edu12 engage
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"Consumerization of IT Services: Lessons Learned Building a Private Social Network" presentation for EDUCAUSE 2012, November 8, 2012TRANSCRIPT
Consumerization of IT Services
Lessons learned from building a private social network
Ryan Fisher
George Leventis
Soren King
Fred Miller
About Furman University
● Private liberal arts university● 750 acres campus in Greenville, South Carolina● 2700 undergraduates● 96% live on-campus● Division 1 athletics
About you...
● Which social networks do you use? Institution strategy?● Use a mobile device? Institution mobile strategy?● BYOD?● App development?
What is it?
Consumers driving more innovation
Consumers
Industry Govt. / Legal
Consortia
Higher Ed Institution
Foundations
Affecting Institutions’ Strategy
Strategic
Operational
ConsumerizationDigitization
(Information Architecture)
Innovation
Collaboration
Communication
Service
The Furman Engage Social Network
● Rationale● Milestones● Screenshots● Agile without the mumbo jumbo● Results● Lessons Learned● Next Steps
Custom Social Network, The Rationale
Goal 1: to help recruit new students; increase applications
Goal 2: Create an online community of Furman constituents
Benefits:
● More applicants with better fit
● Current student job placement
● More donations from an engaged alumni base
● Informed parents
Why not just use Facebook?
● 2009 Facebook is a "walled garden"
● Facebook app not sufficient
● No support to brands on Facebook
● Student focus groups still saw Facebook as a place only for socializing
Tour
Milestones
● 3rd party development started in 2009
● Fall 2010 Go-Live
● March 2011: Development shifted to IT
● August 2011: Furman Alumni Network (FAN)
● Two Recruiting Seasons
● 2012: Applications increase 25%
Challenges
● 2009 Economic downturn
● 2010 - 2011 Leadership changes
● Rising expectations in social media
● July 2012 SEO spammers kill blogs
Course Correction - March 2011
● New Management● Costs rising● Improvements slowing...
What is Agile Software Development?
Agile software development is a group of software development methods based on iterative and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams.
Source: Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development
Hunh?!?
Agile without the mumbo jumbo
● Small team of two IT developers, a Marketing person, and an Admissions person
● Used Google Docs as a task list
● Met weekly to review what was completed and what was next
● Reordered the list as priorities changed
Lessons Learned 1
● Modular approach
● Consider Information Architecture
● Collaboration is key
● Agile techniques can work
More Lessons Learned
● Need a dedicated auditor/content seeder● Consider available resources● Consider time constraints● Prepare for change and buy-in● Vendor choice is critical
Innovation within the IT Portfolio
● Strategic Innovations
● Infrastructure
● Information Management
● Transaction Processing
Incr
easi
ng R
isk
Adapted from Ross and Weil, IT Savvy: What Top Executives Must Know to Go from Pain to Gain, Harvard Business Press, 2009, fig. 3-2.
Custom Social Network, The Results 1
Goal 1: to help recruit new students; increase applications
Custom Social Network, The Results 2
Goal 2: Create an online community of Furman constituents
- Prospective students use
- FAN engages alumni to help recruiting
- Most current students, faculty, and staff do not use
So, to answer the question...
Should a university build its own private social network, or use a consumer service like Facebook?
Next Steps
● Facebook, Twitter, etc.
● News & web innovations
● Cloud Admissions: SAAS
● Cloud Mobile: IAAS
● Office 365
● Box
Consumerization: final thoughts
What if... ● buying department or
enterprise software was as easy as buying an app from an app store?