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Making Technology Decisions for the Admissions Office

by Alex Brown, Jeniffer Chizuk, Alex Duke, Janice Lee, and Todd Reale

Selections Expanded Article content

Candidates can now learn of our admissions decisions almost as soon as we make them. Increasingly, they expect to do so. Candidates are now able to discuss business school applications with one another without having business schools control the conversations. As much as we may or may not embrace the possibilities new technologies offer our business, our peers are embracing them, and our candidates expect us to do the same. Technology does not simply offer automation—it is substantively changing our business processes.

We used to communicate with prospects, applicants, and admits using the phone and mail, and in person. Now databases, e-mail, and the World Wide Web facilitate our communications. Our audiences have come to expect a somewhat self-serve environment in which they can access information in real time and receive automatic e-mails as information is updated. Schools have many new options for storing, targeting, and disseminating information for their various audiences.

Here is what you need to know to make wise decisions about what technology you require and how to get it from the source that is right for you. Although we mention certain vendors by name, they are merely examples. We do not intend to recommend any particular vendors.

Surveying the Technology Landscape
The first things to consider when choosing from among technology options are the strategic goals of your office. Basically, they involve communicating with potential and current applicants (includes a marketing function), processing applications, and evaluating applications.

Since technology has had a significant impact on communications, we will look closely at some of the elements involved in making decisions about it.

Specific technologies for improving communications include databases; targeted e-mail programs; online applications and CD-ROMs to replace or supplement catalogs or viewbooks; Web site customer service; event scheduling; reporting application status and decisions; and hosting discussion boards and portals.

Databases. Databases have been adopted in some form by all schools to track application and inquiry information. Databases should be connected to the Web site so candidates can add their data directly through inquiry forms, scheduling systems, and online applications. This automatic addition of information to a database enables a school to segment and target prospects (assuming information is properly collected), to communicate more easily with prospects and applicants, and to process information more efficiently.

Online applications. Online applications are used by many schools to make it easier to apply. These schools have either built their own online applications, have a university-wide online application system, or have adopted an application system from a third-party vendor (Embark, EDUlink, and ApplyYourself appear to be among the most common). You can select more than one online application to be hosted on your Web site and on a network (such as Embark).

The online application is one of the first and most important communications your candidates will see. So the choice to have one or not, and the application you choose, can affect your marketing significantly. This year, business schools are reporting that many applicants are applying online.

Web site. A school’s Web site is increasingly used to communicate information to applicants and potential applicants. The site plays multiple roles: communications and public relations (getting the right information out there); customer service (FAQs, status and decision releases); transactions (online applications and scheduling systems); and community building (discussion boards, open and password protected). The Web site can also be used to direct information to subsets of applicants. Certainly, those admitted to programs now expect customized information, delivered through a portal limited to admitted students. Such portals can provide information and build a sense of community before admitted students arrive on campus (and encourage them to select your school). The Web site should be the centerpiece of your marketing plan and all other marketing pieces designed to drive people to the Web site.

Because the Web site is the link between applicants and the admissions office, it is important to consider thoroughly who is in charge of its design and maintenance—the MBA program office, an advertising agency, the business school, the IT department, or the university public relations office. The Web site is far more than a public relations tool, like a catalog; so decisions as to who controls it are complex. Control should lie with people who understand a school’s business, customer service, and transaction needs and goals. They should, of course, be aware that the Web site may need to be updated at any time.

A Web site can continually evolve, but other technologies will be fairly static (for instance, you cannot change your online application midway through an admissions cycle) and adopting them will require a long-term commitment. For the individual software applications that are delivered through or integrate with your Web site, you will need to determine the best technology solutions for your long-term needs.

Choosing Software Solutions
When making these technology decisions, you will need to address some basic questions.

• Do you need the technology to meet your goals?
   
  To answer this, you need to weigh the benefits (which may include greater processing efficiencies and greater marketing effect) against the costs (which may include capital outlay as well as training costs and costs associated with changing business processes and procedures). You also need to take a realistic look at the ability of your staff and budget to support a technology solution.

Some technology decisions are made for you. For example, if all your peer schools have an online application, you may need one to remain competitive. Other decisions—say, whether an online scheduling system will be more effective than a telephone-and-paper system—will be within your control, but may require research.

• Should you buy an integrated technology system (which includes multiple required components) or buy the best individual components (e.g., database, online application, and scheduling system)?
   
  The answer is less than clear-cut. Individual components give you the flexibility to buy the best for each component and have more control over individual vendors. But the failure of components to mesh properly could result in compromising overall functionality. In addition, individual components might require you to decide which data you want to integrate directly and which you will hand key.
   
  Buying an integrated system (e.g., EDUlink or ApplyYourself, both of which include a database with other applications) should by definition avoid the problems of integrating data from multiple systems. Regardless of which route you take, you will need to take into account the attendant IT overhead. An integrated system may require a smaller initial investment for installation and integration than individual components, but it will still require technology support and maintenance.

• Should you buy, make, or outsource technology development?
   
  Developing your own technology internally is likely to provide more control over the development and upgrading. You will also have control over the lifetime of the product and will not be exposed to the risk of losing vendor service.
   
  A homegrown system is also proprietary. If you believe that what you develop will allow you to do things your peers cannot do (or are not likely to do for some time), then you could, in the view of some, gain a competitive edge. But bear in mind that internal development is likely to cost a lot more than buying from a vendor—who, after all, can spread the development costs over multiple clients. You should also anticipate the cost of upgrades.

If you decide to develop software solutions in house, make sure you consider these issues:

• If the developer leaves, will the product have been built so that another developer can produce upgraded versions?
   
  
• Does the product require providing customer service for your applicants, and if so, is your IT department equipped to provide the service needed?
   
  
• Do you want to resell the product to clients to generate additional revenue, and if so, was the system designed for commercial use?

Evaluating Software Vendors
The technology industry is evolving rapidly, and the vendors who provide software applications frequently change identities or disappear altogether. Multiapp is no longer. Embark is now a part of Princeton Review. EDUlink is emerging from the University of Virginia’s Darden School. ApplyYourself is expanding its customer base. Exeter is becoming Banner, and Prospero Technologies (maker of discussion board software) is now Inforonics.

If you decide to buy commercial, off-the-shelf software or outsource the development of your technology solutions, you should evaluate the following aspects of potential vendors:

• Business model: Is it in synch with your needs?
   
  
• Goals for growth: You may be an important customer now, but will you be later, when the vendor acquires more business?
   
  
• Customer service: What is the response time on support calls? How do you reach the vendor? What are the support guarantees? Who is responsible for applicant support issues? Is customer support 24/7? Are customer support resources scalable, so that as the vendor’s customer base grows, the quality and responsiveness of customer support will remain consistent?  
  
  
• What is the track record of the company and its products? Are you willing to work with a new young company and a version 1.0 product, and if so, will you be adequately compensated for that risk?
   
  
• The license of the product: Who owns the product and code? Who can make code changes, and who owns the changes? What happens to the code if the vendor ceases operations?
   
  
• Customer base: Does the vendor know your market? To what extent is it familiar with graduate management education or education in general?
   
  
• Integration history with other products and vendors: How does the product work with specific platforms, other vendors’ products and school IT departments?
   
  
• Payments: Up-front lump sum or a regular billing cycle? If there is no schedule of payments and all the vendor’s revenue is generated from new sales, there is limited incentive to offer customer support.

Remember that purchasing technology is not like buying a car. Upgrades to the surface of a road will still allow a car to function the same as before. Upgrades to a software platform may necessitate changes to the components hosted on that platform to keep all elements of the system functioning properly. And upgrades are inevitable.

Outsourcing Technology Development
If the product you are looking for does not exist on the market, you may wish to outsource development. You should consider these important issues in addition to the issues involved in selecting the right software vendor.

The practicality of the project timeline. Timelines are always optimistic. They usually budget time for coding a product, but not for proper architecture or testing. You have to test repeatedly. Test the component separately and then within the entire system. Simulate full-load testing, and conduct usability tests not only with those who built the technology but also with those who know nothing about it. Novices may reveal weaknesses not evident to people too close to the project.

The firmness of the project goals. Make sure to lock in business goals before design and implementation. Once a product is half built and you as a customer can begin to fully appreciate its capabilities, you will think of additional features that can be added. Save these for version 2.0. There is nothing developers dislike more than “mission creep”—except perhaps unreproducible bugs in the software!

Part of a Much Bigger Picture
Decisions about what technology to use affect the entire system of links among your office, your applicants, the various interfaces in between, and the university as a whole. It is important to understand how the myriad components of the system connect with one another and to make technology decisions within the context of the entire system.

Your system of communications used to be fairly straightforward and somewhat closed: It was your office, your applicant pool, your catalog, your paper application, the telephone and the mail service, and other offices within the university.

Now your system has more and more far-reaching tentacles. It can include your Web site, your online application, scheduling systems, e-mail campaigns and autoresponders, your database, your voicemail, the people answering your phones, people keying information into your database, your candidates, and other offices within the university. Given these many variables and the fact that any disconnect could keep you from realizing the full potential of your technology investment, you should test your entire communications system thoroughly. Your system should be flexible enough to be modified, but keep in mind that because of the interconnectedness of the system, any change you make in the future may have far-reaching implications you did not anticipate.

It’s also important to look at your system of communications from the perspective of an applicant who is interacting with admissions offices at multiple schools. Communication with prospects, applicants, and admits used to be fairly standardized across schools. We never gave out decisions over the phone or through e-mail—only paper correspondence was considered official. Interview appointments were made over the phone. Everyone did things the same way.

Now, with some schools breaking out of this mold and offering more progressive forms of communication, schools doing things the traditional way may feel pressure to change. Customers want easier, quicker access to information, and since they get it from some schools, they expect it from all schools. Technology changes and decision making can be daunting, to be sure, but if you rise to the challenge and make informed decisions, you will find many opportunities for growth, innovation, and success. //

Alex Brown is senior associate director of admissions and financial aid at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; Jennifer Chizuk is director of the MBA program at the Broad Graduate School of Management, Michigan State University; Alex Duke is director of admissions for executive and fully employed MBA programs at the Anderson School, University of California, Los Angeles; Janice Lee is a technology specialist at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; and Todd Reale is director of MBA admissions and marketing at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University.

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© Selections: Spring 2002