Dear eComm Users and Stakeholders,

Over the past several months, many of you have participated in efforts to reimagine the future of the eComm program and to establish an equitable governance foundation that will guide future decision making and programmatic growth. Thanks to these efforts and substantial cross-campus collaboration, I am writing to share the activities that are underway to formally launch a revised governance structure and project request infrastructure in January 2027.
 

Program Vision

While we know eComm's tools are familiar and that use of them is widespread, the program's foundation rests on more than technical capabilities. To be successful and provide value, we must increase our focus on constituent-first communication strategies that align with diverse campus goals and perspectives. eComm must grow and change with the evolution of the digital engagement landscape and provide measurable ROI to justify ongoing investment.

Based on these imperatives, the governance group has approved a new vision for the eComm program [3] that acknowledges how critical personalized communication is for key constituent groups, the diverse needs of our campus partners and the need for consistent, high-quality outreach. eComm's new vision will serve as the foundation for ongoing program enhancements and processes that will be launched in the months ahead.

Vision Statement [3]

Governance Structure

For the past year, eComm has been operating with a governance structure that consists of multi-campus representation on both the executive and super user committees. While this structure has been critical in reaching where we are today, we realize that it must be refined to allow for more robust project intake and approval efforts.

Beginning in January 2027, we will launch an updated multi-level governance structure [4] to enable these goals. Each level of the governance structure will play a key role in intaking and evaluating project requests that will allow for ongoing growth and development of both technologies and services.

eComm Program Team
Members of the eComm Program Team represent both campus and technical leadership and serve as the primary intake point for project requests.

Business Leads
Business leads represent functional department leaders from each campus and system Advancement who possess a vested interest in the success of the eComm program and related technology/CRM initiatives. Business leads will score and weight project requests based on established criteria.

Executive Committee
Members of the Executive Committee represent the highest-level sponsor(s) from each campus and system Advancement and serve as the final approving body for eComm project requests.

Governance Goals & Structure [4]

Project Requests

The foundation of eComm's success rests on our ability to meet the needs of campus communicators while acknowledging that not every campus operates in the same ways or shares the same goals. To formally acknowledge this reality and create repeating mechanisms for work intake, we will be launching a project request process [5] in January 2027.

Requests for project work will be received via an intake form and evaluated at each level of the governance structure to determine feasibility, impact and ROI. Each project request will be evaluated based on the same set of criteria and weighted in accordance with foundation elements of the program vision. We'll share more about these details in our next program update.

Approved requests will be routed to the CRM team in University Information Services (UIS) for prioritization, and the executive committee will sign-off on final roadmap placement.

This structure and process will ensure that work is received and evaluated from multiple campuses with multiple perspectives so that we can provide value to the best of our ability.

Project Request Process [5]

Ultimately, the eComm program exists for our constituents and for you. You play a role in determining how the program evolves and in how we can best engage with our constituents to foster meaningful, personal relationships over time. We appreciate your partnership on this journey and are excited for what the future holds.

Michele Ames
Vice President of Communication