With university dropout rates running at an all-time high and a decreasing pool of new student recruits, with 11,000 fewer students registering for university in 2018 (see Student Engagement Report), it’s vitally important that universities embrace digital transformation to remain competitive.
Today’s students are digital natives and exceptionally tech-savvy and they expect every university faculty they deal with on their student journey – from pre-registration to alumni relationships – to be the same.
In higher education, marketing strategies across all faculties need to be focused around attracting and retaining millennials, and more recently Generation Z, and this can be achieved by utilising CRM much more effectively to engage with students.
Are your university IT systems holding you back?
The one constant thing in life is change, and that’s why universities need more flexible CRM solutions if they are going to continually attract and retain new student demographics. To achieve a unified view of the student journey, universities need customisable and adaptable systems in place, such as IT stacks comprised of smaller, configurative and adaptive solutions. This adaptability and agility also gives you control over your own IP rather than being locked into expensive and restrictive managed IP.
Many higher education institutions use proprietary software, which is likely to have remained stagnant since implementation. These also give rise to ‘shadow IT’ where users install their own additional software to get around the system.
The one constant thing in life is change, and that’s why universities need more flexible CRM solutions if they are going to continually attract and retain new student demographics.
The result is rigid and inflexible CRM systems that are highly complex, difficult to evolve, expensive to maintain and which hold you back from getting the most from your CRM capabilities. Sound familiar?
It may sound dramatic, but in the highly competitive world of student recruitment and engagement, knowledge is power, and your systems hold the key. If they’re holding you back, then you are in danger of losing your competitive edge.
So, what can you do?
Microsoft technologies are designed with agility in mind, making it possible to configure IT networks that take into account both developments from the vendor and third-party applications, benefiting the business processes of a university. This makes it possible to build an adaptable and flexible IT ecosystem that evolves with both your needs and the needs of changing social demographics of students and how you communicate with them throughout every step of their journey.
The benefits of such a system from Crimson are numerous; whether it’s helping IT teams become more responsive to the needs of the organisation or improving IT security, CRM solutions from Crimson mean you are in control, leaving you to focus on giving your students the best university experience.
Understand how to constantly tap into the needs of every demographic by downloading Crimson’s free Student Engagement Report https://info.crimson.co.uk/student-engagement-in-higher-education
