Managed Service for Education

Planning wisely and budgeting ahead in this current economic climate, is a must. School finances are being squeezed across all departments. ICT equipment and services are not immune.

It’s a popular practice within a family of schools, to share the services of an ICT technician, and to ‘buy in’ their time at a school-to-school level. This could be for as little as one day a week, almost guaranteeing that the technician spends time merely firefighting issues as they arise and reacting to the many requests made of them.

Larger schools and academies might be blessed with an in-house ICT support, however this asset may still be in a position where they are largely playing a reactionary role in the school. Without the time to develop knowledge or expertise to support well planned, technically adept and education-savvy solutions to teaching staff.

In almost all education institutions, there is a need to consider training and familiarization courses for any technical and ICT-focussed staff when introducing new technology. Most schools and institutions are not fully conversant with all the benefits Apple technology and systems can bring. These could include introducing Apple’s Volume Purchase Plan (for the purchasing of apps and content), Apple Classroom (for assisting teachers to guide and track their students progress through a lesson) and Device Enrolment Plan (for streamlining deployment of devices) to name just a few. This is where KRCS can really help you get the most from your investment in technology.

The FirstClass Managed Service for Schools is a subscription-based service by KRCS and is part of our wider FirstClass programme. This is designed to help you successfully deploy iPad and Mac systems – whether you’re just beginning your journey with Apple or trying to make the most of what you already have.

What benefit does a Managed Service subscription provide to you and your school?

There are two levels to our Managed Service. An essential set of services which can be provided for as little as £1.06 per device, per month, which can be customized and complimented with our ‘Bolt On’ services which will give you access to our professional services, consultancy and support.

By using JAMF Pro, for mobile device management, our software and tools allows our technicians to take over the day-to-day device management which can erode teaching and burn through ICT support time. A familiar scenario to most schools we talk to would involve you, or worse, your teaching staff using up valuable teaching time with a class-set of iPads, individually plugging them into a sync trolley. Manually preparing each device, reloading apps and syncing class resources. This can be a time consuming and thankless task, even for those who know their way around the technology. Repeat this task every day (or even more than once, in a busier school), and it becomes easy to see how workflow improvements and out-sourcing can make tangible savings in your staff’s time.

What do KRCS do as part of this service?

With years of experience in set-up and managing devices in educational settings, our technicians can provide the following -

• Remote troubleshooting and technical support - Having problems with a particular device or something isn’t behaving as you’d expect it to, then call us and we can remotely resolve any issues quickly and efficiently.
• Application deployment to iOS or MacOS devices - Need a new suite of apps deploying on a class set of devices? We will manage this for you.
• Device configuration management - Want to lock out a certain feature or want to restrict access to an app or core iOS settings? We will advise and discuss restricting devices to only offer those features which you and your students need, in order to stay focused and be productive in class. Maybe you need to prevent access to the camera, YouTube or to stop students maliciously locking out the device? We will ensure device management is a quick request away.
• Registration of devices with Apple enrolment programs (DEP) - You may have recently acquired a new devices, and require them to be added to the program. We will quickly register them with Apple and ensure they are enrolled to the Mobile Device Management system for you.
• Integration with Apple programs and other school systems - Using Apple deployment programs for schools we can ensure your software licenses, device purchases and even student roster are integrated with our management solution. Whether that be a new music app deployed silently to a lab of iMacs or a teacher controlling classroom behaviour using the Apple Classroom app on iPad, these integrations provide real tangible benefits to teaching and learning in classrooms.
• Setup assistance for Apple deployment programs - Signing up to Apple’s deployment programs can be a little daunting, particularly if you have legacy accounts and app licenses that you'd like to migrate in to a new solution. But our team have been there and done that many times and are happy to support you with their experience, ensuring that any unnecessary roadblocks are removed.

With significant investment in time and training, your ICT technician could become qualified to a sufficient level to provide these services in-house. If that ICT tech is a shared resource, possibly working across several schools, then it may also take some time for them to be able to deliver this level of support to your school. All that wasted time can be given back to you, as well as ensuring maximum value is gained from your investment in Apple equipment in productive teaching time by letting KRCS do the heavy-lifting for you.

Our technicians are always available to remotely support your school and its devices. By offering bolt-ons to your FirstClass Managed Service subscription you can customise the service your school receives, ensuring even better value via services such as -

• Scheduled maintenance and consultancy days in your school from our Apple certified technicians and engineers.
• Onsite technical assistance days to mentor school staff or to assist you with device deployments
• Apple Professional Learning, with onsite training delivered by our Apple accredited trainer

Additionally, we’re also able to provide onsite swap-outs of iPad units which require repair. Whatever your school or institutions individual needs are, we are happy to discuss with you from the outset to ensure you have complete peace of mind.

The FirstClass Managed Service offers flexibility on payments. Unlike many service plans where the fees are paid in full, in advance, on an annual basis, KRCS offer service in budget-friendly quarterly, termly or if preferred, annual instalments. This can help to ease the cash-flow issues that often prevent schools investing in these valuable services.

FirstClass Managed Service for Schools offers you and your establishment a reliable, proficient, timely and professional service to call upon to manage your school’s Apple devices. With competitive pricing that is easy to fit in to your budget and offers personalisation to your institution via bolt-ons, which ensure you pay for exactly what you need and nothing else.

If you would like some more information, or would like to find out how we can help your school, please contact our Education team on 0115 985 1797 or email edsales@krcs.co.uk.

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Email us at info@krcs.co.uk

Give us a call on 0115 985 1797