Category: Email Update

Welcome to the Patriot Connect Team!

The Patriot Connect program management team (PMT) is delighted to welcome Tahisha Mayfield, project manager, Project and Process Management in University Life, as its newest member. In her role within the PMT, she will collaborate with University Life stakeholders and Accenture, our implementation partner, to help ensure project alignment and success. Additionally, the Patriot Connect program is pleased to welcome three new Enrollment Management unit liaisons: Jenny Chism, assistant dean of admissions; Crystal Hall Buckley, director of the Office of Graduate Admissions; and Cassandra Thomas, associate director of Financial Aid – IT and Scholarships. Jenny, Crystal, and Cassandra are experts in their respective units and will represent the requirements, concerns, and interests of their user communities affected by the rollout of Patriot Connect. Welcome to the Patriot Connect team!

Capturing Student Input

The Patriot Connect program’s highest priority is to enhance the student experience at George Mason. To develop a tool that effectively meets students’ needs, it is crucial for the Patriot Connect team to receive direct input from the students themselves. On June 21, the Patriot Connect organizational change management (OCM) team held a virtual focus group with 10 students, including undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students, to gather valuable insights and feedback on a preliminary mockup of Patriot Connect. This mockup illustrated how students can use Patriot Connect to schedule appointments with their success team, review appointment notes, and manage their daily student journey. The OCM team collected feedback from the students, which will be translated into design requirements for the further development of Patriot Connect. Key takeaways from the focus group include:

• Students want a streamlined process for making appointments, as they find the layout and design of the current scheduling tool, Navigate, difficult to maneuver. 
• Patriot Connect should cater to all students’ needs, regardless of whether they are undergraduates, master’s, doctoral, or certificate students. 
• While Patriot Connect will replace Navigate and TargetX, other tools like Patriot Web and Mason360 will remain. It must be clear to students which tool to use for specific actions, such as scheduling appointments, paying financial aid, or requesting a major change. 
• Students seek more clarity on what information is confidential and what is shared, and with whom, regarding appointment notes and cases.

On the Horizon: Transitioning to a New Phase for Patriot Connect

The Patriot Connect team would like to express sincere gratitude and appreciation to everyone who contributed to the Release 1 (R1) Student Success Discovery Sessions. Your participation played a critical role in gathering requirements, reviewing deliverables, and successfully achieving three out of eight major milestones, with the fourth milestone scheduled for completion by July 24. As we close the discovery phase of the program, many of you may have noticed the R1 Student Success Discovery Sessions drop from your calendars. This change marks our shift to the Design and iterative build phase for R1 Student Success. To facilitate iterative build, the Patriot Connect team will adopt agile sprint methodology, which enables rapid build, quality assurance testing (QA), and deployment within two-week segments of time otherwise known as “sprints.” This approach will require a smaller, focused team to efficiently manage the iterative process leading up to the launch of R1 Student Success. For more information about the team selected for the design and iterative build phase, please reach out to your unit liaison. The Patriot Connect team will continue to keep you engaged and updated on additional ways to stay involved in the program moving forward. Thank you again for your dedication and continued support.  

In Case You Missed It: Farewell and Thank you!

The Patriot Connect PMT would like to thank Adrienne White, director of student success coaching, and Tierra Easter, writer/editor, Office of the Provost, for their valuable contributions to the Patriot Connect program. Adrienne and Tierra are departing from George Mason, and we wish them the best of luck on their next adventure! 

Summer Refresher: What is Patriot Connect?

George Mason is implementing a new university-wide student engagement system called Patriot Connect. George Mason will build Patriot Connect on Salesforce Education Cloud, a cloud-based platform that will provide a comprehensive view of the entire student lifecycle, ensuring that each student receives seamless and personalized support. Over the next two years, George Mason will phase in two Patriot Connect tools, Student Success and Recruitment and Admissions, while sunsetting Navigate and TargetX. Student Success will offer a centralized online platform for students to manage appointments, submit inquiries, and engage with student support services including academic advising, student success coaching, and learning services. Recruitment and Admissions will enhance engagement between the university and applicants through streamlined application management, a dynamic applicant portal, efficient document management, and improved reporting capabilities. Responsible for managing the design and seamless implementation of Patriot Connect, the Patriot Connect program management team is dedicated to facilitating the delivery of a distinctive and inclusive student experience that fosters lifelong engagement with George Mason through Patriot Connect. 

Student Success Milestone Completion: Thank you!

A big thank you to everyone who helped review, provide feedback, and approve the work products related to the Patriot Connect Discovery 1 Student Success milestone! This collective effort to review 16 deliverables enabled the successful completion of the discovery stage and solidifies the framework for the functional and technical design of Patriot Connect. This marks a significant achievement for the Patriot Connect team, and your commitment and collaboration have played a pivotal role in shaping the future of the Student Success tool for George Mason students, faculty, and staff.  

On the Horizon: Designing the Future of Student Success

With the successful completion of the discovery stage for release one: Student Success, the Patriot Connect team is now moving into the design stage. This summer, the Patriot Connect team will focus on designing the platform’s functionality and user interface, drawing from the requirements and information gathered from George Mason stakeholders during the discovery stage. During this time, the team will continue to meet regularly, providing unit liaisons and other functional and technical stakeholder representatives with opportunities to view demonstrations of the mock environment and provide feedback, ensuring the design and user experience meet the needs and expectations of their units. 

In Case You Missed It: Patriot Connect at the Advising Symposium

The Patriot Connect team presented at the inaugural Mason Advising Symposium on May 15 to help academic advisors Get Ready for Patriot Connect.

A Big Thank You!

A big thank you to all who helped create and review the work products related to the Patriot Connect Change Management milestone! This collective effort marks a significant achievement for the Patriot Connect team and stakeholders. We have successfully completed the Organizational Change Management (OCM) plan, which encompasses our change strategy, training plan, and communications and marketing plan for the program. Supported by documents like the change readiness assessment and Patriot Connect stakeholder lists, the OCM plan helps to explain how Patriot Connect will manage and communicate the people side of change for the program. Your commitment and collaboration have played a pivotal role in shaping a comprehensive change plan for Patriot Connect.

On the Horizon: Designing the Future of Student Success

The Patriot Connect team will continue to work diligently throughout the summer, moving into the design stage for release one: Student Success. For the past two months, the focus has been on conducting discovery sessions for release one, which concentrated on confirming system requirements and planning future features and capabilities. This summer, the team will take the information collected throughout the discovery sessions to design the Student Success coaching and advising and Student Support case management tools for the Patriot Connect platform. During this time, the Patriot Connect team will continue to meet regularly with unit liaisons and other functional and technical representatives to confirm the design meets the university’s needs before building and testing the effectiveness of the tools. Read the Patriot Connect March email update to view the full release timeline.

In Case You Missed It: Promoting Patriot Connect Across George Mason

We are identifying opportunities to socialize changes and increase awareness of Patriot Connect by participating in various unit meetings across George Mason. If your unit is interested in hosting a Patriot Connect guest speaker at an upcoming meeting, let’s connect!

Harnessing the Power of Change Management for Patriot Connect

Change management isn’t just a buzzword or trendy term. It’s an intentional set of activities designed to help stakeholders adjust to new processes, systems, and roles. The goal is to ensure that changes are embraced, adopted, and sustained. Recognizing the significance of change management, Patriot Connect has formed a dedicated organizational change management (OCM) team responsible for executing a comprehensive change management plan for Patriot Connect. This plan, currently under development, includes a training approach, a strategic communications plan, and stakeholder engagement activities. Drawing upon Mason’s history of implementing new initiatives, the plan outlines strategies to prepare, manage, and sustain changes as the university transitions to Patriot Connect. The change management plan will be completed by the end of April and the OCM team will then work with Mason stakeholders to launch Patriot Connect.

Promoting Patriot Connect Across Mason

We are identifying opportunities to socialize changes and increase awareness of Patriot Connect by participating in various unit meetings across Mason. Andrew Bunting, executive director of enrollment services, shared the latest information about Patriot Connect with academic and administrative leaders at the associate deans’ meetings in February and March. During the meeting series, Bunting discussed the Patriot Connect governance structure and proposed timeline. If your unit is interested in hosting a Patriot Connect guest speaker at an upcoming meeting, let’s connect!

In Case You Missed It: Mason’s Salesforce Project Becomes Patriot Connect

George Mason University’s Student Lifecycle Transformation initiative, formerly known as “The Salesforce Project,” is now Patriot Connect.

Introducing Our New Program Identity: Patriot Connect

In the February update, we shared that we were preparing to change the name of the project—known commonly as the Salesforce Project or the Student Lifecycle Transformation Project. After collecting input from across the Mason community, the initiative is unveiling its new identity: Patriot Connect. This name was carefully selected, signifying Mason’s unwavering commitment to student engagement and a unified university experience. Patriot Connect is the platform that Mason students, faculty, and staff will log into for student services such as advising and coaching. Moving forward, Patriot Connect will been seen across all communication channels, including these stakeholder update emails and the webpage.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Demonstration

Mason is searching for a mass communication tool for Patriot Connect to enable and support Salesforce Education Cloud and the associated tools Student Success and Recruitment and Admissions. Last month, Salesforce provided the university with a demo of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, showcasing its potential and features for enabling personalized marketing campaigns across different channels such as email, SMS, social media, and the web. Watch the demo to learn about the tool’s many features, and keep in mind there may be features shown that might not be accessible to the Mason community. Email questions about Salesforce Marketing Cloud to your unit liaison.

Patriot Connect Timeline

The rollout of the Patriot Connect platform will occur in two primary phases. In late spring of calendar year 2025, release 1 will introduce Student Success and a mass communications tool, establishing an accessible online platform for students to manage appointments, submit inquiries, and engage with student support services. The release will also enable marketing capabilities for efficient bulk and automated communications related to the student journey. Release 2, which includes Recruitment and Admissions functionalities, is currently proposed for the end of the 2025 calendar year. This sequential approach prioritizes student success and ensures a systematic implementation.

On the Horizon: Discovery Sessions for Student Success and a Mass Communication Tool

Now that the Patriot Connect program has completed blueprint validation (see February’s email update for an explanation of blueprint validation), which concentrated on examining Mason’s current processes and technology, the focus will shift to discovery and design, which concentrates on planning the future features and capabilities. For the next two months, the work will center on release 1 functionalities: Student Success and mass communication. During this time, the Patriot Connect program will meet regularly with unit liaisons and other functional and technical representatives to confirm requirements and align on the future. These meetings will be a chance for the team to demonstrate certain functionality and receive feedback to keep the project on track and the functionality aligned with Patriot Connect goals.

In Case You Missed It: Building the Roadmap to Mason’s Future with Salesforce Education Cloud

• Read the press release about Mason and Accenture’s partnership.
• The February 21 Provost’s Newsletter shared the article Building the roadmap to Mason’s future with Salesforce Education Cloud.