CRM - August 2008 - (Page 20)

MARKET FOCUS: EDUCATION Making CRM Mandatory for University Administration Why higher-education spending on CRM is set to almost double by 2012 M any colleges urge in- argues, can help to bring together the coming students, with siloed data for the three crucial areas in their first steps on cam- higher education: recruitment, retenpus, to take a wide vari- tion, and development. In turn, this will ety of courses to get a more complete help create what Engelbert calls “the education. The fear was that a student 360-degree view of the student.” Instituwould only home in on one major tions, she adds, “have really had to crecourse of study, and then forget about ate a comprehensive view of a student all other subjects. One analyst argues that persists over time.” Keith Hontz, CRM development dithat some universities have failed to heed their own advice in terms of rector for SAP Higher Education and Research (HER), agrees with CRM—and are only now Engelbert’s view. He exstarting to come around. Higher ed “was plains that colleges have Speaking about the way universities handled CRM positively, vehemently been asking about how to incorporate CRM technolin the past, Nicole Engel- against SaaS until ogy into multichannel rebert, lead analyst of vertical 12 months ago.” cruitment, student retenmarkets technology at Datation, and donor/alumni monitor, and author of the study “CRM in the Higher Education management—and it’s about time, he Market,” says, “Historically, institutions says. (See “Customers for Life,” July have used a collection of fairly lim- 2004.) “I think universities have been ited point solutions on a departmental sort of late to the game in terms of lookbasis.” Noting what seems to be an ing at these three areas,” he explains. epiphany within these halls of higher “They had a lot of legacy applications learning, she adds, “Now they’re saying, [and] older technologies from niche ‘Gosh, this is expensive to do it this way vendors that played in one of these areas, and it’s actually not providing our insti- but I think universities are starting to tution the value and functionality that take a much more holistic approach.” While seeking out complete enterprise we really need.’” Hard numbers apparently support solutions to paint a complete picture of Engelbert’s claims. According to her re- each student is one major trend in the cent study, IT revenue from CRM solu- industry today, another shift lies in the tions in the higher-education markets delivery model for these solutions. Folof the United States, the United King- lowing extensive turn-of-the-century dom, Germany, France, and Australia will technological investments, the depreciagrow from $184.9 million in 2007 to tion cycle for those on-premise initia$324.5 million in 2012, due to the pur- tives is reaching its end point—and now chase of new solutions and the expan- higher education is one of many vertision of existing installations. Engelbert cals finding itself facing a choice about goes on to explain that institutions fi- software-as-a-service (SaaS).“[The grownally understand the need for “more ro- ing recognition] of SaaS is the same for bust, more enterprise-class CRM appli- higher education as in the rest of the cations in the higher-education market.” market,” Engelbert says. “The difference These enterprise-class solutions, she for higher education is it was positively, CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | AUGUST 2008 vehemently against SaaS until 12 months ago. It’s like a light switch has turned on.” Hontz agrees that more institutions are asking him about on-demand solutions, but cautions against a pure SaaS model. “Everyone is very enamored and loves the low-cost per-user, per-month story,” he says. “But at the end of the day, what they are not getting is complete integration.” Hontz suggests a happy medium, in which users allow the vendor to host the hardware piece, but then actually own the software and can tie that back into the vendor’s investment and architecture. “It’s the flexibility to bring up the environment quickly without having to actually procure hardware,” he says.“‘We host hardware for you, outside of your data center, but then give you fully functional software that also connects back into the [overall] SAP system.’ That’s becoming a more attractive option with the universities I speak with.” Dr. Malcolm Woodfield, global business development executive for SAP HER, explains that no matter what delivery model an institution opts for, CRM must be able to prove its worth quickly and be able to clearly show how it jibes with a university’s strategies. “What [they] really want to know as a president, provost, dean, or executive vice president is how [the data accumulated by a CRM solution] is benefiting [them] strategically,” he explains. “They want to have that kind of enterprise picture.” With its endless amount of reading, research, and writing, higher education in itself can be a slow journey—and Engelbert suggests the benefits that CRM can bring to the table represent a similar journey of gradual realization. “Higher education is not a lightning-speed industry by any means,” she says. “But the train is out of the station—and starting to pick up speed in the recognition that CRM is valuable.” —Christopher Musico Oracle RightNow Technologies SunGard VENDORS Talisma, an nGenera company TOP IN EDUCATION 4 Source: Datamonitor 20 www.destinationCRM.com http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - August 2008

CRM - August 2008 Contents Front Office Feedback Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Maximum Security A Code Win Doesn’t Blow Forming the Platform CRM on Twitter CRM Class Is in Session Making CRM Mandatory for University Administration Required Reading Cover Story: Calling it Quits Wouldja Look at That? 8 Enterprise Strategies That Stick CRM Searches for Search All Lines Are Not Busy UC: As Easy as A-B-C Even Contact Centers Have Room for Improvement Money Lying Around? Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Scouting Report Pint of View

CRM - August 2008

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