The Johnson School at Cornell University

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The Problem/Opportunity: The Johnson School of management at Cornell University was initiating a project to drastically increase the alumni involvement in their local alumni clubs in 2004. A key component of this project was to provide an alumni presence on the web.

"The web site looks great and continues to draw compliments from our ... fellow alumni."

Ken Gurrola, Club President

"Indeed it does.  As a matter of fact, leaders of other clubs continue to look to this website as the model after which their own sites should be patterened."

Risa Mish, Director, Alumni Relations

The Challenge: The school was dependent on volunteer webmasters for each alumni club's web site so the solution had to

  • be easy to administer by volunteers who had little or no web experience,
  • provide the information and functions most required by the alumni,
  • reflect the brand of both Cornell University and the business school,
  • be customizable to support the unique needs of alumni clubs around the world
  • require little ongoing technical assistance for the web masters

The Solution:   Ewing Consulting was engaged by the alumni office to develop a simple web template with user documentation. The site features upcoming club events plus pictures of past activities to encourage alumni participation. Key contacts and messages from the club officers were added to make the site more personal. Numerous links to Cornell University and the Johnson School complete the connection with the college experience. All of this was included in a design that featured not only the alumni club "logo," but also the school colors, and other design elements consistent with the school's web sites.

The Results: The template developed by Ewing Consulting was deployed with three alumni clubs within six months. Shortly after that it was expanded for use as the web site of a recent graduating class and for the Roy H. Park Fellows & Alumni Association. The alumni project has been deemed a success.

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