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KINGSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS | CASE STUDY
CASE STUDY EMAIL [email protected] PUBLIC SCHOOLS
“CentraStage has opened my eyes to a new way of doing things.”
Bill Wolff, Technical Director Kingston Public Schools
Kingston Public Schools | CASE STUDY
Kingston Public Schools initially rolled out CentraStage to a small number
of clients and at the time of our interview, have it installed on 500-600
devices. They managed to find 98% of their clients through CentraStage,
and downloaded the client manually to the rest.
One of the biggest challenges within Kingston Public Schools has been
keeping on top of software updates with the minimum of convenience.
AdditionallAdditionally, pushing 64-bit updates out to 32 bit machines was not
possible, so conditions had to be applied to facilitate this.
‘I’m a technical director, but I’m not a coder. I still managed to do it –
it’s self-explanatory’ says Bill. ‘If CentraStage did nothing but multi-
platform silent updates for us, that alone would be worth the time
savings.’
The biggest impact Bill attributes to the simplicity of the user interface,
the ease of use and short learning curthe ease of use and short learning curve. After the initial demo,
Bill has relied on minimal CentraStage help to get to grips the system,
and has found his way around the system very quickly, including the
resources available.
Kingston Public Schools locat-
ed on Lake Texoma and has
3 campuses and 1,200
students. Due to recent bond
elections, Kingston is now
home to the largest gym-
nasium / communinasium / community building
in the area. This has helped
improve student, teacher, and
community pride and improved
morale. Their students have
recently scored above average
on their individual state tests.
CASE STUDY EMAIL WEBWWW.CENTRASTAGE.COM
Bill Wolff, Technology Director at Kingston Public Schools outlines a few
of the problems his team faced:
“We had no IT management solution and were looking after a large
volume of devices over three campuses. Our users had an issue, and
we solved it. The machines we couldn’t get to we didn’t fix! We operated
on break-fix, and had no time to implement new things. We had looked
at seat several solutions but they were too expensive for us. CentraStage
was recommended to us by an associate;; we rolled it out on 4-5
machines and played around with it. We had an anti-virus installed and
we found that CentraStage monitored well, and unlike other solutions we
had tried, it wasn’t bulky and didn’t slow down our machines.”
There is a perception that the more technology there is, the more money
is required to support it. This as an ethos is at odds with the very limited
budgets budgets available, yet schools rely on technology to support teachers and
students across the campuses. CentraStage believes that IT management
doesn’t have to cost the earth, and education sector clients such as
Kingston Public Schools are now able to get the most out of their IT.
[email protected] Public Schools
Kingston Public Schools | CASE STUDY
Not having to update individual machines every time there is a software
update has been a game changer for Bill’s team as well as for the
customers he supports across Kingston Public Schools. With all
maintenance tasks being carried out behind the scenes, time is freed
up for both the IT team and the end users.
Bill looks to the future: ‘I’m excited to use CentraStage as it has already
made life so much easier for me. made life so much easier for me. We’ve now got more time to spend on
customizable installs, and have freed up a significant amount of time.
It has opened my eyes to a new way of doing things and I don’t see an
end to what I can do with CentraStage. For example, I was experiencing
an issue with our anti-virus software and I thought: ‘There’s got to be a
different way!’ The anti-virus people’s solution didn’t work – however,
CentraStage’s Community pointed me to a ready-made script, and it
solsolved the problem.’
CentraStage looks forward to supporting Bill and his IT environment for
the benefit of the students and staff at Kingston.
CASE STUDY EMAIL [email protected] Public Schools