Franklin University Is Tracking Student Lifecycles with This CRM Solution

Tips to Implementing a CRM

Identify what your college wants to do

Before investing in a CRM, Soffer recommends that a college identify what it wants to achieve with the solution.

Talisma can also be utilized on mobile devices.

That way, a college can determine if it wants the CRM to work for only one or two departments, or multiple departments across campus, and find a solution accordingly.

“Understand the vision for how you want to penetrate that student lifecycle and what you want to do with it,” Soffer says. “Do that homework first…As an example, if you only want a recruiting and admissions solution, there are a number of solutions that are on the market that meet that specific need, but you would not want to necessarily consider them if the strategic vision that you have is to reverse the entire student lifecycle.”

Keep an open mind

Clark suggests that colleges keep an open mind when selecting a CRM.

Doing so enables college decision makers to absorb more information about certain products, and have greater success in finding a solution that fits their needs.

That’s what Franklin University found in Talisma, Clark says.

“One thing I learned with Talisma is 99 percent of the time, if you can think of it, you can do it in Talisma,” she says. “It’s very customizable. It’s interesting to see how you can pretty much shape what you need into Talisma, and utilize it to provide yourself and leadership the data you need.”

Get on the same page with other departments

Soffer says colleges should investigate which other CRM solutions are being used across campus before buying a new solution.

This ensures no toes are stepped on, and can keep politically-charged environments neutral.

“Sometimes, not understanding what else exists can create some political conflict on the business side of those applications,” Soffer says. “It can be a politically charged landscape along the way because people become protective of their systems, the budgets around their systems, the people around their systems, and of course there’s a mindset that this is working for us, why are we going to change? Understand what that landscape is and how to work with the business owners of those applications is an extremely important thing to do.”