Harris Connect has tapped Acuity Mobile for a mobile communication platform that will be available to alumni associations worldwide.

The Chesapeake, VA-based publisher of alumni and member publications will deploy Acuity's v6 platform for Harris Connect Mobile. The platform will generate dynamic Web links and navigate applications based on user-profiling data, segmentation and user location.

"With many local chapter events, sporting news and other social interactions, the mobile devices is the ideal way to build and maintain a community and to ensure that universities stay connected with graduates who do not respond to direct mail or even email the way their parents and grandparents have in the past," said Alan Sultan, founder and president of Acuity, Greenbelt, MD.

In this Q&A, Mr. Sultan delves deeper into Harris Connect's decision to go mobile and how that syncs with the evolving communications behavior of alumni.

What's the mandate from Harris Connect?
For over 40 years Harris Connect has been the dominant provider of affinity marketing solutions for alumni associations and other affinity groups.

They began in the print world, developed world-class online solutions earlier this decade and realized that they needed a robust mobile offering for recent alumni who use the mobile device as their information as well as a communication source.

Offering mobile services as part of a true multichannel solution set ensures that they will continue to be the dominant player in their industry.

The primary objectives they wanted in a mobile platform were twofold.

First, cost-effectively repurpose online and print content and tailor it for any mobile device via text, WAP and targeted applications, thus ensuring low cost of content maintenance and continuity of content across mediums.

Next, provide a standardized, very low set-up cost, easy to manage solution that could be potentially deployed by each of their 4,000 affinity group customers to their respective stakeholders.

Why the need for alumni associations to go mobile? Do alumni really check information on mobile?
Yes, recent graduates use their devices not only to communicate directly, but also as their primary information source.

With many local chapter events, sporting news and other social interactions, the mobile devices is the ideal way to build and maintain a community and to ensure that universities stay connected with graduates who do not respond to direct mail or even email the way their parents and grandparents have in the past.

Any famous alumni associations that Harris Connect manages?
Harris has over 4,000 active alumni and affinity groups as clients across all types of higher education. They count the majority of the leading institutions in the U.S. as clients.

How will this play out for the various associations? And how will it work?
Since Harris already operates many Web sites for alumni associations, it's very straightforward for them to expand their suite of services to include mobile.

The Acuity platform can seamlessly pull and reformat content from RSS feeds, Web sites and many other sources. This ensures continuity between any Web offerings and the mobile environment.

Plus, local alumni chapters can access offerings and update content in a very controlled manner.

When will Harris Connect go live with this mobile effort?
Harris Connect Mobile will be released at the CASE Summit on July 9 in San Francisco.

What's the opportunity that Harris Connect saw here?
For Harris, it's all about servicing alumni.

Mobile is the medium for today's graduates, and Harris realizes that they need to service alumni via the methods and medium that each generation prefers. Mobile is the medium for today's generation -- it's really that simple.