ADMISSIONS AND ADVANCEMENT CRM – WHAT LIES AHEAD | COMING SOON – UMS:IT SERVICES CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY
ADMISSIONS AND ADVANCEMENT CRM – WHAT LIES AHEAD
Admissions
Over the course of 2019, UMS:IT worked with UMPI and UMFK to build a shared Enrollment customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing environment utilizing the Salesforce platform. This “shared org” went live in late 2019 and has continued to grow and evolve since then. With the success that has been demonstrated, additional campuses have joined into the implementation, including UMF Graduate Admissions in Fall 2020 and UMF Undergraduate Admissions in Spring 2022. UMS:IT is now fully engaged with the remaining campuses (UMaine, UMaine Graduate School, UMA, and USM) to bring them into this shared environment, with a target go-live timeline of June 2023.
The Salesforce-based CRM environment utilizes a native data model known as EDA (Educational Data Architecture) that is designed specifically for educational organizations to meet the unique needs of organizations such as the University of Maine System. The shared org that has been built allows for intelligent and streamlined tracking and engagement with prospective students as part of the enrollment recruiting process. There are also tools in place to support events, reporting, document generation, SMS communications, territory management, and more. The Marketing Cloud side of the environment is where sophisticated and intelligent marketing campaigns can be built with dynamic, multi-stage communications.
By bringing the campuses together into this shared environment, UMS:IT is better able to partner with the campus admissions offices to provide support for their ever evolving needs in the current enrollment landscape. Additionally, having a shared environment will allow for easier channels to collaborate, leading to greater efficiencies and consistency for data and processes, when compared to the multiple siloed CRM instances that have existed previously. Once the migration is complete in 2023, UMS:IT will be able to leverage the shared environment to take on additional enhancements, such as two-way integration with MaineStreet and the potential development of an application portal for prospective students.
Advancement
The University of Maine System sought proposals for the provision of a comprehensive Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) solution for Advancement that would assist in the design, management, and execution of an online strategy for content management, email marketing, online giving, event management, membership management, and social networking integration. The new software application is replacing the existing Ellucian Advance software which is lacking in modern functionality, contributing to inefficient operational use and an inability to use modern marketing methods.
The RFP was awarded to UC Innovation for their ascend product. Ascend runs on top of the Salesforce platform, allowing for further integration of Salesforce-related products currently in use by other UMS departments. The product is cloud-based, and offers state-of-the-art functionality, including robust mobile presentation, automated logic-based communication tools, and a high degree of configuration/customization. Ascend will be used by all Advancement and Alumni Association areas of UMS.
In Spring 2022, the decision was made to implement a “shared org” within Salesforce that supports all of the campuses/foundations via a structured data and permissioning model that ensures separation of the data at the business unit level, but creates support and operational efficiencies by utilizing a shared toolset and platform. This also lowers the barrier for future collaboration opportunities between campuses on the Advancement front, if those should arise. The Advancement CRM project officially kicked off in late July 2022 and the core team is working through the first two Functional Sprints relating to Bio Demo Referential Data and Household/Corporation/Foundation Affiliation. These sprints provide opportunities for custom configuration to meet the requirements of the Advancement offices and Alumni Associations. Sprints will continue up to Fall 2023 followed by testing, training, conversion, and deployment. Integrations with ascend will include Marketing Cloud and a third-party reporting tool for more complex reporting needs. The anticipated go live of ascend is scheduled for Spring 2024.
The implementation of ascend will provide the opportunity to integrate with other campus units and get UMS closer to the “lifecycle” of tracking a person from applicant to student to alumni to donor. The integrated information will increase the knowledge base about each constituent and present the opportunity to revolutionize marketing and fundraising abilities through personalized targeting. Campuses will likely see a reduction in staff hours needed to complete various tasks, allowing for more time to be spent cultivating and soliciting donors.
COMING SOON – UMS:IT SERVICES CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY
Our customer experience staff are developing a systemwide UMS:IT customer satisfaction survey. The survey is planned for launch in early 2023. The survey will focus on identifying categories of services that customers feel are important to their university roles, rating satisfaction with services from those categories, and assessing general satisfaction with our IT customer service area.
UMS IT is working with UMaine faculty to design a useful, brief, and statistically valid survey instrument and has researched similar best practices from other IT organizations at peer higher-ed institutions. The audience will include all members of the university community.
Survey results will be shared and used to inform the continuous improvement of IT services and customer service efforts. It is intended that the survey will be repeated at least annually.