Background
Slow device deployment processes, inefficient maintenance workflows, and a general lack of centralization were persistent problems in Kentucky’s Carroll County Schools. When Zachary Morris-Dean returned from a year-long stint in the private sector to become the district’s director of technology, the first thing he heard from a trusted colleague was, “We need Incident IQ.”
During a demo, Zachary realized that Incident IQ held incredible potential. “I didn’t even know a system with Incident IQ’s features existed,” he recalls. “Once I saw what Incident IQ offered, I said, ‘We need to get this implemented.'”
Zachary’s move paid off. Incident IQ immediately helped Carroll County centralize its technology infrastructure and streamline workflows to save time, complete help requests faster, and simplify asset management. These significant improvements prompted the district to add facilities management to the single unified platform, which enhanced operational efficiency and communication across teams.
Device Deployments: From Days to Minutes with Incident IQ
Incident IQ had an immediate impact on Carroll County’s device deployment process. “On our previous system, device deployments were not very efficient,” Zachary recalls. “A normal device deployment for my high school would take at minimum two days, and more realistically three days just with the inventory system we were using.” At the district’s middle schools, deployments routinely took up to a week and a half to complete.
“I had budgeted two days to complete the collection,” says Zachary. “We had done some practice runs and I saw how quick the Incident IQ system was. I thought, ‘Okay, this is going to be quicker — but we still need two days.'”
Zachary ended up collecting all 680 student devices in only 95 minutes.
“I was just shocked,” he says. “It was truly one of the few times in my career that I have been just without words. We’d never done a device collection in the 12 years I’d been at the district that didn’t last multiple days.”
Streamlining Facilities Management and Cross-Departmental Collaboration
After his incredible experience with Incident IQ’s ticketing and asset management module, Zachary decided to explore the platform’s facilities capabilities. Corralling his school district’s director of operations, Zachary scheduled a demo of the facilities module.
Both professionals were highly impressed with Incident IQ’s unified request portal, which allows users to submit IT and facilities tickets in one place. “It’s all familiar,” Zachary explains. “People don’t have to go to different systems to submit tickets. They don’t have to remember different web addresses or any of that.”
In addition, Incident IQ helped the district’s facilities team stay on top of preventative maintenance, which often gets overlooked and is ranked by facilities leaders as one of their job’s most common pain points. As Zachary recalls, “Preventative maintenance didn’t happen” before Incident IQ. Instead, maintenance was “very reactive … to whatever problems came up, and no-one really knew what was coming. Now, there’s a process for us to get out in front of maintenance before it becomes a problem.”
Zachary also emphasizes Incident IQ’s collaborative capabilities. “There are times when our IT and maintenance teams share tickets because we work on so many different things,” he says. “For example, my department handles the door systems that use badges. We handle networking, and facilities handles the mechanical side of it. People naturally submit tickets incorrectly all the time, and we’re able to easily move those tickets between the two systems.” This eliminates confusion, streamlines communication, and allows maintenance teams to spend more time completing tasks and less time managing work orders and administrating requests.
Incident IQ’s ease of use has also been a boon for the facilities staff at Carroll County Schools. “Our technicians and maintenance people don’t use computers very often, but after a couple of training sessions, they really took to Incident IQ,” Zachary says. “They’re using the mobile app and they’re completing tickets on their phones. It took them a while to get used to the platform, but they really like it now because it saves them so much time and effort.”
A Unified Platform that Unlocks Visibility and Advances Strategic Goals
Zachary praises Incident IQ’s quick, efficient data integrations and the platform’s ability to centralize technology infrastructure and active workflows. “The part that I love the most is that the Incident IQ system writes data back,” Zachary says. “Incident IQ has become our system of truth. It’s our authoritative source. When we enroll Chromebooks or iPads, we put the asset numbers in Incident IQ and we know that Incident IQ will take care of writing that data back to those respective systems.”
The knowledge that Incident IQ accumulates also makes it easier for Zachary to onboard new employees while helping existing employees perform their duties more efficiently and effectively. “I’ve started putting articles in our knowledge base so our IT and maintenance technicians have resources immediately available,” Zachary says. “This allows them to consult a knowledge base without having to waste time, which ultimately helps them resolve issues more quickly.”
Incident IQ also allows users to add notes to tickets, which improves communication and creates an efficient tracking system with complete ticket histories and real-time information. For example, if a ticket gets transferred to another department or technician, the new person on the other end can immediately see which tasks on the ticket have already been completed and which ones are still awaiting completion.
Incident IQ helps school districts deploy human resources more efficiently and maximize your technology investments by doing more with less. All of the platform’s small yet thoughtful capabilities combine to create a centralized, streamlined system that dramatically improves efficiency, transparency, and accountability while reducing administrative burdens.
Incident IQ Is Purpose-Built for K-12 Environments
For Zachary, Incident IQ’s single most defining feature is the fact that it’s built specifically for K-12 environments. “With Incident IQ, we completed a device collection that normally took several days in just 95 minutes. It went so fast because the product is designed for schools. The platform has all kinds of little intricate features that show me the people who wrote this software have been in my shoes before.”
The Incident IQ software makes every aspect of IT and operations management easier while empowering districts to optimize their technology investments. “It’s not just a ticketing system,” Zachary stresses. “It’s asset management. It’s inventory management. It’s documenting device lifecycles. It’s tracking problems with devices and operations. It’s resolving issues quickly.”
Zachary also applauds Incident IQ’s ease of implementation, attentive customer support, and personalized platform training sessions. “The training was fantastic,” he recounts. “It wasn’t cookie cutter and it wasn’t just, ‘Hey, this is what the product does and so you should do it as well.’ It was very conversational. Incident IQ’s people took the time to ask me, ‘What are your aspirations for the platform? What do you need help with?'”
As Zachary learned, Incident IQ offers scalable solutions that enhance workflows while integrating seamlessly with existing systems and technologies. To learn more about how Incident IQ can help your school district thrive, schedule your free demo today.