Education Services Archives - Buchanan Technologies

Overcome Higher Ed Tech Challenges with Managed IT

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:55:23 +0000

In 2020, many colleges’ and universities’ daily operations experienced significant disruption and major glitches, causing management to take a critical look at their existing IT infrastructure to determine what steps could be taken to better accommodate faculty and students.

As remote and hybrid learning environments continue to become the norm amid the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, many decision-makers may still be thinking – ‘what else can we do to improve the learning experience?’

If this scenario resonates with you, continue reading to learn the benefits of partnering with a managed service provider for your institution’s IT.

Managed Services for Higher Ed IT Support

The higher education industry is facing more challenges than ever before, from budgetary constraints to school security concerns. Partnering with a managed service provider will ensure your IT solution and ongoing management is one less thing you have to worry about.

Here are some of the biggest benefits of managed IT services for higher ed.

Keep Faculty, Students & Staff Connected

In the era of online school, 24/7 connectivity between staff, students, and faculty is critical for a seamless remote learning experience for all.

Through proactive monitoring and management of IT infrastructure – including network maintenance, server support, and connectivity troubleshooting – managed service providers can minimize disruptions, reduce technical downtime, and increase productivity for technology users.

Leveraging a managed service provider’s support desk offering will also increase efficiencies throughout the college. With dedicated resources to address IT tickets and requests, in-house staff will be freed up to focus on other IT initiatives. Furthermore, institutions can use a support desk to handle overflow or after hours tickets or even expand operations to 24/7.

More and more colleges and universities are having success migrating their IT infrastructure to the cloud, as it offers a more scalable and cost-effective solution while providing students and staff with more flexibility and accessibility.

Obtain Business Application Support

Today’s online learning environment relies on numerous application types ranging from document collaboration to file sharing to hosting on-demand lessons. A few of the most common tools in a virtual higher education setting include:

Learning Management Systems
Video conferencing platforms such as MS Teams or Zoom
Microsoft 365

These applications require dedicated support channels to ensure consistent availability for users, but this can be difficult to maintain.

A managed service provider will have the experience and bandwidth to assist with new technology rollouts, including troubleshooting and rectifying onboarding issues and providing continuous support post-deployment.

Get IT Resources When You Need Them

Because technology plays such an integral role in higher education today, it is important to have dependable resources for IT projects, technical troubleshooting, and more.

In this regard, managed service providers can be your all-in-one partner or act as an extension of your team to supplement your staff as workloads increase and new initiatives are realized.

Some examples include:

SharePoint implementation
Cloud migration
Microsoft 365 support
Cabling and wireless projects
New technology rollouts
Network assessments
Break/fix assistance

As there may be more than one campus within a college or university system, it is important to select a managed service provider who has the capability to support multiple locations simultaneously for the best results.

Is Your Institution Getting the Best Rate for Its Service Desk?

Simplify Business Processes

In higher education, IT is not the only thing that needs support; general business processes require attention, too. Having a dedicated partner to manage back-office operations including administrative tasks, maintaining records, and processing forms can increase efficiency through the organization and improve student satisfaction. This can typically be accomplished by a managed service provider’s business process outsourcing services.

In a higher education environment, students must complete various tasks for enrollment, financial aid, housing, and more. Rather than spend time in a queue or visit the registrar office multiple times, educational facilities can utilize business process outsourcing to create a “one-stop-shop” for common business functions such as:

Apply for financial aid and review and pay bills
Complete applications and enrollment forms
Register for classes
University FAQs
General student account questions

This will also reduce stress on your in-house teams by providing dedicated support when needed from agents with experience in supporting a number of key common higher ed technologies, including Learning Management and Student Information systems.

Protect Critical Data

Higher education facilities store large amounts of sensitive data, including financial documents, student records, and more. With many remote students using personal networks on a daily basis, this data may be at risk for a breach. Secure VPN connections, antivirus, firewalls, and more must be provided to each remote learner as a way to help keep critical assets secure.

It is imperative the necessary steps are taken to further protect these assets in the event of a natural or manmade disaster through solid business continuity and backup and disaster recovery plans.

IT security and business continuity plans should be strictly enforced and regularly assessed for maximum efficacy. Consulting with a managed service provider ensures all the boxes are checked from both a functionality and compliance perspective.

Interested in IT Support for Your Institution? Learn more.

Conclusion

This is not an all-encompassing summary of how managed service providers can benefit colleges and universities – many providers can have areas of expertise well beyond this list.

If your institution is struggling to respond to IT tickets, find expert-level technical resources, streamline business processes, or anything else, contact Buchanan today and see how our team can help.

The post Overcome Higher Ed Tech Challenges with Managed IT appeared first on Buchanan Technologies.

How MSPs Support Remote Learning in Higher Education

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 14:45:25 +0000

As campuses around the world continue to shift to remote and virtual learning due to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, IT departments are leaning on their existing infrastructure to support students, faculty, and staff. However, the uptick in demand and increased usage has pushed institutions’ technologies to the limit, causing them to take a hard look at their overall IT solution and processes, and evaluate for areas of improvement.

Enhanced security measures, additional licenses, video conferencing tools, and top-notch technical support – among other resources – are absolutely necessary to safely and effectively implement remote learning practices.

Fortunately, school districts and higher education facilities have options when it comes to reinforcing their IT to provide the best solutions and technologies possible to their end users. One way this can be accomplished is through partnering with a managed service provider.

Benefits of Partnering with a Managed Service Provider for Remote Learning Needs

Diminish Downtime of Students & Faculty

Managed service providers take a proactive approach to their clients’ network health. With monitoring and management practices in place, more often than not, they will be able to detect and correct any potential threats to IT systems before it can have any effect on end users.

If any issues do arise that cannot be contained initially, managed service providers have proven methodologies in both remediation or supplemental support to quickly remediate the situation and get users fully functioning.

These aggressive tactics lead to reduced technical downtime for students, faculty, and staff, which in turn contributes to increased productivity across the organization.

Leverage On-Demand Resources to Reduce Stress

Far too often, in-house IT teams spend much of their time and resources troubleshooting basic IT incidents such as password resets, internet connectivity issues, and more. These efforts may take the focus away from higher priority items, such as equipment refreshes or replacements, new technology rollouts, and the ever-increasing need for digital platforms for students.

When educational facilities smartsource their level 1 IT support desk to a managed service provider, they will regain time to concentrate on important projects and initiatives while having the assurance that student, staff, and faculty’s technology demands are being handled.

In addition, managed service providers can offer level 1 support beyond that of just IT. It is becoming increasingly common for school districts, colleges, and universities alike to adopt other types of support desks to assist with things like course enrollment and financial aid.

Managed service providers can also offer 24/7 application support for a variety of tools and technologies, including learning management systems, student portals, Office 365 and Zoom, and much more. Another benefit of partnering with a managed service provider is having a knowledgeable and experienced resource to aid with security protocols and new technology deployments.

Receive IT Expertise When Needed

With the rising popularity of remote learning comes a surge in IT-related issues and requests. While in-house teams are used to providing support to their end users, they may not be adequately staffed or equipped to address a much larger volume of tickets.

By partnering with a managed service provider for remote learning IT needs, educational facilities can take advantage of 24/7 access to expert-level support, including assessment of general IT issues as well as configuration and implementation of technology applications.

Under certain circumstances, a more advanced level of support may be required for a particularly pressing or high priority IT issue. As these situations occur, managed service providers can escalate the issue to the appropriate personnel to ensure a timely resolution.

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Remote Support at any Location

As many higher education institutions have multiple locations, it can be challenging for IT departments to provide consistent support across facilities. Whether IT staff has been furloughed or laid off or there are simply not enough internal resources to be on-site at each location, managed service providers can support multiple campuses simultaneously.

This support can come in the form of break/fix assistance, where the managed service provider investigates any IT issues hindering students or faculty from utilizing their technology and provides a solution. This can typically be done on-site or remotely.

Managed service providers can also offer logistics support when preparing students and faculty to learn (and educate) remotely, both from a hardware and software perspective.

Many providers can procure and manage licensing and VPN connections, ensuring end users have 24/7 access to a secure and reliable network. They can also assist with the configuration and support of video conferencing platforms and learning management systems for an optimal remote learning arrangement.

With the rising adoption of remote learning, many higher education facilities have looked to the cloud for a more flexible and secure solution. Partnering with a managed service provider who is also a certified cloud service provider (CSP) offers numerous benefits to a college or university. Not only can they aid in the entire planning and transition process, but some providers also offer ongoing support, including managing all communication with the cloud vendor, to save in-house resources time.

Campuses may also find it beneficial to partner with a provider that offers support for other IT projects.

Simplified Onboarding with Tool Agnostic Approach

While many schools, colleges, or universities may already have IT toolsets in place – such as a ticketing system or chat support – some do not. When partnering with a managed service provider, oftentimes the customer has the option to leverage the service provider’s existing ITSM toolsets as part of the agreement.

This offers multiple benefits to an organization, most notably a painless onboarding process, little to no time to begin implementing the toolsets, and tremendous cost savings by not having to invest in new technology.

Utilizing a managed service provider’s toolsets also ensures campuses are running the most efficient and updated technology to afford their end users a quick resolution for their IT queries and an overall seamless experience.

Staffing Services for any IT Need

As COVID-19 has completely transformed how educational facilities operate, so too have changes been made regarding personnel. Newfound budgetary constraints may have prompted school districts and colleges to scale back on their full-time employee roster, leading to layoffs and furloughs.

However, due to the likely increase in demand related to IT support from students, faculty, and staff, these educational facilities may still require supplemental IT resources as they continue to navigate the fallout from the pandemic.

In addition to assisting organizations firsthand with their IT solution, some managed service providers also offer staffing services, where they actively source and place qualified candidates for a vast array of IT-related jobs. With multiple hiring models – including contract, contract-to-hire, or direct hire candidates – there are options to fit any budget, skill set, or period of time.

Even if a school district, college, or university hasn’t been directly impacted by COVID-19, this can still be beneficial to backfill staff out on vacation or taking an extended leave of absence.

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Partner with an MSP to Get the Support You Need

If your school or university is struggling to provide support to your end users or requires additional IT resources to keep up with demand, Buchanan Technologies can help.

Buchanan Technologies continues to provide services ranging from personalized helpdesk solutions to on-site IT support for educational facilities needing to better accommodate their users during this transitory period of remote learning. For more information or to receive a free, no-obligation quote for your school or university, contact Buchanan today.

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Case Study: Humber College Education Support

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 17:25:21 +0000

Buchanan’s IT Service Desk Saves $500K and Improves Service Levels for Humber College

The Challenge

Humber College was looking for a solution for its Service Desk that supports almost 30,000 full-time students and approximately 5,000 staff and faculty. Humber wanted a solution with more staffing capabilities, a better system for servicing clients faster, and a way to improve abandon rates, which were running high at 40%.

Other needs included improvement of proper service coverage on evenings and weekends, improved metrics for leadership decision making, more automation and reuse of knowledge, and lower levels of burnout and employee engagement.

Ticket growth was up as much as 105% over last year and Humber was searching for an effective way to keep the quality of service at a high standard while simplifying processes, controlling costs, reducing call wait time and driving a higher first call resolution rate to the end users.

Buchanan’s Solution

Buchanan had recently become a preferred vendor with OECM (Ontario Education Collaborative Marketplace), and with that status launched a solution that would provide what Humber needed.

Buchanan’s OECM solution offered an economies of scale solution consisting of a 24/7 x 365 support desk with a tiered pricing model. Not only would Buchanan’s team take on the call volume, but it would offer a lower per ticket cost as additional colleges and universities signed up.

The 365-day, round-the-clock support would provide the coverage needed. The tiered pricing would provide cost control savings.

Buchanan allowed Humber the choice to use its existing ticketing tool or utilize Buchanan’s BMC Remedy 9.1 ticketing tool, which had been recognized in the Gartner top quadrant, with no capital outlay.

The Success

Humber leadership is seeing the rewards in multiple avenues. Financially, Humber is experiencing a 6% decrease in per ticket cost using 1st tier pricing. At the second and third tier, the savings will be 17% and 25% respectively.

Efficiency and employee satisfaction has improved in the first two months. Buchanan’s Service Desk has answered 59% more calls, decreased the average speed to answer time by 85%, and decreased the maximum wait time for Humber faculty, staff and students by 77%.

The call abandonment rate has decreased from 40% to 5%. Cost controls are benefiting due to the elimination, or reallocation of funds for tools, salaries and system replacements. By leveraging Buchanan’s investment in the BMC Remedy 9.1 system, employee cost, tool recovery and management tool implementation costs is an estimated savings of $500K annually.

The addition of the Remedy 9.1 system has added e-mail and chat functionality, allowed the build of a knowledge base for future added efficiencies and provided the reporting leadership needs for proactive decision making. The HDI Team of certified agents and ITIL standards that Buchanan offers provides a consistent level and overall better experience to Humber’s end users.

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The Main Benefits & Challenges of Cloud Computing in Education

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 12:17:08 +0000

With the recent push for online courses, digital lesson plans, and remote learning, cloud-based platforms are more important than ever.

One Canadian school district reported annual IT cost savings of $12,000 after switching to an Azure-based cloud environment (BuiltIn). This also allowed their IT teams to focus on more important work.

In another case involving a school in Canada, a single institution saved $500,000 while improving the service levels of their IT help desk.

Cloud computing offers significant advantages to education, from K-12 schools to university students. But what do administrators need to know before moving forward?

The Main Benefits and Challenges of Cloud Computing in Education

To help you decide if cloud education solutions are suitable for your institution, here’s a quick rundown of the five main benefits and considerations of cloud computing in education.

5 Benefits of Cloud Computing

1. Long-Term Cost Savings

Cost reduction is a top benefit of cloud education software. Compared to managing an on-premise data center, cloud migration supports an IT ecosystem. It does so by helping companies shift from capital expenses to predictable monthly operation expenses.

These predictable monthly expenses bring several benefits to institutions, including:

Reduced data storage costs
Minimal data center maintenance
Less money spent on replacing aging physical IT hardware

This is a cost effective way to enhance your learning environment and create new educational opportunities.

2. Better Collaboration

Real time collaboration is an important aspect of cloud computing education. Cloud software helps to:

Support student communication
Create teacher management portals
Power remote learning virtual classrooms

Cloud management in education creates plenty of new collaborative possibilities. It’s the easiest way to create an environment where educators, students, and parents can stay on the same page.

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3. Easy Access and Resource Availability

A cloud based education platform also improves physical and digital access to resources. It makes it easier for students to access the same materials and learning resources, regardless of the devices or internet browsers they use.

Virtual solutions like cloud computing also provide ongoing learning opportunities for all students. They are often implemented in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

The WCAG is a list of recommendations that improve the accessibility of web-based content for people with disabilities and across mobile platforms.

WCAG-compliant online learning ensures that students with mobility issues or learning impairments can receive personalized instructional programs that properly address their needs.

4. Scalability

Compared with scaling on-premise data centers, cloud based software helps to reduce costs associated with facility growth.

No matter how many students you have or higher education facilities you manage, your cloud system can grow alongside you.

5. Modernizing Learning Environments

Solutions like the VMware cloud for education, available through Microsoft DaaS, are the best way to prepare educational institutions for the future. These technologies make your school more desirable for incoming students and allow you to provide a higher standard of learning.

Get Started On Your Cloud Journey

5 Considerations of Cloud Computing

Despite its benefits, there are also a few cloud computing issues and challenges in education.

1. Dependence on Internet Service Providers

An unfortunate reality of cloud computing in education is its reliance on internet access. Unlike traditional classrooms, service outages or poor bandwidth experienced by internet service providers can detract from online learning.

Working with a managed service provider helps to quickly determine whether the source of the issue is the end user or the cloud provider. A solution can then be implemented to provide you with improved access and connectivity.

2. Less Control

Although a benefit of cloud is accessibility to services and platforms in the education sector (like Blackboard), the concern is you have less control over updates, training, and other features.

Since the solution is being handled “as a service,” the infrastructure is handled by the cloud service provider and abstracted from your in-house team.

Everything is hosted off-site, so you’ll have less control over the infrastructure and the system setup. These are handled by your cloud service provider.

3. Vendor Commitment

Cloud solutions for higher education depend on the services of a single vendor. You typically can’t switch between service providers.

Working with an MSP can help you choose the right vendor for your needs. Moving the educational workload to the cloud is critical in picking the right provider.

A good provider listens to you, understands your risk and manages it from beginning to end, eliminating any unforeseen issues that may occur.

In most cases, once you sign with a provider, you will be locked into a service contract with them. However, most providers will let you out of a contract, but will charge you a penalty for breaking the contract early. This may not be a problem if you’re satisfied with your services, but it’s worth mentioning all the same.

4. Security

Cloud-based education technology is secure when set up correctly, but there are inherent security risks when all assets are hosted online. Improperly-secured cloud systems may be vulnerable to cyberattacks, and data security becomes a bigger concern

This concern escalates when users access resources across devices. If a device with saved credentials gets stolen, the cloud platform becomes accessible to an unauthorized user.

To avoid these issues, you’ll need to make security a priority. This begins with a proper setup of your cloud infrastructure and ensuring that all users are trained in cloud security best practices.

For example, considering an MDM management or multi-factor authentication from a MSP would offset many security concerns. This would also provide more protection from end user device vulnerability.

5. Up-Front Costs

While cost reduction is one of the primary benefits of cloud computing in education, there are also some up-front costs.

The migration may be costly, depending on how many applications or services you’re moving to the cloud. There’s also an opportunity cost in the time required to train staff on the new system and security best practices.

The savings come more from long-term reductions in operational IT costs, but administrators will need to be prepared for the long-term savings it will yield.

Summary of Cloud Computing in Education

While there are pros and cons to cloud computing, the comparison can be outlined as such:

Benefits of Cloud Computing	Considerations of Cloud Computing
Long-term IT cost reduction	Higher up front investment
Seamless collaboration	Risk of downtime
Complete resource availability	Potential security vulnerability
Scalability of IT assets	Vendor commitment
Modernized learning environment	Less control of IT Environment

Administrators should weigh the benefits against their needs and determine which solutions will provide the best outcomes for their learning environments.

Cloud computing and education are certainly compatible, provided you have the right integration partner behind you. If you need guidance or support, contact us at Buchanan Technologies and we’ll be happy to walk you through the details.

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7 Technology and IT Challenges in Higher Education

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 19:23:34 +0000

The education industry is tapping into the digital revolution, transforming how students learn, how professors teach, and how institutions operate.

With customized learning experiences at the forefront, the industry is seeing the introduction of gamification, digital classrooms, artificial intelligence, internet of things and more.

While this brings many positives, there are also many challenges involved with integrating tech into higher education. These higher education IT challenges come in many forms, and administrators may be unprepared to handle them without performing their due diligence.

Let’s take a closer look at some of these challenges and explore how institutions should address them.

7 Technology and IT Challenges in Higher Education

1. Data Security

One of the biggest challenges that educational institutions face is IT security. But IT security poses a major challenge because of the time, money and resources required to enhance network security.

Additionally, if the institution’s network was compromised in the past, these issues must be resolved prior to the implementation of any network improvements.

Even small breaches can be catastrophic. Research shows that the average cost of a data breach in education can be as high as $200 per record. Student information, social security numbers, and bank account data are all at stake.

To stay ahead of security threats, colleges and universities should adopt a security strategy (such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework) and use those guidelines to ensure the complete protection of the IT environment.

2. Supporting Student Success

The IT strategy needs to support student and staff success. As a result, it is important to establish specific and actionable goals that will overall enhance the student experience.

Here are some examples of goals that can be supported by IT initiatives:

Support easy enrollment
Enable education goals
Reduce IT tickets rates
Solve IT issues faster
Implement new technology like virtual reality
Help prepare their professional development

In 2017, 74% of higher learning institutions incorporated student success initiatives into their IT strategies. Those that did saw improvements to their public profile, student outcome, and academic success metrics

Of course, this implementation is often easier said than done. Administrators must prioritize the integrations that simultaneously support multiple success initiatives. They must also understand how technology defines each student’s on-campus experience.

Most solutions aren’t holistic. Universities will need to learn which tools are feasible for their budgets and how to integrate those tools seamlessly into the IT environment.

3. IT Staffing

Across developers, vendors, service managers, and business analysts, universities are facing greater demand for IT staff than ever before. This presents a challenge across both staffing optimization and compensation.

Research shows that staffing costs and capital outlays contributed to rising tuition costs over the years. The average tuition at public, four-year universities has increased 160% since 1990.

To manage staffing costs, institutions should take stock of their growing IT needs and how different positions align with their technology roadmaps.

This could mean improving the IT recruitment pipeline, cross-training staff, and developing a stronger IT workforce management strategy overall. These are viable strategies for addressing higher education IT challenges.

Are You Getting the Best Rate for Your Institution’s Service Desk?

4. Creating a Data-Enabled Culture

Institutions are seeing an increased reliance on data and information for decision-making. School districts need clear, measurable goals, and concrete data to validate how well those goals are met.

There’s no other way to ensure institutions make better use of their resources and address technology challenges in higher education.

Universities need to invest in business intelligence (BI) tools that offer basic analytics and reporting. They also need to consider advanced prescriptive analytics for the long term.

It is equally important to ensure that IT teams are appropriately trained on each tool’s use and know how to apply insights to support decisions.

5. Digital Integration

IT efficiency relies on smooth integration, interoperability, and coordination across all teaching and learning applications.

This is a growing challenge facing modern universities, as IT systems become less monolithic and more separated across varying products and services.

Universities need to account for these issues to eliminate inefficiencies and redundancies. Several strategies apply here:

Understanding key integration points across IT systems
Appointing data stewards to oversee processes
Identifying bottlenecks in educational technology applications and capacities
Creating policies to ensure smooth hardware/software integration

Above all, universities should leverage expertise and work towards a system of continual IT architecture improvement across all integrations.

6. Data Governance

The more data an institution has, the stronger its data governance policies must be. This applies to:

Data storage
Data security
Data management
Implementation processes

It represents one of the larger technology challenges in higher education.

Universities should begin by appointing dedicated personnel for data management and segregating data sets by their relative importance.

It’s important to start small and work up to larger data sets, categorizing and sorting information to benefit BI teams.

This is a long-term process of data sustainability. But it’s necessary if institutions want to get the most value from their data without undue time spent on management.

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7. Adapting to Change

The last challenge is also one of the largest — working toward enterprise-wide adoption of change in higher ed.

This needs to be supported by all levels of stakeholders, including dedicated coalitions that advocate for initiatives.

These initiatives may include implementing new structures, policies, programs, or staff, as needed to address the above challenges.

Research included in the 2020 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report offers good insight into the planning process and includes rundowns of emerging technological and economic trends set to shape the future of higher education.

These trends offer an important foundation for how educators can promote a change-oriented mindset in their institution:

Develop policies that support learning analytics
Maintain uniform standards for data services providers
Offer pedagogical training for new technology practices
Leverage learning analytics as a part of curriculum design

This is a long-term goal that’s never really “done.” It must be worked on continually to make digital transformation a core part of the university’s operating model. As time goes on, this digital focus will become even more important.

The Horizon Report predicts that U.S. college enrollments will drop by as much as 10% by the late 2020s. But technology may hold the answer to declining enrollments.

For example, fully online enrollments in Canada have increased by nearly 10% annually from 2015 to 2020. Universities that invest in a change-oriented mindset will be better positioned to capitalize on these trends.

Address Your Biggest IT Challenges in Education

Addressing these challenges are important steps towards solving IT issues in higher education and advancing digital equity. But internal strategy is only one part of the equation.

Universities can reduce IT implementation costs and IT management time by working with a managed services provider familiar with higher education.

Buchanan has over 30 years of experience in IT and can help bring down the cost of your institution’s digital transformation. Contact us today to learn more.

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5 Benefits of Smartsourcing IT in Higher Education

admin — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 19:27:29 +0000

Technology is rapidly changing the educational landscape and how institutions are operating day by day. With the plethora of platforms, software, and applications available to decision-makers today, it can be daunting for internal resources to work through the logistics of incorporating these technologies into their existing IT infrastructure.

We have also seen many universities shift to a virtual learning environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and as the dust is beginning to settle, some are contemplating adopting e-learning as a long-term solution for faculty and students.

Keeping up with all the different components of a university’s IT solution and technologies can be challenging for even the most elite IT team, which is why smartsourcing those responsibilities to a managed IT services provider may be a smart move.

Access to Resources

One of the biggest benefits of smartsourcing IT in a campus environment is the numerous resources that will be available, both from a technology and personnel perspective. Managed service providers are experts in their field and can recommend and implement the most cutting-edge IT solutions for your campus, as well as provide subject matter experts to deploy and manage the technology.

Many universities are located in rural areas that may not have a technology-driven workforce, and even if a skill set is available for hire locally, it may not fit within the university’s salary structure. Smaller universities that typically house fewer in-house IT resources and adhere to a strict budget may also benefit from smartsourcing, as IT resources may not be needed on a full-time basis, but rather concentrated in certain portions of the academic year. Smartsourcing managed services also ensures coverage during key personnel gaps due to vacations, sick leave, retirements, and departures.

Most importantly, if the university’s network goes down or they experience other connectivity or technical troubles, an MSP can quickly resolve their issues – perhaps more efficiently than an in-house team could – to significantly reduce the amount of downtime.

Increased Efficiency

Smartsourcing IT also benefits colleges and universities through cost savings and reallocation by lowering IT operating expenses and reducing operational costs. Sometimes, managed service providers can even combine the desired services into a procurement package – including licensing – to make it easier for schools to allocate the necessary funds.

Additionally, campuses of all sizes will likely need to do a fair amount of technology upgrades on a network and equipment level, and smartsourcing these types of projects to a service provider allows for these improvements be completed without the commitment to paying salaries or benefits.

As IT solutions expand and become increasingly complex, more time will inevitably need to be allocated to troubleshooting technical issues and decreasing downtime. By smartsourcing some or all their IT solution to a managed IT service provider, technical and non-technical resources are freed up and allowed to focus on important revenue-generating projects for the university.

Oftentimes, MSPs can act as an extension of a business – in this case, a college or university – when it comes to communicating with other vendors related to their IT solution. As they are the subject matter expert and have a wealth of knowledge, they will be able to speak to the infrastructure in place and ensure third-party technologies and applications will complement the overall solution.

Enhanced Service Levels

Managed service providers can also equip colleges and universities with tools to increase end user communication and satisfaction scores. One way this can be done is through a dedicated helpdesk. Not only can a helpdesk address common technical issues, such as account administration and network connectivity support, but it can also provide business process support through customer service and client relations as well as ticket and escalation management.

Additionally, with the varying levels of helpdesk available – whether it is overflow coverage, after-hours support, or 24/7×365 – institutions can select the coverage that best fits their specific criteria and ticket counts and budget. Though level 1 support to address basic inquiries is most common, higher levels of technical support are also available. Ideally, managed service providers will have proven, ongoing processes that drive constant knowledge for each institution. This allows the MSP to become familiar with the environment, geographic placement, and common challenges to provide a more customized approach to the end user.

Having a solution in place – such as a dedicated helpdesk from an agile and responsive MSP – will yield a quicker resolution of questions and issues, leading to higher levels of service and customer satisfaction.

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Customized Solutions

No IT solution is one size fits all, and no one recognizes that more than a managed service provider. MSPs are experts at identifying technical gaps and areas of improvement within an organization’s IT environment and making recommendations to correct issues and advance technologies for a highly-functioning, synergistic solution. This, in turn, will provide a more standardized approach to the university’s overall IT solution and related processes.

If a fully outsourced solution isn’t the best fit, a blended model may be the answer. This is where internal IT staff work together with the MSP to tackle various IT objectives. While the MSP mostly handles day-to-day IT monitoring and maintenance, such as break/fix assistance and troubleshooting network connectivity issues, internal resources can supplement the work the MSP is doing and focus on more important initiatives to keep the university’s technology projects moving forward.

There are several services that MSPs provide that an organization can choose from, including managed services complete, managed network devices, service desk, backup and disaster recovery solutions, cloud services, assistance with special IT projects, and much more. MSPs can also assist with implementing a learning management system (LMS), which is an outlet for instructors to manage online interactions and collaboration and provides learning resources and other content, tools to develop and track assignments and assessments, and some reporting and analytics capabilities.

Lastly, it is important to choose an MSP that can quickly staff up or down to provide the necessary levels of IT support as well as the ongoing maintenance that is associated. Having an IT partner that implements scalable solutions will ensure your IT framework is future-proofed and ready for changes in demand.

Reduced Risk

There is no shortage of data to safeguard in higher education. Employee data, student records, and financial documentation are just a few examples of information needing to remain confidential and secure. Today, most of this data has been digitized and resides on a network, allowing for easier unauthorized access if not properly monitored. With the right solutions in place, coupled with a network assessment and 24/7 system monitoring by an MSP, these assets will remain better protected from ransomware and viruses.

Another important component of data security is having a backup and disaster recovery plan in place. A successful disaster recovery plan will help colleges and universities achieve business continuity after a disaster has occurred. With a disaster recovery plan, all the data and applications that have been saved during a previous backup can be recovered and restored to defined recovery points within specifically established time parameters, removing concern about extended downtime and data loss. This can be accomplished through the services of an MSP for hands-off management of critical assets and infrastructure.

Moving data and applications to the cloud can also help reduce risk for colleges and universities. MSPs can conduct a cloud assessment to see what steps need to be taken to prepare for migration as well as handle the deployment of the technology. Cloud solutions are especially ideal for campuses due to their scalable nature.

Next Steps

There are numerous benefits for colleges and universities smartsourcing some or all their IT solution to a managed service provider. Depending on what funding is approved to accomplish your goals this year, an MSP can work with you to conduct an assessment and provide an all-inclusive hardware, software, and project or management services package that allows you to understand exactly what you will receive. If you are a higher education facility with significant on-premises IT infrastructure and assets needing support, contacting an MSP is a great first step to help you reach your goals and provide better service to current and prospective faculty, staff and students.

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