How School District IT Teams Win with Co-Managed MIBS

One of the most common concerns we hear about MIBS (Managed Internal Broadband Services), and K-12 schools is that working with a MIBS partner means your IT staff’s jobs are in jeopardy. But fortunately, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Especially because when it comes to K-12 school districts, your internal IT staff are the experts on your schools’ needs.

Ahead, we’re going to break apart this myth to better understand it and how school district IT teams actually win through an effective Co-Managed MIBS partnership. Because at the end of the day, an effective Co-Managed MIBS partner is one who is rooting for your district and your district’s IT team to see success.

Co-Managed MIBS Means Collaboration, Not Personnel Replacement

MIBS, or Managed Internal Broadband Services, refers to a category of services eligible for E-Rate funding. Because the suite of services included in MIBS is so extensive, it gives school districts the opportunity to strategically operate, manage, and monitor critical internal network components, including routers, access points, switches, and cabling systems—ensuring your networks operate seamlessly and efficiently.

MIBS Services could include:

Network Assessment Monitoring
Network Design and Collaborative Futureproofing
Break-Fix
Configuration Backups and Restoration
Additions, Moves, and Changes for Network Expansions and New Technologies
Installation
Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly and Annual Reporting
Guidance and Training for the Staff

Co-Managed MIBS is exactly what it sounds like: a partnership with a MIBS provider to co-manage your network through these services. This means working with a Co-Managed MIBS partner is not a replacement for your IT team.

First, E-Rate funding provides funding for MIBS services, not personnel. But secondly, the success of the MIBS partnership depends on your internal expertise as well.

As a true collaboration, Co-Managed MIBS looks to school districts to be the experts on your district, your IT infrastructure, and your IT goals, challenges, and needs. This especially includes your expertise on your users, from students to teachers and admin. Without this expertise, the partnership wouldn’t be as successful.

What an experienced Co-Managed MIBS partner brings to the collaboration is deep and specialized network expertise, especially when it comes to managing school district networks for predictable and manageable costs.

Co-Managed MIBS also means you maintain your full visibility—and control—into your network. As the expert on your district, you and your IT team make the decisions and maintain full access to your network monitoring tools, and control over your entire educational environment.

But if you’re like most districts, you or your IT staff are so busy managing so many different IT tasks and fires that it’s difficult to stay on top of routine maintenance tasks and monitoring alerts and assessments, let alone proactive strategic planning.

Co-Managed MIBS gives you access to a team of experts, for a manageable, monthly cost. As a partnership, it’s designed to fit in alongside your team, lending expertise where it's needed, and helping to ensure important network tasks are taken care of.

Your Internal IT Team is Freed Up, With Less Strain and Pressure

IT teams are stretched thin these days, as networks and infrastructure grow more complex with higher demands. More devices than ever are used in schools, and school environments are also some of the most complex out there, thanks in no small part to the mobility of your users.

With this though comes stress, strain, and pressure on your staff. Over time, this can even lead to burnout and high turnover. In between, it also often means there’s little time or bandwidth left for proactive, strategic planning and work.

While it may be out of budget to hire a significantly larger internal team, a MIBS partner can step in to relieve a lot of the pressure, ensure network tasks are taken care of when they should be, and even consult with you for strategic planning. Even better, these services qualify for E-Rate funding—and are customizable, with predictable costs.

What would it look like for your team if they had a little breathing room to focus on more strategic work? What could your IT department accomplish and build for your district? Rather than threatening your IT team's job security, a Co-Managed MIBS partner is like bringing in reserves to strengthen your team.

Teacher and pupils looking at tablet computer at the elementary school

An Experienced Co-Managed MIBS Partner Knowledge Shares to Level Up Your Internal Expertise

As network technology evolves rapidly and is growing more complex, it’s difficult to reach the level of expertise you need to build the kind of infrastructure that can transform your schools—especially on top of everything else you’re managing.

When you work with a MIBS partner, you are co-managing your network with a team of experts, who will lend their skills to designing, managing, and operating a seamless, dependable network. They’ll know what pitfalls to avoid and what makes a network plan agile—as well as how to best maximize your E-Rate dollars for now and the future.

It’s also their job to stay ahead of technological changes and developments. An effective MIBS partner brings their depth of expertise and specialized knowledge to your district, and also empowers your team through ongoing knowledge transfer. They will also provide training and professional development, to help level up your teams’ skillset and ensure your internal staff has the ability to use your network management tools effectively.

Co-Managed MIBS is Here to Help Your IT Team Deliver a Transformed User Experience

In just the past few years, technology has completely transformed K-12 learning environments—enabling teachers and students to reach new levels of freedom and learning, but also, requiring much more support from schools’ IT infrastructure. Seamless connectivity that can accommodate a high volume of devices, enable students to move frequently throughout their days without losing connections, and allow teachers to trust its reliability for better lesson planning is the requirement and expectation these days. It also ensures that students are exposed to learning technology early, setting them up for future success.

Yet, as you may also know, this isn’t easy to deliver. Especially for complex school network environments. Unfortunately, it’s still common for districts to have laggy, faulty networks that are too unreliable to support this kind of technology-enabled learning. Of course, if this is your district’s network, you also likely hear complaints about daily, as slow connectivity impacts everyone in the district.

To upgrade your district’s network takes time, staff resources and bandwidth, expertise in networks and the different layers of connectivity, and, most importantly, funding.

When you pair a Co-Managed MIBS partners’ depth of experience and specialized expertise with your own IT team’s expertise in your users, your existing infrastructure, and your district’s needs and goals, the most effective partnership enables your team to deliver a truly transformed network experience for your users. Your staff gets some relief from the daily pressure and strain on their bandwidth and gains new knowledge and skillsets direct from network experts. Ultimately, you can enable the schools in your district with access to reliable, high-speed connectivity for a seamless digital experience for every one of your users.

Through the E-Rate program, your school can receive funding to make this a reality—even more important this year as COVID relief starts sunsetting. If you’d like to better understand how to maximize your district’s Year 5 E-Rate dollars, the true scope of eligible MIBS services, and the clear steps you can take for success on your funding application, download our guide How to Maximize Your Year 5 E-Rate Dollars.