I have just returned from the GITEX Expo in Dubai. It is massive expo featuring major and minor IT players. Everyone from Oracle to the Taiwanese Trade Commission is there. I normally got over a two day period to have enough time to talk to everyone and see new solutions. Although most of the displays focused on corporate IT, I did see 20-30 vendors demonstrating classroom technology.
What was appalling to me was that everyone was trying to create some type of cheaper or varied solution for projecting and image and then interacting with it on a wall or board. Similar to SMART Technologies. Just a few meters from most of these vendors were companies such as WACOM and GENIUS which have very cool wireless accessories to make any classroom flexible. Simple additions that free the teacher/presenter from the confines of a board, and allow them to work around the room. In every case, the teacher/presenter spends most of their time with their back to their audience.
Not only is the audience looking at the back of someone's head while they are literally speaking toward the wall, the teacher/presenter is going through menus and trying to do and redo things on the board with a bunch of tools and "toys". The audience probably can describe the hairline of the teacher/presenter better than the content of the presentation.
If we look at best practice strategies for HUMAN COMMUNICATION and PUBLIC SPEAKING, we find that successful speakers and good instructors:
* Make eye contact
* Change their tone and inflection and project their voices clearly
* Use hand motions and other non-verbal cues
* Use presentation media as a guide not a distraction
* When applicable allow the audience to participate in the creation or manipulation of media
* Connect on an emotional level to help ingrain the message into the minds of the audience
I could go on and on. Basically making the focus of the classroom or presentation the back of someone's head is a mistake. We are losing the discipline of good public speaking, by demanding technology that separates us from our audiences. It really needs to stop before we forget how to stand-up and create a presentation, when all we have is an idea.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
How to Support Open Source with your IT Budget
Many schools use open source unofficially. They download programs like VLC and then clone them across all their installations. They run servers with Apache to provide numerous services to their communities. Yet normally they cannot donate or contribute any money to these open source projects because of the way supplier registration works.
I would be nice if every year the IT budget could have a line item called 'Open Source'. Then the IT director would be allowed to take various amounts of money and donate them to the projects that the school depends. However, this probably would not work. Most accountants do not understand the concept of open source, and even if they did they would never officially support a payment that did not require an invoice.
I think the solution is simple. IT directors need to employ a multi-faceted strategy to ensure that every year open source projects get additional financial support.
1. Raise awareness with parent and student groups who raise money. Let them know what benefits they are getting from open source, and explain how cost would increase for the community if these projects do not keep growing.
2. Lead fund raising efforts for IT projects that use open source software. The project can be the benefit to the community and the money can be donated to the open source project. There are so many projects that can support various groups within the community, but are difficult to budget for or get approved.
3. Create reports that bottom-liners such as accountants can understand. Build these reports year after year to show how much money is saved by using open source software. Make sure these reports include projections of savings if the software is continuously used and projections of budgetary increases if the open source software were not used any longer.
If open source software can find awareness among users, eventually bottom-liners will have to start paying attention to the numbers and make the needed changes in policy to allow schools to directly and publicly support software that is empowering their communities.
I would be nice if every year the IT budget could have a line item called 'Open Source'. Then the IT director would be allowed to take various amounts of money and donate them to the projects that the school depends. However, this probably would not work. Most accountants do not understand the concept of open source, and even if they did they would never officially support a payment that did not require an invoice.
I think the solution is simple. IT directors need to employ a multi-faceted strategy to ensure that every year open source projects get additional financial support.
1. Raise awareness with parent and student groups who raise money. Let them know what benefits they are getting from open source, and explain how cost would increase for the community if these projects do not keep growing.
2. Lead fund raising efforts for IT projects that use open source software. The project can be the benefit to the community and the money can be donated to the open source project. There are so many projects that can support various groups within the community, but are difficult to budget for or get approved.
3. Create reports that bottom-liners such as accountants can understand. Build these reports year after year to show how much money is saved by using open source software. Make sure these reports include projections of savings if the software is continuously used and projections of budgetary increases if the open source software were not used any longer.
If open source software can find awareness among users, eventually bottom-liners will have to start paying attention to the numbers and make the needed changes in policy to allow schools to directly and publicly support software that is empowering their communities.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Anyone can hire a consultant.
It is difficult for school administrators to know what they are getting when they recruit someone to lead their IT programs and/or manage their IT infrastructure. After all if the person comes with a good reference then they probably can do the job. However this may mean out sourcing every school project to a third-party. Administrators often hire people, who simply hire people. This practice causes budgets to sky rocket as every project comes with it’s normal cost plus a consulting mark-up.
Choosing a person can be done more strategically by profiling the type of person you need, and this need of course should have been determined by people in the community who have voiced their opinions on the where they feel the direction of IT should be heading. Often this comes by way of complaints and ranting emails, but all the clues should be somewhere in the community.
First and foremost you need to know if you need someone to build or re-build your infrastructure. This person will not be a long term contract. You will bring them in for 2-5 years. This is not someone who is going to patiently sit around and manage printers and order software. This person is a builder, someone with big ideas and they will have a “hands-on” sense about them. The knowledge to plan a new infrastructure, or up-grade an aging one, comes from making mistakes. It comes from understanding how problems in networks cascade, and how data needs to be structured, maintained, and archived.
The next type of person you might be looking for is the day-to-day status quo administrator. This person needs to be someone who the community can relate to, they need diplomatic skills for managing users and service agreements with vendors. These people also need to know how to integrate technology into the class room. If you do not see a need for a major network or system overhaul within 2 years of hiring them, then they will have plenty of time to do research and find a good solutions partners to deliver upgrades and changes.
The third type of person to seek out is the IT coordinator. This person is usually supporting an IT manager and the teachers and students in the classroom. They need to be an extreme hobbyist, with good research skills, creative problem solving skills, and the ability to translate between the IT Department and the rest of the school.
No matter what type of skill set you decide on or come across you need someone who cares about education. You need someone who understands the irrational demands created by students, stressed-out teachers, and parents. You need someone who can relate to people who are not solely motivated by money and stock-options. Trust me on this, your IT People need to be the beating heart of your institution. Not everything in a school will be about the bottom-line, and many problems are created from the challenge of trying to help others achieve something new. A good IT leader will on occasion make a risky budgetary move, gambling on the un-known educational returns. They will not always measure the ROI on money alone. They have to to care about learning, helping people, and creating opportunities for a community.
Choosing a person can be done more strategically by profiling the type of person you need, and this need of course should have been determined by people in the community who have voiced their opinions on the where they feel the direction of IT should be heading. Often this comes by way of complaints and ranting emails, but all the clues should be somewhere in the community.
First and foremost you need to know if you need someone to build or re-build your infrastructure. This person will not be a long term contract. You will bring them in for 2-5 years. This is not someone who is going to patiently sit around and manage printers and order software. This person is a builder, someone with big ideas and they will have a “hands-on” sense about them. The knowledge to plan a new infrastructure, or up-grade an aging one, comes from making mistakes. It comes from understanding how problems in networks cascade, and how data needs to be structured, maintained, and archived.
The next type of person you might be looking for is the day-to-day status quo administrator. This person needs to be someone who the community can relate to, they need diplomatic skills for managing users and service agreements with vendors. These people also need to know how to integrate technology into the class room. If you do not see a need for a major network or system overhaul within 2 years of hiring them, then they will have plenty of time to do research and find a good solutions partners to deliver upgrades and changes.
The third type of person to seek out is the IT coordinator. This person is usually supporting an IT manager and the teachers and students in the classroom. They need to be an extreme hobbyist, with good research skills, creative problem solving skills, and the ability to translate between the IT Department and the rest of the school.
No matter what type of skill set you decide on or come across you need someone who cares about education. You need someone who understands the irrational demands created by students, stressed-out teachers, and parents. You need someone who can relate to people who are not solely motivated by money and stock-options. Trust me on this, your IT People need to be the beating heart of your institution. Not everything in a school will be about the bottom-line, and many problems are created from the challenge of trying to help others achieve something new. A good IT leader will on occasion make a risky budgetary move, gambling on the un-known educational returns. They will not always measure the ROI on money alone. They have to to care about learning, helping people, and creating opportunities for a community.
Monday, August 9, 2010
If you cannot afford the accessories you cannot afford the project
One of the biggest mistakes schools make when they order equipment is that they do not budget for hardware upgrades, optional accessories, licensing requirements, and services that are in-fact not optional for success.
Here is a pattern of thought you should use when looking to buy a solution, or looking to reduce a budget.
>>>Computers- Laptops, Desktops, Hand Helds, etc are completely useless machines that have no value in and of themselves.
>>> Value is first derived from having all the software needed to run a class or complete a project, software is in fact more valuable than hardware.
>>> Software is useful only if the user can connect to it and use it to create or manipulate data.
>>>Connecting to software often means advanced hardware integration and buying accessories such as scanners, firewire cables, video/audio capture cards, card readers, drawing tablets, accurate laser mice, large screens, advanced video graphics cards, etc.
>>>The computer with software and all the proper additional hardware is still useless unless the environment it is in is condusive to the work being done. Not all spaces can serve as work spaces, and not all spaces need to be private or quiet.
When looking for a solution or talking to someone about new technology, make sure to ask the following questions:
1.What do we already have to allocate to this solution?
2.What kind of software does this project require?
a. Is the software open source?
1.If not have you search for an open-source solution?
b. Is the software an annual license or can we own it out-right?
c. Is there an educational discount, and do we qualify?
3.What additional hardware do we need?
a. Have you looked into the accessories needed such as special cables, input devices, etc?
4.If this is a multimedia project and you are working with cameras of any kind have you confirmed the cameras we currently own will work with the solutions you are looking at?
5.What benefit does this have in terms of learning over the current solution we have?
6.What benefit does this have in terms of administration and time usage over the current solution we have?
7.Will adopting this solution create a significant strain on the training/ professional development budget?
8.Do we need a consultant to implement the solution?
9.Would you say this solution is modern and meeting curriculum and IT industry standards at similar institutions?
a. If yes please give examples.
10.Do you know anyone or any place that has implemented this solution?
a. If ‘Yes’ have you consulted with them on their experiences?
I find this flow of questioning reduced the excitement that often surrounds new projects and helps me focus on the true foundation of the project and its implementation.
Here is a pattern of thought you should use when looking to buy a solution, or looking to reduce a budget.
>>>Computers- Laptops, Desktops, Hand Helds, etc are completely useless machines that have no value in and of themselves.
>>> Value is first derived from having all the software needed to run a class or complete a project, software is in fact more valuable than hardware.
>>> Software is useful only if the user can connect to it and use it to create or manipulate data.
>>>Connecting to software often means advanced hardware integration and buying accessories such as scanners, firewire cables, video/audio capture cards, card readers, drawing tablets, accurate laser mice, large screens, advanced video graphics cards, etc.
>>>The computer with software and all the proper additional hardware is still useless unless the environment it is in is condusive to the work being done. Not all spaces can serve as work spaces, and not all spaces need to be private or quiet.
When looking for a solution or talking to someone about new technology, make sure to ask the following questions:
1.What do we already have to allocate to this solution?
2.What kind of software does this project require?
a. Is the software open source?
1.If not have you search for an open-source solution?
b. Is the software an annual license or can we own it out-right?
c. Is there an educational discount, and do we qualify?
3.What additional hardware do we need?
a. Have you looked into the accessories needed such as special cables, input devices, etc?
4.If this is a multimedia project and you are working with cameras of any kind have you confirmed the cameras we currently own will work with the solutions you are looking at?
5.What benefit does this have in terms of learning over the current solution we have?
6.What benefit does this have in terms of administration and time usage over the current solution we have?
7.Will adopting this solution create a significant strain on the training/ professional development budget?
8.Do we need a consultant to implement the solution?
9.Would you say this solution is modern and meeting curriculum and IT industry standards at similar institutions?
a. If yes please give examples.
10.Do you know anyone or any place that has implemented this solution?
a. If ‘Yes’ have you consulted with them on their experiences?
I find this flow of questioning reduced the excitement that often surrounds new projects and helps me focus on the true foundation of the project and its implementation.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Invest in People, Bandwidth, and Servers
Sometimes making IT related decisions is tough. Everyone seems to have a solution or idea. This includes co-workers, vendors, and friends outside of school. So I believe you need a philosophy to shape your decisions, and my decisions are driven by this: People need bandwidth to do more interesting work from more places, and more interesting work means larger and more complex projects that need more processing power and storage.
IT at a K-12 school needs to follow a different methodology and strive to create a distributive learning environment. Everyone in the school community and can benefit from the opportunities IT resources provide if they can easily access those resources on and off campus.
Invest in People
If the community is to grow it needs real leadership. If technology is to be a key factor in the growth of a community, then the school needs strong IT leadership. This is not a job for a hobbyist or IT junkie. This is a job for one or more people who have the skills, training, and resourcefulness to initiate and manage change.
Most of the times this simply comes down to salary. Many schools simply hire teachers to fill IT roles on campus. Although I am not opposed to this, I do think they need real qualifications and experience to make infrastructure and purchasing decisions. It is not advisable to put money into an IT initiative, without IT leadership in place. It is also not advisable to allow an out-going IT leader to make purchases that will change the community. This creates a problem for in-coming the IT leadership, and it may haunt them for years if the decision was made poorly.
People need to be there before the technology, and people need to see their decisions through. Invest in this concept. Hire good people before money is spent, and incentivise them to stay until all their major projects are finished.
Invest in Bandwidth
People want speed. They want to be able to send movies to their friends. They want to listen to internet radio. They want to do everything at the same time all the time. Users do not think about using, they just use. They are the reason the IT infrastructure exists in a K-12 environment, and they are also the reason most of the rules and regulations exist.
Many networks limit the amount and type of work a user can do. They do this sometimes for security and also sometimes to help reduce bandwidth consumption. Many schools use network monitoring and user tracking software, this also uses bandwidth and slows down the over all user experience.
I have seen students with laptops that have never been connected to the Internet at school, because they said it was so slow, and it wasn't worth their time. All the security, and all the software accomplished one thing- they kept the users from using. I understand the need for security, but for every layer of security added, the bandwidth should not be sacrificed unless it is absolutely necessary.
The annual budget needs to include a section dedicated to improving network performance. There are many methods for doing this, and the strategies are constantly changing. Some of the newer solutions are very inexpensive to implement such as using a reverse proxy and on-campus software repositories for common downloads.
Often buildings develop bandwidth bottlenecks that slow down sections of the campus. These can be easily identified and eliminated, but only if it is a school policy to do so. The school leadership should not just assume that its IT department or contracted engineers will do this type of network maintenance by choice. In fact if things are “ON” IT will often say, “Everything is fine.”
Wireless speeds are also important. Investing in better antennas can help tremendously, but the wireless coverage in the building can be mapped and predicted using hardware and software that will not exceed $1000. This investment into wireless testing gear will last a few years and will help administration work with IT to develop a visual plan for wireless coverage and frequency distribution. Ask your IT department how they map and test wireless signals, and see if they have a true solution. If they do not consider the waste and/or drain in bandwidth your community is experiencing due to bad poor planning and lazy implementation1.
Finally there is the bandwidth that the school is paying for each month. This allows the community to access the internet and other external resources. As a rule, I think it is important to buy as much bandwidth as possible. In addition to bandwidth, schools should have server resources to allow for public websites to be created off-campus. This enables the community to create and access resources from home, and it does not strain the local school network.
If you are not sure how much bandwidth you should have consider the following rule: Each distinct user group on campus, should have their own bandwidth and the should all be equal.
Administrators and IT leaders must decide how many groups they have. Some will say four- elementary school, middle school, high school, and administration. However, consider that if each group had a 2mb connection, that administration would have a far faster connection due to fewer users. Therefore, the rule above would be broken. Equal bandwidth does not mean equal line size. It means that each group can have the same potential speed as all the other groups.
Keep it flowing and keep it fair. You can never have too much bandwidth if your users are allowed to be users.
Invest in Servers
Developing a collaborative network and providing users with distributive learning solutions means you need server based applications. Some of these applications will fall into the software you license, others might be free, but all of them will require some back-end muscle.
I use the word server as a loose generic term, but a server is a software service and the machine hosting this service is usually called a “server”. There can be many of these services running on a single machine. For example it is common to run the Apache Web Server and the MYSQL Database Service on the same physical machine.
Servers do not have to always be large and expensive, but they usually need to have a scalable architecture. Once you reach a machines maximum memory limit, you will reach its limit on the number of simultaneous users it can handle.
Schools often forget to investigate off-site solutions for serving their applications. There are many options available, besides maintaining all community resources internally. For example cloud hosting is growing and many organizations are using virtual private servers to host their applications. There is a significant cost decrease from the classic model of a dedicated server and a significant performance increase over the budget shared hosting model.
An annual budget should contain a section that always shows a plan to improve the distribution of solutions and resources. If the schools architecture is large and out-dated, then looking at sharing the load with external partners might be the best plan.
Administrators need to be aware that IT engineers will often be happy with a server as long as it is still within its hardware life-cycles performance range. This means if the server is guaranteed to run for three years, IT will probably not consider upgrading it. It is nearly impossible for the school administration to be involved with server management unless they have a policy requiring IT to map-out the server hardware and solutions so they understand how everything connects.
I am recommending that administrators take the following steps to have a clear understanding of where and how the IT solutions they are depending on are organized:
Require IT to create a simple document that shows the servers name, IP Address, and all the services, and solutions it is hosting.
Require IT to create an annual report showing when each unit was purchased and what upgrades have been made since the original installation. This should not contain any explanations, only the raw data.
Survey the community to see which services or solutions are slow or difficult to use.
Present this report to IT with an expectation of performance improvements.
Address servers that seem to be unbalanced and possibly running too many or too few services or solutions.
The growth of the internet has proven that ideas and people are the most important piece of any new start-up. There are many places where schools can spend their money. I choose to invest in people and they ideas they hold, then give them to tools to distribute those ideas.
IT at a K-12 school needs to follow a different methodology and strive to create a distributive learning environment. Everyone in the school community and can benefit from the opportunities IT resources provide if they can easily access those resources on and off campus.
Invest in People
If the community is to grow it needs real leadership. If technology is to be a key factor in the growth of a community, then the school needs strong IT leadership. This is not a job for a hobbyist or IT junkie. This is a job for one or more people who have the skills, training, and resourcefulness to initiate and manage change.
Most of the times this simply comes down to salary. Many schools simply hire teachers to fill IT roles on campus. Although I am not opposed to this, I do think they need real qualifications and experience to make infrastructure and purchasing decisions. It is not advisable to put money into an IT initiative, without IT leadership in place. It is also not advisable to allow an out-going IT leader to make purchases that will change the community. This creates a problem for in-coming the IT leadership, and it may haunt them for years if the decision was made poorly.
People need to be there before the technology, and people need to see their decisions through. Invest in this concept. Hire good people before money is spent, and incentivise them to stay until all their major projects are finished.
Invest in Bandwidth
People want speed. They want to be able to send movies to their friends. They want to listen to internet radio. They want to do everything at the same time all the time. Users do not think about using, they just use. They are the reason the IT infrastructure exists in a K-12 environment, and they are also the reason most of the rules and regulations exist.
Many networks limit the amount and type of work a user can do. They do this sometimes for security and also sometimes to help reduce bandwidth consumption. Many schools use network monitoring and user tracking software, this also uses bandwidth and slows down the over all user experience.
I have seen students with laptops that have never been connected to the Internet at school, because they said it was so slow, and it wasn't worth their time. All the security, and all the software accomplished one thing- they kept the users from using. I understand the need for security, but for every layer of security added, the bandwidth should not be sacrificed unless it is absolutely necessary.
The annual budget needs to include a section dedicated to improving network performance. There are many methods for doing this, and the strategies are constantly changing. Some of the newer solutions are very inexpensive to implement such as using a reverse proxy and on-campus software repositories for common downloads.
Often buildings develop bandwidth bottlenecks that slow down sections of the campus. These can be easily identified and eliminated, but only if it is a school policy to do so. The school leadership should not just assume that its IT department or contracted engineers will do this type of network maintenance by choice. In fact if things are “ON” IT will often say, “Everything is fine.”
Wireless speeds are also important. Investing in better antennas can help tremendously, but the wireless coverage in the building can be mapped and predicted using hardware and software that will not exceed $1000. This investment into wireless testing gear will last a few years and will help administration work with IT to develop a visual plan for wireless coverage and frequency distribution. Ask your IT department how they map and test wireless signals, and see if they have a true solution. If they do not consider the waste and/or drain in bandwidth your community is experiencing due to bad poor planning and lazy implementation1.
Finally there is the bandwidth that the school is paying for each month. This allows the community to access the internet and other external resources. As a rule, I think it is important to buy as much bandwidth as possible. In addition to bandwidth, schools should have server resources to allow for public websites to be created off-campus. This enables the community to create and access resources from home, and it does not strain the local school network.
If you are not sure how much bandwidth you should have consider the following rule: Each distinct user group on campus, should have their own bandwidth and the should all be equal.
Administrators and IT leaders must decide how many groups they have. Some will say four- elementary school, middle school, high school, and administration. However, consider that if each group had a 2mb connection, that administration would have a far faster connection due to fewer users. Therefore, the rule above would be broken. Equal bandwidth does not mean equal line size. It means that each group can have the same potential speed as all the other groups.
Keep it flowing and keep it fair. You can never have too much bandwidth if your users are allowed to be users.
Invest in Servers
Developing a collaborative network and providing users with distributive learning solutions means you need server based applications. Some of these applications will fall into the software you license, others might be free, but all of them will require some back-end muscle.
I use the word server as a loose generic term, but a server is a software service and the machine hosting this service is usually called a “server”. There can be many of these services running on a single machine. For example it is common to run the Apache Web Server and the MYSQL Database Service on the same physical machine.
Servers do not have to always be large and expensive, but they usually need to have a scalable architecture. Once you reach a machines maximum memory limit, you will reach its limit on the number of simultaneous users it can handle.
Schools often forget to investigate off-site solutions for serving their applications. There are many options available, besides maintaining all community resources internally. For example cloud hosting is growing and many organizations are using virtual private servers to host their applications. There is a significant cost decrease from the classic model of a dedicated server and a significant performance increase over the budget shared hosting model.
An annual budget should contain a section that always shows a plan to improve the distribution of solutions and resources. If the schools architecture is large and out-dated, then looking at sharing the load with external partners might be the best plan.
Administrators need to be aware that IT engineers will often be happy with a server as long as it is still within its hardware life-cycles performance range. This means if the server is guaranteed to run for three years, IT will probably not consider upgrading it. It is nearly impossible for the school administration to be involved with server management unless they have a policy requiring IT to map-out the server hardware and solutions so they understand how everything connects.
I am recommending that administrators take the following steps to have a clear understanding of where and how the IT solutions they are depending on are organized:
Require IT to create a simple document that shows the servers name, IP Address, and all the services, and solutions it is hosting.
Require IT to create an annual report showing when each unit was purchased and what upgrades have been made since the original installation. This should not contain any explanations, only the raw data.
Survey the community to see which services or solutions are slow or difficult to use.
Present this report to IT with an expectation of performance improvements.
Address servers that seem to be unbalanced and possibly running too many or too few services or solutions.
The growth of the internet has proven that ideas and people are the most important piece of any new start-up. There are many places where schools can spend their money. I choose to invest in people and they ideas they hold, then give them to tools to distribute those ideas.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Don't be Pwnd ! Own Your Data
Being Pwnd means being beaten, or owned. It means losing. Making mistakes. And ultimately being embarrassed. In fact if you are publicly embarrassed we could say Uber Pwnage.
When I refer to the term “system” I am referring to Content Management Systems, Learning Management Systems, School Management Systems, and possible Record Management Systems
I am not going to carry-on about how everyone needs to be an open source and contracting developers to build flexible systems where the institution owns the data and the design. Although I do think that is a good idea, most people want a solution that has been planned out for them.
That being said, you have to remember that you are the client, and they are dependent on you. Your IT Department needs to have standards for all software that the school uses. There should be standards for what format data gets archived in, and how that data can be moved to other systems. You must consider that in case of a major systems failure, you will need more than one method for getting to your critical information.
And there is always the possibility that the company you are licensing software from will go out of business and leave with archives of data that no other product can import. Many software packages offer features and stress that they are compliant with open-standards and will allow you to convert your data into different formats.
So do you own your data? Many schools do not. Unlike companies they are outsourcing their core systems, or running off of proprietary software with strict license agreements.
Here is a test. If you own your data you should be able to accomplish the following:
Archive your data onto a computer somewhere within your network.
Open that archive using software that is free or open source.
Use that data in another system/ database assuming someone with database skills is involved.
More times than not, people cannot accomplish all 3 without breaking their licensing agreement or hacking their data, which can be costly.
Many schools run multiple systems and have to move the data from one system to the other using spreadsheets. This can be time consuming and it does not guarantee all the systems are up-to-date.
As you are reading this you need to figure out where you fit, it will most likely be in one of three categories:
You own and control your data and 90% or more of the systems it is used in.
You can move your data around into multiple systems, but the systems are not connected.
You have one system for running your school and if a new service or product is not compliant with your main system you cannot acquire it.
I think it is clear you want to be categorized as owning 90% of your data. If not you are probably going to get Pwnd.
If you are not sure how to fix this problem, contact me at :
tony.deprato@gmail.com
http://tonydeprato.com/
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