Company: Our Lady of the Lake University
Industry: Education
Employee Size: 900
Products: Veeam Backup & Replication
OLLU’s Challenge
Student recruitment and retention is big business for colleges and universities. Without recruitment and retention, student populations will shrink to the point that institutions can’t afford to stay open. Competition for students is fierce, making recruitment and retention critically important.
Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) is a private Catholic university sponsored by the Sisters of Divine Providence. OLLU takes student recruitment and retention very seriously. Since 2008, enrollment has increased by 8 percent, retention by 7 percent and graduation rates by 10 percent. OLLU isn’t stopping there. The university’s strategic five-year plan (2013-2018) aims to further increase enrollment, retention and graduation rates. OLLU wants to become one of the top 20 Catholic universities in the United States.
To improve enrollment and graduation rates, OLLU uses customer relationship management (CRM) software designed specifically for higher education. CRM helps the university find, engage, recruit and enroll students. To keep enrolled students on the path to graduation, OLLU uses enterprise resource management (ERP) software. ERP helps the entire university community stay engaged and productive.
When unreliable recovery of the IT components supporting CRM and ERP jeopardized recruitment and retention efforts, OLLU’s IT department purchased Veeam® Backup & Replication™.
If the university didn’t meet recruitment and retention goals, the student population would decrease to the point that OLLU couldn’t afford to stay open. Students would lose the opportunity for a faith-based education suffused with service to others, environmental preservation and advancement of the disadvantaged, minorities and women. The surrounding community would lose thousands of hours in student volunteer services including a speech and hearing clinic and a women’s center. Moreover, the United States would lose a top Catholic university dedicated to gospel values, a global worldview, a reverence for life, collaborative partnerships and social justice.
“Our job is making sure all critical systems, including those supporting CRM and ERP, are running 24.7. If CRM and ERP are unavailable, we’re not doing our part to help the university meet recruitment and retention goals.”
ScholarBuys’ Role and the Veeam Solution
ScholarBuys has been working with Our Lady of the Lake University since the company’s start in 2008. Mike Brown, the institution’s sales executive, worked with Jeffrey Allen, the Manager of Infrastructure Services, to find a solution that would meet their needs. After discussing the options, Veeam Backup & Replication was selected. Veeam helps OLLU meet recruitment and retention goals by delivering 24.7 Availability of the IT components supporting CRM and ERP.
“Recruitment and retention are critical to the university’s long-term sustainability and success,” Allen said. “Veeam plays an important role in our strategy to find, engage and enroll students plus keep them motivated and on track for graduation. Veeam is the benchmark for Availability in the IT industry.”
In addition to helping support CRM and ERP, Veeam supports additional systems serving OLLU. Veeam delivers 24.7 Availability of web servers, file shares, email and the IT components supporting campus-wide security cameras.
