When I think of Black Glove, I think of a great partnership. They’re not just a vendor. You can always rely on them to fulfill your goals and then some.
Tina Barrios, Assistant Superintendent, Polk County Schools
THE CHALLENGE
Deploying 40,000 iPads across 76 Schools
Polk County needed 40,000 iPads to be on-site at 76 schools in a few months, ready to be signed in and handed to each student. A lack of bandwidth and time plagued the deployment and provisioning project, particularly when it came to logistics. They needed hands-on support for their massive device roll-out.
When deployment was complete, the County was then faced with a district-wide bandwidth issue due to over-saturation of their network, which required strategic solutions and partnership.
Black Glove is a great partner for a district or school transitioning to Apple devices. They have the knowledge and knowhow to expertly guide an entire district into deployment with turn-key initiation and ongoing support systems.
Justin Phillips, Senior Technician, Polk County Schools
THE SOLUTION AND RESULTS
Expert Provisioning Services and Strategy
Polk County relied on Black Glove’s Pro Tier Service and bundled deployment to provision 40,000 iPads and meet their pre-Spring break deadline. Together, the Polk team scaled their operation, freed up IT cycles for other back-to-school activities, and gained peace-of-mind that their investment in incredible technology was ready to work for their students.
The Black Glove team is very technically sound, so we were able to onboard them and get to work immediately.
Justin Phillips, Senior Technician, Polk County Schools
- Provisioning services. The iPads were sent to Black Glove’s provisioning warehouse in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they were unboxed, asset tagged with custom tags, cased, screen protected, prepped for enrollment and network connectivity, packaged, and delivered to each school. When they arrived, the operating system was up-to-date, content was installed, and they were safe and ready for students to use.
- Project management and ongoing support. During the project, Black Glove’s engineering team was available daily in the Polk County collaborative workspace and weekly in joint meetings. Polk County had visibility of shipment statuses and a strategic partner to handle any IT concerns along the way.
- Efficient caching infrastructure. To prevent the over-saturation of their district network, Polk County added local caching servers to optimize their network with Black Glove’s help. The district served 56 terabytes through the local servers in the first 3 weeks, reducing internet bandwidth, increasing content speed, and improving overall efficiency.
- Innovative solutions to standard barcoding. Black Glove created a simple and scalable solution for the County’s unique asset tagging, including a custom barcode system to seamlessly integrate with their purchasing department.
Black Glove fills a gap at an affordable price that allows large Apple districts to find the support they’ve been looking for. They provide a high-level of expertise in the field without the obstacles of going through other providers.
Tina Barrios, Assistant Superintendent, Polk County Schools
What’s next?
Polk County has device sustainability on their mind. The team is planning their refresh and redeployment plans to ensure longevity and efficiency of their massive fleet.
Together, we were able to accomplish great things. It was a pleasure to partner with such an impressive IT organization.
David Starr, CEO, Black Glove
About Polk County Schools
Polk County Public Schools—the 7th largest public school district in Florida and among the 30 largest in the nation—transitioned to a 1:1 device model for student iPads across 76 schools. The Polk IT team is unmatched in their Apple enterprise capabilities. But even with an expert IT staff, the sheer volume of devices was logistically and operationally challenging. After acquiring the devices, the Polk technology team set out to get devices into the hands of their students with precision, speed, and efficiency.
The Polk County IT team has a wide and complete set of Apple expertise that understands the nuances of a successful Apple deployment at scale. Justin and the rest of the team are constantly finding ways to streamline workflows and simplify processes with customer applications in macOS and iOS—all while balancing an infinite number of other daily tasks.
David Starr, CEO, Black Glove
About Black Glove
Black Glove makes it easy to add, manage, and sustain Apple products to businesses and schools. With flexible subscription deployment and management tiers that meet teams where they are, Black Glove provides IT teams a helping hand, hands-on management, or all-hands-on deck for your full device lifecycle—from architecture and deployment to security, networking, and end-of-life transitioning.
Ready to see what Black Glove can do for you?
Book a free consultation our engineers to see how Black Glove can make your deployment easy this year.