Harris Connect

Press Release: 7/8

Brewster, NY, July 8, 2008 - Harris Connect, the market leader in alumni and membership services today announced the Potential Social Graph Index (PSGI), a, patent-pending method designed to help institutions and organizations assess the relative success of their constituent networking capabilities, according to Carmen Delessio Jr., Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Harris Connect.

"The rapid growth and adoption of social utilities has transformed the way our clients communicate with their constituents, but before now, our clients were challenged to measure the potential and gauge the affinity-building impact of email activity, online engagement, and social networking utilities," said Delessio. "PSGI can be the standard by which our clients can measure their social and professional network effectiveness."

Delessio explained that while the social graph is defined as a digital map of an individual's connections, the Potential Social Graph is a map of the potential connections that can be provided to an individual by a single institution, association or affinity. PSGI evaluates how effectively an institution is utilizing this potential. A high PSGI benefits their overall constituent relations programs. It also means they are capable of delivering richer, more broad-based networking experiences to constituents-a tangible benefit for current and prospective students, alumni and members.

"Once the PSGI is determined, it enables our clients- whether they are institutions, alumni groups or associations- to pinpoint areas to improve their index," Delessio said. "Repeat determinations over a period of time can track an institution's progress in these efforts."

"For instance, over the course of one month, over 1,100 Emory University constituents added the Community Connections ® application to their Facebook® profile. As a result, Emory's PSGI increased by 16 percent," said Delessio.

Delessio acknowledged that there are a number of actions an institution or organization can take to boost the total PSGI, including:

. Increasing the number of constituent emails, by conducting data research and other related projects;
. Growing online community registration by providing users with a rich, interactive, dynamic community;
. Deploying strategic marketing campaigns utilizing email marketing tools and resources available through 3rd party social utilities;
. Incorporating Community Connections, the application that builds a secure bridge from their online community to hugely popular social networking utilities, like Facebook.

Delessio noted that the development of PSGI is consistent with the company's long-standing commitment to proactively respond to evolving client needs and market trends with enhancements, innovations and necessary metrics. "We identified PSGI as a strong solution, representing the potential standard by which our clients can measure their social and professional network effectiveness. We're delighted to make this analysis available to our clients." Click Here for PDF version of this Press Release.