Fred Lassiter Chief Information Officer Ohio Dominican University

Marc Benioff Chairman & CEO

CRM @ ODU

CRM (Customer Resource Management) solutions are in demand by admissions teams across campuses. These demands often come with short timelines, little funding, and consequences for the institution if they fail. Learn how Ohio Dominican University, after declining Ellucian’s Recruiter product, is deploying Salesforce CRM with minimal risk and limited budget.

Fred Lassiter Chief Information Officer

Ohio Dominican University

Foundation Pres – PowerPoint Template – 16x9 FY14.pptx

Ohio Dominican University

•  ODU is a private Catholic university located in Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1911 by the Dominican Sisters of Peace.

•  ODU is small, with about 2,000 total students in undergraduate, graduate, and adult programs.

•  We are highly tuition dependent, and about half our undergraduate students are first generation and Pell grant eligible.

•  More info at www.ohiodominican.edu

State of Affairs

•  Declining enrollments due to demographics and competition.

•  Limited resources, because we’re tuition dependent. •  Frustrations with legacy enterprise system, no real

system for student recruitment. •  How can Information Services be a strategic contributor?

Bright Idea!

•  We need a CRM solution! –  Improved tools for counselors. –  Better metrics for managers. –  Improved process for applicants. –  More students = more revenue!

•  But which one? –  A CRM procurement is often a high risk / high reward project

because CRM’s are expensive to procure and implementations can fail.

–  Is Salesforce different?

Salesforce Higher Ed Summit - 2013

•  Attended in Detroit last year. •  I was sitting where you are now, thinking….

–  Is Salesforce for real? –  Can we do it? –  Will it work for us?

The Good…

•  No upfront investment ( low risk / high reward!) •  Salesforce Foundation – 10 free seats to any non-profit. •  75% discount on additional seats. •  No long term contracts •  No required professional services •  No capital investments – all hosted in the cloud •  No annual price increases

The Scary…

•  Claims about Salesforce too good to be true? –  Many reporting very impressive results… –  Can we replicate those results? –  Do I want to go home making those claims?

The “Test Drive”

•  We already had the Salesforce licenses. •  Let’s keep this our little secret. •  Let’s login and poke around and see what we think.

Implementation

•  Started with Graduate Admissions. –  Smallest admissions team on campus. –  Near 100% turnover caused huge training problems with our SIS. –  A cry for help…. From the new Director of Graduate Admissions. –  “We just need a better landing page.”

Set Expectations

•  This will take time given limited resources. •  We will make mistakes, but we’ll fix them. (Agile Method) •  It’s a pilot project to learn about CRM. •  Met with GA team once a week.

Scavenge Resources – use what you have!

•  We “steal” a few hours a week from many team members.

•  We got Marketing & PR team onboard from the start. •  We joined the local Salesforce users group. •  Collaboration with other schools. •  Free or low cost partners:

–  Eventbrite / Zapier –  Formstack / Authorize.net –  OpenSource Salesforce API library –  CozyRoc ETL tool

So… how’d it turn out?

•  Graduate tuition revenue for next year are up 35%. •  We’ve done the basics… but more to do. •  Beginning implementation for Adult and Continuing Ed. •  Undergrad, President, and Board are getting more

interested by the day!

What’s Next?

•  Adult and Continuing Education (in progress). •  SIS Import of applications and inquiries. •  Online application status page. •  Undergraduate Admissions? •  Athletic Recruiting? •  University Advancement?

The Next Challenge…

•  Make the case for additional resources. •  Dashboards / Reporting / KPIs.

Demo – Online Graduate Application

•  We wanted a custom application that: –  Prospective students could fill out the app online, –  Lookup of CEEB codes for institutions attended, –  Add education, employment, and activities to a custom objects, –  Be consistent with SIS data for ease of import, and –  Convert the LEAD (if there was one) into an Account & Opportunity.

•  Built it using open source Salesforce API. •  Variants support International and Adult applicants. •  Test drive at: https://apply.ohiodominican.edu/graduate