Before You Get Started in Communications

Complete the "Preparing for J1 Communications Implementation" learning video available in our Learning Center https://learn.jenzabar.com/learn/catalog/view/43.

Create a list of communication plans your school currently uses.

This helps identify and prioritize the interactions, automation plans, and schedules you will create in J1 Web.

Consider who on campus should be responsible for creating automation plans and schedules that can be used for or across departments.

This helps determine which roles and permissions your users will need. Jenzabar recommends a small number of users be responsible for creating communication schedules and automation plans to ensure communications don’t overlap and overwhelm students/staff with multiple communications at the same time.

Evaluate existing Document Storage permissions and allowed file types and sizes.

Consider which database fields you want to use when creating communications. These fields can be leveraged to determine interaction recipients and customize interaction content. These fields are in queries uploaded into the system as data sets.

Jenzabar provides several queries that let you utilize common fields such as ID number, first and last name, address, email, major, etc., but additional information must be defined in queries your school creates and uploads. Module Managers and IT Administrators can work together to determine if existing queries meet your needs or if new queries will be needed.

Identify a small segment of staff you can treat as students who are comfortable receiving communications to test the module. This is especially important when implementing the email and texting features.

Create and distribute an institutional communication policy that includes texting guidelines.*

Draft a welcome message with opt out information included in the first text sent to any text recipient. Federal government guidelines require including information about opting out. This consent statement will be entered into J1 Web during implementation.*

Designate someone to regularly monitor the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to stay abreast of texting guidelines changes. Twilio provides updates as they happen, but it's helpful to have someone monitoring on campus.*

Configure the Domain Name System (DNS):

Install a valid SSL certificate from a Certificate Authority on your J1 Web server that can be used by Twilio and SendGrid. Self-assigned certificates are incompatible with Communications Plus.

Communications Plus clients using SendGrid and Twilio must configure the network firewall configuration to allow J1 Web to accept HTTPS requests.

If there are concerns about making J1 Web public, JICS or another preferred site can be used as a proxy. See the JICS Proxy Alternative help topic for more information.

Ensure the J1 Web server can be accessed via an external connection.

If your school works with test and live environments on different servers, both servers must be publicly available.

Identify the temporary storage location for text attachments. This will be configured during or after implementation. To prepare, evaluate the available storage space and determine what access may be needed.

Evaluate your Document Storage permissions and allowed file types and sizes.

Evaluate your current email service provider.

If your school is already using J1 email features, you are likely using the Client Application Services. Those services can be used with Communications, but Communications Plus provides additional email features that are only available when your school uses SendGrid, an integrated email provider solution.

Create and configure a SendGrid account to support Communications Plus email capabilities.

Create and configure a Twilio account to support Communications Plus texting capabilities.