“ There are probably hundreds of products that can create AD accounts and many less that can create O365 accounts. Very few (if any) that seem to understand hybrid environments like Cayosoft does.” — Todd Bryant, Data Manager at Manhattan-Ogden Unified School District #383
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With 6,500 students in grades PK, K-12, Manhattan-Ogden Unified School District #383 is a highly rated, public school district located in Manhattan, KS.
The district was using another product for close to 10 years for the provisioning and de-provisioning of network accounts. Originally, these were Active Directory accounts with local Exchange server and then moved to a Microsoft Office 365 hybrid environment in 2016.
Previous software began to cause intermittent issues and the network department found itself spending more and more time fixing accounts. At the start of 2019 school year, when there was many new staff and student accounts being created, the IT staff was battling numerous issues with the provisioning process. Accounts were being created, but users were getting local mailboxes instead of remote mailboxes, they were not getting the correct user groups assigned, and Office 365 licensing was not being applied, among other frustrating issues.
“Support was being provided by the reseller and billed at an hourly consulting rate,” said Todd Bryant, data manager at Manhattan-Ogden Unified School District #383. “We had to decide to either pay consultants to upgrade all the systems and find the issues or to take time to look for another product to manage our hybrid environment.”
“We had been using the same product for so long, and spent a tremendous amount of time fine turning all of our rules exactly the way we wanted, so there were some reservations in the department about moving to a new management solution,” said Bryant.
Manhattan-Ogden looked for a new solution to automate account provisioning and enable password resets for both individuals (self-service) and the help desk.
The district uses their HR and student information system as the source of authority for user accounts. “When we started running Cayosoft, I was surprised to see a number of users who were in the wrong groups and Organization Units,” said Bryant. “We used Cayosoft to move users into the correct OU and groups. This has fixed the issue of student and staff not receiving communication because they were not in the correct distribution group. This has also eliminated potential security concerns.”
The biggest benefit to Bryant is in the automation and efficiency for him and his team.
“The more we can automate the better. When there is a new student or staff, their accounts are automatically created. And when a user changes locations, the accounts are automatically moved and they get all the correct group membership assignments.”
“I was surprised how easy it was to configure Cayosoft Administrator to enforce licensing and remove local mailboxes. This year we have had a lot less calls of new students and teachers saying ‘I don’t see any Office 365 apps when they login’, which used to happen when the license was not applied correctly. “Now, if there is issue where licenses didn’t get applied, Cayosoft corrects it before the end users even notice.”
The fact that Cayosoft is purpose-built for hybrid Microsoft environments is also helping Manhattan-Ogden improve efficiency. “There are probably hundreds of products that can create AD accounts and many less that can create O365 accounts. Very few (if any) that seem to understand hybrid environments like Cayosoft does”, said Bryant.
About Cayosoft Administrator
Cayosoft® Administrator™ is the only complete management solution for your entire cloud IT journey, from on-premises to hybrid to the cloud. Every step along the way, Cayosoft Administrator delivers Security, Efficiency, Compliance, and Innovation in the management of Active Directory, Exchange, Office 365, and beyond!
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