At Centenary College of Louisiana, a small liberal arts college in Shreveport, LA, providing wireless connectivity to the student body is one of its topmost priorities. And it has been that way for years. Early on, Centenary made a strategic decision to outsource and partnered with Apogee to build a solid foundation to support bandwidth needs well into the future. Apogee was selected for its technical expertise, cost savings and availability of a dedicated team to ensure eòcient installation, support and expansion. Now, nearly 10 years later, this partnership continues to thrive, fostering a positive student experience, boosting productivity and enhancing the bottom line.
“The student residents of Centenary College of Louisiana are a truly connected, intelligent and technologically savvy cohort. We are proud to be able to provide the most advanced wireless technologies and support, giving them the optimum IT environment and educational experiences that they deserve.”
– Scott Merritt, Director of Information Technology, Centenary College
GOALS
Back in 2009, Centenary students, like college students everywhere, were bringing more and more devices with them—and expecting wireless connectivity not just in the classroom, but in the residence halls. Centenary wanted to expand wireless access to its residence halls not just for the incoming group of student residents, but also to support growing connectivity needs for the whole campus for years to come. Centenary decided that outsourcing to a third-party was the best solution for them since their 5-person IT department had
neither the staffing or expertise to provide wireless networking.
CHALLENGES
- Lack of wireless infrastructure for the residence halls.
- Small IT department struggled to keep up with bandwidth
demands and provide residential networking. - Strained wireless network in the face of accelerated device adoption.
- IT awash in a blizzard of troubleshooting phone calls.
SOLUTIONS
- Apogee’s tailored solution for Centenary included:
- Wireless infrastructure throughout the residence halls.
- An expandable Wi-Fi network.
- 24/7 troubleshooting and support services.
- Isolating the student and administrative networks to better locate security
- Breaches and guard against viruses bleeding into the other network.
- Complete wireless upgrades every 3-5 years.
RESULTS
- With the cutting-edge network, Centenary obtained exceptional results, including:
- Wireless connectivity for all student devices.
- Better infrastructure to guard against security breaches.
- Increased student satisfaction.
- Extra time for IT department to focus on strategic and academic issues.
- Savings of over $1.4 million over the life of the contract.
