About American International School Chennai

Located in Chennai, India, American International School Chennai (AISC) was formed in 1995 and is situated on a charming suburban campus of thirteen acres with state-of-the-art facilities. The School has over thirty nationalities represented among their student body, with a close-knit community of learners committed to internationalism, academic excellence, a passion for learning, and serving others.

Onboarding a Newbie

Jodie Sovak, the Director of Enrollment and Community Relations, reflects on how she joined the School in 2022 when it was already using OpenApply. Jodie remembers how easy and intuitive it was as a new user, and recalls OpenApply’s support throughout her onboarding. “I liked the fact that there was not just one initial long training session but layers of support as and when we required it.”

OpenApply in Action

As Jodie dug deeper into OpenApply’s ecosystem, she found there were unexplored features that AISC could use to continue to transform the way they approach enrollment management. The re-enrolment feature, Jodie says, was a game-changer. “We had a 100% response rate in a much shorter time than the School had ever achieved, thanks to customised reminders that made it easy to follow up with families.”

OpenApply’s built-in analytics features have also made it easy for the AISC leadership team to track enrollment trends to forecast and aid decision-making. “The ease of being able to export reports and data from OpenApply, in lots of different ways to share with others, is powerful,” says Jodie.

AISC also decided to invest in the CRM module as a way to further impact the School’s marketing objectives. “Our Communications Team, with the Advanced Editor, can now create touchpoints in a family’s journey, which are automated, seamless, and look beautiful,” says Jodie. Gautami Ramachandhran, Advancement Director at AISC, comments, “The CRM helps create beautiful layouts. But the ability to target messaging to families who are at different points in their journey is a powerful way to foster a continued connection to our school.”

Looking Ahead

Jodie and Gautami’s advice to other schools is to take advantage of the many opportunities that OpenApply offers with regards to support and training, as it increases their expertise. Jodie expresses, “Even a lone Admission Director can have a large impact with this one tool. They don’t need an army of database managers to help them.” She also advises, “Attend OpenApply’s professional workshops and webinars which are great and very informative.”

Looking ahead, Gautami states, ”I look forward to further leveraging OpenApply’s form capabilities for my office’s needs, like media consent forms for example. The form editor makes them look great and OpenApply is already GDPR compliant!”

When asked whether they have any final comments or reflections, Jodie expressed that the tech support they have received is always approachable. She appreciates how her team has always felt respected and valued, even when they may not always know the technical language or terminology. AISC highly recommends OpenApply to other schools looking for a transformative system that can replace outdated processes and workflows.