Rosebank’s online applications up after upgrade

ROSEBANKCollege, part of The Independent Institute of Education stable, has increased its online applications as a result of a website redevelopment project on to the Microsoft SharePoint 2013 platform. The project was done by information management solution specialists Decision Inc.

The Independent Institute of Education embarked on the upgrade project for all its tertiary educational institutions like Rosebank College, Vega, Varsity College, The Design School SA and Forbes Lever Baker.

“It makes sense to standardise on SharePoint as there is a commonality across these educational brands. With such group-level synergies, maintenance and support for the education content, as well as adding functionality such as the ability to make online payments, is much more efficient,” says Henri Fourie of Decision Inc.

“That said, the Rosebank College website still needed to be redeveloped with different nuances required to serve its students.”

Generally, the students of Rosebank College pay for tuition themselves or through a loan. With a significant number of students and potential students access- ing the website, the key element behind the redesign and redevelopment was to drive applications.

Rosebank College campuses, situated in Braamfontein, Pretoria, Durban and Polokwane compete with several inner city colleges in their vicinity.

The site therefore had to be easy to use and provide a quick and friendly way to apply for programmes offered.

“Fortunately, it was a relatively smooth implementation to migrate Rosebank College to SharePoint 2013.

“Much of the functionality had already been developed to some extent on the other educational brand sites.

“However, there were also a number of new components that had to be created from scratch,” says Fourie.

This included new SMS functionality and a focus on mobile accessibility. The target market does not typically have internet access at home from a desktop and rely on their cellphones to browse the internet and find educational programmes.

“For Rosebank College, we took a mobile-first approach to development. This means the site is completely responsive irrespective of the device used, whether it be a desktop, smartphone or tablet device,” says Fourie.

“Additionally, when a student starts the application process but doesn’t complete it in one sitting, he or she will receive an SMS notification with a reference number, allowing them to return to the site and carry on from where they left off.

“Decision Inc has also included pay- ment gateway integration into the site so registration fees can easily be paid online,” adds Fourie.

The build took about two months to complete with the site gone live in June this year. To date, Rosebank College has had fantastic results with online applications increasing by about 30 percent.

Rosebank College has already commissioned Decision Inc for a second phase of the website upgrade.

This phase will include the addition of a new campus, Polokwane, and the associated programmes for that campus.

Adding functionality such as event tracking and enhanced social media integration to the site’s blog section will be key development tasks.