Bradford University reduces admin with cloud CRM

Bradford University School of Management has reduced its administration burden and improved tracking of student applications after implementing Salesforce's CRM system.

The cloud-based CRM system was put in by Fujitsu in September 2011, and the university department has been using it since January to deal with enquiries it gets from potential students via all channels, including the website and email.

As well as handling the enquiries the department receives a week, Fujitsu integrated the CRM system with the SITS student information system that universities use to manage applications for courses from students to enable application data to be matched with enquiries.

"The system allows us to track, follow up and convert more [enquiries] to applications," said Carolyn Holroyde, director of marketing at the School of Management.

Previously, the department was receiving enquiries mainly via email, and it was unable to log and respond to enquiries in an efficient way.

The department receives around 100 enquiries a week, and the system allows it to respond to around half of them automatically by giving enquirers the option to tick boxes to receive information that is relevant to their query.

This therefore frees up staff to provide better responses to enquiries that cannot be dealt with automatically.

Although the Salesforce system is currently only being used by the School of Management, Bradford is hoping to expand it to other departments, and to integrate it more with the university's main applications system.

Holroyde said: "We're already seeing lots more opportunities to use this CRM for other applications, such as communication with our agents or business contacts, and have the confidence to set this up ourselves using the platform, with support from Fujitsu where we need it."