THE CHALLENGE
Inadequate Systems Strain a Small IT Team
At St. Augustine Prep, “Servant’s Heart” wasn’t just a slogan — it defined how support showed up for students, families, and staff. That ethos raised the bar: their small IT team strove to deliver responsive, high-touch service. But as the school grew in size, its tools couldn’t keep up with the rising level of demand.
The five-person team relied on Google Forms to manage everything from IT requests to Facilities handoffs, but the system began to fail under the volume of work. Forms broke, duplicates appeared, details were lost, and Facilities’ use of the same form muddied handoffs. Frustrated with lost tickets or long waits, teachers often skipped the form and asked for help in person. Without a reliable way to log and track issues, the team couldn’t see how many requests they were handling or how quickly problems were resolved.
Managing devices brought a similar set of challenges. Spreadsheets and a basic tool recorded labels, but not ownership, condition, or history. Without that visibility, loaners often became“permanent,” fees were rarely collected, and replacement costs grew. Audits took hours of manual work, and the team was left piecing together what was still in circulation and what had already been replaced.
Despite the gaps in tools, service expectations were high. The team wanted to provide “corporate-level” responsiveness with fast, consistent resolutions, and leadership wanted data to justify budgets. With a second campus on the horizon and a fixed headcount, manual requests and handoffs with incomplete records threatened the IT team’s ability to offer top-tier service and build trust in their department. St. Augustine needed one platform to capture requests, route and resolve work, track devices and fees, and report on performance.
THE PLAN
A Unified Platform for Easier Intake and Better Tracking
St. Augustine Preparatory Academy adopted iiQ Ticketing and iiQ Assets to unify support requests, repairs, and device management under one platform built for education. Teachers quickly embraced the change. Submitting a request through the portal was faster than sending an email or tracking someone down, and every ticket came in with complete details from the start.
Student helpers joined the process, taking on check-ins and Chromebook repairs to extend the team’s capacity. With iiQ Assets, student helpers could safely participate in day-to-day support tasks using role-based permissions – logging devices, noting fees, and updating asset records while staff retained oversight. These customizable permission levels were set so secretaries could apply fees, teachers could submit requests, and the IT team could better manage repairs.
“Our student tech team works right alongside IT,” said Dominic Emmi, Director of IT. “They can help repair devices or document issues while one of our analysts updates the asset in Incident IQ. It’s given students real hands-on experience and freed up hours of time for our full-time staff.”
What started as a small pilot of four or five students has become a key part of how the IT team keeps pace without increasing headcount. For a private school striving to model stewardship and service, it became a living example of collaboration and accountability. “With a team our size, maintaining service levels is hard, but we’re able to do it because of the system,” said Emmi.
As IT’s success became apparent, the Facilities department added on iiQ Facilities and iiQ Events for their work orders and scheduling needs, enabling smoother cross-department collaboration. The goal across all teams is the same: every request starts in one place, every action leaves a trail, and every change is visible to stakeholders.
THE OUTCOME
Faster Service and Trusted Data
After adopting Incident IQ, results have been immediate — what once took up to two days now takes mere hours. With all tickets now living in one place, requests are handled consistently and closed faster, giving teachers clear, real-time visibility into progress on their issues. In fact, average response times have dropped by more than 67%. As Emmi explained, “We were probably in a three-day resolution time, and a one- to two-day response time. Now we’re at about a half-day response time tops, and a one-day resolution time.”
The results have gone beyond speed. With iiQ’s reporting tools, Emmi can measure service performance weekly, easily tracking response and resolution times, open tickets, and departmental efficiency.
The improvement has elevated IT’s reputation schoolwide. “At private schools, families and teachers expect immediate, professional support,” Emmi added. “We wanted to deliver that same level of service you’d expect in the corporate world, and now we can.”
Fee tracking and accountability also improved. Through iiQ Assets, secretaries apply fees on the same day devices are damaged, ensuring transparency and quick resolution. “Fee tracking went from almost nonexistent to every student being accountable,” said Emmi. “That kind of system builds trust with parents, leadership, and our finance office.” Centralized tracking has brought control and accuracy. Loaners are monitored, repairs are logged, and fees are applied the same day, keeping devices in circulation and reducing replacement costs.
Accurate data now connects technology spending directly to classroom impact.
“Independent schools have to be good stewards of resources. Now I can show exactly how we’re using our budget to keep students learning,” Emmi explained.
Trust in the portal has risen as the experience has proven reliable. Submitting a request is simple, and following progress has become effortless. Knowledge Base articles help the IT team to reuse past fixes, which keeps resolution times consistent and prevents repeat issues from slowing them down. And now with the adoption of iiQ Facilities and iiQ Events, handoffs on AV, room readiness, and event support are smooth and easy.
Most importantly, the small team hasn’t had to grow headcount to maintain high service levels. Standardized workflows, role-based permissions, and shared reporting have enabled St. Augustine to scale support to a second campus and meet high expectations. The bottom line is that a single, modern platform has helped control costs, shorten downtime, and make good stewardship visible.
