June 9 2008

Azorus launches Yield Management services for Eastern Illinois University and the University of Houston

zorus Inc., a CRM software and services firm focused exclusively on the higher education market is pleased to announce that Eastern Illinois University and the University of Houston have both selected Azorus to help improve their yield rates through utilizing the Azorus Yield Management Program; a module of the company’s advanced Customer Relationship Management (CRM) suite.

The Yield Management program from Azorus offers higher education institutions a way to effectively wrap their arms around accepted students in the last phase of the recruitment cycle. Institutions seek to increase their historical yield numbers by segmenting their accepted student populations and having Azorus deliver key messages to each segment throughout the conventional ‘summer melt’ period when accepted students mysteriously disappear and simply do not show for their first day of class. This summer melt, which has a direct effect on institutional yield, has become a growing concern with the increase in the number of ‘stealth applicants’ – prospective students the institution first meets when an application is received.

Prior to signing with Azorus, Eastern Illinois University (EIU) were working towards a communications strategy
for their accepted students but were not able to execute a plan that delivered targeted messages to unique segments of their accepted pool. As Brenda Major, Director of Admissions, says “With nearly 40% of our incoming freshmen being first generation students, we need a way to more effectively inform them through the important summer months why an EIU education and experience would be a valued life experience for them.” Major continues by saying that “another unique goal is for us to change the demographics of our institution to a small degree. We seek to gradually increase our freshmen class from 60% to 70% and having Azorus assist us with communicating with students and helping us focus on who is truly engaged, we feel will be a huge asset in converting those extra 100 students.”

For Jeff Fuller, Director of Admissions at the University of Houston (UH), the mandate is somewhat different.

Fuller says, “This is the first year we’ve been able to focus on Yield. Despite its importance, this is the first time we’ve been able to segment our database, deliver relevant communications to each segment, and most importantly report back on student interest to help refine our final recruitment efforts.” For UH, enhancing the profile of the school is a key mandate and enrolling top tier students is critical. “Azorus is helping us focus on students with high SAT scores and who graduated high school in the top 20% of their class. Historically, we have 48% of our freshmen in this category and we seek to push that over 50%.”

Although each institution has unique goals, choosing Azorus to help with increasing yield was due to a common factor. As Major said, “When we were contacted by Azorus they exemplified all we want in a vendor. They were exceptionally personable in their approach; they had done a lot of research on our situation and had some excellent suggestions out of the gate. We immediately felt a trust and sensed that they sought to partner with us.”

About Azorus

The Azorus CRM suite of tools has been exclusively designed for higher education. Azorus is a best of breed
provider of relationship management solutions that delivers timely, useful information to prospective students.

The company works with clients in the United States, Canada and the UK.

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SOURCE: Azorus, Inc.
CONTACT: Christine Densley, Marketing Specialist, Azorus Inc.,
+1-902-405-4256, cdensley@azorus.com
Web site: http://www.azorus.com

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June 9 2008

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