Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD), one of the most prominent school districts in Northern California, had a very important decision to make this past summer. Staff and teachers needed a powerful unified communications solution that integrated seamlessly with Google Apps for Education, a vital tool that SCUSD uses districtwide.
This was by no means an easy task. The district required a solution that could be up and running for nearly 2,000 administrators, faculty and staff members by the start of the new school year.
SCUSD examined many options but quickly recognized the benefits that RingCentral provided compared to other alternatives; namely, a robust communication and collaboration platform that easily integrated with Google Apps for Education.
Today, I am pleased to welcome the district to the RingCentral family, and we are honored to work with such an outstanding organization. View the full press release here.
RingCentral has already had a strong impact: SCUSD faculty has been able to spend less time outside the classroom and more time focusing on what matters most — their students. Located in Silicon Valley, Santa Clara Unified School District serves the families of employees at the biggest and most admired technology companies in the world. Graduates have gone on to become CEOs, professional athletes and Olympic medalists.
SCUSD wants to ensure that all of its students, now and in the future, receive a top-notch education that prepares them for the road ahead. Technology is a key part of that mission. The district uses Google Apps for Education for both email and basic productivity apps. By choosing to integrate with RingCentral, SCUSD has empowered its staff with greater flexibility and improved efficiency in completing work.
Administrators, faculty and staff can now communicate using any mode they desire (such as voice, chat or email) on any device (smartphones, tablets, desk phones, etc.). Location is irrelevant because RingCentral makes it possible for them to work more effectively as if they were all in one office together.
Our Professional Services team worked hard to ensure that RingCentral would be deployed across all 28 SCUSD locations within 6 weeks and in time for the first day of school. RingCentral partnered closely with the SCUSD IT team to meet a very aggressive timeline where flexibility and close communication were paramount to success. Our technology and experience in delivering under very short timeframes shows that cloud is part of RingCentral’s DNA.
Looking ahead, we believe we can continue to make a difference for more educational institutions just as we have at SCUSD. The Consortium for School Networking (COSN) recently published a report stating that insufficient budget/resources is the number one challenge for K-12 schools. RingCentral helps schools overcome that obstacle by offering a cost-efficient, highly scalable communications solution.
We are thrilled to be a trusted partner to Santa Clara Unified School District and look forward to helping other educational institutions as they migrate to the cloud.
Originally published Oct 11, 2016, updated Dec 30, 2022
