The Password Problem in Higher Ed:
How Marian University Solved it with Voice AI

THE BEFORE PICTURE

• 70% of inbound IT volume = password & access
• 24×7 coverage expected – impossible to staff
• 90 days from decision to live

WHY THIS SESSION

Marian was drowning in password reset calls. Like most IT teams in higher ed, they faced rising volumes, 24×7 expectations, and a team stretched too thin. Hiring more agents wasn’t sustainable. So they deployed Voice AI on top of their existing Microsoft Entra environment – and changed the model.

This is Christopher Fenner (IT Support Desk Manager, Marian University) telling the story himself. What broke. What they tried. What worked. What they’d do differently. Built for CIOs and IT Directors evaluating whether Voice AI is real or vendor-ware.

WHAT YOU’LL LEAVE WITH

• The trigger that made the status quo no longer viable
• The scalability and continuity problems hiring couldn’t solve
• The deployment arc – decision to go-live in 90 days
• Outcomes: response time, deflection rate, student satisfaction, what staff actually said
• Live demo of Marian’s actual call flows – real use cases, not slides