Please note: This is a Sole Source Notification. Mississippi State University anticipates purchasing the item(s) listed below as a sole source purchase. Anyone objecting to this purchase shall follow the procedures outlined below. 1. Commodity or commodities to be purchased (make, model, description): CampusESP is a parent/family member engagement solution platform for colleges and universities. The Student Enrollment module includes a portal experience, as well as personalized and automated e-newsletters and emails for parents of prospective students. The Family Communication module also includes a portal experience, as well as personalized and automated e-newsletters and emails for parents of currently enrolled students. 2. Explanation of the need to be fulfilled by this item(s), how is it unique from all other options, and why it is the only one that can meet the specific needs of the department: Effective communication to parents and family members contributes to overall enrollment and student success. The CampusESP platform allows for more consistent and targeted communication to parents than an internal staff has capacity to currently implement and maintain without devoting numerous hours on an initial or weekly/ongoing basis. CampusESP provides weekly content curation services on behalf of the institution that are approved by the institution for parent communication. CampusESP also provides CRM integration with Slate to import prospective parent data and align targeted communications based on a student’s status within the application/enrollment cycle. These communications can be both automated on a regular basis by CampusESP as well as created on-demand by the institution when needed. Other companies offering parent engagement solutions were identified, but CampusESP appears to be the only commercially-available parent engagement platform that offers the following features for higher education institutions all in a single solution that is also designed for easy, ongoing maintenance by internal teams: 1) Dedicated and institution-branded parent portal 2) Regular content curation specific to the institution 3) Regularly generated/automated/personalized emails to parents/family members (at least monthly, but CampusESP provides customization for parent communication frequency preferences, including weekly and bi-weekly options) 4) Analytics All of these features help institutions stay consistently engaged with parents in a way that is targeted to their preferences in communication content and frequency, as well as their student’s stage of the application/enrollment or student-year cycle. Having both portal modules also provides continuity with the parent once their student enrolls at MSU. Note: The Admissions team uses Slate to communicate with prospective students. Parent communication in Slate for MSU is currently sporadic. Engagement with parents via a Slate portal as well as accompanying email communication flows that are comparable to what CampusESP offers would take significant customization and internal team capacity. Name of company/individual selling the item and why that source is the only possible source that can provide the required item(s): CampusESP is the company providing the services. CampusESP services are only sold by CampusESP.
