How CRM in Higher Education Facilitates Cross-Campus Collaboration

CRM helps Facilitate Collaboration on Campus

It is a well established fact that collaboration yields better productivity and promotes innovative ideas. Every higher education institution strives to build a connected community of students so that collaboration may be developed even across specialties.

Some institutions are even promoting cross-campus collaboration to improve student life and the reputations of the institutions concerned. The continued rise of cloud technology such as Salesforce Solution for Higher Education helps facilitate collaboration across campus by allowing high quality and convenient communication amongst students and university staff. A recent study revealed that "74% of the customers use Salesforce as part of their core strategy”. 

Benefits of CRM on University Campus

Unified Interactions

CRM helps facilitate collaboration in higher education institutions by providing unified interactions across the whole campus. Student prospects can be granted access to early interactions between themselves, with current students as well as with the alumni. The current students also gain a high level of interaction amongst themselves, with students from other campuses and with other members of the institution. The interaction possibilities are endless as donors and affiliates can also engage with the campus and be involved in some of the on site activities. This level of unified interaction presents many opportunities for building research and working relationships that can be sustained and nurtured to benefit the institution. Salesforce Higher Education Data Architecture (HEDA) helps realise unity and collaboration by unifying all of your students and alumni data in one place.

 The CRM Cycle and how it helps to collaborate in the Education sector

Breaking down traditional silos for enhanced collaborations                 

Breaking down traditional barriers that inhibit virtual student interactions is key to fostering a system that works to the advantage of both the students and the university. Salesforce Education Cloud helps facilitate collaboration amongst campus personnel by creating a virtual space for convenient unlimited interaction. What makes this solution work even better is the popularity of portable devices like smartphones and tablets. This means that students can remain connected from wherever they are regardless of the time. Such a virtual space allows for cross-campus relations to be built as well as improving the chances of developing fruitful collaborations. In the Salesforce e-book describing the metrics of campus success, Westmont College claims CRM helped increase fundraising by 250% over 3 years.

California State University in Chico is now using cloud-based communication systems to develop collaboration tools that work. These tools are based on effective communication and exchange of information amongst campus students. Today the campus is running and managing events like the Great Debate without incurring the costs and difficulties that come with manual planning.

  Data chary showing areas where Cloud is used in the Education Sector

Students at the center

The best way for a campus to achieve quality performance across all departments is to place focus and attention on the students. The students need to be at the center of campus activities and programs. Years ago this kind of setup was difficult to achieve because of the costs involved, but now Salesforce has ushered in a cost-effective system of engaging all campus stakeholders. Salesforce Solution for Higher Education helps Facilitate Collaboration by providing a system for students to share all different kinds of information without the need to be at the same location. With Salesforce Higher Education Data Architecture (HEDA), things like project proposals, research ideas, symposium planning and more can easily be planned in a way that all interested students are involved.

The bottom line

Exchange of information is key to successful university collaborations and for this level of exchange to happen there is a need for sustained high quality communication systems. Salesforce Education Cloud and HEDA is the most innovative solution for higher education to date, it allows a campus to be connected easily at reduced implementation and maintenance cost. With Salesforce, universities can foster long lasting productive collaborations destined to leave an impact on the students concerned, while inspiring enrolled and prospective students. 

However, according to a survey, only 20% of the students questioned admitted a change of institutional policy post CRM implementation. Hence CRM can be implemented without major institutional changes.

 Diagram depicting how student recruitment can benefit from CRM

With real-time reports and analytics, data available in one place, available at any time, you can expand your reach and uncover new opportunities with analytics through the power of Salesforce education cloud. Need help with your integration strategy? Contact our consultants and we will work with you to devise the perfect integration strategy, approach, and plan that will work with your budget and current infrastructure.