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Why Your University Needs a Better Way to Manage Data

Formstack
May 20, 2016
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Min Read

If your university isn't managing data processes online yet, you need to get on the bandwagon. Not only are most of your students and alumni online, but using an online data management tool (like a form builder) can save hours of time for your team. Over 1,000 higher education institutions use our form builder to engage with prospective students and alumni and boost campus enrollment. Here are a few reasons why your university should join these institutions and embrace an online data management solution:

Online forms can streamline your workflows and data systems.

When you work in higher education, you have a lot on your plate. There are donations to process, new students to get on campus, applications to review, and more. A form solution eliminates stress by automating these processes for you. With online forms like donation forms, university enrollment forms, and student feedback forms, you can collect vital information and route submitted form data to web apps like your CRM, email marketing platform, analytics platforms, and payment processors. You can also organize different workflows to create a more efficient system for managing student data. Formstack offers an Approval Workflow feature that helps you set up approval systems for different processes. For example, if you’re using a registration form to collect applications online, you can send completed applications to specific approver emails for their review. A comment system lets approvers submit reasons for accepting or rejecting an application to ensure your approval process runs smoothly.

Online forms can help you reach more students and boost campus enrollment.

Streamlining your data processes is all well and good, but it won’t be every effective if you’re not getting good data in the first place. If you’re often pressured to get high registration rates for campus events or to bring in large numbers of new students, you need to use optimized online forms to achieve your goals. Encourage more sign-ups by making it easy for prospects and students to fill out your forms. Add Social Autofill to your applications and event registrations so students can autofill form fields with information from their social media profiles. To streamline your online forms further, use insights from your analytics platforms to identify problem areas. With Formstack, you can use Field Bottlenecks to pinpoint which form fields are causing users to abandon a form and not click Submit. And don’t forget to use mobile forms to reach people where they spend most of their time—on their mobile devices.

Online forms can help you engage with more alumni and increase donations.

Last but not least, ensure students stay connected after graduation with email newsletter signups, surveys, and event registrations. Sending a confirmation email as soon as a form is submitted is a great way to create a personalized experience for your alumni. Embed donation forms (like the one below) and event registrations on your websites and in your emails to encourage more participation. The data you receive can help you fuel future efforts.

Donation Form for Higher Education

Streamlining your processes with an online data management solution like Formstack can go a long way in making your team more successful and organized. Click here to learn how one higher education institution used Formstack to increase enrollment by 70%.

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Formstack
Formstack is a SaaS company with a mission to help organizations digitize what matters, automate workflows, and fix processes—all without code. A variety of team members come together to compile posts under Formstack's authorship.
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