something about our four quadrant approach to business needs
Outline the problems that small business face: Growth and downsizing
Typical MSPs approach each business the same way: How can I do the least amount of work for the most profit? OunceIT approaches each business by first listening to what their needs are — sometimes that’s X and other times that’s high-touch.
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:
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.
OunceIT’s retained services
Following the completion of your Discovery
Tier-one on-site and remote-first help desk staffing
OunceIT tier-one support technicians provide customer service-focused support for employees faculty, staff, and students, both on site and remotely, as needed. Our team provides daily, proactive support paired with just-in-time response to unpredictable IT needs outside and inside the classroom, as well as remote monitoring of mission critical systems.
Tier-two advanced technical support
OunceIT offers dependable tier-two advanced technical support focused on maintaining on-premise and cloud-based infrastructure. Regular, proactive maintenance and monitoring of critical IT infrastructure can limit downtime and the impact of unreliable systems on all constituents. Regular upkeep can also keep down IT costs and the expense of downtime on productivity. Enterprise-grade backups for on-premises and cloud-based services can reduce the risk of data loss and further impact on productivity.
Tier-three project support: infrastructure
IT infrastructure growth and improvements can be an expensive investment and require proper planning and implementation, adherence to best practices, and thoughtful design. OunceIT has the capacity to perform wireless heat mapping, network design and engineering, implementation of improvements or overhauls to large networks, virtual server environments, and on-premise, cloud-based, and hybrid solutions.
Executive IT consulting: operations, compliance, and planning
In addition to tiered support and support in specific subject areas, OunceIT also provides executive IT support and leadership (“Virtual Tech Director”).
Our expertise includes technology process review, workflow improvement, and long-term planning including review of cyber security risks and recommendations. Our portfolio includes experience as an IT provider to many area businesses, schools, and non-profit organizations, where we manage IT needs and departments, partnering with client leadership to establish and refine technology strategies that support the organization’s mission and improve workflows and processes to help all departments use technology more effectively as a tool.
OunceIT’s leadership team will also partner with additional outside resources and vendors, as necessary, to make recommendations and assist in implementing industry standards in data security and financial compliance.
Cyber security best practices review and risk mitigation
The threat and risk of cyber security incidents has been rising, along with insurance- and audit-driven requirements for organizations to have more robust programs and processes in place to deal with these increasing threats. To address these areas, OunceIT has developed a robust set of services, geared specifically toward the needs of our clients, with the goal of identifying key cyber security gaps and improving overall cyber security awareness, knowledge, and response to these increasing threats.
Following our review, we include a roadmap for how to make improvements to limit cyber risk. Often this plan includes steps to implement single-sign-on, multi-factor authentication, phishing awareness and mitigation, data loss prevention and disaster recovery planning, IT controls review, student privacy review, and a plan for ongoing faculty and staff training. It may also include the creation of best practices documents like a WISP or an incident response plan.
If desired, a full IT audit can be arranged with a third-party partner for the purpose of a thorough security process review and IT controls review and development.
EdTech consulting, professional development, and EdTech Residency
OunceIT is uniquely structured to help schools beyond traditional IT support with our EdTech team.
Our team includes experienced classroom teachers who possess both an affinity and facility for those EdTech tools that best complement one another, advance the delivery of curricula, and boost student engagement. In partnering with teachers and school leadership, we customize recommendations based on the needs and strengths of each specific community through evaluation, adoption, and training on those core tools.
Our approach to the EdTech Ecosystem includes EdTech tool adoption, and management incorporates a balanced focus on both the value of streamlining cost-effective, school-wide solutions while preserving teacher autonomy and student agency.
Integrated Services
OunceIT’s Integrated Client Services model allows for flexibility in staffing as well as the ability to allocate the most appropriate staff based on need and skill, while maintaining a “Team Lead” — an OunceIT team member who will be predominantly responsible for the school’s technical needs. We will be able to ramp up or ramp down staffing on a weekly or even sporadic basis, and provide insight into how other schools are meeting similar challenges.
Ultimately, each of our schools benefit from OunceIT’s personable employees and vast experience managing high quality IT departments. OunceIT’s skilled staff will manage specific projects for the school, working directly with faculty and staff, and as the school’s needs evolve, we can adjust our hourly commitment to scale with those needs.
Thanks to the nature of OunceIT’s embedded IT support model, each of our school’s faculty, staff, and students will have the opportunity to take advantage of OunceIT staff as though we were direct hires, while also tapping into the benefits that a third party can provide.
Process Improvement and Information Systems Consulting Services
Effective implementation, use, and management of information systems must integrate people and processes with the use proper use technology platforms to minimize the risk to an organization’s mission-critical data and information.
In addition to traditional IT support, OunceIT offers consulting services for all phases of systems analysis, evaluation, implementation, integration, and on-going support and training for administrative and academic information systems.
Our consulting focus is on managing the cyclical needs of the client school’s student information systems including integrations with other third-party vendors and platforms.
OunceIT’s process and workflow mapping workshops can help identify breakdowns in a school’s data flow, improve communication between departments, and improve processes around the student lifecycle and faculty and staff onboarding and off-boarding.
Other…
Integrated Services
OunceIT’s Integrated Client Services model allows for flexibility in staffing as well as the ability to allocate the most appropriate staff based on need and skill, while maintaining a “Team Lead” — an OunceIT team member who will be predominantly responsible for the school’s technical needs. We will be able to ramp up or ramp down staffing on a weekly or even sporadic basis, and provide insight into how other schools are meeting similar challenges.
Ultimately, each of our schools benefit from OunceIT’s personable employees and vast experience managing high quality IT departments. OunceIT’s skilled staff will manage specific projects for the school, working directly with faculty and staff, and as the school’s needs evolve, we can adjust our hourly commitment to scale with those needs.
Thanks to the nature of OunceIT’s embedded IT support model, each of our school’s faculty, staff, and students will have the opportunity to take advantage of OunceIT staff as though we were direct hires, while also tapping into the benefits that a third party can provide.