When the Familiar Road Ends

For nearly two decades, Sabrina Anderson’s two-person housing operations team at St. Catherine University relied on RMS to keep everything moving. It was familiar, dependable—part of the institutional muscle memory.

So when RMS announced it was sunsetting, the decision didn’t feel exciting. It felt personal.

“I was genuinely sad when we needed to move on — we’d been on RMS since 2007, so it was a big change.”

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Sabrina Anderson

Director of Housing Operations, St. Catherine University

The stakes were also very real. St. Kate’s isn’t a sprawling flagship campus with layers of specialists who can absorb disruption. It’s a small, private liberal arts institution in St. Paul, Minnesota—best known as a College for Women—where processes are often bespoke and shaped by a small team working closely with students.

And in a two-person office, there isn’t much room for trial and error. The next system needed to be both reliable and right-sized—built for the way St. Kate’s actually operates, not a generic “large university” workflow.

Finding Housing.Cloud Through the Network

Sabrina did what many housing leaders do when facing a consequential decision: she asked the network.

St. Kate’s is part of a Twin Cities consortium, and the regional listserv is active—equal parts sounding board and peer support. Sabrina posted the question: What are peer schools using now?

One answer stood out quickly. A peer housing director within the consortium offered something more than a recommendation—she came to campus and walked the housing team through Housing.Cloud.

It wasn’t a glossy pitch that made the difference. It was a concept that clicked: tagging.

Seeing how the tagging system connected processes that used to live in separate places helped the team picture a new way of working—one that could flex with St. Kate’s needs instead of forcing them into someone else’s template.

After vetting multiple vendors, the team at St. Catherine University chose Housing.Cloud for two reasons that mattered most: a modern, student-facing experience, and a product that fit a smaller, non-traditional institution.

A Transition Within a Transition

Implementation began in July 2025. The plan was straightforward: migrate, configure, train, and be ready for a January go-live.

Then the institution underwent a major institutional transition: IT support transitioned to a new model mid-implementation. With integrations and technical prerequisites in motion, the implementation plan was coordinated alongside that transition—while still keeping student-facing deadlines front and center.

Sabrina did what strong operators do in moments like that: created clarity, kept stakeholders aligned, and served as the steady point of coordination across teams.

Throughout it, Housing.Cloud stayed closely partnered. The cadence remained consistent: weekly implementation sessions from July through January. And, to Sabrina’s surprise, the team kept showing up—without placing limits on support.

“I kept saying, haven’t we exhausted the number of sessions you’re allowed to? And they said, no, don’t worry about it.”

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Sabrina Anderson

Director of Housing Operations, St. Catherine University

Along the way, a small group of Housing Cloud teammates became familiar names: Evan early on, plus Rajuta and Kris as implementation ramped up. The work wasn’t just about checking boxes—it was about translating documentation into practice, coordinating with technical partners, and staying responsive as the campus context evolved.

St. Kate’s went live in January 2026—supported by a steady, high-touch implementation partnership.

From Flying by the Seat of Their Pants to Planning Ahead

In the beginning, Sabrina didn’t love the concept of cycles. It felt like a new layer of structure on top of an already-full plate.

But once St. Kate’s ran a few cycles, the value shifted from abstract to practical.

Cycles became both a big-picture map and a day-to-day operating system—especially for a small team.

“It’s a bird’s-eye view of what your year is going to be like and your task list at the same time.”

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Sabrina Anderson

Director of Housing Operations, St. Catherine University

Instead of reactive, piecemeal operations, cycles help teams front-load decisions that used to get siloed—or worse, forgotten. Processes that once lived in separate spreadsheets became connected: applications could link to roommate search automatically by tag. Dates that used to be negotiated late in the process (like billing timelines) could be locked down earlier, in alignment with campus partners.

Since going live, St. Kate’s has completed three cycles—and the work now looks less reactive, more planned.

Minutes, Not Months: Lottery & Roommate Matching

Some wins felt immediate.

The credit-based lottery process had been cumbersome before—one of those workflows that always took longer than it should, and required careful manual attention. In Housing.Cloud, Sabrina set it up in minutes.

“We were done in a few minutes and I thought, there’s no way this is working. It went off without a hitch.”

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Sabrina Anderson

Director of Housing Operations, St. Catherine University

Just as important was the flexibility: St. Kate’s could layer in additional priority tags—like LLC membership—without turning the process into a set of workarounds.

Roommate matching was another turning point. Their home grown approach required a lot of internal effort to keep running year after year. Housing Cloud replaced it with a tool students actually used—and liked.

Parents and new students responded especially positively. Roommate connections increased. And for a small team, fewer points of friction meant fewer support issues and more time spent on the work that matters most: supporting students.

A Product That Keeps Getting Better

Even after go-live, Sabrina kept noticing something unexpected: the product was improving—quickly.

Sometimes improvements arrived without fanfare. One day, she opened the export tool and found a new feature waiting: column selection.

“Yesterday I went in and all of a sudden this new thing had popped up where I could choose which columns I'm going to bring over instead of bringing the whole thing over — another exciting treat from Housing Cloud."

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Sabrina Anderson

Director of Housing Operations, St. Catherine University

But what stood out more than surprise features was the feeling that requests didn’t disappear into a backlog—they turned into shipped product.

“Housing Cloud is not just nimble, but they’re so responsive to requests. I can probably name four things where we talked to Evan and Kris about something and now everyone is using it.”

“If you want to get in on a software that is going to adapt to the needs of today, this is the group that’s doing it. The constant upgrades that we’re seeing — this is going to exceed what other software can do.”

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Sabrina Anderson

Director of Housing Operations, St. Catherine University

Support That Teaches, Not Just Fixes

Before RMS sunset, Sabrina worried about losing a certain standard of support. RMS had been a long-term partner—one that felt safe.

Housing Cloud met that standard—but in a different way.

Instead of simply taking tasks off her plate, the team focused on building capability and confidence over time.

“We don’t get to just ask a question and you all fix it. You teach us. Next time, you don’t need to come to us — here’s how you would do this.”

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Sabrina Anderson

Director of Housing Operations, St. Catherine University

That philosophy mattered most when issues came up. There were occasional bugs and slowdowns—as there are with any system—but Sabrina saw consistent follow-through.

“Every time we’ve reported something, it’s been quickly addressed.”

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Sabrina Anderson

Director of Housing Operations, St. Catherine University

What’s Next

St. Kate’s is heading into its fourth cycle with Housing.Cloud, with a few practical goals on deck: training a student staff member to add room photos, and making sure students have better visuals during selection next time.

Sabrina is also watching closely for what’s coming next—especially reporting improvements, including a new report builder she’s eager to use.

And when peers ask what she’d tell another housing director facing the same crossroads, her advice is grounded and student-centered:

“Be open to adapting your procedures a little bit. If you’re open to it, you might actually be able to cut back on some steps.

I told somebody — this is going to do and exceed everything we need. And it’s because of how this company works.”

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Sabrina Anderson

Director of Housing Operations, St. Catherine University