Business Situation
St. Louis Public Schools were experiencing technology infrastructure problems across the board. They were operating on a outdated network and were looking for a better way to handle the management of the systems and hardware dispersed throughout the district. Also, a concern was the email system, in which 6,000 faculty members were using disparate email systems, and 44,000 students did not have email accounts.

Solution
In a phased approach, Avanade and MCS helped St. Louis Public Schools to standardize on one common email system, Microsoft Exchange 2000. All students and faculty were designated with email accounts that can be accessed anytime, anywhere via a Web mail client, Outlook Web Access (OWA). The district also added 2,500 PCs during the upgrade, streamlining the operating systems of all of the PCs in their network by opting to only run Windows 2000 Professional. This allows for centralized management and a solid foundation for the future.

Results 

• Consistent email solution across the board
• Anywhere, anytime access to email
• Single sign-on to all systems
• Ease of administration
• Central management of technology infrastructure