Wilton Community Schools: How a Two-Person IT Team Cut 98% of Support Tickets

Wilton Community Schools: How a Two-Person IT Team Cut 98% of Support Tickets and Got Three Years of Budget Certainty. 

“We’re very happy with Vivi. It has really cut down the IT calls a lot. I have had all kinds of compliments from teachers about the fact that it doesn’t keep cutting out in the middle of their lesson. That has all gone away.” 

— Justin Marston, Technology Director, Wilton Community School District 

Executive Summary 

At Wilton Community School District two people run IT for the whole operation. Marston is the Technology Director. Dennis Pluym is the Technology Specialist. Together, they run IT for the entire district across two buildings and roughly 965 students. When it came time to replace their aging Airtame system, they were direct about what mattered: it had to work on the devices Wilton actually runs, cost what it cost without surprises, and not flood them with support calls. 

They evaluated their options, ran a structured pilot with Vivi, and made the call. Dennis deployed 77 units across both buildings himself. Justin locked in three years of predictable flat-fee pricing. Support tickets tied to wireless issues dropped significantly. Teachers stopped getting cut off mid-lesson. Digital signage is live and expanding. Crisis response integration with Raptor is staged for this summer. 

At Wilton Community School District, Vivi delivers: 

• Wireless sharing across every display and device the district already owns 
• Unified campus communications, signage, and screen sharing on one platform 
• Measurable cost savings, IT efficiency, and budget predictability 

Where They Started: Aging Hardware, Unmet Expectations, and a Search for Better 

Wilton had been running on the same wireless sharing platform for five years. The units required daily restarts to stay functional. When something went wrong, support was overseas, and a response could take 24 hours. When the time came for a replacement decision and the incumbent was not aligned with their real needs. 

“We had to restart them every morning if we wanted to work all day. They wanted us to pay extra to schedule the restarts, even though their product was buggy and needed to restart. That should have been in their core product. That’s why we left. Plain and simple… Vivi hasn’t had any of those problems. That has all gone away.” 

— Dennis Pluym, Technology Specialist 

IFPs weren’t the answer either. 

Wilton had also looked at interactive panels over the years. They have a few. The story has been consistent: high cost, significant training investment, and teacher adoption that never materialized. The district’s teachers work from short-throw Epson laser projectors on large whiteboards. They project, they annotate, and that’s what works for them. An IFP doesn’t change that. 

“With interactive flat panels, we do not get the adoption. Period. They are not worth the money for us. It’s a lot of money and a lot of training to waste. What teachers prefer is to take a PDF, project it up there, and write over it. That’s what they love. And Vivi allows them to do that, and more if they want.” 

— Dennis Pluym, Technology Specialist 

Vivi runs on every projector and TV already in place. No new hardware. No refresh cycle. The displays Wilton already owns got more useful, not more expensive. 

The Cost Case: Predictability, Value, and No Hidden Fees 

For Justin Marston, evaluating a new platform isn’t just about what it costs at the start. It’s about what it costs over time, what happens when something goes wrong, and whether the pricing model respects the reality of a K-12 budget that isn’t growing. 

“My budget’s not growing, and everything else is going up. It seems like K-12 education is the first place they start taking money from. Don’t nickel and dime me, because that will be the time I look for something else.” 

— Justin Marston, Technology Director 

The previous provider had charged extra for a scheduling feature that existed specifically to manage a reliability problem in their own product. Justin had no interest in repeating that experience. 

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a dollar for 300,000 years — it’s not worth it if it doesn’t support the products we have.” 

— Justin Marston, Technology Director 

What Vivi offered was the inverse of that: a flat fee, a multi-year contract, and annual payment options that fit how school districts actually manage cash flow. 

“It’s a flat fee, we sign a contract, I know for 3 years what I’m paying, and I don’t have to worry about it. That, I do appreciate. And it’s nice to have payment options, if you want to pay every year on that 3-year contract, it helps so that you don’t wipe your budget out in one year. That messes districts up — they just can’t afford one lump sum.” 

— Justin Marston, Technology Director 

Justin also noted that Vivi has continued adding features without turning them into separate line items. That matters to a Technology Director who has watched other vendors use platform momentum as an opportunity to charge more. 

“I love that you’ve at least not stopped innovating. Keep doing what you’re doing.” 

— Justin Marston, Technology Director 

 When the Platform Does Its Job and IT Teams Feel Direct Relief 

Dennis Pluym does everything himself. He runs cable, mounts hardware, handles installs, and fields the support calls when something isn’t working. Before Vivi, a meaningful portion of his day was spent managing around a platform that required constant intervention. That burden is gone now. 

98% fewer support tickets. 

The shift in support volume after deployment was the clearest signal that the switch had worked. 

“It’s cut down my calls considerably. If we had about 100 tickets a month, we’d get down to 2. And most of them are simple things, not really a Vivi issue, more of a user issue or a Chrome update, which has nothing to do with you.” 

— Justin Marston, Technology Director 

Teachers stopped getting dropped mid-lesson. 

The most consistent feedback from teachers hasn’t been about new capabilities. It’s been about the absence of the old problem. 

“We’ve heard several compliments about no more lag. They would get dropped and disconnected and have to reconnect. Vivi hasn’t had any of those problems. It doesn’t keep cutting out and stop working in the middle of their thing. That has all gone away.” 

— Justin Marston, Technology Director 

Teachers picked it up on their own. 

Dennis ran a structured pilot before committing to a full rollout, specifically choosing his most demanding users on both ends of the tech comfort spectrum. 

“We picked our very pickiest teachers, tech literate and not tech literate. If I can get those two groups to work, I know we’re not going to have any issues. There was really nothing to learn. It was intuitive enough, they could figure it out. We basically could just throw it and say, here, you push that button, and they figured the rest out on their own.” 

— Dennis Pluym, Technology Specialist 

 What Wilton Built: Campus Communications That Actually Reach People 

With the infrastructure stable and the IT load reduced, Wilton’s use of Vivi has expanded across both buildings. Wireless sharing is the core, but it’s not the whole picture. 

Signage across both buildings. 

Digital signage was already underway across several displays when this conversation happened. By end of summer, every screen in both buildings will be on Vivi, putting campus communications on every surface students pass through. 

“We already have some digital signage going on right now. All of them will be by the end of the summer.” 

— Dennis Pluym, Technology Specialist 

Visitors and guests can present without calling IT. 

For outside presenters arriving on unmanaged devices, Dennis solved the problem with Vivi’s browser-based access and a printed card. The librarians handle it. IT never gets the call. 

“It’s also nice that we have something you don’t have to download. You can go to a website, so for our people that come in to the school and don’t have admin rights, they can still go to a website, give them a code, and then they can broadcast for presenting. We made a little printout that we give to the two librarians so they don’t have to contact us at all. If someone comes in: here’s the passcode, here’s the web address, go.” 

— Dennis Pluym, Technology Specialist 

Every display. Every device. Every visitor. One platform. 

“Every display, regardless, is going to have a Vivi on it.” 

— Dennis Pluym, Technology Specialist 

 What’s Next 

Crisis response integration with Raptor is coming online this summer. The Wilton IT team is staging it deliberately, getting Raptor stood up first and connecting Vivi on the back end once it’s ready. Visual emergency alerts across every display in both buildings will be the result. 

“We’re trying to get into Raptor, and that’s coming this summer, and then we will connect Vivi to Raptor for visual emergency alerts.” 

— Dennis Pluym, Technology Specialist 

Beyond that, Justin’s message to Vivi is straightforward. 

“I love that you’ve at least not stopped innovating. Just don’t nickel and dime me, and keep doing what you’re doing.” 

— Justin Marston, Technology Director