A Better Way: Solving the Silo Issue in Education

The Platform Revolution by Parker, Van Alstyne and Choudary is among the most acclaimed and cited business books in recent times. The platform approach is transforming global business on a massive scale; however, it isn’t commonly considered in the world of school safety and operations. Many education institutions are not leveraging the efficiency and effectiveness of a platform to prevent violence, streamline operations, and save lives, time, and resources.

A platform approach facilitates accountability, efficiency, and interoperability. Creating a common operating picture of where information is coming from and ultimately communicated to is foundational to health and safety in educational environments.

For many years, information management in K-12 schools and higher education institutions was dislocated and disconnected across a broad array of departments and job functions. Information was siloed, decisions were misinformed and effective communication was rare — compromising the health and safety of students and faculty. This extended from record management, tasks and workflows, and communications to compliance, analytics, and situational awareness.

“Everyone knew that the education space needed an enterprise-wide solution. But ask five stakeholders and each will respond with their own definition and priorities. This results in a disparate collection of non-interoperable platforms that create functional silos,” explains Daniel J. Lee, the Founder, CEO, and Solutions Architect of Kokomo24/7®. “The urgent challenges of school safety and operational efficiency demanded action. I felt like there had to be a better way to provide solutions.”

Kokomo24/7® works to eliminate silos and build a robust and expansive platform that would not only be easy to deploy and operate but also would have intuitive and accessible endpoints for collection and communication. Lee had developed deep experience working for major enterprise IT service providers. Prompted by his recurring concerns about the siloed ecosystems of schools, districts and higher education, he gave up his former life to found his company, convinced there was a better way.

Lee was particularly disturbed by the use of pen and paper and the inconsistent data entry protocols for visitor management systems, and he was frustrated by non-communicative, non-interoperable point solutions for specific functions that promoted duplicated processes that were very susceptible to human error.

“You can’t expect any technology to eliminate violence in schools, but the right technology should give you the tools to respond to the unique challenges a school faces,” Lee says. “That’s the exact reason I created the Kokomo platform.”

The Kokomo24/7® platform consists of a centralized dashboard through which schools can manage any of the platform’s solutions. The platform also integrates with a wide array of existing software and hardware providers, allowing schools to create a one-stop-shop for managing their entire technology portfolio. Kokomo24/7® empowers K-12 schools and higher education institutions to take a holistic approach to school safety.

A holistic platform that enabled communities to evolve their use cases as needs dictated, Kokomo24/7® gained strong traction during and after the pandemic when schools and districts needed to quickly deploy programs to support visitor management, emergency notifications, content management, facility management, and school-based healthcare. Today, the platform underpins operations at major school districts like the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“We can get a client roster on Monday and have their environment stood up by the end of the day Tuesday,” Lee says. “Clients who had previously been paying for hardcoding that took six months to complete quickly realized they were six months late and six months poorer as the challenge they sought to manage continued to evolve, escalate, or both.” Kokomo24/7® is a server-less cloud solution with web and native mobile app parity, which means agility and speed are hardwired into the offering.

Just as Kokomo24/7® is a powerful engine that enables organizations and communities to operate off one secure, accurate dataset and a uniform suite of powerful tools, there is a need for robust, reliable hardware at the front and back ends of the engine. Front-end technologies like LG 27KC3PK-C Self Ordering Kiosks featuring 27” displays with advanced touch sensitivity became the go-to solution for school entry points for visitors and for health stations where students and faculty could access consultations with remote health professionals.

Similarly, LG CreateBoards, widely deployed in the United States K-12 community, are empowered with Kokomo24/7® functionality, including emergency management, incident mapping and a panic button. Behind the scenes in the central office, LG IT solutions like LG gram laptops, LG smart monitors and LG cloud devices enable easy, efficient deployment and operation of the Kokomo24/7® platform and solutions.

“LG understands use cases and priorities and is among the easiest of our partners to work with,” Lee explains. “The LG kiosks are the front door to our brand experience and, therefore, must be consistently robust, reliable and high-performing. Likewise, LG CreateBoards are versatile and classroom-ready, enabling educators to do what they do best — teach in an engaging and effective manner as well as quickly access emergency or incident maps with minimal effort.”

Commenting on the collaboration, Victoria Sanville, Director, Corporate and Public Sector Sales LG Electronics, says, “Kokomo24/7® operates with the curiosity and energy of a startup and the experience and vision of a seasoned industry player. The combined impact is an organization with a mission to do everything better, that innately understands how to accomplish that goal and the cultural will to get things done. This is exactly the type of business that LG seeks to collaborate with!”

Peace of mind is critical to expanding minds. Successful students should not be distracted by safety issues. Teachers should not need to jump through administrative and technological hoops to manage safety in their classrooms. Administrators should have confidence that the systems and solutions they’re deploying are future-proof and agile. Likewise, parents, caregivers and taxpayers should expect the same level of effectiveness and efficiency that they can get from a private organization.

Not everyone is aware that much of their peace of mind comes down to an ambitious and effective platform strategy, the solutions that sit on top of it and the hardware that facilitates it. Kokomo24/7® understands this. It’s our vision of a better way.