At a Glance
Overview
Volusia County Schools uses Senturo alongside Intune, Jamf Pro, and Incident IQ to recover approximately 100 devices a month across its 90,000+ device fleet. Location history, timestamped sign-in data, and remote lock help the help desk investigate missing devices and coordinate returns. In one case, a device had been reported missing for 18 months. After the team remotely locked it, the student called within about five minutes to say they would return it.
About Volusia County Schools
- Location
- Volusia County, Florida
- Students and staff
- ~60,000 students, ~8,000 staff
- Number of devices
- 90,000+
- Operating systems
- Windows, macOS, iPadOS
- MDM stack
- Microsoft Intune, Jamf Pro
- Help desk ticketing
- Incident IQ
The Challenge
Volusia got devices into students’ hands fast during COVID, at a scale and speed no district had planned for. Years later, the help desk was still living with the aftermath: the inventory system could say what was checked out, but not where a device actually was, whether it was still in use, or who had really been signing into it. A return notification was an estimate, not a fact.
Some of the challenges we were facing were asset tracking, device management, device location, and device returns. During COVID, like most school districts, we had challenges getting devices to our students, and our inventory methods weren’t up to speed with the current need for device deployments. We were looking for a utility that would help us collect these devices.
Volusia found Senturo through its integration with Incident IQ, the ticketing system the team already uses every day. Incident IQ tells the team a device is missing. Senturo tells them where it is.
How Senturo Fits
Senturo deploys through what Volusia already runs: Intune for Windows, and Jamf Pro for macOS and iPadOS. Nothing changed about provisioning or assignment, and those tools remain the source of truth for device records. Senturo adds the missing layer — location history, timestamped sign-in data, recovery actions, and reporting.
The client auto-enrolls and installs when a device checks in, so rollout followed the district’s normal check-in cadence rather than requiring a separate touch on every machine. Enrollment isn’t a one-time push: any device that reconnects, whenever it reconnects, picks up the client and starts reporting.
As of the start of the current school year, Senturo runs across the district’s entire fleet — the first full year with coverage in place from day one.
For device management we use Intune and Jamf Pro, and it’s been a very seamless process to deploy Senturo across our fleet. The time frame is really for the devices to check in and receive the installation, so it’s been a very painless and streamlined process for our organization.
Reported Missing for 18 Months. A 5-Minute Response.
One device had been reported missing around 18 months earlier. It had checked in periodically during that time and was never offline long enough to be deprovisioned from Intune — but it remained on Volusia’s missing-device list.
When Volusia deployed Senturo, the team brought its existing missing devices into the platform and marked them as missing. After this device came online, Senturo alerted the team and provided the location and screenshot data they needed to investigate. They remotely locked the device — and within about five minutes, the student called to say they would return it.
The device had been reported missing about a year and a half earlier. When we deployed Senturo, we brought our existing missing devices into the platform and marked them as missing. Once this device came back online, we received a notification and were able to see the information we needed to act. We locked the device, and within about five minutes the student called us and said they would return it. After being reported missing for 18 months, we were able to recover it.
A device that had remained unresolved for 18 months was back in the return pipeline — with Senturo giving the help desk the visibility and remote action needed to recover it.
From “Assigned To” to “Actually Used By”
Inventory records show who a device is assigned to. Senturo shows who has actually been signing into it — a timestamped history pulled directly from the device. Volusia’s team regularly finds that the student using a device isn’t the student it was checked out to, so the sign-in history lets them send the return notification to the right person the first time, instead of chasing an assignment record that stopped being true months ago.
When a device is flagged, remote lock sits inside the recovery workflow rather than at the end of it. The team keeps several custom lock screens matched to the reason a device was flagged — overdue return, reported missing, end-of-year collection — and applies whichever fits. The device keeps reporting its location while locked, so securing it never means losing sight of it.
That lock is also how a large share of unreturned devices find their own way home. A device that was never checked back in gets locked; the next time a student opens it, the lock screen sends them to the help desk — where the team swaps it out and takes the original back into inventory. In the first three weeks of the current school year, that workflow was generating roughly 30 to 35 tickets a week: around 100 devices identified in three weeks.
Just at the start of this school year, the sheer number of devices we’ve gotten tickets and calls on to unlock them — and we’re able to unlock them on the fly. That’s been a pretty cool thing.
Beyond Recovery
The same layer handles the routine work of running a large take-home fleet. At the end of the school year, the team broadcasts return dates and requirements directly to student devices. The Cyber Security Team uses geofences and automated actions to flag when specific devices cross defined boundaries and need attention.
When a case needs to go further, location and device reports export as PDFs — a documented timeline the help desk can hand to school administration or, where the district deems it appropriate, other authorized parties. Escalation becomes a matter of attaching a report rather than reconstructing a story.
Results
- Approximately 100 devices recovered per month — devices the district doesn’t have to replace, repurposed and back in students’ hands.
- The pace is continuing into the new school year — roughly 30–35 locked-device cases a week in the first three weeks at full-fleet coverage, around 100 devices.
- A device recovered after 18 months offline, reporting its location as soon as it reconnected.
- Return notifications reaching the correct user, backed by timestamped sign-in history.
- Exportable PDF reporting for school administration and authorized escalation.
- 2 years of location and check-in history — far beyond native Intune/Azure retention.
Four months into the deployment, Sharp put a number on it:
In the four-month period that we’ve used Senturo, we’ve been able to recover approximately 100 devices a month, so that’s been significant savings for the district. Those are devices we don’t need to replace and be able to repurpose and reutilize, and it has been a benefit for our students.
District leadership has reached the same conclusion:
Senturo has been well worth the money.
Now Part of Volusia’s Recovery Workflow
Senturo is now part of the help desk’s standing process for device tracking and end-of-year returns. When a device is missing or due back, the team checks its location, sees who has been using it, and pulls the history they need to decide what happens next. Recovery has gone from a research project to a lookup — and Senturo’s numbers are now part of the help desk’s weekly reporting to the IT director.
Sharp describes the relationship with Senturo as a great partnership. Supporting a geographically dispersed district with a mixed-device environment gives Volusia a wide range of operational requirements, and the team regularly shares that feedback with Senturo. Those conversations have already helped shape product improvements and new functionality. With Senturo deployed across the fleet from the start of the school year, Volusia is continuing to build on the recovery process established during its initial rollout.
Key Features Used
- Auto-enrollment via MDM check-in
- Fleet map and device location
- Location history and timestamped sign-in reports
- Remote lock with custom lock screens (device keeps reporting while locked)
- Screenshots in Missing Mode (Windows/macOS)
- Broadcast messaging
- Geofencing and location-based automations
- Exportable PDF reporting
- Role-based access controls
FAQ
How does Senturo work with Google Admin, Intune, and Jamf Pro?
It works alongside all three rather than replacing any of them. The client deploys through Google Admin for Chromebooks, Intune for Windows, and Jamf Pro for macOS and iPadOS, installing on check-in, with those tools remaining the source of truth for device records. Senturo adds location history, sign-in data, remote lock, broadcasts, and policy automations on top.
Does Senturo integrate with Incident IQ?
Yes — at the asset level. Device location, status, and security actions are embedded directly into the Incident IQ asset records IT teams already work in, so a missing-device ticket and the device’s actual whereabouts live in the same place.
What happens with a device that has been offline for months?
Enrollment follows check-in, so a device that stays offline stays invisible until it reconnects. Because enrollment is not a one-time push, the moment the device comes back it installs the client and starts reporting — which is exactly how Volusia recovered a device that had been missing for 18 months.
What does Senturo add on Windows?
Location and network data that Intune and Azure don’t provide natively, remote lock with customizable lock screens, and considerably longer retention of location and check-in records.
How does Senturo handle student privacy?
Senturo tracks devices, not students. The platform reports on district-owned hardware — where it is, when it checked in, and which accounts have signed into it — as attributes of the device, not a profile of the student. Access to that data is controlled entirely by the district: role-based access determines who on the IT team sees what, retention periods are district-configured, and all data is hosted on US-based Azure infrastructure. Senturo is SOC 2 Type II certified.
Can reports be shared with administrators or other authorized parties?
Reports export as PDFs, allowing districts to share relevant device information with school administration or other authorized parties when the district determines it’s appropriate. Access, export, and escalation are controlled by the district under its own policies.
Which operating systems does Senturo support?
ChromeOS, Windows, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Android in one place, with integrations for Google Admin, Microsoft Intune, Jamf Pro, Cisco Meraki Systems Manager, and Incident IQ.