Microsoft Dynamics CRM Delivering Benefits to Polytechnics and Universities

Mark Smith, 17 March 2011

As we all know, Microsoft Dynamics CRM has helped in improving efficiency to different sectors, may it be a private or public company, governments or local authorities, non-for-profit or non-governmental organizations. Now, aside from those sectors I’ve discussed, Microsoft with its wide range of solutions for different businesses and organizations allows us to develop a relationship management system specifically designed for schools, polytechnics and universities. Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Education can help you quickly and cost-effectively manage faculty, staff, student, and administrative information so that you can more effectively communicate with your school and community. The result is measureable improvements in daily work processes, cross-departmental collaboration, and employee efficiency. Not only does Microsoft Dynamics CRM help schools, polytechnics, universities. and other educational organizations nurture relationships with student, it also helps towards improving the governing body and auditor reports, achieving quality standards, running employer engagement programs, student alumni associations, and a wide range of other activities.

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Most schools, polytechnics, and universities face numerous challenges to improve their learning environments that Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Education can help solve. These challenges include: competition for the best faculty and staff, managing large amounts of student information, budget constraints, increasing expectations for automated delivery of services, government reporting requirements, keeping track of alumni donors, and recruiting top student athletes. Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Education provides the foundation for: faculty, staff, and student information management; alumni and donor management; faculty and staff recruitment; student recruitment and application management; athletic recruitment; grants management; and call centers.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Education helps administrators:

Save time and money. Get most of what you need right out of the box, including wizard-based tools that enable users to make informed decisions and create sophisticated reports—without the assistance of the IT department. With the help of a Microsoft Dynamics partner, you can quickly customize and deploy your solution, saving you valuable time and money.

Keep working your way. Manage information with Microsoft Office Outlook so that you don't have to learn and use an entirely new system.

Connect with your community. Improve the flow of information to constituents by sending targeted communications to faculty, alumni, community leaders, donors, and others.

Meet enrollment and staffing goals. Track the success of your student and faculty recruiting campaigns, and follow-up with attendees of special recruiting events.

Increase employee efficiency. Free employees from cumbersome and inefficient paper-based systems.

Improve fundraising. Maintain relationships with top donors and track the success for fundraising campaigns.

Watch out for my next post as I will be discussing more about Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Education and each of its key features.

Some of the solutions we have built recently in New Zealand are as follows:

International Agents Management – this allows for the management of International Student Recruitment via external agencies, including training management of their councilors and commission management.

Supplier Contract Management – this allows for the management of supplier contracts including, singing authority origination rules, and rating of contractors, milestone reviews and payments as well as document management with SharePoint.

Short Course Management – Management of short course, specific to different industries for ongoing education of staff or compliance as required.

Strategic Stakeholder Management – Industry engagement and campus wide relationship management between directorates, schools and interested parties

* Image 1 from http://www.wingate.edu/matthews