HELPING THE STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ACE THE ADMISSIONS PROCESS

At the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a unique process helps ensure that only the very best candidates get accepted. The challenge: it's a process that creates mountains of data, and unless that data can be accessed and shared, candidates with amazing potential could be missed. Advoco had the answer.

THE GSB ADMISSIONS PROCESS: UNIQUELY EFFECTIVE, UNIQUELY CHALLENGING

Stanford GSB relies on Ambassadors-alumni and current students-to help attract, recruit, interview, select, and enroll exceptional students. It's a decentralized, dynamic process that results in lots and lots of fragmented data, all collected in different ways, in different places and different time zones. But it's the only way to ensure that GSB is able to attract the best candidates for its stated goal, which is to: "create ideas that advance the practice of management and develop innovative, principled, and insightful leaders who change the world."

SOFTWARE, NOT HARDWARE, WAS THE ANSWER

Given the decentralized collection of data, clearly a Web-based system would be best. But what kind? Did Stanford GSB need custom hardware, complex devices, unique data entry techniques? Not at all.

Working with Stanford GSB, Advoco first focused on understanding GSB's business model, then took a look at the salesforce.com system Stanford GSB was already using.

The solution: enhance the salesforce.com solution to meet Stanford GSB's unique needs. By leveraging the technology already in use, Advoco helped maximize the I.T. investment Stanford GSB had already made and minimized costs for training and new hardware.

CRM FOR GSB

Why did the salesforce.com solution have to be changed? Simple. It was engineered from the outset as a customer relationship management (CRM) solution for sales organizations, not a team of admissions specialists. Advoco modified the salesforce.com portal to fit Stanford GSB's specific needs (including a simpler, more user-friendly interface and key operating reports) and then sent everyone to school, so to speak, by creating and managing a training process that would ensure acceptance.

GRADUATION

With the enhanced salesforce.com portal up and running, Stanford GSB now has a cohesive, web-based system that can be integrated with other databases, such as alumni information. For the users, a simple log-on provides them with access to all the Ambassador information they need. GSB can now use Ambassador input much more efficiently as part of the admissions process. Equally important, Ambassador data can be accessed from any web-connected computer, without the need to be physically in the central admissions office.

"We needed consultants who would have the ability to get involved at the front in terms of knowledge of our business model. Advoco came in, they listened to concerns, made modifications to the application, and they developed multiple trainings customized to our needs. They are very responsive, and were on time and on budget."- Kristin Najarian, Assistant Director of Admissions, GSB

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