Institutions of higher education are adopting customer relationship management (CRM) solutions to differentiate themselves in a bid to compete more aggressively with each other in terms of recruiting and retaining desirable students.
This is according to independent market analyst Datamonitor, in its latest report, "CRM in the Higher Education Market".
The report also predicts IT revenue from CRM solutions in the higher education markets of the US, UK, Germany, France and Australia will grow from $184.9 million in 2007, to $324.5 million in 2012. "This growth will be driven both by the purchase of new solutions and the expansion of existing installations," says the firm.
Nicole Engelbert, lead analyst for education technology at Datamonitor and author of the study, says CRM solutions allow these institutions to make significant improvements in the quality of their relationships with students at every point in the student life cycle. This extends from a prospective student applying for admission, to an alumnus making a donation to the annual fund.
The next five years will see a significant increase in the number of institution-wide CRM implementations in higher education in the US and abroad, she notes.
In the past, institutions of higher learning have targeted CRM to support specific processes, such as campaign management, in the admissions and development offices. "Fuelled by developments in the consumer market, student expectations for institutional services are rising fast and prompting institutions to extend their view of CRM to include a larger and more diverse set of processes and departments."
Institutions are increasing recognising the value of creating a 360-degree view of the student experience to their recruitment, retention and development initiatives. "By capturing data and information about each student interaction, CRM provides educators with powerful insight and tools to ensure future interactions contribute to rather than detract from creating more positive relationships with students," she explains.
However, Engelbert says translating a corporate sector CRM solution into one that meets the exact needs of higher education is a lot more complicated than merely changing references to customers and sales, to students and admissions in the end-user interface.
She adds that the degree to which CRM vendors have successfully made these changes varies considerably and has given rise to a large and diverse competitive landscape. The current landscape is likely to evolve, she notes.
Engelbert says in the short-term, there is ample room in the higher education market for a diverse set of CRM vendors. However, the increasing adoption of more sophisticated CRM strategies, enterprise-class applications with strong analytics, and the ability to support the entire student life cycle are likely to prevail as they are better suited to long-term institutional needs.
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