October 23, 2023

Dear JMU Faculty and Staff,

After more than two years of thoughtful planning and technical groundwork, we are pleased to begin rolling out MyMadison Connect, part of a new university constituent relationship management (CRM) system aimed at elevating student success by optimizing academic advising. As you may be aware, the debut of this new system is an early phase in the multi-year Reengineering Madison effort aimed at upgrading all of the university’s core data systems. 

During the week of October 23, phase one of implementation of MyMadison Connect begins for students working with First Year Advisers, advisers in the College of Health and Behavioral Studies, Pre-Professional Health Advising and advisers in the College of Business. After phase one users acclimate to the new system, phase two will begin rolling out for the rest of campus early next semester. 

JMU already is among the best public universities when it comes to student persistence and graduation rates because of the excellent assistance students receive from faculty, advisers and teams delivering academic support and co-curricular programs aimed at helping them to progress, thrive and find their place. Until now, our success hasn’t had the needed technology support. With MyMadison Connect, we will now have a system that equals the quality of our people.

Of course, with any significant systems change in organizations as large as JMU, there always will be challenges. I know that we are up to these challenges because of your demonstrated commitment to student success. More details about system training will come soon from our colleagues in IT. In the meantime, thank you to the dedicated teams that have gotten us to this point. And thank you for committing to the success of MyMadison Connect.  

Sincerely,

Jonathan R Alger
President

September 29, 2023

Dear Colleagues,

We first contacted you about Reengineering Madison – the multi-phased project of implementing new technology applications and replacing legacy systems – in August of 2021. We’re now ready to roll out the first phase: MyMadison Connect.

MyMadison Connect is our updated advising and student success tool, which allows students and their advisers to interact in new ways that simplify communication and increase collaboration. Several years of foundational work by Information Technology – guided by significant design input from faculty advisers, advising professionals in Student Academic Success and Enrollment Management and staff in the Dean of Students Office – brought us to this point, and we’re looking forward to increased capabilities including an easier way for advisers and students to schedule appointments and facilitated referrals to some campus offices. 

Advisers and students in certain academic programs will begin employing MyMadison Connect over the next month. During Phase 1, students advised by First Year Advisers and advisers in the College of Business, College of Health and Behavioral Studies, and Pre-Professional Health Advising will be the first users of the system. Individuals from these areas have been involved in the planning process for some time, and we appreciate their feedback and assistance in developing the first phase rollout. 

Phase 2 will expand these capabilities to all major advisers and advisers in Athletics throughout the spring semester. Training to use MyMadison Connect will be provided, as will updated guidance on FERPA. Over the next few months, you will hear about multiple ways to learn more and begin using Reengineering Madison, and we encourage you to refer to the website for more information.

Most faculty and staff will not be impacted by the initial implementation and will not see any changes in their normal processes. However, we want to make sure you are aware of these significant upgrades to our systems and welcome any questions you may have. 
 
Sincerely,

Robin Bryan, AVP IT, CIO
Bob Kolvoord, Dean of CISE
Reengineering Madison Steering Committee co-chairs

July 10, 2023

JMU Community,

Reengineering Madison work is in full swing and we wanted to provide several key updates: 

1. Identity Management: JMU has chosen Okta as our future Identity Management solution. Project activities are scheduled to begin in July. This initiative will support a modern identity and access solution including provisioning eID’s, single sign-on, and self-service capabilities. We anticipate an initial go-live in 2024 and a more detailed schedule will be shared in a future update.
2. CRM: The CRM (Constituent Relationship Management) implementation is in progress. Project teams are collaborating with our partner Huron on requirements particularly in the Advising/Student Success and Advancement workstreams. The first phase of the Advising/Student Success workstream is scheduled to go live in the fall of ‘23.
3. Data Governance and Access: The Data Governance Council continues its crucial work on establishing university-wide data definitions. Additionally, initial steps regarding JMU’s strategy for data access are occurring.

Thanks to those who have been involved with Reengineering Madison so far and we look forward to your future engagement and contributions!

Regards,

Robin Bryan, AVP IT, CIO
Bob Kolvoord, Dean of CISE
Reengineering Madison Steering Committee co-chairs

April 10, 2023

JMU Community,

We are excited to share Reengineering Madison updates as we move into the early stages of our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) initiative. In late January, JMU finalized the selection of Salesforce as our university-wide CRM platform. We are in the midst of an assessment led by Huron Consulting which will result in refined plans for our implementation. Huron brings Higher Education and Salesforce implementation expertise and will be working with JMU over the course of the project.

Following this assessment, we will focus on three workstreams initially:

1. Enterprise/Campus-wide where functions that span JMU will be implemented including support for consolidated communications management, case management, and events.
2. Advising/Student Success which will include capabilities such as appointment scheduling, tracking notes, and Early Student Success.
3. Advancement where key capabilities in the areas of constituent engagement, prospect research, gift processing, and more will support JMU's Advancement activities.

We anticipate kicking off these workstreams in May. There will be additional phases in the future focused on Admissions and other areas. 

Thanks to each of you who have already been involved with the CRM efforts! We look forward to the efficiencies we’ll achieve and new ways we’ll be able to support our students and other constituents.

We appreciate your continued interest and support of Reengineering Madison!

Regards,

Robin Bryan, AVP IT, CIO
Bob Kolvoord, Dean of CISE
Reengineering Madison Steering Committee co-chairs

January 26, 2023

Members of the JMU community,

We are excited to announce a major step forward in the multiyear Reengineering Madison effort to dramatically transform our campus technology and platforms, modernize our systems, and streamline our business processes, all aimed at dramatically improving the student experience and our relationships with everyone in the JMU community. The contract for JMU’s university-wide Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform has been awarded to Salesforce, with Huron Consulting Group as our implementation partner.

JMU is taking an enterprise, campus-wide approach to our CRM implementation. Enterprise capabilities for departments will include items like communications management, case management and events functionality. Specific functionality to support Advancement, Advising/Student Success and Admissions activities will also be delivered via the Salesforce platform. Over the next several years, the CRM platform will be implemented iteratively across functional areas.

We invite you to visit the CRM page on our Reengineering Madison website for additional information about this project, which will transform how we communicate and engage with our constituents!

The process leading up to the Salesforce contract involved valuable input and dedication from partners across the university. We want to express our sincerest appreciation to everyone involved in the CRM process thus far, and we look forward to continuing to work together throughout this implementation and beyond in support of JMU’s mission, vision and values.

Regards,

Robin Bryan, AVP IT, CIO
Bob Kolvoord, Dean of CISE
Reengineering Madison Steering Committee co-chairs

September 30, 2022

JMU Community,

Reengineering Madison work is continuing and we have several key updates to share.

The evaluation process continues for foundational technology including an enterprise wide CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform as well as an Identity and Access Management solution. Additionally, the first technology component of Reengineering Madison was launched in late August. This involved a new integration platform called Boomi, which will support data integration across many systems.

University wide Data Governance is another critical project that is currently underway. The activities and outcomes of this effort support the Reengineering Madison objective of fostering a data informed culture at JMU. Following are key highlights regarding this work:

1. A Data Governance Council with representation from many areas meets regularly. The current focus of this group is on data processes and documenting data definitions for the university.
2. Principles regarding how we use and govern data at JMU have been established.
3. A data dictionary with terms and definitions for the university has been published. This will continue to be added to and adjusted throughout Reengineering Madison.

Many thanks to those who are already helping with Reengineering Madison. We look forward to engaging with others as we move forward!

Regards,

Bob Kolvoord, Dean of CISE
Robin Bryan, AVP IT, CIO
Reengineering Madison Steering Committee co-chairs

June 28, 2022

JMU Community,

In the last three months, Reengineering Madison work has continued to accelerate and we are excited to share several updates.

One area the Steering Committee is focused on is how we’ll work at leading the people side of change that will be critical to our success. As a first step, the group participated in a training session led by a Change Management expert. We anticipate additional actions will occur to support the people component of change as we all work at aligning with the principles established for Reengineering Madison.

Other key updates include:

1. The RFP (Request for Proposal) process continues for selecting an Enterprise CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform. Reference calls with other universities and follow ups with the vendors have occurred.
2. JMU purchased and started implementing an iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) product, Boomi, that will help modernize how integrations between applications are created. This will be an important component to support data getting to the right place at the right time.
3. Our Data Governance working group is laser focused on data definitions. We are also working to create a website where these definitions will be published and available for the JMU community to access.
4. Vendors have been contacted requesting initial information on their Identity Management solutions. This project will involve replacing key technology and processes related to identity, accounts, and access for JMU constituents.

We appreciate your continued support of Reengineering Madison and look forward to providing future updates!

Regards,

Bob Kolvoord, Dean of CISE
Robin Bryan, AVP IT, CIO
Reengineering Madison Steering Committee co-chairs

March 28, 2022

JMU Community,

Reengineering Madison continues to move ahead and we want to offer an update.

The Reengineering Madison Steering Committee continues to provide direction and decisions for the project. A subset of this group forms our CRM RFP (Request for Proposal) Committee, tasked with selecting an Enterprise CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform. This represents a critical early project for Reengineering Madison.

The CRM Platform project is designed to provide functionality to support Advancement, Advising and Admissions in addition to key capabilities for departments across campus. Sample functions of a CRM include contact and relationship tracking, case management, appointment scheduling, email marketing, and analytics related to how constituents are engaging with JMU.

We are currently in the process of selecting a CRM platform.  Demonstrations from vendors occurred from late January to mid-February 2022 with participation from individuals across campus.  We’re working on follow up questions for the vendors involved, as well as making reference calls with other universities.

The CRM will NOT replace our current Peoplesoft systems. Our HR, Finance, and Student systems are targeted for replacement several years from now, later in the Reengineering Madison timeline.

If your committee or department has interest in learning more about Reengineering Madison, please contact us at remade@jmu.edu. A member of the Steering Committee member will arrange a presentation for the group. 

We appreciate your support of Reengineering Madison!

Regards,

Bob Kolvoord, Dean of CISE
Robin Bryan, AVP IT, CIO
Reengineering Madison Steering Committee co-chairs

November 2021

JMU Community,

The multi-year Reengineering Madison program is ramping up and we want to provide you with an update. Reengineering Madison includes a number of technology projects that will bring new capabilities to JMU as well as replace legacy systems.   

Key updates on our progress the past three months:

1. An RFP (Request for Proposal) has been issued for selecting an Enterprise CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform. We anticipate CRM demonstrations from vendors to occur in early 2022.  The University-wide CRM will provide functionality to support Advancement, Advising and Admissions and support a consolidated view of university constituents.
2. A Data Governance working group is focused on key user driven scenarios and associated data definitions in preparation for our major technology implementations.
3. A project around Identity Management is underway. This will involve replacing key technology and business processes related to identity, accounts, and access for JMU constituents.

We will continue to provide regular email updates and you may review additional information on the Reengineering Madison website.

Also, if your committee or department has interest in learning more about Reengineering Madison, please contact us at remade@jmu.edu and a presentation from a Steering Committee member will be arranged.

We value your support and interest in Reengineering Madison!

Regards,

Bob Kolvoord, Dean of CISE
Robin Bryan, AVP IT, CIO
Reengineering Madison Steering Committee co-chairs

August 2021

JMU Community,

As announced by President Alger, JMU has embarked on a multi-year initiative called Reengineering Madison.  This effort involves implementing new technology applications and replacing legacy systems to help JMU prepare for the future – planning is already underway!

We anticipate that the project will help to:

• Improve student success.
• Enhance JMU business processes.
• Strengthen JMU’s decision making with powerful data points.

We need your help!  A program of this magnitude requires input and assistance from the entire JMU community and we look forward to your participation.  More information about how you can contribute will be shared as this exciting initiative progresses.

Periodic updates on our progress will be emailed and you may review additional information on the Reengineering Madison website at any point.

We look forward to Reengineering Madison, together!

Regards,

Bob Kolvoord, Dean of CISE

Robin Bryan, AVP IT, CIO

Reengineering Madison Steering Committee co-chairs