How the Largest School District in Arizona Successfully Deploys, Tracks Thousands of Devices

Implementing a 1:1 program is no simple matter. School districts are often deploying thousands of devices out to students, and IT managers and specialists bear the heavy responsibility of efficiently assigning and tracking these assets.

Mesa Public Schools (MPS), located in Mesa, Arizona, was looking for a solution that would help the district deploy 17,000 devices to all of its secondary school students. MPS planned to do this in phases to simplify the deployment process, but was still in need of a new system that could help the district easily deploy and track such a large amount of devices.

“We needed a new fixed asset system and we also needed to have a system where we could track these 1:1 devices since the students would be taking them home,” says Michelle Hamilton, director of purchasing for Mesa Public Schools. “When a student starts taking [devices] off campus, that holds a whole new realm. We needed to know where a device was at all times and which student it was assigned to because we were going to hold students responsible for their devices.”

MPS found its fixed asset solution when the district participated in a live demonstration of School Asset Manager (SAM), hosted at Troxell Communications headquarters in Phoenix. SAM is a complete online asset management solution for education, and Hamilton and other district personnel felt that its features fit their needs perfectly.

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The SAM app features a scanner that allows MPS to assign and deploy a device to a student in minutes.

“We normally offer a free product trial, but after [MPS] saw the demonstration they said forget about the free trial, we’d like to move directly with an implementation. It just so happened to coincide with [the district’s] deployment of 2,500 of their initial 17,000 devices,” says Mike Ruprich, CEO of Troxell Communications.

SAM’s features include QR asset tagging, a mobile app for scanning and registering devices, and an online asset management system. The solution is extremely flexible, as SAM allows MPS to customize the configuration even after implementation. The app saved the district money and allowed for mobility, greatly simplifying the deployment process.

“The app was a great feature. Typically on of the big expenses of a fixed asset system are scanners. SAM has an app that scans the QR or barcode. When it scans that code, it brings everything up about that asset. It saved me a lot of money to not have to purchase additional equipment,” says Hamilton.