C-Level View | Feature
In Search of a Student Relationship Management System
A Q&A with Gerlie Jeltema
Finding the perfect student relationship management system implementation, or SRM, is getting more important for today's higher education institutions, but, it seems, that's not getting any easier to achieve. And there's a history to these systems to keep in mind through all your planning.
The student information system, or SIS, has been generally used in higher education institutions for decades, for the purpose of linking functions across the university, with the hopes of integrating student data and procedures. An SIS is mainly focused on the institution's systems of records and data, and it is largely used to support staff in their functional roles and internal responsibilities.
A CRM, or customer relationship management system, originally produced for the corporate and business sectors, emerged close on the heels of the SIS. These CRM systems have been modified, for years, and refitted for education users.
Finally, vendors have attempted to fill the need for a true student relationship management (SRM) system in higher education. An SRM is focused on the students as users and not only serves to record student data but also helps generate the institution's response to changing student needs.
But, we've rarely found an SRM system that serves us, "out of the box". Here, South Orange County Community College District's IT Director - Enterprise Systems Gerlie Jeltema talks with CT about her institution's search for an SRM implementation for SOCCCD.
"We've already had a series of business process analysis and journey map sessions with representatives from student services and instruction who serve our students in different aspects of their lifecycle." — Gerlie Jeltema
Mary Grush: Where does South Orange County Community College District stand in terms of a student relationship management system (SRM)? I've heard there's somewhat of a quest for an SRM at your institution.
Gerlie Jeltema: It's exactly that; it's still a quest. We don't have an SRM in place at this time, so I am managing an initiative to understand what we need from an SRM — and then we will select an SRM to implement (or even integrate more than one).
Grush: Certainly your institution already has a student information system. What is the difference between a student relationship management, or SRM system, and an SIS?
Jeltema: As far as I am concerned, the SIS is the primary means of managing student records, making sure that information about a student is accessible to the student, to our faculty when appropriate, and to our staff.
An SRM, for us, is intended as a means of managing student engagement: Based on information that we know about the student — that we store within our SIS — how do we best engage the student, throughout his or her entire life cycle, from when they first show an interest in our institution, to completion of their academic journey with us?
Grush: How long have SIS and SRM systems been around?
Jeltema: SIS systems have been around, it seems forever! For as long as there have been students attending an institution, there has been some form of SIS for managing their records. (Students were attending long before computers; then, these systems were paper-based.) But SRM systems are comparatively new, with regard to the institutional memory. They're practically in their infancy as far as the higher education space is concerned, initially fashioned after the customer relationship systems (CRM) found in commerce. The idea of creating an SRM system that reflects the uniqueness of the higher education environment is fairly recent.
In higher education, we are finally beginning to understand that not only do we need to make sure that we have information about whether a student is successful; we need to be able to use that information to create a path for the student to be successful.
In higher education, we are finally beginning to understand that not only do we need to make sure that we have information about whether a student is successful; we need to be able to use that information to create a path for the student to be successful.
Grush: Have higher education systems taken on CRM systems for implementation?
Jeltema: Yes, especially in private institutions when there's a focus on recruiting. In community colleges, where there is open access [enrollment], there hasn't been as much of a push to recruit students to the institutions. Beyond that, the vendors in the CRM space recognize that there have been customizations of CRM systems to suit higher education.
Grush: Are vendors beginning to create SRMs, specifically for the education market?
Jeltema: Yes, a few have built products specifically for the higher education space, in response to the demand.
Grush: Have any of those products been ready, straight "out of the box" to work with higher education, without customization?
Jeltema: No!
But I think that's partly because every institution does its business differently, with different business practices. So, out of the box, there is usually a need for customization.
Grush: How is the market for SRM shaping up?
Jeltema: We had a call with Gartner, and what they have seen in this space is that there are three categories of SRM implementations: First, you might have a vendor that builds a custom SRM implementation specifically for your institution; or, you have vendors that partner with you and your consultants to create customized implementations of existing enterprise-class CRMs; finally, there are those vendors that have built specific SRM products just for the education market, usually based on existing CRM software.
What all this tells me, is that there isn't one out-of-the-box solution for all higher education institutions. No one product, at least at this time, can solve every institution's business needs.
There isn’t one out-of-the-box solution for all higher education institutions. No one product, at least at this time, can solve every institution’s business needs.
Grush: Can you tell me a bit about your institution's priorities? Why is it important for your institution to pursue the notion of an SRM?
Jeltema: That's a great question. We've already had a series of business process analysis and journey map sessions with representatives from student services and instruction who serve our students in different aspects of their lifecycle. If you ask a question to every one of them, they will each talk about different needs and priorities.
But the one thing that seems to unify them is the need for a way to track our engagement with the students, from the time they enter our process, to the time they leave us (normally because they've achieved their degree or they've transferred to another institution).
And, there is a need for a centralized outreach component, especially in the onboarding process, to make sure we are providing a consistent onboarding experience for the student — not a "firehose" of e-mail communications from disparate departments. And we need to provide just-in-time information to students so that they are not overwhelmed.
Further, there is a case management aspect to all of this that is very important — making sure that different student services groups have contact with the student and engage with the student, and that we are able to store that information and mine that information so that we can potentially change our behavior for the benefit of the students.
All that I just mentioned are high-level views of some of the comments we heard when we conducted interviews with various members of our team in pursuing the SRM.
Grush: In your search, or quest for an SRM, how do you gather input from all the concerned constituents, and how does your project maintain its status on your campuses? How do you speak with a campus, and how do you sort out what those voices are telling you?
Jeltema: First of all, this is a Chartered project, with executive sponsorship, and we are able to move ahead with full administrative backing.
In terms of sorting out the massive amounts of input from campus constituents, one of the most important things for us is the understanding that we are not experts in this space. We need to partner with consultants and true experts who will walk us through this discovery process of finding out what we really need from an SRM. We have tapped the Strata Information Group (SIG) for their experience with higher education clients and environments.
We understand the scope of our project and have the goals of our Charter at the forefront as we focus our sights on our future SRM system.
[Editor's note: Image courtesy South Orange County Community College District.]
