Dr John Shawl, Chief Executive for Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, explains that as an established tertiary arts and design education provider, the institution interacts with a broad range of contacts throughout the year, from schools, teachers and students through to career advisors, government departments, industry partners, research collaborators and strategic partners. 
 
“We distribute a broad range of communications to a wide range of people who may be interested in Whitecliffe,” says Dr Shaw. “Our largest distribution to date has gone out to about 4,000 people.” 
 
Currently, staff at Whitecliffe are using multiple spreadsheets to manage information on key audiences, a manual process which Dr Shaw describes as “very time consuming and inefficient.”
 
“We’ve got numerous lists and often double up on data. The information is also not presented in a way that is meaningful and can be analysed from a strategic point of view.” 
 
Dr Shaw identified the need for a more effective system to manage the organisations contacts when he first joined the College.

Being a small but rapidly growing organisation, Dr Shaw says his first challenge upon making the decision to implement a CRM solution was finding a credible IT partner that could recommend the right technology.
 
“It can be very difficult for a small organisation like us to find an IT partner we can trust. I was introduced to Andrew Hunt of Kinetics and quickly realised we could rely on him to recommend a good CRM solution to meet our growing needs – it’s about having faith and trust in a partner like Kinetics.”
 
Andrew Hunt, CEO for Kinetics Group Limited, explains why he recommended Microsoft CRM:
 
“We’ve been waiting for a mid-range CRM solution that is fully integrated with Microsoft Office and Microsoft Exchange for quite some time. With the arrival of Microsoft CRM, we can finally offer our customers a solution that delivers real value. 

“Microsoft CRM is also customisable, easy to implement and highly functional – it’s the next generation of CRM.”

Whitecliffe has purchased 11 user licences for Microsoft CRM - Customer Services which has now been implemented and is being used by key management, faculty and administration staff.

Microsoft CRM is now being integrated with the institution’s ARTENA Student Management system, a national database capturing student information for the Ministry of Education, NZQA and the Tertiary Education Commission.

Microsoft CRM to enhance customer communication
Dr Shaw says he anticipates his team will gain a number of benefits from using Microsoft CRM, which will automate several existing processes and consolidate all existing contact information. 
 
“With Microsoft CRM, information will be available to everyone from one central source. We’ll be able to manage the data more efficiently and enhance the way we communicate with our contacts. 
 
“For example, we’ll be able to be more proactive and targeted with our communication. The system can send us a reminder to send information about any area that a particular person is interested in.”
 
Microsoft CRM will also provide Whitecliffe College with the tools it needs to analyse its contact information.
 
“We’ll be able to collect business intelligence and really understand the data for the first time. We can use these statistics to further improve and target our communications.
 
“This will also strengthen our internal focus on good communications and help staff better understand our target audience.”
 
Dr Shaw adds that the product’s integration with Microsoft Outlook and options for text messaging provides Whitecliffe with a new way of communicating with contacts. 
 
“More and more people are demanding email communication and Microsoft CRM gives us this option in addition to paper-based mail-outs. It will save us time and printing costs - ideally, we’d like work towards being a paperless office.”
 
Hartnell concludes that as a tertiary institution, Whitecliffe College needs to be responsive to its stakeholders. 
 
“The education sector is currently undergoing major change which means education providers need to be even more accountable. With Microsoft CRM, we’ll have the confidence that we can quickly deliver accurate and timely compliance information when needed.”

For further information about this case study contact:
David Guy
Business Solutions Group Manager
Microsoft New Zealand Limited
davidguy@microsoft.com

May 2004

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