CMS and EMS Calendars and Event Management: A Guided Approach for Schools Using both Finalsite Products

Overview

Event Management is a key piece of your lead nurturing and relationship building with prospects and current applicants/students. This article will explain what platform to use for event registration, with some best practice recommendations and possible roadblocks.

Terms Used in This Article

You will see the following terms used to refer to Finalsite’s two systems:

• CMS (Content Management System) refers to Finalsite’s website, marketing, and communication tools (which includes Forms, Composer, Messages, and Automated Email Workflows).
• EMS (Enrollment Management System) refers to Finalsite’s admissions and enrollment platform (formerly SchoolAdmin).

Best Practices

• All events for admissions and enrollment should be hosted in your EMS platform.
• Provide event registration for prospective families on the EMS Inquiry form and host/embed the form on your CMS site.
• Provide targeted registration for admissions/enrollment events after the Inquiry stage on your EMS checklist. Link all event information in your CMS to the EMS Portal. 
• Community events (i.e. events that are not specific to student enrollment such as Grandparent’s Day) should be hosted in your CMS platform

Questions to Consider

• Is event registration required of an applicant in order to be accepted or become enrolled? If yes, this item belongs on your EMS checklist and should be hosted there. You can still promote your event on your CMS webpage and hyperlink to the EMS portal for registration.
• Does event registration trigger an Admissions/Enrollment Checklist item or internal reminder? If yes, event registration should be hosted in your EMS platform or on your EMS Inquiry Form embedded on a page in your CMS site. 
• Who needs access to the registrant list? Are they an Admin/User/Reviewer in the intended platform? While admissions and enrollment events should be hosted on the EMS checklist and inquiry form, do you have any events that would be hosted by another party? Example: Your soccer coach would like to host an interest day and gather T-shirt sizes of attendees. This type of event is not considered a requirement and your coach will likely not have Admin access in the EMS platform. Event registration should then take place on a form in your CMS platform.
• Would you like to collect a fee upon registration? This is only available in EMS at the Admissions and Enrollment stages.

Key Features/Benefits of CMS and EMS

Registration Setup

Feature	CMS	EMS	Notes
Custom appointment/event registration form	YES	YES	Build a custom form with additional fields such as T-shirt size.
Collect fee with form submission	YES	YES (Applicant --> Enrollment only)	In EMS this is only available at the applicant stage and beyond
Automatically close event registration	YES	YES	Use Scheduled Activation in CMS forms to stop receiving form submissions.
Set a custom attendee cap per event date		YES
Automate custom follow up communications upon registration	YES	YES
Custom name tag generation		YES

Parent Workflow

Feature	CMS	EMS	Notes
Only name and email required for event registration	YES		EMS requires additional contact information, including phone number and address.
Non-admissions/enrollment event registration	YES		EMS events are only intended for prospective/current student events. They are not intended for community events
Allowing a parent to cancel or reschedule		YES	Parent cancellation and rescheduling is optional per event in your EMS.

Communications

Feature	CMS	EMS	Notes
Automated messages	YES	YES
Cancellation notifications	YES	YES (Optional and Automated)
Send custom automated email notifications, such as a thank-you or follow-up email	YES	YES
Add contacts to a targeted communication workflow	YES	YES
iCal links in email templates		YES

Additional Features

Feature	CMS	EMS	Notes
Admin Google Calendar sync		YES
Printable PDF for each calendar	YES
Reporting capabilities	YES	YES

Additional Resources

CMS Content

• Getting started in Calendar Manager
• Use iCal feeds to synchronize multiple calendar systems
• All Calendar Manager articles
• Build a form
• All Forms articles 

EMS Content

• Office Hours & Past Session Recordings
• Calendars & Event Management Office Hours Recording Passcode: bp^57B$Q
• Inquiry Event Management Office Hours Recording Passcode: +m8NY+N6
• Custom Appointment Forms