CASE STUDY
How Bridges Replatformed Career Tech Institution to HubSpot Enterprise Suite in 40 Days
INDUSTRY
Public Sector
INVOLVEMENT
Migration and Replatforming
Implementation
Custom Development
Custom Workflows
Data Cleanup
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About Our Client
The client is Metro Technology Centers (Metro Tech) a career and technology training center and part of the Oklahoma career tech system. In Oklahoma, 29 centers provide career and technology education (CTE).
The client’s prospective and current audiences are high school and adult learners. High school students can receive concurrent high school and college credits that satisfy their graduation requirements through Metro Tech. These courses can potentially yield a trade certificate or license upon graduation.
Adult learners of all ages can take long and short-term career development courses that also yield trade certifications. This allows high school and adult learners other avenues beyond the typical two- and four-year college degree.
There were many moving pieces the Metro Tech team dealt with on an ongoing basis. While leadership explored different CRM solutions to help them better manage their data, they contacted BridgeRev for insight into their systems and processes.
Assessing Our Client’s Challenges
After an extensive scoping process pre-sale and an in-depth discovery with Metro Tech leadership before the deal closed, BridgeRev found the core problem with Metro Tech’s current tech stack was the lack of a single source of truth for all of the data sources in their organization. While they had an active subscription to Microsoft Dynamics, Dynamics didn’t adequately meet the organization's needs in terms of functionality.
Additionally, Metro Tech had no insight into student enrollment metrics, KPIs and employee activities. This prevented them from making decisions based on data, not guesswork.
On top of the technical challenges facing Metro Tech, the organization needed to get a new application system live and functional by the start of the next student application period on October 1st.
Problems:
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Ineffective Microsoft Dynamics CRM configuration
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Siloed data across an unintegrated suite of software and technology solutions
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Outdated and incomplete data throughout their databases
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No ability to visualize or track real-time metrics for customer journeys or student enrollment pipelines
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Lack of functional reporting capabilities due to siloed data
Defining Our Client’s Objectives
During the pre-sale scoping process, the BridgeRev team decided it would be best to migrate Metro Tech’s organization from Microsoft Dynamics to HubSpot. During the in-depth technical scoping, BridgeRev and the Metro Tech team decided together that implementing the full HubSpot suite at the Enterprise level was the best choice.
Together with the Metro Tech leadership team and department leads, the BridgeRev HubSpot Implementation team worked to document Metro Tech’s processes fully. During this phase, BridgeRev defined specific objectives and goals that would ensure a successful implementation while solving the organizational issues that BridgeRev identified during discovery.
In addition to the problems described previously that the BridgeRev team was tasked with solving, the Metro Tech team also wanted to fully migrate out of their current Dynamics setup before their contract was renewed and to use HubSpot to manage the intake of student applications for the upcoming school year.
That only gave the BridgeRev team 40 days to migrate Metro Tech’s entire system from Microsoft Dynamics to HubSpot and train their staff on how to use it before the new application period opened on October 1st.
Objectives
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Migrate organization’s data from Microsoft Dynamics to HubSpot in 40 days
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Implement the entire HubSpot CRM Enterprise Suite
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Import and clean data
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Work with Metro Tech team to optimize existing processes and develop new ones
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Rebuild student application on HubSpot to utilize these processes
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Support leadership in change management by training staff on how to use a new system
The Solutions
BridgeRev mapped out, and architected Metro Tech’s Dynamics infrastructure for a successful re-platforming. They captured and understood the wishlist of what Metro Tech would like to do but lacked the capability within their current CRM.
BridgeRev successfully executed the implementation of HubSpot for Metro Tech, streamlining and enhancing their existing processes.
Due to the functionality the HubSpot Enterprise suite provides, implementation alone would solve many of the issues regarding dirty and siloed data, lack of reporting, and pipeline management issues.
The BridgeRev team recognized the importance of data hygiene for the long-term sustainability of Metro Tech’s systems and processes. To address this, they conducted a thorough data clean-up to eliminate any inconsistencies or inaccuracies. During data cleanup of existing Dynamics data, the BridgeRev team discovered Metro Tech didn’t have data cleanliness processes.
First, the BridgeRev team exported the Dynamics data into an external data cleanliness tool. Then, after the first data cleaning pass, it was imported into HubSpot and was cleaned again using Operations Hub Enterprise’s data quality automation and workflows.
The Metro Tech team needed editing access to classes, sessions, school years, and course programs of study. This meant that any database solution built by the BridgeRev team needed to be editable by MetroTech staff without needing a developer to ensure sustainability.
The solution was 6 HubDB tables with custom logic that BridgeRev developers mapped for interdependencies. This database solution would catch errors that prevented individuals from adding courses only taught at night during the day and gated high school applicants to only classes and sessions available to high school students. The resulting database was user-friendly for the Metro Tech administrators and leadership and editable.
Understanding the need for a unique solution that would allow active students to be served relevant course marketing information, BridgeRev developed a unique custom object complete with custom fields that would allow for further process automation.
BridgeRev developed over 32 unique workflows based upon the prospect’s program of study, whether the student was in high school, their program of study, which high school they attended, the time of day they attended, and if they finished the application. Each market segment had unique needs and messaging, especially for adult learners versus high school students.
Before BridgeRev, the student application was challenging for even the most tech-savvy prospective students to navigate. The application's minimal pagination resulted in students losing previously entered information if they navigated away from a page, leading to a tedious and repetitive process. It also meant that it had to be completed all in one setting due to no save states in the form, which likely decreased completion rates.
The BridgeRev team rebuilt the application via custom Javascript using HubSpot CMS modules and the HubSpot API to be one question per page with a percentage indicator of completion. This UI/UX change reflects modern form design patterns that most prospective students are accustomed to. Additionally, the new application would save the spot of returning applicants, meaning that incomplete applications wouldn’t have to start over if they navigated away from the page.
Due to work BridgeRev did on the HubDB databases, the applicant was always served with accurate courses, majors and study plans sourced from nine HubDB tables using child tables to facilitate interconnected logic.
The BridgeRev team decided to use external APIs to improve data consistency.
The rebuilt application used the United States Postal Service (USPS) and National Clearing House School Database APIs. Before BridgeRev rebuilt the application, students could manually enter schools and addresses without those being cross-checked against official records. Inconsistencies regarding spelling and capitalization, as well as incorrect information, riddled Metro Tech’s original database.
Clean data was only part of the problem — getting that data into HubSpot and mapping it correctly was the other part. The BridgeRev team then utilized the HubSpot suite of APIs to allow data entry in a form to create contacts, the Custom Objects API to create the application record and the Associations API to link the two.
After the cleanup effort and the new application was enacted, prospective students’ entries in those fields were cross-referenced and replaced with the correct information using these APIs. Cross-referencing and replacing student entries with correct information from accurate APIs ensured data accuracy and improved results' reliability. Having clean data also solved for the problem of inaccurate reporting
In addition, they implemented guardrails at a crucial point in their process to prevent the reoccurrence of poor data hygiene practices in the future. This proactive approach improved the accuracy and reliability of their data and ensured its continued sustainability over time.
BridgeRev developed a thorough change management and user adoption plan by engaging key stakeholders at Metro Tech and conducting extensive user research. This enabled the BridgeRev team to create a user adoption strategy that effectively addressed the needs and concerns of end users, leading to high levels of user engagement and adoption of the new solution.
Before the staff was given full access to HubSpot, there was a thorough roadmap of learning that the BridgeRev team developed on behalf of the client. Each organization member utilizing the software was given an in-person training session with BridgeRev’s VP of HubSpot Architecture.
Along the way, the BridgeRev team built the Metro Tech training materials based on the Learning Environment Modeling framework, with multiple checkpoints for understanding and learner engagement activities. This framework was used to help the learners achieve as many competencies as possible in the short implementation window.
Using a data-driven approach, BridgeRev could onboard users effectively, resulting in a successful rollout and sustained user adoption.
Because Metro Tech is such a large organization that deals with minors, BridgeRev built extensive permissions within the new Metro Tech portal. This was done on the principle of least privilege (PoLP), which attempts only to provide access to the data and resources necessary for an individual’s job, no more and no less.
BridgeRev led a robust working session with key stakeholders on user permissions and what level of user permissions each team member and director would receive. The BridgeRev team worked with the Senior Director of Strategic Communications and Transformation and the Director of Enrollment and Student Services to set permissions for 60 employees at the organization.
The BridgeRev team reflected those permission requirements in the HubSpot portal.
Created a change management and user adoption plan for Metro Tech team members.
Increased applications by 36.5% Compared to Last Year’s Application Window
Processed 2,519 applications
Additionally, due to the increased efficiencies in the application process, Metro Tech saw a drastic increase in ROI stemming from Marketing and Sales Hub Enterprise implementation.
One reason Metro Tech had an increase in revenue opportunities from the HubSpot implementation is an increased insight into their students' demographics. Before the implementation of HubSpot, they had no full understanding of the demographic characteristics of their students. Metro Tech was ineligible to apply for additional federal funding and grants.
Now, using the reporting tools provided by the HubSpot Enterprise suite, the Metro Tech team can receive more funding for serving students of specific demographic characteristics.
This ROI is provided by HubSpot’s ROI Calculator tools which consider global customer data aggregates.
Estimated ROI for Marketing Hub - $92,821,179
Estimated ROI for Sales Hub - $2,259,094
Future Efforts
The BridgeRev and Metro Tech partnership has continued into additional projects. The next opportunity will be creating course enrollment functionality via HubSpot’s e-commerce solution.
Following that, a fully self-service student portal where students can access all their administrative non-learning related school information.
Additionally, the Metro Tech team will build out a workflow of tailored emails to prospective students in the future. This will attempt to simplify the tasks of the Career Advisor team to automatically enroll students in email sequences based on the custom object associated with their application.
Each workflow has a tailored cadence of emails to send to prospects. Before the rollout of this functionality, Career Advisors email prospects reminders or updates manually. After implementation, these students would automatically enroll in email sequences off their custom object. Developing automated workflows and reminder emails would allow advisors more time to spend on meaningful student-related activities instead of manual processes.
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