Empowering educators to teach in new ways.
One of our special areas of focus is education. We have an educator on staff with over 25 years teaching experience at various levels, who sees, every day, the benefits – and challenges – of having tech in the classroom. Our key tech partners have former and current educators and administrators, with decades of experience on the front lines in K-12 and higher education settings, as innovation advisors. And we reach out to education IT professionals regularly to keep abreast of the changing needs.
That is why 22 school boards, a couple of private schools and a corporate training company trust us to support their networks and digital learning initiatives, while securing systems and sensitive data and protecting learners from accessing inappropriate content.
Advancements in pedagogy and its inclusion of tech tools, along with new tools for student-educator communication and engagement, are improving education while posing new challenges for IT professionals.
- Over the past three years, schools have seen increases of 30% to 60% in the number of faculty, students and visitors bringing in their own devices and wanting to connect to school networks. Demand on the network will continue to rise, as curriculum changes require students to engage increasingly with material online – especially in learning environments where the flipped classroom model is being adopted.
- The number of apps being adopted by K-12 schools and higher learning institutions is increasing dramatically. One IT specialist told us: “Every month there are new requests for new apps to be adopted – many of them providing excellent services. The challenge is how to integrate these apps, and what processes and policies to put in place to ensure the robustness of the network, as well as security of the platform overall.”
- This “overcrowding” can not only slow networks, but increase network vulnerability, potentially opening your system up to security breaches.
- Risk rises as people increasingly access material and apps from home and popular public gathering places – and
staff and students love to connect from their favourite coffee shops! - Stricter security rules, coupled with stiff penalties for failing to protect student records and other sensitive material, mean that cybersecurity must be a top priority for all institutions and boards.
- Schools are increasingly being held hostage by ransomware attacks – and insurance companies are now demanding proof that organisations are conducting regular security assessments and filling the gaps as needed.
- On top of everything, K-12 and higher earning education IT professionals are being asked to do more and more, with fewer and fewer resources (financial and personnel).
- We have tools designed to help education IT specialists cost-effectively improve their network’s efficiency and keep it secure, no matter device is connecting to it, or from where. Please contact us to learn more.
Long distance learning tools and courses are being introduced in both K-12 and higher learning curriculums. New technologies make it possible for students who live in remote areas, or are unable to attend class for a variety of reasons (in hospital, on championship teams, working abroad, etc.) to keep up with their studies. Virtual learning experiences also make it possible for these students to connect with their classmates, and even make the kind of friends you only make in school.
Even though the terms sometimes get used interchangeably, online education and long distance learning/virtual classrooms are two very different things. Online education typically consists of a series of modules that students complete on their own. For this reason, it has a reputation for being impersonal and less-effective than instructor-led sessions. That being said, we have experts who can help you develop courses that improve participation and retention rates.
Many schools are, however, leaning more to virtual classrooms and/or combinations of flipped, virtual, traditional and online courses. The best outcomes are achieved by instructors who learn to evaluate their tech options, and create new lesson plans designed specifically for long-distance learning. We can help you identify the best technology for the type of instruction and virtual environment your school wants to implement – and provide suggestions for adapting the courses at each grade or university course level.
Please contact us to learn more. In the meantime, you may wish to view this video on remote learning using video-conferencing tools.
- Securely connects any user to any application, across any platform, all with a consistent user experience.
- Using your policies, dynamically steers traffic through optimal paths to get users quickly to needed applications.
- Supports third-party API integration.
- Deployment is simple, secure and centrally-managed.
- Can be hosted on prem or from the cloud.
- Single dashboard/pane of glass with end point flexibility.
- Improves Office 365 Performance.
- Save you money in the long run.
Please contact us, so we can help you make the right SD-Wan decision for your organisation.
For years, the Wide Area Network (WAN) was the backbone for connecting people, applications and data across multiple sites, schools and campuses. Today, new and evolving technologies – especially the increase of cloud-based applications and IOT – require systems to be more dynamic and agile. If you are relying on traditional network solutions, things will become increasingly challenging. The solution? SD-Wan (Software-Defined Wide Area Networking).
SD-Wan enables IT professionals to deploy new networks faster, manage any and all locations’ networks remotely from a single dashboard, while collecting network analytics and telemetry information. You can use it to configure the system and make decisions about which critical applications should be prioritized. You have complete visibility of applications, users and devices across your network, so you can make informed assessments. For instance, you can use it to help determine if you need more APs in some locations if things are lagging.
More importantly, in today’s high cyber-crime environment, SD-Wan provides much higher levels of security and protection for your network.
Further, students and educators now expect a digital experience that equals, or rivals, what they have at home – and that begins with the network. This may be why Gartner estimates that “by [the end of] 2020, more than 50% of WAN edge infrastructure refresh initiatives will be based on SD WAN versus traditional routers.”
In short, you will have greater flexibility and control of traffic shaping decisions, within individual schools, as well as between the board and individual sites, or between campuses. SD-Wan will give you better security, improved reliability and overall better quality of service.
As a bonus, it can also help save your organisation time and to reduce day-to-day operations costs.
Please contact us, so we can help you make the right SD-Wan decision for your organisation.
- Stop advanced malware attacks automatically before they reach your endpoints with next-generation antivirus software.
- Our cloud-delivered endpoint protection solutions stop breaches and block malware, then rapidly detect, contain and remediate advanced threats that evade front-line defenses.
- Laptops, mobile devices, servers, virtual machines, containers and cloud infrastructure – all can be protected.
- Know everything about every endpoint: AMP gives you deeper visibility, context and control of servers and endpoints running Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS and Linux.
- Endpoints are continuously monitored and analysed, so you have all the data you need to investigate and respond to the riskiest of threats quickly and confidently.
- Sometimes a file can appear clean upon initial inspection. At the first sign of malicious behaviour, being able see the full history of the threat’s activity lets us catch, isolate with one click, contain, and remediate quickly and efficiently.
- Enforce Zero Trust by blocking risky endpoints from gaining access to applications. The goal of “Zero Trust”: To eliminate trust in the system, because trust is what gets exploited.
- Security platform tools block, detect, investigate and respond to threats across your entire environment – not just your endpoints – so you have greater peace of mind.
- Leverage Cisco’s Talos: Unparalleled cyber security intelligence.
- With Advanced Malware Protection (AMP), you can thwart the most sophisticated of cyber threats– including the new ones being spawned, almost before they are conceived.
- Robust and dynamic Endpoint Protection Platform + Endpoint Detection and Response lets you investigate security incidents, as well as rapidly contain and remediate endpoints.
- With a complete scope and history of the threats, and automated advanced investigative queries across any or all of your endpoints, you dramatically reduce investigation and remediation cycles.
Most endpoint security products claim to block 99% of malware. But what about the other 1%?
The 1% that can wreak havoc on your network? And make it impossible for your educators, students and other stakeholders to connect – make it impossible for your school or campus to function properly?
Malware is being created in ways that make it harder and harder to detect, so traditional antivirus protection is no longer enough. Call us today, to find out how your endpoints can be protected, no matter what technology you currently have in place.
Most endpoint security services and products claim to block 99% of malware. But what about the other 1%? The 1% that can wreak havoc on your network? And make it impossible for your educators, students and other stakeholders to connect – make it impossible for your school or campus to function the way it should?
Ever delayed making an important security update or installing a new patch because you weren’t sure about the impact it would have on your operations? Well, you’re not alone. More than half of CIOs and CISOs have done this at least once – some to rue it later, as many breaches are tied to patching problems.
According to a massive 2018 study conducted by Censuswide, which included hundreds of educational facilities across North America and Europe, “9 out of 10 CIOs and CISOs (94%) have made trade-offs among core elements of security hygiene and IT operations effectiveness, including when it comes to critical application updates and patches.”
Even if you are doing everything in a timely manner, it is not unusual for IT professionals to find out that the critical update or patch they thought had been deployed, was not actually updated on all devices, leaving the network exposed, and the organisation at risk, as a result.
But patching is just one example of how a lack of visibility across endpoints – laptops, servers, virtual machines, containers, or cloud infrastructure – can prevent organisations from operating efficiently and averting intrusions and related disruptions or downtime.
No matter how strict your policies and protocols, or how compliant and vigilant your users, the scale of today’s networks, and the escalation of endpoint device use, introduces new complexity and risk for every organisation. Add in legacy systems and endpoint platforms and things become even more complicated.
We can help you know everything about every endpoint: AMP gives you deeper visibility, context and control of servers and endpoints running Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS and Linux.
With Advanced Malware Protection (AMP), you can also worry less about that 1%. AMP is one of the solutions we offer because it works with all security technologies and leverages Cisco’s Talos’ unparalleled cyber security intelligence. This means that digital threats – including the most advanced and most recent ones emerging – are automatically identified and stopped before they reach your endpoints.
Not only is this a robust and dynamic Endpoint Protection Platform, but you also get Endpoint Detection and response which enables you to investigate security incidents and remediate endpoints quickly.
Today, you can have cloud-delivered endpoint protection and advanced security threat detection. Call us today, to find out how your endpoints can be protected, no matter what technology you currently have in place.
99% of all malware and ransomware enters via your web server or email. Even with the best policies in place, and regular training, it just takes one moment of inattention – or a really tricky hacker – and someone in your organisation will click on the wrong link. Chaos ensues. Maybe not today, but definitely at some point not too far down the road.
Microsoft Office 365 has become the standard productivity platform, so it is an attractive target for attackers. Luckily, the good guys know this and are on guard. We offer solutions, such as Cisco’s AMP among others, that block mail coming in from suspicious URLs and offer automatic mailbox remediation that removes the threat before the email can be opened.
You can also use AMP to guard against malware in outgoing emails, so that your company does not face loss of IP or domain reputation.
Add in Threat Grid and you have complete tools for file reputation scoring and blocking, file sandboxing and file retrospection for continuous analysis of threats.
To learn more about Cisco’s comprehensive Email Security Solution, please click here.
Granting and denying network access has evolved beyond simple username and password verifications; attributes related to individual users also need to be factored into the mix.
Granting and denying network access has evolved beyond simple user name and password verifications. Today, additional attributes related to users and their devices are used as decision criteria in determining authorized network access. Additionally, network service provisioning can be based on data such as the type of device accessing the network, including whether it is a corporate or personal device.
The Cisco® Secure Network Server is a scalable solution that helps network administrators meet complex network access control demands by managing the many different operations that can place heavy loads on applications and servers, including:
- Authorization and authentication requests
- Queries to identity stores such as Active Directory and LDAP databases
- Device profiling and posture checking
- Enforcement actions to remove devices from the network
- Reporting The Cisco® Secure Network Server
All solutions we offer come with strong, built in security protection that blocks threats before they arrive at your door. The architectural approaches of these solutions look at your cloud infrastructure, networks, servers and endpoints – and then go to work to defend your system against threats.
As an added measure of protection, we recommend products such as Cisco’s Umbrella that can filter traffic at the DNS level. By looking at DNS-layer protection, malicious, IP addresses and cloud applications can be blocked before a connection is even established. With these products, your IT managers can whittle down content available to users, while having the ability to customize and white list sites that employees need to access. For the most part, your white list/blacklist DNS entries are totally transparent to users – and there is no slowing of the service.
Academic IT professionals at the K-12 and higher learning levels are constantly challenged to ensure that all devices logging onto the network are secure, and to effectively identify and mitigate network attacks.
According to a recent study conducted by The Chronicle of Higher Education and Gartner, vulnerability is increasing at exponential rates.
- Almost all respondents experienced virus and worm attacks in the past year.
- 73% those attacks are accelerating
- 53% reported that attackers had tried to cripple campus networks
- 41% reported that hackers had succeeded in penetrating their systems.
As campus networks become more complex, and you have greater amounts of network usage and event data to assess, it becomes harder and harder to develop meaningful security strategies. At the same time, you need to monitor and control bandwidth as new applications are added and usage patterns evolve. Cisco’s “Campus Secure for Higher Education Networks” provides a comprehensive solution for meeting these challenges, and protecting and optimizing academic networks.
Cyber security threats are also ramping up at the K-12 level.
Part of the problem is that the tools to create and propagate network attacks are becoming more sophisticated. They are also increasingly accessible to people seeking to wreak havoc. Propagation times are also shrinking, which means your window for preventing widespread infestation and damage is getting smaller and smaller. All the more reason why you need top-level security systems and protocols.
For K -12, colleges, trade schools and universities, we often recommend Cisco’s SD-Wan because embedded into every SD-Wan-enabled router is an enterprise grade firewall, IPS and URL filtering security capabilities. This is one of the reasons Gartner recently announced it as a “leader in WAN Edge infrastructure”. It truly is best in class.
Regardless of what system you have in place, we can recommend tools to protect users, wherever they are and to filter traffic while protecting data that is sent to and from the cloud.
We also offer a variety of options for
- segmenting traffic, user and devices, and
- delivering comprehensive security coverage for your internal traffic through traffic encryption, segmenting traffic zero-trust authentication.
Contact Us to find out how we can help.
We often hear educators and network administrators worrying about how to protect students when they are using school-provided tablets and Chromebook, without having user authentication requirements in place.
The first easy step that administrators use is to protect students from inappropriate content with built-in Google/Bing/Yahoo! Internet SafeSearch. We can also lock down access to certain sites, limit YouTube streaming, and prioritize educational apps with device and application management.
In the event that there is a problem because someone did something online they shouldn’t have, Cisco Umbrella can help you figure out who went where and when, by backtracking from Social Media Profiles.
Although we work with many providers, we often recommend Cisco (Cisco Meraki) solutions in the education space because, ever since two professors started Cisco in 1984, education has been one of its top priorities.
As advancements are made in pedagogy at all levels, and administrators are looking to improve the student and faculty experience, Cisco has lain the foundation to create connected campuses that actually work.
Using tools developed by Cisco and others, we can help you create a smart campus that will…
- Enable students, educators and researchers to access information more efficiently and securely.
- Provide collaboration tools, including on-line video-conferencing options, that allow for real-time translation as well as providing session recordings and transcriptions.
- Improve the overall student experience, which is useful in recruiting and retention.
Smart Campus technologies can also be used to manage facilities, waste management, lighting, parking and on-campus transportation. The extensive network analytics help you make better data-driven decisions and lower costs.
- Online courses
- Blended course
- Mobility
- Secure research computing
- Outside experts
- Virtual field trips
- Flipped learning
- Secure collaboration
- Global learning
- Intelligent facilities
- Location services
- Administration
- Connected vehicles
- Smart parking
- Connected stadiums
- Smart lighting Connected
- Campus safety
- Cybersecurity
With ever-escalating cyber security challenges, being an IT professional also means being a security and risk management expert. We often hear, “We have good firewalls and security tools and protocols in place, so why do I need a security assessment?”
Why?
The short answer: Things are evolving so quickly that you may be vulnerable in ways unimaginable a short while ago. Another big reason: Your cybersecurity insurance may require one every six months to be valid.
What is a security assessment?
Security assessments are periodic exercises that check for vulnerabilities in your IT operating systems and software programs, protocols and processes.
Assessments generally include the following three key elements:
- 1)Vulnerability Assessment
In a Vulnerability Assessment, a tech expert will assess your assets and public facing systems for weaknesses or security gaps. For example, the examination might reveal there are unprotected workstations or devices on the network, or applications that are not up-to-date, which may leave your whole network open to compromise. Or there may be inconsistencies in your BYOD policies and how employees are using their personal devices on your system. - 2)Security Posture Review
A Security Posture Review is a non-invasive process. A security expert reviews your policies and procedures to assess your current level of network and cybersecurity and then makes recommendations to help better prepare and protect your organisation. This will often include employing training suggestions. - 3)Penetration Testing
A Penetration Test, often referred to as a “Pen Test”, is usually used in conjunction with a Vulnerability Assessment. With your permission, we will try to hack various parts of your system, using various tools. We can also engage in some social engineering – related testing to get a sense of how likely your employees can be compromised potentially causing your system to be breached.
At the end of your security assessment, regardless of what route you choose or where potential problems are found, you will receive a full threat assessment report identifying what needs to be done with an assigned priority level, and a comprehensive improvement plan.
In the past, cyber security risk assessments in K-12 roughen deemed unnecessary because of the limited amounts of financial and sensitive information typically held at a school in comparison with other industries.
Unfortunately, according to the K-12 Cyber security Resource Centre, there is a 256% increase in data breach incidents in North American schools in 2019. From pranks that changed when it said on the school website, to more serious student hacking of test scores and personal information to cybercriminal denial of service and ransomware attacks, schools were left scrambling on multiple occasions.
With more schools migrating to the cloud, using VoIP, introducing IoT devices and dealing with thousands of laptops, tablets, Macs, chrome books and other mobile devices.
As network administrators know, wireless networks give you maximum flexibility so devices can connect from anywhere. Properly placed access points boost Wi-Fi signal so the device can be far from a router, completely untethered and still be connected to the network.
Depending on how you are configuring your school, you have two options: on-premise and cloud-managed. If you need a lot of customization, and are dealing with extensive security requirements, on-premise management might be the best option – though you may need a larger network engineering team to set things up.
Cloud-managed access points are easy to deploy and give you excellent visibility into network users, devices and their applications. In this case, we will usually recommend Meraki because it is the leader and cloud-controlled Wi-Fi, routing and security.
Meraki APs provide high-capacity wireless in dense, demanding environments. There are also outdoor access points built to withstand rain and dust. High performing wireless access points are optimized for heavy classroom use and district-wide deployments.
As the number of devices connecting to networks rises daily, and applications consume increasing amounts of bandwidth, delivering high quality, or reliable wireless has become mission-critical.
Meraki APs are built with enhanced CPU and memory capabilities to enable rich services, including Layer 7 application traffic shaping at the network edge. By intelligently an automatically adjusting based on user activities, network performance is optimized – and because Meraki networks leverage the power of distributed processing, you can add more capacity simply by deploying more devices, without worrying about controller bottlenecks or choke points.
Not only are Meraki enterprise-grade systems secure and scalable, they are very easy to install. Give us a call for recommendations on how to optimize high performing wireless access points for heavy classroom use and district-wide deployments.
Unfortunately, bullying, break-ins and other bad behaviour become a part of school life. Fortunately, security cameras lower the likelihood of this occurring – which may be why the number of cameras in schools has doubled in the past 10 years.
Today’s digital cameras provide excellent video resolution in a wide variety of surveillance applications, can be both wired and wireless, as well. Many have a feature that will detect movement and then automatically display that camera feed on the monitors, in schools where they are being used. Otherwise, you can use the feature to detect movement over a set period of time making it easier to investigate if you have the misfortune to have had an “incident” occur at one of your schools.
Cameras can also be installed as part of a larger video surveillance network. The camera will examine the designated areas looking for motion activity; the system will then notify users or other applications if it detects activities that exceed the predefined parameters. You can decide what specific actions should be initiated once a problem has been detected. It’s also possible to allow two-way audio to be integrated with microphones, speakers and access control systems.
One of the ones we often recommend is the Cisco Video Surveillance 2500 Series IP Camera because it has event notification, and its powerful digital imaging technology allows it to capture high-quality images in a wide variety of night and day lighting conditions. It also uses a progressive scan image sensor with global electronic shuttering to ensure natural colour rendition, zero blooming and smear and minimal motion blurring. In other words, video output is clear and crisp.
For more information about this product please click here to see the spec sheet.
Schools using cameras have lower rates of school trespassing, violence and vandalism. Let us show you the best options for your particular school’s (and schools’) situation.
On-line and remote learning is rapidly becoming the new norm. Even when in class, any educators are connecting to outside facilities, and using external applications for a variety of purposes. Students are connecting with peers and mentors in other schools, or working collaboratively from home, hospital or holiday. Many schools receive free services that work very well; others need enhanced programs to ensure reliable uptime and clear communication.
We offer several solutions in this area. A really good option for educators is WebEx because it can be used with any Webcam or camera that has a USB connection. Also…
- WebEx is easy to use, and lets people connect through text chat, with audio only or full HD video, while being able to share files and whiteboards.
- Breakout rooms are easy to facilitate for group work and other purposes.
- It also doesn’t matter what operating system or hardware is being used by participants.
- It works well on mobile devices, on laptops and in large classroom or conference spaces.
- WebEx offers unparalleled, secure data encryption, conference password protection network security protocols which means every participant’s data is protected when sharing documents.
- WebEx uses data centres that Cisco has strategically placed around the world to ensure that all videoconference sessions will have high-bandwidth premise and which almost eliminate network like so you don’t experience video interruptions.
- The feature that most clients find most exciting? You can have accurate, real-time translation of conversations going on in multiple languages.
Please contact us to learn more or set up a demo.
Need to free up your IT staff to work on implementing new projects or handling the day-to-day demands of your school or campus network? Or are you looking to shift capital expenses to operating expenses? Or both? Either way, CMN’s Managed Services can prove to be a cost-effective way to enhance the efficiency and dependability of your IT operations. We can remotely monitor your system 24/7, looking for anomalies that can impact your IT infrastructure’s dependability and the speed of your network connections, all the while checking for potential threats and vulnerabilities.
In many cases we can remediate the problem before it creates headaches for your team, making sure you know exactly what happened and when, and how the problem was resolved. If you prefer, we can alert you as disturbances are detected, letting you know where to look, so your team can get to work immediately.
Many clients also want us to take a more proactive approach, ensuring that networks, mobile devices and cloud services are up-to-date in terms of security patches, maintenance and more. Some simply need a little assistance as they migrate to the cloud and implement mobile device management protocols.
You decide how much help you need, or want, and we’ll be there.
It seems kind of obvious to say that today, all businesses, organisations, educational institutions and government entities rely on applications throughout their digital worlds…but it’s true. It also means that IT executives and network administrators must ensure that all applications are working optimally 24/7, are not creating any problems on the network. And if things do go wrong, it’s imperative you be able to fix things quickly.
We work with AppDynamics because its system gives you visibility into the entire application landscape. From one dashboard, you can see everything from the code driving every application, to how it’s impacting users on their devices, including mobile browsers – to going deeper into the infrastructure to see how things are performing at a network level.
Artificial intelligence is key to the approach being taken by AppDynamics, and AI has been a key part of the product from its inception, so the program can be more proactive and predictive about potential issues that can occur in the application environment. This means you spend less time searching for, and fixing, problems. It also means you have more time for your day-to-day activities, making it possible to carve out more time to drive innovation and improve the student, faculty and other users’ experience.
Please contact us to learn more.
Need to keep track of your Chromebooks and other valuable devices? Perhaps prevent the “unauthorized removal” of other assets from school grounds?
One solution is to use Cisco’s Wireless Location Appliance. Easy to deploy, it integrates smoothly with WLAN controllers and access points to track the physical location of thousands of devices within a few metres. It also records historical location so you can track problems, use it to evaluate traffic patterns in the school and conduct other assessments as needed.
Barcodes and QR codes are good options in some situations – but these need to be scanned. Ultra Wide-Band real-time location services (RTLS) is the gold standard in terms of location precision, but every tag needs 3 to 5 readers to get an accurate location which may not be effective when you have a lot of relatively “inexpensive” assets to track.
For some, long-range, “smart tags” which use active RFID and can transmit up to 2000 meters under ideal conditions can be a good solution – but this requires the right infrastructure be in place, often with significant investments in cabling, power source of readers and antennas. But… when used in conjunction with Wi-Fi, this can be a great solution for indoor asset tracking.
In addition to cost savings, integrating Wi-Fi directly into an RTLS tag eliminates the need for a bridge to connect the tag to the internet. Sensors can also be used in place of RFID tags. Cisco Meraki APs can track the location of your assets independently, using the signal strength of each device, whether they are moving or stationary.
RF Fingerprinting, which significantly improves accuracy and precision using traditional signal strength lateration techniques, can be custom- calibrated and used to improve performance. Cisco RF Fingerprinting is a 100% Wi-Fi RTLS without the need for specialized time-based receivers or other specialized hardware to be mounted alongside each access point. It can be a simple and elegant solution in many cases.
Please contact us to learn what will work best for you.
Today’s enterprise-level information security needs have evolved to the point where many of yesterday’s strategies are no longer relevant. At Cloud Managed Networks, we stay on top of the changing security landscape and can help you put together employee protocols that make sense for the products and programs you have in place today. We can also help you get your employees on board in ways that make follow them want to fall your procedures. Really.
Explaining how would be like answering, “How long is a piece of string?” It’s different for every company. Please contact us so we can help you figure out what is needed today – and help lay the foundation for tomorrow.
We have multiple financing options that can help you spread out payments over a period of time and can help move expenditures between CapEx and OpEx budgets.
Please contact us to learn more.
We protect them on school property and look after them online. But what about when they are being bussed? Want a more effective way to keep tabs on the students, buses and driver, than reaching out through cell phone or walkie-talkie? Our solutions are reliable because they use Wi-Fi connectivity and are cost-effective because data only gets used as necessary.
But we mean?
Imagine the bus door is open longer than it should be – and you can decide how much that should be for each of your routes. When an extra five minutes has gone by, the system sends a message to the bus driver. If there’s a response, the system knows that all is well.
But what if the five minutes becomes eight minutes (again, you decide what is appropriate)? At that point the live video streaming turns on so you can see what’s going on in real time. You’ll also get an alert, so you can decide how to respond.
Again, if the driver responds, or you can see that the problem is a caterpillar costume crowding the door, alarms can be called off and the video streaming stopped.
Things are not as they should be? Help can be summoned and you can continue receiving the live stream so you know what’s going on until the matter has been resolved. When you only need to stream a few minutes a day – and hopefully not even that – the cost is minuscule in comparison with the peace of mind it provides. Either way, you have a record of everything that’s happened on the bus from the time the driver boards until the doors get locked at the end of shift.
The same system lets you easily and accurately track all your buses’ locations. Add in a simple sensor and you’ll be able to track when and where kids got off the bus…and even stop kids from getting off of the wrong stop or being left on a bus at the end of shift.
Worried about implementing a solution too soon? No need to wait. Our solutions work with 4G service and have been designed to work with 5G, too.
