University of Michigan & Cirrus Identity

The University of Michigan’s Alumni Association leadership team studied user behavior on their website, which led to illuminating results. They found that 62% of alumni were checking out as “guests” when renewing their Alumni Association memberships rather than logging in.

Many alumni want to stay engaged with their alma mater, but often they don’t remember their university username and password or their access is cut off after graduation.

This led to two outcomes: either the system couldn’t properly match the existing accounts with the new guest accounts, increasing calls to the help desk, or a duplicate account was created.

Calls to the help desk wasted valuable time and resources and duplicate accounts created muddy data, all contributing to a headache for service desk staff and alum.

After enabling social login and account linking through Cirrus Identity’s solutions, studies revealed that guest checkouts dropped to an astounding 21%.

In June 2018, with newfound confidence, the University of Michigan eliminated the guest checkout option from virtually all its services and protected all alumni services with the Cirrus Proxy, allowing either social or UMich login.

When an alum adds an item to their cart on the Alumni Association landing page, they are given an option to “Login”. The user is then redirected to the login screen configured for the Cirrus Identity Proxy service, and presented with options to log in with a social identity or their campus account.

If the user is new, they will be required to go through a one-time “account linking” process to verify their relationship to the University of Michigan. They can prove their identity by logging in with their enterprise UMich account or by using the Cirrus ID Verify service which presents a set of knowledge based questions determined by the campus.

"We piloted Cirrus Identity’s social login solutions for our public facing Salesforce portal and Online Communities. It dramatically increased alumni login rates, which substantially reduced ongoing support requirements. It has been very successful, and since the original pilot we rolled out the Cirrus solution to all our other alumni services and platforms."

The mission of the University of Michigan is to serve the people of Michigan and the world through preeminence in creating, communicating, preserving and applying knowledge, art, and academic values, and in developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future.

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