Discovery Process
IT begins with understanding. We begin our engagement with a comprehensive Discovery to assess and understand our client’s particular needs and culture, outlined below. Our Discovery provides an assessment of your school’s greatest technology needs, prioritized based on your input. If any critical issues are identified during the process, OunceIT staff will alert your leadership to discuss whether and how to address such circumstances.
Following the Discovery, we partner with your school to establish effective and reliable use of technology, adapted to the needs of your organization. Our goal is to help your organization improve all areas that touch technology—from the inside—to design and implement a dynamic and sustainable technology plan
OunceIT’s New Client Engagement team, in partnership with the school’s leadership and staff, will assess the school’s technology with a focus on the following areas, with particular focus paid to areas specific to your organization or industry:
Stabilization and Retained Services
Following the Discovery, we partner with your school to establish effective and reliable use of technology, adapted to the needs and priorities of your organization.
That can be achieved by implementing a series of projects to stabilize your greatest technology challenges, or retained services to provide ongoing support to your school through supplemental support to your in-house IT staff, or a managed IT department staffed and managed by OunceIT. Or it may be a focus on a specific area like EdTech or Information Systems.
OunceIT’s Discovery Process
Intake and onboarding: Conduct a knowledge transfer in partnership with existing IT staff or other service providers, including documentation of the existing network infrastructure, mobile device management, phones, security systems, etc… If systems are undocumented, documentation will be provided as a deliverable.
Network infrastructure: Assess the state of your organization’s wired and wireless network, working from the outside in: Internet connection(s) to the firewall(s)/router(s), switches, logical network (VLANs), wireless access points, and connectivity.
Servers and services: Assess network services (Directory services, DNS, DHCP, etc…), physical and virtual servers, and on-premise file sharing and other services.
Cloud services: Identify and review need for existing, redundant, and extraneous cloud services. Review cloud-based file sharing, including folder structure, user access, and permissions. Address setup and/or challenges related to SSO or integration(s) between third-party services. We are experienced with most industry leading platforms including Google, Microsoft, Zoom, and many other cloud services.
End user experience and devices: Asses laptop and device management, reliability, age/replacement cycle, and budget; conference room and classroom audio/video; printers and print management; phones and communications; etc… If desired, we can also assess (and plan and implement) the need to migrate from one system to another (e.g. MS 365 to Google; on-prem phone to Zoom or Teams).
IT operations: Review IT process, documentation, budget management and tracking, software and service license management, vendor management, support, and warranties.
Risk mitigation and cyber security: Review data storage, backups, and recovery; network security, monitoring, security practices, password management, phishing, policies, user access controls and change management, acceptable use and information security plan, incident response plans.
Educational technology: Deliberate use of technology tools for teaching and learning; professional development, digital health and wellness, student safety, showcasing student work, and learning management systems. We can review academic core tools and, if desired, we can help your faculty and academic leadership assess your current learning management system, and help plan and implement the migration to a new LMS.
Information systems: Student information systems, data flow, data integrity, and process. If desired, we can conduct a process mapping workshop with faculty and staff to assess your current student information system, and help plan and implement the migration to a new SIS. We have experience with most leading student information systems including BlackBaud, Veracross, Powerschool, Community Brands/Ravenna, FinalSite, and many more.
In addition to the areas of focus listed above, additional deep dives into Educational Technology and Information Systems and Process are available to schools, and Cyber Security review is available to clients in all industries. And throughout the Discovery process, OunceIT staff are available to supplement in-house IT staff on a day-to-day basis, or be available for your staff to escalate issues that may arise that are beyond their capacity or capabilities.
Following the Discovery, we partner with your school to establish effective and reliable use of technology, adapted to the needs and priorities of your organization.
That can be achieved by implementing a series of projects to stabilize your greatest technology challenges, or retained services to provide ongoing support to your school through supplemental support to your in-house IT staff, or a managed IT department staffed and managed by OunceIT.