Benefits

Now, more than ever, schools need to make their funds go further and ensure every penny is used wisely. NetSupport DNA, our complete solution that includes network and IT management, classroom management and safeguarding tools, helps you do just that…

Make informed decisions

Supporting up to 10,000 devices, NetSupport DNA allows you to run hardware inventory or software licence reports for a single device, department or bespoke group in your school and see all relevant information. You can identify which PCs are upgradeable, which ones need to be replaced and which ones could be more effectively deployed elsewhere – avoiding unnecessary purchases. You can also record accounting information (purchase details, lease and maintenance plans and much more) for every PC.

The NetSupport DNA Mobile app also delivers information about a device’s inventory and licences, plus a full history of recent changes, as well as highlighting any outstanding alerts. It even provides a QR code creator to help quickly identify PCs.

Efficiency View

The Efficiency View dashboard helps you to see at a glance if your technology is being used efficiently and helping to reduce any wastage. Showing key data (i.e. how many PCs were left on out of hours, the number of unused PCs, those with the lowest spec/disk space, and more), it informs you where improved efficiency can create cost and time-saving benefits. You even can save and export the data as a report, making it easy to evidence improvements.

Save money on software licensing costs

NetSupport DNA keeps track of your installed licences, helping you to reduce unnecessary spending on those that aren’t needed, as well as avoid potential fines for using more than you own. And, for greater cost savings, it also highlights software that has no or low usage, thereby avoiding costly renewals for applications you no longer require.

To help you track your software spending, NetSupport DNA can record all the “extras” associated with software management (e.g. supplier details, invoice details, contract renewal dates), giving you the opportunity to make active and considered decisions on renewals.

Why monitoring application use is good for your budget

Monitoring applications ensures software licences are assigned to the right staff and students based on their usage level. It highlights who is using applications, programmes and even store apps, more than others, allowing you to either reallocate applications to where they are needed or restrict use to specific devices and save additional licence spend or maintenance renewals on under-used applications.

Do you know how much your school could save on energy costs?

NetSupport DNA’s Energy Monitoring and Power Management tools keep you informed by showing you how many PCs are left on out of hours – and, most importantly, how the costs of this can significantly add up over time. You can set Power Management policies allowing selected PCs to be set to power off automatically and power back on – all at once, or in stages – the next morning. In addition, “inactivity policies” can be applied, allowing rules to be applied for systems to sleep, log out or power down if they have been inactive over a period of time. NetSupport DNA can begin to provide you with the awareness you need to start saving from day one.

Alerts

Tackling big IT problems can take significant amounts of time − affecting staff and students and sometimes incurring financial costs. So, to help you work proactively to maintain your network (rather than fixing it reactively), NetSupport DNA gives you a complete alerting suite that allows you to monitor hundreds of scenarios and warn you when problems occur − or, better still, before they occur − to avoid lost productivity, such as when a particular PC or server is struggling (and any wider impact across your network); where licence usage counts are reaching limits (to avoid any potential exposure to non-compliance fines) or when software has been uninstalled from a PC so it can be re-deployed elsewhere.

Cut your printing expenditure

Another easy save for schools is to cut back on printing costs. Unnecessary printing can often spiral out of control, incurring high paper and toner costs. The high-level Print Monitoring component of NetSupport DNA shows you exactly where your print costs are being generated, allowing you allocate funds accordingly

All of your lease and contract details in one place – where they belong

NetSupport DNA bridges the gap between IT and Purchasing, allowing you to keep copies of actual lease and maintenance contracts (and other associated details) recorded alongside the correct devices and software licences. You can also include supplier details, contract term dates and costs – increasing your awareness of renewal dates and allowing you to retain control and make active, informed decisions about future planning and spending.

We work with thousands of schools across the world, gaining their feedback to ensure our solutions are relevant, effective and support security. From keeping the network secure to helping ensure data is safeguarded, NetSupport DNA adds an extra layer of protection.

Explore and discover

Supporting up to 10,000 devices, NetSupport DNA’s Explorer mode provides a real-time overview of all PCs on the network, highlighting which have active notifications and allowing operators to identify and resolve issues quickly. The Discovery mode will automatically identify any new devices that are added and remotely deploy Agents to them, ensuring any new PCs never go undetected.

Monitor more than just devices

The SNMP module allows key data from network devices (e.g. network switches and firewalls) to be discovered and then monitored. Alerts can be trigged for dozens of scenarios, such as alerting if the inbound traffic on the school firewall exceeds a certain percentage for a predefined period – which might suggest a Denial of Service attack.

Control the use of removable devices

Provided as standard, NetSupport DNA’s endpoint security component can control the use of removable USB devices on all PCs across the school to prevent sensitive data loss or virus infection from portable media. Individual memory sticks can be assigned to dedicated users or their use restricted to specific individuals or team members for the current day, a week or indefinitely – making certain that data is locked down should memory sticks happen to get lost. NetSupport DNA also provides usage controls over CD/DVD devices (including USB and virtual) and detects whether volumes on hard drives/USB drives are encrypted (BitLocker).

Store your data securely

NetSupport DNA’s dedicated GDPR (data protection) tools help schools identify whether the software they have installed is compliant, where any sensitive information is stored, prevent data breaches and support individuals’ rights by easily identifying and instantly archiving or removing all data history related to the person in question.

Getting consent from everyone

NetSupport DNA supports the delivery and tracking of AUPs across the school and prevents access to school devices until users have accepted and agreed to abide by the school’s policies.

Internet and application usage

Students and staff on school PCs can be restricted to using only specific and approved websites or applications, thereby preventing access to insecure or inappropriate sites/applications that may risk malware or virus transmission. These controls can also prevent new software being installed or run on any PC or sensitive data being accessed or removed.

Seeing the relevant data for your school

User views can be set to ensure that, in trusts or districts with multiple sites, data from one school is not visible to another. At a higher management level, the data across all the separate sites can be seen and analysed as a consolidated report.

We work with thousands of schools across the world, gaining their feedback to ensure our solutions are relevant, effective and support security. From keeping the network secure to helping ensure data is safeguarded, NetSupport DNA adds an extra layer of protection.

Be alerted to changes

NetSupport DNA also contains a powerful alerting suite with many alerts designed to help maintain security. Alerts can be triggered instantly: for example, if a key service such as anti-virus is stopped, a new application is installed or the size of a known file changes − and much more.

Screen recording

There is a rolling 60-seconds capture of screen activity held in the system memory on each student’s PC in an encrypted format. Only if a critical safeguarding keyword is triggered, will the screen capture be converted into a viewable file – otherwise, it’s automatically deleted every 60 seconds.

Safeguarding your students is a priority, so NetSupport DNA supplies you with the essential tools to ensure students can learn in a safe environment, while meeting the latest requirements. 

Up-to-date keywords 

Trends are constantly changing and so must the keyword database used to monitor for at risk activity. We work closely with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and local schools and charities, plus young people themselves, to continue adding the latest terms to the database. Often, young people can sometimes appear to have their own language that includes an abundant use of slang terms, but don’t panic, these are also included! Schools can even share and exchange local terms with other schools and add any new ones to their database to further broaden their online safety net, if they wish.

Supporting the latest requirements 

Schools everywhere have a duty of care to their students and that means following a range of online safety legal requirements and guidance. We designed NetSupport DNA with these in mind, to help make your job easier! (UK Prevent Duty, Department for Education’s Keeping Children Safe in Education [KCSiE], Children’s Internet Protection Act [CIPA] and more).

A ‘whole school approach’

The ‘word cloud’ that is powered by the keywords students are triggering helps authorised staff to see, at a glance, the exact online safety topics that are currently trending across the school. Equipped with this knowledge, schools can support their ‘whole school approach’, and ensure staff are kept abreast of new words and are fully informed of any escalating trends. It’s not just school staff who can learn from this: this information can also offer useful ‘teachable’ moments for the students. By using a learning platform (NetSupport School – an optional component within NetSupport DNA) that simultaneously educates and protects, schools can raise awareness of the concerns that students may already be discussing or searching for themselves – empowering them to keep themselves safe from harm.

Identifying those most at risk

Context is crucial, and so in addition to highlighting worrying words or phrases, NetSupport DNA expands on the context in which these terms are being used (i.e. whether they are accidental, academic or indicative of risk) using what we call ‘contextual intelligence’. It also captures screen images or screen recordings to evidence that activity. For example, looking at the time of day, the device used, the history of similar searches a student has carried out, and whether the search is within a school lesson or in their own time, plays a huge factor in determining a false alarm versus a genuine risk. NetSupport DNA analyses the risks and grades them with a number that quickly indicates to staff whether urgent intervention is needed.

Empowering students 

NetSupport DNA provides students with instant access to a range of “validated” online support resources – and of course schools can add any additional ones they feel are appropriate. Meanwhile, students are further empowered with the ‘Report a concern’ feature, allowing them to report their concerns by sending a message, screenshots or documents in confidence to a trusted member of staff.

Online safety – anytime, anywhere

The fact is, most safeguarding events occur outside of classroom hours, which unfortunately leads to many instances slipping through the net. With NetSupport DNA, a school can add the student ‘Report a concern’ feature to their own website, allowing students to report any concerns they have to a trusted member of staff via the internet, from any location and device – and at any time of day.

Internet and application usage

Students and staff on school PCs can be restricted to using only specific and approved websites or applications, thereby preventing access to insecure or inappropriate sites/applications that may risk malware or virus transmission. These controls can also prevent new software being installed or run on any PC, or sensitive data being accessed or removed.

Secure safeguarding data – even on the go

NetSupport DNA’s safeguarding cloud view (v4.7 and above) is a fully secure, Azure-hosted console that stores local data generated at a school, e.g. triggered safeguarding keywords, screen capture, risk index alerts, reported concerns by a child or teacher, and the trending topics word cloud. The data remains fully secure, since only designated safeguarding staff can view it. In addition, all the monitoring and assessment of these alerts is done locally by the school; no third-party services are needed.

Screen recording

There is a rolling 60-seconds capture of screen activity held in the system memory on each student’s PC in an encrypted format. Only if a critical safeguarding keyword is triggered, will the screen capture be converted into a viewable file – otherwise, it’s automatically deleted every 60 seconds.