Kenosha Unified School District

System Upgrades Needed to Streamline Support

With a new school year and proper budget planning on the part of the District’s IS leadership, the plan was set in motion to upgrade all the administrative staff to a single platform. That meant purchasing over 300 desktop and laptop systems. Additionally, they wanted assurance that any future purchases throughout the school year would be the same platform. Most importantly, they needed to make this upgrade fit within their budget and staff resources for deployment and on-going support services.
 

A Great Relationship is Formed

Heartland Business Systems (Heartland) provided system options to KUSD for Dell desktops and laptops that were within the budget and were models that would be available throughout the year. Other quotes received by the District were lower in price, but included models that were being phased out, which would not meet the District’s needs.

The systems were ordered in the fall, but the District’s IS team needed to wait until January for physical deployment. Heartland provided warehousing for the systems without affecting their warranty, nor increasing the cost of the project as initially proposed. When given the “green light” by the District, Heartland delivered the systems pre-imaged to their specifications.  Heartland also took care of removing all of the boxes and packaging material; thus, saving the District time and hassle of handling all the packing materials. The IS team owned physically deploying the systems. They provided mandatory training to the administrative staff on Windows 7 and Office 2010 to ease the transition from older versions to the look, feel, and functionality of the new systems.

KUSD became Dell authorized for service in order to utilize Dell’s web-based portal to support the desktops and laptops themselves.

They had the opportunity to upgrade some classrooms during the school year, and were able to purchase the same computers as specified in their RFP for the initial project. Heartland assisted with some tweaks to KUSDs in house imaging system allowing the IS team to set up systems themselves as future purchases were made.

KUSD enjoys working with their Heartland Account Manager, Joanna Thoms, and her team.  The account management team approach is unique to Heartland. KUSD found the service to be prompt and appreciated the team approach so that they didn’t have to wait for one person to respond to a question, because anyone on the team knew their project and could assist.
 

Impact on Efficiency

The upgrade had a huge effect on the staff at KUSD. IS staff now provide improved service with only having to support one type of system configuration. Help desk staff are now happier because they are able to provide better service. The Administrative staff are pleased to have faster systems and be able to easily share documents. Security has improved through the use of the latest hardware and software.

Business Needs

• Standardize desktop and laptop platforms for administrative staff, counselors and librarians
• Image and deploy over 300 desktop/laptops in a timely and efficient manner with little disruption to the end-users

Solution Components

• System specification options
• Procurement services
• Unboxing, pre-imaging, and removal of packaging
• Warehousing
• Delivery 

Technology

• 298 new Dell desktops
• 56 new Dell laptops