CRM Handbook / How can you best use the data
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How can you best use the data (redirected from How can I best use the data)

Page history last edited by Kate Mitchell 11 years, 7 months ago

Business Intelligence is usually technology and analysis that can provide historical, current and predictive views of your institution and its BCE operations. Business Intelligence should provide your institution with the opportunity to make informed and improved business decisions.

 

As part of CRM you will start to build a wealth of business intelligence about your customers, however, this will only happen over time and you should not expect it to happen immediately. As an institution you need to consider the information that you want to gather about your customers, these decisions need to be taken before you consider a CRM System. A common error in CRM is that senior management asks for a report, which as an institution you are unable to fulfil because the information they require was not captured at the interaction points with the customer.

 

An essential part of Business Intelligence and its integrity is to ensure that any data on the CRM system is valid data. You can achieve this through regular data cleansing. You can also implement this through developing clear policies and procedures for your system and giving comprehensive training to users of your CRM system.

 

It is important to take a strategic approach to BCE and it is not feasible for all businesses to be customers regardless of size, sector etc. CRM can help you segment and target those businesses, which are most likely to give a good return on investment.  Data built up in a CRM system over time can help to achieve this and reduce the opportunity costs of developing new areas on a whim.

 

Institutions in the education sector tend to be reactive rather than proactive, with employers seeking out their help rather than the other way round. It is unusual for an institution to build up a picture of a partner organisation’s history and business needs in preparation for a direct approach. Shared CRM data, built up over time, could enable an institution to approach an organisation with suggested interventions that may meet their needs and this could make a significant impact on the business world.

Good Practice Example

As part of the CRM implementation at the University of Salford, all of the business processes around Employer Engagement were mapped and identified as operational or strategic. A new VC was also employed at the University during this time who focused on Community engagement particularly in the local area, and he viewed business engagement as a major aspect of community engagement.

One of the aims of the project was to identify the top 50 organisations that the university worked with and to support the development of the relationships towards mutually beneficial partnerships rather than uncoordinated transactional contacts. Before the CRM implementation this information needed to be gathered from individuals and departments across the university. This was time consuming and could not be guaranteed to be entirely up to date and complete. Where the CRM system has been rolled out, information on relationships, activities and projects can be gathered with speed and efficiency. Further rollout of the system is ongoing to ensure the benefits are extended across the whole institution.

Sandra McPherson, CRM Manager, Salford University