Serving customers with Amplified Services: A Customer Spotlight

In this together

Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) is the largest school district in Kentucky and serves nearly 100,000 K-12 students. Greg Schuckmann, the Liaison IT3 Project Manager, is the main Admin responsible for the district’s Google Workspace for Education domain and has experience working directly with Google, CDW, and Amplified IT. “We’ve been working with CDW for as long as I can remember. I think it was prior to me even coming to Jefferson County and I’m in my 7th year,” he explained. 

CDW is JCPS’ main vendor for Lenovo products ie. Chromebooks. “Rich McLean is our rep and he’s been great to work with,” Greg praised. A few years ago, he was introduced to Amplified IT at a technology conference and has since adopted a multitude of our offerings such as Google Workspace for Education Plus, Gopher Tools, Admin Tools Unlimited, the Google Technical Collaborative, Admin certifications, and Support hours. “We’re a lean team. I’m a Super Admin and so is one of my co-workers. We’ve got other people who complete some tasks to help us out a tremendous amount,” he elaborated. “But even with that, the support we get from Amplified IT is like having a whole other branch in the department. We have three branches, and I tell everyone that Amplified IT is our fourth.”

The acquisition

As press releases detailing the acquisition circulated the education sphere, the CDW and Amplified IT teams wondered how their shared customers would react to the news. 

“I heard about the acquisition from a tech article actually,” recalled Greg. “When I read it, I sent the link around the department and was like ‘so this is happening.’” He admitted that, like with beginning any new chapter, there was a fear of change. “CDW is a big company and I was worried about what was going to happen to Amplified IT, but at the same time, I’d never had a bad experience with CDW and I realized that this meant Amplified IT was going to stick around for a long time. I got excited,” he said.  

Since the acquisition, CDW and Amplified IT have provided their customers with the same level of service they did before partnering together, but have also been able to equip them with even more support than previously possible. “It’s the same great service and I don’t have any reason to think that’ll change,” Greg added. 

Amplified Services

Amplified IT customers can now more easily adopt electronic devices and equipment into their classrooms, and CDW customers now have access to technical tools that will transform their Google Workspace domain for successful teaching and learning. JCPS’ has about 150,000 devices in its fleet. “We’re officially 1:1,” Greg shared. “We want our devices to follow our students and there’s a ton of movement with transfers.” Amplified IT helps Greg and his team manage their CDW-supplied devices with Gopher for Chrome, a tool included in the Gopher Pack. “It’s a godsend being able to move more than 30 at a time,” he added.

The Google Technical Collaborative is another valuable Amplified IT service that will benefit CDW customers. Members are able to learn solutions from and share resources with each other under the guidance of Google Workspace experts. “I don’t know where else you get that kind of support. It’s rare I ever come out of a Collaborative live stream without a wealth of knowledge,” Greg said.

CDW customers will also have another form of technical support to lean on when faced with a challenge. The Amplified IT Support team is not just an IT staff who can provide recommendations based on what other institutions are doing, but are experienced education professionals who can empathetically put themselves in the customer’s shoes. Greg explained, “As a large district, we have dedicated support from Google reps, but it’s not often that I seek them for help. Amplified IT is my first stop. The recommendations I get from Chenell and the examples Lalena gives me from her own EDU experience are gold.”