Read on to learn why Conneticut’s Farmington Public Schools chose MultiLine, ultimately saving time, money, and effort, by making a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) solution possible for the district’s internal and external communications.
More than half of the U.S. (29 states) had less total school funding per student in 2015 than they did in 2008. Much like today’s administrators, who are dealing with House spending proposals to cut $3.6 trillion over ten years from the part of the budget, Matt Ross, Director of Technology for Farmington Public Schools, needed to find an opportunity for cost savings. He found that opportunity in cutting the expenses of their district-issued mobile phone program and implementing a K-12 BYOD program with MultiLine.
The high cost of district-owned phones
Farmington Public Schools was providing district-issued mobile phones and phone numbers to school administrators. Providing these district-owned phones posed several issues, including:
- Expensive
- It cost upwards of $25,000 annually to manage district-owned devices, including phone insurance, phone replacement costs, and annual cellular services.
- Logistics
- Making sure employees knew which phone to use for which purposes.
- IT overhead involved in installing corporate software to the phones.
- Getting the phones back during faculty turnover.
- Inconvenience
- The physical burden of having to carry around two phones was cumbersome to district employees.
Nevertheless, when considering a switch to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), district employees were concerned about compromising their privacy by giving out their personal phone numbers to parents, students and others.
Furthermore, it is important to still be able to communicate with students and fellow school personnel on the go. Apps that provide a second number, but require an Internet connection to make calls, will provide inconsistent call quality when outside of the school’s Wi-Fi.
Cutting costs with K-12 BYOD using MultiLine
Cut Expenses
Matt learned there was a way to ditch district-owned devices and move to K-12 BYOD without sacrificing faculty privacy or call quality. He agreed to a pilot program of Sprint MultiLine, now known as T-Mobile MultiLine. The results were immediate and profound. As Matt notes:
“Right off the bat, I can tell you that there is a cost savings. The difference between issuing a full device with service or just paying for MultiLine service is cost is cut in half. It meets our needs of having a unique district-owned, district-provided contact number without all of the additional overhead or some of the additional costs associated with providing full service.”
Ease Logistics
From a logistics standpoint, the integration of the app-based technology was fast and easy to implement.
- MultiLine looks just like the phone dialer and messaging app familiar to employees
- IT configures all necessary features, requiring no manual set up by the faculty.
- No visit to IT required! Faculty can download and install the app in mere minutes.
Add Convenience
Employees enthusiastically embraced the ease of carrying just one device. Plus, when cellular coverage is spotty on campus, teachers and administrators can make calls on the school WiFi. When on the go, they can switch to using Data or Minutes. Unlike some apps that provide a second number, MultiLine adds a number that’s just like the one on your regular phone, able to make calls over cellular networks if WiFi or Data isn’t available.
Provide Privacy
Finally, the privacy issue in implementing K-12 BYOD was also solved with MultiLine, as Matt says:
“We’re still giving them a district-issued contact number that they can share with whomever – community members, other administrators, parents. They don’t have to worry about giving their personal number out.” He goes on to add that “[MultiLine] has reduced our management overhead and is more cost-effective.”
MultiLine also offers work and personal separation. With a completely separate calls, messages, contacts, voicemail, and phone settings, school contacts and personal contacts don’t mix and create confusion. Faculty can also easily silence their MultiLine when they need their R&R.
MultiLine is the solution for K-12 BYOD
Certainly, when it comes to saving time, money and effort in a public school setting, MultiLine by Movius gets an “A.” If you’re a school administrator looking to modernize your district’s communications and put two numbers on one phone, please schedule a no-strings-attached intro call with a Movius expert.
