Established in 1961, the Monash Student Association (MSA) is the representative body for all students at Monash University’s Clayton campus. The MSA is made up of elected student representatives and its mission is to advocate on student issues and welfare. It also provides funding for all recreational clubs on the Clayton campus and runs the Sir John’s Bar, Wholefoods restaurant, Student Theatre, Host Scheme, the Short Courses Centre, the student newspaper, and the Activities Department.
The Monash Student Association (MSA)’s goal is to double its membership over the next few years. The solution implemented by Fusion5 simplified the enrolment process, empowered MSA to perform more effective marketing activities and engage more effectively with members. It has also enabled more accurate reporting which is important for securing future funding.
The Challenge
Student enrolment and orientation weeks had become challenging in terms of managing member information and facilitating enrolment in MSA and student clubs, meaning prime opportunities to grow membership were being missed. The solution needed to address this problem, enable MSA to engage more effectively with members and improve reporting accuracy for funding purposes.
Partnership
In addition to implementing an effective membership management tool, Fusion5 developed mobile applications specifically designed to meet MSA’s unique needs, simplifying the joining process and enabling students to use smartphones and tablets.
Business Benefits
"The insight into our membership provided by the solution enables us to more effectively promote events & special offers to students and will ultimately help MSA drive engagement with its members." - Sylvia Frances | Senior Finance Officer, MSA.
Increased membership
The ability of the solution to efficiently handle the demands of enrolment and orientation weeks has enabled MSA to register more members during this peak time. The solution’s self-service web portal has provided the capability for existing members to renew their membership via the internet (rather than queuing at terminals) and has assisted MSA to retain members.
Accurate member information for marketing & reporting
The solution brought disparate data sets into a single source of member information, accessible by staff & club office bearers. The information can be used to engage more effectively with members and generate detailed reports that are critical for funding purposes.
Cumbersome processes were limiting capacity to grow membership
O-Week is one of the busiest times for the MSA. It is when over 80% of members sign up and when clubs & societies experience their biggest influx of members. Last year there were 15 MSA staff and 110 clubs & societies processing new members. Previously, during enrolment week, students would need to visit stand-alone terminals in order to join the MSA. Additionally, MSA and the clubs & societies maintained separate databases and the process for students required registration with both MSA and any clubs with manual processes in place to handle registrations and payment. The solution centralises student information and provides MSA and the clubs & societies with a portal to quickly and efficiently sign up members as well. The portal also facilitates student self-service.
Development of user friendly applet speeds up processes for both enrolment & orientation weeks
Fusion5 developed a custom Java application for MSA to collect member information and speed up the enrolment/registration process. The applet works on Macs and PCs and minimises the steps involved in registering. The use of an applet also helped to overcome the challenge of rolling a new system out to 109 student groups and ensuring they were trained prior to orientation week.
Offline capability
In previous orientation weeks, MSA and the clubs and societies had experienced issues due to Wi-Fi being unable to cope with volumes of data. The solution provided off-line capability which meant that in the event that Wi-Fi failed, clubs were able to collect data that could be synchronised to the MSA database at a later time.
Payment integration eliminates manual payment processes
Fusion5’s solution incorporated a SecurePay gateway. Students are able to pay memberships directly and the money is deposited straight to MSA’s bank account. There is no longer a need to handle payments manually.
Reporting capabilities provide insight and will drive a more personalised relationship with members
The custom reports developed by Fusion5 as part of the solution have enabled MSA to understand membership demographics and student involvement like never before. The data is used by MSA to promote itself to Monash University to attract more funding. The information is also being used in outreach campaigns to specific target audiences.
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