We are committed to providing holistic solutions that empower academic institutions and training organizations to achieve their strategic goals and improve their student outcomes.
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A new era for education is on the horizon.
Post-pandemic, institutions of all sizes and types are finding innovative ways to take advantage of a rising demand for learning services and provide more value to their students. However, no two educators approach this reimagination process in exactly the same way. Your organization is unique; your evolution should be, too.
At Gerent, we see every learning institution as an individual. We want to help you achieve your ideal future state on your terms — which is why we're opening up limited (and entirely free) office hours to forward-thinking program leaders.
We service a wide range of educational organizations:
Tutoring & Student Advancement
International / Study Abroad
Camps & Recreational Programs
You can count on us
Depth & Breadth of Knowledge
We have a deep and broad understanding of all key areas of educational institutions, including:
Student Experience & Engagement
Communities & Portals
Salesforce Exclusive
We are a top Salesforce pure-play consulting partner with critical mass and no corporate parent or acquisition-induced constraints.
We've successfully deployed Salesforce solutions into multiple large and complex Education and Training environments.
Gerent Digital
We leverage the power of our digital product agency to design winning customer experiences that set your brand apart in the education marketplace.
Salesforce for Education
Flexible, easily-managed outreach tools to grow enrollment
Build thoughtful student journeys with impactful messaging that communicates your unique culture and value proposition
Dynamic reporting and dashboards powered by secure, unified data
Leverage robust student and partner profiles to gain insight into trends and opportunities for growth
Intuitive self-service portals and knowledge-sharing communities that empower students and partners
Design smart, interactive spaces that provide centralized help, secure account access, and chat for 24/7 support
Scalable scheduling tools to maximize resources and deliver seamless learning experiences
Make informed programming decisions to foster retention and improve student outcomes
Vice President, Enrollment Management
"As we brace for Fall 2021, I am tasked with managing our enrollment pipeline to ensure that we meet our strategic recovery goals. This "new reality" has certainly put me behind the eight ball because our student demographic has been impacted by the pandemic. We've relied on "our students" being "our students" for so long that it's hard to gain insight into changing trends and new opportunities. I work closely with marketing and recruitment, but I don't have a good idea of what they are doing and if we're on track to hit our yield and retention targets."
How can technology help?
Transform once siloed data into a single source of truth to gain insight into student demographics and enrollment trends.
Access real-time student pipeline information from lead to application, through admission and enrollment, to track yield and monitor benchmarks.
Collaborate seamlessly across business units, courtesy of shared comprehensive student and partner profiles.
Meet Patrick
"I have a robust communication plan that fosters student engagement and support. However, because our institution's data is very siloed, it has become increasingly difficult to leverage critical milestones within the student journey. As a result, there is a misconception that marketing doesn't understand our students. We have great ideas and direction, but need a cohesive way to automate personalized messaging to reach our students (on a variety of platforms) when they need it most."
Create thoughtful student journeys, complete with supportive and strategically scheduled messaging.
Leverage social media to attract and interact with students via their preferred platforms.
Track campaign efforts and ROI to maximize spend.
Director of Admissions
"In admissions, we often find ourselves balancing two conflicting roles: gatekeeper and cheerleader. It's my responsibility to adhere to our institution's rigorous admission standards, while still communicating our mission of inclusivity and student success. I would love to spend more time getting to know my applicants, to help them through our process, but I am bogged down in tedious, manual (and sometimes double) work. I worry that I am losing touch with our current student population and am not able to add value to their experience."
Create campaigns to assist applicants at key milestones of the admission process.
Provide self-service support communities to engage admitted students.
Keep detailed student records, including communication and cases, to provide thoughtful experiences.
Understand students and their parents/sponsors to build trust and foster retention.
Build custom reports and dashboards with scheduled and on-demand updates/distribution options.
Director of Alumni Relations
"I serve as the liaison between my school and our graduates. I coordinate with just about every department on campus and am responsible for outreach through programmed events and targeted messaging. Our institution is generously supported by alumni/donor contributions and with incoming student funding being impacted so heavily by the pandemic, I need the ability to create scholarship opportunities and carefully track ROI of our fundraising efforts and related campaigns."
Automate and personalize alumni outreach campaigns to foster lasting engagement.
Manage relationships with key donors and sponsors to drive advancement initiatives.
Create robust online communities to encourage networking and continued.
April Bollwage
Education Practice Leader
April has spent over 20 years working in education and training. Her most recent leadership role in organizational and customer operations gives her a unique insight into the challenges and opportunities facing today's institutions.
She has developed and redesigned processes to support a network of 60 domestic learning centers and their relationships with over 500 higher ed partners. April specializes in enrollment management, strategic operations, and student experience.
Will Shu
Will has worked in the technology industry for over 27 years. He has spent the last 10 years spearheading Salesforce digital transformation in the finance and education sectors. This experience has provided unique insights into the issues many businesses face during a digital migration.
His most recent senior leadership role in a global language training organization has led to a worldwide Salesforce implementation and fostered internal adoption of the new platform. Will specializes in strategic thought leadership, technology innovation, and senior IT management.
Our Point of View
Meeting Learners' Evolved Expectations in the Competitive Online Education Sector explores why online education organizations' digital presence must be differentiated in today's competitive climate, why catering to consumers' changing demographics and expectations is essential, and the profound importance of leveraging data to increase the recruitment and retention of learners.
View White Paper
Episode 33: How To Build The Best Quality-Driven Admissions Departments
Nearly 20 million American students were registered in college or university in the fall of 2020. All of them went through some sort of process to get there, meaning that the schools they applied to, guided each one through an admissions procedure.
The admission process is a school's chance to make a good first impression. After all, students represent revenue. So, the business case for having an efficient admissions department revolves around how students judge their admissions experience.
Admissions departments need to take a page out of the manufacturing playbook where companies strive to make the best products possible by spending a lot of time and attention on quality: quality control and quality assurance. They evaluate their processes, pinpoint the weaknesses, and create methods to strengthen those weaknesses.
Episode 21: Why Educators Need To Master Journey Mapping
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An E-Learning Powerhouse Prepares for the Future of Education with Marketing Cloud
Client Success Snapshot
Client Profile:
Overview: A major provider of online courses and learning opportunities
Industry: Education (Online Learning)
Team Size: 1,000-5,000
Annual Revenue: US$ 200 million to $300 million
Headquarters: CA, USA
Markets: Global
Amid an e-learning boom, a major e-learning provider needed to improve its scalability and develop a better understanding of how to serve its quickly-expanding user base. Post-pandemic, a rising tide of students threatened to overflow the company's existing CRM framework. The company needed to scale — and to do so it needed to implement a new digital framework.
Gerent's Approach
Gerent's solution architects implemented Marketing Cloud and connected the e-learning company with tools it would need to expand and optimize its operations. During this process, they established core Marketing Cloud solutions such as Email Studio, Web Studio, Automation Studio, Journey Builder, and Marketing Cloud Connect. After launching these tools, they further connected the client's Marketing Cloud with its Sales Cloud, external data warehouse, and learning platform.
Key Outcomes
By using Marketing Cloud's tools to facilitate full dynamic emails and automate marketing processes, the e-learning provider was able to improve its efficiency and achieve a 360° view of its learners. These changes gave the company the scalable functionalities it needed to accommodate post-pandemic growth and meet a new era of online learning head-on.
In late 2020, a major online-education provider found itself facing a new and welcome problem. Amid an e-learning boom, a rising tide of students threatened to overflow the company's existing CRM framework.
The company needed to boost its growth capacity and attain a 360° view of its customers. The means to do so seemed obvious: it would implement Salesforce's Marketing Cloud to better meet its burgeoning outreach needs. The e-learning platform was motivated to do so, as it had recently transitioned over to Sales Cloud and seen the benefits Salesforce products could provide firsthand.
However, implementation is no small feat — which is why the education powerhouse selected Gerent as its Salesforce implementation partner.
Salesforce Solutions Tailored to Your Needs
Gerent collaborated with the online education provider to develop and deploy a program management structure that would ensure the efficient delivery of work streams across all internal and external business stakeholders and teams. The Gerent team also designed optimal enrollment journeys to bolster the company's student acquisition efforts.
During implementation, Gerent's solution architects established core Marketing Cloud solutions such as Email Studio, Web Studio, Automation Studio, Journey Builder, and Marketing Cloud Connect. Once implemented, they connected the company's Marketing Cloud with its sales cloud, external data warehouse, and learning platform.
The e-learning provider's implementation process occurred in phases. First, Gerent's solution architects created static emails so the e-learning platform could transition from its former marketing software and begin learning how to operate the Marketing Cloud system. Then, once the client's team felt comfortable with the framework, our solution architects enabled Marketing Cloud's full dynamic capabilities — a switch that enabled the company to take its scalability to the next level. Since achieving these action items, Gerent has continued to provide support for the company's digital growth initiatives.
The results speak for themselves: by using Marketing Cloud's tools to facilitate full dynamic emails and automate marketing processes, the e-learning provider was able to reduce the number of campaigns it needed to create and drastically improve employee bandwidth.
Implementation Guided by Decades of Industry Experience
The online learning giant specifically chose Gerent as its implementation partner because of our team's extensive experience in the education sector. April Bollwage and Will Shu, who lead Gerent's education and technology practices, respectively, have well over three decades of collective experience working in the education and training industry. Bollwage and Shu's ability to weave their boots-on-the-ground industry experience into a high-level Salesforce implementation strategy was a selling point for the client.
Under its guidance and direction, Gerent's team gave the e-learning provider the framework it needed to accommodate post-pandemic growth and meet a new era of online learning head-on.
Contact Gerent today to learn how we can help your company achieve its ideal future state!
A Language Learning Company Transforms Sales and Marketing
Overview: A language education provider
Industry: Education (ELS)
Team Size: 18,000
Annual Revenue: US$ 1 Billion
Headquarters: Princeton, New Jersey
The company wanted to amp up and unify its business practices, customer service initiatives, and marketing strategies. In addition, it set out to categorize returning learners correctly, and eliminate unnecessary overlap. Lastly, it wanted to track all leads that came through its pipeline from around the world to better support marketing and sales teams.
Gerent implemented Marketing Cloud and activated several Salesforce modules to empower the business to meet its goals. Journey Builder was used to create and execute a standardized communication strategy; Mobile Studio was used to reach students on any device with personalized messaging. To add, Automation Studio enabled Gerent to execute multi-step marketing and data management activities on an immediate, triggered or scheduled basis. To enable the company to track interactions with prospects, Gerent created personalized web pages and microsites.
Post-implementation, the company discovered a large number of previously hidden leads in its data, which it was able to act on. Once it did, the company closed the gap on its Q4 revenue goals. The language learning provider was also able to deploy data-driven client interactions through micro-targeted campaigns, apply different communication strategies based on industry or region, and streamline its communications and marketing reporting.
Businesses that have embarked on successful digital transformations to better serve their customers often agree on two things: it was a tough process and at the end of the day, it was the correct path to take. While the process can be long and arduous, companies realize why they do it: to eliminate information silos, streamline customer data flow throughout the organization, and provide the means to better serve customers.
Tear Down and Rebuild
A global leader in language instruction and leadership training made the decision to undergo a complete digital transformation. The company referred to the transformation as its 2.0 project — it would rebuild from the ground up. The company's long history coupled with its global span made its transformation project a mammoth endeavor; over the years, the business expanded its language training services to countries around the world.
Gerent was chosen as the company's preferred Salesforce implementation partner, and Sean Best was the program manager.
"Even though the company's brand was global, the educator was very regional. And the regions operated almost as independent entities for many years," he explained.
One of the client's objectives was to unify its business practices and eliminate duplication and overlap. The educator also wanted to track all the leads that came through its pipeline from around the world. Unfortunately, it had no way of reaching these goals with its existing patchwork setup.
A New Kind of Customer
For decades, the firm's language centers enrolled clients through walk-in traffic or phone calls from prospective learners. Although today, people and businesses are used to cloud-based language learning they can access from mobile devices. Cloud-based learners can receive instruction anywhere, any time — two hallmarks of the digital age.
Digitalizing the company's back-end operations required a custom design to support the client's front end: marketing and sales; this was where many issues lay:
Different marketing strategies from region to region and country to country in the same region
No dedicated, in-house marketing materials
Poor levels of coordination between marketing and sales
No streamlined process to handle student complaints globally
No means of tracking leads
Language courses were offered in various levels of difficulty; once a level was complete, a learner would need to re-enroll for the next level. The company's re-enrolment rate was no better than 60% and it couldn't identify why many students didn't renew.
Further, when learners completed a level, they became alumni. Alumnae who re-enrolled after a year were considered new students— which skewed sales and marketing strategies. Salesforce Marketing Cloud was the obvious choice for the language educator and Gerent completed its successful implementation in October 2018.
Marketing Cloud opened the company's eyes to what it had been missing. Sean believes the educator discovered a large number of previously hidden leads in its data, which it was then able to act on. As a result, the company closed the gap on its Q4 revenue goals. More specifically, the company was able to:
Capture all student interactions as data that could be analyzed
Use data to deploy micro-targeted campaigns
Apply different communication strategies based on industry and region
Develop common KPIs across all regions
Streamline marketing reporting
When Gerent implemented Marketing Cloud, the following modules were activated:
Journey Builder: to create and automatically execute a communication strategy
Mobile Studio: to reach students on any device with personalized messaging
Automation Studio: to execute multi-step marketing and data management activities on an immediate, triggered or scheduled basis
Web Studio: to create personalized web pages and microsites, and track student interactions
Following its successful Marketing Cloud implementation, the company was better positioned to gather, analyze, and act upon customer data from all its language centers around the world. After Gerent streamlined the client's back-end operations, its 2.0 project proved to be a tremendous success.
Contact Gerent today to find out how we can help your business achieve its ideal future state!
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