Multicolored HTML text overlaid on honeycomb graphic with lense glare

Key Takeaways from Salesforce.org Education Summit

/in , , , , /by

After attending Salesforce Education Summit, I came away energized and excited about the future of the platform. It is impressive to see the amazing work that has been done by schools and universities from all over the world. From our client, the University of Colorado’s demo showing how their digital-first initiatives have improved relationships with students, to Monash University in Australia sharing how they were able to pivot and provide online plans to ensure students could continue to learn while at home during the pandemic, the case studies clearly illustrated the power of Salesforce when used effectively.

At Attain Partners, we believe that is the key to success with Salesforce.org products—we provide both platform and implementation expertise to not only help our clients get set up with Salesforce, but to harness its capabilities for its greatest potential solving each institution’s individual business problems. Taking these amazing tools and using them both strategically and efficiently is the sweet spot where Attain Partners thrives.

During Education Summit, I really enjoyed seeing the platform in action and hearing how it has truly transformed the way organizations engage with students, allowing me to further develop my own expertise of these exciting tools and the myriad ways they can be used to improve business operations in education. In my opinion, this is the best part of attending conferences like Education Summit. See below for key takeaways from my favorite sessions from the Summit and links to watch each session on your own.

Large College, Small Staff: How Marketing Automation Can Help

In today’s world where organizations are tasked with doing more with less, learning how to maximize your investment is vital. This session focused on Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) and how they utilized marketing automation to improve engagement and performance rates. Many organizations struggle with the decision to take the leap and NOVA discussed how they took the first steps with Salesforce and Pardot to build a foundation for future growth. Click here to see their session.

Alumni and Friends: UChicago’s Implementation of Experience with UC Innovation

The world of advancement and alumni relations focuses on bringing engagement strategies into the 21st century to make the most of the ever-changing world of technology. This session shows how the University of Chicago and UC Innovation developed a solution that was experience-first. This solution brought resources together and provides lifelong learning opportunities based on the user’s interest. Click here to learn more.

Student Success and Salesforce: CU Boulder’s 6-Year Journey

The University of Colorado now has over 30 business units throughout campus utilizing the Salesforce platform and Attain Partners is proud to be its trusted, strategic implementation partner since 2012. Having worked with them from the beginning of their evolution, we have had the privilege of serving on a variety of projects across multiple campuses and at the system level. It has been an honor to help them leverage a series of Salesforce products to increase both efficiency and engagement. This session clearly illustrates how data collected from custom-built applications help drive student success throughout the organization. Click here to learn more.

Learn more

These highlights are just a few of the amazing sessions that were at the Education Summit. They demonstrate some of the capabilities of the Salesforce platform when it comes to providing a full student experience and illustrate that with a trusted implementation partner, achieving your business goals can be a painless process. No matter if your organization is beginning its Salesforce journey or 10+ years into development, there’s always room for improvement and growth. Contact Attain Partners today to learn how we can help you achieve your goals by harnessing the power of Salesforce.

About the Author

Chad Simmons is an Associate Business Development Director at Attain Partners. Since 2013, Chad has helped hundreds of organizations implement innovative technology solutions designed to meet their complex needs. Chad’s focus is demonstrating the value of the Salesforce Platform and Attain Partners’ services to higher education and healthcare clients.

Communication network concept. Digital transformation.

Understanding SaaS Products and How They Can Benefit Your Organization

/in , , /by

What is SaaS?

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a business model that has risen to prominence in recent years, and then skyrocketed under the global COVID-19 lockdown. However, even as SaaS products, such as Salesforce, Slack, Spotify, and more, have become household names, the exact nature of a SaaS product is still elusive to many. It certainly does not help that, as is often the case with software buzzwords, SaaS is frequently misused or used in a misleading way. Correctly understanding the concept of SaaS is critical to assessing SaaS products and vendors, as well as in determining if SaaS is right for you. So, to set the record straight, read on for a quick guide on the basics of SaaS.

SaaS is like booking a hotel room

When you want to rent a place to stay for a period of time, two options often come to mind: renting an apartment or booking a hotel room. While both provide you a place to stay and certain basic amenities in exchange for a time-based payment rate, there is generally very little you must do to get set up in a hotel room, whereas setting up an apartment can take a lot of work. Also, while you may have to bring up issues to your apartment landlord and sometimes wait days or weeks for a resolution, the hotel generally takes care of everything behind the scenes. Additionally, leasing an apartment is generally a much bigger commitment than booking a hotel room. Although, on the flip side, you usually have very limited control in a hotel room, whereas you usually get a lot more freedom with your apartment.

Software mirrors this example of real estate quite closely. In the world of software, renting is referred to as licensing. SaaS is a form of licensing that is analogous to the hotel room in the above example. Traditional software licensing, such as installing software to your computer and then entering a token to prove that you have paid to use the software, is similar to the apartment, where you generally have to spend some time setting things up on your machine or system, and if there are any issues, you often have to reach out to support, tell them about your machine/system and the issue you are facing, and then hope they resolve the issues in a reasonable period of time. Also, if you decide you no longer want the software, you are generally responsible for uninstalling and cleaning up your machines.

SaaS products, on the other hand, allow vendors to set up new tenants, remove tenants who cancel their subscription, address issues, and release updates all on their own. Ideally, this allows SaaS products to deliver a similar experience to that of a good hotel: you check-in, unpack, use it as long as you want, and then leave if/when you decide, all while everything is cleaned and maintained for you. Of course, just as not all hotels provide a pleasant stay, not all SaaS products live up to this experience, as some require significant set-up periods or are not maintained and updated as seamlessly as they could be.

The implications of SaaS

While SaaS can provide many benefits, such as quick set-up and seamless updates, this reduced burden comes with the side effect of additional reliance on the vendor. Just as a guest at a hotel relies on the hotel staff to make sure their room is available to them, in good condition, and secured from others, SaaS users are largely reliant on their software vendor ensuring the availability, quality, and security of their software. With a good SaaS vendor, this is a benefit, as with traditional software licenses, the consumer is more responsible in maintaining and updating their software.

If you’ve ever had to wait hours for your computer to update or seen news stories of companies that delayed updating their software for months/years and then fell victim to a cybersecurity attack, then you’re familiar with some of the drawbacks of traditional software updates.

However, with a bad SaaS vendor, this can result in significant system down-time, unexpected and undesired changes to the system, and/or vulnerabilities that expose your data. This means SaaS vendors should generally be vetted more thoroughly than traditional software vendors, as a SaaS vendor is not just providing you with software, but also with a service.

To SaaS or not to SaaS?

With all else equal, a good SaaS product is almost always a better choice than a good traditional software product as it allows you and the vendor to both take advantage of economies of scale, while providing you with greater convenience. However, rarely are all things equal. So ultimately, it is still important to assess products on a case-by-case basis. Just don’t forget all the important benefits of SaaS: quick setup, regular updates, and behind-the-scenes maintenance, all of which save time and money for your organization. If you find a trustworthy vendor, SaaS products are extremely efficient.

Attain Partners’ SaaS products

We have several SaaS products in development based on our years of expertise consulting with top academic and research institutions. More information about our Attain Apps product line will be available soon. In the meantime, check out our newest SaaS product: Attain Density.

In our next SaaS post, we’ll discuss exactly how to assess a SaaS vendor, as well as provide some insights on the teams that generally make up a SaaS vendor.

If you’re interested in learning more or want to share your thoughts, please contact us here or reach out to the authors below. As creators of Attain Apps, we are a SaaS vendor ourselves, and we always enjoy sharing, learning, and collaborating with customers.

About the Authors

Sander Altman

Sander Altman is the Chief Architect for the Product and Innovation business at Attain Partners. As the technical leader behind Attain Apps since its formation in 2017, Sander has extensive experience with the technology empowering the platform, as well as a developed understanding of the subject matter covered by the various products within the platform. With a background in AI and Intelligent Systems, as well as an M.S. and a B.S. in Computer Science, Sander has focused on providing institutions with intelligent and easy-to-use software to optimize their academic and research enterprises.

Alexander Brown

Alexander Brown is the Practice Leader for the Product and Innovation business at Attain Partners. Alex is responsible for the full product lifecycle of the Attain Apps product line, which features the firm’s cornerstone intellectual properties distilled into easy-to-use SaaS products. With a background in economics, and experience as a designer, developer, and consultant himself, Alex works hand-in-hand with experts and developers to create products that provide academic and research institutions with best practices and insights in an affordable and convenient package.

CRM Dashboard

Four Steps for Effective Vendor Management

/in , , , , , , , , /by

Vendor Data Management for Optimal Procurement Performance

Effective vendor data management is foundational to an efficient procurement process. It drives savings through strategic sourcing, vendor discounts, efficient cash flow management, and increases customer satisfaction. By proactively managing vendors, an organization can better utilize financial resources, help ensure regulatory compliance, and drive critical improvements to the procurement process. Vendor management can also support key business metrics, contract terms adherence, and improve business reporting, which leads to better overall decision-making.

In contrast, poor vendor management can negatively impact an organization’s growth and pause innovation. Vendor data management can sometimes be an afterthought that, if not well integrated into the larger procurement lifecycle, has the potential to drive several sub-optimal outcomes. Negative outcomes can be a multitude of things such as inconsistent business processes, loss of revenue, poor vendor relationships, and regulatory risks. This blog discusses four steps for effective vendor management: assess, sterilize, stabilize, and optimize.

Four Steps for Effective Vendor Management

Assess

The first step, Assess, is the process of evaluating the current state of the data management process and the associated needs. This step is pivotal as it allows the institution to understand the existing challenges that will need resolution.

Sterilize

The second step, Sterilize, focuses on eliminating duplication, identifying missing data, correcting invalid data, deleting inactive or obsolete accounts, and creating new rules for the process. Sterilization is one of the most time-consuming steps of the process as it is the most granular examination of the data and requires the most “corrective” action.  

Stabilize

The third step, Stabilize, consists of outlining the standards, completing the vendor profiles, and documenting duties both in and out of the vendor management system. Stabilization establishes a standard and consistent procedure and implements rules that will continue the sustainment of the improved process.

Optimize

Finally, the fourth step, Optimize, focuses on vendor self-service, mitigating fraud and risks, and an ongoing process for validating data. Optimization is the culmination of the three previous steps, and ensures the process is working at an optimal level.

Achieving Lasting Results

As with many procurement procedures, vendor data management typically requires multiple departments and stakeholders to effectively collaborate to ensure an efficient process. Since vendor data is not static, simply assessing and sterilizing vendor records will not position an institution to achieve long-term effective results. It is critical to ensure that the appropriate policies and procedures are in place, fully adopted via effective change management, and updated as business needs evolve. Ensuring that vendor data is vigorously managed will position the institution to leverage data trends to effectively monitor activities such as prediction of fraud and strategic sourcing strategies.

As a sub-set of these activities, institutions must also work to ensure that the various procurement systems that depend on vendor data are also considered during these activities. Institutions should be mindful that vendor data management is ongoing. Once the four steps listed above have been completed, institutions must continuously employ strategies to analyze the data and ensure efficiencies.

Learn more

Attain Partners has successfully worked with institutions across the United States to improve procurement procedures and streamline vendor data management. For more information or to speak with one of our experts, please contact us here.

About the Authors

Melany Barrett, Attain Partners

Melany Barrett is a Senior Consultant in the Strategic Transformation Services practice of Attain Partners. With over 8 years of experience in Higher Education, she has a demonstrated knowledge in business process improvement, project management, research administration, and faculty affairs administration. Prior to Attain Partners, Ms. Barrett supported Higher Education administration and strategic initiatives as a member of an internal consulting team. She is a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner with knowledge and training in the field and holds an MBA from the Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. 

Alexandria Fleming is a Senior Consultant at Attain Partners specializing in change management. She has several years of experience doing change management work and technology implementations. Alexandria is originally from the west coast and enjoys international travel.

Jessica Lee is an Analyst at Attain Partners with prior experience in recruiting services. She is currently supporting both organizational change and project management efforts for Higher Education Clients and is a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner. Jessica brings with her a strong attention to detail and is committed to achieving best results.

Diane Scott, Attain Partners

Diane Scott is a Senior Consultant at Attain Partners and possesses over twelve years of experience supporting Higher Education. She is a process improvement professional with a demonstrated history of management consulting and client relationship management. Her detailed understanding of university business helps her support client needs related to strategy, business process improvement, and change management. She holds an MBA from the Georgetown-McDonough School of Business, is a certified research administrator (CRA), and is a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner.

Be the First to Know

Subscribe to our monthly Pulse newsletter
to be the first to hear about new blog posts

Subscribe
Arrows on blocks, red block pointing in opposite direction

How to Tackle the Absence of Effective Sponsorship

/in , , , , , , /by

When undergoing a transformational change initiative, having an active and visible executive sponsor is critical for project success. An executive sponsor is the owner of a change initiative and typically an executive or senior staff member that employees trust to guide their organization. If the executive sponsor is not visibly engaged, employees tend to lose sight of the value the change initiative is trying to drive, leading to a higher risk of project failure. Rather than just serving as a sponsor by name, a sponsor’s role in a transformation effort is to be actively involved. Influential sponsors must engage throughout the duration of a project’s lifecycle and remain on the front line to address any obstacles from project planning through post-implementation activities.

Three Ways to Increase Executive Sponsor Participation In Your Change Management Initiative

According to Prosci® Best Practices in Change Management (CM)[1], one of the greatest obstacles for successful change efforts is the lack of active and visible sponsorship support from leadership. Organizations can use the following tactics to mitigate issues stemming from a lack of sponsorship, as illustrated below:

1. Engage Sponsor in Project Activities

The first step is to begin actively including sponsors in project activities. The project sponsor is responsible for setting and driving the vision forward. A regular meeting cadence should be established early in a change initiative to ensure that sponsors are truly engaged. Often, sponsors communicate the change they want to see within their organization without remaining actively visible throughout the transition state. The lack of visibility creates a disconnect between leadership and everyday employees, who will truly be impacted by the sponsor’s long-term vision.

Including a sponsor regularly in a project allows them to be briefed on project updates and help manage risks and issues. It is recommended for the change management team to meet at least 30 minutes per week with the executive sponsor for the project’s duration, but this cadence can vary depending on the project’s size and demand.

Communicating directly with sponsorship can help them stay accountable for the success of the project. Part of a change manager’s role is to be a liaison between the project stakeholders and the executive sponsors by creating an active flow of information and providing communications for the sponsor to share with their constituents. The following mitigation strategies can help navigate some of the resistance that may arise while trying to engage sponsors.

ResistanceMitigation Strategies
Regards change initiative as low priorityCoach sponsor on effective sponsor strategiesDiscuss how sponsor absence leads to project failure
Limited availability to engage in project activitiesCreate a regular meeting cadence to brief on project activities and risksProvide monthly sponsorship updates
Dependence on project team to create visionReiterate importance of sponsors to build support with peers and managers and communicating directly with employees

2. Institute a Sponsor Coalition

The second step is to institute a sponsor coalition to enable leaders throughout an organization to drive forward the project vision. Employees are more likely to resonate with the required changes when they hear from someone they trust. Therefore, it is crucial for a change manager to identify and help the sponsor coalition understand how they can actively demonstrate the desired behaviors and communicate effectively with their employees.

A critical step in building a sponsor coalition is identifying leaders throughout an organization and assessing their readiness and resistance levels. Then, a specific action plan, detailing a roadmap of activities, should be developed to clearly articulate how leadership can engage with their employees. Creating a heatmap, such as the one below, allows the project team to have a clear visual of the additional work that needs to be done to secure active sponsorship. The sponsor coalition should be continuously updated throughout the duration of the project as visible sponsorship may ebb and flow.

3. Provide Sponsor Coaching

The last step is to execute on the sponsor action plans by providing sponsor coaching. Coaching teaches sponsors how to fulfill their new role and guides the rest of the organization through the change curve. The coaching plan encompasses various strategies, including maintaining the sponsor coalition, ensuring an active and visible presence, and managing the resistance from top-down and bottom-up. Sponsor coaching sessions are a great way to review the sponsor coalition map and spread awareness around what actions are needed to achieve project success. Coaching sessions should include:

  • Change management education
  • External data to build awareness of their role as a sponsor
  • Examples of key sponsorship activities and common mistakes
  • Self-assessments

Attain Partners’ Approach to Change Management

As change management leaders, we play a critical role in encouraging and supporting change sponsors in their roles. When approaching any change, institutions should develop a structured change management approach to understand the tools that are required to support the initiative and ensure appropriate resourcing to allow sponsors to take on their new role. This will ensure that leadership visibly supports the effort, and focuses on engaging employees, middle-management, and the project team early and often to generate buy-in.

Often the value of change management is underestimated while implementing a change and not realized until it may be too late. Attain Partners provides change management support to Higher Education and Non-Profit organizations to ensure activities meet the institution’s needs. To learn more about effectively managing transformative changes in Higher Education and Non-Profits, please contact us for additional information.

About the Authors

Martina Cook is a Senior Consultant for Attain Partners with experience leading project and change management activities for higher education, nonprofit, academic medical centers, and federal clients. She has led change management efforts for various types of projects including CRM and ERP implementations, as well as organizational and process redesigns. Martina is a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner.

Hitarthi Patel is a Business Analyst for Attain Partners supporting the public sector. She possesses extensive knowledge of change management activities within higher education and nonprofit organizations and specializes in supporting change management activities for CRM implementations. She is a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner.

[1]   Prosci Best Practices in Change Management 2016 – 9th Edition, p. 21, 2016, Prosci Inc.

Be the First to Know

Subscribe to our monthly Pulse newsletter
to be the first to hear about new blog posts

Subscribe
Student speaking to male advisor in office

Transforming Academic Advising to Increase Student Support

/in , , , , /by

The University of Baltimore (UBalt) enlisted Attain Partners to implement Salesforce’s Advisor Link, now known as Student Success Hub (SSH), and reimagine student services for the institution. This digital transformation dramatically increased engagement between UBalt academic advisers and students by 1) facilitating easy communications between students and advisers, and 2) allowing advisers to spend less time on manual processes and more time interacting with students.

Nontraditional Education at The University of Baltimore

Today, nontraditional education is quickly becoming the new “traditional” education model. Nontraditional students are often financially independent from their parents, attend school part-time, have a child or full-time job, lack a traditional high school diploma, or have delayed postsecondary enrollment. Due to the increasing cost of college coupled with the pressure for a degree in the information economy, approximately 75% of undergraduate students now fall into at least one of these nontraditional categories. UBalt is an exemplary model for how to excel in this new educational paradigm. Its mission is to provide innovative law, business, and applied liberal arts education to serve the needs of this diverse population of learners.

The nontraditional UBalt student population consists of 5,000 commuter students with a median age of 32, half of whom attend on a part-time basis. Although students are on campus for day, evening, and weekend classes, the evening classes have the highest enrollment. To meet their students’ unique needs, UBalt had to modernize their technology to enable their staff to efficiently deliver the best possible services. 

Adapting to Student Needs

UBalt identified the need to improve and modernize student academic advising, recognizing that nontraditional students need nontraditional support. Specifically, UBalt’s students need:

  • To consider the availability of required and elective courses and how they can best fit into their schedule and long-term degree plan,
  • To balance family, employment, and budget pressures on the path to graduation,
  • Proactive and creative support to stay on track, and
  • Professional customer service tools that provide self-service appointment scheduling and improved communication channels to accommodate their busy schedules.

The team of nearly 15 full-time academic advisers wanted to deliver personalized service, but the effort was very manual. They spent too much of their time pulling information from disparate systems, spreadsheets, and email to prepare for meetings. They simply could not meet the support requirements of their students without improved technology or more staff.

Creating a Solution That Works for Students and Staff

UBalt distilled their challenges and came up with three overarching goals: 

  1. Advisers needed to see all the information in a single view and have the ability to enter and track notes and tasks and create action items and student checklists.
  2. Students needed a better way to receive and reply to communications and easily schedule appointments that fit into their busy lives.
  3. Executive staff needed better visibility into staff activity and alerts and student appointments.

To achieve these goals, UBalt enlisted Attain Partners to plan and implement their Student Success Hub (SSH) project in April 2020.

After critical analysis, Attain Partners developed a solution focused on a 360° view of student data, easily allowing advisors to view comprehensive, prioritized student information. To be most effective, we utilized a holistic approach that consolidated information, expanded the existing integration with PeopleSoft, and transformed advising processes using SSH best practices. Salesforce’s SSH was the perfect solution as its design places the most important data in the adviser’s highlights panel allowing them to quickly identify the most pressing topics to discuss with students. This view also provides current and past enrollment information, bio/demo data, tracking of notes and tasks and two-way SMS messaging. A streamlined integration with Outlook added visibility of email communications and calendars helping facilitate essential communication with students.

Sample Adviser screen with relevant information on a single pane

Streamlining Communications for Students

To achieve the student-focused goal for UBalt, Attain Partners designed and delivered a “Student Success Hub” built on Salesforce Experience Cloud that provided a self-service ability for students to view their advising teams, view and update their tasks, and most importantly schedule appointments with their adviser at a time that fits their busy schedules. Leveraging the native integration capabilities of the Salesforce platform, UBalt was able to pull content from their UBalt.edu website directly into the Hub for consistent branding and easier ongoing maintenance.

Attain Partners designs Adviser Link screen of UBalt
Sample student view on Student Success Hub Advising Portal

“I am so glad to know that interacting with my advisor will be so much easier now.”

– UBalt Student at the launch of the Student Success Hub

Results that Increase Student Engagement

Attain Partners completed this exciting project with UBalt in February 2021 and the results have been dramatic for students and staff, resulting in:

  • Streamlined appointment scheduling through an integration with each Adviser’s Outlook calendar and appointment scheduling on the Student Success Hub.
  • Less time preparing for meetings with data consolidated in Salesforce.
  • Seamless tracking of email communications through Outlook integration—4,500 emails were tracked in Salesforce in the first 3 months.
  • More effective communications through SMS and targeted emails to different cohorts using native Salesforce emails.
  • Easy-to-digest information via a graphical interface for staff and management to quickly see upcoming and open activities and utilization trends to proactively address underlying issues.

“Before Student Success Hub, tracking communications with advisees was a chore, and notes and activities were buried deep in PeopleSoft. With Student Success Hub, our advisers can easily log emails to a student’s case, and other advisers can access them without clumsy copy/paste and multi-step attachment uploads…Advisers are taking advantage of other efficiencies such as streamlining appointment scheduling, tracking tasks and alerts, and access to real-time reports.”

— Stacey Marriott, Project Manager, University of Baltimore

Learn more

Attain Partners has successfully worked with public and private colleges across the United States to streamline operations and increase student engagement. For more information or to speak with one of our experts, please contact us here.

About the Author

Leidy Smith is an Associate Business Development Director at Attain Partners. Leidy has spent his career providing innovative solutions within higher education and has been part of the Salesforce ecosystem since 2013. Leidy’s focus is demonstrating the value of the Salesforce Platform and Attain Partners’ services to higher education clients in areas of student success, recruiting and admissions, corporate relations, and executive education.

People interacting with charts on large desktop screen

Critical Financial Measurements for Strategic Planning

/in , , , , , /by

Discover how Attain Partners can support the strategic and financial goals of your institution—learn more about our Strategic Planning services and explore our Attain Apps product line.

Financial Review and Planning is Key to Ensuring Strategic Plan Success

The act of strategic planning is critical to ensure that institutions can effectively execute against their mission, and that operational activities are correctly aligned. However, a truly effective strategic plan requires appropriate levels of financial support. Many institutions go through the process of creating detailed plans, but do not engage in the required, parallel financial review and planning. As a result, they struggle to find the funding to implement their identified priorities, which ultimately become a wish list rather than a guidepost for activities.

In this blog, we will discuss a specific set of proprietary financial indicators, developed by renowned expert and thought leader Ron Salluzzo of Attain Partners, that are tailored to the Higher Education sector and should be leveraged at the time of strategic planning to ensure that the vision and mission associated with strategic plans can be achieved.

Strategic Financial Indicators for the Higher Education Sector

Leveraging our deep expertise in the higher education sectors, financial modeling, and strategic planning, the Attain Partners team designed a set of three financial indicators that are specific to colleges and universities. These indicators can be leveraged to measure an institution’s performance either at a point-in-time, or over a time period, to provide strategic insights into the financial impacts and requirements of activities. These indicators are further supported by a database that allows organizations to compare their performance to peers across the industry. Our proprietary indicators are the Ratio Map (RM), the Composite Financial Index (CFI), and the Graphic Financial Profile (GFP), as described in the 7th edition of Strategic Financial Analysis in Higher Education: Identifying, Measuring & Reporting Financial Risks, co-authored by Ron Salluzzo, Attain Partners, and distributed by NACUBO.

Ratio Map (RM)

The RM illustrates the specific ratios that should be leveraged to create a baseline measure of financial health. These are computed based on audited financial statements, and include the following ratios: primary reserve, viability, return on net assets, and net operating revenue. This limited set of data was specifically developed over thirty years of strategic financial planning in higher education. While many other financial ratios exist, those included in the RM have proven to provide meaningful insights for the leadership engaged in an institution’s future planning.

Composite Financial Index (CFI)

The CFI combines the four ratios calculated in the RM to compute a single score of financial health. This point-in-time measure becomes more meaningful when historical calculations are also created, typically for the past five years, as this creates a trend that illustrates an institution’s financial progress.

Graphic Financial Profile (GFP)

The third and final indicator, the GFP, converts the four ratios from the RM into a graphical image that illustrates the institution’s health and progress over time.

Effective Use of the Strategic Financial Indicators

These indicators can be calculated at multiple levels, depending on the institution’s need. Specifically, they can target the college or university, campus, program, or individual researcher computations. When engaging in strategic planning, it is critical to review these figures to determine the financial health of each priority, identify the amount of financial support required for the associated activities, and allocate those resources. Without this step, institutions may flounder in executing on their priorities when appropriate levels of funding are not available.

Attain Partners has successfully worked with public and private colleges across the United States to both develop these figures and support their effective use in the strategic planning process. For more information or to speak with one of our experts, please contact us here.

About the Authors

Adrian B. Giannattasio, Attain Partners

Adrian Giannattasio is a Consulting Analyst at Attain Partners and has experience in change management, project management, business process analysis, data alignment, and data architecture. He graduated Cum Laude from Boston College with a major in Finance. Adrian is a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner who enjoys autocross racing.

Reshma Patel-Jackson is a Partner and the Practice Leader for the Strategic Transformation Services practice of Attain Partners. She is responsible for and involved in a wide range of consulting initiatives, primarily on change management, strategic planning, business process improvement, organizational assessments, project management, and research administration. Mrs. Patel-Jackson is a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner who has extensive knowledge and training in the field. She has provided strategic planning, project management, change management, internal audit, compliance, and costing services for a variety of not-for-profit, Higher Education, government contracting, and commercial clients.

Diane Scott, Attain Partners

Diane Scott is a Senior Consultant at Attain Partners and possesses over twelve years of experience supporting Higher Education. She is a process improvement professional with a demonstrated history of management consulting and client relationship management. Her detailed understanding of university business helps her support client needs related to strategy, business process improvement, and change management. She holds an MBA from the Georgetown-McDonough School of Business, is a certified research administrator (CRA), and is a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner.

Ensuring Procurement Activities Best Serve Your Institution

Ensuring Procurement Activities Best Serve Your Institution

/in , , , , , , /by

When structured efficiently, the procurement lifecycle can be leveraged to improve cashflow, minimize operational expenses, and maintain positive customer relations. Unfortunately, procurement activities often reflect historical decisions rather than current business needs. This results in a high cost of service, frustration, and missed opportunities for institutional savings.

The following operational symptoms are indicators that procurement operations should be assessed for potential improvements: 

  • Manual Processing of purchase orders and invoices
  • Lack of standardizing staff training
  • High invoice exception rate
  • Lack of reporting and analysis of internal teams and supplier performance
  • Long average time for invoices, including delayed approval times (>9 days)
  • Poor sourcing methods (Not sourcing for the best quality and competitively priced goods/services; Not realizing supplier incentives such as discounts/rebates)

The root cause of these inefficiencies can be attributed to a lack of collaboration and synergy between the key players. These departments go by many names depending on the organization but represent the activities of the procure-to-pay actors vendor data management, purchasing, and accounts payable as well as their peers in strategic sourcing and contracts. In some organizations, it can also include treasury.

Procurement Lifecycle

To identify the root causes, organizations should assess their procurement activities based on three factors: people, process, and technology. Reviewing the people, or organizational structure, will ensure that the various departments are best positioned to effectively collaborate and execute on their mission. Examining processes will ensure that the correct flow is in place to allow for efficient administration. Lastly, evaluating technology can identify redundant systems, underutilized functionality, and/or gaps that may limit an effective lifecycle. Combined, these three factors can be concurrently assessed to reduce operating costs, enhance vendor relations, and augment cash management.

Once the assessment is complete, the organization should transition the results into an actionable plan. This document serves as a “roadmap” to resolve the identified issues and guide all future actions. Implementing the defined solutions will require a collaborative approach to ensure synergy, a readiness to put the plan into action, and mechanisms to effectively monitor and support the improvements. Attain Partners has effectively used this methodology with previous clients to significantly improve AP processing time, capture vendor discounts, and improve cash flow. Please see the graphic below for more information.   

For more information or to speak with one of our experts, please contact us here.

About the Authors

Melany Barrett, Attain Partners

Melany Barrett is a Senior Consultant in the Management Consulting practice of Attain Partners. With over 8 years of experience in Higher Education, she has a demonstrated knowledge in business process improvement, project management, research administration, and faculty affairs administration. Prior to Attain Partners, Ms. Barrett supported Higher Education administration and strategic initiatives as a member of an internal consulting team. She is a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner with knowledge and training in the field and holds an MBA from the Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. 

Jessica Lee is an Analyst at Attain Partners with prior experience in recruiting services. She is currently supporting both organizational change and project management efforts for Higher Education Clients and is a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner. Jessica brings with her a strong attention to detail and is committed to achieving best results.

Diane Scott, Attain Partners

Diane Scott is a Senior Consultant at Attain Partners and possesses over twelve years of experience supporting Higher Education. She is a process improvement professional with a demonstrated history of management consulting and client relationship management. Her detailed understanding of university business helps her support client needs related to strategy, business process improvement, and change management. She holds an MBA from the Georgetown-McDonough School of Business, is a certified research administrator (CRA), and is a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner.

Formstack Webinar Image

Formstack Based Application Template

/in , , , /by

Attain Partners has joined Formstack to develop an Admissions Application Template designed to accelerate your Salesforce Admissions Connect implementation. Your Admission Application can be the first interaction a potential student has with your campus. It’s important to get it right. The Admissions Application Template Accelerator reduces time and expense to go live with Education Cloud Admissions Connect.

With over 16 years of experience working with Education Institutions, Attain Partners has documented best practices that inform the Admissions Application Template Accelerator including a set of baseline forms prebuilt leveraging Education Cloud Admissions Connect.

Key Features

  • Delivers pre-filled forms
  • Supports graduate and undergraduate applications
  • Enables document upload
  • Provides conditional logic and branching based on program, or residency
  • Delivers application progress in real time
  • Security
  • Mobile ready 

Why Formstack?

Formstack for Salesforce is an all-in-one forms, documents, and digital signature solution that empowers anyone to automate processes and streamline the customer experience—all without leaving Salesforce. Used by more than 800 colleges and universities worldwide, Formstack’s solutions work natively within Salesforce to allow schools to transform outdated paper processes into powerful digital workflows that span across several departments. From enrollment to course evaluations, Formstack makes it easy to reduce data chaos and enhance the student experience.

Webinar

Don’t miss our on-demand webinar, How to Create an Optimized, Mobile-ready Application Experience, leveraging the power of Formstack.

About Attain Partners

Based in McLean, Va., Attain Partners is a leading management, technology, and compliance consulting firm delivering services and solutions to advance client missions across the education, nonprofit, healthcare, and state and local government landscapes. We’re an innovative and values-driven firm working to disrupt the status quo to change the world and improve the lives of those we serve.

Serving more than 70 of the top 100 U.S. research institutions and 100% of Ivy League Schools, Attain Partners has completed more than 1,000 Salesforce projects and counting. For more information or to speak with one of our experts, please contact us here.

About the Author

Susan Tobes is a Senior Director of Strategic Growth at Attain Partners, focused on strategy and sales across the education, nonprofit, and healthcare sectors. With a 35-year career focused on the delivery of technology and consulting services, Susan brings deep expertise, commitment to the communities that she serves, and an untiring drive for success.

Diverse company team looking at sticky notes

Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education Part 2

/in , , , , , , /by

At an organizational level, it is imperative that institutions revisit their culture, behavioral norms, operations, and structure to determine whether they promote and value diversity of stakeholders and thinking, provide a sense of belonging for all, and remove barriers to success. Achieving these goals will not only position institutions as leaders in their fields or industries but will also create a stronger and more effective culture in which all are valued and contribute to the best of their ability, resulting in better overall institutional outcomes.

In case you missed it, read Part 1 of this post here: Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education. Continue reading below for Part 2.

Identify Clear Priorities

Next, the institution should work with its stakeholders to identify its strategic DE&I priorities—including related goals—that align to the vision and commitment statement to ensure the organization can continue along its DE&I journey. For higher education institutions, these priorities will likely address the people dimension of the organization (faculty, staff, students, and alumni), the educational agenda (training and curriculum itself), and the various communities (campus, local, regional, national, and global). For each priority, the organization should articulate goals, outcomes, strategies, and actions to support achieving DE&I transformation. Outcomes could include increasing diversity in the larger community, shifting the culture to one of greater belonging, and removing barriers to success. As part of this, institutions will then define the tactical actions needed to achieve these strategies. To promote inclusion, this will include defining key behaviors, as well as establishing training and development programs. To promote equity, it will require a special focus on mitigation and support strategies related to removing barriers. Examples of the specific tactics that can be leveraged to increase DE&I can be found in the graphic below.

Attain Partners DE&I

Measure Progress

As colleges and universities progress on their DE&I journey, they will need to implement an approach and mechanisms to measure their progress related to each priority. To meet this objective, it is critical to define success via achievable outcomes. Without this step, colleges and universities will not have a benchmark to support their learning efforts and help determine if they are achieving the desired results. As a sub-step of this activity, organizations should define key performance indicators (KPIs). This will likely include metrics such as percentage of leadership, student, faculty, postdocs, and staff by race and sex, percent retention and graduation rates by race, sex, and discipline, achievement rates by race, sex and discipline (i.e., A, B,C and D,F,W rates[1]), and survey results on engagement, inclusion, and equity (i.e., campus climate questionnaire). Defining these outcomes will enable continuous monitoring, reporting, and mid-course corrections. This will position the institution to iterate and update their strategies on a recurring basis to ensure they align with the vision. Each college and university will require a unique approach on their DE&I journey, and measuring the activities will ensure that they can be adjusted to meet each institution’s needs.

Schools with leading DE&I programs, such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)[2] and Stanford[3], have elected to make dashboards of their equity- and inclusivity-related data public. This extra step may not be viable for institutions with new DE&I programs. However, all colleges and universities should establish a methodology for tracking and reporting on the KPIs and align ownership to a specific role or group. This will ensure that the institution can continually monitor its progress, and strategically and collectively address emerging trends.

Attain Partners DE&I Methodology

Create Permanent Change

Lastly, transparency and the effective use of change management techniques will be critical to the success of these efforts. Creating an inclusive culture of belonging where barriers are removed will require a culture shift across the large and complex institutional community. To be effective, the institution should consider change management tactics such as communication, training, coaching, and resistance management. Colleges and universities should not shy away from acknowledging past wrongs and missteps on the DE&I journey to ensure they are creating a culture of transparency and accountability. This will ensure that the changes are fully adopted and the DE&I vision can be realized.

These efforts will require grit and determination on the part of the organization, as the DE&I evolution cannot occur overnight. Rather, it will take many years of applied effort to create an inclusive campus where barriers are removed, and all members of the community can belong.

Attain Partners has worked with both public and private higher education institutions across the United States to successfully develop and implement their DE&I strategy and outcomes.

Learn about Attain Partners’ Inclusion, Diversity, Equality, and Allyship (IDEA) Performance Maturity Framework here.

For more information or to speak with one of our experts, please contact us here.

About the Authors

Reshma Patel-Jackson is a Senior Principal and the Practice Leader for the Management Consulting business of Attain Partners. She is responsible for and involved in a wide range of consulting initiatives, primarily on change management, strategic planning, business process improvement, organizational assessments, project management, and research administration. Mrs. Patel-Jackson is a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner who has extensive knowledge and training in the field. She has provided strategic planning, project management, change management, internal audit, compliance, and costing services for a variety of not-for-profit, Higher Education, government contracting, and commercial clients.

Diane Scott, Attain Partners

Diane Scott is a Senior Consultant at Attain Partners and possesses over twelve years of experience supporting Higher Education. She is a process improvement professional with a demonstrated history of management consulting and client relationship management. Her detailed understanding of university business helps her support client needs related to strategy, business process improvement, and change management. She holds an MBA from the Georgetown-McDonough School of Business, is a certified research administrator (CRA), and is a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner.

[1] ABC and DFW rates refer to the grade achieved by each individual student. A, B, C, D, and F refer to the standard grading scale. W refers to withdrawals.

[2] MIT Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Data. https://diversity.mit.edu/diversity/mit-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-data. Accessed on 3/12/2021.

[3] Stanford Diversity Works Reports and Data. https://diversityworks.stanford.edu/resource#select=.reports-and-data.faculty. Accessed on 3/12/2021.

Attain Partners, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education

/in , , , , , , /by

Fighting Systemic Racism and Social Injustice

Over the past year and a half, the world has witnessed multiple events that have shone a bright light on systemic racism and social injustice. These events have served as a catalyst to identify attitudes that contribute to these conditions and shift established mindsets towards creating new systems that result in increased diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I). At an organizational level, it is imperative that institutions revisit their culture, behavioral norms, operations, and structure to determine whether they promote and value diversity of stakeholders and thinking, provide a sense of belonging for all, and remove barriers to success. Achieving these goals will not only position institutions as leaders in their fields or industries but will also create a stronger and more effective culture in which all are valued and contribute to the best of their ability, resulting in better overall institutional outcomes.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

This moral imperative has particular meaning for higher education institutions that have the opportunity not only to more effectively support and welcome all stakeholders and constituents, but also to actively influence the perspectives of their students who will shape the future. However, institutions face additional challenges when compared to organizations in other industries due to the complex and varied nature of the “communities” they impact and influence. To effectively address DE&I, colleges and universities need to understand and pay attention to the needs of all the communities they touch, including the various campus communities (e.g., faculty, staff, student, and alumni) and the non-campus communities (e.g., local area, regional, national, and global). To achieve true diversity, equity, and inclusion, institutions will need to develop and implement a strategy that uses a variety of tactics, including, but not limited to:

  • Integrating lessons on anti-racism in curricula
  • Implementing talent sourcing pipeline programs for the underrepresented
  • Removing barriers to success and engaging broadly on DE&I issues within the local and regional communities

An effective strategy will require strong, top-down leadership commitment, while also emphasizing active engagement from across the organization.

The following provides a high-level overview on developing a strategy that supports colleges and universities on their DE&I journey.

Creating and Implementing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategy

Define Your Vision

The primary success factor in any cultural transformation effort is commitment from the top of the organization. This is especially true for the behavioral changes that are required to achieve DE&I objectives. To gain the commitment, the institution should work to both develop a clear and concise vision that aligns with the institution’s values and cultural goals, and to identify the relevant communities, stakeholders, and their needs. Particular attention should be paid to discussing barriers that prevent specific communities from engaging and performing at their best. The “why” behind the vision statement must also be articulated to ensure there is a common understanding for how activities align with the organization’s mission, values, and culture. An important part of “visioning” will also be to review and align the organization’s core values to the DE&I vision. As a sub-set of these activities, the institution should clearly define what “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion” means to them and their stakeholder communities (see above for suggested definitions).

Adopt a Commitment Statement

Once the vision is defined, leadership should then develop and adopt a clear and concise commitment statement to be shared broadly with their stakeholders. The statement should support a culture of belonging, removal of barriers, and leadership accountability. This declaration cannot stand by itself and requires an associated communication plan that must be coordinated with leadership across the institution to truly effectuate the change.

Create a Structure of Support

To ensure the appropriate structure is in place to support a robust DE&I vision, the institution may also need to review its existing organizational model. An effective model may be more—or less—centralized depending on the institution’s specific needs. For example, many organizations are creating a new Associate Vice President for DE&I role. This leader serves as the executive sponsor for the DE&I strategy and plans, and coordinates with other related entities as needed. This ensures that activities are executed in alignment with the vision, values, and the commitment statement. Further, higher education institutions may consider creating a “shared” leadership model where certain communities within the institution (e.g., schools within the institution) have their own DE&I champion to ensure that the specific needs of targeted stakeholder groups within the broader institution are met. Regardless of how centralized the DE&I organizational model is, colleges and universities should consider creating the structure needed to engage all voices across the enterprise. In this way, the organizational model includes both top-down and bottom-up structures, with appropriate feedback loops, to inform the DE&I journey.

Attain Partners Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Continue reading Part 2 here.

Learn about Attain Partners’ Inclusion, Diversity, Equality, and Allyship (IDEA) Performance Maturity Framework here.

For more information or to speak with one of our experts, please contact us here.

About the Authors

Reshma Patel-Jackson is a Senior Principal and the Practice Leader for the Management Consulting business of Attain Partners. She is responsible for and involved in a wide range of consulting initiatives, primarily on change management, strategic planning, business process improvement, organizational assessments, project management, and research administration. Mrs. Patel-Jackson is a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner who has extensive knowledge and training in the field. She has provided strategic planning, project management, change management, internal audit, compliance, and costing services for a variety of not-for-profit, Higher Education, government contracting, and commercial clients.

Diane Scott, Attain Partners

Diane Scott is a Senior Consultant at Attain Partners and possesses over twelve years of experience supporting Higher Education. She is a process improvement professional with a demonstrated history of management consulting and client relationship management. Her detailed understanding of university business helps her support client needs related to strategy, business process improvement, and change management. She holds an MBA from the Georgetown-McDonough School of Business, is a certified research administrator (CRA), and is a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

© Copyright 2025 Attain Partners

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Sitemap

Attain Partners
1650 Tysons Boulevard
Suite 1530
McLean, VA 22102

Phone: 703.857.2200
Email: [email protected]