Partnership Melds Network Monitoring with Student Information System

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 05/27/09

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Two companies have teamed up to add network monitoring and reporting to student information management. Lightspeed Systems, which sells network security software for the education market, has partnered with Logic Key, which sells Harmony School Management Software, to create an integrated application to identify and address possible safety and security issues.

Harmony manages student demographics, enrollment, grades, attendance, discipline, health records, textbook inventory, and cafeteria services. Lightspeed Systems' Total Traffic Control includes content filtering, spam management, bandwidth management, antivirus protection, reporting capabilities, e-mail archiving, and mobile filtering.

Harmony now displays reports of student Internet usage obtained from Total Traffic Control, including search-engine queries, such as terms related to bomb making, gang involvement, and suicide.

Schools monitor online activity through the main access point for mission-critical school data, to bring key information front and center. By evaluating student Internet usage, administrators, counselors, and other designated staff can detect potential threats to school safety and document acceptable-use-policy violations. With this information, educators are better able to safeguard students, resolve inappropriate online behavior, and ensure students get the help they may need.

Additionally, the integration enables schools to import parent e-mail addresses into the Total Traffic Control spam filter to prevent e-mail over-blocking, which is common at the start of the school year.

Logic Key is offering the networking monitoring and reporting as a standard feature in Harmony at no additional charge.