Whether you’re with a large K-12 school district, a small private or charter school, or a local community college, technology plays an important role in how you educate your students.
- Your instructors rely on technology to plan and present lessons.
- Your students require technology to complete class assignments.
- Your administration needs technology to conduct mandated testing.
And that’s just touching the surface on all of the ways you require functional IT.
You want your students to have all the tools to succeed, but navigating the logistics of that goal can get tricky, especially when it comes to technology.
How do School Benefit from Managed IT Services?
The KR Group has seen first-hand how education institutions of all sizes can benefit from our managed IT services. We can help you go from always playing catch up to proactively managing your IT environment.
Some of the top reasons we suggest education institutions sign up for managed IT services include:
- Industry experience
- Reliable, redundant staff
- Help planning for refresh cycles
In other words, you can have confidence that when you sign up for managed IT services, your provider will address all of your unique technology needs.
Benefit #1: MSPs Have Experience Working with Schools
Helping schools is something MSPs have experience with. Public schools, private schools, and higher education institutions often look to an MSP when they find themselves looking for a better IT support option.
This means we also have experience with some of the specific IT concerns of your organization.
For example, regardless of your students’ age, you have to administer standardized testing, which means you also need the IT hardware and support to make it work.
MSPs have back-tested knowledge of the overarching needs for testing as well the software required to administer these tests.
This applies to all schools, regardless if you use Google, Microsoft, or Apple solutions.
Benefit #2: MSPs Employ Reliable, Redundant Staff
IT managers can be difficult to recruit because the person who fills the role will have a large workload. Additionally, they’ll need to know about the unique software your school uses, different policies for students, and general knowledge of any compliance measures you must meet.
If you do manage to find the perfect candidate, you’re completely reliant on them. However, inevitably your IT manager will need some time off, which leaves you left without support.
MSPs are structured differently, and we have multiple engineers on staff to avoid any gaps in support. Additionally, we’ve already found the engineers who know how to address all of your problems, so you don’t have to worry about recruiting them.
Benefit #3: MSPs Can Help You Plan for Technology Refreshes
IT hardware is a crucial part of your school. Your staff relies on it to teach, and your students depend on it to learn.
The wide range of users and reliance on technology means devices may take more abuse than in other industries.
By having experience with other educational institutions, MSPs can help you plan for a refresh cycle that makes sense for your school.
Why Is Your School a Good Candidate for Managed IT Services?
At this point, you should see how MSPs can be a helpful resource for schools. But what about yours?
Let’s take a look at how an MSP can specifically help K-12 schools and colleges or universities:
K-12 Schools
As your students continue to rely on technology for more and more of their school day, we know you need a provider who can handle all of your needs.
Experience: State-mandated testing can be stressful on your entire school. Your MSP can alleviate some of the stress by offering expertise and knowledge meeting the technical demands of standardized tests.
Redundancy: An engineer is always available. Even if your assigned engineer is out of the office, another equally knowledgeable engineer will respond to your service requests. This means you don’t have to worry about your students going without the technology they need to succeed in school.
Refresh: The level of care given to your IT devices depends on your students’ ages. Regardless, your students are tough on technology. MSPs understand this and will help you plan scheduled refreshes and replacements to ensure you have enough functioning devices for your students.
Higher Education
Technology needs for colleges or universities are slightly different from those of a K-12 district, but the same themes exist.
Experience: MSP engineers have experience with college-level testing requirements, too. They also know the technical requirements for the software used in your different programs.
Redundancy: With multiple engineers on an MSP’s staff, you don’t have to worry about going without support. Some managed IT service contracts also include after-hours support if your IT environment goes down overnight or on the weekend.
Refresh: Your students are generally gentler on devices than K-12 school systems, but you’ll still benefit from an IT solution with knowledge in this area. MSPs can help plan to replace your desktops or laptops that see multiple users and other parts of your IT environment.
How Can Managed IT Services Benefit Your School?
While experience, redundancy, and refresh planning are all important to your school, we know it’s only the start of what you need from an IT support plan.
You ultimately need every component of your IT environment functioning to empower your staff and students. It’s a position that requires knowledge, experience, and attention to detail. Thankfully, these are all things MSPs have provided for schools of all sizes.
Looking for more information about what benefits a managed IT services contract can provide your school? Check out the following articles: