McNeese Receives Innovation Award from EdScoop

McNeese State University’s Information Technology Office received an Innovation Award from EdScoop for efforts in rebuilding the online dashboard after the outdated system crashed following two hurricanes.

The EDScoop 50 Awards, in their first year, honor the most influential people in the higher education technology community, along with the most innovative projects that make a positive impact across universities.

“This award confirms that despite recent challenges and staff size, our IT office remains innovative and efficient,” explained Chad Thibodeaux, chief information technology officer at McNeese.

“The EdScoop 50 Awards are all about recognizing the higher education community in a new way,” said Jake Williams, the vice president of content and community of StateScoop and EdScoop. “Institutions have been forever changed by the COVID-19 pandemic and these awards recognize the class of leaders who lead that change and are charting the path forward for universities.”

McNeese needed an urgent replacement for its outdated campus dashboard, which required four full-time employees to manage its growing complexity and crashed completely amid back-to-back hurricanes. After implementing Ellucian Experience, McNeese gained access to an intuitive campus dashboard that simplifies information delivery and can adapt to the needs of students, staff and administrators alike, all while secured by cloud-based disaster recovery. After a six-month implementation process that finished ahead of schedule and under budget, the new system led to a 75% decrease in hours required to manage the platform.

“The Experience platform allows IT to provide services efficiently and with little overhead and the campus benefits from a powerful, modern and future-ready portal,” Thibodeaux said. “I am very proud of the grit and determination my staff has shown over the past couple of years.”

EdScoop is the leading media brand in the higher education IT market. With more than a million monthly unique engagements, EdScoop features the latest news and conversations among the top leaders driving technology and digital learning in higher ed. EdScoop’s website, newsletter and events uniquely attract the most influential IT decision makers at universities around the world. For more information visit their website.