Overview
Located in Taree, NSW, MidCoast Christian College has grown significantly since its founding 40 years ago, recently surpassing 800 students. With strategic plans for expansion across the MidCoast region including Forster and beyond, the College needed comprehensive infrastructure changes to support this multi-campus vision while maintaining educational excellence.
Business Challenge
As MidCoast Christian College evolved from Taree Christian Community School to its current regional identity, it faced several infrastructure challenges:
- There were two Microsoft domains for the old and new identity leading to confusion for staff and students.
- Legacy Microsoft domain was designed for a single campus and could not efficiently support multi-campus operations.
- Staff were managing multiple login credentials across different platforms.
- Inconsistent digital branding resulting in a fragmented experience.
The College needed a unified approach that would support their new brand identity and growth strategy while enhancing security and ease of use.
“Our strategy is to reach more people across the entire MidCoast region. Having infrastructure tied to just the Taree name doesn’t work when we’re planning for regional expansion,” explains Adam Birkefeld.
The Solution – A Comprehensive Domain Migration Strategy
NetStrategy worked closely with MidCoast Christian College to implement a comprehensive domain migration and infrastructure modernisation strategy consolidating the following initiatives into a single, strategic project:
- Complete domain structure redesign transitioning from tareeccs.nsw.edu.au to mccc.nsw.edu.au across all systems, integrating with Microsoft Entra ID.
- Implementation of a standardised naming convention with a new device naming structure to accommodate multi-campus growth.
- URL standardisation by updating web addresses for key school platforms including TAS (Student Information System) and Schoolbox (Learning Management System).
- Comprehensive testing with thorough validation of all systems following migration.
To ensure success, NetStrategy partnered with Microsoft to validate the NetStrategy approach before implementation. “Having that external validation from Microsoft experts gave us confidence in NetStrategy’s proposed approach,” notes Birkefeld.
The project was meticulously planned with weekly status meetings and precise scheduling of work to minimise disruption, with critical changes implemented during the six-week Christmas break.
Benefits
“NetStrategy helped us build an IT infrastructure that supports our vision for growth while making life easier for our staff and students. The domain migration has
eliminated confusion, improved our security posture, and given us confidence that we’re ready to expand to multiple campuses. Their technical expertise and careful planning ensured that this complex project was completed with minimal disruption to our core mission of teaching and learning.” Mr Birkefeld says.
The domain migration has transformed MidCoast Christian College’s technology foundation, resulting in a unified digital identity that removes login confusion and ensures consistent branding across all platforms. This strategic initiative created a scalable infrastructure that perfectly supports the College’s multi-campus expansion strategy, with the new naming convention making it simple to identify and manage technology assets across multiple locations.
Perhaps most importantly, the consolidated domain structure has significantly strengthened the college’s security posture, making the entire environment easier to manage and secure as the College continues its ambitious growth trajectory across the MidCoast region.
Partnering with NetStrategy
“What seemed like a technical infrastructure project has actually delivered meaningful educational and administrative benefits across our entire school community,” concludes Birkefeld. “We’re now well positioned to continue our growth while providing the best possible experience for our students and staff.”
By partnering with NetStrategy, MidCoast Christian College was able to modernise its digital identity and
IT infrastructure while supporting their educational mission and future growth plans. Weekly project updates kept stakeholders informed throughout the process, and NetStrategy’s education-specific expertise helped the College leverage technology to create a more consistent, secure, and scalable digital environment.
