ERate And

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E-Rate And Your School District?
10th October 2006
Phoenix, AZ
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E-Rate The Business Prospective
Schools Service Providers Similar Goals
Different Roles
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E-Rate The Business Prospective

• What are Applicants Looking For?
• What are Service Providers Looking For?
• What are the key goals of the Schools and
  Libraries Division?
• How do schools best meet their goals considering
  the goals of Service Providers and the Schools
  and Libraries Division?

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Education Business Model
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Applicants Looking For

• Technology that will enhance education outcomes?
• Solution that meets their technology business and
  educational needs
• Best price
• Best quality
• Best partner to work with

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Applicants Looking For

• Fewer headaches
• In operational matters (technology directors)
• In procurement and cost-containment matters
  (CBOs finance directors)
• More predictability
• In price (annual budgets need to be consistent)
• In service reliability (maintenance costs)

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Providers Looking For

• Sell products services
• Keep their costs down
• Meet the customers needs
• Earn the customers trust
• Retain customer for long term relationships
• Offer more things to the customer

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SLD Looking For

• What are the key goals of the Schools and
  Libraries Division?
• Dispense funds in a fair way to deserving schools
  and libraries
• make it easier to get the money
• Protect the fund from fraud, waste and abuse
• make it harder to get the money

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Remember E-Rate Is Complicated SO

• Find people who can help
• Find a service provider with E-Rate expertise
• A service provider can trip up your E-Rate
  funding just as easily as you can
• Look at impact of using BEAR form Vs filing Form
  486 for provider to get reimbursement.
• Someone to share the risk with
• Two heads are better than one on E-Rate matters
• Sometimes the service provider can develop a
  stronger expertise than the school has the time
  or money to

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E-Rate Is Complicated

• Find an E-Rate consultant
• A good service provider is great, but there are
  some things that they cant help you with
• Technology Plans and Form 470s
• Computing your school lunch program levels
• Questions from the SLD unrelated to your service
  provider

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Meeting Educations Goals

• Complying with the E-Rate rules allows you to
  automatically meet some of your own goals
• The SLDs rules are already designed to try to
  help meet some of the schools key objectives
• Technology Plan think through what you need
• Form 470 competitive bidding for best deal
• Price primary consideration

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Spreading The Risk

• What happens if you are denied funding for a
  particular funding year
• Will your service provider bear any risk with you
• BEAR or SPIF
• Multi-year service agreements can cut costs
• Be careful with excessive down payments
• E-Rate out clauses in multi-year scenarios
• Dont mix ineligible with eligible

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Why Priority 1 is better than Priority 2

• 2.25 billion cap
• Priority 1 gets money first
• Priority 2 goes only to the poorest school
  districts until money runs out (typically 80
  discount level)
• Priority 2 recipients typically wait a long time
• The urge to buy equipment vs. letting a service
  provider do it for you
• Priority 1 wont work for LANs or PC purchases

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Where to from here?

• Its best to get an expert
• Train your staff
• Hire an E-Rate consultant
• Use a Service Provider with E-Rate expertise
• Be careful
• Always double check your work
• Avoid the mindset what can we get away with
• Call the SLD hotline but BE PREPARED
• DONT PROCRASTINATE

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Dont Be Intimidated

• Where do you go from here?
• Ask for help
• Check with your state coordinator if you have one
• Network among yourselves
• Dont just follow the pack if you think something
  is wrong Ask!

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Putting it all together
E-Rate
Internet, distance learning, any time any place
learning. Improved Test Scores
Data Driven Decision Making, Instant Data
Access Lower TCOs AND increased ADA .
Enhanced Communication Families,
Colleges. Better prep for life, work, and higher
ed.
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What Questions Can I Answer For You?
Roger Clague
Roger.Clague_at_Trillion.Net Ph 916 600 2107