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Interview
CRM Pushing into New Areas of Higher Ed
10/2/2008
Implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) solution can require "difficult or even painful behavioral challenges" for administrators in higher education, according to Nicole Engelbert, a lead analyst with research and analysis firm Datamonitor. "It means re-orienting yourself to your students. That can be tough, so you need to be ready for that."
As a class of software, CRM solutions help automate processes. In higher education, that often means automating recruiting steps like generating and coordinating letters, calls and e-mails, tracking marketing efforts, and collecting customer service information. But more innovative uses of CRM are ahead, Engelbert says.
According to a recent survey by Datamonitor, only a third of colleges and universities have any sort of CRM solution in place. As the number of high school graduates continues to drop, however, increased competition for students will drive more CRM adoption. Datamonitor predicts a steep CRM adoption rate in higher education over the next six to 24 months.
Engelbert's research has focused on how education institutions use mission-critical applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and CRM solutions, among other tools and technologies. We recently spoke with her about the growing role of what she prefers to call "constituent relationship management" software in education, especially its push into new areas of higher ed, such as student retention.
Campus Technology: How are CRM tools currently being used in higher education?
Nicole Engelbert: Higher education has a history with CRM, but it's been more or less limited to the admissions office... and to areas such as campaign management, where it's used in contacting prospective students and alumni... In more recent times, CRM has migrated to the middle of the student lifecycle, into areas like the IT help desk.
What's new--and where thought leaders in this space have started applying CRM applications--is retention efforts. This is really exciting for higher education; this is the core for higher ed. Admissions is at the front of the campus gates, development is beyond the campus gates, but retention really is in the middle...
Institutions are starting to pull information from their student information systems, from their ERP systems, their learning management systems--to create this 360-degree view of the student experience, and to use this to manage relationships with students over a longer period of time. [It's being done] in an effort to keep them connected to the institution, and to ensure that they have a productive experience on campus.
CT: How new is this use of CRM you've just described, in which it's used for long-term student relationship management?
Engelbert: In the for-profit sector [of higher education], I would say the last five years or so. Formalized retention programs are the sine qua non in this sector because tuition is the main revenue source and business model for these institutions. But the traditional, non-profit institutions are catching on, as the competition to recruit and retain has become more intense in recent years. That's been happening in the last eighteen months to two years.
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