Case Study:

Regional Education Center Enhances Virtual Learning with Microsoft Surface Rollout

SHI’s Zero Touch services ensures 4,000+ devices are ready to go – right out of the box.

Highlights:

Customer Profile

Education Services Center

Challenge

Customer needed devices to support 4,000 students and teachers for remote learning, and needed help with rollout and deployment across the county.

Solution

End User

SHI Mobility narrows down solution to Microsoft Surface 7 compatibility and simplicity, and Zero Touch Deployment for seamless remote deployment.

Partners

Microsoft

Benefits/Results

  • Deployed 4,900 devices in four months
  • Remote configuration, imaging and deployment
  • Saved countless work hours for the IT staff
  • Jump-started student/teacher learning

Challenge:

A regional education center, supporting 20 school districts and charter schools, needed to quickly find a device which would simplify and enable a seamless transition to remote learning for 4,900+ students and teachers. They needed both students and teachers on the same platform to ensure a more standardized experience. Most importantly, they needed guidance and assistance on deploying 4,900+ devices across the county.

Solution:

SHI initially provided multiple demo devices for the customer to evaluate. After looking at various leading manufacturers and their comparable devices, the customer decided on Microsoft Surface Pro 7 for their 900 staff and teachers and 4,000 students.

To simplify the rollout and provide users with ready-to-go devices, right out the box, SHI’s Mobility team suggested Windows Autopilot and SHI Zero Touch Deployment – 2 solutions which allow SHI to remotely configure, image and deploy each device, all while enabling the customer to take advantage of their existing investment in M365 A3 licenses.

Results:

SHI delivered 4,900+ Surface Pro 7 devices for students and staff in four months

  • SHI used Zero Touch Deployment and Autopilot to quickly get all devices up and running, with Azure AD and Microsoft Endpoint Manager to enable use of existing M365 A3 licenses.
  • Configuration, imaging and distribution was reduced from eight months to two months – saving the customer’s limited and already over-stretched IT resources.
  • Adoption was immediate – all devices were delivered working out of the box, ready to go.