Des Moines Public Schools improves education experience for staff and students with Microsoft Surface

IT infrastructure for modern education

As one of the largest school districts in Iowa, Des Moines Public Schools is committed to equipping its 33,000 students and 6,500 staff across 72 locations with the tools they need to learn efficiently, be productive, and make a difference. With more than 150 languages spoken by students’ families, the district’s diversity is one of its core strengths and has led to an emphasis on equitable, accessible, and innovative approaches to education.

Heading into the 2021 to 2022 school year, Des Moines Public Schools set out to refresh 15,500 legacy devices and modernize its IT infrastructure while maintaining security and compliance. Remote classes unexpectedly became part of the learning landscape due to COVID-19, resulting in the district needing to push out thousands of devices to students and staff to take home in just two weeks. At the time, Des Moines Public Schools was experiencing a high warranty failure rate with its legacy devices, which was exacerbated as devices became integral to students’ and staff’s success.

“Computers had to be gathered, taken to our service center, repaired, and then deployed again,” says Dan Sloan, Technology Services Manager at Des Moines Public Schools. “During the height of the pandemic last year, that was very painful. This really called our attention to the devices that we’re putting in our students’ and staff’s hands and how we needed to make improvements.”

Des Moines Public Schools aimed to enhance its technology strategy to be budget friendly, easy to manage, and cater to a variety of learning styles including remote education. Fortunately, the district was already moving toward a unified, centralized solution using Microsoft technologies. It decided that continuing with Microsoft for its device refresh made the most sense from a cost, security, and brand familiarity standpoint.

Accelerating a growing momentum of wins

Des Moines Public Schools ran a long-term trial with a few groups around the district to evaluate Microsoft Surface devices for their fit and durability. “We ran a spreadsheet tallying average existing device diagnostic times, ticket entry times, and handling times compared to estimated service rates for Surface devices,” says Sloan. “It was clear that we’d save a lot of money by making the switch.”

The district purchased 15,500 Surface devices, including the Surface Laptop Go, Surface Pro 7+, and Surface Book 3, in mid-2021 and rolled them out by August. Of those devices, 13,200 went to students and 2,300 went to staff. The district credits the speed and success of the rollout, in part, to the support it received from the Surface team with weekly calls, trainings, and help with change management, in addition to the ease of use of the devices themselves.

The district also renewed its Microsoft 365 A5 licenses to give students and staff the best possible range of applications and security features, as well as the ability to download and install communication and collaboration applications to individual devices for offline use.

With Surface devices in users’ hands and traction growing for Teams, the district received overwhelmingly positive real-time feedback. Teachers appreciated the mobility and portability of the Surface Pro 7+ and Surface Book 3 devices and students enjoyed their new Surface Laptop Go devices with no delays or downtime, while also being able to send messages to their teachers through Teams.

Students in kindergarten through fifth grade and the district’s secondary virtual campus all received Surface Laptop Go devices at the start of the school year and were ready for remote learning, thanks to Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and Always On VPN. By implementing these security solutions, the district better protects students and staff against the vulnerabilities of home Wi-Fi networks and potential phishing schemes. “Our programs would simply not have survived had we not had Microsoft in place,” says Sloan.

Technology that works better together

Des Moines Public Schools uses Microsoft Intune, part of Endpoint Manager, and Windows Autopilot to address a previous challenge—managing the imaging and repair of devices wherever they were located. “One of the things that attracted us to Intune and the Windows Autopilot process was that computers could be fired up and used by the end user right out of the box, no imaging needed,” says Robert Bledsoe, Network Architect at Des Moines Public Schools. “We could also reset the devices remotely, which saves a lot of time.”

Adds Connie Broich, IT Project Manager and Customer Service Desk Manager at Des Moines Public Schools, “Most of our IT staff don’t work over the summer, so they had a small window to do a lot of work. The payoff is going to be fantastic.”

The district received support from its deployment partner, Riverside Technologies, Inc. The company primarily assisted with imaging and logistics, enrolling computers in Intune, issuing cases and asset tags, and delivering devices to students and staff. No longer needing to manually image every computer led to a reduction in overall expenses and motivated Des Moines Public Schools and Riverside Technologies, Inc. to work together in new ways.

Empowering educators and education seekers

Des Moines Public Schools is confident in the security and overall capabilities of its new Microsoft technology suite, trusting the infrastructure to help students and staff to take full advantage of everything the devices have to offer. Surface, in particular, has quickly developed—and continues to live up to—the promise of being a cost-effective, high-performing, and premium-quality device that is made to last. “Once I got a Surface, I realized I don’t ever want to live without one,” says Bledsoe. “It’s the most durable, reliable device I’ve ever had.” Students are also reporting that the devices are easy to use right out of the box and make learning more enjoyable and exciting.

The district is already planning to purchase another 12,000 Surfaces for students for the next school year. Should Des Moines Public Schools require support, it can count on a team of specialized experts from Microsoft Premier Support and repair turnaround times of approximately one week, compared to up to three months with its previous devices. The district is also anticipating upping the expected life span of its devices from four years to five, which is expected to drive savings of upwards of $15 million over 10 years.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing how the Surface devices hold up over the next two to three years as they’ve been very solid,” attests Sloan. “From a service standpoint, we were experiencing an overall 17 percent warranty failure rate prior to moving to Microsoft. We are seeing a fraction of a hundredth of a percent in failure rate right now.”

Through its rapid acceleration to a modernized technology landscape, Des Moines Public Schools is building on its mission to become a model of urban education. This is a move that will be championed by the students and staff who now have the power of Microsoft technology and cloud solutions in their hands to seize learning opportunities as they happen and to be part of something great.

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