Transforming online higher education through the cloud

Since 2000, Ilumno has supported higher education institutions to implement models of growth and virtuality. It assists more than 100 universities around the world in transforming their face-to-face academic programs into an online experience focused on the students’ needs. Its mission is to expand access to quality higher education.

Focusing on the students

More than 15 years ago, Ilumno began a transformation process that emphasizes flexibility and self-care, placing young students at the center of its business strategy.

“We help universities consolidate the paradigm that allows them to focus on the student. Today, many institutions have begun to recognize that their reputation is not enough, and in order to retain their students, they must adopt a service approach,” said Jaume Cascales Muñoz, Director of IT Operations at Ilumno.

However, the company realized that its solution, which was founded on on-premises technology, made it difficult to meet its transformation objectives.

“We had it installed in our own infrastructure in each of the countries,” said Cascales Muñoz. “This forced us to deal with incidents and, at the same time, it posed a series of maintenance challenges in the operating systems and databases. We felt that the model, despite producing results, was starting to show signs of obsolescence.”

Reinventing the business

In 2019, Ilumno adopted a new business strategy that gave the contact center a leading role. The goal was to find a solution that would enhance the new way of working at Ilumno that uses automation strategies, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

“We mapped out what we needed in order to give the best possible service,” said Cascales Muñoz. “We made a matrix of 320 technical, functional and business aspects that the technology had to meet. We analyzed almost all the solutions on the market and decided on the Genesys Cloud platform because of its dynamism and reliability.”

“I have been working in this sector for 22 years, and I know that Genesys is a reliable and robust technology. In addition, in recent years with Genesys Cloud, it has become dramatically more dynamic. I believe that Genesys is one step ahead of other suppliers when it comes to cutting-edge solutions,” he added.

Although Ilumno began its transformation journey several months before the COVID-19 health crisis started, the implementation and start-up process occurred right when mandatory confinement orders began. In a few days, Ilumno had scaled up to 210 work positions to relocate 380 representatives so they could work from home in two shifts. Since then, company officials decided that contact center experts will work from home permanently.

“We will never operate from the office again,” added Cascales Muñoz.

Its partner CrossNet played a key role in facilitating the transition at Ilumno. “We needed a provider who could provide knowledge. The business model we co-created is interesting because it includes any development we need. We feel that CrossNet and Genesys are a single entity, and between the three of us, we are a team,” said Cascales Muñoz.

Seeing immediate results

With the Genesys Cloud platform, Ilumno saw a 100% increase in contact levels. Now, the company can reach this level through three interactions in 60% of the cases; the former solution required six dials to reach that same level.

In the months of high demand associated with enrollment and new student recruitment, the contact center receives around 135,000 incoming calls — an average of 5,600 calls per day. In those months of high activity, outgoing calls generate 410,000 dials, reaching 100,000 contacts.

“With Genesys Cloud, we are more flexible and do not depend on the growth in licensing associated with hardware. This is a relief because it does not require our support,” said Cascales Muñoz.

“The cloud platform gives us stability and makes us more accessible because we can work from anywhere and at any time,” added Cascales Muñoz. “In addition, we are constantly feeding ourselves with new functionalities. In short, we have improved our willingness to serve the business.”

An internal survey determined that Ilumno experts highlight the agile and intuitive design of the Genesys Cloud platform, which makes it easy for them to offer applicants the best experience.

A clear roadmap to automation

Working on an omnichannel platform gives Ilumno experts access to application data from the beginning of the interaction. This allows them to personalize interactions with students.

Convinced that the customer experience should be integrated through all channels, the next step for Ilumno is to enhance the new platform to automate online self-care services.

“Genesys gave us the opportunity to build the service experience we always wanted. Now we can scale it as needed; we increased the efficiency of our team of agents, reduced call handling time and the students have a better experience,” concluded Cascales Muñoz.