Poll Finds Majority of Departments and Campuses Work Independently of Each Other with Respect to Communicating with Future, Current and Past Students
A poll conducted by Campus Management Corp., a leading provider of enterprise software products and services for educational institutions, found that nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of colleges and universities do not have lifetime engagement strategies in place to support effective communications throughout the student lifecycle - applicant, student, alumni.
Although a third (36 percent) of respondents indicated that departments or campuses independently communicate with their constituents, creating major issues across their institutions, two-thirds (64.5 percent) of respondents indicated that various offices and departments would be likely to share student, alumni and donor information with each other.
Of those respondents whose university doesn't have a lifetime engagement strategy, a majority (85 percent) recognizes its importance and have indicated that they are interested in developing a strategy. Fourteen percent indicated their university has a strategy in place that is being implemented and 21 percent are in the process of developing a strategy.
"Campus Management believes lifetime engagement is no longer a next generation strategy, but rather, a current communications strategy. It is incumbent upon institutions to begin looking at the complete student lifecycle and how each department, campus and university system can work together to ensure that each student receives the right messages at the right time; to keep them engaged throughout their academic career through alumni status," said Tim Gilbert, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Campus Management.
Many universities use a customer relationship management (CRM) system to implement lifetime engagement programs across campuses and departments. More than half (56 percent) of those surveyed believe that enterprise-wide CRM solutions make for better coordination across departments or schools. A quarter (25 percent) believe it helps them collect better data from constituents that can then be used in planning and 18 percent believe that enterprise-wide CRMs improve brand loyalty through effective communications.
About Campus Management Corp.
More than 1,700 colleges, universities, foundations, and other organizations in 26 countries rely upon Campus Management Corp® enterprise software products and services. The CampusVue® Ecosystem is a vision for a fully integrated, centralized administrative and e-Learning platform that unifies services, academic delivery, administrative management, and reporting for the range of public, private, and proprietary postsecondary institutions. The ecosystem includes the CampusVue Student administrative system and CampusVue Portal solution, as well as Talisma® Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) and fundraising software.
CampusVue Student is used by 78 percent of the largest U.S.-based career and online colleges. Additional offerings include performance analytics software, financials, HR, and payroll solutions. Campus Management employs associates worldwide, providing clients with a full range of consulting, implementation, support, training, and integration services. For more information, visit www.campusmanagement.com .