HarborOne Earns Award for Comprehensive Customer Service Strategy
by Chris O'Brien on February 21st, 2012
In the drive to deliver excellent customer experience, companies face two competing timelines. On one hand, emerging technologies and communications channels are raising customer expectations, requiring more coordinated, nimble efforts in the short term. On the other, companies need to lay a solid foundation that will also allow for flexibility as needs evolve in the coming years.
When companies are able to balance both priorities, the results can be truly impressive. Aspect client HarborOne, the largest state-chartered community credit union in New England and one of the top 100 in the country, offers a blueprint for how it can be done. On top of achieving substantial costs savings and improved performance, the company is
gaining recognition for its vision: Ventana Research, a business and IT research and advisory services firm, awarded HarborOne its 2011 Business Collaboration Leadership Award.
The accomplishments are the culmination of efforts that began several years ago. At the time, HarborOne’s executives evaluated their operations and identified the contact center as a priority for strengthening customer relationships and increasing revenues. The team developed a multiyear vision for how it could transform the company to deliver better customer service and support business growth.
As Wayne F. Dunn, senior vice president and chief technology officer of HarborOne, noted, “We knew we needed a future-proof platform that could take us there.” As a foundation, the company selected Microsoft Lync and SharePoint to enable collaboration. HarborOne then added solutions from Aspect to unify elemental contact center functions, give agents greater access to information and experts, and track interactions through enhanced transparency, metrics, and reporting.
HarborOne’s success offers four lessons for other companies seeking to achieve improved contact center performance.
Develop a long-term vision. Technological advances will only accelerate going forward, so companies must ensure that their investments in the contact center support flexibility and customization. Considering how the iPad has transformed the business environment in just two years, being able to adapt to changing conditions is imperative.
Take advantage of existing IT investments. Providing the contact center doesn’t have to mean starting from scratch. In addition, companies that have already implemented in Microsoft unified communications solutions are already well positioned to tap products that can integrate seamlessly with their existing platforms.
Understand what customers expect. HarborOne recognized that its consumers were looking for a higher level of engagement across a number of channels, such as IM, social, and potentially video. Across industries, companies are recognizing that customer service can be not only a competitive advantage but also a revenue generator.
Empower management to optimize the workforce. Contact center managers and supervisors need the information and ability to respond to spikes in volume and emerging issues in real time. Enhanced metrics and reporting deliver the latest information, while the best solutions enable quick and easy alterations to business rules.
Most companies can achieve improvements by adding the right functionality to their contact center operations. But as HarborOne demonstrates, the benefits of a comprehensive strategy for customer service are substantial.
FIRST: A “Fair, Innovative, Respectful, Sincere and Trustworthy” Solution
by Chris O'Brien on February 17th, 2012
So rarely in business are we given the opportunity to build anything from scratch. In fact, the luxury of a blank slate is almost nonexistent in the IT world, where legacy systems are regularly retrofitted, adapted, and coaxed into to accepting new technologies. The far more likely scenario – you can call it a challenge, or an opportunity, depending on your outlook – is to be given a new strategy or business direction that must be met using existing systems and materials, with minimal additional outlay.
Leaders with the right creativity and vision will immediately seize upon the inspiration that no matter what systems exist within an organization, the opportunity is always there to restart and rebuild as long as there is a better, more effective way to approach it.
This was the climate of innovation we encountered when we began
consulting with Newport City Homes in 2009.
Now recognized as the UK’s leading not-for-profit Registered Social Landlord, Newport City Homes approached Aspect as a newly established government agency that was facing the difficult task of migrating existing systems and developing an entirely new technology infrastructure. Its Board, executives and staff were determined to introduce a culture of excellent resident services and to develop a solution that would conform to its organization’s FIRST values: “Fair, Innovative, Respectful, Sincere and Trustworthy.”
Microsoft® Infrastructure
At a network level, Newport City Homes adopted a 100MB meshed network to link its three main sites, with broadband serving smaller offices and other sites; while in the front and back office, it invested in a range of Microsoft solutions including Microsoft Office®, Service Manager, Microsoft SharePoint® 2010 and Windows 7 on the desktop. In order to improve the quality of customer interactions, it also developed a sophisticated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system based on the Microsoft Dynamics® 4.0 platform. Microsoft OCS (Office Communication System) system, now known as Microsoft® Lync™, provided its high-quality VOIP telephony solution.
By December of 2010, with its contact center handling an increasing volume of customer calls, Newport City Homes began seeking a specialized contact center solution that could integrate with and complement its Lync and Microsoft Dynamics platforms. According to Nigel Ward, Newport City Homes’ Information Services Developer, Aspect Unified IP was the right choice:
“We looked at many different solutions, but Aspect was the only one that gave us confidence to integrate with our existing Microsoft infrastructure and enable us to fully execute our unified communications strategy. We anticipate the platform will play an important role in improving our contact center efficiency and effectiveness.”
Awards and Recognition
Without a doubt, the Newport City Homes implementation team had a clear vision for exceptional customer experience that helped Aspect develop and build their successful, next-generation solution.
Newport City Homes has since been recognized for its success in creating a world-class computing and communications infrastructure. At the 2010 UK IT Industry Awards, it was named “Small IT Department of the Year.” It also won the “Delivering Customer Driven Services” and “People’s Choice” awards at the 2010 Welsh Housing Awards.
Are there opportunities for rebuilding within your organization? What stands in your way? Were you successful in integrating new technology with legacy systems, applications or processes? We’d love to hear your story.
The Art-of-the-Possible Comes to the Contact Center
by Mike Butts on February 10th, 2012
Business leaders make decisions based on past experiences. Even when we think we are being innovative, we are still innovating from what we know and what we’ve seen succeed.
To illustrate this point, CIOs have jumped on the opportunity to increase organizational productivity by deploying one-stop SharePoint portals. SharePoint portals have migrated from simple document repositories to internal communications sites and external corporate web sites. Some businesses, such as mine – a former Microsoft consulting agency – ran its entire operation using SharePoint. Research shows that businesses that once viewed SharePoint as the “go to” place for content are extending its role into “the place where business gets done”. SharePoint makes it easy to envision the art-of-the-possible and perhaps even remove the word “impossible” from our vocabulary.
Given SharePoint’s ubiquitous presence in corporate IT environments, and the drive for customer intimacy, it’s time to bring the art-of-the-possible to the contact
center and tackle productivity and efficiency in an entirely new way.
All too often, contact center productivity is hampered by departmental silos, lack of enterprise knowledge, little to no access to subject matter experts, no real-time metrics, untracked manual processes, limited training and much more. Let’s envision a day where your contact center agents and management teams have a single, “one-stop” interface they use to begin and end their work day, that easily manages all of the different technologies they tap into throughout the day. SharePoint is that key enabling platform that allows everyone within the contact center to stay focused on the task at hand: delivering business value to customers and the enterprise.
Let’s explore some of the possibilities.
- Agent and Supervisor Communication and Collaboration – Create a My Workspace page where agents can access what they need from the corporate CRM database, access their Outlook email messages and assigned tasks, and readily see who’s available for IM chats, voice calls, screen shares and more using Microsoft Lync unified communications capabilities without ever needing to switch screens or open all of those applications individually. Now, consider getting more creative with this My Workspace page – integrate real-time agent metrics, company announcements, team statistics, employee and team recognition, work and vacation schedules, contact center and project schedules, and so much more. The beauty of SharePoint is that it can consolidate all of the information and process needed, and expose the right piece and the right bits of information to the right user. No longer are you hindered by disconnects between agents and supervisors – every player sees what they need when they need it.
- Knowledgebase – How many times are agents and supervisors looking through stacks of notes or hunting around shared drives and desktops for that one document they need? With a centralized knowledgebase, you can turn all this information – including documents, videos, and the notes that pass between the people within the contact center – into a centralized source for both information and collaboration. SharePoint’s powerful search engine allows employees to search information using visual search clues such as meta-driven navigation, thumb nails, previews and click-through relevancy to quickly find and refine search results. And the beauty of SharePoint is that the capabilities you use in-house can quickly be turned on for external consumption. Imagine the same powerful search and collaboration driving a customer self-help portal.
- Analytics – Without knowing where you are, it is difficult – if not impossible – to know where you need to go next. Putting analytics front and center – and putting them into the hands of those who make changes– can transform the culture from one of guessing to one of knowing. Within SharePoint, analytics can be integrated such that they are always visible and always available. For example, display agent and team performance metrics like upsell revenue and average handle time directly on the My Workspace page to align behaviors with strategic objectives. Provide holistic interactive dashboards and scorecards to front-line supervisors and management personnel so they are equipped with the best information to make the best decisions.
- Workflow Automation – Prevent process delays (and lost revenue and customers) while reducing human latency and errors by automating mundane, manual and complex business processes. Business processes such as opening new accounts, credit approvals, accounts receivables, policy management, etc. can involve a number of different workflows, employees with different skill sets, and several different departments. Use SharePoint’s workflow automation capabilities to move business steps through a series of logical and repeatable steps to ensure that business processes do not get bogged down or lost in the shuffle of everyday work. Use SharePoint to push tasks to agents while supervisors use a dashboard to watch service requests move through the system. Workflow automation is great for connecting the contact center to back office operations. It can help ensure that the organization is managing the customer experience holistically – from the initial inquiry through fulfillment – with full visibility along the way.
- Training – Turnover within the contact center remains a pain point even in this challenging economic environment. As new agents come on-board, few can afford the productivity delays that are common. In-person training and reinforcement is hard to manage and sending out document after document is impractical for both the trainer as well as the trainee. With SharePoint, you can reduce the time it takes to onboard new agents and increase effectiveness of existing staff by assigning short training videos to watch and you can easily test understanding with integrated testing. This entire process can be done through SharePoint. Videos can educate staff on new products, offers, campaigns, contact center etiquette, best practices and more. Create a personalized list of recommended videos to supplement training efforts. Make these training videos part of employee performance records and review cycles.
Chances are, your company already has a SharePoint deployment and the possibilities we have outlined have you thinking about the art-of-the-possible for your contact center and maybe even your organization. Possibly the greatest benefit of SharePoint is that you can design and deploy a strategy at a pace that works for you.
I would love to hear your ideas on how SharePoint is being used or could be used in your contact center. Drop me a note.
Till next time.
Mike
Role Reversal: Microsoft’s Skype Acquisition Will Transform the Contact Center
by Mike Butts on January 25th, 2012
About this time last year, I wrote a blog titled “Will video transform the contact center? Don’t believe the hype.” I was very skeptical that video is everything and stated emphatically that it would not replace voice in the contact center. While video may not replace voice in the contact center, my thoughts were radically changed last May.
Little did I know at the time that Microsoft was in the midst of making an $8.5 billion investment acquisition of Skype. No company makes that kind of an investment unless they are playing to win and win big.
(Skype’s revenue was only $860 million at the end of 2010.) This acquisition brings Microsoft 700 million consumers that use Skype technology for their voice and video calls. As we know Microsoft has not officially released details on how it plans to integrate Skype into its product stack, but we do know that Skype will play a key role in Microsoft Lync, Office including Outlook, Windows Phone, and Xbox.
Once Microsoft integrates Skype video technology into its product and hardware (phones and Xbox) stack, it will bring consumers even closer to companies. Forward-thinking organizations will have new opportunities to seize customer loyalty and wallet share. In the near future, consumers will use Skype via the Web, Windows Phone, or Xbox to communicate with businesses. As a result, companies that deploy a Microsoft Lync unified communications infrastructure will have the right tools to collaborate with customers across the same Skype video stream.
All B2C companies have a short window of opportunity to prepare their organizations to use video as a service differentiator, productivity booster, and revenue generator. Companies need to act now to gain a leadership position in customer service before their competitors leap onto this emerging communications channel. Doing so will allow your company to take customer service, communication, and collaboration to the next level because people who use Skype (850 million and growing fast) will want to communicate via video.
Microsoft Lync will provide the perfect integrated platform to allow your contact center (and the rest of the enterprise) to collaborate using Skype video and the rest of the UC capabilities such as presence, instant messaging, screen sharing, remote desktop access and more. These 850 million consumers are opening a new frontier for your organization.
Here are a few thoughts for how video can be used in the contact center:
Create a personal relationship with your agents and company. I don’t know about you, but I always feel like my challenges are going to be resolved faster if I can see and make a personal connection with someone who is taking my order or assisting me in some other way. Video allows this to happen without traveling from location to location.
Increase collections. I wonder how much collections would increase if you can look a debtor in the eye when he makes a payment promise? I have to think that collections would increase significantly because of this direct, more personal interaction. This goes back to creating a more intimate relationship.
Enable opportunities to up-sell. Have a new product or campaign? Use an on-hold video to inform customers about additional products and services. Get really creative by pushing a relevant video based on a caller’s purchase history. The potential here to drive revenue is unlimited. Your marketing department is going to love this.
Facilitate troubleshooting. Push a video to a caller that instructs them how solve their current challenge. Video can also help reduce call volume by allowing your contact center to push visual installation or assembly instructions to callers.
Support learning and agent development. Record and capture videos in your contact center to educate current and new agents on best practices and supervisor to agent training.
So how do companies prepare? At a recent conference, Microsoft proclaimed that “60 percent of enterprises are going to make a unified communications decision in 2012.” I encourage all CIOs and customer experience decision makers to investigate and deploy the Microsoft Lync platform now. Get your contact center and enterprise personnel comfortable using the vast array of unified communications capabilities now so video becomes a natural extension once Skype is incorporated. Implementing Lync in your organization is not that difficult, and in many cases you can recover your investment within six months. And last but not least, your employees will absolutely love the new capabilities.
Till next time.
Mike
Unified Messaging Platforms
by Jamie Ryan on December 2nd, 2011
It’s been said that technology can only be as effective as the business strategy it supports. Before you can formulate an effective strategy, however, you need to understand what a particular technology can deliver. That sentiment definitely applies to unified communications. Too often, companies get caught up in the technical aspects and lose focus on how it can make the end user more productive.
So when companies evaluate unified communications, it’s important for them to define what they hope to accomplish. I’d urge people to ask three basic questions:
- How can this technology affect the way people do their daily jobs and improve customer value?
- How does it streamline processes such as collaboration, scheduling, and other activities?
- What level of IT support is necessary to provide people with this added functionality?
What’s truly transformational about unified communications is that it gives users a single interface to manage and manipulate their interactions. When Aspect was preparing to implement Lync’s predecessor, OCS, our strategy was to unify our disparate messaging platforms—that is, voice, voicemail, e-mail, instant messaging, video, online meetings and conferencing, and calendar.
Think about the how you use different communications platforms throughout the course of a workday: voice conversations are pretty easy and spontaneous; email tends to me more formal and planned; instant messaging is short and immediate; and calendars should reflect and integrate these interactions.
When people are dealing with day-to-day tasks, they tend to stay in their communications environment. The ability to manage all of these different platforms without switching screens or devices is a tremendous time saver and delivers significant benefits.
A platform that accommodates individual tastes. With unified messaging platforms individuals have the flexibility to adapt the technology to their work style—something that’s critical for user adoption. Similarly, with the intuitive interface, users can jump in without extensive training.
Voice commands across messaging platforms. With Lync, people can use Outlook voice activation to respond to both e-mail and voicemail by phone. For example, say I’m in the car running 15 minutes late to a meeting. To notify people, I can simply click on the meeting invite and say that I’m running 15 minutes late. Lync automatically sends a message to all attendees and adjusts the meeting time on everyone’s schedule. While some smartphones are now adopting this same idea, we have been using it for the past three years on a global basis.
A unified view of messages. Lync also features such as voice-to-text translation, which allows individuals to prioritize voicemail and e-mail messages at the same time by using preview screens in e-mail. You can get an idea very quickly of what people want. In separate environments, you can’t do that.
The right messaging platform every time. With rich presence, your colleagues quickly understand the best communications channel to use based on your availability. If someone sees that I’m not available, they aren’t going to leave me a long voicemail. I’ve found that people intuitively understand how to select from their messaging options to get the best response. It’s why I’ve received just a handful of internal voicemails since we implemented unified messaging.
Recognizing what unified communications can deliver to your organization is the first step. Next, companies need to devise an implementation strategy to achieve these benefits. In my next blog, I’ll share a basic framework that can enable every organization to begin to integrate unified communications into their daily operations.
Dispatches from the SQL Server 2012 BI Delta Force Ranger event
by David Harper on November 14th, 2011
I had the privilege to attend the BI Delta Force event at Microsoft in their Redmond campus. The event gives Microsoft partners access to various program and product managers who are working on the product release of SQL Server 2012, which will have a pervasive effect on the Microsoft BI community. You will have to wait until spring 2012, when it’s released to manufacturers. SQL Server 2012 is in Community Technology Preview 3 (CTP3) as I type this (with release candidates to follow).
What did we learn? Well, lots of great new information about the BI Semantic Model (BISM) and how it can be leveraged by true business users (versus waiting on some IT process). From a performance perspective, a few sessions were directed at the ColumnStore index, a new feature in this release. This index type will not fit all models and scenarios, but it does enable multi-million row tables (stored in traditional SQL tables) to be returned in sub-second response times.
From a visualization perspective, the buzz has been very loud around Power View. This SilverLight-based application, combined with either the BISM or PowerPivot workbooks published to SharePoint, allows business users to create and export their views to PowerPoint. (Yes, this is a very big deal!)
Finally, what makes all of this possible, and is new for SQL Server 2012, is Analysis Services running in tabular mode. The VertiPak engine allows for 10x and beyond data compression. What’s interesting about this mode is that the data are not stored in an Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) format but in tabular mode.
Whew…well, that was a a lot of information and very high level. However, this SQL release will bring lots of new, exciting features to an already-rich BI stack. With that said―when is your organization upgrading?!
Why companies are considering UC-based contact center solutions
by Mike Butts on September 29th, 2011
Microsoft’s unified communications technology, Microsoft Lync, is maturing and gaining excellent analyst and media reviews: it was recently recognized as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant. Microsoft’s senior executives were proclaiming at the recent Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) that Lync would be their next billion-dollar business, following the same aggressive growth pattern of SharePoint.
If these projections are accurate, many, many Microsoft-centric organizations will be deploying this technology within the next few years. It only makes sense if you think about it. Microsoft Lync naturally plugs into your existing Microsoft platforms including Outlook, SharePoint, Dynamics CRM, and others. And take it from someone who uses Lync on a daily basis, the user experience and stability are simply outstanding.
At WPC, a Microsoft Lync product manager shared that “four of every five unified communications deployments contain a contact center requirement.” It doesn’t matter whether this contact center requirement is for multi-thousand seat contact centers or a 20-seat local branch office, 80 percent of all of unified communications deployments need a contact center solution.
So why are many organizations looking to deploy Microsoft unified communications technology in their contact center and across the enterprise?
- Capitalizing before competition. Unified communications capabilities in the contact center is an emerging application that can create competitive differentiation for progressive companies. How long this window stays open is anyone’s guess, but I anticipate it will begin to close within the next 12-18 months. The time to start planning strategy is now.
- Replacing older technology maximizes cost savings. We’re finding that more and more companies are turning to Microsoft unified communications technology for their contact centers because they are frustrated with rising continual and functionality costs associated with updating their older PBX technology. The costs to continue doing business the same way are becoming cost-prohibitive.
- Increasing customer loyalty. Companies are increasing customer satisfaction, first-call resolution, and loyalty with UC-based contact center solutions that enable them to route and answer multichannel (traditional voice, IM, email, chat, etc.) service requests based on business rules that follow specific agent and/or customer criteria.
- Engaging enterprise subject matter experts. Some advanced UC-based customer contact solutions such as Aspect Unified IP and Aspect Contact leverage SharePoint portals to enable contact center agents to search for and engage enterprise subject matter experts when they are confronted with service requests that need escalation. (Best practice: many companies are starting to segment and schedule subject matter experts to ensure a resource is available when needed.)
- Empowering customer experience managers. A simplified administrator tool centralizes system administration across one or more systems while on-demand, real-time, and historical reports help contact center managers make more informed decisions to help drive agent productivity, efficiency, and cost savings.
- Working together. While I’m not sure this last point is a driver, it may be the most important piece of the puzzle. To design a unified deployment that maximizes organizational productivity and cost savings while creating competitive advantages, contact center and IT leaders must work together. No discussions about deploying a unified communications strategy should happen without IT and the contact center being joined at the hip, since the contact center is the spot where thousands and thousands (sometimes millions) of customer transactions and conversations occur on an annual basis
This is a fascinating time for unified communications with contact center functionality. The growth of unified communications will undoubtedly increase over the coming years, and it’s going to be interesting to watch which progressive companies grab market share and customer loyalty by adopting unified communications solutions in their contact centers.
Till next time.
Mike
Traveling Lync
by Bill Gay on September 15th, 2011
I thought I would continue on the airplane theme that Dave Harper discussed on his latest blog related to BI. I tend to fly a lot too, and there have been more than a few times that I have needed to communicate with someone quickly while waiting in an airport. In a lot of cases, it’s early or late when I’m traveling, and this is where Lync presence really comes in handy.
As soon as I get an Internet connection, I will often check presence to find the right resource and start a quick Instant Messaging conversation. As long as they appear as “available,” then they are telling me I can reach out to them. By the way, you can also do this at 30,000 feet, which again, I have done more than a few times and especially on long flights. I have even heard of people having Lync voice calls on flights (but don’t tell anyone).
Like a lot of people, I need to maximize my time during travel because it’s a lot of hurry up and wait. I think you can easily see how this type of workflow changes the way people interact in many situations. In fact, this is the real reason why IM has far outweighed voice calls since Aspect added Lync. It’s also one more way in which Lync has improved my personal workflow.
Tell us how Lync has or would improve the speed of your business. Look for my next blog, which will begin a series outlining what we have found to be the five steps for successful Lync deployments.
Data in today’s air travel
by David Harper on September 9th, 2011
I am blogging to you today from approximately 25,000 feet onboard an American Eagle regional jet. My trip through the airport was pretty standard. Fight to find a good parking spot―only to find one on the top level―BUT it was by the elevator. Walk to elevator only to discover the elevator is out of service. Wait in security line―only to be randomly selected for “enhanced” screening. As we approach the tenth anniversary of 9/11, I can’t help but think of how data has reshaped the way our airport interactions take place, and how this data has led us to new policies and procedures when flying.
So how is data used? Let’s start with data scrubbing at the airport. When I was new to the travel/consulting world (circa 2004), every time I printed a boarding pass I noticed it had “XXX” in the lower right. I quickly came to know that this was meant to tell the TSA agent that I should receive extra screening. But why? Well apparently, using some master database lists, there was a security threat with a name similar to mine―which meant I was to receive special treatment. (As a sidenote, I had to provide three forms of identification and a letter to the TSA to get off of this list.)
Why is my ticket so expensive and yours is so cheap? Timing is everything when it comes to purchasing tickets. Buy the last seat and you will pay more; buy a midweek ticket on off hours and you will pay less. I have worked on a few business intelligence projects in the past for the airlines. It is a very complicated algorithm that goes into calculating seat revenue and what to charge for each ticket. Again―data working for (or against) you here.
Why does my martini only have one olive? During the 1990s, American Airlines was aggressively looking for ways to cut costs. They calculated that if they cut one olive out of a martini it could save the company a million dollars a year. Is this the truth? I am really not sure, but I am sure the savings add up. For the record, I think that is also why they only give you a small glass of soda rather than the “whole can” on some flights!
Predictive analytics or data mining is an exciting area of the Microsoft Data Platform that is often underutilized. Mining models can be built against both relational and multidimensional sources to predict everything from what movie Amazon should recommend for you to whether the customer on the phone will buy what you are selling (based on demographics, geography, and even time of day).
So why are so few customers actively pursuing data mining? I have found that it requires more knowledge outside of data. Statistics play a HUGE role in data mining and understanding which mining model is the correct model to use in each scenario. At Aspect, we have successfully implemented a variety of data-mining scenarios. The first step is to understand the data―for example, is the data in a normal distribution where standard deviation would apply. Once the data is understood, the best model can be selected to model the predictive variables.
Is your organization using data mining? Are you thinking about data mining? I would love to hear your successes, or your concerns with this technology.
Customer contact in education? You bet
by Mike Butts on September 6th, 2011
There’s something about early September that takes me back to the carefree days of being in college, especially when there were no exams till mid-October. I better move on before I digress too far.
So as hundreds of thousands of students return to their campuses, little do they know how much effort and resources were spent attracting them. All higher-education administrators on the other hand are keenly aware of the intense competition for prospective and current students. Online colleges, private schools, graduate schools, four-year universities, junior colleges, and even international universities compete not only for students; this hand-to-hand combat extends to faculty, staff, and corporate and community donors.
Many higher-education administrators are crafting and deploying customer relationship management (CRM) strategies because they are fully aware that student enrollments, endowments, and donations keep the lights on. These CRM strategies, known within the industry as “student life cycle management,” enable institutions to enhance the overall experience from prospective student to alumni to the corporate world.
So why are institutions implementing student life cycle management solutions such as Aspect’s CommunityOne?
- The falling CRM learning curve. CRM deployments are no longer considered “risky” adventures, thanks to the corporate sector’s proven strategies for deployments, workflow automation, and user adoption.
- Collaboration. CRM deployments provide the optimum platform for all departments (such as faculty, office staff, athletics, alumni, corporate relations, and marketing) to use a single platform to communicate and interact with their constituents.
- Customization. Aspect’s CommunityOne platform is an extensible solution that can be tailored to an institution’s business processes. For example, your athletics department can leverage a Microsoft SharePoint Web portal to manage Web registrations, collect credit card payments, track event tasks, and follow up with registrants.
- Integration. CRM platforms can be connected to other key line-of-business applications such as admissions, SIS systems, and learning management systems to provide a single access point.
- Workflow automation. Institutions can generate significant workforce efficiency gains by defining and automating business processes to ensure that key business rules are followed across the campus.
- Deployment flexibility. The Microsoft Dynamics platform supplies on-premise and cloud deployment options. For those who want to start now, Microsoft offers a 30-day free trial.
- Reporting. Use out-of-the-box functionality or create custom reports on both quantitative and qualitative information to support quicker and more intelligent business decisions.
The best part is that Microsoft recognizes the importance of adding more educational institutions to their client portfolio now and therefore is providing incentives, including significant discounts. The combination of Microsoft incentives and Aspect’s streamlined implementation and training provide quick ROI and a low total cost of ownership.
We’re anticipating explosive growth in North America and across the world on the number of higher-education institutions deploying CRM solutions to manage critical student life cycles. Indeed, Aspect is already working with several organizations to implement CRM solutions.
So as I settle in to watch some college football games this weekend, I think I’m going to ask my alma mater what CRM platform they’re using the next time they call me for a donation.
Til next time.
Mike
Improving the way companies communicate internally and externally with their customers is an important objective for all organizations. This blog is focused on levaraging the collective knowledge withing Aspect.