Ensure that your students, teachers, and staff can always login to Active Directory using automation with xdAD.

It is not easy to manage hundreds and thousands of accounts in Active Directory. Most districts have a mobility rate in their student body of at least 30%, making management of student accounts difficult and time consuming for the IT staff.

School enter the data about students and staff into their Student Information and Human Resource systems. Typically as staff on-boards and off-boards, the information about the teachers and staff is manually passed from the HR team to the IT staff for account management. More often than not, IT staff is delayed in setting up new accounts and de-activating old accounts. This leads to problems with staff being able to login when they should and former staff that can still login when they shouldn’t. When users can login when they are no longer employed or login to the wrong location, the district’s security policies are at risk.

With student accounts, the number of accounts IT staff has to manage is enormous. In a business situation, managing a few thousand accounts means that there are dozens of IT staff taking care of them. In K-12 education, this is not the case. Managing thousands of student accounts without any sort of automation in nearly impossible with a limited number of IT staff. When you add password resetting and group management, IT staff can quickly become overwhelmed with support tickets and issues.

xdAD - Active Directory Identity Management for K-12 Education - CPSI

CPSI helps districts overcome these difficult challenges. We built xdAD from the ground up just for education. Our identity management solution collects data from the Student Information and the Human Resource systems in real time and automates the management of Active Directory accounts from that data.

With CPSI, all of the school and district staff can be confident that they will always be able to login to Active Directory on nearly any device and computer in the district. xdAD empowers IT staff at districts with the tools needed to manage an automated Active Directory.

xdAD - Active Directory Identity Management for K-12 Education - CPSI

Manage user accounts in AD with tools designed to meet the needs of education.

Unlike businesses using Active Directory, districts have thousands of student accounts to manage as well as administrative and teaching staff accounts. The average US district has a mobility rate of over 30%. Without a way to leverage the data in the SIS and HR systems and automate the user account management in AD, IT staff spends way too much time and energy on basic account management. xdAD gives IT staff an easy and fast way to manage all of the user accounts, home directories, group assignments, profiles and more.

Group management does not have to be difficult and time consuming.

Group management is an essential part of an Active Directory implementation, but with the overwhelming quantity of groups to manage, it is difficult for IT staff to keep accounts up-to-date in the correct groups. xdAD gives IT staff the ability to automate group management based on rules and data elements – such as role, job code, location, last name, and more.

xdAD - Active Directory Identity Management for K-12 Education - CPSI
xdAD - Active Directory Identity Management for K-12 Education - CPSI

Integrating Office 365 and Google Apps with AD doesn’t have to take extra time.

Working between physical hardware and cloud based systems can be challenging, especially with a district’s limited resources. xdAD fully integrates with cloud based platforms such as Office 365 and Google Apps. With xdAD, user accounts in the cloud will be managed automatically. xdAD also fully integrates with Microsoft Exchange.

Every user needs to sign an Acceptable Use Policy. How do you manage it?

Every district is required to have and manage an Acceptable Use Policy for each network user. Managing this process on paper is cumbersome. xdAD manages the process for you. Staff and students sign the online AUP before they are allowed to access the district’s network. xdAD also provides full auditing so districts can track AUP signatures easily.

xdAD - Active Directory Identity Management for K-12 Education - CPSI
xdAD - Active Directory Identity Management for K-12 Education - CPSI

You need a safe and secure self-service password reset tool for users.

IT staff at districts spend a lot of time managing passwords in Active Directory. When students cannot login due to forgotten passwords, teachers waste precious classroom time. With xdAD, users are given a safe and secure web interface to reset their own passwords saving time for the district IT staff.

There is always an exception to the rules. Manage exceptions easily with xdAD.

In districts, there are always users that have special privileges based on their job position. Often times, administrators need particular access outside of their job code position. Certain teachers with additional duties also fall into a user type that may need to be added to groups that are not part of their automated context. xdAD provides IT staff with an easy to use interface to make managing users by exception easy and fast.

xdAD - Active Directory Identity Management for K-12 Education - CPSI

Automate your AD Easily

Automate your AD accounts, home directories, groups and so much more.

Easy AD Automation

Automate user management with data from your SIS and HR system.

Get Ready for SSO in Your District

Prepare for SSO by automating AD in your district for staff and students.

SSO Starts with AD

A standardized and automated AD is vital to any SSO implementation.

Exchange, Google Apps, and Office 365

Integrate AD for automated mailbox creation locally or in the cloud.

Integrate with the Cloud

Automate Exchange, Google Apps, and Office 365 accounts.

Self-service self-healing AD Tools

Self-healing and self-service tools make xdAD a unique and powerful toolset.

Automatic self-healing and self-service

xdAD self-heals accounts as well as offering self-service password capabilities.

Learn More About xdAD

Designed from the ground up over the last 20 years with input from teachers, technology coordinators, IT staff, and school administrators, xdAD is an easy-to-use Active Directory management toolset that meets the intense needs of education. With xdAD, districts can easily automate and manage network accounts, users and computers, home directories, groups, and more from a single web-based interface.

With xdAD, automating user account management is simple and easy – saving the district both time and money. Easily manage account deactivations, creation and updates. Manage security and distribution groups automatically using rules created by district IT staff. Home directories can be created based on student grade or staff location. Allow school-based IT staff to share the load and manage their own individual schools. Automate any AD attribute, including custom attributes, to prepare the district for SSO.

  • Standardize the Active Directory using templates
  • Web-based user interface that is mobile friendly
  • Full support for Windows tablets running Windows 8.1 or higher on the network
  • Full support for Office 365, Google Apps, and Exchange
  • Supports state level WS-Federation model
  • Manage mobility with ease through automation
  • Automate the user management of student and staff accounts
  • Supports standards such as SIF for integration
  • Manages account activation, updates and deactivation
  • Manage groups using rules based on the data – including job codes, location, and last name letter
  • Create conventions for usernames and passwords with the ability to use different settings for student and staff accounts
  • Home directories can be created based on student and staff location so users are placed in the correct OU on the specified server
  • Home directories can move with the users as they change locations or assignments
  • Easily manage graduating students – xdAD automatically moves students into a “graduated” container based on their grade and school location.
  • Self-service account activation for students and staff
  • Users can reset their own passwords through a secure web site hosted at the district
  • Optional Acceptable Use Policy component with full auditing functionality
  • Manage users by exception easily
  • Automatic self-healing functions “fix” user accounts that may have been manually changed by accident
  • Managing users with multiple assignments allows for users to have one account even when the user has multiple grades or job locations
  • Automatically propagate any Active Directory attribute, including custom attributes
  • Use your already-created AD structure or easily create a new one