Crm Adoption in a Higher Education Institution

More and more organisations from private to public sectors are pursuing to reach high customer values of satisfaction, loyalty and retention. Following that idea, Higher Education Institutions (HEI) seek to develop more efficient management processes through the adoption of CRM – Customer Relationship Management initiatives. This paper discusses strategic issues that enable a HEI to build a suitable CRM strategy. To develop it, an action research was conducted in a European Institute, focused on answering to: How to adopt a CRM strategy in a Higher Education Institution? Some critical success factors figured prominently: Students are the most important “customers” in a HEI, but there are other stakeholders that CRM project must consider, as enterprises, partners, government and funding agencies; In the CRM software selection process, software integration and know-how of the supplier related to academic management are critical; The university can use its internal resources (professors, students and, marketing and information systems staff) in the CRM project adoption; A dynamic software methodology to implement CRM enables a fast implementation of business requirements providing a first software version that can be used and tested in the organization. As a consequence, the CRM software is closer to fulfil users’ expectations and help to change organizational culture.