TALK ABOUT DATABASE MYTHS
The Quiet Corner of Connecticut is one of the least urbanized districts along the Boston-Washington, D.C. corridor. This lightly populated region is characterized by farmland, rivers, lakes, forests, a corridor of fine antique stores, and the University of Connecticut. The Quiet Corner also cradles Pomfret School, founded in 1894. At Pomfret, 348 students in grades 9-12 and postgraduate, 60 percent of whom board, prepare for their futures steeped in traditional values of challenging scholarship, productivity, service and fulfillment.
In recent years, facilities on Pomfret’s 500-acre campus have been expanded, the result of the school’s most successful capital campaign in its history. The campaign added an athletic center, student union, boathouse, alumni house, ice rink, tennis center, maintenance facility, and a state-of-the-art student observatory. The school also renovated the four major dormitories and most faculty homes. In addition, “Priorities for Pomfret” added $16.5 million to the endowment.
“Pomfret combines small school values with big school opportunities,” offers Jon Sheehan, Director of Database and Online Communications for Admissions. “If you compare our curriculum to other schools our size, you’ll see we offer a much broader range of classes. A student doesn’t have to arrive with a passion for computers to succeed in java programming or robotics. Students develop broad interests here. As an example, some of our finest athletes recently finished first in a competition in which the goal was to create a robotic soccer player.”
Every student is required to take two art courses each year, so Pomfret offers more than 50 Fine Arts courses taught by working artists in their respective disciplines. Sheehan, who admits to being more techie than artist himself, is enthusiastic about this requirement. “After taking six art courses, there is a good possibility that a student who came in with an interest will leave with a passion.”
Sheehan joined the computer science faculty at Pomfret in 1999. Today he manages the online databases for the admissions process, as well as portals for parents and alumni; Sheehan uses several platforms to accomplish this outreach. He describes the value of PORTAL this way: “Our online communications capability is huge for parents. This is our second year using PORTAL and PORTAL WEB SERVICES; we have received great feedback since making this change.
“Before iR, we were using Blackbaud across the board, for admissions, registrar, business office, and alumni/development. Admissions was the first piece to move away from Blackbaud. We were investing a lot of time and money into a system that couldn’t run the reports we wanted. Three years ago, we did a needs assessment: we listed every feature we wanted in an admissions database and looked at five providers. We selected inRESONANCE.
“In making decisions like this, there is always a feeling of trepidation in moving away from the ‘industry standard.’ There is a worry that once you start customizing you’re on your own. This has not been our experience at all. When others who are considering moving to inRESONANCE call me with questions, I tell them that we took something good and made it better. We have done a bit of customization, adding a handful of unique fields and reports. But 80 percent of what we use was already there, out of the box.
“When I speak to people from other schools about what to consider in selecting the appropriate solution, I like to talk about Database Myths. It’s a database myth that you need to have one provider servicing the entire organization. Today, only Pomfret’s development office and business office are with Blackbaud. I tell others, ‘Don’t be sold on putting all your money and energies into one dominant company.’ I see the smaller companies working collaboratively now, even those that had seemed to be in competition a few years ago. iR has a fantastic admissions package. PORTAL is much better for us than the ‘industry standard.’
“In Admissions, we personalize communications to potential students and families as much as possible, based on a student’s interest. We’re constantly sending messages, ‘Here are some great things happening on campus, come join us.’ I coach soccer and lacrosse, so I send an email when a student interested in those sports applies, or I send out updates after a trip. I have a handful of kids with whom I’m in touch. It’s easy to keep them informed and make them feel a part of the community.
“FileMaker is not installed throughout Pomfret’s network. Nevertheless, we can immediately get some notes and family contact information into the hands of appropriate faculty members as soon as an interview is written up. It is very simple to choose a report from a drop-down list and email it out. That’s an example of a customization that I added.
“Looking forward, I’d like to create web applications to make our office even more productive. For example, I’d like to give coaches the opportunity to ‘peek in’ to the database to find all applicants interested in a particular sport, then reach out to those students by email. I’m interested in making it easy for the coaches get the information and act on it themselves. We can make staff more productive by using this technology well. It used to be that one person in our office had to spend time answering phone calls from applicants, then run to a folder and look up the status of a file. It’s invaluable that parents can use this self-serve ability to check the status of their applications online. PORTAL WEB SERVICES allows us to focus on the work we need to be doing; it’s a real time saver.”
Learn more about Pomfret School.