Hutchinson Community College Slate Health Check

HUTCHINSON COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Hutchinson Community College (HutchCC) is a public two-year institution located in Hutchinson, Kansas, offering more than 70 academic and 50 technical programs leading to associate degrees and certificates. Founded in 1928, the college serves a diverse student population and supports a vibrant campus life, including competitive NJCAA athletics

CHALLENGE:

Hutchinson Community College (HutchCC) recently implemented Slate to support a wide range of enrollment functions, from inquiry management and application review to event management and communications. While the initial setup was completed with support from another external vendor, ongoing management has been maintained by a single internal lead. Recognizing the limitations of this approach and the underutilization of Slate’s full capabilities, HutchCC engaged Solidan’s team of Slate experts to conduct a comprehensive system audit. The goal was to identify key risks, uncover gaps in usage, and provide strategic recommendations to help the college maximize the value of their investment in Slate while aligning with institutional goals and operational capacity.

SOLUTION:

To support Hutchinson Community College in maximizing the effectiveness of their Slate CRM investment, our team conducted a comprehensive system Health Check designed to evaluate both technical configuration and business process alignment. The approach combined two key strategies: a thorough back-end system review and a series of stakeholder interviews with Admissions staff to better understand current workflows, challenges, and goals.

The assessment focused on identifying risks, inefficiencies, and areas of opportunity across core components of the Slate instance, including Applications, Reader & Workflows, Deliver/Communications, Events & Scheduler, Forms, Inbox, Imports/Exports, Rules & Automations, Queries/Reports, Permissions, and general database configuration. Each area was evaluated with attention to scalability, accuracy, usability, and alignment with institutional strategy.

Our methodology involved four key phases:

1. Discovery & Interviews – Conducted targeted discussions with key Admissions stakeholders to map current-state processes and pain points.

2. System Analysis – Performed an in-depth review of HutchCC’s Slate configuration and usage, identifying redundancies, gaps, and potential risks.

3. Findings & Recommendations – Compiled a detailed set of findings highlighting strengths, underutilized features, and areas needing attention.

4. Prioritization & Roadmapping – Collaboratively identified priority areas based on institutional goals, resource constraints, and technical dependencies.

Throughout the process, we partnered closely with HutchCC’s internal Slate lead, whose institutional knowledge was instrumental in guiding the evaluation. While limited staffing presented a challenge, it also shaped our focus toward sustainable, high-impact recommendations that could be executed with existing resources or scaled over time.

Our Health Check not only delivered a clear snapshot of current-state usage but also laid the groundwork for data-informed decision-making, improved operational efficiency, and more strategic use of Slate going forward.

“Collaborating with Solidan on our Slate instance has been a very positive and productive experience. The recent health check provided valuable insights that are already informing our next steps and helping us identify areas for improvement. Their team has been incredibly responsive, knowledgeable, and easy to work with. We are excited to continue building a more streamlined and efficient system with their support.”

-Brea Turner, MBA, Executive Director of Enrollment Management

-Bianca Kunzinger, CRM & Project Coordinator

RESULTS:

The Slate Health Check resulted in a comprehensive findings document, organized by module (e.g., Applications, Deliver, Events, Reader, etc.). Within each module, we provided a detailed, line-by-line assessment of key focus areas, identifying what was working well, where improvements maybe needed, and any areas of potential risk. For each item, Solidan included specific, recommendations along with suggested priority levels. HutchCC is now able to use the information from the Health Check alongside other identified initiatives to prioritize next steps and continue optimizing their Slate instance in support of their enrollment goals.