EDTECH: What is driving the move to cloud-based telephone adoption in higher education?
Celestin: A core trend is the change in demographics and behavior, along with how different cohorts consume and access information. Generation Z is the age group that makes up the student body of colleges and universities today. The youngest slice of them haven’t lived in a world without smartphones. They’re digital natives, used to learning and sharing information with each other online.
With 57 percent of Gen Z enrolled in two- or four-year institutions, there’s a need for tools in higher ed that satisfy the demand for online experiences — and that includes making phone calls. Institutions are looking at technology that allows them to cater to the needs of these students.
EDTECH: With the massive adoption of remote work and learning tools, to what extent did the pandemic affect cloud-based phone adoption?
Celestin: I don’t think the pandemic kick-started the trend. Colleges and universities were already investing in ed tech. Spending had reached $19 billion in 2019, so people were already migrating in that direction. The pandemic just accelerated it.
DISCOVER: Colleges boost productivity by moving communication tools to the cloud.
EDTECH: Who typically oversees the migration?
Celestin: A couple of decades ago, this would have been the domain of IT exclusively. Often, now, it’s the bursar or the president of the university, or a faculty member who oversees this type of initiative. When it was just the phone, when it was just dial tone, and the handsets and cables throughout the infrastructure of a building, only IT was involved.
I’ve been surprised at how unprepared some folks at the college and university level are; not for lack of smarts, but because stakeholders often underestimate how complex the transition can be. That’s also why this is one of the best use cases for relying on a trusted adviser. Unlike buyers in other verticals — where the place of business is less distributed than a college campus and hardware needs are for more predictable — educational institutions need to merge hundreds or thousands of hardware devices, online tools and software applications for very diverse needs. This is when you need a large distributor like CDW, who not only carries many of the devices and tech in its catalog but who is an expert in bringing together different technologies and combining them in unique environments.