PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 22, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The University of New Haven Admissions Office saved over a quarter of a million sheets of paper during the first year they switched over to TargetX's mobile applicant review solution, Decision Cloud.
"Before Decision Cloud, we had an entire room full of paper," said Kevin Phillips, Associate VP of Enrollment Management at University of New Haven. "We printed out thousands of applications for our admissions counselors to review."
Reduced paper consumption was only one of the efficiency measures University of New Haven sought when they implemented Decision Cloud. As the reputation of the top-tier private institution located in West Haven, CT grew nationwide, the admissions team worked overtime to keep up with piles of applications streaming in. In 2010, Phillips prioritized applicant response time.
Like many other colleges, Phillips hoped to connect the sheer number of applications they received to the following year's enrolled class. "Applications were up, but we wanted to make sure that we were attracting the right kind of students and hitting our enrollment targets."
Enter Decision Cloud. The mobile review app, which integrates seamlessly into all CRM databases (including TargetX's Recruitment Cloud), helped UNH centralize access to various components of student application files (essays, SAT scores, recommendation letters etc.) for the entire admissions team whether counselors were sitting in a high school parking lot or on a plane. Moreover, the mobile tool's structured data, customized scorecard (a customizable scoring rubric) and ability to annotate "on the go" both focused and expedited a swift collaborative application review process for the school.
The result? Students heard back from UNH more quickly and admissions counselors gained the time to correspond with students on a much more personal level.
"Decision Cloud optimizes the recruitment process for virtually every stage of the admissions process, improving the exchange between admissions teams, and with students," said Sasha Peterson, CEO of TargetX. "It's a robust and elegant UX solution that facilitates exciting cross-review and scoring rubric functions for admissions teams."
After implementing Decision Cloud, Phillips has observed a marked increase in academic quality among their student body (the average GPA went from 3.1 to 3.5) and a boost in the institution's yield within a highly competitive market. For the school's college admissions team, all of whom used to work weekends--and lug heavy stacks of student files on the road to keep up with their incoming applications, Decision Cloud was a welcome game-changer.
"Decision Cloud frees up a ton of time for our staff, while keeping it personal for students," said Phillips.
About The University of New Haven
The University of New Haven is a private, top-tier comprehensive institution recognized as a national leader in experiential education. Founded in 1920 on the campus of Yale University in cooperation with Northeastern University, UNH moved to its current West Haven campus in 1960 and opened its Orange Campus in January, 2014. The University operates a satellite campus in Tuscany, Italy, and offers programs at several locations throughout Connecticut and in New Mexico. UNH enrolls more than 4,600 undergraduates and 1,800 graduate students and provides its students with a unique combination of a solid liberal arts education and real-world, hands-on career and research opportunities.
About TargetX
Since 1998, TargetX has served as an innovative force in the field of higher education, helping colleges and universities customize and implement effective and innovative technology solutions. A leading CRM company, TargetX provides a campuswide solution to help colleges build relationships and forge lifelong communications with their most important constituencies, including prospective students, current students, alumni and potential donors. The company's CRM is built on the powerful development platform of Salesforce.com— the worldwide leader in customer relationship management and a pioneer in cloud computing. With its 16-year reputation for innovative technology and industry expertise, TargetX has become one of the most trusted CRM providers in higher education.