A Case Study of CRM Adoption in Higher Education

This case study examines the adoption factors surrounding the deployment of customer relationship management (CRM) in higher education institutions. While CRM is widespread in the corporate sector, its usage has been limited in higher education. With the rising service expectations, universities have to realign their strategies to serve students across their entire student life cycle. We used the case study approach to examine the differences in pre-adoption and post adoption attitudes, beliefs and usability factors of CRM users and the factors critical to adoption. The study is exploratory in nature, representing one of the first efforts to study CRM adoption in higher education institutions. Our findings suggest that groups with a clear understanding of student life cycle will be more likely to adopt CRM. We propose that a fit between the choice of CRM goal — strategic versus transactional CRM — and organizational factors will help determine the continuous adoption of CRM by higher education users.