SFDC Chatter Use Cases: How are you using Chatter beyond your sales and marketing department?

Suggested Chatter Use Cases

Here are a few possible use cases for Chatter in the Higher Ed space off the top of my head.  There are probably many, many more that I have not thought of or have not yet been even considered until Chatter has been deployed among students, faculty and university admins.

Admissions/student recruiting would be able to identify the 'right' fit applicant for the school and engage them through the process.  Instead of marketing "TO" the student the school is "ENGAGING" the student applicant through Chatter - all branded with the Universities' materials

The boarding process for new admitted students can be accomplished through single sign on and documents, workflow, etc. can be accomplished through an appealing interface with drag and drop (think eSignatures, etc.).  There would be a significant return on investment once this is implemented including, but not limited to: postage savings, printed materials, labor to print and send documents from varied departments at the university, reduction in duplication of effort, significant reduction of errors

Even if Chatter was limited ONLY to engaging students from time to time in an efficient manner retention will be dramatically increased

Documents, links, events, other information can be shared among user; or, IT designated GROUPS facilitating the transfer of documents, video ('Lectures On Demand) information securely

Faculty can distribute assignments to students in their classes and students can submit completed assignments securely; same with grades or any other information between secure groups.  This is a DRAMATIC increase from Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as Blackboard.  There is a significant ROI for this application as universities will NO LONGER be captive to expensive maintenance contracts from Client Server based systems.  With that said universities that have signed long term contracts with these providers can still improve their users' experience and increase the return on investment of those systems by front ending them with studentforce equipped with Chatter

Career services will be able to notify students of specific internship opportunities based upon their interests, major, skills, specific qualifications etc. and students will be able to apply to university partners with drag and drop capabilities.  Similarly, companies that hire from Universities through specific programs can have access to the PROFILE available in Chatter through Portal or S2S deployment - again; in a secure manner

Study Abroad processes will be vastly improved whether it be the student application process where numerous documents are required to be exchanged between students, the home school Study Abroad Office, Scholarship Vendors, Student Loan Vendors, and the Study Abroad school's admissions, registrar and bursar departments

Documents, events, can be shared among students who are Freshman, Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors; students who share a major; share an association with a specific school (IT, Arts & Sciences, etc.) and the combinations of those.  Therefore ALL Juniors in IT; or ALL Seniors in Arts & Sciences.

References and recommendations required by hiring companies or graduate schools can be transferred through Chatter

Financial Aid and other government required documents that require secure transmission (completed tax forms of students that are required by Financial Aid offices; signed Master Agreements for Loans required by banks and government entities, etc.)

Emergency Notification and unified communication across campus