Not Your Mother’s/Grandmother’s/Great-Grandmother’s Admissions Office Higher Ed Success Stories

1. #TargetXSummit
Not Your Mother’s/Grandmother’s/
Great-grandmother’s Admissions Office
Jay Murray & Jeff Shpunt

2. Agenda
● Introductions
● About WCSU
● “The Way We Were”
● The B. P. R.
● Innovations
● Lessons Learned

3. Jeff ShpuntJay Murray

4. About Western Connecticut State University
● Founded in 1903
● Located in Danbury, CT
● Two campuses
● 5,300 undergraduate
● 500 graduate
● 75 undergraduate & 15 graduate programs

5. “The way we were …”
● Manual processes
● Paper-based admissions
● Anecdotal decision making
● “Excel Hell”
● Lack of reporting
● We didn’t know what we didn’t know

6. Inquiry “Management”
● No inquiry management system
● Inquiry cards
● Poor communication
● Missed opportunities
● Email “campaigns”
● “Excel Hell”

7. Events Management
● Key events
○ Daily campus tours
○ Open House
○ Accepted Students Day
○ High School Visits / College Fairs
● Anecdotal evidence of previous history
● Registration nightmares
○ Additional staff hired for registration
● “Excel Hell”

8. Application Management
● Paper, Paper and more Paper!
○ Accepted paper applications
○ Electronic applications were printed
● All stealth applicants
● Banner web application
○ new applications, accounts, missing items
● Applicant review process
○ Folders
○ Transcripts
○ Pink sheets

9. Something had to change.

10. Business Process Re-engineering
● April 2013
● Week-long “boot camp” led by CIO
● Stakeholders represented all functional areas
● Analyze entire lifecycle of our students customers
● Addressed “roast beef” items
● Developed student lifecycle flowchart

11. Student Lifecycle

12. Recruitment

13. Prospect Management

14. What were our objectives?
● Need to be distinct in a saturated market
● Need to maximize prospect/inquiry/applicant touch points
● Strategic communication
● Tracking data on everyone, everything
● Banner integration
● Turn appliCANTS into appliCANS
● Inquiry management system

15. Transforming with CRM
● Summer 2013
○ Select Salesforce as CRM platform
○ Select TargetX as our CRM partner
● September 2013
○ TargetX on-site discovery meeting
● Developed a three phased approach

16. Phase I
● Base install of TargetX
● Identify users, profiles and roles
● Load “schools file”
● Develop inquiry forms
● 3rd
party import sources
○ SAT, Zinch, College Week Live etc.
● “Go-live” on-site training

17. Phase II
● Events management
● Banner to Salesforce integration
○ Sends applicant data to CRM
● Salesforce to Banner integration
○ Checks for matching Banner applicant
● Informatica training

18. Phase III
● WCSU joins CommonApp
○ All data is imported daily into CRM
■ Prospects, suspects, applicants
● New WCSU online application
○ Replaces Banner’s Web for Admissions module
○ Streamlines process for students

19. Where are we today?

20. Inquiry Management
● Automated imports
○ CommonApp
○ SAT/ACT
○ Hobsons/Cappex/other 3rd party
● Lead forms
○ Built using FormAssembly
○ Mobile-ready
● Strategic communications
○ Right place, right time, right message

21. Events Management
● TargetX offers a robust events component
● Self service online registration
● “Wow factor” QR code check-in
● Communication is key!
○ Thanks for registering
○ Reminder
○ Thanks for coming
○ Sorry we missed you

23. Applicant Management
● “Do it in TargetX”
● Two sources of applications:
○ CommonApp (freshmen)
○ FormAssembly (transfer/re-entry)
● Applications processed in CRM
● Integration with SIS
○ Axiom Elite / Informatica

25. Game changing.

26. Making the CRM work
● Workflows automate tasks
● Email & SMS campaigns send targeted messages & track results
● Reports can be written & schedule to run, and results can be distributed to
anyone.
● Data can be easily uploaded, extracted or analyzed
● Dashboards make it easy to digest data

27. Impacting our students
• TargetX touches every part of the recruitment lifecycle:
• Building meaningful relationships
• Communication
• Mobility (everywhere access to data)
• 360 degree view of student

28. Lessons Learned
● Implement with executive management support & sponsorship
● Take a phased approach with key practices to achieve immediate, tangible
results
● Focus on a small number of top risks/rewards
● Leverage enterprise resources
● Create a task force including stakeholders of unit(s) affected

29. Questions?