Fort Wayne Community Schools, based in Indiana and serving nearly 29,500 students across 49 sites, was grappling with the challenges of managing a large-scale 1:1 device program and a high volume of help desk requests without modern tools to support their needs. Before partnering with One to One Plus, the district relied on spreadsheets and disconnected tools to try to track which student had which device, creating information gaps and inefficiencies that strained both the technology team and the broader support process. At the same time, tracking help desk tickets proved difficult due to limited staff and systems that couldn’t scale with the district’s demands. These limitations made it hard to get a complete picture of device assignments and support activity, prompting the district to seek a more unified solution that could provide real-time insight into assets and streamline daily operations.
Case Study
Fort Wayne Community Schools Building Clarity Across Devices and Support
Fredrick Hunter, Technology Coordinator
Fort Wayne Community Schools
Excel and separate systems couldn’t scale with the district. Fort Wayne Community Schools needed one solution to handle assets from purchase through retirement.
Fort Wayne Community Schools, based in Indiana and serving nearly 29,500 students across 49 sites, was grappling with the challenges of managing a large-scale 1:1 device program and a high volume of help desk requests without modern tools to support their needs. Before partnering with One to One Plus, the district relied on spreadsheets and disconnected tools to try to track which student had which device, creating information gaps and inefficiencies that strained both the technology team and the broader support process. At the same time, tracking help desk tickets proved difficult due to limited staff and systems that couldn’t scale with the district’s demands. These limitations made it hard to get a complete picture of device assignments and support activity, prompting the district to seek a more unified solution that could provide real-time insight into assets and streamline daily operations.
Challenges
Fort Wayne’s technology team struggled with several persistent challenges tied to their legacy processes. First, the district attempted to manage their 1:1 program with Excel spreadsheets, which quickly became unwieldy and error-prone as student and device counts grew. Without a proper system to track device ownership, assignments, and history, accountability was difficult and time consuming. Help desk management posed its own difficulties and the team faced a steady stream of support tickets with limited tools to track requests efficiently, leaving staff racing to keep up with demand. Compounding these issues was the lack of integration between disparate systems used for device issuance, help desk processing, and other functions, forcing staff to jump between platforms and piece together fragmented data rather than relying on a cohesive view of technology operations.
How One to One Plus Helped
One to One Plus helped Fort Wayne Community Schools transition away from spreadsheets and disconnected tools to a modern, integrated platform that brings asset management and help desk under one roof. With the new system, the district now enjoys instant access to linked histories that connect devices, students, staff, help tickets, and even invoices further eliminating the uncertainty and giving the technology team a clear, real-time view of their environment. The unified platform also allows the district to track every device from its original purchase through the disposal process, making lifecycle management simple and transparent. Beyond technology, the partnership itself has made a difference: Fort Wayne’s staff repeatedly praise the One to One Plus team for being responsive, knowledgeable, and ready to support the district whenever questions arise; an important change from the limitations of the previous tools.
Conclusion
By adopting One to One Plus, Fort Wayne Community Schools replaced manual processes and disconnected spreadsheets with a single, intuitive platform built to support the scale and complexity of a large district. The result is clearer visibility into devices and support histories, less time spent on administrative tasks, and a technology team that can work more strategically rather than reactively. Fort Wayne’s experience demonstrates how integrated tools and reliable support can empower a district to manage technology with confidence and move beyond the constraints of legacy systems.