What Hacienda La Puente USD Was Looking for in an MDM Solution

When it comes to Hacienda La Puente Unified School District's ­nascent bring-your-own-device program and the Access_Net network that was created to support it, Thomas Tan is certain of one thing: He doesn't know what to expect.

"We just opened Access_Net on May 1," explains Tan, director of network and computer services for the 34-school district, which serves more than 22,000 pre-K–12 ­students in California's San Gabriel Valley. "The network is open to ­anyone who wants to bring his or her own device to campus or use one of the district-owned mobile ­devices we've been piloting."

HLPUSD began testing the BYOD waters in September 2011, when the IT team deployed 60 tablets for administrators to use in teacher evaluations. Soon thereafter, a small group of teachers at three schools began piloting tablets in their classrooms.

"Buying the devices is the easy part," Tan continues. "Building the capacity to support that is an ongoing effort."

Absolute Clarity

Indeed, it didn't take long before HLPUSD's 30-person IT department realized that it needed a better ­mobile device management strategy. "At the time, we had to touch every single device," Tan explains. "Our department supports all technology districtwide, and it became apparent really quickly that having to physically track down every device was a nonstarter for us."

During a California Educational Technology Professionals Association meeting in January 2012, Tan had an opportunity to see a demonstration of Absolute Manage MDM from Absolute Software. Additional ­research and visits to the nearby Corona–Norco Unified School District and Rosemead School District, which also use Absolute Manage MDM, confirmed for Tan and his colleagues that the solution was the right choice for their district too.

"Absolute had a good reputation, and the fact that other districts were using it gave it credibility," Tan says. The software's ease of use and ­feature set also made it appealing — particularly the over-the-air management capabilities, which Tan calls "the killer app."

HLPUSD teachers and students had less than a month to experiment with Access_Net before the 2012–2013 school year came to an end, so the real test of the network's ­performance — and the number of devices that will access it — will come when school resumes on Aug. 7.

"We don't know yet if we're going to get five or 500 devices on this network," Tan says. "But what gets watched gets done. MDM automates support that you'd otherwise have to do by hand."