Case Studies

Netrix IT at Shattuck-St. Mary’s School, Faribault, MN

Relationship:

Shattuck St. Mary's (SSM) is a coeducational boarding and day school serving 400 students in grades 6-12. SSM employs 100 faculty and staff members, many of whom live on or near the campus, located in Faribault, MN. Netrix IT is a technical support and solutions provider that has become a partner responsible for technology engineering, advisory consulting, maintenance, and support services for the SSM technology systems. Netrix IT works closely with SSM's in-house tech resource person managing their technical workload via remote access management tools.

Opportunity:

SSM sought an alternative, cost-effective solution for technical leadership and support when one of their two in-house technology staff left the school.

Solution:

Netrix IT designed a system to remotely monitor, support and maintain SSM's 15 servers and 30 managed switches, routers and firewalls on a 24 X 7 X 365 basis. Using NetAssure™ with a suite of remote management tools, and the support services bundled with them, Netrix IT provides SSM with a robust, reliable and secure network at a fixed monthly cost. Rather than addressing problems as they arise—and paying for costly emergency services—Netrix IT proactively monitors and optimizes server performance, continually monitors software and hardware performance, and regularly backs up critical applications—all at a predictable monthly cost.

Additional on-site and remote technical engineering and consulting services are provided as needed and are funded through a revolving block-time agreement. Project management and/or leadership for projects outside the normal support and maintenance duties are provided on a negotiated fee basis. Netrix IT also provides ongoing consultation on system architecture and new technical options as opportunities arise.

Outcome:

SSM is better managing their IT costs while maintaining one internal technical staff person who provides faculty and students with day-to-day end-user support. The customer has access to all levels of Netrix IT service and staff when and where they are needed and only pays for the services they use. Changes in the structure of the technical support team have resulted in improved response time and technical support for end-users, and allowed the school to refocus budget and personnel resources to better serve achievement of its mission and strategic goals.

Next Steps:

Netrix IT will continue to offer SSM their full spectrum of technical products and services at a predictable and affordable price. While SMM will not be spending less on technology leadership and support, they will get a higher return on their investment by being able to access the knowledge and skills they need when and where they are required to ensure a network for their students, faculty and staff that is reliable, secure, and safe.

Shattuck St. Mary’s Staff Comments:

Stephan Weissmann is the lone technical support person at Shattuck-Saint Mary's school in Faribault, Minnesota, where he serves 500 students, faculty and staff. “Netrix IT has my back,” says Stephan, “they allow me to take a vacation—if users have a problem they can call the Netrix IT Helpdesk and quickly get their problem resolved.”

Stephan appreciates the knowledge and experience Netrix IT provides. SSM's network was properly designed and installed, and he reports, “It runs at nearly 100% reliability.” When problems arise, he can call on their expertise to quickly resolve them. As a result, “I can get more work done,” he says.

Jennifer Sorenson is the Science Department Chair at SSM. She says, “The network has been much more stable since Netrix IT has been involved. It's not down as often, and not down as long as it used to be.” She appreciates that Netrix IT “understands the need for a quick response” when teachers have problems accessing the network—their classroom's connection to worldwide resources. As a result of the network running more consistently, she reports that Stephan is more readily available to assist staff and students with their problems or questions.

Jennifer is pleased that faculty files are automatically backed up on the network, which has prevented the loss of important documents, student data, and instructional resources. She is also grateful for Netrix IT's support in setting appropriate parameters for student access to the Internet. “They anticipated things kids could get into and installed firewalls to prevent access to inappropriate sites.” And they monitor student use of Internet sites to ensure student safety (and to document violations of school policy). Their Securence™ e-mail system prevents almost all spam, without limiting access to authentic messages.

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