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Philadelphia, PA – September 4, 2024 – Ferrilli, the leading provider of IT solutions for higher education, is excited to announce a series of strategic leadership changes designed to better serve its current and future clients. These changes are aimed at aligning internal resources, enhancing project management, and advancing employee development, ensuring Ferrilli remains at the forefront of innovation in the rapidly evolving higher education landscape.

Steven Christian has been appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Ferrilli. Since joining the company in October 2015 as Executive Vice President (EVP), Christian has been instrumental in steering Ferrilli through a period of significant growth and transformation. In his new role, Christian will leverage his deep understanding of the company’s operations and client needs to ensure Ferrilli continues to deliver outstanding results. His leadership will be pivotal as the company navigates the next phase of its development and strives to exceed client expectations.

Mark Tuck has been named EVP of Client Growth. Tuck, who has been with Ferrilli since December 2016, began his journey as a Senior Consultant and most recently served as EVP of Professional Services. In his new role, Tuck will focus on strengthening and expanding client partnerships. His responsibilities will include aligning Ferrilli’s services with client goals and opportunities, reinforcing the company’s position as a trusted advisor, and driving growth through strategic client engagement.

Tracy Hokanson has been appointed Chief Services Officer. Hokanson, who officially joined Ferrilli in October 2023, brings a wealth of experience from her 24-year tenure at Ellucian, where most recently she held the position of Senior Director of Global Strategic Solutions. In her new role, Hokanson will be responsible for creating and implementing strategies that enhance service delivery and ensure alignment with Ferrilli’s overarching organizational goals. Her leadership will be crucial in making Ferrilli the first call for innovative solutions and a preferred employer in the industry.

These leadership changes are part of Ferrilli’s broader strategy to optimize internal operations, drive project success, and seize emerging opportunities within the higher education sector. By aligning resources more effectively and focusing on key areas of growth and development, Ferrilli aims to continue its legacy of excellence and innovation.

“Ferrilli is committed to not only meeting but exceeding the evolving needs of our clients,” said Robert Ferrilli, President of Ferrilli. “With Steven, Mark, and Tracy stepping into these pivotal roles, we are well-positioned to build on our recent successes and drive further growth. Their combined expertise and leadership will be instrumental as we continue to deliver exceptional value to our clients and shape the future of IT solutions in higher education.”

Ferrilli remains dedicated to advancing its mission of providing cutting-edge IT solutions and support to higher education institutions. The company’s refreshed leadership team is poised to enhance its ability to deliver transformative solutions and foster lasting partnerships in the years ahead.

About Ferrilli

Ferrilli is a leading provider of IT solutions tailored specifically for higher education institutions. With a focus on innovation, client success, and strategic growth, Ferrilli helps colleges and universities navigate the complexities of technology to achieve their academic and operational goals. For more information, visit https://www.ferrilli.com/

Media Contact:

Jeff Dusing
Marketing Manager
jdusing@ferrilli.com
856.633.7280
Ferrilli.com

We’re excited to be attending the Technolutions Slate Summit, June 1-2, in Nashville!

Stop by our booth in the Karl Dean Ballroom Lobby to learn about Ferrilli’s comprehensive Slate support services, including white glove marketing implementation, SIS integration, data reporting, help desk services, personalized portal design, and more.

We look forward to seeing you there!

We’re bringing the city inside at Ellucian Live 2023, March 26-29!

Stop by Booth 501 for a true taste of New Orleans, from our real-life food truck serving fresh beignets, to our caricature artist, to our specialty Hurricanes cocktail station.

In honor of our host city, we’ll also be raffling off a trip to Paris, France!

And don’t miss our live sessions throughout the event, designed to help your institution increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and maximize value:

Take off to Ellucian SaaS with Ferrilli

Presenter: Ferrilli CEO Robert Ferrilli; Time: Monday, March 27^th at 3:45 pm

Lessons Learned: The Shared Technology Platform for System-Wide Implementation

Presenter: Ferrilli Senior VP Carol Thomas; Time: Wednesday, March 29^th at 9:00 am

Optimizing Your Ellucian Colleague® ERP

Ferrilli Vice President of Customer Success Kelly Sinacola; Wednesday, March 29^th at 9:00 am

We look forward to connecting with you!

Last Giving Tuesday, we announced that Ferrilli joined Pledge 1% as a corporate partner.  

As part of our commitment, we pledged to donate 100 complimentary hours of security services to institutions that fell victim to a cyber attack. 

One year later and we’re proud to report that we are delivering on that promise.  

In 2021, we donated 3% of our profit back in hours worked; lending our time, expertise, and resources to help several institutions navigate the complex aftermath of a cyber incident.  And we are continuing that great work throughout 2022 and beyond.  

Higher education has increasingly become a favorite target of cyber criminals. That’s why we took the pledge to help protect our community.  

Learn more: https://go.ferrilli.com/l/957602/2022-11-29/bdjyx?utm_source=website&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=givingtuesday22 

Watch as Ferrilli’s Security Experts share some key fundamental cybersecurity best practices in honor of Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2022.

Haddonfield, NJ – We are excited to announce that Ferrilli has been named to the 2022 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing privately held companies in America.

This is the 4^th year that Ferrilli has been named to the prestigious list (2009, 2017, 2018 & 2022).

“Being named to the Inc. 5000 list is national recognition of our hard work as an organization. It is a testament to the talent and dedication of everyone at Ferrilli,” said Ferrilli CEO Robert Ferrilli. “I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished.”

Continue reading “Ferrilli Named to 2022 Inc. 5000 List of Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America”

Attending the Arizona Community Colleges Technical Conference at Yavapai College, June 1-2, 2022?

Be sure to connect with us throughout the event. Ferrilli is committed to providing the services Arizona Community Colleges need to streamline operations, reduce costs and position students for success.

We look forward to seeing you there!

We’re going for the green at Ellucian Live 2022!

Stop by Booth 501 on Sunday, April 10^th – Tuesday, April 12^th, to play Ferrilli’s $50,000, hole-in-one challenge!

We’ll also be raffling off a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the beautiful Pebble Beach Resorts, located between picturesque Monterey and Carmel, California.

Our team of talented higher education technology experts will be there to cheer you on … and, of course, answer any questions you have about optimizing your institution’s Ellucian technology.

You do not want to miss this! Just look for the massive, state-of-the-art golf simulator and come over to take your shot!

Ferrilli Live Sessions at eLive 2022!

We’re excited to be presenting three live sessions at Ellucian Live 2022:

Solution Showcase Demo: Ferrilli’s Automated Degree & Certificate Evaluator for Colleague

Monday, April 11^th – 2:30 PM – 2:45 PM (MDT)

Lead Presenter: Kelly Sinacola, Executive Vice President, Ferrilli

Go Serverless and Take Off to the Cloud with Ferrilli, Ellucian, and AWS

Tuesday, April 12 – 3:45 – 4:30 PM (MDT)

Lead Presenter: Robert Ferrilli, CEO, Ferrilli

Rethinking Student Affairs Roles: Dynamic Technology and Student Populations

Wednesday, April 13 – 9:00 – 9:45 AM (MDT)

Lead Presenter: Kathryn Starkey, Associate Dean of Adult Learning, Colorado State University Pueblo

Co-Presenters: Linda Bloom, Senior Consultant, Ferrilli & Carol Larson, Registrar, Colorado State University Pueblo

By: Armando D’Onorio (CISSP, GSLC, GCCC), Ferrilli’s Chief Information Security Officer & Senior Consultant

As the U.S. imposes sanctions on Russia for its ongoing aggression with Ukraine; security experts at the Wall Street Journal’s virtual CIO Network Summit this week recommended that the U.S. should prepare for possible cyber retaliation.

Recommendations and Awareness

Recommendations that came from the Summit included locking accounts after two or three failed login attempts and being aware that the Russian operatives could be using password spraying attacks; recycling passwords from past password data dumps; and may likely be using artificial intelligence to access networks.

Russia has been known to use hybrid warfare strategies and utilize cyberattacks against their adversaries. Professionals who monitor cyber threats, both for governments and corporations, are concerned that the worst is yet to come, in the form of both direct attacks by Russia and collateral damage from their cyber attacks.

The U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued a warning to U.S. business that says they should be prepared to defend against cyber attacks originating from Russia. “Every organization—large and small—must be prepared to respond to disruptive cyber activity.”

Russian Hackers began at least as early as January targeting Ukraine with “wiper” malware which is designed to destroy hard drive data by wiping their contents completely. Professionals who monitor cyber threats, both for governments and corporations, are on high alert because Russia has a history of unleashing cyberweapons that wreak havoc far beyond the computers and networks that were their original targets.

What Can You Do to Protect Your Student and Employee Data?

The House Armed Services Committee recommends institutions be testing procedures for backups and restoring data, enabling multifactor authentication on devices connected to their networks, and ensuring software is up to date on patching to protect their networks from known vulnerabilities.

Here are Some Additional Mitigating Tips and Helpful Layers of Defense

• Prepare by documenting what you have. Identify every application and asset running in your IT environment. This level of granularity will allow you to quickly map critical assets, data, and backups, and to identify vulnerabilities and risks. By having a complete picture of your network and data environments, you’ll be able to respond and act quickly during an attack or breach.
• Utilize segmentation and alerting where possible to help prevent ransomware propagation and lateral movement. Create perimeters around critical applications, backups, file servers and databases. Restrict traffic between users, applications, and devices to help block lateral movement. These blocked access attempts become your indicators of compromise. Incorporate reputation-based detection that alerts to the presence of known malicious domains and processes. Set up security monitoring so you are collecting the data that will be needed to analyze network intrusions.
• Test your backups and recovery methods. Make sure to have backups off-site and visualization capabilities that support phased recovery strategies in which connectivity is gradually restored as different areas of the network are validated as “all clear.”
• Do not expose management interfaces of network devices to the internet. The management interface is a significant attack surface, so not exposing them reduces your risk. Web based interfaces are convenient for managing networking equipment, but under no circumstances should these be open to the world and the internet.
• Protect your devices and networks by keeping them up to date. Use the latest supported versions, apply security patches promptly, use anti-virus and scan regularly to guard against known malware threats.
• Use multi-factor authentication to reduce the impact of password compromises.
• Treat people as your first line of defense. Tell staff how to report suspected phishing emails, and ensure they feel confident to do so. They are your first line of defense, investigate their reports promptly and thoroughly. Never punish users for clicking phishing links or opening attachments.

Attending ACE 2022 this weekend (March 5-7, 2022) in San Diego?

If so, be sure to stop by our booth to learn how Ferrilli can help unlock your technology’s true potential.

We look forward to connecting with you!

We’re excited to announce that Ferrilli has been selected to the 2021 Philadelphia100® list.

Ferrilli landed at No. 61 on the list, which recognizes the fastest growing, privately-held companies in the region.

Continue reading “Ferrilli Selected to 2021 Philadelphia100® List”

We’re excited to be a sponsor at the Community Colleges of Appalachia Summer Virtual Conference, June 7-9, 2021!

If you are attending the conference, be sure to connect with us at our virtual booth.

We look forward to seeing you there!

By Marcia A. Daniel, Chief Client Officer, Ferrilli

Earlier this month, I read a news item that is increasingly common as cloud software becomes more prevalent in higher education. It detailed planned cuts to the IT team at a major institution in my home state. While the financial stresses of the pandemic were cited as a primary motivator, administrators also pointed to the more “cost-effective model” of becoming a “cloud-first organization.”

Those administrators are indeed correct that the cloud is more efficient; but I would argue that they are mistaken as to the reasons why.

Continue reading “Why Higher Education IT Staff Matter Even More in the Cloud”

We are often asked “What does Ferrilli do?” Here is an example of what Ferrilli can do to help improve your institution’s CRM:

We have designed a solution that auto closes extra opportunities on a record when a record hits certain funnel stages, such as Opportunity Creation, Application Submission, Denied, Withdrawn, and Enrolled.

This solution streamlines the opportunity management process. And we work with each individual school to ensure the solution is configured to fit their unique business process needs!

Expect more from your technology. Get more with Ferrilli!

On Safer Internet Day, Ferrilli Senior Consultant Alex Chong shares his top ways to protect yourself on the internet.

Alex offers expert advice on responsible sharing, password best practices, phishing protection, social media privacy, securing your internet connection and more!

This information can be used to protect yourself at home and also at the workplace, whether you work for an education institution or a corporation.

Let’s make a better internet for all!

We are often asked “What does Ferrilli do?” Here is an example of what Ferrilli can do to help improve your systems:

We migrated one of our CORE System Administration clients from UNIX HP-UX to Linux Red Hat in order to avoid issues with an aging server environment.

Post-migration, the staff saw a significant improvement. In fact, the financial aid auto packager went from taking 12 hours to 12 minutes!

Expect more from your technology. Get more with Ferrilli!

Wondering how to secure web servers and application listeners for your Ellucian Colleague environment? Ferrilli Senior Consultants Patrick Cunningham and Don Sullivan are here to walk you through the process!

Daniel to lead the higher education professional services firm’s client engagement efforts

Continue reading “Marcia A. Daniel Joins Ferrilli as Chief Client Officer”

We are looking forward to participating in Salesforce.org’s Higher Ed Summit Virtual tomorrow, June 16, starting at 11 am EDT!

Please let us know if you would like to connect during the virtual event and learn more about what Ferrilli can do for your institution.

Click here to access the event.