Organization
The Woodland Hills School District was formed in July, 1981, and is located in the eastern portion of Allegheny County, approximately eight miles east of the City of Pittsburgh. The district serves approximately 3,500 students yearly.
Headquarters
North Braddock, PA
Website
The Challenge
The IT team at Woodland Hills School District comprises four people responsible for managing endpoints for around 400 staff members and thousands of students. The team was using SCCM to manage Windows updates, but it did not work for updates in third-party applications, posing security risks.
“Before I started here back in 2020, the school district was hit with ransomware, which caused significant damage,” explains Johnathan Kim, Director of Technology at Woodland Hills School District. “Knowing how prevalent ransomware is now and realizing that our third-party applications weren’t being properly patched was a major concern for us.”What’s worse, during the summer period when teachers were away for three months and took their devices home, they couldn’t patch Windows devices with SCCM either, as it is an on-premises tool. Additionally, if any teacher needed troubleshooting, they had to physically drive to their location, which took up to 40 minutes.
To mitigate security risks, improve IT productivity, and streamline remote IT support, they began searching for a more comprehensive replacement for SCCM.
The Action1 Solution
Jonathan evaluated several solutions, including NinjaOne and Atera, and ultimately chose Action1. He was thrilled with its straightforward interface and with how easy it was to automate the deployment of third-party updates through Action1 compared to other tools.
The Benefits
Improved security. With Action1, Jonathan and his team were able to automate the deployment of third-party applications and enhance security posture. They established patching policies that align with their organization’s needs. In the case of off-site devices, Action1 streamlines deployment for both OS and 3rd party updates, thanks to its cloud-native architecture. As a result, Action1’s powerful patching capabilities give them the confidence that all security updates are installed on time and that their IT environment is much better protected from threats such as ransomware.
“Just knowing how prevalent ransomware is now and understanding that we’ve mitigated this risk by properly patching our third-party applications through Action1 is a huge relief for us.
Johnathan Kim, Director of Technology at the Woodland Hills School District.
Instant visibility into vulnerabilities. Jonathan appreciates Action1’s dashboard, which shows all application vulnerabilities, missing updates, and other key enterprise data in real-time. “It allows me to see instantly as soon as a vulnerability is identified, which machines already have a patch, and which ones still need it,” says Jonathan.
Streamlined remote IT support. With Action1’s built-in remote desktop feature, Jonathan and his team can provide IT support to their workers no matter where they are located. “During the summer, we use it daily, which has reduced the time to remotely connect and troubleshoot an issue from 40 to 2 minutes,” adds Jonathan. “Moreover, Action1’s built-in remote desktop eliminates the need for us to invest into a separate remote support software.”
