Sussex County Technical School

The only match for a full-tech school

Chuck Culver is the single system administrator for Sussex County Technical School and two neighboring schools. As a one-man support team for multiple schools and dozens of machines, Chuck’s focus is getting things done as quickly as possible.

Sussex County Technical School is a full-tech high school (if you didn’t catch that from the name). Students are accustomed to using more software than the average school, and as a result, the software packages are massive and slow to install. Installing and updating AutoCAD alone across all the computers on the network is a huge undertaking.

For me, being a one man shop, time is so valuable. I’m spread thin. The faster and easier I can get things done, the better.

Chuck Culver, Director of IT

After a separate patch management solution consistently crashed computers every time it ran updates, Chuck knew a better solution had to exist. He needed a software that wouldn’t kill CPU utilization for two minutes while it ran, plus update patches during work hours instead of early in the morning or late in the evening.

Every friend in IT he spoke to recommended he check out PDQ.

Turning weeks into hours with Deploy & Inventory

Prior to PDQ, Chuck had to go to every computer in the school to make updates. He spent hours moving classroom to classroom, school to school, checking computers off the list. By the time the updates were done, it was almost time to update the computers again. Every time a new version of software would come out, Chuck needed to remove the old software and push the new version through. This was such a time-consuming process that many computers went weeks without an update, leaving gaps in the network’s security and negatively impacting system performance.

“The on-demand installation of new software makes PDQ a winner. The way I used to do things was just awful.”

Chuck Culver, Director of IT

Now, Chuck can VPN into his workstation at the two campuses where he isn’t based and use Deploy & Inventory to push new software. No walking between classrooms. No commute. Just results.

30 hours of work, done instantly 

Before PDQ, Chuck used to image computers individually so that they would be clean every year. This would require taking a memory stick and manually copying software to the computers. He would go down to a computer, sit down, install the packages, and repeat (30 times)! 

This process would take an entire week because software packages took an entire hour per device to install.

Now, Chuck uses PDQ to build customized deployments, highlight computers, and push the updates out to all of the computers at once. The next day, he comes in to see which computers still need the software and can push updates to just those computers. That’s 30 hours back on the clock with the push of a button.

Personalized software deployment, with none of the extra hassle

At Sussex Technical School, students enroll in technical classes that require specific software for the class. For example, the Photoshop class requires that students have the entire Adobe Suite installed. The school cannot provide every student at the school with the Adobe Suite because it is cost prohibitive. Since software needs to be pushed on a per-class basis, Chuck has to clearly identify computers that need specific software and be ready to make last-minute changes as class sizes adjust.

This is where PDQ really shines. With PDQ, Chuck can separate devices into groups and push software on a per-class basis. If software is not on the computers in a particular group, he can set it to push that software out automatically.

When new computers come in, he can image the standard apps and wait until the last minute to decide which additional software needs to be included. Before PDQ, this would have required weeks of planning. Now, Chuck can get it done in a matter of minutes.

Just to install Adobe on a room of 25 computers would take me forever. I wouldn’t even want to do it anymore without PDQ. I’m spoiled…

Chuck Culver, Director of IT

Proactive patch management that prevents problems before they happen 

Some of you may have experienced the Windows 10 patch that recently broke printing. No one could print anything to any machine. That made for a lot of unhappy teachers at Sussex.

By the time Chuck realized that this was a bad Windows patch, it had already been deployed to tons of machines. Most people didn’t realize they had a problem until they went to print, at which point they contacted Chuck to see what was going on. 

Chuck used PDQ Inventory to find the machines that required patching, then pushed out a new patch to all affected machines.

“In the past, I would wait for people to call and then install the patch off a USB stick or network share. Now, I can be proactive and fix it before people even realize it was a problem…”

PDQ Inventory makes software management effortless

Chuck uses PDQ Inventory to look up computers remotely and manage the hundreds of devices under his purview. Now, whenever Chuck gets a call from a teacher, he can take a look at the hardware and quickly identify the problem, all without leaving his office. 

When asked what his favorite part of PDQ is, Chuck responded, “It’s just a combination of everything it does that makes it easier…”

Try out PDQ’s convenient, time-saving features for yourself with a free 14-day trial. Or, schedule a demo to see how Deploy & Inventory can work for you and your organization.