To Keep School Networks Safe, Within Budget, Internet Filtering Company Partners with FirstCorp

 

For More Information on how FirstCorp can Benefit Your Vendor Business, Contact:

Brian Cascarano
Vice President of Marketing
(847) 663-6700

bcascarano@
ifccredit.com
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FirstCorp Vendor Programs

Call: 800-554-4432
Or, visit our website at:
www.firstcorp.com

There are two large websites for the White House that live on the internet. 
One is the official site of the Bush Presidency (www.whitehouse.gov), and contains a wealth of information on the administration’s work in everything from Health Care to Homeland Security. For a student doing a report on Government, this site is a definitive resource for understanding current policy.
The other White House site (www.whitehouse.org) is quite different. It is a lampooning of the government, laced with adult-only language and topics, compromising images of the administration, and a special “kids-only” section which describes, among other things, how to properly smoke cigarettes.  For a student doing a report on Government, visiting this site could cause quite a shock, not to mention disciplinary action from a passing-by adult.
So, a quick question: When you have a classroom with 30 students, and one of them searches for “White House” on a school computer, which one will they find?
The answer depends on whether the school has an open, unmonitored connection to the internet, or is using an internet filtering appliance.
An internet filtering appliance is a server which provides a database of millions of Web sites, organized by nearly 100 categories that can be blocked. This server, which sits outside of the school network, can look at and quickly block any traffic which meets certain criteria from being accessed on the school computers.
Look for the White House with one of these installed, and instead of finding both results in your top 3 with no easily discernable way to tell which is the real site and which is the adult-oriented parody, only the real website will appear.  Search for the keyword “Alcohol” on Google, and it will return a message that you are not allowed to search that word.  Want to make class go by faster by sitting on Instant Messenger, chatting with friends?  With an internet filter appliance installed, you won’t be able to connect.
With a way of “taming” the wild that is the internet, these server-software filtering packages provide a tremendous amount of benefit to a learning environment.  Because of that, school districts across the country have big demand for these solutions.
Unfortunately, there is a roadblock to the district getting the internet filters.  As a leading manufacturer of the appliances found, they can be difficult for the district to acquire.
Most of the difficulty revolves around the pricing of the products and school budget concerns, which create situations where districts can not afford to purchase the solutions.  Often, filtering server manufacturers charge a hefty fee for one year of service.  Without service, the list of blocked websites will not stay current and the filtering will become ineffective. Most manufacturers also want payment for that year up-front, causing an immediate drain on capital and a budget headache for district administrators. And even if they are able to allocate the budget for it in one year, the administrators have to worry about the burden in the following year, when they will again have to make a large balloon payment, at a price that could increase.
Realizing this problem, a leading manufacturer of internet filtering products began to search for a financing partner to ease the capital burden on school districts.  Though they had many requirements for a partner, at the top of their list was flexibility. They wanted a lender who could quickly tailor custom payment structures to match the needs of individual district budgets, while at the same time providing the non-appropriations leases that municipalities require.  They also wanted custom rate-quoting tools, with flexible options built-in, to aid in their sales presentations. And they wanted a partner that would be available and involved on a regular basis, to allow them to constantly tap a wealth of financial knowledge to better tailor their offerings.
Their search ended when they learned of FirstCorp. Shortly after their first call, Mark Kasal, Business Development Manager at Firstcorp, arrived at the company’s headquarters to demonstrate the tools and solutions that would allow the company to create highly flexible and customized financial offerings for their products.
A short time later, that flexibility was put to the test. One particular school district was interested in the manufacturer’s internet filtering appliance, but was out of funds for the current year. One call from the manufacturer to FirstCorp, and a solution was crafted where the district would get the filtering appliances and service immediately, but not make any payments until next year’s budget went through.  It was win-win deal; the manufacturer was able to make the sale of their equipment and services, and the district was able get the technology they needed while bypassing the current budget limitations.
In the months ahead, various school districts presented numerous budgeting requirements and obstacles, each needing a flexible and customized payment structure to overcome.  Before, the manufacturer would have been shut out, with the districts wanting their services but not being able to fit them into the budget.  Now, with FirstCorp, the manufacturer can listen to the unique challenges of each district, and present to them a payment structure that makes sense.
With budgeting concerns defeated and non-appropriations leases in-hand, the school districts are happy to have the equipment they need to provide a safe online environment for their students.  With over $200,000 in equipment financed, and much more on the way, the manufacturer is glad they found the right partner in FirstCorp. 
At FirstCorp, we are presented with situations like this every day, and every day we create the flexible solutions to make business transactions possible. So, the next time you’re online, searching for an equipment leasing provider and coming up with mixed results, filter out the hassle, and come to FirstCorp.