| | FEBRUARY 20198CIOReviewI sometimes perform the following thought experiment: what if Amazon was organized like a typical college campus, and I wanted to buy a pair of shoes?First, I'd have to know what department had the kind of shoes I want--Men's Clothing, Athletic Wear? And then once I picked out the shoes, I would be sent to a different department to get them shipped. Payment? Oh, that's the Amazon Bursar's Office. Need to finance the shoes? Go to Financial Aid. Those of you with family members in college know that I'm not exaggerating. The business of traditional colleges and universities has been organized around the needs and processes of business offices, not the needs of the student and her family. But some higher education institutions have made progress in overturning this outdated model, and many others have started down the path to build a more student-centric approach to student services. The vision and leadership to create this new strategy has often been initiated by CIOs and other IT leaders, because student services redesign depends critically on choosing and integrating the right technologies.A key component of successful student-centric service is an effective approach to Customer Relationship Management (CRM). A CRM enables every student touchpoint to have a full "360-degree view" of the student's profile, needs, concerns, and transactional history. Whether choosing a comprehensive tool like Salesforce to be customized for the needs of all departments, or selecting one of the university-oriented tools in the marketplace, the CIO plays a critical role in assuring adoption. Success requires that all critical student service areas--admissions, financial aid, student billing, housing, parking, and career services, just to name some of the most important--have a stake in providing a unified student experience that replaces the old run-around. Change management expertise is essential to developing a CRM with buy-in across the institution.An important and historically over-looked area with a critical impact on student success is academic advising. On many campuses, the advising role is fractured across central advising centers, school and departmental advisors, faculty, and specialty centers such as veterans or disabled student services. Even when these areas have the best interests of the students at heart, it's inevitable that students will receive inconsistent and contradictory information from different offices. Students may be directed to seek help from a specialty service such as a writing center, without any follow-up to assure that the student gets the help needed.A relatively new approach called advising case management has emerged to address this issue. Advising case management is a special form of CRM built around the needs of the student's developmental path as a learner. Modern tools not only enable advising offices to have the right information to help students, BRINGING CUSTOMER FOCUS TO THE BUSINESS OF EDUCATIONBy Michael Berman, Chief Innovation Officer & Deputy CIO, California State University, Chancellor's OfficeMichael BermanIN MYOPINION
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