Constituent Relationship Management (CRM)

CRM stands for Constituent Relationship Management. It is a strategy and set of technologies that colleges and universities use to manage their interactions and relationships with students, faculty, staff, alumni and others. An Admissions and Recruitment CRM system allows staff to store and organize prospective student data, track interactions, and provide insights to improve the communications to prospective students and to enhance business processes.

GW’s admissions and recruitment strategy has outgrown our current implementation of Salesforce/TargetX CRM and Slate has been selected as the replacement.

Key Benefits of Slate

Better insights for actionable decisions

• Architect the data for processes and improved integrations
• Improved source tracking for ROI

Increase Applicant engagement

• Implement applicant portals (Undergraduate, Graduate, and Parent/Counselor portals)

Simplification of tools with flexibility

• Consolidate technology investment with better tools
• Two instances to allow for differences between Undergraduate and Graduate * Admissions processes

* For ease of reference, we are referring to the second Slate instance as the “graduate” instance. It will, however, include all of the schools/levels currently using the TargetX online application. Specifically:  graduate programs offered by CCAS, CPS, ESIA, GSEHD, GWSB, SEAS, SMHS, and SON; undergraduate programs offered by CPS, SMHS, and SON; and non-degree programs offered by SMHS, SON, and Summer & Non-Degree.

Reduce manual intervention

• Automated Marketing and engagement activities
• Fully managed system for compliance, security and new features

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Expected Outcomes

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Slate Implementation

Slate will manage domestic and international, undergraduate and graduate, non-degree and online students. The implementation will take place in two phases; see below.

Phase I Implementation (2023-2024)

Phase I Scope: Undergraduate and Graduate pilot with GW School of Business

Timeline:

• September 18, 2023: Project kickoff
• June 1, 2024: Full go-live for Undergraduate Slate
• June 1, 2024: Full go-live for Graduate Pilot for GW School of Business Slate
• June 1, 2024: Portal Launch for Undergraduate and GW School of Business
• July 1, 2024: Undergraduate Slate Transitions from Implementation to Ongoing Support Model

In Phase I, instances will be built for Undergraduate Admissions and Graduate Enrollment Management. While GWSB will be the only school to build their full process and go live in 2024 in the graduate instance, the participation of liaisons from other schools in Phase I (i.e., academic advisors) is designed to ensure success and/or a smooth transition to Phase II.

The Phase I implementation shall commence in August 2023 and be divided into roughly four phases of two and a half months each. Due to the integrated nature of Slate, there will be overlaps between phases and work:

1. Data structure, RFIs and Application build
2. Events management and recruitment funnel communications
3. Application file review, materials, checklists, admitted student and internal processes
4. Data integrations & applicant portals development

Phase II Implementation (2024- 2025)

Phase II Scope: Remaining Graduate Schools/Programs, Portal Enhancements and Support

Timeline:

• July 1, 2024: Graduate Phase II Implementation Project kickoff
• July 1, 2024: UG Parent Portal Kickoff
• August 1, 2024: UG Financial Aid Portal Kickoff
• September 15, 2024: UG Parent Portal Go-Live
• November 1, 2024: UG Financial Aid Portal Go-Live
• June 1, 2025: Full go-live for Remaining Graduate Schools/Programs
• July 1, 2025: Graduate Slate Transitions from Implementation to Ongoing-Support Model

Additional Potential Future Phase

In addition, following Phase II completion of Slate for Undergrad and Grad enrollment, a vendor will work with GW to configure necessary student success elements (i.e., elements currently in use by academic advisors and success coaches in existing tools) in conjunction with the GW Slate team and end users.

Training

The vendor HCRC will provide training during all phases of implementation. In addition, within Slate there is the Learning Lab. This is a learning management system that offers interactive, specialized, and comprehensive online training courses for beginner, intermediate, and advanced Slate users.

Fundamental courses:

• The Slate Fundamentals courses are comprehensive training programs designed to cater to individuals and institutions using Slate.

CRM Manager

The Senior Slate Administrator will provide development and support for event management, inquiry and applicant communication, application cycle, and CRM portal maintenance, and will manage data within the CRM for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and GEM.

This position will be responsible for managing CRM data and development for functional units in undergraduate admissions and assisting graduate enrollment management including but not limited to managing user permissions, data integrity, and error resolution for data pertaining to prospective, applicant, and admitted students; monitoring daily data imports and application platform changes; updating rule-based automation; monitoring counselor and applicant portals; creating documentation of business practices; assisting with account reconciliation; and building data feeds from third-party vendors (e.g., Common App, College Board, ACT/Encoura, SCOIR, CBSS, Strive Scan, Parchment).

Reporting to the Associate Vice Provost for Student Success, once hired this individual will serve as the functional lead in integrating the CRM with the University’s SIS and external systems. It is important to note that this position will be expected to provide training, documentation, and oversight for system users and regularly implement procedures to assist with the enhancement of recruitment and admission processes to enroll each class.

Training of Trainers

The Training of Trainers (ToT) model is intended to engage master trainers in coaching new trainers that are less experienced with a particular topic or skill, or with training overall. Slate uses a “train-the- trainer” implementation model.

A core team of functional leads will serve as GW’s Slate Leads

These Slate Department Leads will attend Fundamentals of Slate online training and ultimately oversee the project.

The Slate Department Leads will:

• Apply current best practices in delivering Slate training.
• Deliver proven facilitative skills to promote learner engagement, reflective practice, critical thinking, and Slate end-user skill acquisition.
• Show mastery in delivering key training strategies commonly used; such as, brainstorming, processing/process checks, roleplays, and practice sessions.
• Use appropriate levels of intervention when managing difficult training situations.

GW’s Slate Department Leads oversee recruitment, application processing, marketing and communications in Graduate Enrollment Management, Office of Admissions, and GWIT.

Phase I Slate Implementation Committee

*Liaison to the other academic advisors

Slate Department Lead	CRM Manager
TBA	Senior Slate Administrator
Tyson Brown	Undergraduate Admissions
Jeanne Fiander	Graduate Enrollment Manager
Kashmira Mehrotra	GWIT
Mark DeLong	Enrollment Marketing & Communications Director
Charlotte McLoud-Whitaker	Director, Orientation
Lisa Bellantuono	School of Business
Helen Snelgrove	Summer & Non-Degree
*Candace Summer- Robinson	Director of Undergraduate Advising for the Columbian College of Arts and Science
Melaku Woube	Enrollment and Student Success
Anna Vakulick	Deputy CIO
Gabrielle Julien-Molineaux	Assistant Vice Provost, Graduate Enrollment Management

Phase II Slate Implementation Committee (Tentative)

Slate Department Lead	Title/Role
TBA	Senior Slate Administrator
Anna Vakulick	Deputy CIO
Tyson Brown	Undergraduate Admissions
Jeanne Fiander	Graduate Enrollment Management
Kashmira Mehrotra	GWIT
Mark DeLong	Enrollment Marketing & Communications Director
Charlotte McLoud-Whitaker	Director, Orientation
Lisa Bellantuono	School of Business
Candace Summer- Robinson	Director of Undergraduate Advising for the Columbian College of Arts and Science
Melissa Busskohl	CCAS
Sam Wimberly	CPS
Nicole Campbell	ESIA
Rebecca Vander Schaaf	GSEHD
Lisa Bellantuono	GWSB
Brittany Wright	SEAS
Janessa Silcox	SMHS
Chelsea Durbin	SON
Helen Snelgrove	Summer & Non-Degree
Melaku Woube	ESS
Gabrielle Julien-Molineaux	Assistant Vice Provost, Graduate Enrollment Management
Heather Renault	Milken Institute School of Public Health
Katherine Cloud	Registrar

Meeting Cadence 

Daily stand-up meetings and Bi-weekly meetings

The Slate Implementation committee will meet both daily and bi-weekly; See below. 

• Daily Stand-up Meeting (1 hour) with inner core
• Bi-weekly meeting (1 hour) with steering committee, replacing the daily meeting on that day

The daily stand-up meeting is a technique popularized by Agile methodologies, with the aim to streamline team communication and quickly address immediate concerns (Hanna & Francino). This meeting type has gained significant traction in software development and project management domains but is increasingly applied across various fields for its effective time management and team alignment benefits (Hanna & Francino).

In a stand-up meeting, each team member answers three key questions:

• What did you do yesterday?
• What will you do today?
• Are there any impediments in your way?

By answering these questions, each team member provides an overview of their tasks, facilitating better visibility into the project's status and potential challenges (Hanna & Francino).

Governance Structure

Steering Committee Role & Responsibilities

• IMPLEMENTATION PLAN and TIMELINE: Prioritize and schedule modules, projects, develops project plans, and oversees the work to be executed by the Slate captains.  
• DATA MAPPING and EXCHANGES: Plans and executes the data mapping between Slate and other university systems (Banner ERM) and makes decisions on system of record, data definitions, and standard procedures.  
• COACH the COACHES SYSTEM TRAINING: Learn the intricacies of Slate system and will then coach others that are less experienced with a particular topic or skill, or with training overall. 
• REGULAR ENGAGEMENT: Attend all scheduled implementation meetings and will submit requested information by the established due dates (i.e., milestone dates). 
• SUBMIT RECOMMENDATIONS: The SLATE Steering Committee makes the implementation and system set-up recommendations to the Vice Provost for Enrollment Management and Student Success.  The VPEMS will work with other GW executive officers and has authority to make confirm final project directions.  

GW IT Support

Lastly, Slate is delivered as a Software as a Service, which means Technolutions (Slate vendor) manages the servers, storage, and application in a cloud hosted environment.  GW IT will play a key role as it relates to the integration of data between Slate and related GW Systems.

GW’s IT division will assist with:

• Networking and Access Management: IT will work with Technolutions (Slate vendor) to configure the connectivity for access and communications with constituents from GW.
• Data Integration and Management: IT will establish data management practices, including data governance, data quality oversight, and data security controls with the integration of university data with Slate.

Updates

• January 2024 Update (PDF)
• February 2024 Update (PDF)
• March 2024 Update (PDF)
• April 2024 Update (PDF)

Implementation Meetings