What projects could we work on together?
One of the wonderful things about Slate is how many unique ways institutions can leverage it. But that flexibility can also make it hard to know exactly what you might want help with.
Consultation can start with a specific list of projects you want to accomplish. Or, it can start with a conversation like: "What could we be doing to make [our lives easier] / [our data cleaner] / [our student experience better]? We don't know what we don't know."
Almost always, it includes some level of troubleshooting. Why did that application go into that bin? Why didn’t this student get that email? Let’s dig in and find out why.
Below, I’ve listed some types of projects I’ve worked on — consider this a starting point for our conversation.
Lobby Portal Signage
Loop through today's visitors to provide a personalized welcome, all with a portal displayed on a screen in your lobby. The best part? The only time you have to adjust it is when you add/remove event templates or folders that you want displayed. It will do the rest of the work for you.
Population Refreshes
Let's be real — you do it once, maybe twice, a year. And the order matters, but do you remember (or understand) why? We can work through this together. Record it so you have it for reference moving forward! Want it written out so you have documentation for it? You've got it.
Tour Guide Dataset and Event Surveys
Create a dataset of your tour guides, associate the visit surveys with the appropriate tour guide, and show the tour guide their average ratings, as well as the team's overall ratings.
Migrating from Local to Configurable Joins
Rules, queries, recipient lists, dashboards, reports - you name it. Moving from Local/Slate Template Library to Configurable Joins is a big task, and one I love helping with. It's also a great time to evaluate for efficiency and make sure things are working as we intend.
Basic Athletics Portal
I'll be the first to admit: I'm not a web designer. However, you don't need to overcomplicate an internal portal. Part of the power of Slate is getting data into the hands of people who need to see it. Get your coaches and athletics directors real-time lists and reports for only their assigned sports.
Gut-Check Vendor Data
Are you confident in the ROI claims that your vendor is making? Let's dive in and see if Slate is saying the same story in terms of inquiries, conversion rates, and more. This might involve adjusting how your origin sources, source format mappings, or other pieces of Slate are set up to make sure we're tracking it accurately.
Liquid Markup & Deliver Logic Training
Understanding a little bit of syntax in liquid markup will get you very far. We can work through the basics of existences, liquid markup, content blocks, translation codes, dictionary exports, and liquid looping.
Internal Notifications
Why set a calendar reminder when Slate can email you to tell you when something needs your attention? Events that need to be concluded, deposited students who have withdrawn, mailings that have a stop date in the next 2 weeks, a list of tomorrow's campus visitors, new scholarship offers to code - the list goes on and on.
Configurable Joins Training
Configurable joins is one of the most critical and powerful skills to have in Slate. It's also a steep learning curve. Whether you're brand new or wanting to improve your query skills, we can work through examples together and help you understand the why behind configurable joins.
Audit Queries
Find applicants with more than one application for the same term (Common App, I'm looking at you). Find records without an origin source. Double check user roles. Find upcoming high school visits that aren’t properly tied to an organization. Find confirmed events that aren't associated with a folder and/or template.
Melt Risk Report
How many deposited students haven't signed up for orientation? How many haven't registered for classes yet? How many haven't sent in their final high school transcript? How many haven't done any of those three things?
Decision Letter Reprint Process
Automate the export and storage of updated decision letters on student records using activities, scheduled export queries, and source formats. Once it's set up, all you need to do to trigger a reprint is add the activity code to a student's record.
How would the project be scoped?
That’s one of the perks of working with an independent consultant — we can structure it however we want.
Typically, I find that using a bank of hours is most equitable for both sides. I've found that we're often able to get through more projects than anticipated with the amount of hours we have. That means you're able to use the remaining time for training, wishlist projects, or anything else we decide.
Understandably, some business offices aren't as keen on this approach. That's why this is a conversation and not a prescribed SOW. Let's chat and find what works for you.
Get in Touch
Contact me to enhance your admissions processes and train your team in Slate.