California Western School of Law Experience Award

XCentium, a full-service digital consultancy firm, today announced that one of its clients - California Western School of Law has been awarded the Sitecore Experience Award for 2014 in the Education, Media and Advertising Segment. The Sitecore Experience Awards celebrate the achievements of Sitecore customers and partners who have used the Sitecore Experience Platform to deliver exceptional experiences for an organization’s customers as well as measurable business results.

California Western is an independent, American Bar Association/Association of American Law Schools–accredited San Diego law school that prepares graduates for the practice of law through a carefully sequenced program of study combining traditional legal theory with hands-on learning in real and simulated client environments. It celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2014.

California Western's website had not been updated since the mid-2000s and was due for a complete overhaul with regards to design, navigation, structure and being based on a modern CMS. The goal was to create a user-focused website that displays content logically and with a focus on short blocks of content, to demonstrate visually how the school is different from the competitors, and to make it easy for prospective students to understand they should apply and enroll.

California Western chose Sitecore as a CMS and Marketing platform and selected XCentium to implement the website in 2014. The core of the solution is a best-practices Sitecore solution, which is highly modular to provide maximum support for Sitecore's CMS tools, as well as current and future usage of Digital Marketing System (DMS) functionality, especially Multivariate Testing and Personalization, which is being used from the launch of the new site. The site is implemented with multi-device support for mobile, tablet, and desktop using responsive design. This provides a focused and optimized user experience regardless of the device used to access the site.

Apart from servicing as a general marketing and informational site, www.cwsl.edu also provides special content and functionality for prospective students and internal user groups via password-protected areas of the site. Prospective students can log in to access dedicated content, pay fees, update contact information, and engage with advisors who can guide them through the application and enrollment process.

To facilitate the student-related functionality, the solution is integrated with California Western's internal student database system InfoLink, from which student information, payable fees, and other personalized information is retrieved. For donations, Sitecore has been integrated with the Raiser's Edge fundraising and relationship management system to record donations and other related activities happening on the website. This integration is done via customization of Sitecore Web Form for Marketers (WFFM). Payment is processed through a custom integration between Sitecore WFFM and VirtualMerchant payment processing. This integration is also tied closely to the InfoLink and Raiser's Edge integrations for smooth and efficient operation.

“Our new website considerably improves our ability to share our story with prospective students and to simply the application process,” said Pam Hardy, Director of Marketing & Communications at California Western and main stakeholder of this project. “We needed a fresh look and a flexible platform to provide appealing and engaging experience for prospective and current students, alumni, and our faculty and staff. XCentium was a fantastic partner in designing and delivering that platform. The outcome is a state-of-the-art website with vastly improved user experience, increased conversion rates, and flexible and powerful content management tool for our internal users.”

This is a huge win and launch for all of us!” said Amrit Raj, Managing Partner at XCentium. “We are greatly thankful to California Western for this great partnership and Sitecore for selecting their redesigned site as a winner. This exemplifies our commitment to creating winning digital experiences using Sitecore Customer Engagement Platform. We are honored to be the only Sitecore Partner to have received two Sitecore Experience Awards for 2014. ”

About California Western School of Law

California Western School of Law is committed to using the law to solve human and societal problems. Our mission is to train ethical, competent and compassionate lawyers, representative of our diverse society, who can use the law effectively and creatively.

California Western is San Diego’s oldest law school. Its independence provides the flexibility to adapt curriculum to meet the needs of the profession. For more information, please visit www.cwsl.edu