An urban district in California faced a common question: where should it invest its technology dollars to get the best returns? There seemed to be so many possibilities and so many needs, but it was facing yet another year of shrinking budgets.
ViKiwi started with the district’s strategic goals. They built a technology strategic plan around the district’s academic and business goals, detailing how technology could help increase student achievement, lower the cost of delivering business services, and improve communications. The plan also outlined where the infrastructure would need to be strengthened to support the increased use of technology, and described how E-rate benefits could be leveraged to upgrade the network across the entire district. The plan also pointed out the need to upgrade the helpdesk over time to ensure that everyone in the district, regardless of his or her initial level of computer savvy, could use and benefit from technology.
To help the district plan its finances, ViKiwi highlighted a list of projects that would have to be funded within the next 18 months. Using this plan as a roadmap, the district was able to build a technology budget that supported explicit short and long-term strategies. The district also has been able to use this plan to describe its technology strategy to foundations and other potential funders.
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