The Catholic Education Diocese of Bathurst is a K-12 education organization based in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. In operation for over a decade, the organization now runs 36 campuses, and serves more than 12,000 students with a staff of around 2,000.
Its 27-person IT team manages approximately 17,000 endpoints across five operating systems, covering MacBooks, iMacs, Windows devices, Chromebooks, iPads, and interactive display devices for education.
Business challenges
Devices not consistently updated due to remote working, offline status, or manual intervention.
Before implementing ManageEngine Endpoint Central, the organization faced several operational and management challenges across endpoint administration, remote support, device compliance, and software asset management. These issues were directly impacting IT efficiency, user productivity, and overall operational visibility.
Remote support delayed by the need for multiple calls, user interaction, or physical device access.
Managing operating system and third-party application patching across multiple devices and locations was a significant challenge. Devices were often not consistently updated due to users working remotely, devices being offline, or relying on manual intervention. As a result, security gaps began to emerge, and maintaining consistent compliance across the endpoint estate became increasingly difficult.
Software license tracking largely manual with no reliable reporting for audits or planning.
Providing remote support to staff and students across different campuses and offsite locations was difficult and often delayed issue resolution. Managing a mixed environment of organization-owned and BYOD devices created inconsistencies in policy enforcement, software deployment, and security controls. Tracking software installations, license usage, and application compliance was largely manual and lacked accurate reporting.
These challenges collectively increased operational overhead for the IT team and reduced overall organizational productivity. More time was spent on repetitive administrative tasks, manual troubleshooting, and compliance checks instead of strategic initiatives.
"Before implementing ManageEngine Endpoint Central, our organization faced several operational and management challenges across endpoint administration, remote support, device compliance, and software asset management. These issues were directly impacting IT efficiency, user productivity, and overall operational visibility."
- Aathioli Sivaprakasam, IT Security Manager, Catholic Education Diocese of Bathurst
Evaluating the market
Before selecting Endpoint Central, the IT team evaluated Microsoft Intune/SCCM and Ivanti Neurons. After comparing the options against their operational requirements, device complexity, and scale, the team chose Endpoint Central based on the following competitive advantages:
| Decision factor | What it meant for the Catholic Education Diocese of Bathurst |
|---|---|
| Ease of use and deployment | The solution is straightforward enough for an IT team to deploy and operate across a 17,000-endpoint estate without specialist onboarding. |
| Cost and value | Enterprise-grade capabilities at a price point suited to an educational organization balancing its operational and IT investments. |
| Patch management and security capabilities | Automated patching and security coverage across five operating systems and a highly mixed device fleet. |
| Remote management and support | Reliable remote troubleshooting and support across multiple campuses and offsite locations. |
| Asset and software management | Centralized hardware and software inventory with license tracking and compliance reporting built in. |
| Automation and productivity | Policy-driven workflows and self-service tools to remove repetitive manual tasks from IT team workload. |
| Scalability and multi-site management | A platform capable of growing with the organization across 36 campuses and 17,000 endpoints. |
| Support and vendor trust | Confidence in ManageEngine's support and track record as a vendor. |
| Deployment flexibility | Options to deploy in a way that matched the Catholic Education Diocese of Bathurst's existing infrastructure and architecture. |
The Endpoint Central solution
After implementing Endpoint Central, the Catholic Education Diocese of Bathurst was able to centralize endpoint management, automate patching, streamline remote support, improve visibility across devices, and gain better control over software assets and compliance. The platform has become a core operational tool across seven key areas.
Automated patch management
Automated deployment of operating system and third-party application patches has significantly improved its security posture and reduced manual efforts by the IT team. Scheduling, testing, and compliance reporting are now streamlined across all managed devices. Devices that were previously falling behind on updates due to remote working or manual processes are now consistently patched, closing the security gaps that had previously left the organization exposed.
Remote desktop and troubleshooting
The remote support functionality is crucial for assisting users across campuses and remote locations. IT staff can troubleshoot issues, transfer files, and resolve incidents quickly without requiring physical access to devices, greatly reducing downtime. Traditional troubleshooting that once required multiple calls or on-site visits now gets resolved from a central console, with far less disruption to staff and students.
Software deployment and application management
Centralized software deployment enables the team to push applications, updates, and configuration changes efficiently to devices. This has improved consistency across the environment and simplified application life cycle management. It has also saved the IT team considerable time that was previously spent on manual, one-by-one software installations across a geographically spread estate.
Asset management and reporting
Hardware and software inventory tracking provides clear visibility into device status, installed applications, and license usage. This has improved compliance monitoring, auditing, and planning for renewals and upgrades. What was previously a largely manual and inaccurate process is now a live, centralized view of the full asset estate.
OS imaging and device provisioning
OS deployment and imaging capabilities help standardize device builds and accelerate onboarding of new devices. This has reduced setup time and improved consistency across staff and student endpoints. Rather than building each device from scratch, the team can apply a standard image and have a device ready for use far more quickly.
MDM for mobile devices
The MDM capabilities within Endpoint Central have significantly improved the way the Catholic Education Diocese of Bathurst manages, secures, and supports mobile devices across the organization. The team can now configure security settings, deploy Wi-Fi and email profiles, enforce passcode requirements, manage application access, and restrict unauthorized device features from a single platform.
From a security perspective, device encryption enforcement, remote lock and wipe capabilities, compliance monitoring, and application management capabilities empower the team to quickly take action when devices are lost, stolen, or non-compliant. Automated alerts and reporting make it easier to identify outdated or non-compliant devices and remediate issues before they become bigger problems.
"One of the biggest benefits has been the ability to enforce consistent device policies across both organization-owned and BYOD mobile devices. We are now able to configure security settings, deploy Wi-Fi and email profiles, enforce passcode requirements, manage application access, and restrict unauthorized device features from a single platform."
- Aathioli Sivaprakasam, IT Security Manager, Catholic Education Diocese of Bathurst
Results and impact
Since deploying Endpoint Central, the Catholic Education Diocese of Bathurst's IT team has seen improvements across every area of endpoint management:
| Challenges before | Outcomes after |
|---|---|
| Devices often not consistently updated due to remote working, offline status, or reliance on manual intervention. | Automated patch management schedules, tests, and reports compliance across all managed devices, with no manual intervention required. |
| Remote support delayed by the need for multiple calls, user interaction, or physical device access. | Remote desktop and troubleshooting tools enable IT staff to resolve incidents, transfer files, and assist users across all campuses and offsite locations without physical access. |
| BYOD and mixed-ownership devices creating inconsistent policy enforcement and security controls. | MDM capabilities enforce consistent security settings, Wi-Fi and email profiles, passcode requirements, and application access across both organization-owned and BYOD devices from a single platform. |
| Software license tracking largely manual with no reliable reporting for audits or planning. | Hardware and software inventory provides clear visibility into device status, installed applications, and license usage, improving compliance monitoring and renewal planning. |
| Manual software installation requests consuming IT team time and delaying user access. | Self-service application portal lets users install approved applications without IT assistance, reducing support tickets and routine service requests. |
| Device setup time and inconsistency across the estate due to no standardized imaging process. | OS imaging and automated provisioning standardize device builds and accelerate onboarding for staff and student endpoints. |
| Multiple disconnected tools with no single compliance or audit view. | Single platform with centralized reporting covering patch status, device configurations, software compliance, and license usage. |
One of the most measurable ROI outcomes from implementing Endpoint Central has been the reduction in IT support workload through the self-service application portal. Routine software deployment tasks that previously required manual effort are now automated or user-driven, enabling the IT team to focus more on strategic projects, security improvements, and higher-value operational tasks.
Because these capabilities scale across 17,000 endpoints without requiring additional IT headcount, the team is now able to support a much larger device and user base than would have been possible under the previous manual model.
"The automation and self-service capabilities have enabled the IT team to support a larger number of devices and users more efficiently without requiring additional staffing resources. ManageEngine Endpoint Central has improved operational efficiency, reduced repetitive support workload, and streamlined endpoint management processes."
- Aathioli Sivaprakasam, IT Security Manager, Catholic Education Diocese of Bathurst
Looking ahead
The Catholic Education Diocese of Bathurst has built a strong, scalable foundation for endpoint management with Endpoint Central. With automated patching, centralized MDM, a self-service application portal, OS imaging, and real-time asset visibility all running from a single platform, the IT team has moved from reactive, manual operations to proactive, policy-driven management across 36 campuses.
As the organization continues to grow its student population, staff numbers, and device estate, Endpoint Central gives the IT team the capacity to scale without proportional increases in workload. New devices are provisioned faster, software is deployed consistently, and compliance status is visible at any point without manual data gathering.
Features
Automated patch management
Remote troubleshooting
Self-service application portal
Results
- Automated patching across 17,000 endpoints with no manual intervention required.
- Remote support resolved across 36 campuses without physical device access.
- Self-service portal reduced support tickets and routine software installation requests.
- Single platform replaced multiple disconnected tools across a multi-OS environment.
