The Challenge
Granite School District’s IT team supports more than 63,000 students and nearly 10,000 staff, keeping laptops, printers, smartboards, gradebook systems, and more running smoothly across 100+ schools. But as demand grew, the team was relying on a homegrown system with disconnected asset data and no automation.
With more than 133,000 assets tracked across three siloed systems, the IT team was managing immense operational complexity. At the same time, even basic access requests, like printer or folder permissions, had to be processed manually. What should have taken minutes often dragged into days. Teams were overwhelmed, and users were left waiting. Teachers were delayed by issues that should have been resolved in minutes.
"In the past, a teacher would submit a request and someone on our end would have to manually find them, check their permissions, and update the group. That could take a couple of hours. Or a couple of days."
— Scott Graves, Service Desk Manager
The pressure was building. External audits flagged process gaps. Departments beyond IT, like Audio Visual, needed structured workflows of their own to manage installations, approvals, and school-funded projects more efficiently. Meanwhile, HR wasn’t initially included in the system, which slowed down onboarding and led to avoidable delays in setting up new starters.
Technology in the classroom was moving forward. But behind the scenes, the systems supporting it were falling further behind.
Granite needed more than a help desk. It needed a flexible, centralised platform to support growing demand and deliver reliable service district-wide.
The Solution
Granite School District chose HaloITSM for its flexibility, straightforward configuration, and seamless integration with the systems already in place: Azure, Active Directory, Entra ID, SQL Server, Ivanti, and ViewSonic. From the outset, Halo’s team worked closely with Granite to map out a platform that could meet the needs of multiple departments while reducing the day-to-day strain on support teams.
With over 180 agents on the platform, HaloITSM quickly became the operational backbone for service management across the district.
Routine access requests were among the first to be automated. Printer access, folder permissions, and device-based network access are now triggered by structured service requests and fulfilled using PowerShell scripts, without manual intervention.
"We were probably doing 30 to 40 of those requests a day manually. Now they’re getting resolved in a couple of minutes. That’s been one of the biggest selling points for people using Halo.”
— Scott Graves, Service Desk Manager
To address delays in account creation and site assignments, HR was brought into the platform. Workflows are now directly connected to employee records, dramatically improving accuracy and ensuring new starters get what they need without the back-and-forth.
Granite consolidated its documentation into a centralised knowledge base within Halo, making content easier to find, manage, and scale. Drafting is led by on-site tech coaches, frontline staff who work closely with teachers to support their use of classroom technology. By consulting with staff and identifying recurring issues, they create practical, relevant articles that address real needs. Each one is reviewed by a dedicated team to ensure clarity, accuracy, and usability.
“One of the biggest issues in public K–12 is limited funding. We don’t have enough support staff to cater to everyone. The knowledge base gives staff the ability to solve their own issues, and it’s being used constantly.”
— Scott Graves, Service Desk Manager
Halo has also helped other teams take control of their workflows. The AV department manages school-funded tech installations through dedicated request forms and approval chains. Special Education and Tech Support teams use Halo to track work, maintain visibility, and reduce delays across requests. The Accounts team is now looped into relevant workflows as well, helping to manage budgeting, approvals, and purchasing steps for school-funded projects.
And importantly, staff are using it. The self-service portal is now the preferred way to raise tickets, improving data quality, standardising submissions, and cutting down on manual triage.
The Results
Since implementing HaloITSM, Granite School District has significantly improved its ability to respond, resolve, and support across departments.
- Access and provisioning requests that once took days are now completed in minutes, saving more than two hours of technician time each day
- 30–40 repetitive requests per day are now fully automated
- HR onboarding is faster and more accurate, thanks to workflows linked directly to staff records
- The self-service portal has become the district’s primary support channel, with 2,500 portal tickets submitted each month vs 730 via email
- Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score of 95.91%, based on over 12,000 responses
The knowledge base has become a critical self-service tool, especially for teaching staff:
- Over 2,000 article views each month by end users, and 800 by agents
- Most-viewed content includes “Tips for Creating a New Incident Ticket”, “Gradebook – Elementary – Post Final Grades”, and the “Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Guide”
- Articles are designed to help staff solve problems independently, reducing pressure on agents while speeding up support for essential tools
Operational visibility and backend efficiency have also improved:
- More than 133,000 assets are tracked in Halo, with 99% synced automatically from connected systems
- Manual admin access has been reduced from over 100 user accounts to a single secure service account
- 141 services are now live in Halo, spanning IT, HR, AV, Special Education, and Tech Support
“The uptake in automation is getting pretty crazy. Halo’s been able to fill in a lot of the manual processes, and we’re still expanding.”
— Scott Graves, Service Desk Manager
HaloITSM has become a unified platform for service delivery—streamlining operations, connecting departments, and enabling staff to work efficiently at scale.
