Enabling Effective Lifetime
Communications for Indiana University
Project Summary - July 2009
Background
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An individual’s relationship with IU begins with a first contact that may occur through participation
in a camp, summer program, recruiting, application to a degree program, event, or via countless
other means. It can continue through educational experiences, event engagement (e.g., Athletics),
alumni affiliation, and/or giving as a benefactor.
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IU has no systematic means of gathering and managing lifecycle information throughout an
individual’s entire evolutionary relationship across many departments, schools, campuses, and
affiliates (Alumni Assoc/Foundation). Thus, communications to individuals – constituents – via print
and electronic media have become highly fragmented. IU schools, departments, campuses, and
affiliates manage fragmented collections of data for a variety of communication campaigns,
newsletters, and announcements. These units contract with a variety of communication tool
companies (e.g, eXactTarget, Delivra, Hobsons, Talisma, etc.) that accumulate even more contact
information into disparate and sometimes out-of-reach databases.
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The absence of any IU coordination mechanism for constituent communication means that
individuals may receive strategic presidential communication mixed in with various newsletters on
the same day or even at the same time; Deans may be unaware of communications even within
their schools or from a campus; Constituents may feel ‘spammed’ by IU; Constituent address and
preference updates provided to one part of IU are unknown to other parts.
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The current approach provides no coherent system of user preferences for a constituent to opt in,
opt out, or set preferences for how s/he wishes to hear from IU.
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Various IU committees and taskforces have examined the challenges that are becoming more acute
with the growing use of electronic communication:
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Ad-hoc Senior Communications Council (2006) began documenting the impediments for IU
to present a consistent image and message.
VP Sample convened a Communications 2.0 Taskforce led by J.T. Forbes in 2007.
The work of both groups evolved to an e-Communications 2.5 plan (Jan 2008).
VP Wheeler convened a Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) Taskforce (Dec
2008).
Tom Martz (Alumni Assoc), Gene Tempel (Foundation), and Brad Wheeler proposed a joint
Statement of Data Principles for ensuring a comprehensive, lifetime view of an individual
(June 2009).
CRM systems have become an essential tool for student recruitment, and different departmental
systems have evolved at the IUB (Hobsons) and IUPUI (Talisma) admissions offices. Some regional
campuses have adopted or plan to adopt a CRM. A natural evolution is to use CRM systems to
continue communicating with students during school, and this is fueling adoption interests from
other departments for various CRM capabilities. Each system needs technical interfaces to receive
and update the Student Information System (SIS). University and Core schools that span campuses
(e.g., Graduate School, Education, Kelley, Nursing, etc.), administrative offices (e.g., President,
Public and Government Relations (PAGR), Student Enrollment Services (SES)), and affiliates are
caught between data and skill requirements for multiple CRM systems. Some regional campuses
have opted into one system or another using a variety of in-house or hosted service models.
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The Alumni\Foundation Information System (A\FIS) is approaching end-of-lifecycle and will need to
be replaced by 2011.
Adopted Recommendation
Implement a university-wide data and communications platform with policies, support, and
training to maximize the value of lifetime communications with constituents.
IU will be among the first, if not the first, major university in the nation to elevate constituent
communications to a university-wide platform with a full lifecycle model of data management. Given the
growth of disparate data, systems, and practices across the campuses of IU and affiliates, it will never be
easier than now to align communications at IU on a common set of CRM tools.
In the absence of a university-wide plan, IU would have continued disparate expenditures and spent more
from many varied sources without the benefit of leveraging IU’s buying power and data integration with
other systems. A university-wide system can enable better targeted communications and cumulative data
for each constituent.
The means of implementing the recommendation will integrate the various committee and taskforce
recommendations via a holistic approach. Highlights include:
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UITS will install Campus Management Corp’s Talisma-CampusCRM™ as an enterprise platform
integrated with SIS and other data sources. Any school or administrative unit on any IU campus,
the Alumni Association, and the Foundation can use the CRM without additional license,
maintenance, or campaign usage fees for the term of the six year (renewable) agreement.
PAGR, Alumni Association, and the Foundation will coordinate use policies for effective
communication across all campus units (with the support of the OVPIT Policy Office and Knowledge
Base).
OVPIT/SES/Campuses/Alumni/Foundation will implement data policies to ensure efficient lifecycle
management of constituent data.
Implementation consulting from Campus Management Corp. will be purchased at a fixed rate with
a ‘train-the-trainer’ mentality to reduce implementation costs for campuses and units.
The Foundation plans to invest expertise and resources to further develop the Campus
Management CampusCornerstone donor system to its needs with full integration with TalismaCampusCRM™.
The university will charter Executive and Implementation Committees to ensure effectiveness in
the evolution of the system and policies.
The rollout of the CRM system and migrations are expected to occur over 18-24 months. Additional
information regarding the project and an FAQ are posted in the Knowledge Base at http://kb.iu.edu.