School Web Lockers Chosen by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany

With 26 elementary schools and four high schools, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany (RCDA) spans 14 counties and nearly 10,500 square miles in upstate New York. For a diocese this large, it’s no surprise that file sharing, storage and collaboration can be a challenge, which is why Sister Debbie Timmis, director of educational technology for RCDA, turned to San Diego-based School Web Lockers to get the job done.

"The decision to go with School Web Lockers has made my job a lot easier," Timmis said. "It used to take at least four or five hours for me to prepare my monthly communications package for the principals, which involved designing a new web page, and then creating links for each document that I wanted to share. Now, it takes only a few minutes to upload files to the School Web Lockers site, which frees me up to take care of other important matters."

For Sister Timmis, whose many responsibilities include implementing a file sharing solution for RCDA’s school principals, one of the biggest advantages of School Web Lockers is its compatibility with diverse file types, including Excel spreadsheets, PDF and Word documents, and PowerPoint presentations. The sheer size of many RCDA files eliminated the use of email as a file sharing option, which was why Timmis resorted to designing a new web page with file links each month. Now, she simply logs onto RCDA’s School Web Lockers’ site, and uploads the files to make them available with easy, one-click access.

"Our principals now have convenient online access to their most important files, such as budgetary documents," Sister Timmis said. "Also, the way the system is set up, it allows me to create an online portfolio of files, organized by month, so that it’s easy for the principals to refer back to previous documents. Best of all, School Web Lockers is also very affordable."

School Web Lockers provided RCDA with a secure, password-protected web site, from which all file sharing and storage is performed. Principals, administrators and even board members have been given access to their own digital drop box, or web locker, which is available via password from the web site. Use of the system is easy: users log in to their web locker and immediately gain access to files that they have created and uploaded, or that their colleagues have created and uploaded. They can access their web lockers from work, home or anywhere that an Internet connection is available.

"Most schools and districts work with us to gain a file sharing and storage solution for their students and teachers. But RCDA needed our web lockers primarily for their principals, who are spread across such a large region and needed a single, centralized approach to file sharing," said Kelly Agrelius, manager of sales and marketing for School Web Lockers. "We’re glad that they turned to School Web Lockers for a solution to their data management challenges."

After deploying School Web Lockers’ online collaboration and storage solution earlier this year, Sister Timmis is now singing the praises of the technology. An affordable alternative to high-powered solutions such as storage area networks (SANs), School Web Lockers gave RCDA the ability to safely and securely store unlimited amounts of data off site — for as little as $1 per registered user.

All School Web Lockers files are backed up daily and preserved from year to year to allow students, staff and principals to easily create a portfolio of work. The service also offers built-in security and safety measures, such as blocked file types, virus scanning, parental sign-in, and the ability for teachers and school administrators to monitor what students are storing. For collaboration beyond file sharing, School Web Lockers also provides teacher blogs and message boards (for school-wide or even district-wide online discussions.)

For RCDA, another benefit is that the School Web Lockers files are on a different server than the schools’: if RCDA’s email is down, the principals can still use the web-based storage system to share files and collaborate.