University of New Brunswick Case Study

hobsons.com To learn more or to schedule a demo, call (800) 927-8439 or (513) 891-5444 (international).

abouT www.unb.ca

Public university with two campuses in the province of New Brunswick, Canada

Student body: 10,850

As the largest public university in the province of New Brunswick, UNB enrolls 10,850 students across two campus locations. The larger campus in the province’s political capital of Fredericton is home to 8,300 students; the newer campus (which is celebrating its 50th anniversary) is home to 2,550 students in the city of Saint John. The university is using Radius in its College of Extended Learning, which offers undergraduate courses and degrees for adult students, career training certificates and seminars, non-credit courses, English language study, and programs for children.

Goodbye Sticky Notes, Hello RadiusThe University of New Brunswick’s College of Extended Learning encompasses a number of units and more than 50 employees. Prior to Radius, each unit had its own organizational methods—including Excel sheets, Word docs, and even sticky notes. “We needed some better way to record our information and contact our clients,” says Dawn Dignam, the College of Extended Learning’s CRM and social media analyst.

As the staff studied the big picture of managing prospects and students, it became clear that a CRM would streamline processes and increase access to information. They interviewed three providers, including Hobsons, and ultimately decided on Radius. “We had asked the questions and we just got the answers we wanted,” Dignam says.

“It was kind of that simple.”

As with any big change, implementing Radius has had some rough patches. Some people didn’t want to give up their comfortable processes, or even their sticky notes. “It’s a big deal if that’s what you’re used to,” Dignam says. But plenty of people “were gung ho and went with it and were really positive,” she says, and now Radius is running smoothly.

© 2

014

Ho

bso

ns. A

ll ri

ght

s re

serv

ed w

orl

dw

ide.

5

00

80

/14

GoaLS Unite the many groups in the College of Extended Learning into one system

Streamline and standardize processes

RESuLTS More than 27,000 contacts created in Radius

More than 50 staff members trained and active in the system

Internal knowledge base built so that they can answer many questions themselves

University of New Brunswick Case Study

hobsons.com

About Hobsons

Hobsons helps educators, administrators, students, and families maximize success through every stage of the learning lifecycle. Hobsons’ personalized learning, academic planning, post-secondary enrollment, and student support solutions serve millions of students across more than 7,500 schools, colleges, and universities worldwide.

To learn more or to schedule a demo, call (800) 927-8439 or (513) 891-5444 (international).

ask the Right Questions and Make It Fun

“Prior to ever going live, we talked to each and every staff member here,” Dignam says. She wanted to make sure she knew what the staff wanted and what their expectations were. By drilling down to the most basic things like terminology—do you call it a student number or a student ID?—she helped the staff figure out how they would input information and what they could get out of the system.

Through this process Dignam quickly learned that “different people are at different levels with their comfort in technology,” and that was largely attributable to a generation gap (the staff ranges from 20-something to 60+). No matter their technology skills, everyone appreciated the ways she infused fun into the process. At the start of the implementation, she had stress balls made in the shape of the college’s director. “We threw them out to everybody one day and said if this stresses you out, squeeze him … I think that helped quite a bit, just having it fun.”

Even with a fun start, there were bound to be pain points. As each new unit started up, Dignam would hear frustrated sighs of “this isn’t working” from the staff.

“What I would try to do is just spend more time one-on-one and say: show me how you think it’s not working.” From there she could listen to the problem and show how Radius actually did work, if you approached the problem in a different way. As the staff learned more about the system, they became adept at coming up with solutions.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time we kind of resolved it in house, without having to go to Hobsons,” Dignam says.

Lessons LearnedWith Radius implementation nearly complete across all units and a year of experience under their belts, the staff at UNB’s College of Extended Learning are happy to share some lessons they’ve learned:

• Align your processes before you begin. “The CRM is a wonderful tool, but if you don’t know how you’re going to use it prior to using it, that would make for a lot of corrections and a lot of backtracking,” Dignam says.

• Provide a way to ask for help. UNB created a central e-mail address for any Radius-related questions and aims for a 24-hour turnaround on responses.

• Training doesn’t stop. UNB’s biweekly Hob-bits newsletter is a great, ongoing forum for sharing tips and tricks. During regular open training hours, Dignam reserves a conference room so she can to be available in person to answer Radius questions. And each staff member has a binder of processes and documentation they can refer back to.

• Take an “us together” approach. Encourage staff to share roadblocks and solutions, rather than just complain about problems.

• Celebrate your successes. Dignam has put up a bulletin board in her office where the team notes recent CRM successes, such as when they created their first bilingual forms, and where she posts upcoming events being handled through Radius.