Case Study
Higher Education
Achieving global compliance for one of the world’s largest universities
Our Client:
Over the past five decades, our client has been at the forefront of distance learning, revolutionizing education by providing exceptional teaching and unparalleled support to students worldwide, including across Europe.
Handling the data of nearly 400 million subjects in a compliant manner, the university grapples with the intricate task of meeting all regulatory requirements while optimizing the insights derived from this vast dataset. This dual challenge underscores the institution’s dedication to ensuring compliance and harnessing the full potential of data-driven insights for the benefit of its global student community.
Fast facts:
Size
Over 200,000 active students
Industry
Higher education
Region
Europe
Key Regulations
GDPR
Products
Consent Management Platform (CMP)
Their challenge:
Our client’s key challenge was to implement an automated solution that complies with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):
As of May 25th 2018, the GDPR requires all HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) to manage the processing of their customers’ personal data under the stricter consent conditions of the new data protection regulation.
Specifically, our client’s marketing team will be unable to directly market to any new or existing enquirers (other than sending the information requested in the initial inquiry) without the enquirer’s consent.
The problem affects all their customers (enquirers, applicants, students, alumni, apprentices, and sponsored students) who share personal data with the administrative staff (who record customers’ personal details) and the marketing staff (who send communications to customers which are not related to the contract with the student).
If they didn’t achieve GDPR compliance:
Failure to comply with GDPR could have seen our client fined up to 20 million euros (or 4% of turnover). Plus, without collecting customer consent correctly, their ability to engage with potential customers and convert them into paying students would have been severely impacted – resulting in an anticipated drop in student numbers of over 7%.
The solution: Centralized CMP
Our client needed a dedicated CMP that allows the university to bulk capture clear, unambiguous consent from applicants and students.
This solution must also clearly record their communication preferences across multiple channels (e-mail, telephone, post, SMS, digital).
Auditable compliance trail
With Cassie in place, our client can now consistently and accurately document all data processing activities across systems, departments and regions. This enables them to provide complete audit trails to demonstrate compliance across data privacy legislation, with near-instant updates and export functionality should they require it.
Cassie features DSARs and RoPA modules that allow universities to streamline their data processing capabilities. As a result, they can gain a deeper understanding of their data with a comprehensive suite of advanced features designed to enhance efficiencies and reduce risks across systems.
Customized preference pages
The client has also embedded the Cassie Preference Center and utilizes the extensible data model to surface different preference pages for each persona that they have.
They have three different types of personas across their business: a deliverer, a merchant, and a consumer. For each of these profiles, a bespoke preference page is made outlining all of the preferences that each persona has.
They utilize the out-of-the-box tools within Cassie to build a custom Preference Page, with a custom theme allowing them to change the branding and look and feel.
Within this page, the end user can update all their email preferences. This is what the client uses to communicate with each of their three personas.
Each preference submission will be kept separately per profile. All preference submissions here are then sent back into Cassie and stored in an immutable state where it can be queried or pushed out of Cassie to downstream systems.
The impact
Our client has successfully embedded our CMP within their technology stack and integrated Cassie with many of their existing third-party systems.
They are leveraging the platform to remain compliant with the relevant regulations whilst continuing to effectively respect and communicate with their students.