The Pingry School

Customer Profile: Pingry is a vibrant, coeducational K-12 college preparatory day school. Together, their two campuses in Short Hills (K-6) and Martinsville (7-12) serve approximately 1,000 students. Students participate in a demanding college preparatory program, complemented by extensive co-curricular opportunities. They are committed to the use of technology to enhance the learning experience for their students. The Pingry School recognizes the critical importance of the role of technology in the classroom, and has the goal of creating a seamless integration of technology into all aspects of the school's life.

Technology Need: To implement a centralized and manageable directory service that will grow with the school, with minimum impact on users. When the new management team came on-board they discovered that the existing Netware directory service had grown so fragmented that it was now cumbersome and awkward. The incoming management knew that the current design had reached the end of its usability and that a change was needed. It was decided to standardize on Windows 2000 both on the servers and workstations. Kenvin Associates helped them achieve all their goals with minimal impact on the users.

Kenvin Associates Solution: Migrate from Netware 5.1 and GroupWise 5.5 to Windows 2000 with Active Directory and Exchange 2000.  Kenvin Associates was called in to consult with the IT department and the administration to discuss their needs and concerns. A Windows 2000/Exchange 2000 solution was agreed upon primarily to standardize on a single platform for its functionality, quick implementation and ease of use. But what about the issue of the impact this change would have on users? This was of the utmost importance to the school and Kenvin Associates took their concerns very seriously. First, through extensive planning and testing, the right procedures were formulated and documented. Then, over a school break, the new directory structure and email systems were put into place. When the schools opening came, there was minimal interruption of service for the end-users. The administration and staff were extremely pleased.

Results: Pingry has achieved a centrally managed directory schema and email solution that is highly scalable. These new systems have resulted in the IT staff better able to manage their network and email. Assisted by Kenvin Associates', the Pingry School now has a centrally manageable, thoroughly flexible and highly scalable directory service and email system that will grow with them for years to come. What's more, all concerns about the change were handled with the utmost attention and professionalism, resulting in a customer that was pleased with the outcome and continues to use us to supplement their IT needs.