Programmers Reduces Data Import Time for Student Recruitment Tool from

One Day to One Hour
Using Fast-Track Approach

When colleges and universities recruit high school seniors, time is limited, and competition is steep. That’s why our client wanted to optimize its CRM platform, which connects these institutions with potential students, to better handle spikes in demand.

We leveraged our Fast-Track Application Modernization service to quickly boost user experience and our client’s customer retention rates.

Our client in the education field connects American colleges and universities with prospective students, particularly high school seniors. This organization built a CRM tool that allows institutions to track conversations they’ve had with potential students and enroll them into email, text, and direct mail campaigns.

Always an important platform, this CRM tool became especially vital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Higher education recruiters needed to double down on digital platforms while traditional college fairs and other in-person events remained on hold.

But before working with Programmers, the company noticed that requests sometimes overloaded the CRM’s servers. During peak recruitment season, colleges and universities had to wait a day or longer for new student data to appear within the platform.

That’s why this company turned to Programmers. We used our Fast-Track Application Modernization service to lower data import times in this CRM iteratively. Soon, universities and colleges only had to wait an hour to see new prospect data that once took a full day.

Prestigious college building with ivory on its facade. Education facilitated by Fast-Track Application Modernization.
Simmering Down in Summer, Keeping Up with Fall

Before working with Programmers, this organization depended on servers with limited scalability. That meant the CRM couldn’t handle excessive traffic without investing large sums of money into expanding the software infrastructure. Plus, during low periods, the company still needed to pay substantial server fees while customers were not using the tool.

This scalability problem was particularly troublesome for a company working in higher education. Most American institutions ramp up recruitment at the same time (beginning of fall term) and slow it down at the same time (late spring through mid-summer).

To enhance scalability, Programmers built a new architecture for the CRM. We migrated functionalities to a serverless environment by leveraging AWS Step Functions, Simple Queue Service (SQS), and Simple Storage Service (S3).

This new architecture allowed colleges and universities to enjoy a consistently excellent experience with the CRM, even during the heights of fall recruitment. Plus, our client did not need to worry about paying server fees while institutions were not using the platform around Fourth of July and other slow periods.

From “Emailed” to “Enrolled” in Record Time
We knew that the higher education institutions our client serves couldn’t wait forever for improvements. The window to successfully convert a high school senior from “on the email list” to “enrolled at your university” is short, and most students have multiple schools on their radars.

That’s why we used our Fast-Track Application Modernization service to bring value to both our client and their customers quickly. Instead of initiating a full teardown and rebuild, we iteratively moved the most essential functions to this new serverless environment every 90 days.

This allowed colleges and universities to quickly enjoy better data import times. It also rapidly reduced our client’s total cost of ownership of the CRM, as they had to pay for less downtime on servers.

White male student with glasses and in blue hoodie looking at college acceptance letter.

Programmers’ Fast-Track Application Modernization Service

Whether it’s cloud migration, system integration, cleaner code, improved UI/UX, or anything in-between, Programmers’ Fast-Track Application Modernization service can iteratively make the adjustments your legacy systems need most.

We begin by sitting down with your team to understand what drives meaningful value to your organization. Then, we uncover the roadblocks to achieving this value in your legacy systems. We remove those barriers in 90-day modernization cycles, streamlining your internal operations and improving the customer experience. Learn more about Fast-Track Application Modernization today.