The Christelijk Lyceum Zeist (CLZ) is a school with a rich history, housed in a beautiful building. In 1922, H. Colijn, the later prime minister of the Netherlands, opened the CLZ school building on Lindenlaan. It is a special school, simply because the Christelijk Lyceum in Zeist was the first Christian lyceum in the Netherlands. Today, the CLZ is an open plural school with 1550 students divided between VMBO, HAVO and VWO. About 150 teachers teach at the school, and the support staff consists of 50 employees. The CLZ wants to prepare students as well as possible for their future. Therefore, in addition to textbooks, they also use MacBooks during classes.
With Apple to London
Paul van Dijk has worked at the CLZ since 2007 and has been an Apple system administrator since 2010. “We worked with Windows before 2010 and still had a real old-fashioned ICT service within our school group. They came to our location once a week for management. If you had problems, and they had just been, you sometimes had to wait almost a week,” Paul says. “Our vice principal and team leader were forward-thinking and, like me and my ICT colleague, were eager to start working with Apple at our school. In 2010, at Apple’s invitation, we went to an ICT fair in London and attended the necessary workshops.”
MacBooks in, Windows out
Paul and his colleague Arjen then started small with 30 iMacs for one particular subject. They then took a step-by-step approach to the Apple rollout over two years: 10 MacBooks in each time and 10 Windows devices out. Now all staff and students work on MacBooks. The parents order the MacBooks and CLZ sets up the device for the student. The student becomes the owner of the device on an installment basis and is therefore also responsible for the device and any repairs.
Registration via Filemaker
How did CLZ end up with Root3? Paul: “We came to Martin of Root3 in 2012 because we needed to register everything around the MacBooks properly. You can imagine that at some point that is no longer possible in an Excel sheet. Root3 then helped us set up Filemaker and link this database to Jamf/MDM. From the moment of purchase, the MacBook enters Filemaker by serial number, including information about parts ordered for repair, payments and applicable restrictions based on the ‘departments’: teachers, students or exam students.”
Health Check
CLZ handles all Apple system management itself, using Root3’s Health Check. “We do this onsite twice a year and online twice a year. During this check, Root3 assesses whether everything is still working optimally. We also have a 10-hour card for support at Root3. If there is something, we open a case, and then we are quickly helped by Root3.” According to Paul, that works very pleasantly. “Also, Root3 looks with us when we have complex projects that play within our school itself or in relation to the ICT systems of the umbrella school group.”
Root3: informal, direct, no-nonsense
CLZ was one of Root3’s first customers, and Paul still likes the cooperation. “We still have very direct and personal contact with Root3. Martin knows the atmosphere and goals of our organization well. And if there is something, he comes in here for a cup of coffee to discuss it.” According to Paul, the communication can be called informal, direct and no-nonsense. He also praises Root3 for its thorough knowledge of Apple’s complex market. “The consultants are all specialists, and if someone doesn’t know, he or she passes it on to a colleague who does. This is always done quickly and through short lines of communication.”