Product integration case study— UniAcco

I recently participated in the October edition of the Product Teardown with the month’s partner, UniAcco. Let’s start!

Problem Statement

Develop a go-to-market strategy for ASL as a unified platform that integrates the three distinct yet closely interrelated offerings of ASL: UniAcco, UniCreds, and UniScholarz.

Introduction

Adventum Student Living Pvt. Ltd.( the holding company of UniAcco, UniCreds, and UniScholarz, intends to build a cutting-edge, technology-based platform to provide end-to-end solutions to international students to achieve their dreams. They started the journey with

UniAcco, a global student accommodation platform in 2019.

UniCreds, a marketplace for education loans in 2020.

UniScholarz, a global counselling platform that offers effective mentoring by specialised counsellors launched recently.

These three consumer-tech-led enterprises enable students to effortlessly fulfil their educational goals for free.

User Persona

Market Analysis

Even though the market has seen a setback in 2020, research shows there will be an estimated 25% growth by 2024. According to a report, Indian students spend more than $25 billion on higher education abroad, and this figure is growing.

Students favouring abroad education due to

• Better living standards
• Ability to cover expenditures through credit or part-time jobs.
• Higher job opportunities

Students travelling abroad for higher education (in thousands)

Competitor Analysis

Foreignadmits

a renowned and trustworthy platform that offers authentic and data-backed admission counseling as well as a full range of services for study-abroad students. ForeignAdmits is funded by a group of IIT and IIM Alumni Angels and promoted by worldwide companies like Facebook, ETS, and JIO.

• 100+ partnerships • USD3mn+ scholarships • 1000k+ students

Leap Scholar

Leap Scholar is a one-stop solution for students interested in studying abroad. They assist students from the beginning of the application process until they arrive in their new country, handling everything from profile evaluation, college shortlisting, and application submission to obtaining a student visa.

• 1m+ app downloads • 100k+ in Youtube • 100k+ in Instagram

Oxcee

OCXEE Ltd. is a global marketplace that provides services to international students who want to pursue their education in another country. They advise and support international students with everything from housing and currency exchange to SIM cards and furniture rentals.

• 1.5m+ beds • 25k students • 265+ cities

Goals 1 :

Create an ecosystem by Integrating the 3 services in a unified journey while also making individual services accessible on the platform.

Acquisition

• Customers should be given the option to sign-up /continue as guests / connect with a guidance counsellor.
• If the user signs up, Information collected during sign-up should be used across all services and auto-filled whenever necessary.
• Single sign-on for all the services. If the user wishes to utilize UniAcco after Unischolarz or UniCredz they can use the same login details as the previous service. For UniCredz and UniAcco details are directly retrieved from UniScholarz, eg: user details, university, location, tuition fee etc are auto-filled.

Engage

• Shortlist and Compare features should be available only on sign-up or for logged-in customers.
• The customer should be able to schedule the call with a counsellor or apply themselves.
• The self-application feature should be supported with onboarding tools and video tutorials.

Discover

• Upon completing the application, a suggestion of available features like visa assistance, accommodation etc has to be shared in the form of the next steps.
• Services are also made aware to the user in the menu and by displaying them in tiny icons in the action pages like apply search etc.
• In the app, notifications are sent to users about the recommended services.

Return

• A signed User has access to a dashboard where they can see shortlisted with upcoming deadlines and applied to with status.
• Users with multiple services should be able to access all the service statuses in the same dashboard.
• Students who wish to take exams should be able to track that in the dashboard as well.
• Receive notifications when there is a change in the status, reminders and recommendations.

Goals 2:

Go to Market Strategy

Rebrand

• Rebrand from UniAcco — a student accommodation platform, UniCredz — a marketplace for Student Loans, UniScholarz — a study abroad counselling platform to — An ecosystem for all student needs.

Promote

• Competitors in this market have a higher digital footprint than any of the ASL services. Attract more users by creating promotional content and events like webinars, education fairs, meet the experts, success stories etc.
• Create a student community to explore student life, meet and greets etc.

Reward

• Student Ambassador programme to promote by sharing experiences in the ASL platforms and receiving rewards.
• Encourage students to share testimonials on social media platforms or refer ASL services to others to receive bonuses or cashback

Key Metrics

Time Spent

• Customer spending more time on the page helps to explore and discover new services

Conversion rate

• The customer opted to use more than one service and continue using the platform

Customer Lifetime Value

• Revenue generated by the individual customer in their journey is greater than the Customer Acquisition cost.

Net Promoter Score

• Customer is willing to Promote the services and the difference between promotors to detractors is positive.

Thanks for reading! If you’ve got any feedback, I’d love to hear it. You can follow me here or connect with me on LinkedIn.