“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective IT Administrators”* lays out the job skills and personal qualities that determine the success level of IT professionals.  Since these are the folks who select, implement and maintain the networks and applications, their importance has never been greater than in today’s environment.

Although the paper focuses on business rather than education, the characteristics needed for success ring true for both industries.

1. Be Business Savvy – this includes priority setting, utilizing resources wisely, making good decisions.
   
   
2. Set Expectations Appropriately – prepare the internal customer and fulfill what’s promised.
   
   
3. Be Financially Prudent – in education the Return on Investment can be more difficult to measure but can be even more important.  Are resources chosen wisely and utilized fully?
   
   
4. Be a Technology Realist – stay up to date but separate the “must haves” from the “want to haves.”
   
   
5. Be Credential Ready, Practice Proven – if anywhere, education requires that you have emerging technology knowledge.
   
   
6. Be Diplomatic – need we say more?
   
   
7. Cultivate an Optimistic Outlook – be able to manage diverse demands, expectations, and realities in a positive manner.

*White paper by Ipswitch, Inc.

How can ClassLink help K-12 IT professionals succeed?

ClassLink products such as ClassSync™ and CLiC™ can help with daily tasks that can be time-consuming and aggravating.

ClassSync™ transforms the frustrating and time-consuming job of user management in Microsoft Active Directory into an automated and effortless process. This software tool synchronizes your Active Directory (AD) schema with your Student Information System (SIS) data.  Years of inaccurate accounts and information in your AD can be fixed in under an hour.

CLiC™, for use by system administrators, is a flexible and scalable server-based platform management tool expressly developed for the K-12 educational market. CLiC™ simplifies complicated technology tasks, enables real-time server monitoring and significantly reduces time spent troubleshooting by reducing the chances for potential costly errors.  CLiC™ helps with reports, license metering, security issues, printer mapping and more!

For more information about the white paper
or about ClassLink, click here.