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Computerworld - As parent company of the University of Phoenix, Apollo Group Inc. has transformed its clients from anonymous students into people with inspiring life stories. Many graduates tell their tales in the school's "I Am a Phoenix" marketing campaign. And those stories help inspire the 1,200 full-time IT professionals charged with supporting the students' efforts to obtain online degrees, according to Joe Mildenhall, Apollo's CIO.

"Our mission is to change lives through education, and that creates an atmosphere where people are excited about impacting people's lives," Mildenhall says. More than 390,000 students are enrolled at Apollo's various educational facilities, and more than half of them rely on its online environment.

This creates opportunities for innovative IT. For example, Apollo recently enabled students to participate in online classes using iPhones and other Apple Inc. devices. IT also recently created software that provides role-based customer relationship management capabilities to the 17,000 staff members who support academics, finance and enrollment. If a student hasn't been attending, for instance, or is taking longer breaks between classes, the system might prompt the counseling staff to give the student a call.

As for compensation, Apollo offers not just annual merit increases, but also job enhancements and pay increases aimed at keeping salaries on par with market rates at any time during the year. This past year, approximately 12% of IT employees received a pay increase outside of the performance review period, and 14% were promoted.

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