As the competition for both overseas and UK students intensifies, today's student recruitment software has to spin multiple plates to have the desired impact of better personalising the student journey and creating a superior digital experience now expected by digital natives.
As a Microsoft business transformation consultancy with a student admissions software solution, helping universities digitally transform, Crimson works with universities across the UK.
Here's a quick run-down of what I think every UK university should be considering.
Is your student recruitment software bespoke and in the cloud?
The perennial challenge: do you buy off the peg or bespoke? Both have benefits and drawbacks, not least being beholden to vendors' whims and financial stability, limited configuration, data security, maintenance costs and governance concerns.
There is a third way, though. Crimson's solution uses Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, with enterprise-grade security and the stability of Microsoft.
Much of the configuration for universities has been sorted by Crimson, leveraging Microsoft's rapid low-code/no-code platform to help tweak the rest to suit individual needs. There are no 'IP' (intellectual property) costs from Crimson, and your university gets access to favourable Microsoft licence costs.
Can you student recruitment software create exceptional student experiences?
A personalised student experience is only possible with intelligent data joined up across multiple systems.
To improve segmentation and future communications, Microsoft Dynamics 365 gathers student information from event registrations, webform completions, and virtual assistants to fully understand each prospective student.
Personalisation leads to meaningful interaction from the first engagement with mass customisation. Teams can address student concerns and make students feel at home straight away, whether living in student accommodation, commuting or remote learners.
Despite the dominance of social media, email remains the number one communication channel. Dynamic content in emails, landing pages and web forms is quick and easy in Microsoft Dynamics 365. Different images, text or links can cater to different segments, providing unique one-to-one communications.
Can you automate the student admissions and onboarding process?
Student recruitment is, of course, only one of the first steps in the student journey. But can your student recruitment software shake hands with your student admissions software to provide a smooth transition?
Student admissions and onboarding is notoriously labour-intensive, with disparate paperwork and varying global exam award certificates to request and check. So wouldn't it be great if your software could do much of the heavy lifting to free up your teams to focus on more complex cases?
With Crimson's Microsoft Dynamics 365-based higher education solution, documents can be scanned and uploaded into the portal, stored in Dynamics 365, and then verified using AI. In addition, Power Automate can learn document layouts to check for validity automatically.
Can you provide students with a single digital route into your institution?
It's not just digital natives that prefer to manage their information online. Many of us today prefer the convenience of managing anything from our car insurance, Netflix, Amazon or utility accounts via a simple, well-designed portal. So why should a university be any different?
With Crimson's Microsoft HE solution, students quickly find their information throughout their time spent at the university with student portals, which can carry students through from application to graduation.
