Intelliworks and Starfish To Link Student Recruitment and Retention

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 02/11/10

Two companies that develop software for higher education operations have teamed up to help customers with enrollment management. Intelliworks, which sells constituent relationship management applications, and Starfish Retention Solutions, which sells early-alert programs to monitor daily student participation, have begun working together to integrate their offerings.

The first phase of integration involves connecting pre-admission data from Intelliworks to Starfish to raise flags about students once they're enrolled. For example, said John Plunkett, vice president of marketing and operations, an admissions representative who learns something about a student during the application process, such as special interests or disabilities, can place that information in the student's electronic folder within Starfish for future instructors and advisors to receive.

"Both Starfish and Intelliworks are committed to helping higher education institutions connect with students," said Todd Gibby, CEO of Intelliworks. "Our customers have seen how investing in the right strategy and technology can not only help them market their programs more efficiently, but deliver a far greater student experience and ultimately generate more revenue."

As the partnership progresses, Plunkett said, the two companies expect to do further integration so that pre- and post-enrollment interactions are transferred "seamlessly." For example, a prospective student's work samples could be shuttled to the appropriate faculty members or students could be placed into suitable learning communities.

Eventually, the products could offer reporting functionality to allow the institution to analyze student success rates back to the earliest admissions transaction, when the student first inquired with the school. Plunkett said details of the joint solution will be refined based on the feedback of the companies' respective client communities. "We intend to have something available before the end of the year," he added.

"As a student success company, Starfish is committed to helping institutions connect the vast student support resources that already exist within an institution," said David Yaskin, founder and CEO of Starfish. "Through our partnership with Intelliworks, we are able to connect the dots between the pre and post-enrollment phases of the student experience--dramatically increasing the institutional knowledge of the student relationship. As a result, institutions are able to attract and retain the ideal student body."