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CoSN/Gartner TCO Tool & Case Studies
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Ever-broadening use of personal workstations and the Internet in schools has increased the awareness of support costs and the need
for a more formalized support infrastructure. The increasingly complex technology infrastructure makes the historically informal
support approaches less adequate or practical. This increased usage of computers and external networks, in the classroom and beyond,
demands a higher level of support and needs to be reliably available for use by staff, students and Internet users.
While many government and private programs provide the means of obtaining the much-needed technology for schools,
there are few provisions for the necessary ongoing support of these technologies. School districts, having installed much of the
technologies needed for classroom, administrative and community communications functions, are fast becoming aware of the support
problems and need to budget for the ongoing support costs.
This tool specifically investigates the workstation, network and server cost of ownership in the K-12 environment, providing an
instrument and a process that schools and districts can use in determining their total cost of ownership (TCO) for technology:
- A Web-based interactive "survey" instrument or set of questions to be used in establishing TCO metrics in school districts;
- An introductory section, discussing the benefits and uses of such a TCO assessment;
- A set of definitions to be used by districts using that instrument;
- A discussion of methodology, suggesting best practices for undertaking such an assessment, and;
- A discussion of some of the costs, approaches and benefits of common models for managing tech support services, based on four school district case studies.
Educational institutions and agencies should routinely conduct TCO evaluations to:
- Manage and assess technology investments in the context of organizational goals;
- Measure the impact of technology;
- Develop and document budgetary guidelines;
- Understand the actual costs for new initiatives, and;
- Identify and document ongoing direct costs and indirect labor costs for technology services.
2008 User Submitted TCO Case Studies
- Submitted by Bob Nelson:
This report reviews the savings that can result from small districts pulling together within their region to share student information applications over a regional network. Note that the CoSN-Gartner TCO tool was not used, and the focus is on budget line items.
- Submitted by Michele Cooper from the Denver School of Science and Technology:
DSST is an innovative 451-student public charter high school (grades 9 – 12) with a one-to-one student computing program. They are located on a 10-acre site in the newly redeveloped Stapleton neighborhood in northeast Denver. Read more about their one-to-one student computing evaluation and TCO assessment.
Go to the CoSN-Gartner Tool
2006 One-to-One CoSN TCO Case Studies
2004 CoSN TCO Case Studies
2003 CoSN TCO Case Studies
All Case Studies are in PDF format.
For information on Value of Investment (VOI) case studies, visit http://www.edtechvoi.org/casestudies/index.cfm
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