Jas Singh, one of our implementation consultants, went to visit the University for the Creative Arts last week. They’ve just selected campusM for Students, and Jas ran a Technical Discovery Workshop, where he met subject experts from the VLE, Library, Marketing and Network Security teams, Student Union representatives and staff from across the University. Everyone at the workshop was really excited about the prospect of a University mobile app and its potential for improving the student experience. One thing that really sets this project apart is that students from the University’s Graphic Design New Media course will be asked to design the branding.

Underneath the buzz, Jas said, all parties are seriously committed to delivering “anytime, anywhere” personalised mobile services to students. They are already talking about a future upgrade to campusM Enterprise to expand the solution to additional communities (such as prospective students, applicants, and alumni).

Bournemouth University is the latest institution to invest in campusM Enterprise, and it’s great to welcome them into our community.

Bournemouth’s starting point was the student experience, and early conversations focused on personalised timetables and a library component that handles book transactions and access to electronic resources. The vision of a mobile student app generated considerable enthusiasm across the university – even the Student Union was keen to get involved – but the team at Bournemouth saw that campusM Enterprise offered a broader mobile presence that would meet the needs of all constituencies, not just today’s students. Recruitment is uppermost in the minds of university decision-makers these days, and an initial priority will be to attract tomorrow’s students with a rich mobile Open Day experience.

We’re excited about working with the team at Bournemouth as they firm up their plans for a comprehensive mobile app.

campusM held its latest User Group meeting last week. For a number of customers, and indeed campusM team-members, it was the first opportunity to attend such an event. The marketing sessions in the morning threw up QR codes, scavenger hunts, postcodes, online ads and other promotion mechanisms aimed at increasing awareness of campusM mobile apps across the institution. Hugh Griffiths took customers through recent architectural and app enhancements, and was pleased that the new campusM user interface for Android was well received. David Stephenson facilitated a discussion on future plans, and a final session on the AEK catered for the most technical users.

As a first-timer myself, I found the energy and commitment of those campusM users I met to be seriously impressive. And I must single out Imperial College London for special thanks – they provided a sizeable room, organised refreshments and helped the day run smoothly.

The Harper Adams University College mobile app is getting the recognition it deserves. Harper Adams has been shortlisted in the Best Use of Digital Marketing category of the national Heist Awards, 2012 for its and beyond campusM app, which helps visitors to get the most out of Open Days at the University College. The app was launched last year by a team that is clearly going places – it has also been shortlisted in the Marketing Department of the Year category.

We wish everybody at Harper Adams the very best for May 31^st, when the winners are announced in London.

We recently introduced campusM Health Checks as a complementary service, and so far we’ve carried out five of these reviews. It’s really important to us that our customers make the best use of campusM and its features in their mobile apps. It’s also a great opportunity to provide an update on trends and best practice, and to get to know all our customers better. Much of the Health Check is centred on the technology; we examine local customisations as well as the basic installation. However, we also cover marketing, looking at whether the institution should be making more use of social media and internal champions to build awareness, for example. Most of all we want to help them to achieve institution-wide success with their app, and to realise the strategic benefits that originally led them to adopt campusM.

Our sales team has certainly been busy of late. First up, Kings College London, a mainstay in the upper echelons of global university rankings, has become our latest campusM customer. In the same week, Lancaster University upgraded to campusM Enterprise. Lancaster has been at the vanguard of developments with our Application Extension Kit (AEK), making exciting and attractive local customisation to the university’s mobile app, iLancaster. campusM Enterprise transforms our customers’ options when planning targeted mobile services for groups like prospective students and alumni.

We hope to see representatives from both Kings College London and Lancaster University at our campusM User Group meeting in London on Thursday 26^th April, which will include a dedicated session on the AEK.

We’re indebted to Imperial College London, who have agreed to host the forthcoming campusM User Group meeting on Thursday 26^th April, on their South Kensington campus.

We’ve just sent out the invitations and agenda to 30 universities. One innovation we’re introducing for this meeting is dedicated sessions on the AEK (Application Extension Kit) and Marketing. It would be great to see more Marketing representatives from campusM universities at the meeting – after all, success of mobile services depends, in the first instance, on awareness. You’ll also get the chance to see the new Insight mobile analytics function.

Our User Group meetings are always lively and informative, and we hope to see as many of you as possible on the 26^th. Do RSVP and let us know you’re coming.

As part of its plans to boost student recruitment, the University of Bradford has upgraded to campusM Enterprise. We met up with Graham Hill, the University’s Director of IT Services, at the UCISA2012 conference last week where we discussed the University’s many innovations on the campusM platform over the past 3 years. We’re all looking forward to seeing what exciting enhancements their developers come up with on campusM Enterprise, which allows multiple unique profiles within a single institutional app.

Going to UCISA2012 this week? campusM has once again partnered with UCISA to provide a conference app for your smartphone, free of charge to all UCISA2012 delegates.

Downloading the conference app gives you all the event information you need – agenda, speakers, venue information etc. The app name is UCISA2012.

> Download for iPhone or iPad

> Download for Android devices

> Download for Blackberry OS5 devices

> Download for Blackberry OS6/7 devices

or browse this web app which will work on most smartphones.

Once you’ve downloaded it, register with the app using the same name and email address that you used to register for the conference. You’ll be asked to generate your own password, but you won’t be prompted for it again.

Give us your feedback on our conference app at the campusM exhibition stand. While you’re there, take a tour of the campusM mobile platform, or have a look at campusM insight, our new mobile analytics tool.

Richard joins us as Business Development Manager, taking responsibility for developing our rapidly growing customer base. Richard has spent the past seven years at Blackboard International, rising to become Regional Vice President for EMEA. “At Blackboard”, Richard says “I recognised the importance of enterprise solutions in the rapidly growing global market for mobile in education. So it made complete sense to join the region’s clear mobile leader, the only company offering a truly enterprise solution.”

Since graduating from Durham University, Richard’s career has spanned an impressive range of activities, including seismology in the oil industry, marketing the world’s most powerful supercomputers, and running his own IT business. He’s lived for extended periods in mainland Europe, the Middle East and in Africa, but is now settled happily in Poole, England.

In his spare time Richard enjoys yacht racing, skiing, guitar, and messing around with technology. He is currently building a 30ft racing keelboat and hopes to be ready for the Round the Island Race in June 2012.