Schools and universities today must go above and beyond to provide positive experiences for students and faculty members. This is critical for attracting top talent, and staying relevant in the ultra-competitive higher education market. Student and faculty experience is now a major driver in education, much like customer experience in the business arena.

If there’s one area that needs improvement across the board, though, it’s help desk support. Many schools today are struggling with help desks that are highly unreliable and ineffective because they are relying on outdated systems and processes— an issue that commonly leads to complaints and negative reviews.

One institution that looked to improve their help desk was a public university which we shall refer to as University Client. So, University Client turned to IT solutions provider Compulink for support.

Compulink equipped University Client with the Freshservice ITSM service from their partner Freshworks. Freshservice is an easy-to-use, and simple-to-configure IT service desk that sits in the cloud. This service automates repetitive tasks, freeing support teams to focus on higher level issues that require a human touch. This in turn lowers response times and boosts productivity.

In addition, Freshservice maintains detailed records of contracts, hardware, software, and other assets for IT, providing further backend support. It also features a modern and intuitive UI that requires minimal to no training, and is customizable to IT and non-IT needs which is helpful for student employees and busy faculty members.

Thanks to Freshservice and Compulink, University Client can now avoid silos and deliver exceptional experiences.

“Through this partnership, [University Client] will be able to utilize Freshservice to avoid the repetitive and arduous tasks for the support teams, as well maintain accurate records of IT equipment,” said Rafael Arboleda, CEO of Compulink Technologies.

The IT environments of any sized institution are no simple matter. This is especially true for Enterprise-sized institutions such as government agencies.  Organizations of this magnitude require an extensive amount of maintenance, support, and coordination to operate successfully.  A transportation agency which we shall refer to as Agency in New York City was in need of an IT Contractor that will be responsible for managing the maintenance of Cisco equipment being used agency wide. This is to ensure the manufacturer provide immediate solutions, hardware replacements, technical support and no lapses in coverage so their operations can run sufficiently.

The Compulink team collaborated with Cisco Systems to develop a Smartnet Contract for the AGENCY.  Cisco Smartnet maintenance was the AGENCY’s best fit in order to ensure network connectivity and hardware issues are efficiently addressed by Cisco.  Together, Compulink, Cisco, and the AGENCY developed a robust contract where Compulink carried the responsibility of managing all Cisco Smartnet maintenance for a 7-year period that spanned to all of the AGENCY’s locations within New York.

In the contract, Compulink was responsible for the following:

When the AGENCY had an issue with their network connectivity or had failures in their hardware, they would open a ticket with the Cisco TAC (technical support) team.  The Compulink Team, as the contract administrators, would provide oversight of the ticket and ensured they were promptly resolved. We would provide escalation to Cisco management team if tickets are not resolved within a timely manner and/or if AGENCY does not receive a satisfactory solution to their problem.

Compulink provided oversight on the AGENCY inventory and would closely monitor their equipment.  If any Cisco hardware, such as switches or routers would require replacement due to failures or pending end-of-life status, Compulink would quickly find the necessary replacements to ensure the network remains intact without error.  Compulink Technologies overlooked modifications, additions, and removal of equipment within the network. We ensured that all equipment (new and replaced) have maintenance coverage.

If an end-user from AGENCY would require immediate support on their network connectivity or dashboards, the Compulink team would open a ticket on their behalf and escalated to the responsible parties to get a resolution. The Compulink Team also assist AGENCY with Cisco configuration, new technology recommendations, and any hardware and software related questions.

The 7-year contract has been fulfilled and came to an end.  However, thanks to the dependable, consistent service of Compulink Technologies, the agency continues to work with Compulink on all their Cisco Smartnet needs.

In any organization, consistent technological upgrades are vital.  In the case of educational institutions, it is important for the IT environment to be intact, updated, and secure to prevent inefficiencies in their academic productivity.

In 2020, a New York City-based University solicited a project for a wireless network upgrade including a new core switch solution and 1000 access points campus wide.  Compulink Technologies was selected to fulfill the 31-building campus wide project because of our competitive pricing and premium-quality services.  Our team provided all Cisco wireless project equipment and we deployed a team of two technical engineers and four installers to implement the campus-wide wireless solution.

Compulink Technologies worked closely with this university client.  The University client required enterprise-level scalability which Compulink was able to provide.  Due to the large size of the campus with 31 buildings, Compulink collaborated the IT team to map out the campus wireless network.  The pre-design phase allowed Compulink to efficiently locate the positions of the new access points and provide accurate new designs by floor and building including heat maps.

As this was a two-part solution, installation and configuration of access points and providing a new wireless network solution with a new core, many complexities had to be taken account for and planned out thoughtfully.  A separate team was provided by Compulink for the core component of the project.  The scope of the core project comprised of the following: network design, staging, migration from old core switch, installation of new Cisco core switch, production go-live support, post deployment support and project closure documentation.

Some of the benefits of installing Cisco Meraki’s latest products include Wi-Fi 6.  Wi-Fi 6 enables high speed wireless internet access over a large population.  By incorporating Wi-Fi 6 into their IT environment, students and teachers can engage their academic resources and tools online with high speed internet access.  Additionally, Wi-fi based communication and cloud connectivity for end-users can improve.  Overall the quality of educational engagement improves thanks to the upgrade to Wi-Fi 6.

The project is still currently ongoing despite the delays of the COVID19 Pandemic.  Compulink Technologies is working safely on-site and remote to fulfill the campus-wide wireless network solution.

The COVID 19 Pandemic has caused a shock to the global economy.  It is a highly contagious, sometimes fatal virus that can spread just by being in the same vicinity as those affected.  Because of this, societies all around the world have been practicing social distancing.  And public institutions such as government agencies and transit authorities are no exception.  While the “government” is often seen as a single body that holds society together, each agency is comprised of thousands of individual employees that are prone to infection.

As a result of this, public institutions that Compulink closely works with have gone remote and needed assistance.  Compulink Technologies is not unfamiliar with crisis preparation, so we used our capabilities and experience to become a resource to our clients.

Multiple agencies that we work with wanted remote-enabled hardware such as laptops, docking stations; cloud-based communications tools such as Cisco Webex; and remote connectivity tools such as RSA Single-Sign on immediately.  Because of the emergency status of the pandemic, these items were in extreme limited stock from the warehouses we work with. As a valued supplier of the public sector, Compulink Technologies had access to reserve IT stock that was meant solely for government agencies during the COVID19 Pandemic. 

The Compulink team worked closely with manufacturers and clients to find the right items in high quantities (thousands of users in each institution) and deliver the items successfully to the clients.

The Pandemic comes with market panic where people stock up essential home items and business supplies hardware such as laptops and notebooks.  These are necessary tools to work successfully and keep operations going.  Thanks to our dedicated Compulink teammates, and the supply chain we work with, the operations of multiple public institutions are still ongoing and the government is intact despite the Coronavirus Pandemic.

We would like to thank the public institutions we work with for keeping operations going in the midst of social distancing and ensuring our public infrastructure remains functional.