AUSTIN, TEXAS, May 18, 2022

• Lightspeed SmartSync™ technology allows for seamless syncing of diverse lists and data sets
• Lightspeed SmartPolicy™ empowers districts to create policies with flexible hierarchical inheritance
• Lightspeed Alert™ scans images for firearms and explicit content to offer communities more comprehensive protection

Lightspeed Systems, a leading provider of easy-to-use enterprise-class software and partner to tens of thousands of schools around the world, announced the addition of new features and enhancements to its existing solutions suite.

Taken together, these enhancements to Lightspeed’s solutions suite reflect the company’s enduring commitment to designing solutions that meet the ever-evolving needs of school districts both large and small.

“Education leaders are persistently and selflessly addressing COVID-19-driven learning loss, a national mental health crisis, and ongoing staffing shortages. Our spring product enhancements focus on reducing our customers’ administrative workload and improving safety so that they can keep their attention where it is most needed: on students,” says Rob Chambers, Vice President of Customer Success.

Key Enhancements to the Lightspeed Solutions Suite

New SmartSync Technology Integrates Diverse Solutions to Provide Seamless Control

Lightspeed has developed SmartSync technology, so districts are empowered to sync multiple directory sources simultaneously. This gives district administration access to student data across all directory sources within one centralized place to provide a more integrated edtech experience.

SmartSync takes data sets from diverse student data sources and seamlessly merges them with the Lightspeed system. This capacity—unique among competitors—provides educators with the most reliable and accurate rostering data that always matches their sources. Districts have full access to the data they need to manage student groups, track usage, assign the right filtering policies for each student, and make comprehensive updates to their edtech ecosystems in minutes instead of requiring separate and laborious updates to each component.

New SmartPolicy Empowers Districts to Create Policies with Flexible Hierarchical Inheritance

Lightspeed SmartPolicy gives schools the power to retain and create new policies with flexible hierarchical inheritance. This capacity, coupled with an easy-to-use platform, makes it easy for administrators to navigate, locate, manage, and report on customized and granular policies and groups. With the ability to set and adapt policies to changing circumstances, districts can leverage SmartPolicy to ensure that technology meets the diverse needs of all students and staff.

Lightspeed Filter™ Offers Expanded Protection on All Windows Devices

To provide next-level, comprehensive protection, Lightspeed Filter has supplemented the device-level agents it deploys on Windows devices with hybrid filtering. With this new feature, extensions for all major browsers (Chrome, Edge, and Firefox) are now available in addition to Lightspeed’s patented device-level SmartAgents^TM providing districts with more advantages over their content filtering.

This expanded capacity gives districts flexible implementation options while ensuring that student devices are fully protected from harmful content, no matter the app or browser a user chooses. The result is a solution that yields better performance with superior reporting, and less strain on district bandwidth.

Lightspeed Alert Scans Images for Firearms and Explicit Content for Unrivaled Student Safety Protection

Lightspeed Alert’s industry-leading AI technology has been enhanced to scan images uploaded to shared drives for firearms and sexually explicit content. Now, when the AI flags an image as a potential threat, districts will have the images and context reviewed by Lightspeed Safety Specialists to determine if a safety threat is imminent and, if necessary, escalate to schools or law enforcement to intervene immediately. This feature helps Lightspeed and the communities it serves better ensure the safety of all students.

Lightspeed Analytics^™ Empowers Schools to Create Campus Groups

Lightspeed Analytics has added a new feature to make it easier for districts to visualize and analyze their data. Campus Groups can now be created, edited, and viewed throughout Lightspeed Analytics, which provides users visibility into any groups they wish to create. These groups can be based on grade, grade band (elementary, middle, high), special population groups (alternative school, SPED, etc.), or any custom grouping that meets the unique needs of the district.

About Lightspeed Systems

With over 20 years of providing technology to meet the needs of schools, Lightspeed Systems is the market leader in online student safety and effectiveness. The purpose-built Lightspeed ecosystem of cloud-based solutions—tailored to meet today’s evolving challenges—provides schools worldwide with the most effective web filter, student safety monitor, classroom management software, device management tool, and analytics program available. Lightspeed Systems is a proven partner for schools, serving over 20 million students in 39 countries and 28,000 schools globally. To learn more, visit www.lightspeedsystems.com.