The Total Economic Impact™ Of Chromebooks In Education

Avoided Legacy Hardware And Peripheral Costs

Evidence and data. All interviewees found that Chromebooks cost their organizations less per device than the legacy devices they had either used in the past or had compared in their own business case. While the exact device price point varied by educational group, Chromebooks were found to be at most half as expensive as a comparable legacy device for students and teachers alike.

• In addition to being purchased at a lower cost, educational decision-makers found that Chromebooks lasted longer than the legacy devices they had previously used. Interviewees attributed this in part to the cloud-based nature of Chromebooks and that hardware requirements did not change significantly over time.
  
  The director of strategic partnerships at an EMEA school trust said: “If we bought a [legacy tablet] and a Chromebook on the same day, I reckon that the Chromebook would get at least five times as much use. You can use a Chromebook all day, every day and they're still going strong. On the other hand, for some of those [legacy tablets], you get a new update after two and a half years and they go to a halt.”
• Interviewees noted that when comparing devices at a similar price point, Chromebooks significantly outperformed alternative choices in terms of performance and functionality. For instance, the district edtech coordinator of a North American school district mentioned that a $400 legacy device would not perform up to required standards and would likely inhibit student performance, but a $400 Chromebook would easily meet these standards. For this reason, internal business cases for Chromebooks never considered price between Chromebooks and legacy devices to be the same.
  
  The district edtech coordinator of a North American K-12 school district said: “You can get a [legacy] device for almost the same price as a Chromebook, but it's like comparing a base model to a souped-up model. Why not get the souped-up Chromebook with a touchscreen for the same price as the stripped-down [legacy] machine?”
• In addition, Chromebooks did not need the additional keyboards or other accessories that legacy tablets often required, further reducing their relative cost.
  
  The technology integration specialist of a North American K-12 school district said, “We tried [legacy tablets] as an experiment, but they had a huge flaw, especially with the older students. They needed a keyboard to write their papers and essays. So, it’s not just the price point with Chromebooks that’s lower, but that fact that it has a usable keyboard.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• This benefit quantifies the avoided purchase of legacy devices for 30,000 students and 1,200 teachers.
• In the previous environment, students need legacy devices replaced every three years while teachers need devices replaced every four years.
• Additional legacy devices are purchased for students for spares and new student transfers. The number of additional legacy devices purchased each year is equal to five percent of the total student population.
• Student legacy devices cost $600 each and legacy devices for teachers cost $1,250 each.
• The average student requires an additional $10 in peripherals for the legacy devices. This amount accounts for additional keyboards and trackpads for students using legacy tablets.

Risks. Forrester recognizes that these results may not be representative of all experiences and that the impact may vary depending on several factors:

• The cost of legacy devices, and their replacement rate, will vary by region, grade, and school budget.
• The number of students who require peripheral devices, such as keyboard and trackpads, will similarly vary across schools.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 0%, yielding a five-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $28 million.

Easier Management For Chromebook Environment

Evidence and data. Chromebooks were significantly easier for IT groups to deploy and manage because much of the labor was automated and performed at scale through Google’s ChromeOS device management service. The saved labor, software, and hardware resources could instead be focused on improving the school’s environment and completing new initiatives instead of basic management and maintenance of endpoint devices.

• A school district in North America was able to support over 12,000 students and Chromebooks with just five IT FTEs spending a portion of their time on device management. Interviewees from the school district estimated that if each student had a legacy laptop instead, the IT group would need to double or triple in size to manage those devices.
• A school system in APAC was able to reduce the amount of time on device management from 420 hours per year for legacy devices to under 5 hours for Chromebooks, which is equivalent to nearly a 99% reduction. Much of this improvement was attributed to Chromebooks not requiring regular updates for local systems and infrastructure.
• Some schools found that Chromebook management through Chrome Education Upgrade device management was so simple that IT no longer needed to be involved with them on a day-to-day basis and the work could be absorbed by other departments. This freed IT groups up for more technical and higher-value work.
  
  The district edtech coordinator of a North American K-12 school district said: “Our IT department does not touch a single Chromebook in our district. We're at 15,000 devices and our IT department does nothing with Chrome. It's all managed by our student program. It's a super easy program to manage.” The same interviewee also said: “I can't even imagine how many more people you would need to manage in a [legacy] environment because they're high maintenance.” Management is 100 times easier in Chrome[OS] than [legacy], for sure.”
  
  The director of information and instructional technology of a North American K-12 school district said: “When we got Chromebooks, we could literally roll out 5,000 of them in a week. And 90% of that week was just the logistics of how you get these in the hands of kids. On the other hand, it took us two to three months over a fall quarter when we tried to roll out 1,200 [legacy devices].”
  
  A school district in North America received 50% fewer support tickets after moving to Chromebooks compared to when each student had a legacy device.
• Additionally, some IT groups found that they were required to buy additional software and even hardware to manage legacy devices. IT groups already had low budgets and struggled with this additional burden. By moving to Chromebooks, these IT groups no longer needed to buy extra software or hardware and could reallocate that budget elsewhere.
  
  The director of information and instructional technology of a North American K-12 school district said: “Another issue with [legacy tablets] is that we couldn't scale them. We tried to use [legacy management software], but now you had to buy an additional expensive device to use it.”
• IT groups appreciated that they could support thousands of Chromebooks without requiring additional headcount. This was especially important as many leaders had already been told that they would not be given more funding for additional IT staff.
  
  The director of information and instructional technology of a North American K-12 school district said: “Commercial companies can look at their bottom line and say I need to hire more IT staff. Education is not like that; we need to develop these programs with the people and budget we have. You know what Google's done? They give us an inexpensive device that just works all the time and has a way to manage 20,000 to 30,000 of them.”
  
  The director of strategic partnerships for an EMEA K-12 school trust said: “We've also saved in terms of staffing. When IT technicians are on the ground, they're very rarely working on the Chromebooks because they can all be managed for remotely.”
• IT groups also saved time registering new students into their school system, which especially helped at the beginning of each new school year.
  
  The director of information and instructional technology of a North American K-12 school district said: “Everything is integrated into Google Classroom. This gives us the ability to get students all set up within 24 hours of registering into our district. They have a Google account, they're in Google Classroom, they're registered in classes and have everything they need. This is all completely automated. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to automate in a [legacy] ecosystem.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite school employs 25 IT staff whose primary responsibility is to deploy and manage legacy devices for its 30,000 students and 1,200 teachers.
• IT staff are paid a fully burdened annual salary of $72,000.
• IT staff save 76% of their time deploying and managing student and teacher devices as Chromebooks require significantly less manual effort.
• IT staff gradually save more time as more students and teachers move to Chromebooks over a three-year period.
• These time savings allow the equivalent of six IT staff to manage all student and teacher Chromebooks, as opposed to the 25 IT staff who were required to manage legacy student and teacher devices. The equivalent of 19 IT staff are then free to work on higher-value projects for the composite school.

Risks. Forrester recognizes that these results may not be representative of all experiences and that the impact may vary depending on several factors:

• While interviewees consistently reported significant time savings deploying and managing Chromebooks, the amount of time varied depending on whether all students and teachers transitioned away from legacy devices. Schools who maintained some legacy devices generally realized less IT efficiency than those who transitioned fully to Chromebooks.
• The value of saving time for IT staff will depend on the types of activities and projects their time can be reallocated towards.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 5%, yielding a five-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $3.8 million.

Reduced Need For Third-Party Accessibility Tools And Services

Evidence and data. In addition to saving money on the initial purchase of devices, school systems were able to reduce spend on third-party services and accessibility tools by deploying Chromebooks.

• Interviewees found that they saved a third or more of their previous cost of third-party services and accessibility tools due to the tools and services already included with Chromebooks and Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals.
• Some schools were able to reallocate some of their translation services and students could use text-to-speech translation on their Chromebook to communicate with teachers. This allowed schools to prioritize translators for higher-priority cases and reduce costs elsewhere.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• Prior to adopting Chromebooks, 15% of students require third-party tools and services to assist with their accessibility needs.
• A third of these students fully replace these additional third-party tools with built-in accessibility tools on their Chromebooks. The organization reaps this full benefit in Year 3, when all students are in the Chromebook ecosystem.
• The average cost of third-party accessibility tools and services per student who requires them is $150.

Risks. Forrester recognizes that these results may not be representative of all experiences and that the impact may vary depending on several factors:

• The number of students who no longer required third-party accessibility tools and services varied widely depending on the student population and what tools they had previously used.
• Similarly, interviewees shared a wide range of costs for third-party tools and services that could be replaced with Chromebooks and Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a five-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $478,000.

Enhanced Security Of Chromebook And Google Workspace For Education Fundamentals

Evidence and data. Interviewed IT leadership found that the number of security incidents and breaches their district experienced fell after migration to Chromebooks. This was attributed to Chromebook’s cloud-based OS and built-in security features from Google.

• When asked, no interviewee reported successful ransomware attacks on Chromebooks in their school system. This was largely attributed to built-in security tools from ChromeOS, such as sandboxing, verified boot, automatic updates, and limited access to local files.
  
  The board of education director of an APAC K-12 school system said: “Chromebook has the features necessary to achieve our objectives. It is particularly superior to other operating systems in terms of security measures.”
  
  The edtech project manager of a North American school district said, “Chromebooks eliminate the scare of viruses and potentially downloading harmful software.”
• Education IT leaders found that the number of security breaches dropped as they expanded Chromebook usage in their school districts, and they expected this trend to continue.
  
  The executive director of technology of a North American K-12 school district said: “The number of security breach incidents on staff devices has decreased at the same rate as our Chromebook distribution. That also means users no longer need to worry about their data being backed up and secure.”
• The secretary of education of a Latin American state said, “Security is very important, and Chromebooks allow us to lock information so it can’t be accessed if the device is stolen.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite school previously spent an average of $1.15 million a year on ransomware attacks on student and teacher devices. This figure accounts for the response, audit, fines, forensics, and recovery for each incident.
• Ransomware costs are reduced proportionally to the number of students and teachers who transition from legacy devices to Chromebooks over a three-year period.

Risks. Forrester recognizes that these results may not be representative of all experiences and that the impact may vary depending on several factors:

• While no interviewees reported a successful ransomware attack on their Chromebooks, no device, OS, or software is completely immune from malicious attacks or malware.
• The cost of ransomware attacks or other security breaches will vary across school types.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a five-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $2.8 million.

Quantified Educational Outcomes

Interviewees mentioned their organizations experienced the following quantified educational outcomes:

Improved Student Time On Task

Evidence and data. Of upmost importance to interviewed educational leaders was student outcomes and how Chromebook and Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals impacted student learning and time on task. Interviewees shared that giving students their own individual Chromebooks enabled access to a wide range of powerful tools. When teachers properly implemented the devices they dramatically improved the classroom experience.

• IT leaders sought to empower teachers with the best technological resources available. Leaders found these efforts translated into greater educational outcomes for their students, such as time on task, national rankings, and material comprehension. Interviewees shared that educational outcomes improved above school peer groups after Chromebook and Google Workspace for Education enabled classroom improvements.
  
  The IT superintendent of a Latin American K-12 school system said, “Having more technology in the classroom is extremely positive for our students and they get more access to qualified information.”
  
  The same interviewee also said: “We're investing in [Chromebooks and Google Workspace] because we want to be able to improve and move our schools up in the national ranking. We already have a lot of qualitative data about seeing improvement based on digital platforms.”
  
  The IT manager of a school system in EMEA said, “I've noticed students prefer to take a test on Chromebook instead of paper because they get feedback faster and teachers can actually read their handwriting.”
• Much of the improvement from Chromebooks to time on task was attributed to the fast startup time of devices. Legacy devices took significantly longer and often delayed lessons.
  
  The district edtech coordinator of a North American K-12 school district said, “Chromebooks typically boots up in about 8 seconds, whereas [legacy] take more like 4 minutes or more.”
  
  The director of information and instructional technology of a North American K-12 school district said: “We really started buying more Chromebooks when we found out they turn on in 10 seconds. [Legacy devices] were still turning on after 2 or 3 minutes, and that's if you didn't have updates. I mean, it's night and day difference. ... Chromebook is the best device on the planet to get you on the internet, to Google Docs, and to online collaboration [tools] as quickly as possible.”
  
  The director of information and instructional technology of a North American K-12 school district said: “Let's say you have a computer lab with 30 students. You tell everyone to start your computer, but then you get three hands that raise and say, ‘My computer says it's running a service pack.’ Well, now the class is down for 10 minutes. The fact that Chromebooks turn on in ten seconds made us say, ‘Oh my gosh.’ We immediately put in an order for 800 more, and by the very next fall we placed another order for 5,000.”
• Interviewees shared that the improved student engagement led to better student attendance. An EMEA K-12 school trust had net mobility of less than 5%, compared to a city average of over 20%. An interviewee contributed much of this difference to cultural and student engagement improvements leadership achieved with Chromebook and Google Education for Fundamentals.
• The director of new projects of a Latin American state said: “Google has had a very, very positive impact on students. They are more motivated and innovative. We see this in the production of their work. They can make videos, exhibitions, and presentations. They are participants in their own learning, and the use of the technology has been an important factor.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about improved time on task for students:

• Students save 20 minutes each week from Chromebooks starting up significantly faster than legacy devices.
• Students save an additional 5 minutes each week from Chromebooks updating faster and without manual effort.
• Students save 30 minutes each week from more effective collaboration from the use of Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals. This time also includes efficient reception and completion of assignments through Google Classroom.
• Of all time saved, 50% is recaptured and reinvested in improved educational outcomes.

Reduced Teacher Labor

Evidence and data. Another top priority for interviewed educational leaders was improving the efficiency and work-life balance of teachers, who often carried heavy workloads and could struggle to meet all of their students’ needs.

• Google Classroom, along with other services within Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals, gave teachers tools that made leading classrooms significantly easier. Students could participate much faster through their devices and teachers could gain insight into which students were struggling and focus their attention on them. In addition, Chromebooks started faster and had fewer technical issues when using features such as screencast and teacher-student chat.
  
  The director of strategic partnerships of an EMEA K-12 school trust said: “Every teacher has access to Chromebooks and Workspace in front of them during their lessons, and it makes them able to be more efficient. Every child has access to a device that makes lessons more engaging, and therefore makes the children more likely to come. Chromebook and Workspace are a common thread of how we make our school more efficient.”
  
  The district edtech coordinator of a North American K-12 school district said: “Chromebook contributes to greater teaching quality. Teachers aren’t waiting for startup, the devices work better on the network, they are more stable, and it’s a unified platform environment with the students. With that comes engagement and teachers can have more time on task.”
  
  The IT manager of an EMEA school system said: “The biggest difference we’ve noticed is from our teachers spending much less time to start a lesson. When you have a Chromebook, you just open it, and it works. With [legacy devices], sometimes they were busy for 5 to 10 minutes just to get all the students going. Feedback and revisions are also easier to keep track of, and teachers can give students corrections as they are working on assignments, rather than waiting for it all to be complete.”
  
  The district edtech coordinator of a North American K-12 school district said: “Teachers can use Google Workspace to check the version history of a document and see who actually did what work. A lot of these tools have opened the lines of communication with students and let multiple kids work on one assignment together.”
• Teachers frequently reported issues with the battery life of their legacy devices, and these issues meant they could not teach as effectively in the classroom.
  
  The district edtech coordinator of a North American K-12 school district said: “One of the reasons we decided to switch to Chromebooks was for our teachers. We had purchased [legacy tablets], and you were lucky to get 2 hours of battery. We did a pilot test of Chromebooks for teachers, and they could use it all day without having to charge it. They could actually walk around the classroom and not be tethered to their desk. Battery life is huge and is probably our number one reason for switching teachers to Chrome.”
  
  The director of information and instructional technology of a North American K-12 school district said, “If I'm paying a teacher to teach, I want to make sure they're able to teach 100% of the time. But if I give them an old [legacy] laptop that takes 5 minutes to boot up and you have to restart the thing once every three days, I am losing thousands of dollars every year. Plus, you need devices to work right away because with the current attention spans of students, you'll be dead in the water if it takes 3 minutes to turn a device on.”
• The director of information and instructional technology of a North American K-12 school district said, “We get complaints from teachers that their [legacy] device is too old slow, and it's only two and a half years old. We just never hear that from those who use Chromebook.”
• Chromebooks and Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals also helped the quality of teaching and learning by providing instant feedback to teachers. The director of digital teaching and learning of an EMEA school trust said: “Our teachers have a lot more knowledge about their children because of the data that you can get by utilizing the technology. It happens in the moment in that lesson, and it's not waiting for the teacher to mark the book at the end of the lesson to find out that after class [that] the students don’t understand. Chromebooks have been a huge part of this.”
• Teachers also saved time in lesson preparation by taking advantage of materials already available through Google Classroom. The IT manager of a school system in EMEA said, “We stopped a lot of our efforts working on classroom manuals because we figured out very quickly that Google has very good material already.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about saved labor for teachers:

• Teachers save 20 minutes each week from Chromebooks starting up significantly faster than legacy devices.
• Teachers save an additional 5 minutes each week from Chromebooks updating faster and without manual effort.
• Teachers save 15 minutes each week from more efficient communication with parents through Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals.
• An additional 45 minutes are saved weekly by using Google Classroom to automate portions of lesson preparation and allow for more efficient usage of curricular materials.
• Of all time saved, 75% is recaptured and reinvested.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

• Grew student enrollment. Several interviewees reported that their school systems rapidly expanded. In some cases for smaller schools, enrollment doubled in size over a period of three to five years. While many factors contributed to this expansion, interviewees found that the improvements  enabled by Chromebook and Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals were a significant contributor to this growth.
  
  The director of strategic partnerships of an EMEA K-12 school trust that had rapidly expanded in the past few years estimated that 70% of the new students who joined came because of improvements directly related to adoption of Chromebooks and Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals.
• Reduced gap of student performance due to socioeconomic disadvantages. Of primary concern for interviewed IT and educational leaders was providing tools to help students succeed regardless of their socioeconomic background. Chromebook was seen as especially helpful in this goal as school systems could afford to give each student their own dedicated device that they could take home each day and even during the summer.
  
  The district edtech coordinator of a North American school district shared that for many families, this was the only computer they had access to in the home. This had not been possible previously, as the cost of legacy devices prohibited wider distribution and a 1:1 ratio between students and devices.
  
  The director of strategic partnerships at an EMEA K-12 school trust said: “We've realized with Chromebooks that we need to move away from anything that needs to be installed on a device, and this opens up the ability for students to access the program from wherever they are. With [legacy devices], if you buy a program for that computer, you're basically saying it's a magic program for a magic computer. Not all students can afford to access that at home.”
• Benefited from seamless integration between Chromebooks and Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals. Interviewees found that the browser-optimized ChromeOS Chromebooks used worked especially well with Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals, leading to a better experience for teachers and students. This allowed school systems already using Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals to receive an even greater benefit than they had already achieved. Many schools also used educational learning tools available through ChromeOS to provide additional educational benefits on top of the benefits of Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals.
  
  The director of information and instructional technology said: “Chromebooks have some really cool features built in, and they work better than anything else interacting with Google Workspace, Google Classroom, and Google Drive. Chrome[OS] is the best browser in the world, and that's all you need to get to Google Docs.”
  
  The secretary of education of a Latin American state said: “When you are part of such a big system, it is very difficult to stay current. Thanks to this partnership with Google, we have [Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals] at no cost to the schools, to the teachers, or to the students. Above all, its quality is wonderful.”
• Helped engage parents into the learning process, further improving educational outcomes. Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals, including Google Classroom, allowed teachers to engage with students’ parents on a deeper level than had previously been possible. This reduced the burden on teachers to collaborate with large numbers of families, allowed greater transparency and visibility into student progress, and improved educational outcomes for students who had greater parental support than was possible before.
  
  The district edtech coordinator of a North American K-12 school district said: “[Google Classroom] opened up the lines of communication with parents and it was all real time. They were able to see student grades, student assignments, announcements. We could never go without it again.”
  
  The director of digital teaching and learning of an EMEA K-12 school trust said: “Chromebook has given students more independence and it's given them the continuity between home and school that they might not have had before. They can carry home whatever they've been learning in class and maximize the resources they have on their Chromebook. Parents can then learn more about what their students are doing at school and have more rich conversations with their children and help them improve.”
• Allowed children with different abilities to be included. While the cost savings of reducing specialty devices has already been accounted for, more important to educational leaders was allowing students with differing needs to feel included with their peers by using the same type of device. Chromebooks helped level the field among students by allowing for a unified platform and common experience that was still flexible enough to address a broad spectrum of needs.
  
  The district edtech coordinator of a North America K-12 school district said: “These tools built into Chrome[OS] are really a lot of help for our students, and our accessibility has gone through the roof because of the devices. It allows students to feel mainstream. They don't want to be seen as different, and Chromebook has tools so they don't need a special device and can fit in better with other kids.”
  
  The director of digital teaching and learning of an EMEA K-12 school trust said: “Workspace and Chromebooks are a considerable part of our inclusivity practice. It's about creating classroom environments that enable every child to succeed. Chromebooks and Workspace help change that culture to get every child access to all this support.”

• Enabled children with different abilities to self-select the tools that make them most effective. Teachers found that students often used accessibility features that best fit their own learning style without needing guidance when given access to a broader set of tools. This self-selecting culture allowed students to feel more in control of their experience and resulted in greater engagement and educational outcomes.
  
  The district edtech coordinator of a North America K-12 school district said: “You have those kiddos that just won’t talk in front of a group, but they can type in their questions to the teachers. [The use of Chromebooks] opens that line of communication between teachers and students that are afraid to talk.”
• Improved faculty collaboration. Students used Google Workspace for Education to collaborate on projects and assignments, which not only led to greater depth of understanding but also allowed them to develop skills in teamwork. In addition, teachers and faculty members found that they were able to collaborate more effectively using Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals and saved time in their own projects.
  
  The director of digital teaching and learning of an EMEA K-12 school trust said: “The need to collaborate was key. Being able to utilize something like Google Workspace was key as well because when we first started out, everybody was working separately in their own little schools with their own servers, and nobody was able to share.”
  
  The IT superintendent of a Latin American K-12 school system said, “Many of our teachers today are at the lowest level of digital skills, but bringing Chromebooks into the school environment will help us invert this.”
• Reduced repair costs. Several interviewees shared that the cost to repair Chromebooks was significantly lower than legacy devices. This was in part attributed to the ease of replacing keyboards and other components as needed.
  
  The director of strategic partnerships for an EMEA K-12 school trust said: “Chromebooks are much better in terms of a modular design. We can send them off to replace a component. Some other technology you just kind of have to throw in a bin and buy a new one because they're not financially viable to repair. We can deploy Chromebooks in a green and sustainable way, and we also see a cost savings.”
  
  A school system in EMEA was able to cut its repair costs by almost half due to Chromebook parts being less expensive than parts for its legacy devices. Repair costs fell even further as IT staff needed to spend less time removing viruses from student and teacher devices. The IT manager said: “You have a lot less security issues on Chromebooks, and that makes a difference to repair costs. They don't bring in a hard drive full of viruses. Most of the time, you need 5 minutes for a full reset and then you can move on.”

• Additional savings from cloud operations. Schools realized additional cost savings when they migrated from on-premises infrastructure to Google Cloud.
  
  The director of strategic partnerships of an EMEA K-12 school trust said: “One of our schools had a server at the end of its life, and it would have cost an absolute fortune to find a new server if we hadn't moved to Google Cloud. There was a huge cost savings there by moving to the cloud”.

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Chromebooks in education and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• Better prepared students for future work. Interviewees noted that Chromebook and ChromeOS usage in work settings has increased, so providing students with Chromebooks in the classroom today is helping them to be better prepared for future work environments. Forrester has similarly found that, while most enterprise environments use legacy devices today, there has been remarkable growth in Chromebook usage, especially for information workers.² Forrester expects that future technologies, such as 5G, will expand Chromebook usage in an anywhere context across more job types.³
• Improved desirability to potential employees. Having greater Chromebook and Google Classroom access made school systems more attractive to potential employees. This was in part because faculty members saw and shared the educational outcomes of effectively using these technologies in their classrooms. In addition, teachers’ work was made more efficient, which helped to improve their work-life balance and reported satisfaction.
  
  The director of strategic partnerships as an EMEA K-12 school trust said: “There are a number of ways that Chromebook and Workspace make us more desirable as an employer. We're a lot more flexible now with staff being able to work from home when they need. Also, having systems that are in the cloud allows the trust to be both creative and flexible and enables staff across the trust to work together and share resources. The technology has made us more desirable as an employer, and our staff satisfaction reflects that.”
• Reduced risk of employee attrition. Interviewed educational leaders expected that the improvements enabled by Chromebook and Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals could help them retain employees longer. This was especially expected from improving the work-life balance of teachers who no longer needed to spend as long on lesson preparation, classroom management, and parental communication.
  
  An EMEA K-12 school trust was able to improve its employee satisfaction by more than 15% above national benchmarks partially because of how effectively Chromebook and Google Classroom for Education Fundamentals were leveraged across the schools. While representatives from the school trust mentioned this achievement was the result of a multifaceted effort, they shared that this would have been more difficult to achieve without the improvements enabled by Chromebook and Google Classroom for Education Fundamentals.
• Preparedness for future emergencies. Forward-looking educational leaders learned the importance of preparing for emergencies from the recent COVID-19 pandemic. A key lesson many interviewees shared from that experience was that having remote capability for all students, teachers, and faculty was no longer optional. That capability would help their resiliency in any future emergency situations.
  
  The technology integration specialist of a North American K-12 school district said: “Having those Chromebooks in our kids' hands meant we were ready when the contagion hit. We had teachers reach out seven days after the shutdown asking if they could start teaching their students again. It was probably one of the proudest moments I've had in my career.”
• Reduced environmental impact. Educators were eager to find ways to reduce their environmental impact in the future and expected that the longer useable life of Chromebooks meant a reduction in e-waste.
  
  The board of education director of an APAC K-12 school system said, “By extending the device replace cycle with Chromebook, we can reduce the environmental impact.”

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Appendix A).