Centralizing College Student Data

Colleges and universities work tirelessly to bring in more dollars to support their bottom line. Increasing the number of new programs and initiatives that engage students with their education and better prepare them for life after graduation is a great way to encourage funding.

For Central New Mexico Community College (CNM), this meant the creation of several new programs for students and the community. In 2014, CNM created their community education program, CNM Ingenuity, to support a new approach to education that provides accelerated educational and training opportunities in key workforce areas. The creation of new programs like Ingenuity and the expansion of credit programs meant CNM needed a streamlined way to manage a revolving door of data from students and administrators. So they turned to Formstack for Salesforce.

With Formstack for Salesforce, they were able to simplify the data collection process for their coding bootcamps and increase the success of student programs as a whole. Additionally, through this process, they’ve become more agile and more equipped to continue growing their student programming.

Challenge

As the largest community college in New Mexico serving over 22,000 students, CNM provides affordable higher education throughout Albuquerque and its surrounding areas. While CNM strives to create an engaging experience for their credit students, their non-credit programs and alternative education opportunities for the community create spaces for people to learn outside of the typical campus environment.

With so many programs and projects going on, CNM knew they needed to unify their data sets to efficiently follow students as they sign up for different programs. CNM was interested in gaining a better understanding of the students they work with and the different stakeholders in the community. They knew this data would help them better serve their community, but in the past, they were unable to bring data from disparate systems together.

Solution

A lot of colleges and universities are on two different systems for credit and non-credit education. Integrated systems are becoming more and more important as non-traditional education options become more popular.

CNM wanted to break this trend. They went in search of one platform that could hold all their student data regardless of what program the student was participating in. Implementing Salesforce for students participating in both credit and non-credit programs was a great fix. For example, CNM houses all student data for their Ingenuity program within Salesforce. This allows Ingenuity to be a part of the larger institution while still giving them the opportunity to implement processes that help the program achieve its unique goals.

Unfortunately, CNM still ran into a problem after implementing Salesforce. Students would often sign up for a program with one email and name and then sign up for a second program with a different email and name.

“This caused a huge problem with tying these two records together. We needed to fix this,” said Katy Woodward, Marketing Manager at Central New Mexico Community College.

When CNM started looking for ways to address their duplicate record issues, they found Formstack’s Salesforce app. This app allows users to submit a record using a login. There is no need to collect personal information because users can use single sign-on to enter data and only submit the data specific to the program. This reduces the duplicate data problem.

Additionally, Formstack for Salesforce allows users to write to any object in the connected Salesforce org. The Salesforce Interaction Studio, coupled with Formstack for Salesforce, allows CNM to use more thorough matching methods than other form tools.

Outcome

The features provided across Salesforce and Formstack for Salesforce have given CNM increased data accuracy and ease of communication.

These features help CNM continue to expand their programs and improve communication with their students. For example, CNM was able to embed a list view on their forms for different programs. For their coding bootcamps, CNM can show a real-time list of the programs that have availability without having to go into the form to update the list. Using Formstack for Salesforce, students can see an updated overview of programs as soon as the list updates in Salesforce.

“With Salesforce and Formstack for Salesforce, we have an accurate and reliable database of both prospective and active students with fewer duplicates creating confusing, and less manual upkeep of forms and data. Formstack for Salesforce helps us make Salesforce a one-stop-shop for the day-to-day work of our staff,” said Brad Endres, CRM Solutions Architect at Central New Mexico Community College.

CNM continues to work on expanding their credit and non-credit program offerings. As they work closely with local businesses and employers, they’re looking forward to having all their data in one place to streamline communication and help audiences find the programs related to their interests.

Want to learn more? Listen to this Ripple Effect podcast episode featuring Bill Halverson and Erin Maestas of CNM Ingenuity.