Trellis is a technology enablement program that supports strategic and intentional communications, services, and engagement with students, alumni, parents and families, corporate partners, faculty, and employees across the University of Arizona.
Acknowledgement
By using Trellis features, users acknowledge and agree to the expectations outlined:
Onboarding & Getting Started
Your timeline to onboard depends on whether your department is already using a Trellis feature or just getting started.
Already Using
New users from established user groups can onboard at their own pace using on-demand EDGE training modules.
Getting Started
Entirely new user groups may require custom Trellis configuration. Depending on the group’s use case and onboarding feature, the timeline from discovery to go-live can take up to 6 months. This is a general timeframe, influenced by Trellis team bandwidth for custom setup and the user group’s response time during the feedback stage. This timeline is refined in Discovery.
By completing required EDGE modules, all Trellis CRM users are granted default visibility to data like Contact records, Email and Event Engagement, University affiliation (enrollment and employment attributes), and interactions. Based on your feature use and department, you are also granted additional visibility to data like case notes, scheduling appointments, marketing campaigns, and external partner relationships. Visibility rules align with UAnalytics access and balance the transparent philosophy of a CRM with the university’s data governance model.
Users commit to completing Trellis trainings and staying informed of critical releases/updated best practices as published by the Trellis team.
User activity is monitored.
If a user does not log into Trellis on a regular basis, they are notified and eventually deactivated after 13 consecutive weeks of inactivity.
Trellis is free for individual units across campus, but licenses cost the university up to $1,000/year/user.
When adding data to Trellis (list import), use the template exactly as provided in the flow.
Users maintain quality data and adhere to appropriate access. Do not falsify data input into Trellis. When loading data into Trellis, users accept the following language:
By proceeding with upload, you confirm your CSV UTF-8 file consists of clean Contact data only, formatted within the Trellis-provided template. Known duplicates, spam, or filler contact information, as well as listservs and business organizations, have been removed. Any superfluous columns are removed, and NetID, First Name, Last Name, and Email columns are correctly ordered and labelled. If you are uncertain how to prepare your data, Microsoft offers comprehensive documentation to address all scenarios listed. Users who repeatedly fail to follow guidelines are subject to revoked privileges.
Due to the demand for support (1,700 users:1 dedicated support employee), we discourage direct email inquiries for initial outreach. Use official support channels (Trellis Teams channels) rather than direct messages – this helps our user community as a whole and supports trackable requests. As a general rule, our team is unavailable for impromptu meetings.
Service-Level Agreements (SLAs)
Where to Get Support
Utilize published Trellis support resources, including user guides, knowledge articles, chatbot, release notes and more. Follow documented escalation processes when needed to ensure the quickest resolution:
EDGE and Live Trainings for demonstrations and interactive training resources
Written Knowledge Articles for step-by-step processes
If documentation does not address your need:
Microsoft Teams: General questions or seeking community feedback.
Please post in the appropriate feature channel
ServiceNow: Bugs, technical issues, specific support questions
The wider Customer Engagement and Success (CES) team is notified of new ServiceNow requests. This enables us to provide prompt support among PTO schedules, quick escalation to the developers, and collaboration.
Office Hours: Quick one-on-one support for use case discussion
15-minute time blocks, intended for quick support. Please don’t book back-to-back.
Business Hours
Trellis is a fully remote team, online 8-5 PM MST Monday - Friday. If support is required during those hours, please utilize our direct ServiceNow form or other user resources. In the event of an after-hours emergency, direct your inquiry to 24/7 Support.
Expected Response Times
Resolution time is based on impact, risk, and institutional needs. We commit to keeping users informed of updates in line with these Service-Level Agreements:
Teams: response within 1 business day
ServiceNow: response within 1 business day
AccessFlow: user setup within 5 business days of AccessFlow routing through all configuration, approvals and training
Full-Service Data Import: 5 business days once submitted in the correct format.
Trellis Development Cycle
The product development team typically makes updates to Trellis on Wednesdays biweekly. Bug fixes, enhancements, and new features are prioritized and completed on this schedule, unless otherwise noted.
Upcoming release dates are published on the Release Notes page. Some temporary degradation of features can occasionally occur during deployment. This is usually undetectable to users, but it may happen.
When updates are made that impact user experience, they are documented in Release Notes. Written and recorded documentation is updated, and a new user workflow is recorded as a demo for users to view.
Significant changes are communicated via email before release.
Enhancement Requests
If you have feedback about the user experience or functionality of Trellis, you can submit an enhancement request via the Trellis Support Request Form in ServiceNow. Enhancement requests route through a specific review process.
Not all enhancement requests can be prioritized or approved. Should the Trellis strategic roadmap change, the product development team reserves the right to close requests.
Enhancement requests can take 6-18 months to deliver, depending on complexity, approval processes, and the number of stakeholders.
Your timeline is considered, but falls into a larger backlog that may be re-prioritized based on campus initiatives.
We will inform you when releasing.
Depending on the enhancement request, you may be an active collaborator during testing or validation.
Active collaborators commit to completing testing/validation promptly, so enhancements can be released.
Collaborator delay may result in the enhancement falling into the development backlog as a new enhancement ticket.
Because of our wide adoption across campus, we communicate to users via mass email & Teams. Common outreach includes:
Welcome email to new users when provisioned
Quarterly newsletter: Trellis Digest
Ad hoc bug notifications via Microsoft Teams and email
Ad hoc notifications of enhancements you’ve submitted
Automated emails to users without a recent login
Our Mission
Trellis advances the University’s Strategic Imperatives by uniting staff on a shared Salesforce platform that streamlines engagement services for students, employees, and the broader community.
Broad adoption of Trellis—particularly in student-facing services—provides leaders with the insights needed to spot opportunities and coordinate actions that drive the Strategic Imperatives forward.
Privacy Statement
The University of Arizona is committed to protecting the personal information of all Users and being transparent about the information Trellis holds. This Privacy Statement describes the collection, processing, use, disclosure, and storage (“Processing”) of User information. When you use Trellis’ functionality, submit information through the University of Arizona information systems, or visit our websites and use other services, your information will be handled as described here.
The Role of CRM in Higher Education
Higher education is experiencing significant changes in how it operates and interacts with students, parents, alumni, employers, and staff members. The market has become more competitive as the demand for more personalized experiences has increased.
Today, the University of Arizona is joining hundreds of other proactive universities that have already implemented enterprise CRM and marketing solutions.
Frequently Asked Questions
CRM is commonly known as "customer relationship management". In higher education, the term "constituent relationship management" is used to recognize the complex relationships interwoven between students, faculty, alumni, donors, and many other partners at the University of Arizona. An enterprise CRM system has the ability to manage an entire organization's constituent interactions and can offer a 360 degree view of each relationship.
Having a comprehensive view of each constituent relationship will help the University understand how people are interacting and engaging with the institution as well as provide more modern, personalized services. For example, a student would be viewed in CRM as one individual rather than separately as a prospect from admissions, an account at the Bursar's, an appointment with a college advisor, a seat in a department's class, and a borrower from the library. This holistic view allows the University to have a more complete picture of the student and their campus experience.
Salesforce is the leading cloud-based CRM software that powers the University of Arizona's Trellis CRM system.
In 2018, multiple vendors were vetted by a team of Arizona partners. Many CRM software platforms offered similar features in terms of capabilities and scalability, but Salesforce had the advantage of being the most widely used platform among higher education institutions, including our own state peers. Trellis collaborates with Salesforce and other universities to benefit from "lessons learned" and move forward with an improved process for CRM implementation across the University of Arizona.
CRM is a university-wide strategy that requires thoughtful planning and cross collaboration. Projects being implemented between 2019-2022 are driven by multiple governance teams, leaders, and subject matter experts including strategic partners from:
- Advising Resource Center (ARC)
- Arizona Marketing & Brand Management
- Enrollment Management
- Enrollment Marketing & Communication
- Office of Instruction & Assessment (OIA)
- Office of Scholarships & Financial Aid (OSFA)
- Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI)
- Student Admin Systems Group (SASG)
- University Analytics & Institutional Research (UAIR)
- University Information Technology Services (UITS)
The first set of applications launched by Trellis focused on student success. With Trellis, Arizona staff and faculty can offer a more modern and personalized digital experience, and students are equipped with more resources to navigate the University, from wherever they are. Visit our Solutions page for a list of current core offerings.
The Trellis program's roadmap is currently in a three-year initiative with iterative launches happening throughout the year. Using the agile methodology, the team develops rapid, iterative products that can be used and refined quickly to deliver the best outcomes for staff and our campus constituents. As more CRM features become available, we hope to see Trellis adopted by additional student service, academic, and centralized units across the University. If interested, please fill out our Get Started form.
Trellis began developing new CRM applications and features in 2019. Ongoing research, user feedback, and governance will determine the sequence of tools that will be developed next. If your unit is interested in adopting an enterprise CRM solution or interested in participating in future workshops, please check out the Solutions page and submit the Get Started form if you have questions.
There are no costs associated for units looking to adopt Trellis CRM. It's an enterprise service, provided by the University of Arizona to staff, faculty, students, and other constituents. Please visit the Arizona Strategic Plan website for more information about our partnership with the Office of Strategic Initiatives, under Pillar 5 "Institutional Excellence". View our list of current offerings through the Solutions page.
With CRM, there's a heavy focus on constituent interactions, data management, data security, and cross-collaboration. There will be more information available about the type of communication constituents receive, which will improve visibility and the way we engage with university stakeholders, both internally and externally. This 360-degree-view empowers each of us to provide a more modern and personalized experience for many of the University of Arizona's constituents, including, but not limited to:
- Students
- Staff
- Faculty
- Donors
- Alumni
- Corporate Partners
- Government Partners