Via Makes Gathering Data “Simple and Straightforward,” Director Says
Jane Bjerklie-Barry “inherited a terrible platform” when she arrived at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH, to become Director of the Office of International Programs in September 2018.
“It was archaic and antiquated and awful,” she recalls. “I realized pretty quickly that it was going to be extremely burdensome. Because ours is a small office, I need to have tools that make me nimble and that are supportive of data collection and making things easy and straightforward, not only for me but for our students and faculty.”
About six months into her job, Jane began looking for a better option. She discovered Via at a NAFSA conference and knew she had found her new software solution.
“I felt Via could provide just what I needed: simplicity, efficiency, and really giving me a good handle on data, privacy, all of those elements.”
Once the office switched to Via, everything was more streamlined, she says.
“I no longer had to copy and paste all this data, taking things from one platform and putting it into an Excel spreadsheet and then comparing it with information we had within the college’s systems,” she says. “It’s so simple and so straightforward to draw data from Via for the Open Doors survey. That’s been significantly helpful.”
An “ancillary benefit” to using Via, she says, is it also allows her to quickly share data with Saint Anselm’s institutional research office for various initiatives, such as identifying study abroad trends among students.
Via Support Team Vital During Transition
Since she is a small office and was doing everything on her own, Jane says she had to lean on the Via support team during the transition.
“It took me some time, but then I started to discover different things that I could do,” she says. “Via is very easy to use. It’s fun. You don’t have to read through all sorts of instructions. It’s laid out very well.”
And while some faculty have fully embraced Via for faculty-led study abroad programs, others are reluctant and continue to depend on the office for support. She hopes that will change in the near future.
“I’m hoping to gain a little more traction with having our faculty utilize and know and recognize what a powerful tool and resource Via is for them when they’re working with students abroad.”
Via Ideal for Small Offices
Jane says she and her colleagues in small offices need a software solution that is “quick and straightforward, streamlined, easy to use, and does what we need it to do.” Via is all of that and more, she says.
“I would certainly recommend my colleagues consider Via as an outstanding tool and partner—especially for small offices. As a small office, we still have to do all of the same things that a large office has to do. We just don’t have the capacity. So I would encourage any of my colleagues who are in small offices to consider Via. I think the price points for the cost of Via are worth it—without question.”
She appreciates Via’s responsiveness, both in the beginning and now.
“The help desk has been great. The onboarding process was very straightforward, seamless and easy. The webinars, the one-on-one trainings that I had were very helpful.”
Let’s Connect
Like Jane Bjerklie-Barry at Saint Anselm College, Via believes global experiences will change our world. That’s why we created traveler relationship management and travel risk management software, which helps universities and study abroad program providers to empower global experiences. If you want a true education abroad partner, turn to Via.