Friday, March 23, 2012

Driving Efficiencies in Desktop Administration

Let’s do a quick math test to give you an idea of the time typically spent doing routine maintenance on the computers in your school and then discuss ways you can dramatically cut those time requirements. We’ ll use round numbers to make it easy, starting with the assumption that you have 100 computers to manage.

At least once each month, you should be doing software updates, security patches, and system scans – the routine maintenance that keeps computers in optimal shape. Doing this maintenance will help keep your computing experience consistent, remove unwanted virus’ and spy ware programs, and apply the latest improvements in operating system and software program functionality.

In a perfect world this process would be entirely automatic, but there are a number of reasons why automation fails and part of desktop administration is monitoring and resolving those failures, proactively.

Back to the math quiz….

How much time does it take update 100 computers each month? If you do it the old fashion way and allow yourself 20 minutes per computer (that’s optimistic) you are looking at 2,000 minutes – plus travel time (between computers). That is roughly 35 hours; which approximates the amount of time we normally spend in an entire month managing infrastructure at a typical school. Not a sustainable model because there are more tasks required to manage technology resources than just updating computers.

The way to improve desktop administration is a three point approach consisting of automation, reporting, and remote control. These actions should be taken simultaneously and there are a wide variety of solutions to help you.

Whatever system you use, and there are several, you should focus on the following three areas:
  1. Automation – implementing automatic updates that work within your security model
  2. Reporting – providing a centralized inventory of computers and their current status
  3. Remote Control – installing remote control tools for efficient technician access
Automation

At the most basic level, you should set your computers to do automatic updates from Microsoft,  but depending upon security settings or user account privileges, this might not work. Finding the right balance between local user access and security of the environment is tricky, but as it relates to automatic updates it can cause the process to fail.

In an enterprise the size of a charter school, the single biggest problem we see (in terms of wasted resources) is having an open desktop security policy, with local install permissions. Managing this is the first order of business when struggling to gain control of computer administration costs.

With no security (access control) in place you will quickly find every single computer in a different state. There will be different backgrounds or wallpaper, butterfly or alligator pointers, and a wide variety of default program settings, browser toolbars, and freeware (accompanied by malware) installed.

The conflict between automatic updates and access control is best managed by a programs such as  System Center Essentials, Windows InTune, or other third party desktop administration tools that provide sufficient security access to accomplish the automatic updates required, with no intervention on your part. The sooner you get control of your desktops – the sooner your support costs will plummet.

In order to measure the success of your update automation, you’ll need some kind of centralized reporting tool.

Reporting

Quickly evaluating the state of your desktop computers is the essential job of a reporting tool. Rather than waiting for a user to call the help desk to address a computer issue, a good reporting tool will notify your help desk well in advance of a pending computer problem.

Applying support resources in advance is almost always more efficient than resolving a problem after the issue has caught the attention of an end user.  And sophisticated reporting tools are both inexpensive and quite robust.

Not only will a reporting tool disclose the state of your computers, with respect to software updates; it will also report impending hardware failures, disk space limitations, device driver conflicts, and other developing problems. And often these are represented in very clear color coded graphs and charts to not only give you a realistic overview of system health, but allow you to drill down to details of a given issue.

Remote Control

Simply stated, Remote Control is the ability for your technical support team to reach across the limitations of physical space and control your computer.  This allows technical support to happen as though the support engineer were sitting physically at your desktop, when in fact they are on the other side of the building, city, or country for that matter.

But there is much more to the advantage of remote control than remote access. Most remote control solutions are Internet browser based and as such, a support engineer can open multiple support sessions at once – as many as a dozen or more, depending upon bandwidth, browser limitations, and the ability to keep track of a large number of simultaneous support sessions. This is the model of efficiency.

In a recent upgrade scenario involving a major Windows Service Pack, we measured the time to do it manually vs. remotely. The time required on site was more than four times greater than doing so remotely.  One significant benefit that is often overlooked with remote support is the ability to provide support services while the class is in session, which is not practical on site.

One of my favorites remote tools is LogMeIn.com, a free browser based program that works well, is easy to install, and can be configured by having end users click on a link within an email message and follow a short installation routine. There are many others that work equally well.

Summary

An efficient desktop management model looks at your infrastructure once each day to view the state of computers. It proactively manages required updates, mostly through automation, but manually if required;  then resolves any computer errors using remote tools that do not interrupt your class.

Our experience suggests that by investing 20 – 30 minutes each day, you can proactively manage 100 computers. That of course does not include repairing intentional damage caused by students, catastrophic hardware failures, or major operating system upgrades, which require physical access.

Want to improve the score on your math quiz stated above? With automation, reporting, and remote administration your total will be a little more reasonable than what you are doing now.  Contact us if you would like a free recommendation on the automation, reporting, and remote support tools that will best suit your situation.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Managing Computers in a hostile computer lab

OK, so the notion of a hostile environment may be a stretch, but hear me out on this one. Jr High and high school students are not always the sweet and innocent models of decorum we would like. But having been there once,  I  understand. Managing computers in a lab can be frustrating, but with a little forethought you can keep your sanity.

Whether it’s showing off, flirting with a classmate, or just plain horsing around; stuff happens in the computer lab. Keys get popped off of keyboards, mice get ripped free of their chords, and the best one I’ve seen yet is a perfectly sized slice of baloney in the DVD drive. Being able to laugh about it is probably a good place to start.

However, if the problems are getting a little overwhelming with your resource constrained staff, here are some suggestions that might help.

Start with the right equipment

To the extent possible, use desktop computers in student labs, rather than laptops. They cost less to buy, are less expensive to repair, and tend to grow legs less often.  For real savings and administrative advantages, see the article about Multipoint Server in a computer lab, it will reduce the cost of the lab by 75%.

Desktops can often be mounted in cages that prevent physical access, which is an important step in your attempts to secure a computer.

Keep the network simple

Whenever possible, use a wired network connection for student labs. The bottleneck of twenty simultaneous You Tube videos will always impact a wireless network more adversely than a wired network. And wired adapters are much more reliable, given the security protocols passwords, keys, etc. that accompany WiFi.

Once configured, wired network devices rarely need management and access to the hardware is less apparent. In fact normal access is preventable through group policy settings. Speed is much faster on a wired network where even the very fastest wireless internet connection is about half the speed.

Provide Adequate Supervision

Adequate supervision is paramount in a computer lab. And this is the most common challenge we observe. If your staff is unwilling to provide accountable supervision and you as an administrator are unwilling to require it, then you might want to consider a teachers aid or parent volunteer. Even a non-technical individual can readily discern when a student is dismantling a computer.

It makes little sense to assign the task of student-sitting to your desktop or network support engineer. In a well managed environment,  they  are better utilized spending time resolving more complex issues.

Install video surveillance

This may seem  an overreach, but there may in fact be a very good case for this – especially in those schools with high risk populations  or special education requirements. Not only will this reduce vandalism, but in extreme cases may provide a solid defense against litigation. And there may be other very good reasons for videos surveillance.

Just knowing the possibility of videos recording exists can change behavior.

If you elect to use video surveillance, be sure to use digital cameras that are correctly specified as to focal length, field of view, and pixels per foot.  In most cases you can use your existing network infrastructure and Power Over Ethernet to eliminate much of your installation costs.

Summary

Remember that the only way to completely secure a computer is to prevent physical access to the computer.  Even the most hardened computer can be compromised if a student is given access to the physical device. By rebooting a computer with a bootable USB device, a very secure computer can be easily compromised by a clever student hacker.

So start with the right equipment, improve your supervision – either in person or by camera – and be suspicious if you see a student in the lunch room with a baloney sandwich, without the baloney.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Outlook - The program. Why it's better than Outlook Web Access


You’ve probably heard the (insert your favorite co-ed) joke about an ambitious young person who went to the hardware store to buy a chain saw. There’s some variation in the details, but the punch line is when the co-ed returns the saw to the store to complain about it’s lack of cutting capacity, only to be startled by the noise of the chainsaw when it was started for the first time.

If you are using Outlook Web Access to read your email, you might just be the butt of a similar joke about your email prowess.

Now before you get all offended, there are some very good reasons, on occasion, to use Outlook Web Access. If you are borrowing a computer, using an internet Kiosk, checking an email on your run through the airport, or attending an offsite training;  then of course Outlook Web Access is a great tool and it is surprisingly similar to Oultook on the desktop.

In fact Microsoft went great lengths to create a Web enabled interface that even looks and behaves as much like Outlook as possible. Which begs the question – why spend so much energy on creating a Web interface that behaves so much like the real product? The answer is not because it works as well as the desktop program, it doesn’t!

If you are sitting at one place most of your working day, then you really ought to consider the advantages of a real Outlook experience.
 
Here are 10 reasons why you should be using Microsoft Outlook, the desktop version:
  1. It’s Faster – This should be reason enough, but I continue to be surprised at the number of users at our schools who log onto Outlook Web Access instead of using the program sitting right on their desktop.
  2. It’s Always On – Even when your internet access is down, Outlook keeps on going. It remembers everything you do while offline and synchronizes your work when you reconnect.
  3. It works Automatically – Outlook checks your email even when you are not working in it. And it does so every 15 minutes, unless you change the default send and receive settings.
  4. It checks your work better – The Outlook on your desktop is much like Microsoft Word, and has better spelling, grammar, and word/phrase checking.
  5. It does profiles – Need to work with two different email accounts? And not just on the receiving end. Outlook maintains separate profiles for separate email addresses, allowing you to work in two organizations with that organization's domain based email.
  6. It has add-ins - there are a number of very useful add-in programs, or utilities that enhance the features in Microsoft Outlook. One of our favorites is the email connector that integrates Microsoft Dynamics CRM (see our education resource management solution) and Outlook. This one reason alone makes the case for desktop Outlook.
  7. It is much more customizable – Wallpaper, themes, fonts, colors, and design elements are all much more robust in the desktop version of Outlook. But be careful, sometimes your artistic interpretation makes for very difficult reading .
  8. It has a much better search function – although you can search in both versions, the desktop version is much more efficient. And try deleting 500 messages in an overflowing OWA inbox. It takes forever!
  9. It works with dial up – Okay, this is kind of cheating on the speed front. But you can actually have a reasonably robust email experience with only dial-up internet service. That’s because Outlook decides on what to download and does so in the background.
  10. It has a Ribbon – The ribbon contains an amazing number of formatting commands  and features that are not available in OWA. And if you are doing any kind of serious email composition, you will find those features very handy.
Once you begin using the real version of Outlook, you may find features not mentioned above that you really like. In fact you may begin to like these features so much that you actually look forward to greeting your inbox each morning.
OK, so that is probably a stretch.
But, by using the real Outlook you may have more free time to do something other than email. And I can do something other than writing about it.
What’s that noise?