This document describes how the University of North Alabama MBA program used value stream mapping to improve the efficiency of their student recruiting and admissions process. They mapped the current "present state" process, which identified significant waste and inefficiencies, such as GPA calculations taking over an hour per applicant and 52 students not actively working on prerequisite requirements. Their goal was to create a more efficient, student-centered "future state" process inspired by Amazon's customer service model. Changes implemented from the value stream mapping included streamlining GPA calculations, redesigning prerequisite requirements, and tracking applicants through a CRM system. These process improvements led to incremental gains in efficiency and a 15% increase in new MBA enrollments over the prior year

1. Lean in HE:
Improving MBA student
recruiting process
through use of
Value Stream Mapping
Paulette Alexander, PhD, Associate Dean
Janyce Fadden, MBA, Executive in Residence
University of North Alabama

2. Counteracting Forces in the Market
2
Fewer students are
entering higher
education
Yet, more students
go online to make
their college
decision
Building the case for
change

3. Students are applying to
more and more institutions

4. Today’s MBA situation
• Acquisition costs are increasing as schools fight for
market share
• Competition will be based on differentiating a program’s
value and quality
• Given consumer behavior trends, digital continues to be
the present and future of higher education marketing
• Sustained influence and relationships with prospective
students are critical for success
4
Source: Collegis

5. 5
The opportunity
The UNA MBA program identified an
opportunity to differentiate
by improving the recruiting and
admissions process
The Goal: Create an
efficient, student-centered process
inspired by the Amazon customer
service model by utilizing data to find
opportunity areas for improvement

6. What Is a Value Stream?
• Defines value from the customer’s perspective
• All of the actions and tasks, both value added and non-
value added or waste, required to bring an item (an
idea, information, product or service) from its inception
through delivery.
• These include actions to process information from the
customer and actions to transform the service on its
way to the customer.

7. Value Stream Mapping
• Helps us see where value is created, and where waste
exists:
o Shows flow of both material & information
o Helps us see where/how specific Lean tools can be
used to improve flow and eliminate waste
o Consists of two types of maps:
Present State - as it is
Future State - how it should be

8. VSM First try

9. MBA Process Map Updated
8/23/2016 10
Orientation
phone call
Prospecting Nurturing Application Admission
Registration
Zoho CRM
Filing
Cabinet
College Net:
ApplyWeb/
Admin
Infoadded
to CRM
Auto
response
email sent
Connect
Make
interview
appt.
Phone call
Conduct
interview
Determine
Readiness
to apply
Begin
Applyweb
Application
Complete
File
COB review
file
Decision
Made
COB phones and
emails
periodically
Leave VM 6
days in a row
+ Email
Email alert
to Zack
Schedule
appt
Orientation
Marketing
Campaigns
Incomplete
Connect
VM and
email sent
Admissions
Prints App/
Creates File
Complete
Application
Registration
Delay in
start
Enroll
601
Nurture to
register
GMAT
Referral
Connect
Email periodically
for 2 weeks
Continue
to nurture
Organic
Banner Xtender
Create
account
with CE
Auto Alert sent to
applicant/Decision
letter posted to
ApplyWeb account
Index
Documents in
extender
Student emails
MBA with prereq
completion
Congratulations
Email
Congrats
Email from
Dean
Congrats/Prereqs
Email from Dean
Does not
purchase
prerequisite
MBA
Email/Phone
Follow up
Prerequisites
Purchase
Prerequisite
Prerequisites
CE Report of
new Students
CE sends
Student info
email to Ivy
Ivy sends CE
confirmation
email
Student receives
prereq packet
Phone call to
Enroll
CampusCE
Ivy
Software
App Manually
Entered into
Banner
Application
Material uploaded
to Admit/Banner
App
Material
prepared
for review
Complete/
Upload
Orientation
Advisement
Sheet
Incomplete
CollegeNet
App
Populates
into Admit
Auto Confirmation
email sent to student
Decision
Material copied
from Admit
Specialty Ad
Connect
Max attempts
Made
Nurture to
Complete
App
App
Submission
Notification
sent to COB
COB sends
email of
Checklist to
student
Application Submission
message sent to student
from ApplyWeb
Complete
File
Receive App
Materials
COB Phone calls
and emails to 6+
attempts
COB follows
up for missing
items
Max attempts Made
nurturing for Next
semester email sent
Admissions sends
snail mail letter of
change form
Prospecting Nurturing Application Admission Registration Prerequisites
PPC
Proactive
Passive
Application
Assigned to
COB in Admit
Auto alert sent to Evaluator for
"Ready for Review"/ Alert sent
to Amanda.
Manual Email sent to Dean
from Evaluator of file
summary/ recommendations
Program
recommendation is made
Admit by Evaluator
Admit alert sent to
Admissions that decision
was made
decision letter
release date
entered in Admit
Admissions sends
manual notification to
Amanda that status has
been updated
Update admission
status in Banner

10. Process Cycle Efficiency
Stages-124 Min.
Prospecting
Nurturing
Application
Admission
Registration
8/23/2016 10
Fall-82
Days
Spring-
89 Days
Summe
r-108
Days
0 1 0
16 33 38
44 33 27
22 22 43
Student Waiting Time
0.1% 0.09%
• Process Cycle Efficiency= Value-added
Time/Cycle Time.
• Typical Process Efficiency is 5-10%.
• Through 3 cycles, MBA process is about .1%.
Value-added Time
Process Cycle Efficiency 0.07%

11. Value versus Waste
• Value is that for the sake of which a process
exists
o “The customer is interested only in the value flowing
to them.” – James P. Womack
• Waste in a process is anything else
o Waste is anything other than the minimum amount of
equipment, materials, parts, and working time
absolutely essential to production.” -Taiichi Ohno

12. Learning to see waste
From Brad Loetz

13. Stories from
learning to see waste
• “What would it look like
if every one of our actions added value to the student?”
• “What could we do?”
• “Why do we do it that way now? Questioning the status
quo?”
o Peeling the onion-
• GPA calculation
• Prerequisites

14. GPA Calculations
For Admissions
• Present state: All GPA for all institutions taken into
account and recalculate GPA if there was
o a different grade point scale (4 point vs. 3 point scale).
o a different credit hour basis (semester vs. quarter).
o a repeat/recompute or other forgiveness option for grades.
o a +/- grading system impacting GPA.
• Issues seen:
o The amount of time spent on some of these GPA calculations was an hour per
application.
o Lack of consistency in identifying potential need for recalculation.
o Many opportunities for calculation errors.
o Many opportunities for interpretation errors.

15. GPA Calculations
For Admissions
• Future state: Accept the GPA calculated and presented
on the transcript of the degree granting institution as the
basis for graduation.
o Convert that GPA to a 4. scale if necessary.
o Recalculate only if there is no GPA for graduation presented on the transcript
from the institution.
• Result: More efficient and effective process for
determining admission eligibility based on GPA
o Time not wasted on manual calculations of GPA from a variety of institutions
o Errors not likely because manual calculations and interpretations are eliminated.

16. Prerequisites
• Present state:
o Students must demonstrate a satisfactory background in the
following topics: accounting principles; economic principles;
statistics; financial management; management principles and
marketing principles.
o UNA has a variety of ways that these prerequisites can be met,
including non-credit competency courses and challenge exams.
These options allow students to complete the required
prerequisites more quickly and economically.
Typically if you did not graduate with a BBA you will need to take
prerequisites.

17. Differing results comparing BBA vs non-BBA
8/23/2016 17
165
83
51
142
72
51
94
38
51
80
39
49
63
32
38
47
36
36
54
22
28
22
12
16
400 300 200 100 0 100 200 300 400 500
Fall 2015
Summer 2015
Spring 2015
Semester
Nurturing Application Admission Registration
Non BBA

18. Prerequisite Requirements & Percentages
8/23/2016 18
Total of 94 Students from Fall 2014 - Now
*Out of the 7 students
required to take 3 courses,
5 registered for 601 in the
summer.

19. Variance Analysis of
Prerequisite Students
8/23/2016 19
94 students in prerequisites from Fall 14 until Fall 15
 28 enrolled in a prereqs course currently
 8 are already registered for 601 and purchased a prereqs (10
more are registered but not enrolled in a prerequisite)
 4 postponing another year
 5 Chose another School
 5 taking undergrad course(1 at another university)
 52 students not working on anything that we know of.

20. Prerequisite Requirements & Percentages
8/23/2016 20

21. Prerequisites
• Assessed the landscape for best practices:
o Benchmarked peer colleges
o Met with faculty
o Talked with AACSB Business Deans
• Designing future state
o Incorporating into first classes
o Qualifies for tuition reimbursement and loans
o Eliminates waste from the value stream

22. Actions and Discipline
Drive our Results
• Implementation of a CRM tool and sales stages
• Deeper level of data and insights
• Development of clear and effective program value
proposition
• Ongoing conversion gains from testing advertising copy and
landing page
• Weekly meetings focused on capacity
• Monthly meeting focused on results
• VSM meetings focused on process changes and achieving
future state map
2
2

23. Success defined by new
enrollment growth
2
3
Semester 2012 2015
% Change from
Prior Term
Spring 55 41 -25%
Summer 17 33 +94%
Fall 58 76 +31%
Total 130 150 +15%

24. A snapshot in time of paid search enrollment funnel
50 registered (31% application to start)
160 applied (24% application rate)
680 engaged with UNA (85% contact rate)
801 requested more information through the online form or by calling directly
(5.34% conversion rate)
14,980 clicked the advertisement and visited the UNA MBA landing page
(1.04% click through rate)

25. 8/23/2016 25
MBA Executive Summary Chart Example
Weekly monitoring of semester attainment to goals

26. Samples of data analysis
59%
32%
3%
1…
2%
3%
Domestic MBA Prospects by Source Percentage
Total Prospects: 1783
PPC
Organic
Referral
GMAT
College Net Apps
Other
June 2014- August 2015
Other- anyone
who applies
and did not
speak with
Zack. They do
not fit in any

27. UNA Vs. Non UNA Students
8/23/2016 27
55
20
57
247
127
79
35
11
61
138
71
75
25
8
20
85
60
55
21
4
12
55
30
32
600 500 400 300 200 100 0 100 200 300
Fall 2015
Summer 2015
Spring 2015
Semesters
Nurturing Application Admission Registration
UNANon UNA

28. Now we see and take action
• Creating a pull system
o Improved use of CollegeNet
o Tracking each prospect through CRM
o Building relationships based on prospect need
o Staying connected to student through email, voice, and text
• Using Data to make changes
o Prerequisites
o GPA
o GMAT and GRE scores
• Improving academic successes
o Relationship building
o Real time feedback

29. Small changes lead to
significant improvements
o MBA new enrollments above prior year over the past three
semesters
o Incremental gains in process efficiency times
o Pipeline analysis determines historical yield and allows for
more accurate forecasting and planning
o Clear visibility to the MBA enrollment process and the ability
to use to data to pinpoint future opportunities for improvement

30. How to connect to our
story
• How can we help you?
• How can you help us?
Paulette Alexander
psalexander@una.edu
256.765.4409
Janyce Fadden,
jfadden@una.edu
256.765.4261