Not often is Tempe, Arizona brought up in conversations about prominent cities for cutting-edge technology. Maybe basketball, as Arizona State University’s James Harden is expected to be a top-five draft pick in this year’s NBA Draft. In higher education however, a conversation about technology can’t be had without them.

In Fall 2006, ASU became the first adopter of Google Apps Education Edition, an enterprise solution allowing students to leverage Google’s user friendly tools in their daily tasks. To further their trend-setting example, ASU has partnered with our team at Inigral to implement Schools, the first private, secure Facebook application with SIS data integration.

Since our team customizes applications to fit an institution’s specific needs, ASU on Facebook is one of a kind, literally. Elizabeth D. Capaldi, ASU’s Executive Vice President and Provost stated in a recent press release,

“Research shows that when students are connected to their college community they are more likely to stay in school and graduate. Through ASU on Facebook, students will be able to strengthen existing social connections and build new relationships to support them through graduation.”

Besides enhancing communications with prospective students, current students, and alumni, Inigral’s Schools allows ASU to take control of their presence on Facebook. Before Schools™, anyone could go onto Facebook and create a non-authoritative presence for a college or university. If a student population is large enough, you could even have separate groups for the same purpose as a result of poor communication. (See Inigral CEO Michael Staton’s blog post on owning your Facebook presence, here.)

To own your school’s presence on Facebook, and dynamically change the way students interact with groups on campus, contact us today to learn more. You can also see ASU’s official announcement here.