Hall County Schools MDM RFP Q&A
***NOTICE***: Proposed Selection Date now 12/16/13
Are bulk enrollments a criteria?
Not a criteria, but would be a nice feature to have.
Is the ability to push docs out a requirement?
At the current time this is not a requirement.
How many Kindles and Nooks are you expecting to have on your network?
This is an unknown at this point. Schools have ordered their devices of choice, if I had to guess I’d say over 100 but less than 300
Hall County has approximately 30000 students and admins, yet there is mention of only wanting to manage 3000 devices? Can you confirm this number?
This is correct. We have roughly 3000 devices currently but will more than likely be expanding that after the acquisition of an MDM solution.
Who are the users of the 3000 devices? Mostly students.
Is there a secure document usage requirement?
There is no requirement for secure document usage.
Do they use Active Directory and are their student devices in active directory?
All users have an Active Directory account. The only student devices in AD are student laptops.
Are devices being used by a single user or will a device be used by multiple students during a day or week?
Multiple users on any given day or week.
Is a posture based e-mail access control and remediation required?
This is not a requirement as the MDM solution is geared more towards managing student devices and we do not supply our students with e-mail.
Is Mobile Cloud Collaboration or secure storage of content accessible from mobile devices required? So that end users can share files and have access to files securely on mobile devices?
This is not a requirement but would be a welcomed feature if it could tie into current district assets (SharePoint, Google Drive).
Will Cert5ificated be required? Simplified Authentication, Encrypted Access to E-mail, Wi-Fi, or VPN
Cert based authentication for Wireless would be ideal. E-mail and VPN are not applicable.
Will Hall County Schools need High Availability?
Yes, these devices are used daily for instruction and any downtime would result in a lack of instruction for our students.
Does Hall County Schools have a Windows Server 2008 Hardware or VM to support this system?
We have both and can facilitate the needs of most platforms. (Windows Server, Linux, VMWare, HyperV)
Does Hall County Schools host their own infrastructure for e-mail, firewall, etc.? Yes we are a self-hosted shop for most of our assets. Online content and our
learning platform are the only things not hosted in house.
Is Mobile Cloud Collaboration or secure storage of content accessible from mobile devices required? So that end users can share files and have access to files securely on mobile devices?
This is not a requirement but would be a welcomed feature if it could tie into current district assets (SharePoint, Google Drive)
Are you interested in Content Management? (i.e. Having the ability to deliver content such as documents, Audio, and video to the appropriate end users.)
Content management could potentially be a plus, it would boil down to how it could be used by our teachers.
Are you interested in internet browser management?
Currently our firewall handles all of our content filtering for internet. So as of now, this is not a need, unless it’s a standard feature.
Do you have plans of developing any internal applications at the district?
We have no plans of developing any internal apps. A majority of our district assets are web based.
I don’t believe there is desire to get down to an individual teacher level, most of the management will be done either by the local media specialists or lab managers at the school.
How important is automation? (i.e. Having the solution act on your behalf based on policies you’ve set…)
Anything that can relieve administrative efforts is a plus. It’s not a must but most certainly would be welcomed.
Are you looking to provide MDM self-service resources to your end users? (i.e. staff, parents) As of right now no. The intention is to only supply support for district owned devices. Do you have shared devices at the district? (i.e. shared carts, labs)
Yes, we use the shared cart model in just about every one of our schools. We currently do not have 1-to-1 at any location.
What are your MDM goals for the district long term?
To have the ability to supply students with the tools needed on the fly for successful instruction without causing an administrative headache.
Given you have a Multi OS environment, what are your vendor expectations with respect to resource allocation to R&D across multiple operating systems? (Size, integration delivery timeframes upon manufacturer release dates, etc…)
Seeing has how we are Multi-OS environment we understand the challenges with supporting such a wide spectrum of devices. As people of the technology industry as well, we can empathize with the challenges to keep up with the growing market of mobile devices and applications. However, it would be expected that majority stake holders (iOS, Samsung Android devices, etc.) would get the most emphasis on R&D. Again, we understand the challenges not just from the OS perspective but also what APIs the respective vendors have allowed access to.
Is your MDM vendor required to have a dedicated Education division?
While not a requirement it would most certainly be a plus. Education being what is in nature is quite the rare animal in regards to your standard corporate or enterprise customers.
Will vendor position in third party analyst reports such as Gartner have an impact on your decision?
Absolutely. Seeing as how there are so many vendors in the MDM space and practically impossible for a district of our size to evaluate all of them, we rely on 3rd party analyst firms to help guide us in the process.
If this is available as an option it would most certainly be welcomed. Any time we can direct someone to self-help before requiring in-person hands on training is definitely a plus.
Will your MDM stakeholders need instructor led training on how to use their MDM solution? Depending on cost this would be something we may be interested in or at the very least have a train-the-trainer session.
Can you please specify what type of references you prefer? School districts using the software, any Customer using the software, or just any Customer?
School references would be great, but any type of reference is fine.
On page 8, item E, are you looking for the number of end users for each account that is using this type of software (regardless of version), or the total number of end users being supported regardless of the type of software?
The rough estimate of users for each that is using this type of software (regardless of version). You don’t have to list all but I would say your top 5 or top 10.
On page 8, item F, are you looking for any major accounts that are relevant or only the major accounts that are relevant and are using this software?
Major accounts that are relevant and using the software.
What are the typical terms Hall County School System prefers (24 or 36 Months)?
No preference but if you’d like to supply pricing models for 12, 24, 36 mos. or longer we’ll definitely look at them.
Are there any BYOD initiatives right now?
Currently we allow students to bring their own technology but other than giving them limited access to the network we don’t do much with them beyond that.
Are there any requirements for end-user support?
There are no requirements for end-user support, we have a helpdesk that handles that.
Are there any requirements for 100% on-premise solution, can some Cloud services be employed?
There is no requirement to have the solution be 100% on-premise. Cloud hosted, on premise, a combination of both is fine with us. The main thing is that the solution works.
Can a single device belong to multiple groups?
Do we need to support only WiFi devices or all mobile devices?
The ability to do both would be a plus, a majority of our devices are Wi-Fi only but we do have a handful that have data plans (Maintenance, and transportation devices)
Is any specific segmentation needed for WiFi only and cellular network enabled
No segmentation is needed as long as we can group them by entity as mentioned above.
How is the policy implemented?
Block access to any of the appstores – i.e. Google Play, Apple Store, Amazon Storefront
Does this feature mean restriction to web and application access?
Specifically the Application, if you have the ability to block the website that would be a plus as well.
Does this mean purchase from app stores?
Yes, or any third party purchase for that matter. i.e. playing a game and a popup appears that says for $X you can get x, y, or z feature.
The ability to distribute software (in-house or 3rd party), Maintain/Update in-house or 3rd party apps.
Applicable for single device or a group?
The ability for both would be ideal for individualized instruction if needed, but more often than not apps will be pushed to groups of devices.
Can be an on premise solution (Appliance or Software we install on a server), Hosted Software as a Service (SaaS), or Virtual Appliance.
Any preferences?
We have no preference here as long as the solution meets all of our other requirements.
