www.hcltech.com AuthOr: Vishal Jindal SME HCL s Education & Publishing vertical This paper focuses on how Educational institutes can increase their customer retention and attract brighter students by implementing an all-encompassing Student Management platform. WHITEPAPER JUNE 2014
CONTENTS Introduction... 3 Industry and market pressures: Gartner s Nexus of Forces... 3 Higher education industry challenges... 4 Multiple players aligned towards a single goal customer centricity... 4 Stakeholder lifecycle changing roles and experiences... 5 Nexus impact on the student lifecycle Social, Mobile, Data, Cloud, and IoT... 7 Scenario One College/ Course Marketing Campaign Lifecycle... 7 Scenario Two Enrollment... 8 Scenario Three Student Performance Identification and Intervention... 9 Conclusion Capabilities Summary... 9 About the Author... 10 About HCL... 11 2014, HCL TECHNOLOGIES. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED. THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED UNDER COPYRIGHT BY THE AUTHOR, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 2
INTRODUCTION Educational institutes have traditionally used CRM systems for acquisition and enrollment of students. However, when it comes to preventing student churn, these systems are ineffective. Moreover, CRM systems are largely tools for the sales team and they ignore the role that the faculty or alumni can play to close the leads. The environment has also completely changed, with prospective students more likely to hangout in social channels, from where the real leads are generated. So, is the college sales team listening? What role can IT play in enabling them? Can relationship building extend to the student experience? How can college administrators effectively intervene and prevent students leaving in between the courses? How can big data, mobile and social technologies help? These are some of the questions, which this white paper attempts to answer. In the changed ecosystem, disruptive technologies can play a vital role in helping institutes connect with their students outside the learning cycle and create a win-win situation for all the stakeholders including administrators, students, parents and teachers. INDUSTRY AND MARKET PRESSURES: GARTNER S NEXUS OF FORCES The impact of SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud) technologies on businesses is well known. It is even more significant when the CRM system is going to deal with students. If Facebook was a nation, it would be the third largest country in the world and it would become the largest in the next two years. Hence, it is important to recognize the importance of the evolving ecosystem while designing any customer acquisition strategy. Gartner defines Social, Mobile, Data, Internet of Things and Cloud as the new nexus of forces that will disrupt the world. For example, most institutes rely on old-fashioned methods for student acquisition such as education fairs, direct mailing, list generation through external agencies etc. However, there is a need to look at other channels because mobile phones have 95% penetration in the student segment and most of them are active on Facebook or LinkedIn. 2014, HCL TECHNOLOGIES. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED. THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED UNDER COPYRIGHT BY THE AUTHOR, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 3
Having established the challenges posed by the changes in the consumer behavior, let us have a look at the challenges posed by the industry. HIGHER EDUCATION INDUSTRY CHALLENGES The business of education, in general, follows an inverse cyclic process. In the last few years, economic recovery has actually put pressure on educational institutions as positive economic conditions encourage people to work rather than focus on upgrading their skills. Similarly, government policies on federal funding or restriction on foreign students can anytime make life difficult for institutes. In this environment, the main challenges are the following: y Increasing student retention and the number of graduating students with successful outcomes Attracting more and better talent, improving the experience and enabling better results y Increasing enrolment, reducing the cost of lead generation and improving the rate of closure y Improving the productivity of sales and marketing, by focusing on qualified opportunities with the highest probability of success y Transitioning exiting students to lifelong learners, alumni engagement and collaboration for staying in touch with the industry needs y Improving access and affordability for all the students, enabling bundling and dynamic pricing of programs, personalizing programs and offering students incentives for better performance y Developing education related products and services that are not dependent on government funding, utilizing analytics to create better services, incorporating feedback from all valuable stakeholders including students, teachers, employers and parents y Reinforcing the institution brand image positively, enabling marketing programs across social, print or online channels, improving experience at all touch points y Fostering a culture of engaged and motivated faculty and staff, providing them with better growth, training and learning opportunities This paper focuses on the approach, business and IT teams must take for the successful implementation of CRM in educational institutes with the goal of influencing the challenges listed above. MULTIPLE PLAYERS ALIGNED TOWARDS A SINGLE GOAL CUSTOMER CENTRICITY In the education scenario, students are the customers, but the supporting cast such as the faculty/teachers is very important as well. The faculty can play an important role in turning around a joining decision for a prospect, by writing a forceful blog or interacting with the student directly and educating them on the various options. Similarly students in the study process or the alumni can perform the same role and 2014, HCL TECHNOLOGIES. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED. THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED UNDER COPYRIGHT BY THE AUTHOR, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 4
help the sales team to improve the enrollment rate. While everyone works for the student, they have their own goals to manage as well. For example, the sales team need to manage their leads and provided with appropriate research on the prospects. The faculty has to manage their careers and qualifications. While the core functions are handled by separate systems, the relationship management system enables the stakeholders to manage their tasks. Similarly, administrators can be provided with a dashboard on all the students, which would help them to track their inclination to stay put in their respective courses by analyzing the data that comes from a multitude of systems including the student information system or the learning portals. The importance of catering to multiple stakeholders listed in the table below can never be over emphasized. Stakeholder Sales Rep/ Sales support Faculty Employer Parents/ Guardian Admin Alumni Institute Goals for the Stakeholder Meet targets, maximize revenue, high service level and student conversion Meet student outcomes, credentialing, training, and career management Qualified talent pool, latest research, and partnership Track student learning, feedback from the faculty, and financial support enablement Manage programs, ensure smooth processes, take preventive and corrective actions Connect with alma mater, and contribute to the success of the institute Student Centric Functions Provide correct information, help select courses, connect with the teachers, students and the alumni Mentor, guide and advise, on academic and non-academic choices Guest lectures, inform students about the industry and the opportunity for joint industry research Dashboard to track progress, connect with financial institutions, students and faculty Ensure implementation of student friendly policies, identify individuals who need help, facilitate good academic and non-academic experience Mentor and advise prospective students, participate in events, bring industry involvement, and help in placements Understanding the stakeholders and their respective goals will help us to design a system that is student centric and cater to everyone s needs. STAKEHOLDER LIFECYCLE CHANGING ROLES AND EXPERIENCES Every stakeholder has a lifecycle, and undergoes different phases. The image below illustrates the lifecycle of a student, faculty and an administrator. 2014, HCL TECHNOLOGIES. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED. THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED UNDER COPYRIGHT BY THE AUTHOR, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 5
Student Prospect Orientation Academic Non-academic Alumni Faculty Recruting On-boarding Career Development Transaction/Interaction/Classroom Ex-faculty Admin Recruiting On-boarding Career Development Transaction/Interaction Ex-employee The needs of the stakeholders evolve with every stage and exert different demands on the system. For example, when studying, the system is required to generate appropriate interventions if there is a possibility of the student leaving the institute. Similarly, during orientation, the student should be able to transact, select the courses and maybe pay the fees online. The relationship management system should capture multi-dimensional experiences at any one point of time namely brand, content, transactional, analytical and communications. A snapshot of these dimensions, which are the functionalities/ features of the system, across the lifecycle of the stakeholders is given below. EDUCATION LIFECYCLE ROLES/ ACTORS ATTRACT & ENGAGE ENROLL STUDENT PLACEMENT ALUMNI STUDENT Social conversations N channel campaigns SEO/ SEM Application Filing Payments Interactive Course Catalog Performance tracking Feedback Exchange with students Placement training Job board Interview process tracking & results Social connect Placements Guest faculty SALES REP Schedule management Target segments Bundle suggestions Research Facilitator Suggest the right course Price recommendation Get student friend recommendations Visibility to placement progress Market feedback as input to sales FACULTY Hangout sessions with prospects Input to sales Faculty recruitment Class allocations Career planning Mentoring Faculty training Student feedback Counseling/ Mentoring Training Alumni networking Collaboration platforms PARENTS/ GUARDIAN Social conversations College comparisons Financial plan support Payments Financial planning Tracking student performance Staff collaboration Visibility to placement progress Invitation to graduation/ events ADMIN Course planning Facility readiness Catalog preparation Data feeds Payment processing Billing and receipts Collect feedback Facility management Placement management Alumni management Records maintenance Similarly, the dimensions should be captured at every level of the lifecycle, creating enough data points to generate insightful knowledge and appropriate action. The requirements should be captured for end-to-end lifecycle featuring all the stakeholders as illustrated above. It is interesting to see how interactions happen between pairs of stakeholders students and teachers, sales and prospects, alumni and students, faculty and parents, admin and students and so on. It is also the time to map technologies to the identified feature set. These technologies will enable the functions to come to life. How will sales interface with the students? 2014, HCL TECHNOLOGIES. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED. THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED UNDER COPYRIGHT BY THE AUTHOR, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 6
Should there be an online chat? Alternatively, should the prospects send emails to the administrators? The nexus of technology forces seem to make everything possible. NEXUS IMPACT ON THE STUDENT LIFECYCLE SOCIAL, MOBILE, DATA, CLOUD, AND IOT The picture, given below, attempts to map the required feature set to the Mobile, Data and Social technologies. The lifecycle is more detailed during the Attract and Engage phase, which is broken up into lead generation, application, eligibility and orientation phases. This is done to address all nuances of the enrollment cycle. Creating a successful student phase is equally important, because it is necessary to retain them. DATA STUDENT LIFECYCLE SOCIAL Lead Generation Marketing Campaigns Lead Generation & Inquiry Brand Trend Career Trend Candidate Score Up Sell/Cross Sell Appointment Reminders Visit Information Sentiment Visit & Apply Financial & Academic Eligibility Orientation & Scheduling Creating a Successful Student Employment Appointment Set Application Received Acceptance Class Start Graduation Employed Sentiment Trend Process Engagement Personalized Program / Scholarship Identification Reminders Outcome Trend Channels of Engagement Sentiment Trend Struggling Student Identification Employer Interactions Interview Competition Job Identification Job Trending Broaden the conversation Alumni Mentorship Faculty Mentorship Alumni Engagement Trend MOBILE Digital Campaigns Agent Training Counselor Enablement Application & Status Campus Buddy Orientation Scheduling The new Portal Job Opportunity Alerts Forever Friends The term data refers to the big data/ analytics/ data layer, which is the call for action or for understanding how the process is faring against the goal or KPI (Key Performance Indicator) set for it. Some of the popular KPIs measured are institute brand, enrolment and churn probability, prospect and student profiling, job probability etc. The social and mobile technologies are used to utilize the already existing user habits of mobile and social apps. Applications, which have familiar user interface, breed usage and interactivity. There can be social conservations between sales and prospects, teachers and prospects, teachers and students, alumni and students. The social apps are supported by a data layer, which is used to analyze and detect patterns in this maze of conversations. This paper illustrates through three scenarios the end-to-end implementation of the concepts discussed so far. SCENARIO ONE COLLEGE/ COURSE MARKETING CAMPAIGN LIFECYCLE A new course is being launched, after receiving inputs from the industry and the faculty. The administrators create a course launch plan in the system including the release day, launch events, training schedule, and webinars. 2014, HCL TECHNOLOGIES. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED. THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED UNDER COPYRIGHT BY THE AUTHOR, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 7
Launch and Aware Educate and Spread Establish and Grow Web Landing Page Digital Advertising email/web/ Social channels Channels to professionally promote course Alumni, Corporate, Ex-faculty, Publishers Integrated customer view Lead generation to closure Reviews & feedbacks Modify the course based on reliable reviews Video Testimonials by Alumni, Corporates, Analysts Course Launch Social Media Page, LinkedIn Poll Sales team with Interactive content on key aspects of the course Campaign within Target Market Course Promotion Social Listening Publish Voice of Customer on Social Channels, Corporate website Listen Publish Course ROI Analysis to management Traditional Advertising Word-of-mouth/Education fair/ Magazines/News Papers Publish Analyze The launch is preceded by campaigns on Facebook, banner ads on the education portals, LinkedIn page and even tweets on the micro blogging site Twitter. A webinar is conducted to officially launch the course, and collect leads. Similarly, the sales team participates in an education fair, and collects lead. The leads collected by all the sources go into a common database where it is evaluated for eligibility and joining probability. Meanwhile, training is conducted for the sales team and the faculty. The alumni are also informed through emails, Facebook, and alumni web pages. The leads are tracked to closure. The course begins; testimonials and feedback from the students are posted on the website and on Facebook. As the course becomes popular, appropriate feedback mechanisms are created through sentiment analysis of the social channels, reviews from the industry and the alumni. SCENARIO TWO ENROLLMENT http://www.brownmackie.edu Qualified Lead 30 mins. Set evening time with Prospect http://www.brownmackie.edu Personalized Content Alumni Testimonial Sales Agent Joe CRM Course Catalogue Market Research EVENING MEETING Sales Agent Joe Customer Insight Analytics Social Reviewed Brown Mackie, Like it! Institute selection Done Offer Discount Customized Course Bundle Interactive demo of Course and Institutes Read Reviews/ Communities Question about Accounting course with knowledge of software Capture > Qualify > Convert How do we increase the conversion rate? Analytics can solve this classic lead management problem. This scenario elaborates the use of analytics to create personalization and increase the conversion rate. Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing are still effective methods for increasing the traffic to the website or the mobile app. Once a visitor registers on the website, a lead can be profiled and appropriate content displayed. A prospect can be shown testimonials from existing students. An online 2014, HCL TECHNOLOGIES. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED. THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED UNDER COPYRIGHT BY THE AUTHOR, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 8
chat can open up and enable the prospect to discuss his/her needs with the agent. The agent will set up a meeting with the sales agent within the next 30 minutes. The time can be used to conduct a research on the prospect from various sources including previous interactions, social media behavior and the discussion with the chat agent. The sales agent is ready with his demonstration for the online course, and even creates a customized course for the student. Such proactivity and preparation helps close the lead quickly. SCENARIO THREE STUDENT PERFORMANCE IDENTIFICATION AND INTERVENTION This is a compelling use case, because enabling a student complete the course is probably more important than acquiring a student. In the current environment of economic and cultural disparities, it can become difficult for a student to continue. A Admin Student Performance Dashboard A C Potential Remedial Candidates Learning Analytics Student Learning portal D B C Counseling services Academic Issues Financial Issues Depression Stress Health Concerns Parents- Teacher meet Personalize Content, Remediation Financial waiver, other assistance A A C Review performance C Retained Tracked for future counseling Continuous monitoring of the performance and feedback from teachers, peers and the student can be used to track signs of any possible churn. Based on criteria such as minimum score, behavior analysis, participation etc., students can be categorized into various degrees of churn possibility, and handled accordingly. Interventions can be both systemic and manual, and in most cases manual interventions yield the best results. The students are tracked and monitored until the churn score improves. This can also be a good method to measure the performance of the intervention methods. 5 CONCLUSION CAPABILITIES SUMMARY Education, specifically higher education, is passing through an uncertain period. Rising costs and fluctuations in the governmental policy has made it tough for the institutes. The way forward is to focus on the student. Technology provides a means for focusing on those who need education and presenting it in a way that creates the highest impact. 2014, HCL TECHNOLOGIES. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED. THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED UNDER COPYRIGHT BY THE AUTHOR, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 9
COLLABORATION SYSTEMS MARKETING & ADMISSIONS SELF SERVICE INSIGHTS/ INFERENCES Chat Platforms Emails/ SMS/ Mobile/ online Application Mgt Prospect Analysis Social CRM Campaign Management Fee Calculator Price recommendation Instant Messaging/ Chats Lead Management Finance Mgt Social Sentiment Analysis Crowdsourcing Telemarketing Course Comparison Enrollment Prediction Advisory/ Mentoring Ecommerce/ payments Mobile Apps Churn prediction SEO/ SEM Alumni Collection Analysis Campaign ROI Faculty Course Personalization Loyalty Management Admin Financial Prediction Sales Rep Schedule Mgt Student Product Enhancement Document Mgt Parent Student Performance Content Mgt Employer Marketing Effectiveness Placement Schedule DATA SOURCES External Data Fees/ Payment Student Score Employer Placement Student profile Alumni Campaign response Course/ Curriculum Faculty The key to building a comprehensive and robust relationship management system for the students is to follow the technology trends of the day: y Collaboration/ Social ecosystem Platforms for entities to talk to each other such as chat platforms, enterprise collaboration tools, public social media such as Facebook or LinkedIn y Marketing Automation & Student hub CRM, campaign management, segmentation and targeting, and lead management y Mobile Apps/ Portals Self-service portals for students, parents, and the faculty y Insights/ Analytics Ability to detect patterns and predict events Supporting the data layer, bringing in intelligence from all parts of the institute student information system, learning systems, customer care, external data, placement data and lastly but not least industry data. Once the technology building blocks are in place, it is up to the stakeholders to execute the program. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Vishal K Jindal is a Senior Business Solutions Consultant with the Education and Publishing vertical at HCL Technologies. With special interest in emerging technologies and their impact on publishing, Vishal has been actively working with some of the HCL s top education and publishing clients on their consumer side digital experiences, supply chain and cloud strategies. 2014, HCL TECHNOLOGIES. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED. THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED UNDER COPYRIGHT BY THE AUTHOR, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 10
ABOUT HCL About HCL Technologies HCL Technologies is a leading global IT services company working with clients in the areas that impact and redefine the core of their businesses. Since its emergence on global landscape after its IPO in 1999, HCL has focused on transformational outsourcing, underlined by innovation and value creation, offering an integrated portfolio of services including software-led IT solutions, remote infrastructure management, engineering and R&D services and Business services. HCL leverages its extensive global offshore infrastructure and network of offices in 31 countries to provide holistic, multi-service delivery in key industry verticals including Financial Services, Manufacturing, Consumer Services, Public Services and Healthcare & Life Sciences. HCL takes pride in its philosophy of Employees First, Customers Second which empowers its 90,190 transformers to create real value for the customers. HCL Technologies, along with its subsidiaries, had consolidated revenues of US$ 5.2 billion, as on 31st March 2014 (on LTM basis). For more information, please visit www.hcltech.com About HCL Enterprise HCL is a $6.5 billion leading global technology and IT enterprise comprising two companies listed in India HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems. Founded in 1976, HCL is one of India s original IT garage start-ups. A pioneer of modern computing, HCL is a global transformational enterprise today. Its range of offerings includes product engineering, custom & package applications, BPO, IT infrastructure services, IT hardware, systems integration, and distribution of information and communications technology (ICT) products across a wide range of focused industry verticals. The HCL team consists of over 95,000 professionals of diverse nationalities, who operate from 31 countries including over 505 points of presence in India. HCL has partnerships with several leading global 1000 firms, including leading IT and technology firms. For more information, please visit www.hcl.com Hello there! I am an Ideapreneur. I believe that sustainable business outcomes are driven by relationships nurtured through values like trust, transparency and flexibility. I respect the contract, but believe in going beyond through collaboration, applied innovation and new generation partnership models that put your interest above everything else. Right now 95,000 Ideapreneurs are in a Relationship Beyond the Contract with 500 customers in 31 countries. How can I help you?