When this client partnered with EMA, they were juggling multiple program workflows (awards, courses, events) across ActiveCampaign, Gravity Forms, and Box, with legacy awards pipelines, duplicate/obsolete tags, and contact-limit pressure. Transactional notices, award-cycle reminders, and event RSVPs relied on manual steps, and application/reference routing sometimes split across systems.

Starting Point:
→ Awards & Applications: Awards cycles spanned many pipeline stages (e.g., started, submitted, reference received, deadline missed), with periodic cleanups needed and students re-entering each cycle.

→ Data & Forms: Microsoft/Gravity Forms feeding AC inconsistently; Box used for document intake; email routing and department CC rules evolving.

→ Comms & Events: Events, newsletters, and program updates ran, but triggers and UTM/reporting standards varied; deliverability and duplicate-email hygiene needed attention.

Specific Needs:
→ Pipeline & Automation Hygiene — clear legacy stages/tags; ensure re-entry each cycle; automate moves (e.g., deadline missed → started), and standardize award reminders to committees/applicants.

→ Form Integrations — connect Gravity Forms to AC deals/tags for supply requests, payment requests, student hiring, and award references; enforce Company-email usage and routing rules.

→ Contact Strategy & Deliverability — manage to contact limits; dedupe and normalize records; maintain DMARC/DKIM posture; separate transactional/marketing where appropriate.

→ Event & Program Journeys — reliable RSVP triggers to deals/emails; newsletter cadence; life-design/resource access sequences; internal notifications to owners.

→ Reporting & Ops Standards — documented naming conventions, UTM taxonomy, and weekly/monthly rollups; Airtable/account documentation; clear QA and test/send SOPs.

This engagement met the client at a program-scaling inflection point ⎯ moving from manual, siloed steps to streamlined pipelines and automations that support awards, courses, and events while keeping data clean and communications consistent across campus stakeholders.