[ibimage==46272==Original==none==self==ibimage_align-center]
During her 13-year tenure managing alumni relations systems at Northwestern University, Regan Holt noticed a serious technological problem. The record-management software available to universities was built on outdated frameworks, frustrating staff and alumni. Cloud-based applications were available, but financial and time investments required to upgrade made them unattainable.
“We came to the conclusion that someone needed to build a software platform focused on enabling people to quickly access meaningful information in existing systems...and we may as well be the ones to do it,” Holt said.
Along with cloud architect Mike Basil, Holt founded Uprising Technology, a software startup designed to consolidate university data systems into one interface.
The startup’s Web-based, mobile-first platform was developed for both staff and alumni, requiring only one set of login credentials for each user. Equipped with a universal search engine, Uprising’s platform searches across all of a university's software systems, producing an aggregate result set in response to a query. Furthermore, the platform configures software systems to be compatible with mobile devices, even if they weren’t designed to be.
In addition to consolidation, Holt champions the platform’s ability to process, analyze, and present data. Uprising gathers data from external sources such as public social media and third-party public data sources, reducing the amount of manual data manipulation required by administrators. Holt said the platform’s automatic data collection allows universities to more accurately target alumni and organizations in fundraising efforts.
[ibimage==46271==Original==none==self==ibimage_align-left]
“Educational organizations, particularly private research institutions, rely heavily on charitable donations to fund things like medical research, faculty, and the brick-and-mortar or technology assets required to provide...education for students,” she explained. “To gain this funding, they need to be able to connect with people and organizations with an interest in supporting specific initiatives. By merging outside data from social media with their internal records, the university can locate people and organizations who can help them provide a better education and accomplish exceptional research work.”
Uprising is currently working with Northwestern and another private university in Chicago, which Holt didn’t name. “We also are in procurement with a few other large public university systems outside of Illinois. On the services side, we regularly do cloud strategy and grants system work for another Chicago non-profit,” she added.
Holt said the full-time staff of four is concentrating on refining Uprising’s software, offering webinars and in-person consultations, and considering the extent to which CRMs will evolve within the next five years, as well as the ethical use of social and personal information.
Holt’s future ruminations reflect a larger goal: to modernize the technological infrastructure for university fundraising and administration.
“There has always been this sort of acceptance, or resignation, that higher-ed software and IT staff can never hope to be as cool or user friendly as what is offered by companies like Google or LinkedIn, but I disagree,” she said. “Uprising’s goal is to help enlighten administration and IT staff in higher education about the digital disruption taking place, and to empower these organizations to get the most out of cloud technology in general.”
