No matter where students are in their day, your school districts’ Wi-Fi and network connectivity can either support and even transform learning—or hinder it. From online testing and curriculums to integrated learning and an increased volume in devices, your district’s network environment is complex. This is especially true for middle and high schools, where every 50 minutes, students are on the move again—and need their educational devices to work wherever they sit down for class next.
Of course, budgets—and internal staff resources—are tight. So how do you plan for upgrades now while accounting for the long-term stability and strategy of your infrastructure and classroom networks? How do you stay on top of network maintenance to extend the ROI of your network infrastructure? And if you’re looking to invest in technology, should you take the leap and buy the current technology now or hold out and wait for newer technology? How do you do all of this while managing E-Rate and Title 1 funding cycles?
This is where a Co-Managed Internal Broadband Approach—a category of service on the E-Rate Eligible Services List (ESL) and a partnership model designed for school districts—can help.
What is a Co-Managed Internal Broadband Approach?
Managed Services is a broad term, technically defined as the practice of outsourcing business administration and management responsibilities to a third party.
Within the E-Rate Eligible Services, Managed Internal Broadband Services (MIBS) refers to services provided by a third party for the operation, management, and monitoring of internal connections components.
These services include managing eligible products such as access points, routers, switches, hubs, and wiring. These must be located at the applicant site and necessary to transport information to classrooms or publicly accessible areas of a library.
MIBS is one of the two service types under E-Rate's Category 2 Services, the other being Basic Maintenance of Internal Connections (BMIC). BMIC covers the repair and upkeep of eligible internal connections, including hardware, wiring, and cable maintenance, along with basic technical support and configuration changes.
Co-Managed MIBS is a Collaborative Partnership—Not a Replacement for Your IT Team
As with any successful collaboration, each partner brings their own expertise to the table, joining forces to create or achieve something greater than what may have been possible on their own. When you work with a great MIBS partner through a co-managed approach, this is what you can expect. You and your team are the experts on your educational business, while your MIBS partner is focused on co-managing wired, wireless, and accompanying services.
Within the E-Rate categorization, MIBS refers to these services—it is not a personnel replacement program. A MIBS partner will co-design the services agreement for your networking needs. They’ll step in alongside you or your IT team to provide expert support where it’s needed most. This could include services such as:
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Network Assessment Monitoring
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Network Design and Collaborative Futureproofing
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Break-Fix
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Configuration Backups and Restoration
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Additions, Moves, and Changes for Network Expansions and New Technologies
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Installation
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Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly and Annual Reporting
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Guidance and Training for Staff
Co-Managed MIBS Means You Maintain Visibility into Your Infrastructure, But Gain Access to Added Expertise
An external MIBS partner who has managed networks for many clients and K-12 districts brings in a deep bench of expertise and experience in managing, upgrading, and maintaining school networks, for a manageable, predictable cost. 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.
This approach is extremely popular for school districts, as well as businesses of all sizes—from small and medium-sized businesses all the way up to large enterprise organizations. Worldwide, the market for managed services is expected to surpass $400 billion by 2026. Specifically, for MIBS Category 2 Services, there are 4000 School Districts leveraging these services currently, a number that continues to grow.
Access to a team of experts, for a monthly, manageable cost, is a big reason for the model’s success. Internally, there may be times when the budget allows for hiring highly specialized staff. Yet the issue with this strategy is that many times, it can be expensive and difficult to not only find high-skilled talent, but to retain them as well. When internal staff leave the district, the re-hiring cycle increases costs even more, as the district must then spend time, resources, and money to recruit and retrain replacements more often.