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Student Lifecycle Management >> CRM Meets the Campus

2/1/2007

By Matt Villano

In a world where student loyalty is tenuous and competition for enrollees can be intense, schools are challenged to better understand and value their ‘customer' relationships.

You can never know too much about your constituents. That was the theme of a recent Campus Technology-produced webinar sponsored by CA-based database vendor Oracle. The webinar, titled, "Strategies for Managing the Student Lifecycle," was so successful that though we rarely present single-vendor stories, we've decided to publish highlighted segments of that presentation here, because of the valuable strategic challenges facing the various institutions highlighted, and their willingness to forge ahead with a fairly young technology. Certainly, other vendors are making forays into this space: See the box in this article for a sampling. Our thanks to Oracle for its work on this presentation, and to Matt Villano, CT's senior contributing editor, for his work as moderator of an outstanding panel discussion.

CRM In the corporate world, the notion of customer relationship management (CRM) is nothing new. That particular technology sector is now jam-packed with software that enables organizations to monitor and manage every interaction with a customer, from the very first experience on, throughout the lifecycle of the relationship. That relationship spans the gamut from prospect to customer; from referring customer to repeat customer; from displeased customer to satisfied service recipient, and so on. After purchase, some of this software is designed to reside within and across the enterprise; other forms exist on the web, often via an application service provider (ASP) or a company that offers software as a service (SaaS). It also can be delivered over a corporate intranet. Yet via whichever medium or channel, the whole idea of the technology is to improve the customer relationship over time. Generally, the software is highly effective.

In the world of higher education, however, CRM takes on an entirely different face—a face once known as client, or constituent relationship management and now generally referred to as "student lifecycle management," or SLM. In this scenario, the "customers" are the students themselves, and the technology manages all interactions from the moment students express interest in a school as potential recruits, through their first day on campus, then to graduation and beyond. Technically, this solution is brand new. Oracle has piloted SLM programs in the California State University system and at DePaul University (IL); other vendors such as Datatel and SunGard Higher Education have launched similar technologies elsewhere.

It's All About the Customer

In their book, Strategic Marketing for Educational Institutions (Prentice Hall, 1995), authors Philip Kotler and Karen Fox put the notion of SLM into perspective by equating students to customers (a concept that really rankled higher ed administrators, when they were first exposed to it some years back). "The best organization in the world will be ineffective if the focus on ‘customers' is lost," the authors wrote. "First and foremost is the treatment of the individual students, alumni, parents, friends, and each other (internal customers). Every contact counts!"

SLM is now broadly accepted as the process of developing and maintaining long-term relationships with students. The technology consists of systems that communicate with students at critical points throughout the lifecycle of their relationship with an institution: recruitment, admissions, enrollment, and graduation. Of course, the systems provide for relationships with alumni, too, for it is that ongoing relationship that can be so critical to the support of the college—financial and otherwise.