The International Education department within a large, public university system offered a variety of faculty led programming options to students. Each campus had its own procedures and deadlines, however, all student leads and applications were managed by the same coordinator. With a decentralized office, no standardized processes and no CRM, maintaining consistency in student recruitment and application processing was a major challenge.

After an on-site consultation with the consulting services team, the team realized they needed an alternative solution to the mass quantity of spreadsheets they were using. They embraced the idea of utilizing a CRM and implementing it across the university system. With years of on-campus experience working in a variety of CRMs, the consulting services team was able to share knowledge of several options custom designed for International Education. The consultants worked with the client from exploration through implementation, and helped their client to:

• Assess their data and determine the level of support they would need in a CRM
• Contact a number of companies to demo their CRMs
• Connect with other consulting clients currently using the CRM they were interested in
• Work with the coordinator and faculty across the university system to develop a standardized procedure from student recruitment to application.
• Onboard the new CRM with the coordinator
• And so much more!

To ensure this CRM implementation was a success, the consulting services team took the following steps:

• Met with all team members and faculty leaders to gain their respect and ensure trust is built
• Created a customized user guide, specific to the needs of the university system and their programming.
• Provided consistent support through the on-boarding process from building program information to troubleshooting questions.
• Offered training to all users, ensuring everyone felt comfortable and confident using the CRM.

As a result of this implementation:

• Application processing became faster and more efficient
• Faculty were able to track program interest and enrollment more accurately
• Students could easily locate program information
• Data collection and reporting was simplified