Case Study
© 2014 Hobsons. All rights reserved worldwide. 50080/14
University of New Brunswick
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 Radius
The 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.
about
www.unb.ca
P
ublic university with two campuses in
the province of New Brunswick, Canada
Student body: 10,850
GOALS
nite the many groups in the College
U
of Extended Learning into one system
Streamline and standardize processes
RESULTS
More than 27,000 contacts created in Radius
ore than 50 staff members trained and
M
active in the system
Internal knowledge base built so that they
can answer many questions themselves
To learn more or to schedule a demo, call (800) 927-8439 or (513) 891-5444 (international).
hobsons.com
Case Study
University of New Brunswick
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.
Lessons Learned
With 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.
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.”
• 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.
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-onone 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.
• Take an “us together” approach. Encourage staff to
share roadblocks and solutions, rather than just complain
about problems.
• 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.
• 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.
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).
hobsons.com