Avoiding Potential Failures with Better Teamwork
School safety relies on more than strong infrastructure. From mass notification systems and access control to panic buttons and surveillance tools, the technology used to protect students and staff is only as effective as the teams deploying and managing it.
Yet, in too many schools and districts, there’s a disconnect between the people responsible for implementing those technologies (IT teams) and those who rely on them in an emergency (school safety personnel, administrators, and emergency responders).
The result? Slower deployments, inefficient tools, poor user adoption—and ultimately, systems that may fail when they’re needed most.
In this blog, we’ve outlined a playbook with six ways to strengthen collaboration between IT and safety teams so schools can deploy smarter, faster, and more effective safety solutions.
1. Define Shared Goals Up Front
One of the most common breakdowns between IT and safety teams is a lack of aligned objectives. IT may prioritize cybersecurity, system uptime, and ease of maintenance, while safety leaders focus on usability, speed of communication, and emergency-specific functionality.
Start with a shared conversation about goals:
- What outcomes matter most during a crisis?
- Who needs to be notified and how quickly?
- What kind of data does each team need access to?
- What are the compliance and privacy considerations?
By agreeing on outcomes before selecting or deploying tools, both teams can move forward with mutual clarity and accountability.
2. Create Cross-Functional Project Teams
Successful deployments don’t happen in silos. When IT and safety teams work together from day one, they can evaluate solutions through multiple lenses: security, usability, scalability, and operational fit.
Consider creating a formal project team that includes:
- IT directors or system admins
- School Resource Officers or other campus safety leaders
- Principals or district-level administrators
- Facilities managers
- Front office staff (often the first to use visitor management or notification systems)
This ensures broad input, shared ownership, and fewer surprises at launch.
3. Evaluate Technology Together
Procurement is often where misalignment shows up most clearly. IT might lean toward systems that offer clean APIs and easy integrations, while safety teams prioritize tools that are simple and intuitive in high-stress scenarios.
During vendor evaluations, involve both groups in:
- Hands-on demos
- Scenario-based testing (e.g., lockdown simulations)
- Usability evaluations across devices and user roles
- Integration assessments with existing infrastructure
The right technology will check all the boxes: easy to deploy, secure, user-friendly, and reliable under pressure.
4. Prioritize Systems That Break Down Silos
Too often, safety technology is piecemeal—one for panic buttons, one for PA systems, another for mass text messaging. These disconnected tools create friction, especially when every second counts.
Unified platforms that bring together mass notification, access control, panic alerts, and incident management in one system benefit everyone:
- IT gains a single point of control and simpler maintenance.
- Safety teams get faster workflows and fewer tools to learn.
- Administrators avoid redundant spending and reduce training time.
Look for systems that are built to interoperate—not bolt-ons that create more silos.
5. Align on Training and Testing Protocols
Technology is only as effective as the people using it. That means both IT and safety teams need to be aligned on training plans, testing cadences, and day-to-day responsibilities.
Collaborate to answer questions like:
- Who is responsible for configuring alert templates?
- How often will drills be run, and what systems will be tested?
- What does onboarding look like for new staff?
- Who updates procedures and software as needs evolve?
When both teams are involved in training, they can reinforce each other’s priorities: threat awareness, tool familiarity, emergency readiness, and process consistency.
6. Make Collaboration Ongoing, Not One-Time
Deploying safety technology isn’t a one-and-done task. It requires updates, policy changes, user feedback, and evolving threats.
Make collaboration between IT and safety teams part of an ongoing process:
- Schedule regular check-ins to review performance and address issues.
- Share insights from drills, support tickets, and real-world incidents.
- Coordinate on long-term planning and budget cycles.
When both teams see each other as partners in success—not just occasional collaborators—technology becomes a true enabler of safer schools.
Shared Responsibility, Shared Success
There’s no such thing as a purely “IT tool” or a “safety tool” when it comes to protecting schools. Communication platforms, visitor management systems, access controls, and notification software all rely on strong technical foundations and clear operational strategies.
By aligning early, evaluating together, and committing to ongoing collaboration, school leaders can ensure their investments in safety technology actually deliver on their promise: creating a secure, responsive environment where students and staff can thrive.
Visit our InformaCast page to see how our mass notification and incident management tool can benefit safety and IT teams.