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.