SNHU + SmartBug:
HubSpot Implementation & Partner Learner Journey Launch
A collaborative HubSpot implementation designed to help Southern New Hampshire University launch its new partner-driven learner acquisition motion, connect key learner journey data, and build a scalable foundation for reporting, automation, and future growth.
SmartBug will support SNHU with HubSpot portal architecture, partner journey setup, workflow and reporting configuration, integration discovery, training, QA, and launch support. This approach gives SNHU access to SmartBug's HubSpot expertise while allowing SNHU's internal teams to stay closely involved in the build and long-term ownership of the platform.
Southern New Hampshire University
SNHU is standing up a new HubSpot portal to power a partner-driven learner acquisition motion. SmartBug is proposed as the strategic implementation partner — validating architecture, building the partner journey, configuring reporting, and coordinating integration decisions across Uplimit, Stripe, and Five9.
The engagement is scoped as a collaborative build: SNHU's internal HubSpot, marketing, and IT resources stay close to the work while SmartBug brings HubSpot best practices, integration strategy, training, QA, and launch support. The immediate goal is a clean September partner launch on a foundation that scales.
Four things that shape the SmartBug approach
The recommended plan is built around what SNHU has told us matters most — a protected September launch, a scalable HubSpot foundation, connected learner data, and reporting that leadership can actually act on.
Protect the September Partner Launch
SNHU has partner programs expected to go live in September. The implementation prioritizes a clean cutover, end-to-end testing, and minimal disruption to any active or near-active partner workflows.
Build HubSpot the Right Way
SNHU has internal HubSpot familiarity, but the team wants a strategic partner to help validate the architecture, avoid unnecessary manual work, and ensure the new portal is built on scalable HubSpot best practices.
Connect the Full Learner Journey
SNHU needs visibility from lead capture through purchase, course enrollment, course progress, completion, and alumni status — a thoughtful data strategy across HubSpot, Uplimit, Stripe, and potentially Five9.
Enable Reporting for Partners and Teams
The goal is not just capturing leads. SNHU needs to understand partner performance, employer affiliation, learner conversion, course purchase, enrollment, completion, and ROI.
A phased, collaborative rollout
SmartBug recommends a phased, collaborative implementation that balances speed, flexibility, and long-term scalability. The first priority is to stand up the new HubSpot portal and partner motion needed for the September launch. Integration work — especially Uplimit — is scoped carefully so SNHU has a clear picture of what data needs to flow into HubSpot and how it should support reporting.
Discovery, Architecture & Launch Planning
- Project kickoff
- HubSpot portal architecture planning
- Review of current/test HubSpot portal setup
- Partner journey and lead flow review
- Data model planning for partners, employers, learners, courses, and attribution
- Uplimit, Stripe, and Five9 discovery
- Launch timeline and cutover planning
Core HubSpot Configuration & Partner Motion Build
- New HubSpot portal setup support
- Partner lead flow configuration
- Email journey and automation setup
- Small data migration from existing HubSpot portal
- Reporting and attribution foundation
- Admissions workflow setup
- Initial QA and testing
Integration Strategy & Build
- Stripe payment visibility review and setup
- Uplimit integration discovery and estimated custom build
- Five9 admissions support discovery
- Integration testing and data validation
- Recommendations for future integration phases
Training, QA & Cutover Support
- End-to-end partner journey testing
- Workflow and reporting validation
- Admissions user training
- HubSpot admin/marketing team enablement
- Launch readiness checklist
- Post-launch support
Eight workstreams built for a scalable launch
Each workstream can flex independently based on SNHU's priorities. The estimates below reflect typical implementation ranges for a program of this size and complexity.
HubSpot Portal Architecture & Collaborative Onboarding
SmartBug helps SNHU establish the foundational HubSpot architecture needed to support partner-driven learner acquisition, marketing engagement, admissions visibility, enrollment tracking, and reporting.
- Portal configuration review and setup guidance
- CRM object and property architecture recommendations
- Contact, company, partner, employer, learner, and course-related data model planning
- Lead source, partner source, employer affiliation, and campaign attribution structure
- Marketing Hub Enterprise setup guidance
- Subscription types and communication preferences strategy
- Form, list, segmentation, and nurture recommendations
- Lifecycle stage and learner journey mapping
- Governance recommendations
Partner Motion Replication, Optimization & Cutover
SNHU currently has partner-related HubSpot work being built in an existing/acquired HubSpot portal. SmartBug will review the current setup, recommend improvements, and help recreate the necessary partner journey inside SNHU's new HubSpot portal.
- Review of current/test HubSpot portal setup
- Review of partner lead flow, email journey, and learner handoff process
- Recommendations for improved HubSpot architecture and automation
- Replication or rebuild of partner-specific workflows
- Migration of a small partner data set
- Cutover planning for active or near-active partner programs
- QA and end-to-end testing
Learner Journey Automation & Reporting
SmartBug helps SNHU configure the initial automation and reporting framework needed to understand learner movement from lead capture through purchase, enrollment, course activity, and completion.
- Standard lead funnel reporting
- Lead source and partner attribution reporting
- Partner/employer-based learner identification
- Event tracking strategy
- Funnel conversion reporting
- ROI reporting framework
- Workflow recommendations to reduce manual Salesforce-style processes
- Initial automation setup for routing, nurturing, status updates, and internal notifications
- Coaching SNHU's team on how to maintain and extend reporting
Uplimit Integration Discovery & Estimated Build
SNHU uses Uplimit as the learning experience platform. The full learner journey will likely require course, enrollment, progress, completion, and alumni-related data to be visible in HubSpot.
- Technical discovery with SNHU and Uplimit
- Review of Uplimit API capabilities and available endpoints
- Identification of required data objects and fields
- Mapping learner, course, enrollment, progress, and completion data to HubSpot
- Defining unique identifiers and match logic
- Determining sync direction, sync cadence, and error handling needs
- Custom Uplimit-to-HubSpot integration build, if approved
- Testing, QA, and validation
- Documentation of integration logic
Stripe / Payment Data Visibility
SNHU uses Stripe for payment processing. SmartBug will review the best path to help SNHU understand which HubSpot leads ultimately purchased a course.
- Review of current Stripe setup
- Recommendation on native Stripe integration, HubSpot payments, or another approach
- Mapping purchase data into HubSpot
- Connecting purchase activity to contact, partner, employer, campaign, and course reporting
- Testing payment attribution visibility
Five9 / Admissions Support Discovery
SNHU may need HubSpot leads to flow into Five9 if admissions support becomes part of the operating model. Positioned as discovery unless SNHU confirms deeper dialer requirements.
- Review of whether partner leads need to route to Five9
- Discovery around current admissions workflow
- Recommendations for crawl/walk/run lead assignment
- Basic integration path recommendations
- Future-state scope if deeper Five9 integration is needed
Admissions & Salesforce-to-HubSpot Training
SNHU may have admissions users who currently work in Salesforce and will need to support this new HubSpot motion.
- HubSpot CRM orientation for Salesforce users
- Contact, activity, task, and pipeline navigation
- Lead follow-up workflow training
- Admissions workflow training
- Reporting and dashboard walkthrough
- Live or recorded enablement session
Project Management, QA & Launch Support
SmartBug will provide project management, coordination, QA, and launch support throughout the engagement.
- Project kickoff
- Weekly status calls
- Timeline management
- Action item tracking
- Coordination with SNHU, HubSpot, Uplimit, and other vendors
- QA and testing support
- Launch readiness checklist
- Post-launch support window
Two ways to sequence the engagement
Both options land the same September partner motion. The difference is when SNHU commits to the Uplimit custom build — discovery-first, or included upfront.
Core HubSpot Launch + Integration Discovery
Best if the priority is moving quickly toward the September partner launch while finalizing Uplimit and other integration requirements.
- HubSpot portal architecture
- Collaborative onboarding
- Partner motion replication and cutover
- Reporting and automation foundation
- Small HubSpot-to-HubSpot data migration
- Stripe review
- Five9 discovery
- Uplimit discovery
- Training, QA, and launch support
SNHU wants to launch the core HubSpot foundation quickly and make informed integration decisions before committing to a full custom Uplimit build.
Core HubSpot Launch + Estimated Uplimit Build
Best if SNHU wants to understand the broader estimated investment upfront and include the likely Uplimit custom integration work in initial planning.
- Uplimit custom integration build estimate
- Learner/course/enrollment/progress/completion data mapping
- API-based integration development
- Integration testing and validation
- Documentation and handoff
SNHU wants a fuller picture of total project investment and expects Uplimit learner journey data to be a required part of the initial HubSpot reporting foundation.
An eight-week path to a protected September launch
A pragmatic sequencing that keeps the partner motion on schedule while giving space for integration decisions.
Discovery & architecture
Discovery, architecture, current portal review, integration planning, and launch roadmap.
Core HubSpot build
Core HubSpot configuration, partner motion setup, workflow build, reporting foundation, and initial migration.
Integrations & QA
Integration setup or discovery, Stripe visibility, Uplimit planning/build path, Five9 recommendations, and QA.
Training, cutover & launch
End-to-end testing, training, cutover support, launch readiness, and post-launch stabilization.
What this proposal assumes
- SNHU will be launching a new HubSpot portal.
- SNHU's internal team will support some HubSpot and marketing configuration.
- SmartBug will provide architecture, strategy, configuration support, integration guidance, training, and QA.
- A small subset of partner-related data and workflows will need to move from the existing HubSpot portal into the new portal.
- Uplimit is expected to be the source of course enrollment, progress, completion, and learner status data.
- Stripe will be needed for purchase and conversion visibility.
- Five9 is a potential future or limited-scope integration depending on admissions team involvement.
- Existing employer partnership data from Salesforce is not included unless SNHU decides to scope that separately.
- Mid-September is the target launch window for the partner motion, meaning contracting, security review, kickoff, and implementation need to move quickly.
These are intentionally excluded from the initial engagement. SmartBug can scope any of them as follow-on phases once the September partner motion is live.
- Full Salesforce migration
- Migration of all employer partnership records
- Full Five9 integration build
- Complex custom reporting beyond the initial launch dashboards
- New website or CMS development
- Long-term managed services
- Additional integrations beyond Uplimit, Stripe, Five9, and HubSpot-to-HubSpot migration
- Long-term partner operations support
A senior HubSpot partner built for programs like this one.
SmartBug is one of HubSpot's leading implementation partners, supporting organizations with HubSpot onboarding, CRM architecture, integrations, migrations, reporting, and long-term optimization.
Kansas State University
SmartBug supports Kansas State on a comparable HubSpot engagement — a relevant reference point for higher education and professional learning workflows. Available on request.
Recommended next steps
To keep SNHU aligned with the September partner launch window, SmartBug recommends confirming the implementation path, finalizing integration priorities, and beginning security and contracting steps as soon as possible.
Review the recommended scope and option structure
Confirm whether Uplimit build should be included upfront or handled discovery-first
Validate Stripe, Five9, and current HubSpot portal migration requirements
Align on launch priorities for the September partner motion
Finalize SOW and kickoff timing