CRM is not just software: It is an institution-wide approach that allows the university to speak to key populations with one voice and with smaller, customized, and tightly focused messages in response to the needs of students and others in the community. It allows us to all see the same, more complete picture of the students we interact with on their way to a degree.
Have a question or want to provide feedback? Get in touch with the Student Experience CRM team.
The purpose of the CRM approach, as well as the software used to implement it, is to allow people who work with students to have a central point of contact and engagement to create, send, track, and monitor communications and personal interactions with students.
The goals of a CRM include improving institutional effectiveness, collaboration across colleges and departments, unified relationship management, and actionable insights. For a deeper dive, watch this recorded session from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Serve the OSU community where they are, how they prefer to be contacted, and when they need access to information, tools, resources and training — all through a single, secure and consistent experience
One-Stop for Information - Students will have access to a personalized interface where they can access information and take action across academics, advising, financial aid and more
Automation will free employee time currently spent on routine business processes
Insight into communications and interactions with students will improve OSU's ability to serve our students
Student Experience CRM is just one of several key projects in the OSU IT Strategic Roadmap. These programs represent work that is critical to deepening our capacity and creating new capabilities that will enable OSU to deliver on its core mission of teaching and learning, research and extension.
In our current state, many departmental systems exist that provide some level of CRM functionality for students. But the distributed nature of these tools, their purpose, and their adaptation causes us to effectively have no CRM at all. The multitude of tools creates confusion and poor student experience and service levels, often leading to problems for students, faculty, and staff that might have been easily avoided. Some issues with our fractured systems include:
The steering committee will recommend a software solution by the end of this academic year so that purchase and implementation can begin this summer and over the course of next academic year.
We will identify, acquire, and implement a single, campus-wide Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for post-enrollment uses that will replace the myriad of systems currently in use.
If you have questions, comments or feedback, please reach out to the Student Experience CRM team.