Howard Community College

Services Delivered:

• SiteExecutive WCM software
• Training
• Usability analysis

Benefits:

• Eliminate Web content publishing bottleneck
• Expand content authoring community
• Improve quality and timeliness of site content
• Enhance online recruitment

Challenge:

After years of growth the Howard Community College Website was becoming overrun with outdated and sometimes contradictory content. Like many institutions with decentralized groups of Web authors, the look and feel of the Website also varied significantly from department to department. Reliance on Microsoft FrontPage and homegrown content management tools had simplified authoring, but had not addressed the school’s need to deliver the best possible Web experience for prospective students.

Key decision makers at Howard began hearing feedback from prospective students about the quality of the school’s Website. Recognizing how important the Website had become as a recruitment and enrollment tool, the school determined it first needed to understand and evaluate its requirements for a new Website before investing in design, technology and implementation services.

Solution:

After assessing a variety of offerings, Howard Community College selected SiteExecutive from Systems Alliance as its CMS. Working in collaboration with a Web steering team composed of personnel from Howard Community’s IT, admissions, HR, PR and continuing education departments, three key goals were identified for the redeployment:

During the initial SiteExecutive deployment, which was led by Systems Alliance partner CentreTEK, content was scrubbed, reducing the size of the site from 28,000 to 2,500 pages. Online enrollment was re-engineered and simplified into a six step process which uses a SiteExecutive generated form for capturing admissions. Overall, significant effort was invested in developing a site that would meet the needs of prospective students and create more value for the college.

Results:

The SiteExecutive deployment has given Howard Community College the accessible, user-centric Website it was looking for.  Commenting on the deployment, Rick Pollard, director, Technology Services for Howard Community College, said, “With SiteExecutive, we’ve gained control over the content lifecycle. As a result our Website offers more accessible and accurate content, which is driving more Website visits, more online applications and more success for our school.”