Clackamas Community College
Background
Clackamas Community College, located in Oregon City, Oregon, is a learning
institution selected by the Federal Government to participate in the Workforce
Investment Act. Upon completion of their education, participants are placed
in working environments directly related to their courses of study. In
order to stay in compliance with federal regulations, CCC is mandated
to implement a sufficient tracking system to maintain pertinent information
on all participants enrolled in WIA.
The Problem
The need for an effective and all-inclusive contact management tool at
CCC was increasing as the number of participants grew. CCC lacked the
ability to have readily available information on each contact, from both
the business sector and the student database.
CCC’s staff relied upon an outdated and inefficient paper system
and from outside contract work, which provided them with comprehensive
reports. The need for individual reports was simply going unmet. Each
student/resource the college placed in the work force needed his or her
own individual tracking—and the ability to accomplish this was a
timely and expensive task.
CCC’s involvement with the Workforce Investment Act entails the
maintenance of vast amounts of comprehensive contact information, every
participant academic and career profile, and step-by-step accounts of
process details. The amount of time and effort CCC staff spent on information
allocation and maintenance was proving to be ineffective.
The Solution
Clackamas Community College relies on its Novell GroupWise email system
for the dissemination of information on every level. Maintaining quality
lines of communication with all resources and contacts is of the utmost
importance for CCC. Through the integration of GroupLink’s ContactWise
contact management tool, CCC has been able to transform its once slow
and tedious tracking process into a full functioning, streamlined contact
information system.
Operating on a well-established Novell platform, and moving to an open
database server (e.g., Linux, NetWare or Windows based database options),
the implementation of ContactWise provided CCC the opportunity to leverage
its existing investments. The seamless integration of GroupLink’s
ContactWise, with Novell GroupWise provided CCC with an operating tool
that maximized efficiency while concurrently minimizing efforts.
Corky Fields works in Customized Training and Developmental Services
for Clackamas Community College. “Every month we generate reports
specifying detailed information regarding our involvement with the Workforce
Investment Act. Before the implementation of ContactWise; the task of
recording the exact number of businesses contacted, primary contact information
used, the number of employees involved, and which project coordinator
oversaw each and every project was a daunting process,” said Fields.
“Now through the use of ContactWise we are able to receive direct
and verifiable information instantly, and then route that data to the
appropriate department or individual with a click of the mouse.”
“We have a need for mail merges, and before the implementation
of ContactWise we had no choice but to do separate sorts,” said
Fields. “With this new system everything is so streamlined, and
we have the added bonus of having all correspondence recorded in ContactWise
history Tab. One of the biggest advantages is being able to bulk email
based on coding, and to incorporate electric-clients. This was something
we were in desperate need of.”
Conclusion
Through the implementation of GroupLink’s ContactWise, Clackamas
Community College has been able to take a cumbersome process and streamline
it to the markets with which it is involved. Through a more competent
and efficient contact management system, CCC has increased its potential
to serve both students and enterprises affiliated with the Workforce Investment
Act. The integration of ContactWise has provided CCC staff with the ability
to perform their responsibilities better, while more effectively handling
their contact resources.
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