422 Group Debuts Higher Ed CRM Package
422 Group, a Microsoft Certified technology services company serving higher education institutions, has launched Continuum 422 a "constituent" relationship management system for colleges and universities seeking to create and maintain relationships with prospective and current students, alumni, and donors.
Continuum 422 helps higher education institutions manage the lifecycle of their student relationships by breaking them into several "stages": awareness, commitment, satisfaction, consideration, engagement, and loyalty. It leverages information pertaining to those relationships and then helps schools effectively wield them to foster and further those relationships.
To do this, the system combines proprietary communication and business intelligence tools with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, which is part of the Microsoft Dynamics line of integrated business management solutions for automating businesses processes such as finances, CRM, and supply chain management. (Microsoft offers an education-oriented Dynamics package that helps schools manage finances, recruit and retain teachers, set and meet enrollment goals, market and communicate with their communities, and increase efficiencies.)
Continuum 422 is broken into three functional components:
- Business intelligence tools for analyzing data and reporting to help schools develop and track effectiveness of communications strategies;
- An outreach component that manages workflow and helps schools target and distribute specific types of communications and campaigns to specific groups of constituents; and
- A staff productivity element that gives staff tools and information to make their individual interactions more effective.
The 422 Group's management team previously developed CRM solutions and business intelligence tools for more than 500 institutions and is currently providing CRM tools and market research services to at least 69 colleges and universities, including the California Institute of Technology, Carleton College, Columbia University, the University of Georgia, Penn State University, and the University of Washington.
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About the Author
David Kopf is a freelance technology writer and marketing consultant, and can be reached at [email protected].