It's YOUR time to #EdUp
Feb. 20, 2024

818: LIVE from ⁠InsightsEDU⁠ 2024 - with Alexander Arthur, COO, Orbund LLC

818: LIVE from ⁠InsightsEDU⁠ 2024 - with Alexander Arthur, COO, Orbund LLC
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EdUp Experience

It’s YOUR time to #EdUp

In this episode, recorded LIVE & in person from the InsightsEDU 2024 conference in Phoenix, AZ

YOUR guest is Alexander Arthur, COO, Orbund LLC

YOUR host is Dr. Joe Sallustio

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America's Leading Higher Education Podcast

America's Leading Higher Education Podcast Network
Transcript

Joe Sallustio: Welcome back everybody. It's your time to EdUp on the EdUp Experience podcast where we make education your business. Where might we be making education your business today, you would ask? Well, I'm glad you did ask. We're here at the Renaissance Marriott in Phoenix, Arizona at the Insights EDU Conference hosted by Education Dynamics where we're learning all about marketing and enrollment trends for online students. And it's been a pretty incredible conference so far. I've got to tell you guys, the online student college report revealed by Education Dynamics this morning was chock full, and I mean full, of incredible insights that you need to know if you want to serve the adult learner. Just so many great things happening. There's a lot of excitement here at this conference. Any time you put together marketing and enrollment people, you get a special dynamic.

Ladies and gentlemen, we've got a special guest with us right now. He's Alexander Arthur, and he is the chief operating officer at Orban. What's going on, Alexander? How are you?

Alexander Arthur: I'm doing well. How are you doing?

Joe Sallustio: I'm doing great, man. I hear this is your first time being on a podcast. Are you excited? Are you nervous? You don't know what to expect. Tell me how you're feeling right now.

Alexander Arthur: I'm relaxed. I'm following your lead and I'm just going with the flow.

Joe Sallustio: I like your style, dude. Well, there you go. We're going to just go with the flow. Alexander, talk to us first. Tell us about Orban. What do you guys do? How do you do it?

Alexander Arthur: So Orban is an education solution provider. In this particular sector, we focus on continuing education. When you talk about online education, where today, for example, as you said, Insight gave us the analytics of enrollment trends. And with that, one of the big pieces about it is you need to be flexible. You need to be able to offer courses and easily make them available on the student's timeline. That's where Orban comes in with a solution that allows you to do that and plug into your system without having to completely retool your whole student information system.

Joe Sallustio: Interesting. So you're already getting the hang of things, Alexander, on this podcast. This is typically how it works. I want to ask you a bunch of questions. I want to have them answered immediately. You're already doing a great job.

Okay, so Orban is an SIS. Orban is a student information system. But in this case, you're saying that it can be an add-on to your existing SIS to serve non-credit learners, essentially the adult non-credit learner.

Alexander Arthur: Yes, sir.

Joe Sallustio: Let's talk about SIS systems for a minute. SIS systems are one of the most important parts of a higher education institution. Also, sometimes they don't do everything you want them to do. Sometimes they don't integrate in ways you want them to integrate. They give institutions a lot of heartache and headache at times. What's Orban's value proposition? What do you think makes Orban different than the others out there?

Alexander Arthur: So with Orban, what makes us different is the flexibility of the system. For example, exactly as you said that the other systems are at the center of your bicycle wheel, but at the same time, it gives you some challenges. Integration into LMS systems is a big deal. Orban, for example, has integrations into eight of the major LMS systems. We integrate with a lot of payment processes. So when you look at us, flexibility and adaptability to technology is one of our great strengths.

Joe Sallustio: Amazing. What are you doing here at Insights EDU? I mean, other than the fact that you're here, I don't mean it like that, by the way. What are you doing here? What are you here for? You're talking to people in enrollment and marketing. Are those people struggling to track these students and Orban's providing the solution? What's your niche here among this audience?

Alexander Arthur: So our niche here is to come in and really provide that solution that plugs into their current infrastructure and environment and allow them to be able to offer those programs quickly to the students. And so far this morning, we've had some very interesting conversations with some prospects. We're excited to talk to more folks. I'm part of the panel tomorrow, late morning to present on enrollment technologies, where we will show more and talk more about that as well.

Joe Sallustio: When you say interesting conversations without talking about who you discussed these with, what do you mean by interesting? Challenging, like challenges out there, indecision, uncertainty, what made those conversations interesting?

Alexander Arthur: They're interesting because you think with modern-day technology, as much as they've invested in their SIS, it would be able to do some of the stuff that we are doing. But unfortunately, it's not, which is great for us because now we get to provide them with a solution. So from that point of view, it's interesting, it's exciting for us.

Joe Sallustio: Because you can do what their current SIS cannot do.

Alexander Arthur: Yes, sir.

Joe Sallustio: I'm thinking about this because the non-credit pieces, the continuing education piece is very hard to track. It's very hard to track. And one of the biggest values of having continuing education programs is to track if those students eventually enroll into a degree program, because continuing ed programs, they don't make you a lot of money if you're an institution, right? So if you could get a percentage of those students to transfer those credits or whatever, into an upper-level degree or upsell them. But tracking that's hard. That's where integration into the SIS comes in.

Alexander Arthur: Because by us doing all that and integrating into their system, I can now transfer over their grades. I can transfer over their whole information, which then helps you easily build equivalencies in your current SIS and then roll up from there.

Joe Sallustio: Do you think schools are properly tracking the continuing ed students? Is this just a big area for Orban to make a splash?

Alexander Arthur: It's a big area. We're hoping to make a big splash. And that's the growth potential we have.

Joe Sallustio: Why do you think that is? Do you think schools just aren't, we don't have focus on this as schools? We're just not thinking about it, tracking it right?

Alexander Arthur: Part of it is because, let's be honest, this whole continuing education piece, it's something that sprang on us. We're trying to get our arms around it. Schools are... It's confusing. Yeah, it's confusing. And as a result of that, schools have got several things and there are a lot of schools. You walk into a school and you see they're trying to take a continuing education module and fit it into a brick-and-mortar infrastructure they've got.

Joe Sallustio: Yikes!

Alexander Arthur: And it normally does not work that way. So being able to give them a solution and say, just keep your brick-and-mortar set up. Let's do this here. Let's manage it separately. And then let's discuss what pieces do you need to be able to roll up when you transfer the student over.

Joe Sallustio: Then when you say words like integration, most people in higher ed that have dealt with this hear something like this. Can you talk about your integration service in general? What kind of team do you deal with? You know, what does that look like? What's the support model Orban look like? Because support makes the difference when it comes to an SIS company, because there is always complication. There is always confusion. There's going to be something that it didn't do that you wanted it to do. And that service is so important and it's missing a lot of times. So talk about Orban.

Alexander Arthur: So that's another piece of Orban's setup that makes us different. We've got service reps that basically worked in the schools. All our service reps used to work in the schools, used to work in the IT departments in the schools. We've got service reps that are located in Puerto Rico, in Florida, in Massachusetts, in Cleveland, in Georgia, in Florida, in California, as well as Chihuahua, Mexico. So we cover all the time zones. We're able to support you first thing in the morning on the East coast and as late as 6 PM on the West coast. And so that is the first level of support, which is key. Now, the second thing is because we build the integrations, we know, and we understand what we are pushing over. And so with that as well, that allows us to be more in control of the situation and be able to help you quickly from there.

Joe Sallustio: 100%. It is the service that makes a difference. So you are here and I know that when you talk to people who are interested, especially when they're enrollment and marketing professionals, one of the first questions they have is about service. It's going to be, who's going to be around when we have this come up or we have that come up? So I always double down on that because it's service in this industry that is lacking in so many areas and it's the companies that provide great service that in my opinion are the ones that get ahead. We're becoming a very personal business again in higher education post-COVID. Where's Orban's growth path? What do you see for the future of the company?

Alexander Arthur: So yes, we currently have over 400 schools globally using Orban technology. But this continuing ed sector is where we see the growth potential. This is where we're betting on. This is the reason why I'm here myself. I didn't send anyone else.

Joe Sallustio: The chief janitor has got to do it like you called yourself at the beginning. You got to clean up some messes.

Alexander Arthur: I've got to clean up some messes here. And so we're here and we really want to look at the sector, put the right resources at it. And then go at it very hard because it's a growth potential that is key to us ourselves as well.

Joe Sallustio: So you want to be here to... you're here and not someone else because you really are... you want to represent the company and say, look, we could do this.

Alexander Arthur: Yes. And when you hear from the CEO, or you hear from somebody else, there's a big difference. And the CEO says we can do this. We got to believe you that it's going to get done. It can be done. And then secondly, also start laying the foundation of building the right contacts and networks that we can build on top of that moving forward from here.

Joe Sallustio: So if there is a school out there that is thinking about better tracking students who are continuing ed students, which could be taking non-credit could be taking for-credit, stackables, all that kind of stuff. How do we contact you? How do they get a hold of you if they're interested and just want to take a peek at the system, know what you can do for them?

Alexander Arthur: So if they have the Insight app, you'll find me on there. Arthur. And they can go to the Orban website. On the Orban website, there's a link over there, get demo inquiry form they can fill in and we will follow up instantly with them and then follow up from there and they can then easily make reference about Insight podcast from there and then we'll get back in touch with them.

Joe Sallustio: Now do you want to give us your cell phone number and have everybody call you from the hours of 12 AM to 6 AM only if you want?

Alexander Arthur: No, I'm not going to do my cell phone number.

Joe Sallustio: What else do you want to say about Orban? What else do you want to say?

Alexander Arthur: If they do want to get in touch with us it's Orban.com. You can just type that in your browser and go there and then go to the contact page. And then there's also pretty much the get demo button and you can fill in the inquiry form and that will get back in touch with us. And the thing is, if even you're not sure, I would say go ahead, contact us and tell us your... No obligation to look at a...

Joe Sallustio: Yeah, no obligation to look at a demo.

Alexander Arthur: Contact us, we will talk to you. And then if we're not able to help you, we will guide you where you need to go.

Joe Sallustio: What else do you want to say about Orban to close out the episode?

Alexander Arthur: So, other than that, we are a growing company. We believe in providing first-hand service. We believe exactly as you say, service is the way to go. And we live by that. That's why we do not provide long-term contracts. We literally... our subscription model is on a month-to-month basis. We believe we've got to earn your business every month.

Joe Sallustio: I like that. I like the sound of that because that is the proof in the pudding. Don't put me in a long-term contract and make me stuck. Prove it to me. And I'll stay with you if you keep proving it to me.

Alexander Arthur: Yeah, exactly. And I'm glad to say we've got people who have stayed with us for well over 10 years because every month in the 10 years or more, we keep proving it and we keep bringing it every day.

Joe Sallustio: Bullseye. Ladies and gentlemen, you've heard him here first on his first podcast on the EdUp Experience. He is the COO at Orban. He's Alexander Arthur. Alexander, did you have a good time in the podcast talking about Orban and the work that you do?

Alexander Arthur: Yes, I had a wonderful time. Now I'm good. You got me hooked on this. I'm going to do more.

Joe Sallustio: You got to do more of these now. We're going to help you get around a little bit. Everybody invite Alexander on your podcast and get him going.

Ladies and gentlemen, you've just EdUp'd.