THE CHALLENGE
Fragmented Workflows & Limited Visibility
Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) serves more than 108,000 students across 174 schools in Baltimore, Maryland. Before partnering with Incident IQ, supporting an operation of that scale required navigating a sprawling patchwork of disconnected systems. Asset tracking lived in one system. Help desk tickets lived in another. Special Education coordinated by email. Teams had grown dependent on Smartsheet workarounds. Each department had its own process, and none of them worked with one another.
When district leaders asked which transfer requisitions had been denied, the answer arrived as a printed, scanned document with handwritten annotations. There was no visibility into where a request stood, no way for the person who submitted it to check its status, and no audit trail to support accountability. Device fines went largely uncollected due to a lack of infrastructure for fee collection. Workflows that crossed department lines could easily get overlooked.
When the cost for their former ticketing service became unsustainable, and their legacy asset management system was set to retire, Baltimore’s IT Operations team — led by Director David Stovenour — recognized the moment as an opportunity to rethink how a district of their size creates consistency, transparency, and accountability across every operational function, not just technology.
They wanted more than just a better help desk or a cleaner asset database. They needed a single system that could become a shared operational standard across the entire district: one place to submit requests, track workflows, manage approvals, and close the loop. They were looking for a platform to help realize the team’s vision: “One platform. One operational standard. One place to start.” They believed Incident IQ could be that platform, thanks to its scalability, flexibility, and exclusive focus on K–12.
THE PLAN
From Replacement Project to Operational Blueprint
BCPS approached the implementation of Incident IQ in stages. iiQ Ticketing and iiQ Assets would come first. In addition to being the most pressing needs, they would serve as a proving ground.
“We used that first year to kick the tires on everything,” said Manager of IT Operations Michael Fort.
“To see how the trouble tickets would work, how asset management would work. And it was very positive.” This initial phase also gave the team time to migrate workflows from their legacy systems, retire processes that had outlived their usefulness, and build organizational confidence in Incident IQ before going fully live.
From the beginning, BCPS was evaluating more than features. They were evaluating whether Incident IQ could scale and whether the partnership would support their vision for the district.
That partnership proved to be a defining factor. The Incident IQ Customer Success team brought firsthand K–12 experience to the relationship, offering strategic guidance grounded in how school districts actually operate. “Knowing that we have that support structure — that we can reach out and get guidance from people who’ve done this work — gave us confidence,” said Fort. “That’s what Incident IQ gave us from the very beginning.”
As iiQ Ticketing and iiQ Assets established trust in Incident IQ, BCPS began thinking beyond IT. The team started identifying functions across the district that involved a workflow, a process, or an approval and asking whether Incident IQ could support it. The answer was consistently yes.
iiQ Ticketing and iiQ Assets had already validated the model and the strength of the partnership behind it. iiQ IT Pro became the natural next step, building on that collaboration to expand the impact district-wide.
THE IMPLEMENTATION
Building the Foundation, One Workflow at a Time
What began as an IT initiative quickly evolved into a district-wide collaboration. As the technology team demonstrated success with the system they built alongside Incident IQ, other BCPS departments began proactively reaching out about the system’s possibilities.
Joslyn Lear from the district’s Enterprise Solutions team became an enthusiastic champion, identifying non-IT workflows that could be migrated from Smartsheet to Incident IQ. The teams worked through complex requirements: multi-source data entry, historical recordkeeping, multi-level approvals, and access for external users. Each new use case required close collaboration between BCPS administrators and Incident IQ to configure solutions that accommodated the district’s needs.
One thoughtfully designed use case is emerging for external daycare vendors who need a structured way to submit documentation to qualify as a district resource. Rather than defaulting to a spreadsheet or email chain, BCPS and Incident IQ are co-designing a solution in Forms Manager — an app that’s included in iiQ IT Pro — that allows external users to log in, respond to custom questions, and upload required materials directly into the platform.
The same systems thinking shaped how BCPS approached Chromebook management. Every device issue now generates a ticket. Fines are assessed, swaps are issued, and repair decisions are logged — all within a single workflow that’s transparent to schools, families, and administrators. Device photographs are captured at intake, so if a family disputes a damage claim, the documentation is already on record. Fine collection through the MySchoolBucks integration has increased from a few thousand dollars annually to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. The goal was not revenue generation. It was about building the accountability and financial sustainability needed to support the district’s Chromebook initiative beyond the ESSER funding cliff.
Throughout the implementation, BCPS brought complex scenarios and ambitious ideas to Incident IQ and found a partner willing to engage deeply with both. With iiQ IT Pro’s enhanced access to iiQ support teams, the BCPS team was able to have direct conversations about their needs with a dedicated customer success manager and support team members, resulting in meaningful progress toward the solutions they envisioned.
Today, BCPS is running 91 teams in Incident IQ. The teams coming on board now aren’t being asked to adopt the platform by the IT Operations team. The teams are asking to be included.
THE OUTCOME
Scaling a Districtwide Operating Model
Two years since starting its partnership with Incident IQ, the contrast with where BCPS started is hard to miss. Scanned documents with handwritten annotations have been replaced by structured workflows. Departments that couldn’t see each other’s work now operate from a shared system. And the district that once struggled to collect device fines has built an infrastructure to support accountability.
Device replacement volume has dropped by 50 percent. Improved tracking, structured accountability, and smarter device allocation across grade levels drove the change — enabled by the visibility that Incident IQ provides across the full device lifecycle. Before that foundation was in place, the district’s annual break rate ranged from $7 million to $10 million.
Response times have improved as well. Automation ensures the right people are notified immediately, with dedicated workflows for escalations and VIP support. “The back-end automation makes sure the correct people are notified,” said Fort. “Our overall response time to our customers has decreased.” The district’s call center is now positioned to expand into in-ticket chat and AI-assisted support, building on the communication infrastructure already in place.
But the most consequential outcome is strategic. BCPS has established a shared operational language across the district. When someone calls IT for support, the first question is: “What’s your ticket number?” Incident IQ has become the default starting point for how the district intakes requests.
iiQ IT Pro is where that foundation scales. With multi-level approvals, increased granularity in permissions, external-facing forms, and support for nontechnical teams, iiQ IT Pro extends the accountability and visibility established by iiQ Ticketing and iiQ Assets. IT Operations is working with teams across BCPS, including athletics, transportation, nutrition, and beyond, to see what they can bring into the platform next.
“Everyone in Baltimore County Schools now interacts with Incident IQ,” said Fort. “And the more success we see, the more people get on board.”
The vision Stovenour articulated at the outset of the partnership, “One Platform. One Operational Standard. One Place to Start.” is taking shape. BCPS and Incident IQ are looking forward to achieving it together.
