why you need an e-Rate consultant (and why it cannot be me)

Imagine receiving a coupon in the mail that was redeemable at any grocery store which offered you 70% off of all bread, milk, eggs and meat. Eligibility for the coupon was conditioned upon stating your house had a refrigerator to store the items and completing a few forms before your first shopping spree. In these resource constrained times, few of you would pass up such an opportunity!

Now imagine driving to the store intending to use your coupon to find that only bread and milk were available to you, because of your income. Imagine further that it would take you several hours if not days, to complete the forms required to redeem your coupon, and that the store providing the groceries was prohibited from talking to you about how the coupon worked or how to use it. Additionally, imagine being scheduled for training meetings to learn how to complete the forms which have very time sensitive windows for completion and a long list of approved uses for the discounted groceries. And finally imagine being required to plan your menu 3 – 5 years in advance for your most costly groceries, which of course had to be approved by a complete stranger.

Your coupon suddenly becomes not quite so appealing.  Yet giving up a 70% discount (or more) on items you use every day is very appealing, and for some, quite necessary! What do you do?

This is the “stranger than a reality show” world of e-Rate at a large majority of Charter Schools. Does this sound familiar? Here is the corollary:

• E-Rate is the coupon, USAC controls who gets them, and the relative prosperity of your student’s families is part of your eligibility
• CIPA (Child Internet Protection Act) compliance is your refrigerator, which you must have to even be considered for eligibility
• Your technology service provider is the grocery store who is prohibited from assisting you in obtaining your coupon
• The groceries for which you seek the coupon are your telephone, internet, email, website, and related technology equipment bills

So how do traditional school districts do this? It usually boils down to economy of scale (which most Charter Schools don’t have). Traditional districts are sufficiently large and the funds so significant, that they can afford to hire full-time e-Rate staffers.  Such is not the case with most freestanding Charter Schools.

Is it any wonder that the Charter School Community has difficulty obtaining their fair share of e-Rate funding? With few exceptions what I observe is a complete disaster; in one case the financial losses exceeded one hundred thousand dollars (yes that is six figures worth) in a single school year. And this even happened at a school where financial management was outsourced by supposed professionals, which is truly perplexing.

Here are the most common mistakes I observe regarding e-Rate:

• Attempting to do this without a significant investment in training and time. This is not a good second duty for a principal or math teacher.
• Assuming you are ineligible for reimbursement. Certain expenses are always eligible for reimbursement, regardless of your free and reduced lunch count.
• Failing to utilize a family survey to get a more accurate e-Rate discount. This is especially important where “free lunches” run counter to social norms..
• Structuring technology resources in manner that is ineligible for reimbursement or incorrectly classifying the expenses as priority two.
• Believing (erroneously) that the money is too insignificant to justify the effort 

For most charter schools, this is simply not a task that you should attempt on your own, unless you belong to a consortium of schools that can afford a full-time professional. If you doubt my advice, all that is needed to prove my point is a simple search at the official USAC website which maintains a complete database of e-Rate reimbursement. For example, in the State of Utah in FY 2010 fewer than a dozen charter schools received any e-Rate reimbursement that was not filed by an e-Rate professional.

In states that have a large population of freestanding Charter Schools, an e-Rate consortium is an excellent idea. It essentially brings the economies of scale to individual Charter Schools by filing e-Rate as a group. However, this requires a high degree of co-operation and may provide fewer benefits for some within the consortium than others. Getting independent and highly individualistic charter schools to co-operate seems to be a challenge.

For these reasons, we strongly encourage the use of e-Rate professionals, but it is important to do your homework when selecting an e-Rate professional. There are no formal credentials in the world of e-Rate consultants, although the e-Rate Management Professionals Association is attempting to change that. In our experience, fees range widely, as do the personal interaction with your staff. Some companies provide a mostly web-based do-it-yourself interface; others have a very personal and accountable approach. Our recommendation is Kellogg & Sovereign, LLC located in Ada, Oklahoma.

Now for the “not me” part of this article. By statute, technology service providers are restricted in many aspects of the e-Rate process, especially in the pre-bid time frame. This is to prevent undue influence and fraud associated with contracting procedures, and rightly so. E-Rate fraud has been problematic in the past, which is inexcusable, but understandable as the amount of money involved is significant.

So what’s the bottom line? Decide now to get some professional assistance for your e-Rate process. We are well into the FY 2012-13 e-Rate program year. In the worst case scenario you will be dollars ahead for telephone, fax, email, and web hosting costs each month; and in the best case scenario you will receive a huge discount on those expensive technology upgrades every few years.

In these resource constrained times, you simply cannot continue to ignore this important funding mechanism.

Social Media and your school website – priority, process, and control

Social Media is exploding all around us and the possibilities it presents are quite astonishing. It's engaging, personal, agile, and a very effective one-to-many messaging platform. Many of you have jumped in with great enthusiasm, only to get lost in the rapidly changing landscape. 


Some love it, some hate it, but no matter your position, it is a real phenomenon and probably demanding more of your attention than you currently care to give it; additionally you likely struggle to maintain a sense of rationality about the whole matter. Let's consider a few principles that will make your entrance into Social Media a little less chaotic and hopefully a lot more effective.

Priority

Your first consideration is to prioritize the web channels you use, both social and traditional. Always place the highest priority on your main school website as the repository of core content. Properly provisioned, your main website will be the center of your online strategy and all of your social channels ought to be designed with the purpose of driving traffic to your school website when content outside of the social platform is needed. Here are some other reasons why your main website ought to be your highest priority:

1. Social platforms, while here to stay are a bit unpredictable and your community will probably move in and out of various social channels on a regular basis. Placing a greater emphasis on social channels at the expense of meaningful content on your website could end up diluting your message over time and eliminating much of your intended audience.
2. Content is king! While social channels are buzzing and brimming with activity, it is still a social channel. Real content, including legally required deliverables should not to be delivered via social channels. While announcements, opinions, and chatter can drive awareness of policy and administrative processes, the clear and authorized information should still be on your main website after proper review and publishing guidelines are followed.
3. The social media landscape is changing very rapidly, and the apparent winners today may not be the winners long-term. Your ability to move in and out of the social channels of choice will be enhanced by a clear website strategy. That strategy should not rely on the success or failure of a particular social media.  

Process


Social media as a business (or school) is different than social media for personal use. Understand the difference and avoid mixing the two. If you are into social media, you have undoubtedly experienced cases of extreme over posting. And you certainly don't want to be like that as an institution. It is not uncommon for companies to employ social media experts, whose sole focus is on developing and delivering social content. While it is unlikely that will have the luxury of such expenditure, there should be a clear strategy in your school about this process.


The last thing your principal wants is another assignment, but someone at that level ought to be the champion of the school and the school's social media advocate.




Control




One common challenge is well-intentioned individuals, associated with your school, who create social media accounts using their own personal information and your legal name. This is a very precarious situation that should be handled sooner, rather than later. Having control over your messaging is essential, even when those individuals are key stakeholders in your organization. Much like the nightmares we have seen with domain names, ownership of Facebook pages with your official name by unauthorized individuals can be embarrassing at the least and potentially a legal nightmare in the worst case scenario.


Want to see how big of a problem this is? Just do a Facebook search using the name of your school. If you see more than one entry, you have a problem. More importantly, your users have a problem because they don't know who to follow.


Social Media can be of great benefit to your school. Set clear priorities, designate specific individuals to manage it, and maintain control of this important piece of intellectual property.

A model for your school website

Selecting the right web site technology for your school is an important undertaking. The expectation of being able to find things "on-line" is so pervasive now in our culture that not being able to do so is simply unacceptable. And with respect to a Charter School, it is essential to good governance and school administration.

Building a website is not that difficult anymore. There are many hosting companies that actually install website building software right into your hosting account. All you have to do is fill in a few blanks, check a few boxes, add a couple of pictures, and you have a website…. well sort of. What you end up with is a few pictures, a paragraph or two about your school, a contact us page, and maybe directions to your location.

Sadly, there are still administrators that believe this is adequate. And while I respect their opinions, my opinion is that is wholly inadequate, for a number of reasons I will discuss in this article.

Putting up a website that will serve your Charter School is important because it can actually reduce the cost of administration when designed correctly. In order for this to happen, your school website needs to be more than just a few pictures, a paragraph, a map, and a telephone number. A successful website implementation can save countless hours of phone calls, emails, sticky notes, and personal interruptions. And if I were the teacher, I would make every administrator write that last statement on the chalk board 50 times!

However, the fundamental challenge in deploying a useful website boils down to one simple problem…. Managing content! In every case, the addition, modification, and removal (archiving) of content on your website is always more difficult and time consuming than publishing it in the original instance. I cannot overstate the importance of understanding this principal.

You can manage your School Website without spending thousands of dollars for its construction or administration. Once setup, this can be done using Open Source (meaning free) software, an internet browser, and literally thousands of plug-ins (optional features) that are also free.

If you can type, create a digital image, or produce media such as video and music, you can create an impressive website that will serve your school in a multitude of ways.

Here is a list of the important content that should be on your school website and a few ideas of how it might work for you:

• Academic Information: Curriculum, homework, student resources, and classroom management information are specific to not only a given grade, but often a specific teacher within that grade. Each teacher can easily logon to a content driven site and upload her lesson plans, homework, suggested study materials (links), and other relevant information to help students succeed.
• Contact Information: School, administrators, staff, and support organizations all have contact requirements. These are often static (not changing) but can change if individuals leave, go on vacation, change roles, etc. And why would you fail to have a robust map on your website? This simple tool will help you avoid hours spent giving directions. While you are at it, ensure your site is mobile phone friendly for the growing number of users that rely on PDA or mobile browsers; they can look at your map while they are enroute.
• Legal Information: Disclosures, public hearing notifications, meeting and legal notes are often required by law. If it takes days or weeks to get a page added to your existing website, instead of a few minutes, you are not providing adequate notification to you community.
• News Information: Events, clubs, PTO, recognitions, school closings, calendars, etc. This list is almost endless, and the requirements are diverse and very time sensitive. Giving each organization their own "page" on the website and the authority to update it as often as possible will greatly improve the process of being involved by your volunteers.
• Policy Information: Enrollment, attendance, discipline, rules, handbooks, dress codes, approved vendors, etc. should all be easily found on your website preferably by a site specific search engine. Typing a few "keywords" should be all the effort required of site visitors to find the information they need.

As you can see, some of this information is static and relatively unchanging, such as policy information and contact information. But the rest can be very dynamic with additions to content occurring almost every day. And without a full time technical person to add content to your website, it would quickly become out of date and your users will not remained engaged; that is unless you have a content management system as the underlying technology running your website. This is where "distributive authoring" comes into play. And this is a crucial concept that needs to be understood, especially at the leadership level of the organization.

Distributive authoring is giving the key stakeholders in your organization the authority, training, and vision of this key role and then giving them the needed tools to publish material relative to their area of responsibility. In other words it is allocating a large task to a group of individuals in order to keep the size of the task manageable. In order for this to occur, you must first designate a group of individuals to take the lead in this process. And based upon my experience, unless the Principal or other key administrator is leading this team it will not be an effective effort.

The technology of which I am most familiar is Joomla, another is Word Press. They are both Open Source solutions which have no licensing fees. There is also Microsoft Sharepoint Technology (not free). These programs are widely adopted, have a worldwide user base, and excellent reliability and stability. There are other programs as well. Do a simple Google search for "Content Management Systems" and see for yourself.

If you are a School Administrator and have failed to implement this sort of technology for your school, you are in my opinion lacking the leadership and vision needed to make fundamental improvements in your organization. Information is power. Empowering students, enabling teachers, and providing administrative efficiency is the responsibility of every Charter School Administrator. And improving your website technology may be the very most important step you take to accomplish this goal. Next week we will discuss social media and how to manage it in conjunction with your website.

The ABC’s of Website Design

Designing a successful website is a challenge because what constitutes a good website is a highly subjective process. To improve your website building experience, you need clear objectives and expectations, the involvement of all key stakeholders, and a clear grasp of these three core components:

We identify these three core components as the ABC's of website design:

1. Artistic and design appeal – Visual and artistic appeal of the website so it looks professional
2. Business process delivery – SEO Optimization, leads, newsletter delivery, ecommerce, publishing, etc.
3. Core Functionality – Operating servers, web pages, content, images, etc

Artistic and Design Appeal

Creating a visually appealing site is the most subjective part of the process. It is also, based upon my experience, the single most common point of failure in a website project. What a web site designer thinks to be a clever design may be in complete contradiction to a customer’s expectations.

And it is generally quite difficult for a non-technical end user to articulate in technical terms how a site should be designed. This is due in large measure to very different perspectives.

Some really clever sites are very simple – example http://www.google.com/ with mostly white space a clear brand and a search box.

Other sites are so complex and full of content, links, moving graphics, and interruptions that it borders on annoyance – example http://www.goddady.com/

Some sites carry a theme or common framework throughout the entire website while others have, no purpose, no consistency – each page looks entirely different.

Because of the unlimited possibilities of design, most companies with self-publishing features offer a couple of basic layouts (templates) and a choice of complimentary color themes. Microsoft’s office.live.com, which offers a free website to Small Business customers is a good example of this.

The more specific an end user is about artistic design elements the more likely a website project will be successful. And it is highly recommended that a professional graphic designer be engaged if the customer does not have existing design elements (graphics, logos, color schemes, etc)

Artistic and Design Appeal is primarily the responsibility of the customer or school.

Business Process Delivery

Determining the results or actions you wish to obtain from site visitors will help you design properly. There are as many business deliverables as there are types and variations of businesses. Some deliverables have not been invented yet, (think about twitter 5 years ago).

As you decide upon site deliverables, consider the following questions:

1. Is your site one-way or two-way. Are you gathering or distributing information or both?
2. Are you just trying to create an online billboard or are you seeking to obtain contact information i.e., email addresses for internal marketing.
3. Are you attempting to cause an action – such as an email inquiry or phone call or are you attempting to automate some process such as managing a newsletter subscription.
4. Are you delivering content for a fee or trying to sell goods?

There are limits, driven mostly by budget, as to what is possible with current technology

Business Process Design is a joint responsibility of you and your web site designer

Core Functionality:

Core technical function, noticed primarily when broken, deals with the basic operation of the pages, links, and processes (forms, calculators, video, etc.) on your site. The complexity of a given website generally hinges on the manner of its design and the programming language that generates the web pages, complexity increases the likelihood of technical failure.

Some websites are extremely complex, with many moving parts, authentication schemes, gateways to other sites, and integration with a corporate network. Other sites are very simple, just a few pages of code that display words, images, and links.

Techno speak aside, the criteria by which you will measure a functional site will likely focus on the following:

1. Do the pages, links, and processes operate quickly and without error
2. Is navigation of your site simple enough to find content quickly
3. Is content delivery convenient for site visitors – can they access and then process information quickly
4. Does your site place well in organic searches with the major search engines

Technical function is primarily the responsibility of your web site designer.

Summary

Many web site projects start and end with very different ideas. It is a dynamic and interactive process between design team and customer. And it must be understood at the outset, that change equals time and time equals expense, so clarity up front results in large savings during the project.

Clear instructions on layout, accompanied by specific color schemes, exact logo’s, trademarks, and graphics are essential elements of design.

Business deliverables need to be clearly set forth and prioritized. Ongoing reviews and improvements in this area are common. Be sure to give ample time for website processes to be evaluated by your site visitors.

Given the wide range of ideas expressed by your key stakeholders, it is unlikely that everyone will be 100% satisfied with every aspect of a website project, but finding an acceptable level of technical function, business process delivery, and artistic and design appeal is possible.

Why you need a Help Desk

A help desk is a resource which provides information and assistance to troubleshoot problems with information technology equipment or services. It provides a single-point-of-contact for users within your school to report and resolve technical problems.

Our experience demonstrates a dramatic improvement in technical support function when a Help Desk is implemented, because it allows you to prioritize and track support requests, focus your limited support resources, and apply expertise at a level matching the issue at hand.

Help desks can be configured in various ways, but as a minimum should offer these 5 features:

1. Centralized system used throughout the entire school
2. Simplified interface for adding, updating, and tracking requests
3. Prioritized to effectively allocate resources and escalate support requests
4. Separate from you key infrastructure to eliminate your Help Desk from failing
5. Accountable to you in order to report and review technician effectiveness

What does your help desk look like now? Here are some we have observed first hand:

• Sticky notes handed to your IT person as they walk down the hall
• An interruption while in the midst of another support request
• An "oh by the way" mentioned at lunch
• A complaint in a meeting related to another subject

Although very common, none of these improve the performance of your IT staff. And in some cases these informal help desk habits can be very counter-productive.

Take the case of handing a sticky note to your technician as he walks down the hall (presumably on his way to another support request). Your interruption causes a lack of focus on the issue at hand, and the issue at hand causes a lack of attention to your request. This is a double dumbing down of the process.

An orderly help desk system is much more rational. User's generate support requests and are required by the system to categorize, prioritize, and then provide sufficient detail for the technicians. Technicians are notified much more efficiently and an accounting begins for that issue. Both parties, and others, can update information about the request and track the issue to resolution. Administrators can measure the rate and number of support incidents and have a better sense of the value a support mechanism is providing.

A byproduct of a robust Help Desk is the ability to archive resolved issues into a Knowledge Base which in turn provides a growing body of support information for your school. As this body of knowledge grows, the ability of users to self-help increases.

Most schools we observe, and all that we manage (by definition) have no full-time IT staff. A Help Desk in this scenario becomes a necessity. And we have found it very helpful to identify one or two gatekeepers in the school to take the responsibility of entering in technical support requests.The advantages of this arrangement are significant; a full-time support component, a better perspective about priorities, and a single point of contact for clarification and reporting.

Whether your school is large or small, simple or complex with respect to technology, or supported by internal or outsourced technicians you will benefit from a Help Desk.

In these resource constrained times you would be foolish to operate without one.

Improving your e-Rate experience

Improving Your E-Rate Experience

I continue to be surprised at the lackluster participation by many of the Charter School community in the USAC funding mechanism, commonly known as e-Rate. I believe that it stems from a lack of information; but whatever the reason, it seems a bit negligent in these resource constrained times.  This general lack of participation is found throughout the community; many administrators, finance companies, and service providers alike behave as though e-Rate is neither a significant opportunity nor a justifiable expenditure of time.

I believe they are wrong on both counts and unless your school has a philosophical position against government support, there is little excuse for not maximizing the benefits of this program.

Here a few very simple suggestions that will help you improve your experience in obtaining reimbursement for eligible technology purchases.

1.     Don’t try to do this on your own. One of the simplest ways to improve you e-Rate experience is to outsource the process in part or in whole to an e-Rate consultant who will assist you. State of Utah resources for e-Rate assistance, as compared to other states we have observed are quite limited and are mostly guidance in a self- service process. By outsourcing this task to a professional, you can focus on issues that you are uniquely qualified to manage, like educating children.

2.     Understand the formulas that drive discount rates. Your reimbursement options improve as your discount rate increases. And there are ways to improve your discount rate beyond a simple calculation of free and reduced lunches. This is uniquely true in Utah, where larger family sizes, depressed wages, and a general reluctance among many in the LDS community to accept free lunches tends to drive down your specific discount rate. Start planning now to do a household income survey to improve your e-Rate opportunity, especially if you are approaching the 70% – 75% bracket.

3.     Shift expenses to the priority one category. Albeit a limited opportunity (and no we don’t advocate trying to trick USAC) there are certain expenses that can be categorized in both the internet access (priority 1) and the internal connections category (priority 2). The best example of this is email. By utilizing a hosted email solution, rather than an on-premise solution with servers, software, and network equipment, you can obtain reimbursement without regard to your discount rate and/or the 2 in 5 rule for hardware. Another example of this is a hosted VOIP telephone system, instead of on premise (hardware concentric) VOIP telephone system. Your website hosting is yet another priority one expense.

4.     Align your purchases with the e-Rate calendar. E-Rate purchases typically need to be installed during a 90 day window starting with July 1 and ending (with some exceptions) on September 30^th. By structuring your purchases, such as your annual Microsoft School Agreement for software licensing, with this purchasing window, you can streamline the reimbursement process and improve your chances of having an expense accepted.

In at least one of the states where we provide services, we have observed, first hand, the loss of hundreds of thousands (yes that is 6 figures worth) of eligible expenses that were not reimbursed. That is not the kind of experience you want to emulate.

Right now is the time to be working on Form 470's for FY2012-13! Please don't wait another year.

Why you should consider membership in Microsoft's IT Academy

Microsoft IT Academy provides Information Technology training resources for students, teachers, and administrators. Deliverables are Microsoft certifications for students and staff, real and measurable outcomes improving technology instruction and increasing operational efficiency. Here are four reasons you should consider membership in the Microsoft IT Academy:

1. Your students will obtain real 21^st century skills propelling them into careers as information workers, straight from high school, or providing college credit for their post-secondary journey.
2. Your teaching staff will improve their ability to both use and instruct technology in the classroom.
3. Your administration will become more efficient, functionally and financially.
4. Your enrollment will increase as students seek out a more relevant and challenging curriculum.

Grandiose promises, perhaps. But consider the scenario found too often in charter schools today - reduced funding, lackluster enrollment numbers, task saturated teaching staff, and an endless stream of regulation and compliance matters, communication challenges, and budget realities facing administrators.

But can a simple add-on to your annual Microsoft school agreement really change all of that? We believe it can. And here are the transformations we envision:

Students

In addition to traditional academics, students need better information technology skills. This is universally true no matter what career or education pathway they pursue. IT Academy offers a world-class curriculum providing hands-on skill and experience needed to succeed in any career. End of course exams provide actual Microsoft certifications which are recognized world-wide as standard measures of technical competence. Many of these certifications count for college credit after graduation.

Teachers

The curriculum is "ready-to-teach", allowing teachers to focus on delivery, not research and course content creation. This curriculum is managed on-line, by Microsoft, and easily integrated into both new and existing classes. All teaching staff have access to professional development normally costing hundreds of dollars per course, and earn their own Microsoft certifications.

Administrators

Visionary technology plans often get lost in the day-to-day challenges of operating a school. Improving that vision will help, but improving the skill of staff members, relative to the specific technologies introduced, is much more effective. Empowered staff members will drive efficiencies into the entire organization by better communication, collaboration, and access to information.

Community

Schools that produce outstanding results are the pride of their community and that will be reflected in their enrollment. And that is the critical measure of viability for your school.


Is your school a good candidate for the Microsoft IT Academy? Are you eligible? Contact us to find out more, or look for a link on our blog. Ready to join? Let's review your Microsoft licensing agreements and see where you stand. Some of our schools have restructured their annual licensing agreement to include an IT Academy subscription and actually reduced their overall licensing costs.

Important changes to Microsoft academic software licensing

There are two general methods of licensing the core Microsoft technologies running your school; perpetual (single purchase) licensing and subscription (recurring payments) licensing.

But let’s be honest, a perpetual or lifetime software license is an oxymoron!  Disagree? Answer a simple question. How long was your last Microsoft Office suite current? There was Office 2000, 2003, 2007, and now 2010.

The same is true for Windows 95, 98, ME, XP, Vista, and now Windows 7. Of course there is software assurance to protect you, but at what cost? Subscription based software will almost always save you money - not to mention the licensing headaches.
For those of you still buying “perpetual” software licenses for your Microsoft technologies, listen up. It has not made sense for years, and the disparity just grew larger.

Starting this year, Microsoft introduced a new subscription based licensing model called Enrollment for Education Services (EES). Similar to the School Enrollment program, EES provides blanket license compliance for all of your organizations PC’s (desktop and laptops).

EES is different because instead of counting devices (desktops and laptops) you now count employees instead. While the annual cost per license is roughly equivalent, there are no schools that we know of which have more staff members than computers!

Let’s compare a typical license program which would include the latest Microsoft Operating System (Windows 7), Microsoft Office Professional Plus, core Client Access Licenses (CAL’s), and home use rights:

 200 Computers @ $53.00 per year = $10,600.00
     VS.
 50 Staff members @ $60.00 per year = $3,000.00

Notice how much money your school will save by using the new enrollment model, which is accomplished by merely using a different enrollment form. And don’t forget to add any server licenses you might need into the equation, while the savings are not as dramatic they are significant when you factor out ever needing to purchase a server software upgrade.

Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES) is an easy, cost-effective program that provides qualified academic customers a simplified way to acquire Microsoft software and services under a single, subscription agreement. It offers coverage for desktop platform products with one annual count of employees, the ability to easily add additional products in any quantity, self-service tools for simplified asset management, and immediate access to benefits such as product upgrades through Microsoft Software Assurance so you can boost the productivity of your faculty and staff and optimize the return on your technology investments.

Let’s summarize the benefits:

• Easy Compliance:  Count and report  full time employees (FTE) annually
• Customized Solutions: Add software during the subscription term
• Simplified Asset Management: Download and update software online
• Low Administration: Eliminate the need to track software licenses
• Lower Total Cost of Ownership: Reduce the cost of software

Finally, for those not using a Window’s desktop environment, there are also benefits to an EES agreement. Office 2011 for Mac is a great solution.

Contact your Microsoft Authorized Education Reseller today for more information.

Size really does matter

There is a fundamental difference in managing technology resources among organizations of different sizes. Microsoft defines a small, midsized, and enterprise organization as having less than 50, 50 – 500, and greater that 500 computers respectively.

The infrastructure design of these respective organizations is significant and can have far reaching impact on costs, both to implement and then to manage the organization. There are management tools and methodologies for each respective organization size.

Very few Charter Schools fit the Enterprise model of management, yet there is a tendency to build the technology infrastructure on an enterprise level. This tendency stems from the “Best Practice” information found in the education community at large.

Many Charter School managers come from traditional school districts and implement the solutions with which they are familiar.  Furthermore, the state does not provide a different set of data gathering tools for Charter Schools; they are the same as found in all public schools.

So without deliberate and thoughtful planning, a Charter School can start down the road of enterprise level thinking and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on technology solutions, when a fraction of that might be adequate.

One of our goals is to disseminate “Best Practice” information that applies specifically to the small and midsized Charter School. Doing so can have a significant impact on start-up and ongoing costs for information systems.

Managing Technology Resources

Too often we think about technology in terms of acquiring it and fixing it, with only secondary consideration to how it is managed as a powerful asset.

Once the technology infrastructure is in place, it requires ongoing oversight and administration. This is the most significant challenge facing charter schools, which tend to inadequately staff the infrastructure, for good reason.

The level of complexity demands much more than a part-time staff member or a part-time parent volunteer. And prevailing rates for competent network engineers typically exceed the compensation for charter school administrators or principals —a situation that is not sustainable.

We suggest a different management model to addresses this dilemma. It starts with competent technical support using consistent (weekly) scheduling, automated monitoring systems, a robust help-desk system, simplified integration, and unlimited 8 X 5 support.

Most freestanding schools can be managed in one day per week, unless you are working on new projects or on major upgrades. This keeps the annual costs of managing your infrastructure in line, yet provides the level of expertise required to manage these complex systems.

Let's get started - Charter School Technology

Managing technology in a freestanding charter school is fundamentally different than most public schools for two compelling reasons.

First, reduced funding in all areas limits the resources for technical innovation. Second, staffing is problematic because the breadth of technical subject matter is equivalent to a district-level organization. This combined effect, without proper management, can lead to an environment where neither the resources nor expertise required to manage the school is viable. This can leave the school in a continuous break-fix or reactive mode, rather than a proactively managed model.

After a decade of managing technology in freestanding charter schools, we have learned a good deal both from our mistakes and from mistakes made by the schools we manage. There are many ways to manage technology. And we don’t pretend to have all the answers to all questions. But by experience, we have learned a great deal about what works and what does not work as it pertains to managing technology in this unique environment.

This blog outlines the principles we have found to be consistently useful and, to the extent possible, we have implemented these practices in the schools we manage. These ideas are general in nature and may not apply directly to your organization.

For a specific proposal that addresses your individual school, please contact us. Not only can we help you address the technology infrastructure of your school, but we can also help you draft a technology plan or assist you in grant writing to receive funding for your school.

Best wishes in your important endeavor!