SXiQ implemented Microsoft Teams for Cross Roads Music School, enabling business continuity & continued learning for their 600 students & 6 staff.

“Microsoft Teams has enabled us to carry on teaching our 600 music students during Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.”

 Alphons Joseph, CEO, Founder – Cross Roads Music

After the Indian government banned the use of Zoom due to security concerns, SXiQ implemented Microsoft Teams for Cross Roads Music School, enabling business continuity & continued learning.

Background

Due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, Cross Roads Music, a large Tertiary Music School in India needed to find an online platform to continue teaching its 600 students and providing jobs for its 6 teachers. They had initially tested Zoom but after the Indian Government banned the use of Zoom over security concerns, Cross Roads needed a solution that was fast to implement, easy for their students to access without licenses, simple to use for their teachers and customisable for their unique teaching requirements.

With the help of Chander Ram, Intelligent Workplace Lead, SXiQ, Cross Roads Music has moved its entire school to Microsoft Teams, providing Students & Teachers with vital business continuity during Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.

The Challenge

• Covid 19 Lockdown restrictions in India required an online teaching model.
• Zoom was banned in India over security concerns.
• The Cross Roads Music School required a simple and license-free model for students to access learning.
• Required video teaching, curriculum file access & chat solution.

Due to Covid-19 Lockdown Restrictions in India, Cross Roads Music needed to quickly move to an online teaching model to remain in business.  They initially tried Zoom, but this was a limited solution as there was no integrated access to the curriculum materials, requiring students to work across multiple platforms.

Use of Zoom was then banned in India over security concerns, so the Cross Roads Music School needed to find an alternative cloud-based platform that could facilitate live video lessons with curriculum file storage and communication functionality

The Solution

• Implementation of Microsoft Teams solution.
• Quick set up time meant the whole solution was implemented over one weekend.
• Cross Roads Music School l can now schedule lessons, interact with students during live calls, access curriculum material, submit homework & chat in one platform.

Over one weekend, SXiQ Digital Lead Chander Ram implemented & configured Microsoft Teams for Cross Roads Music’s specific requirements.  Only 5 licenses were required to successfully operate the Music School with over 600 students.

The Cross Roads Music School values Teams’ functionality to operate as a ‘mini intranet’ with all relevant course curriculum & teaching materials available to teachers and students in one environment.

Lessons are now scheduled with both group and individual performers and the ease of use & no requirement to download the native app makes it simple for students to access lessons with no extra setup.

Teaching staff who are not necessarily IT savvy were trained on how to use Teams in a 2-hour training session.

The Results

• Teams is a vital business continuity tool for Cross Roads Music during the Covid 19 Crisis.
• The full adoption of Microsoft Teams for teaching by Teachers and students.
• Potential to now host live public performances, seminars and further teaching opportunities for the Cross Roads Music School to grow using Microsoft Teams.

The rapid implementation of Microsoft Teams by SXiQ has given Cross Roads Music business continuity during the Covid 19 crisis.  Full adoption by Teaching Staff & Students has excited the team for the future potential of this new way of working.

File storage and communication functionality provides a complete teaching platform, far exceeding other video calling platforms that were trialled in the past.

Ability to add Apps into Teams to support classes like OneDrive, SharePoint, Office apps, Forms, & Tasks is helping to manage the sessions.

Customer feedback

“We started using Teams and found so much support at an organisation level especially when the business goes in cloud mode. It really helped me to structure our sessions and classrooms in a new way.”

Download Cross Roads Music Teams Case Study here