Having an effective web filtering solution is an essential component when it comes to school’s safeguarding strategies. If a filter does not meet all your needs, it can put students at risk for cyberbullying, accessing harmful content, violence, self-harm, and other serious threats. On our most recent episode of Inside the Sweeps we have Todd Mein and Jackie Carstens from Shiawassee RESD speaking about their transition from a competitor to Netsweeper’s single web filtering solution, and how their experience with us has been so far.
[Alison]
Hi and welcome to Inside the Sweeps Podcast. I’m excited to speak with two guests on this episode. We are here today with Netsweeper’s new clients, Todd, and Jackie from the Shiawassee Regional Education Service District. right to talk about their transition from a competitor to Netsweeper’s Web filtering platform and their experience with it so far.
So, let’s get started with some introductions. Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves, your roles, responsibilities? As the Director of Technology and the manager of Technical Support Services.
[Jackie]
Yes, hi, I’m Jackie Carstens, Director of Technology for Shiawassee RESD. Basically, for my rules, we have 9 school districts that we support. We provide service contracts for local tech support to five of them, plus we also service our county courts and health Sheriff’s Department and 911, we maintain the fiber network between all of these. Local school districts, as well as the county. That’s pretty much it right there.
[Alison]
That’s a lot!
[Todd]
Alright. And I’m Todd, I’m manager of Technical Support Services. My responsibilities are kind of a little bit different. I work closely with our technicians and in the districts out in the county as well, making sure they have what they need. They can come to me for questions and any assistance they might need. I did that job for probably 10 years before I took over this role. Let’s see. And then and I was, I think I worked the closest with Chris Bender, our person who helped us roll this out. So, I took a big role in it with Netsweeper and getting it set up with them.
[Alison]
Awesome. So, we’re wanting to talk about transitioning from one web filter solution to another, which is a really big decision and involves some challenges. What were some of the challenges you were facing with your previous web filter and what made you decide that you needed to make a switch to a different one?
[Jackie]
While it came down obviously to the cost, you know the annual renewals were getting right up there. We found that some of the reporting was cumbersome. It was a little bit more difficult for our local districts to kind of navigate through the reporting. So, we wanted to get something that would be easier for them. So, they didn’t have to call us and rely on us to get back with them on that. And then we found that as we were going through and looking many of our districts, not only were using our content filter because everybody goes through our firewall, they all go through our content filter, but then they were paying for like GoGuardian and Securly and we wanted to try to find something that could bring us all on board, you know, so we didn’t have so many platforms to support because, you know, if your filtering, like with GoGuardian and then you have your other content filter in place, sometimes it’s a little difficult to try to troubleshoot where an issue is if something’s being blocked. At that point it came down with our annual renewal that it just seemed like it just made better sense to go out and put a bid out there to see what responses we got, you know and like you said, going from one filter to another is never easy. Todd anything to add to that.
[Todd]
Yeah, it was. You know, obviously it is a challenge to switch, but the cost was a huge factor. As Jackie said, I mean, it was going to cost us significantly more. So, the role that I played for a long time was technician. To be able to get reports and do things for the local district to set up groups and filtering groups and all that, it was very difficult with the old solution that we had, I you know, quite often I’d have to call in somebody here at the RESD and they would have to set those up and then we could put people in those groups. And so, this solution gives each technician the ability to set up their district. So that was that was a really key factor plus the ease of use for reporting and some of the other things. Just, it’s made it very simple as she said. I think it’s much easier, so, they can do their own thing.
[Alison]
So, those were some of the challenges that you had, but you made the decision that you wanted to make a change. What was the evaluation criteria or process you went through to switch to another solution?
[Jackie]
We had quite the lengthy checkbox there. I will tell you #1 as always is the almighty cost and then we were looking for something that was a multi-tenant, you know meaning that we could manage it up top, put in the rules and then have them go down you know and then let the other districts go in there and manage their own rules. But we have to at our level make sure that everybody is CIPA a compliant and that those rules could never change. So that was huge there. And we were looking at the ease of reporting.
We were looking at the ease of filtering. That, like Todd, was saying, if we had groups, you know, do we create the groups and to be able to move students between the different groups, to be filtered differently because we have some students who are the normal everyday kids. They get into school, into Google Classroom and out to YouTube. But then we also have elevated students who are taking college classes, who would need a little bit more. You know they need to get out to different sites that we would never normally let the other ones go.
So it was that type of ease that we were looking for. We needed something that was going to filter based off of different platforms, whether it was a Chromebook, a Windows device, a MacBook an iPad, we were looking at all of that and we really were trying to stay away from like JSON files because those are a little cumbersome. And then again, we were looking at classroom management software.
[Todd]
Yeah, the criteria that she mentioned, it’s like you guys checked off each one of those for us and the flexibility was that was key too. I mean, again, she talked about all those different devices. That’s not an easy process to find a solution that will work with every device. Apple can be a little bit of trying. You know when it comes to pushing out clients and agents to those. So yeah, the fact that your solution provides for all of those was that was that was huge and obviously as you mentioned the cost.
[Alison]
Did you both find it easy to agree on the criteria you were looking for? I mean, you both are a little bit on, you know, you’re looking for the same end goal, but Todd a little bit more technical and Jackie are a little bit more on the operational side. Did you find it was easy to agree on what you were looking for?
[Jackie]
Yeah, because we came in and said this is what it’s going be!
[Todd]
How that really works is Jackie told me what we had to have, and I just agreed to that.
[Jackie]
I am very technical as well you know. So, I was the engineer and I had put the other filter in place. So, I know the challenges that were there. But again, when we went through and we did the evaluation, we pulled in all of the local techs from all of the districts. So, at that point they sat in all the demos that we did, they went through and helped us evaluate this. So, it wasn’t just all on us. We wanted to make sure that they had a vested interest in this as well.
[Alison]
That’s awesome that you were able to get everyone’s feedback for something that’s so big as transitioning and making that move. So, it sounds like you were very much on the same page. But based on the criteria you were both looking at, what made you choose Netsweeper as your web filtering and safeguarding platform?
[Jackie]
I think that as we went through the demo, we found that it really did check all the boxes, you know, the ease of use. I really like the ability that we could go in there and block a full category like YouTube, but then go in there and allow certain videos, you know, that really topped it right there! And the fact that we were able to filter all those different platforms because like Todd said, that was a huge challenge right there.
[Todd]
Yeah, I’m in agreement. That’s basically. That says it all!
[Alison]
Like we mentioned, you guys were very much on the same page going through this process, which I’m sure really made it a bit easier on both of you. When you look back at your choice to make Netsweeper your new web filtering platform were there key drivers on your decision to go with Netsweeper over potential solutions.
[Jackie]
I think it was just all those checkboxes. I think the biggest thing that you know, we’re still working towards is for onGuard because one of my biggest criteria right then at that point was that we needed to filter off of keywords because when we were going through and we were doing the evaluation on these products at that time, it seemed like we were just getting threats after threat after threats, you know whether it was, you know, kids going in there and saying there they’re [sic] going to do something violent.
So, it’s just always something and with our previous filter, you know we were getting a lot of reports, based off on keywords and the reports were going to the administration and some of those reports too. They had a lot of false positives in there. So, they had to weed through that. So, it was at that point that. This is what we’re kind of working with through Netsweeper right now is trying to get that onGuard in place so that we can get those keywords going. I mean, so far, we haven’t had the issues like we had last year when we were going through this, but I’m looking forward to having that feature in place. That if they get, you know, hopefully will be not so many false positives, we’ll let you know when we get there.
[Alison]
Todd, were there any key drivers on your decision to go with Netsweeper over other potential solutions?
[Todd]
I think it’s kind of funny cause some of these questions caused me to repeat myself, but I can’t say anymore about how or what I think I phrased that wrong. But anyway, I can’t express how happy we were with the ease of use and training other people has made this so much easier. The process just was, you know, very easy once I understood, obviously there took. You know, it takes some training from your people, but once you get the grasp of how it works, it was, I felt it was very easy to share with other technicians and other districts and the fact that we can log into one spot. And see each district settings. Knowing that you know they’re having an issue here, I can go in, I can look and work with them on getting that fixed. I know your support’s always there, but we like to be the first one if we can so that we understand what troubles they’re having. But really, it hasn’t been much at all. And initially we got some calls, but yeah, I have to say the ease of use. And the setup the demo. All of that was a big deciding factor.
[Alison]
We’ve kind of gone through what you were initially looking for your evaluation criteria and key drivers to make this decision. How did that translate into what you were looking for with Netsweeper features? So, what are some specific features you like from Netsweeper over previous solutions or other competitors you might have been looking at when you were looking to move?
[Jackie]
I believe that it’s there’s so much granularity there that we can get into. And again, just the ease of pulling up a report and getting what you need. And to make this transition so easy as that, the engineer that we worked with, I mean he was phenomenal and kind of helped us through every step of the way. So that definitely helped. But again, it’s just those features I don’t know. Todd, what do you have?
[Todd]
Yeah, I’m in agreement. When we when we rolled this out, you know it was a different solution. So, you guys approached the filtering a little bit different than our old solution did. Overall, he would say OK if you don’t want them, I’m just going to use streaming media if you don’t want them to be able to see streaming media just block the whole category and then create a list of exceptions. And so, it took us a little bit to grasp that because it was different from before. But the fact that your SE showed us, and we picked up on it, I think rather quickly and yeah, so. I think that’s a big thing.
[Jackie]
And it was like Todd was saying that we could go in there and block these categories and open up the few things before we were opening up everything and then going in and blocking. So that was a whole different mindset. And I did, I will say had a little bit of a heartache working around that when we first started. But you know, it’s definitely a positive approach to take.
[Alison]
I think like you’re saying it’s; you know, you already have something that you were used to and you kind of have to untrain and then retrain and you know, move into a new mindset of how things work. So, you know, how do you feel Netsweeper dealt with your concerns of moving from the existing solution to the current one? I know you mentioned the support, was that a big aspect of the concerns from moving?
[Jackie]
That was huge because when you’re dealing with nine school districts and that many students, and you’re having issues. The fact that we could call support and have immediate assistance was big. That was huge. You know some of those, we have superintendents out there that get a little antsy with this new stuff.
[Alison]
Everybody gets to learn something new. It’s a lot.
[Todd]
Right. It was nice to be able to call if we needed something. Chris Bender was our engineer. He would immediately help me find the issue. He’d say, OK, we’ll get back to you with a fix. And it was sometimes hours. It was just quick. I mean, and they were sometimes rewriting the whole client in order to get it to do what we needed to do, which was to meet. That’s amazing that your support was outstanding during this process.
[Jackie]
And you know, we did have hiccups because, you know, I went home one night, and I went to get out of my Wi-Fi at home to do work. And it’s like, all of a sudden it didn’t work. And it’s like, OK, why? It worked earlier today. And it was the client. When I went back to the office and I told these guys, they told me, you know, I was delusioned. But it’s like, you know, we start having the issues. But again, like they said, they rewrote the client and got us all on board.
I will say that during the transition, what we did learn is that I would not do something like this, maybe during the summer when you think that is the best time to do it. When you don’t have students there, but as we were trying to remove the client from the previous filter off of devices and then try to put this client on. If your students weren’t on the network or didn’t have access to the network, then that wasn’t getting taken care of. They you know, they weren’t able to make that communication to us that something was wrong. So, you know, I had one district that says, hey, I’ve got like 900 laptops out there. What do we do? That that was a challenge we worked through it all. But you know, I would look at timing definitely.
[Alison]
So, would that be a recommendation you would make to someone else considering transitioning is really thinking about your timing?
[Jackie]
Yes, timing is everything.
[Todd]
Yeah, plan, plan ahead. Give yourself time to go through these little issues and even if you had to overlap your filtering a little bit just so that you have one in place and then as you’re switching over to the new one, you’ll have more time to do some testing and make sure it works.
[Alison]
So, you know, we’ve discussed it’s a lengthy process, there’s lots of decisions to make, check boxes to check. Is it safe to say at this point now Netsweeper has been able to meet the needs you were looking for?
[Jackie]
Yes, yes. So far again, we’re just waiting for the onGuard for the keywords and then once we have that in place then, absolutely. You know, I think it’s been a good transition.
[Todd]
Yep. Yeah, Anthony just emailed us today by the way, Jackie. So, I’m excited to get that started. And no, no, we’re going get that rolling in here real quick.
[Alison]
But that was some perfect timing for this.
[Todd]
Yes, it was.
[Jackie]
It was absolutely perfect time and I think he was listening. He knew it was coming down the pipe.
[Alison]
As we talk about how timing is a very important part of transitioning, we need to keep it in mind. This was kind of a great little point on today of the timing aspect.
So, we just want to wrap things up. But overall, how has your experience with Netsweeper been so far or do you have any closing thoughts you would like to leave us with on your transition or transitioning in general when it comes to your experience with Netsweeper?
[Jackie]
I would say that so far things have gone real well, you know, I mean, you definitely gotta have put a lot of planning into it. And if you go through your plan and through the flow of it all. I think you’ll be OK. The support was awesome. And we haven’t. I don’t think we’ve really had a call that much after we got things rolling here.
I don’t know. Have we Todd?
[Todd]
Well, as with anything, there’s always those little things that come up now and then. But again, they’ve answered all my questions and in a timely fashion. I will, let me make this plug because. Your solution doesn’t actually have a classroom monitoring systems so that we went back to Anthony and said, hey, is there anything we can do about that? And he actually worked out a deal with LanSchool Air and that was huge because it gave us both pieces. The filtering piece was outstanding and now we have LanSchool which does allow us to compete with some of those other companies that we’re providing both solutions and or I mean, allows you to compete with them, not us. But the solution it was cost effective. So, he was able to bundle that altogether still come in under what the other districts were paying for their other solutions, and it’s been a win-win for us, as an area and our local districts.
[Jackie]
Yes. And I want to circle back around on that because that should have been said, you know, stated up further, but that was definitely a huge selling point right there. You know, the fact that they can go in there the districts and eliminate the cost of all those other ones and then we’ll bring it in there. And just because we had districts that could afford to do that, pay GoGuardian and Securly and then we had those that just didn’t have the funds for it. So, we were able to go in there and to provide that to all of our local districts. So that like Todd said that was a huge win.
[Alison]
That’s awesome. Well, I just want to say thank you so much, Todd and Jackie for joining us today to talk about your experience transitioning from your previous web filter to Netsweeper solution. It’s been really a great conversation that we’re going to be able to share with our audience. So, thank you!
[Jackie]
Thank you.
[Todd]
Thank you.