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  • Case study: Concero IT assists Vega School of Brand Leadership in streamlining student acquisitions with new...

Case study: Concero IT assists Vega School of Brand Leadership in streamlining student acquisitions with new SharePoint 2013 Web site


Johannesburg, 26 Mar 2015

Background

The company: ADvTECH
JSE code: ADH
Sector: Education and Business Services (Recruitment)

Fact sheet
Solution: Microsoft SharePoint 2013
Industry: Education
Provider: Concero IT
User: Vega School of Brand Leadership

Context: ADvTECH Group is striving to standardise the Web platform and content management system (CMS) utilised across its brands in the group. The primary motivating factor being the reduction in cost and complication of supporting multiple platforms, as well as providing all brands with access to a world-class platform for the hosting of its Web site. Access to skilled resources to support and maintain the platform was also a key consideration.

Technology: Microsoft SharePoint 2013

Operating entity: Vega School

Vega School of Brand Leadership was founded in 1999, in response to the urgent need to shift the paradigm of conventional marketing communications. Vega believes in strategic creative work and in creative strategic thinking; wisdomwithmagic therefore guides the design and delivery of what Vega does. Vega is an educational brand of the Independent Institute of Education (IIE), and the IIE degrees, honours, masters and higher certificates programmes are well known and respected by the brand, marketing, design and communications industries.

Project focus: Web site

Company overview

The Vega School Web site (www.vegaschool.com) plays a significant role in driving student acquisition. It is used as the primary contact point to advertise the programmes and the entry point for prospective students in the application process. The challenges for Vega included:

* An outdated Web site design - not being appealing to its target audience;
* The current site was not optimised for mobile devices;
* There was limited content management capabilities - Vega was always reliant on developers to perform code changes to update content, therefore content on the Web site was always outdated;
* The need for dynamic content - to easily identify applicable and relevant information on the Web site and enhance the end-user experience;
* Search engine optimisation - needed to be improved in order to drive traffic to the Web site;
* Simplified application process - make it as simple as possible for students to apply;
* Payment gateway integration - create an end-to-end, self-service application process; and
* Web site tracking - Vega needed to understand the impact of their marketing activities by having accurate Web site tracking and statistics.

The following was required in order to ensure Vega School has a state-of-the-art public-facing Web site that could be easily administered, to drive student acquisition and improve conversion rates, thereby directly impacting the student numbers and top-line revenue generation.

Solution overview

The Vega Web site was built on the SharePoint 2013 platform, utilising all of the new and improved Web Content Management (WCM) features the platform has to offer. In addition, the solution makes extensive use of client-side scripting technologies, jQuery and CSS 3.0 to provide the user with a rich, interactive experience when navigating through the site.

Intuitive navigation

Figure 1: Course finder
Figure 1: Course finder

In order to make it easy for prospective students and parents to find information about the course that they would like to study (or to narrow down what their course options are), Concero IT developed a course wizard that quickly filters the list of courses displayed to users, based on specific criteria. The premise behind the course wizard is those students generally know whether they would like to study either full-time or part-time, or alternatively, whether they are interested in completing a degree, diploma or a short learning programme/course. For those that aren't sure on these criteria, there is also an option to view courses available based on a specific field of study, ie, eventing.

Filtered search

In the background, all courses were tagged based on the above criteria, which would make it easy to filter the list of courses displayed to users based on their initial selection from the landing page. In addition to this initial filtering, users could, from the search results, further filter the available courses by refining the results with multiple filter criteria, ie, the campus they would like to study at, or the career that they would like to pursue.

Figure 2: Filtered search
Figure 2: Filtered search

Online application form

Figure 3: Online application
Figure 3: Online application

The other key functionality is to allow users to be able to apply from anywhere within the site, and should they be viewing a particular course's details, that the application form be pre-populated with whatever they are viewing.

Payment gateway integration

Being able to apply online is only half of the goal, though. Vega also required the ability for prospective students to be able to pay their application fee online, thereby securing their spot. This required the Web site to integrate with a payment gateway to be able to accept online payments, either through debit/credit card or EFT payments.

In order to track how users interact with the Web site, and ultimately be able to quantify the success thereof, Google Analytics tracking was implemented onto the Web site. In addition to the basic usage tracking that is offered, specific event tracking to track applications, registrations, contact form completions and other specific events was also added, giving Vega rich information into how users are interacting with the Web site.

Search engine optimisation

Finally, search engine optimisation is a critical component of any modern day Web site, ensuring that content and pages from the site rank on the first page of all the major search engines, for keywords that are deemed relevant to that Web site. The Vega Web site makes extensive use of the new SEO capabilities built into SharePoint 2013, including the automatic sitemap generation and the ability to specify meta keywords and tags on all pages.

Client feedback

The updating of content and SEO keywords on the Web site is simple and can be performed by a site administrator. This has significantly improved the time and effort required to make sure the Web site is always up to date, and there is no reliance on third party providers to do this anymore, resulting in cost savings. The ease of navigation and the filtered search functionality on the Web site has made finding relevant content for end-users effortless.

"Working with an experienced dedicated team like Concero IT has been a fantastic experience, as not only did they build what we needed, but they also provided valuable insight and advice along the way."

User reaction

Figure 4: Vega Web site on various devices
Figure 4: Vega Web site on various devices

A quote from Jason, a student who applied online, said: "The Web site design is brilliant from a look-and-feel perspective, and really funky. It was also so easy to find the course info I needed and to apply directly for the course I wanted. The Web site also works perfectly on my mobile device, which is great as this is how the majority of the students access the Web these days."

The future

SharePoint 2013 is an extremely versatile platform, so Vega School has visions of creating multiple sub-sites for its different market offerings, and also to fully integrate and automate the financial payment and invoicing component of the Web site. In addition, providing existing students with the ability to make any kind of online payment is also in the pipeline.

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Concero IT

Concero IT was founded in 2008 to service the desperate need for highly skilled SharePoint-focused solution providers. At Concero IT, the approach is as unique as the company's background, which separates it from competitors and makes it the perfect partner for your business. Concero IT doesn't just offer an array of IT-related services. It is a focused, niche SharePoint business that builds customised organisational solutions to drive productivity, reduce costs and improve collaboration.

With 35 years' collective SharePoint experience, quality resources and a savvy business approach, Concero IT can help you optimise your business with SharePoint. Visit the Web site for more information on www.concero.co.za.

Editorial contacts

Charlotte Kearsey
Concero IT
(011) 466 8644
charlotte@concero.co.za