Technology Support Services
Technology Support Services During Planning for Reentry
Technology Support Services
Continued Support…
During the current pandemic crisis, one of the challenges districts face is how to effectively provide technical support to students as well as teachers and administrators. The first step in being able to effectively provide support to students remotely is to have a solution which allows students (and parents) to report technical issues. To assist with this need, the LHRIC has created a “Student Incident Portal.” The portal is a structured and seamless solution for reporting technical support issues which integrates with districts’ current incident management databases, providing the ability to document and monitor the support workload. The student incident submission form allows the collection of required information up front, including information such as parental contact and consent. The student incident portal is also in 2 languages, Spanish and English. Use of the “Student incident portal” allows for a customized workflow which can be routed to different staff members and allows the ability to collaborate and escalate support issues across all teams across the LHRIC. In addition to this portal, the LHRIC team will work with your district to repurpose your district and field support staff as well as other district team members, to provide remote support to the district’s students and parents.
For more details or to move forward with this solution which has no additional cost for districts participating in Network Support Service, please contact your MIT Lead or Account Manager.
Service Desk & Vertical Teams
Our Service Desk and Managed IT Centralized Support Teams are available to support districts remotely from 7:00 a.m - 5:00 a.m Monday through Friday. The best way to report an issue or ask a question is via the LHRIC Service-Now System ( https://lhric.service-now.com/ess/main.do). We are also monitoring all emails and voice mails.
Additional Support
In addition, the LHRIC Network Support Services team has also provided the following offerings to assist participating districts during the pandemic crisis:
- LogMeIn licenses for LHRIC and district support staff to assist with remote support
- Webinars for various tools to improve remote support
- Transition and configuration of Lightspeed Relay to filter off premise devices
- Pick-up hardware repair service (including home delivery for out of warranty Chromebook devices)
- Deployment of field support resources to assist with configuration and roll out of student mobile devices
- Additional VPN accounts for secure remote access to district resources (no additional cost for 19-20)
- Configuration of Google Enterprise feature (ie Google Hangouts)
- Configuration of Microsoft Teams collaboration tools
- Active Directory Password Manager for District self-service password management until July 1, 2020
Recent Ransomware Threat
We have seen an increase in threat activity in the Lower Hudson region with Sodin Ransomware targeting local districts. As a result of this activity we feel it is important to make districts aware so we can all be proactive and guard against this malicious activity. Visit our Cybersecurity page to learn more.
Home Internet Connection Offers during the COVID-19 pandemic
The following companies are providing free or reduced-price internet service during school closure. Some restrictions may apply so read carefully.
Altice USA • Comcast • Spectrum • ATT
Anthony Ferrante
Manager-IT
aferrante@lhric.org
T: (914) 922-3266
Managed IT Services
Managed IT Services include both centralized and field support teams to deliver a high quality, consistent, standardized and effective delivery of technology support. Managed IT covers the following areas:
- Service Desk
- Managed Infrastructure
- Managed Wireless
- Managed Systems
- Managed End User Computing
- Field Support
As part of the service, a MIT Leader will work hand in hand with district administrators to integrate and coordinate the delivery of services to meet the needs of each individual district through a centrally managed, regional and standardized service approach and methodology. The Managed IT Leaders provide district-level oversight of the technical staff, project management, and planning and design support.
Service Desk
The Service Desk is a central point of contact for school districts to submit incidents and get real time support. The Service Desk team will triage, categorize, and prioritize the incident. If possible, the Service Desk will resolve the incident, otherwise it will be routed to the appropriate team, either central or onsite. Service Now is the tool that allows both the LHRIC and District to have insight into break fix issues, project work, district initiatives, and orders placed through the LHRIC. The reporting within Service Now allows both the LHRIC and district to have conversations around resource management and identify trends to staff appropriately during busy times of the year.
John M. DiChiara
jdichiara@lhric.org
T: (914) 922-3201
Managed Infrastructure Support and Wireless Support Service
Managed Infrastructure Support
Managed Infrastructure Support provides daily support and management of district network infrastructure, including proactive monitoring, alerts to technology support staff, switch configuration backups, optimization and remediation of issues with any district infrastructure equipment including routers, switches and firewalls. Centralized services also include secure management of the district’s local network infrastructure, providing role-based access while capturing log data of user access.
Managed Wireless Support
Managed Wireless Support provides daily support and management of your district’s local wireless network solution, including support for all district-owned wireless controllers, access points, network access management, proactive monitoring and alerting, and optimization of district wireless environment. A standardized wireless implementation is included, which provides simplified access and increased security to district wireless solutions.
Malleh Ceesay
mceesay@lhric.org
T: (914) 922-3265
In-District Technology Support
The In-District Support Service provides day-to-day responsibility for the complete management of the desktop and local area network. Support is provided by experts who take care of service and support issues and provide help with the implementation of technology. These qualified staff members will be dispatched to districts when necessary and work in conjunction with our Managed IT staff (MITS).
Craig Swanson
cswanson@lhric.org
T: (914) 922-3272
Managed End User Computing and Systems Support
Managed End User Computing
The End User Computing Service is a managed service which provides districts with comprehensive support solution for all district owned client devices and peripherals, including management and support for Google Apps for Education and Office 365 services.
Managed Systems Support
The Systems Support Service is a managed service which provides support and management of all servers, storage devices and server virtualizations solutions. This service provides proactive monitoring, support, scheduled maintenance, systems optimization and standardization of district systems. A compliment to this services is server hosting at the LHRIC data center, which is optional.
Anthony Ferrante
aferrante@lhric.org
T: (914) 922-3266