And what we do

Lambeth Palace in Central London is home to the Archbishop of Canterbury whose inaugural programme ‘A Year in God’s Time’ was launched for the first time in 2015.

The Problem

The team running the programme had not previously administrated an application process before. They needed a system, and expertise to implement the system.

The Requirement

They had to establish an application procedure from scratch that would offer an efficient and automated method of registration for securing applicants.

Inviting applicants aged 20-35 of the Christian faith for residential and non-residential participation from anywhere in the world, the Community of St Anselm needed a registration system to capture, review and manage applications.

The Solution

HEIapply was assessed against other system available for ease of use, ease of tailoring and global accessibility allowing applicants to login and apply from anywhere in the world

It was also readily available with standard functionality and the speed of delivery being promised was key in adopting the HEIapply solution.

With the specific requirements of St Anselm, HEIapply was promptly delivered in 3 phases to meet their needs both quickly and fully. The 3 phase delivery of HEIapply was refined to deal with St Anselm’s exact requirements at each stage.

1. Applicant and Admin Portal setup: An applicant portal was set up with the aim of allowing applicants to register online, complete an application form and return later to review progress. The admin portal was setup to receive submitted applications, view incomplete ones and process them as required. Both portals were customised to meet the specific needs of the St Anselm team and provided access to in-built communication functionality, removing the need to switch to an email
2. Workflow customisation & application processing: Through custom workflows and processing rules, decision making processes were made simpler and faster. The rules required by the team at St Anselm revolved around initial selection as well as then secondary selection for shortlisted applicants. Programming manual outcomes standardised and automated the process for maximum efficiency.
3. Custom reports: in addition to HEIapply standard tabular and graphic reports which are generated based on data captured within the software, we set up custom reports to meet requests specific to St Anselm.

Transform your paper-based applications to paperless

e4f had been operating a manual, paper-based application process for its Business Incubation Programme but growing interest meant the move to paperless was imperative.

The Background

e4f is an incubator programme dedicated to supporting the growth of technology companies in the West Midlands region of the UK. Based at the Innovation Birmingham Campus, e4f helps start-ups that use technology in innovative ways to launch, develop and grow their business.

Originally, e4f had a paper-based application process. The team forming the process was made up of internal and external members, lots of paperwork and endless email trails.

Challenge 1: Back-end administrative processes

It had become laborious, time consuming and difficult for internal team members to keep up with the paperwork involved. Applications were either dropped off at the Reception, came in by post or via email. These  were then all handled as print outs, before a selection of applicants were short listed, scanned and emailed back to reviewers.

Challenge 2: Communication and email deliverability

Following email trails between the team members and applicants was also a struggle. In addition, fielding applicant follow up emails and calls became increasingly tough. With increasing interest from applicants, the amount of calls received prior and during the process doubled.

Challenge 3: Application Reviews

External team members provided reviews and feedback on applications via further email threads. This added to the load  in terms of communication to chase and follow up on. There was also no way of ensuring that external reviewers were performing upto the standards and timescales expected.

Solutions

HEIapply provides the European Funded organisation with an ongoing portal for capturing, managing and processing applications to their incubation programme. Start-up businesses go onto the website, apply for a place and their application is reviewed by their soon to-be mentors. Places are offered on merit and quality of business idea, all actionable from within the platform

Despite the option to continue as they were, e4f decided to consider HEIapply to allow their team the luxury of a complete online application process. Everyone was given the ability to login, see live timeline action for each applicant and leave their feedback.  Applicants also had their own login portals to register, begin and submit an application. Being able to see the status and progress of their application in real time was a strategically developed feature to prevent the influx of follow up calls.

MiSK Foundation turns to HEIapply’s end-to-end admissions solution twice this year

After successfully supporting the MiSK-Harvard Summer School Programme with similar technology, MiSK turned once again to HEIapply to launch MiSK Traineeships in partnership with Cisco and Siemens.

The Background

Large multi-national companies want to have the best interns and trainees working in their business from the leading universities, and increasingly they are turning to organisations like the MiSK Foundation to help recruit and assess prospective applicants.

Two such companies are Cisco and Siemens, who have teamed up with MiSK Foundation to launch internship and traineeship programmes in Saudi Arabia, seeking applicants from the leading Universities in the Kingdom.

The MiSK Traineeships programme gives talented young people the attractive opportunity to train for up to 9 months at Cisco or Siemens.

The Journey

After the successful launch of the MiSK-Harvard Summer School programme with HEIapply in January 2017, Mohammed Bin Salman’s Foundation turned once again to the UK-based HEIapply to provide the end-to-end application and admission process for the Cisco and Siemens programmes – and as many internship and traineeships programmes that wish to arrange, in the knowledge that more large, multi-national companies are lining up to work with MiSK as a trusted partner.

Starting with a significant amount of functionality that MiSK needed coming ‘out-of-the box’, we were able to complete the set-up in less than one month. This meant that MiSK could meet the deadlines, and recruitment on behalf of Cisco and Siemens could start sooner at leading Universities.

The Solution

The solution uses many features that were available out-of-the-box, and included in our standard set-up, hence the speed of delivery.

Multiple landing pages, full use of pre-existing Application Question types to make it as user friendly as possible to collect the right information from the applicant, scoring and ranking algorithms to aid making and process decisions, and full suite of reports, graphs and charts all out-of-the-box.

• Multiple Landing Pages so MiSK can control the Applicant Journey from their website and social media campaigns even more – applicants don’t even have to pick the Programme if they have come through a particular marketing channel.
• Collecting and assessing GPA and IELTS status has never been easier! Applicants provide information that is exactly what MiSK need to help them identify the best applicants
• Scoring and Ranking of applications is all handled with bespoke algorithms, taking the hard work out of it for MiSK Administrators
• Reports and Dashboard stats that instantly give you the right information at the right time to help MiSK and the Companies make the right decisions.

Allow parents and guardians to apply to overseas schools before migrating

Easy application process for parents to secure a place for their children before they migrate for work.

The Background

Based in Muscat, Oman, the PDO School is open to 3-11 year old children of expatriate parents working for the Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) and Shell. Throughout the year, Shell staff migrate from all over the world to work on the oil fields. Before moving they need to apply and secure a places for their children at the newly purpose built PDO School just on the outskirts of Oman.

Like many other schools, the PDO School admissions process was based on a custom workflow that addressed their unique circumstances. However this paper based process was riddled with complexities and repetitive manual processes that resulted in lengthy administrative hours and intermittent status updates to anxious parents, keen to know the status of their child’s application.

Challenge

It was no hidden secret that a standard, off the shelf admissions software would not be enough for the school. For PDO School, the requirement for an industry specific admissions platform at the right cost was paramount.  Having such a complex admissions process meant the solution also needed to be flexible enough to handle their unique needs all in the same platform with onward integration with SIMS Management Information Systems from Capita.

Solution

HEIapply proved to be a strong contender due to the following reasons. It provides:

• A modern, trusted, cloud based solution specifically designed to handle complex admissions routes as well as handle well known traditional admissions processes.
• The ability for PDO School to completely customise and mould the applicant journey, provide those applying with the best experience possible.
• Great affordability and quick turnaround.

Within weeks of our business development manager delivering an onsite demo to the core management team, works commenced. A project schedule was created and the solution was setup, tested, tweaked, delivered and went live on the 26^th of June 2016.

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Increase confirmed enrolments every recruitment cycle

Grow international student recruitment by  increasing the number of confirmed enrolments from offer holding international students early in the recruitment cycle.

The Background

Situated right outside the vibrant Birmingham City Centre, Aston is a long established research-led University known for its world-class teaching quality and strong links to industry, government and commerce. Aston offer a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes and is home to over 65,000 UK and international students.

Following the retirement announcement of Adobe FormsCentral early in 2015, like many other organisations, Aston was forced to source a solution to replace it. Aston’s Pre-Confirmation of Acceptance (Pre-CAS) online questionnaire was previously powered by the popular Adobe powered form builder.

Challenge 1: Overall applicant experience

The Institution was clear that it’s applicants could be offered a more enjoyable and streamlined journey. For applicants who didn’t have all the details they required to hand when they first started filling out the form, the problem of having to restart it from the beginning was a potential blocker reducing the number of applications actually completed and then submitted. For these reasons, Aston wanted to be able to allow the applicant to register, login, save and complete the Pre-CAS questionnaire from any computer, mobile or tablet device. Previously, forms would appear ‘broken’ on certain browsers, but knowing that their international applicants access their form from all over the world, they also wanted the new solution optimised to work on any browser of choice.

Solution

Aston introduced HEIapply admin and applicant portals for the final stages of its international student’s admission: the Pre-CAS Questionnaire for international applicants before issuing Confirmation of Acceptance (CAS).

Applicants are able to register their details and return to complete their form in their own convenience. They are also able to login after submittion the questionnaire to track the progress of their application. The portals provide branded environments that blend in with the Institution’s eye for design.

Challenge 2: Back-end administrative processes

Staff members at the admissions office previously captured responses from prospective students inside spreadsheets attached to emails.  from the admissions office at the University need an.  This was not easy to manage or apply filters to for sophisticated reports. There were also several manual tasks in the processes which meant resorting to traditional pen and paper methods.

Solution

The admissions office have access to an entire admin portal of their own in which they can receive and filter through incoming forms. The admin portal is easy to use, allowing even non-technical individuals to adapt to the new solution quickly. The centralised solution with in-built supplementary tools means that everything, (from tables of data, to graphs, charts and sticky notes) is in one place, so there is no need to use third party software or makes handwritten notes.

Challenge 3: Customisable forms and workflows

The University’s complex workflows were difficult to manage as separate forms were created for it’s 5 deparments that provide multiple courses and programmes. Minor changes meant that all linked forms had to be changed. Not everyone in the team should have had permission to see and do everything that senior administrators could but it was extremely confusing managing this with a basic form builder tool capturing everything inside a spreadsheet. It is important the the University’s complex workflows for it’s  5 departments and multiple programmes for each are accounted for with pristine accuracy.

Solution

The solution includes form building from scratch to mimic the workflows in the previous FormsCentral powered questionnaire. Varied permission levels are an important feature provided inside the admin portals, as some staff will need  to be trained and able to amend form fields by themselves. The complex workflows for it’s  5 departments and multiple programmes for each are accounted for with pristine accuracy using conditional rules.

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Control your international admissions process with an end-to-end paperless system

UK based institutions widely rely on UCAS applications as part of their admissions process, but there are other ways of maximising control over international admissions.

The Background

Based in the heart of London, Ravensbourne is an innovative, industry-focused university sector college nurturing the talent sought in digital media and design careers. Ravensbourne houses a community of approximately 2,400 students and over 100 creative technology businesses, emphasising creativity and collaboration

As per the traditional method of Institutions, Ravensbourne relied on UCAS for home based applications. Juggling between pen, paper, printers and spreadsheets; managing International admissions was quite a different story.

Challenge 1: Marketing & Communication

The institution was challenged with the inability to easily follow up on initial enquiries. Captured inside a spreadsheet received via an administrators email, manual action was required whereby the email addresses were uploaded to another system to send mailouts.

Solution

Initial Enquiry Management: Acting as a CRM, the enquiry management solution allows the marketing team to capture data on any device, for example at open days or while abroad at exhibition fairs. The solution automatically sends and tracks scheduled introductory emails to maintain touch point between the interest and applications stages.

Challenge 2 – Form Versions

With at least five different routes, the institution was juggling various forms and form versions. Editing these meant waiting on technical support from the IT team, and analysing applications submitted required third party programmes. Creating reports from the data captured meant reverting back to spreadsheets.

Solution

Applications Management & Admissions: The institution benefits from an end-to-end paperless system that manages all its international admissions routes (Pre-sessional English, Further Education, Under Graduate and Post Graduate). The solution comes with the ability to create & configure custom application forms and workflows in minutes by non-technical staff. The admissions solution also allows users to generate both pre-set and custom reports designed to track all KPIs.

Challenge 3 – Managing external partners

The institution has over 100 agents and partners all across the world who contribute applications each recruitment cycle. The management of applications received through external partners was messy, with no default requirement. External partners would email or fax in information, often missing out important documents and requiring substantial follow up.

Solution

Agent-Partner Management & Portal: The solution allows granting restricted and specific access, as in the case with agents and partners who can make enquires and applications on behalf of clients. The portals give a real time view of enquiries, the applications pipeline, applicant numbers and agent performance levels. Real time data analysis can be undertaken as soon as the data is added into the system, streamlining multi-relationship management and providing greater in-cycle market analysis.