Darryl Vidal, VP of San Diego-based solution provider Networld Solutions Inc., has released his second book, "Vision: The First Critical Step in Developing a Strategy for Educational Technology." It's intended to be a definitive guide for K-12 school administrators and educators. Technology is tremendously important to school districts across the country, but if it's not approached properly, it can become an expensive waste of time. Vidal, a 20-year education tech industry veteran says there's real opportunity for solution providers and resellers to carve a niche for themselves in the education vertical, but it requires breaking away from the straight sales mentality and taking a consulting approach to the wants and needs of school districts. He spoke with itbestofbreed.com recently.

How competitive is the education space?
If you're a straight reseller, it's very competitive. Resellers can work that to their advantage if they understand how the process works. We're a services only company. It's much more focused and specialized, but at the same time, in the strategic planning niche, there is an opportunity there, and some resellers are at the lower level of tech stack, they're more focused on product, and they don't recognize the need for the strategic planning piece.

Once you've recognized the need for strategic planning, how do you capitalize on it?
You need to find the right person with the experience base and the consultative approach. Focus on using methodology. IT methodology, planning methodology when you approach an opportunity. In education, there's a large disparity in types of school districts. There are behemoths and one-man shows, but they lack program management or strategic planning when it comes to technology.

How can solution providers penetrate the K-12 market?
Penetrate connotes a mass market, and strategic planning is much more focused. It's local, or regional. You'll see smaller guys like me out there, and you'll see some bigger companies that have some really smart guys, but they can get off the strategy and get into implementation.

How fast is the K-12 landscape changing?
The pace of change is just as fast as the consumer market. Those devices are just coming into the schools. You're already doing BYOD. That's not strategic. It's changing quickly. On the back end, it's still the traditional side of the house. It takes longer. All monies need to be balanced. If you put all money into devices, you won't put any into infrastructure and nothing will work. Resellers need to separate themselves from selling product and ask, what does the district need to focus on? If it's a data center, there's not just one vendor that's going to be involved in that.

What are the K-12 market's biggest challenges?
The biggest challenge is not being device-centric. I contend that the needs change day by day, so why does the school district want to buy you a device that's probably not going to be as good as the devices (students) already have? Are teachers being trained to evolve the curriculum to make the best use of these devices? Another consultant might have an education background, but that person would hand that to me and we'd build the network accordingly. If I can define what that classroom needs tomorrow, I should be able to deploy that tech to that classroom rather than just splattering technology all over the place. Let's use common core, let's use curriculum mapping to procure based on a need and have an IT staff that's really a deployment team rather than a repair team.

That sounds like a challenge to resellers, too.
It's applicable, because when you're affecting 2500, or 25,000 students, from a reseller's standpoint, they have an opportunity to mitigate that through the strategic standpoint, but not if they're just looking to sell product. Does the district have everything they need to make the program work? Can they help deploy, help support after the fact? Can they get involved in IT support? Professional development? There's a lot of opportunity out there rather than just reselling and IT deployment.

Are solution providers in this vertical limited by geography?
If there's a breadth of services, you can do this anywhere, but you can't just say we're going to do consulting. You have to have that guy. The first step is to identify and develop a talent pool that can do that.

Why did you decide to start writing books?
I've been working in this field for close to 20 years. I noticed that in every district I go to, I find myself repeating the same things. I partnered with Mike Casey, who's had a career in the classroom, and as an IT director, to bring forward some really credible experiences. There's not enough focus on planning and strategy for technology. Vision is often assumed. People start doing strategic planning assuming we all have the same vision, and that means you've got the cart before the horse right from the get-go.