This news item was published prior to Apogee’s acquisition and subsequent rebrand to Boldyn Networks in November 2024. Learn more about the acquisition here.

Austin, TX, Washington, DC – July 13, 2020, NACUBO 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting – With the goal of helping higher education meet intensifying connectivity demands — exacerbated by COVID-19 — Apogee, the only managed services provider solely focused on higher education, today announced enhancements to its Apogee Managed Campus Services. For the last three years, Apogee managed services have helped campuses improve connectivity, reliability, performance, IT service and support, and financial predictability, freeing administrators from the hassles of equipment and network refreshes and giving them the gift of time to focus on important strategic campus initiatives.

A new State of Higher Education Strategic Planning Study conducted by Apogee suggests that higher education may not be technologically prepared for a rapid and dramatic shift to blended learning, and campuses need to do more to meet the needs of students and faculty who have become increasingly reliant on technology. A proven approach is to rightsize their IT operations – disinvesting in initiatives that are suboptimal or that no longer serve the needs of modern institutions and reinvesting those dollars in innovation and technologies that support new teaching and learning paradigms. Apogee Managed Campus Services can help schools rightsize while advancing strategic institutional goals.

“Connectivity demands on college campuses are increasing in intensity,” said Chuck Brady, CEO of Apogee. “The drivers include synchronous and remote learning, the Internet of things, cross-campus video collaboration, and cutting-edge content delivery platforms. Confronted with COVID-19, the get-it-done-now pressure to deliver online learning – not as a convenient alternative but as a critical part of the education experience – has sped from zero to sixty in an instant.”

Apogee Managed Campus Services

Apogee Managed Campus Services are flexible and include a core set of services and secondary add-ons to modernize and manage an institution’s network. The services also provide the flexibility to be scaled up or down as project or budget needs require. Apogee has enhanced the following services:

• Wired and wireless infrastructure that ensure a highly flexible service and a network optimized for performance, reliability, ease-of-use, BYOD, and cost efficiency.
• Network Access Control (NAC) that lets network managers prioritize traffic to help ensure everyone gets the best experience.
• Next-Gen Security Firewall with VPN that lets users be better prepared to detect attacks and threats by analyzing the network in real time and responding effectively.
• After-Hours Help Desk that allows 24/7/365 support to ensure speedy IT support and response.
• Network insights with location analytics that visualize space usage and traffic patterns to drive facility utilization improvements and social distancing protocols.

Schools leveraging Apogee Managed Campus Services experience a predictable funding model and comprehensive support such as regular equipment refreshes and SLA-driven performance metrics to ensure the network is always up-to-date and modernized.

“From learning management systems (LMS), to live video, to on-demand video and content platforms, universities are fast realizing that network infrastructure a decade or even five years old can’t deliver on their strategic plans,” said Bill Simcoe, Vice President of Product Management, Apogee. “Today, more IT officers want to modernize ahead of the curve, with built-in refreshes and futureproofing, and CFOs demand financial models that are predictable and sustainable. Apogee Managed Campus Services deliver on all fronts.”

Lyon College

For Lyon College, a small private liberal arts college in the Ozark foothills, Apogee Managed Campus Services allow it to achieve its strategic goal of extending digital transformation across its entire campus — a goal previously impossible with their legacy wireless network. The network was not configured for optimal service, frequently crashed, and could no longer deliver the performance and density required. Nor was it feasible to scale it for future demands.

Lyon’s Managed Campus solution supports the college’s dedication to esteemed, holistic education. It provides blended learning opportunities for students to connect to live lectures remotely and view recorded lecture material online. It fosters increased collaboration between peers and teachers for better student outcomes and higher student satisfaction ratings. And it has enabled Lyon to ensure students feel connected whether in a classroom, studying remotely or elsewhere on campus.

“Apogee Managed Campus has empowered us to more effectively carry out our mission of fostering critical, creative thought and fulfilling personal and professional lives. It does this by foundationally providing the digital resources we are increasingly using to become a 21st century liberal arts college of the first order,” says W. Joseph King, President, Lyon College.