Student Transportation Inc. (STI) is a major provider of busing services, transporting more than one million students each day. STI, based in New Jersey and Barrie, Ontario, operates 9,500 vehicles and 130 bus terminals throughout the U.S. and Canada. STI avoids millions in IT costs with EarthLink Cloud Workspace™. "Cloud is our friend. It allows us to allocate resources only where we need them and keep our staff small. Most companies our size would spend 40 times what we do on IT. And our CFO loves the budget discussions. We're in and out in half an hour." said Keith Engelbert, CTO-Investor Relations, STI.

1. Business Challenges
In North America, more than 24 million students take the bus to and from school. While
traditionally school districts have operated their own bus fleets, an increasing number
are choosing to privatize their school transportation.
Student Transportation Inc. (STI) is a major provider of busing services, transporting
more than one million students each day. STI, based in New Jersey and Barrie,
Ontario, operates 9,500 vehicles and 130 bus terminals throughout the U.S. and
Canada. In the past few years, STI has acquired over 40 companies and rapidly
grown its portfolio of customers.
STI equips buses with GPS technology and mobile surveillance video systems and
the company relies on 60+ applications to run its business. At STI, fast growth and
so many distributed locations could make for a complex IT environment.
“We need to be able to ramp up a new acquisition or a new contract start-up
immediately – sometimes in the middle of the school year,” said Keith Engelbert.
“The goal is keeping our IT lean as our technology infrastructure continues growing.”
STI found that a cloud-based IT infrastructure keeps the company’s IT department
efficient and provides critical agility as the company grows. STI partners with
EarthLink Business for EarthLink Cloud Workspace™
, giving the company a
customized cloud environment to control its applications and extend secure,
reliable access to employees on any device at any location.
STI employs 10,000 employees, with about 1,000 corporate users accessing
applications. Each employee has access to a standard set of applications and the
IT team makes other programs available as needed – all from a central location.
While cost savings originally drove the move to the cloud, STI quickly found
that cloud technology offered additional benefits for its M&A, audit and strategic
IT operations.
“What started as a cost-saving IT project quickly blossomed into something much
bigger as we realized the cloud could be a major business enabler for us,” Engelbert
said. “EarthLink Cloud Workspace allows us to incorporate 60+ business applications
into our cloud infrastructure – a feat companies many times our size cannot match.”
The Solution
Challenges
As the transportation provider
rapidly grew its North American
footprint to over 130 offices, STI
needed a scalable, cost effective
IT infrastructure to support 60+
applications, frequent acquisitions
and audit/compliance requirements
in the U.S. and Canada.
Solution
EarthLink Cloud Workspace
gives the company a customized
cloud environment to extend
secure, reliable access to
applications for their employees
on any device at any location,
fold in new school district
contracts and acquisitions rapidly,
and satisfy audit requirements.
Results
• The company allocates less than
one percent of its revenue to IT
operations. Industry wide, the
average is 3.5 percent.
• STI avoids millions in up-front and
ongoing IT maintenance costs.
• Most companies STI’s size would
spend 40 times more on IT.
• The company cuts the time to bring
on a new acquisition or client by
two thirds.
Student Transportation Inc.CASE STUDY
Student Transportation Inc. Case Study 2013getinfo@earthlinkbusiness.com | www.earthlinkbusiness.com
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“
“
“Cloud is our friend. It allows us to allocate resources only where we
need them and keep our staff small. Most companies our size would
spend 40 times what we do on IT.”
STI Avoids Millions in IT Costs with EarthLink
Cloud Workspace™
Private Bus Operator Supports 60+ Apps, 130 Locations and Fast
Growth with Cloud Strategy
Keith Engelbert
CTO-Investor Relations, Student Transportation Inc.
–

2. When STI acquires another company or adds a new client, Engelbert and his team
upload the acquired company’s data and applications and then present them via a
cloud environment. This allows each of STI’s acquired companies to keep and run
applications in the same way as before, while STI slowly and seamlessly integrates
each organization into the new tech ecosystem. That speed is a critical competitive
differentiator during the contract bidding process.
Engelbert estimates that he and his team cut the amount of time to bring in a new
customer or acquisition by two thirds, thanks to the cloud. “If we idle too much, we’re
wasting gas. Cloud workspace has helped us be extremely fast in getting a new client
set up,” he said.
For example, bringing on a 500-bus operation in Omaha, Nebraska demanded GPS
and a number of other high-end systems, but STI completed it in less than 30 days.
The cloud environment additionally simplifies compliance and audits by eliminating
the challenge of auditing multiple locations, since all applications are hosted in an
EarthLink data center with SSAE 16 compliant process controls and infrastructure.
“Being in the cloud provides tremendous advantages for the ease of meeting
compliance requirements,” Engelbert said. “When an auditor walks in, they are
relieved to see how we’re set up and how applications are controlled. There’s
nothing easier to audit.”
“The EarthLink cloud also provides peace of mind knowing that our data is secure
and protected with backup and recovery processes in place,” Engelbert said.
Cloud Workspace also accommodates STI’s ever-expanding storage needs.
The company uploads and stores 500GB to 1TB of video every day from each of
its 9,500 vehicles, requiring huge amounts of capacity. On top of that, STI stores
required driver credentials and medical records, video editing software, and runs
a trip management application for extracurricular events like athletic games.
How Student
Transportation Inc.
Benefits from
EarthLink Business
“Cloud Workspace is not just
an IT strategy but a strategic
business advantage,” Engelbert
said. “We can focus our limited
resources on applications
that deliver ROI (return on
investment).”
The cloud environment
additionally simplifies
compliance and audits by
eliminating the challenge of
auditing multiple locations,
since all applications are hosted
in an EarthLink data center with
SSAE 16 compliant process
controls and infrastructure.
“Being in the cloud provides
tremendous advantages for the
ease of meeting compliance
requirements,” Engelbert said.
“When an auditor walks in, they
are relieved to see how we’re
set up and how applications
are controlled. There’s nothing
easier to audit.”
“The EarthLink cloud also
provides peace of mind knowing
that our data is secure and
protected with backup and
recovery processes in place,”
Engelbert said.
Positioned for the Future
STI initially moved to EarthLink Cloud Workspace for the compelling cost benefits
and the decision continues to pay off. The company operates its IT department at a
much lower cost than most its size, allocating less than one percent of its revenue to
IT operations. Industry wide, the average is 3.5 percent.
“Cloud is our friend,” Engelbert said. “It allows us to allocate resources only where we
need them and keep our staff small. Most companies our size would spend 40 times
what we do on IT. And our CFO loves the budget discussions. We’re in and out in half
an hour.”
EarthLink Cloud Hosting will also support STI as it continues diversifying its
business model. SchoolWheels Direct, a recently launched fee-based busing program
for students in districts without bus service, runs in the cloud out of the EarthLink data
center. With the new STI application, SafeStop™
, parents can even get updates about
the ETA and progress of their children’s buses.
STI is also planning to host Cloud Workspace applications in EarthLink data centers
on both coasts for the best performance possible across North America.
Throughout the EarthLink relationship, no matter what STI’s cloud needs, EarthLink
has been a strategic business partner. “EarthLink is always really responsive in getting
us anything we need,” Engelbert said.
CASE STUDY
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Student Transportation Inc.
Student Transportation Inc. Case Study 2013
©2013EarthLink,Inc.Trademarksarepropertyoftheirrespectiveowners.Allrightsreserved.1071-07173