Efficient IT Management of Mixed Mac and Windows Environment Improves Productivity

THE CHALLENGE

Reluctance to Manage Macs Spurs Move

CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) is a 40-person nonprofit organization based in Chicago, that helps school districts around the country implement social and emotional learning programs.

When CASEL first started out, they had a single in-house IT Director. Due to a number of factors, including some organizational and budget changes, a decision was made to outsource their IT.

Unfortunately, the experience with the new IT service provider proved to be sub-par. One of the biggest hurdles was in their reluctance to manage a mixed Apple OS and Windows environment.

Originally CASEL was a pure Windows environment, but the new leadership was committed to giving employees the tools they worked best with, which included Macs.

This push-back, combined with some other frustrations, caused CASEL to search for a new Managed IT services provider in Chicago who was comfortable with both environments.

David Terroba, CASEL’s accountant, had been playing a helping hand with internal IT, and so became the defacto resource for searching for a new provider.

THE SOLUTION

Managing Mac and Windows in the Office and at Home

One of CASEL executives had previously worked with Forget Computers, now an Ntiva company. It was suggested to Terroba that he reach out to investigate switching over, in order to get access to a Managed Services Provider who had deep technical expertise in both Windows and Macs.

The experience, according to Terroba, was “night and day.” For the first time, Terroba felt there was a true partnership. With the old provider, he felt like it was “pulling teeth” to get them to do things, and response time was extremely slow.

When the pandemic struck, no one was happier than Terroba that they had made the switch. Like many companies, the bulk of CASEL’s employees worked in the office and literally overnight everyone was asked to work from home.

Terroba felt this sudden move to remote working would have been a nightmare with the old provider, and was thrilled with the support he received from Ntiva, who were able to offer deep expertise on both Macs and Windows.

THE IMPACT

True IT Partnership Reduces Tickets and Increases Productivity

CASEL’s technology is now “just working so smoothly” that employees often literally forget who their outside IT provider even is, as their help desk needs have dropped.

This is a huge boost to productivity and performance for the company.

“Ntiva is great with managing both the Windows and Mac computers, alleviating the burden on my time, as most employees would come to me first to see if I could fix an issue quickly”, said Terroba. “Even if they put a ticket in, with the old provider the issue was often not resolved and they would end up back in my office.”

Now Terroba is able to focus on his true work priorities, and even though working for a small organization means wearing many hats, he’s happy that he can now dedicate significantly less time to wearing the “IT hat!"