Parature Releases Integrated Campus-Wide Support Solution for Educational
Institutions to Manage the Entire Student Life-Cycle
New Version of Parature for Education Includes Industry’s Only Support for
New Communication Channels, Including Facebook and Twitter, Helping
Institutions Support their Students within Social Communities
Vienna, VA – July 26, 2010 – Parature, a global leader in on-demand customer
service software, today unveiled its newest version of Parature for
Education, an industry-specific version of Parature’s Customer Service
software designed specifically to help educational institutions manage,
automate and improve the student and alumni experience through every channel
available, including social media such as Facebook and Twitter. The new
Parature for Education package enables colleges and universities to improve
service and support interactions campus-wide without taking on bigger
financial burdens at a time when federal and state funding for education is
being slashed and fundraising efforts are challenged. The software suite
includes Parature’s integrated social media application, Parature for
Facebook, the industry’s first and only customer service application that
empowers institutions to support their students, faculty and staff directly
through Facebook.
The new version of Parature for Education enables an on-demand and
integrated approach to multi-channel support that helps institutions provide
a rich campus experience in the midst of intense budget cuts. Parature for
Education provides deep functionality for managing, routing and resolving
service inquiries through almost every communication channel available to
institutions today, including the Web, email, Facebook, Twitter, live chat,
phone, and mobile.
Customers of the new version of Parature for Education are able to:
. Keep service and support costs low by encouraging independent issue
resolution . Eliminate the need to add more service and support staff to
handle inbound service inquiries . Increase self-service rates by having
students find answers themselves in a rich knowledgebase . Tap service
representative resources for proactive outreach to students that lower
drop-out rates and help at-risk students make the grade . Standardize all
departments on one solution to keep IT , maintenance and training costs low
. Create unique, department-level service and support Web portals tailored
to each office’s need, including IT Help Desk, the Bursar’s Office, Library,
Alumni Management, Crisis Management, Housing and others . Simplify and
reduce costs associated with service and support with one, low monthly price
that spans every department, campus-wide
“Parature’s campus-wide model enables us to extend the software into all of
our support offices, empowering us to capitalize on the effects of a
positive customer experience,” stated Brenau University Director of Web
Strategy, Solution and Support, Cody Benson. “This approach provides our
students with the ability to access information well after our offices have
closed, but more importantly the institution can now track and collect
customer experience metrics to implement changes in a timely manner.
Campus-wide support pricing from Parature has provided a system whereby
Brenau can learn more about our students, allowing us to create more value
in the academic experience we offer.”
Students “Super Users” of Social Media, Making Support for Facebook
Essential to Engagement
Students are some of the biggest users of social media sites like Facebook
and Twitter. At last count, more than 500 million people are using Facebook.
For higher education institutions, it is becoming increasingly critical to
determine a way to engage, support and communicate through this new social
medium, providing an exceptional experience for today’s students, faculty,
staff, and alumni. Colleges and universities are keenly aware that their
students have never been more important to their success; student
satisfaction and retention are critical to their recruitment efforts,
fundraising activities and overall revenue generation.
“With the new version of Parature for Education, we are empowering
institutions to engage where their students, faculty, staff and alumni spend
their time, and enabling them to take part in the conversations that will
happen with or without participation from them,” said Parature CEO, Tim
Davenport. “Parature is committed to helping institutions of higher learning
manage and improve the entire student lifecycle from application submission
to graduation through alumni participation, and to delivering the innovative
applications and packaging that further enhances the multi-channel service
experience.”
Today, several hundred educational institutions nation-wide, including
Brenau University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida State University,
and Miami Dade University are supporting their students with Parature for
Education.
About Parature
Parature enables organizations to better serve, support, engage with and
retain their customers via the Web. Industry-leading, on-demand Parature
Customer ServiceT software provides customer service organizations with a
comprehensive, multi-channel way to meet the growing expectations of their
customers. With more than 10 years experience, Parature serves
organizations in a wide variety of industries worldwide and helps support
more than 16 million end users. Parature is among Inc. Magazine’s Top 100
Fastest Growing Private Software Companies and is the recipient of numerous
product, technology, and leadership awards. Today, the Parature name is
synonymous with innovation and value in Web-based customer service software,
strategies and best practices. Parature is headquartered in Vienna, Virginia
with offices in San Francisco and the U.K. For more information, visit
www.parature.com or follow @parature on Twitter.
