Streamline Operations and Increase Security Posture
Reading Area Community College (RACC) opened its doors on October 1, 1971, with an initial class of 265 students. The college focuses on building communities in the region that are dedicated to educational growth and economic vitality, and does that by providing access to classes that create opportunities for members of those communities to thrive.
RACC prioritizes four goals in its initiatives: Student learning and success, proactive community partnership, creating a viable and effective workplace, and being known for excellence in teaching, learning, and community leadership.
Challenge
RACC has had a longstanding partnership with Hammer Tech, with RACC deploying new networks, instituting new cybersecurity protocols, and Hammer Tech offering consulting services on various IT needs.
As a result of this relationship, RACC leadership wanted help assessing the current disposition of the IT department to ensure it was in full compliance with current best practices. Under current operations, there was limited visibility into the workings of the IT department for leadership, and there was interest in building stronger systems to situate the IT department so it could operate up to the level of excellence that RACC strives to deliver for its students. The college had taken its first step in achieving this by opting to deploy a Microsoft 365 environment so they could centralize security procedures, but wanted to take things to the next level and believed that the Hammer Tech team could be relied on to help with that.
Solutions
With a focus on policies and procedures, Hammer Tech evaluated what was working and what wasn’t within the organization’s IT department. In reviewing the departmental operations, it was found that resources were being prioritized for tactical objectives that kept RACC as an organization moving forward, but placed restrictions on their ability to innovate and modernize their environments. To rectify this, consulting services were used to provide frameworks for RACC’s IT department so they could streamline operations and balance resource allocation between strategic planning and tactical implementation.
In addition to updating the IT department’s prioritization of resources, the Hammer Tech team also looked at policies and procedures for possible gaps in their cybersecurity posture. In the course of this assessment, the Hammer Tech team provided guides for how to fine-tune their policies and cybersecurity measures to ensure they maximize the protections around their environment.
Results
With Hammer Tech’s comprehensive review of RACC’s IT department and its policies, the college will now be able to quickly identify any gaps in compliance and work on towards developing a strategic vision for their organization.
While the assessment provided an opportunity to bring all policies and procedures current, plans were put in place to review those documents on an annual basis, allowing RACC to make adjustments in accordance with current possible threats. Additionally, RACC will be able to create a vision for the future that allows it to meet the needs of its students within an ever-changing economy.
