CRM: Enabling a Consistent Kent State Message Through Effective Communications

In 2015, Information Services began planning the implementation of CRM software. CRM stands for Constituent Relationship Management, which includes the processes, people, and systems used to manage a full constituent lifecycle, with an emphasis on improving and retaining relationships.

Across the university, many departments have identified the need to communicate and engage more effectively with constituents throughout the key functions of recruiting, admissions, advising, retention initiatives, and advancement efforts. Our current state involves many stand-alone systems and manual processes that sometimes result in duplicate and inconsistent communications.

“The new CRM system allows for numerous new opportunities, including most importantly, having a single holistic view for student information from entrance to the University through post graduate interactions,” James Raber, Interim Executive Director, Educational Technology Support and Service Management.

To facilitate consistent Kent State messaging, a cross-divisional committee championed by President Beverly Warren identified a vision, and published a joint RFP in March 2015. After months of vendor demos, research, and reference checks, the RFP was awarded to the joint proposal of Salesforce, TargetX, and Sierra-Cedar, Inc.

Working in collaboration with the business units and corporate partners, IS has implemented 15 projects, including most recently:

Enterprise Marketing Cloud This includes the Enterprise Marketing Cloud solution, in which the team helped determine the most effective structure for the Marketing Cloud environment.

Recruiting – Phase 1 The team developed the Recruitment Lifecycle, a custom solution that supports a multi-campus recruiting process. With this solution, inquiry data for all campuses can be viewed in one place where analysis and focused engagement can drive data-driven business decisions.

Events Calendar A new university-wide events calendar standardizes all university event listings into one cohesive catalog with the primary goal of keeping students, faculty, and staff connected and collectively up-to-date on exciting events that are happening on campus.

FLASHperks Students are now auto-enrolled into the rewards program and can view their point totals on a FLASHperks tile within FlashLine. Transitioning FLASHperks to the CRM also gave Regional Campuses the ability to launch the program at their locations. Three regional campuses are planning to pilot program during Fall 2017.

The Kent State team most recently completed an Org Strategy workshop and is currently in the process of transforming into a multi-org implementation, which would facilitate autonomy for the various business units and their functions, while still operating within a single CRM platform.

 

POSTED: Friday, November 3, 2017 02:40 PM
Updated: Friday, December 9, 2022 12:03 AM