University CRM
Project Description
The University CRM project aims to transform how we recruit students onto UCD programmes by implementing Salesforce as a new CRM. It covers the full journey that a prospective student goes through, from marketing, through recruitment activities and on to applying and being admitted into UCD. The project covers all UCD Colleges and all types of student recruitment including EU and Non-EU recruitment. The initial phase of the project focused on direct applications, with subsequent phases including recruitment and marketing, global partnerships and alumni.
The applications system replaced the legacy system for direct admissions, with all direct applicants to undergraduate and post-graduate courses now using the new Salesforce system. The system has centralised student applications, capturing all data in once place and provided users with enhanced functionality, such as the ability to collaboration with colleagues during the assessment process, automated emails, application auditing and enhanced reporting capabilities.
The student recruitment and marketing activities that will be supported by the new system are prospective student enquiry management, lead management, event management and campaign management activities. Similar to applications, all engagements with prospective students will be managed and captured in one central location. The new system will enable the University to build and nurture relationships with prospective students through regular and personalised communication and engagement.
The global partnerships functionality will provide a B2B relationship management system. Key functionality will include capabilities around lead generation and management, the ability to track global partnership opportunities and funding, to create personalised communication approaches for engagement, and develop performance reports that support evidence-based decision-making throughout the global partnership lifecycle.
What is a CRM?
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. A CRM helps organisations to manage their customer data. It supports recruitment or sales management, delivers actionable data insights, integrates with social media and facilitates team communication.
University Customer Relationship Management is tailored for higher education institutions, allowing them to collect, maintain, and analyse useful data about prospective, current, and past students. University CRM can be used to record and track student, potential student, and non-student interactions across the University. The insights from these interactions can be connected, giving us a more unified view.
In many cases, CRM systems are used to make crucial touchpoints throughout the student lifecycle, from initial application all the way to graduation.
How can a CRM help?
Delivering connectivity, saving time and supporting strategic planning.
Introducing a shared CRM system delivers connectivity, as it facilitates a seamless journey from recruitment lead to applicant to student - and beyond. It also saves time, as the automation of manual processes means that more time and resources can be spent on planning and strategy. The cutting edge technology also allows for pin-point accuracy in reporting, data analytics and predictive modelling.
The first phase of this project covers applications, recruitment and marketing, with the next priority being the support of global partnerships. Potential future projects may cover alumni relations, research & innovation and student support.
Project Outcomes
Successful achievement of this project will deliver many outcomes. These include:
- Improved competitiveness in the recruitment market by bringing UCD into line with systems utilised by many of our competitors globally.
- Improved communications by enabling personalised communication via social media, email and SMS.
- Increased agility to respond to the fast-changing recruitment landscape.
- Smarter recruitment by automating processes, use of artificial intelligence and improving student conversion.
- Enhanced analytics and enabling real time data-driven decision making by capturing, analysing, and reporting on key metrics and trends related.
- Enhanced reputation and experience for our prospective students by utilising more professional systems.
Project Approach
Applications: Significant consultation with users began during the project's scoping and design phase. Following extensive work on the building and configuration of the Applications solution, staff and students tested the functionality, with a robust feedback process implemented to ensure that any findings were resolved. The system was piloted over the summer months to allow the team to validate the system’s performance under real-world scenarios and went live in October 2024. Training and supports were in place and a series of 'drop-in' clinics facilitated by members of the project team continue to take place. The system has provided increased functionality, however, there are opportunities for improvements and an enhancement project team has been established to address these aspects of the system.
Timeline
-
November 2022
Tender for new CRM issued
-
May 2023
Salesforce selected as preferred tender
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26 June 2023
UMT Decision to Proceed
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4 September 2023
Technical Implementation of Salesforce starts
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1 October 2024
Application system implemented
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24 November 2025
Recruitment and Marketing implementation
-
December 2025
Global Partnerships implementation
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2026
Alumni implementation
Project Team
Michelle Mathews
CRM Business Lead
Lorraine Woods
Marketing & Recruitment Implementation Manager
Dr Dimitrios-Stavros Kapetanakis
Head of CRM Technology
David Foley
Global Partnerships Project Lead
Mark Hargaden
Head of Enterprise Application Services
Jen Bradish
Change & Communications Lead
Project Governance
| Position |
Name |
|---|---|
| Co-Chair, Vice President for Global Engagement |
Dolores O’Riordan |
| Co-Chair, Chief People Officer and Director of SIRC & Legal Services |
Tristan Aitken |
| Co-Business Owner of Student Recruitment & Marketing Project / Director, International Student Recruitment |
Una Watkins |
| Co-Business Owner of Student Recruitment & Marketing Project/ Deputy Director Of Student Recruitment |
Susan McAlinden |
| Business Owner of Global Partnerships Project/ Director of Global Relations, Partnerships and Mobility |
Shauna Hughes |
| Business Owner of Applications System Project/ Senior Director of Registry |
Kevin Griffin |
| Director of Admissions, UCD Registry |
Jill O’Mahony |
| CRM Marketing & Recruitment Implementation Manager |
Lorraine Woods |
| Head of CRM Technology, IT Services |
Dimitrios-Stavros Kapetanakis |
| Director of Enterprise Applications, IT Services |
Mark Lande |
| Global Partnerships Project Lead |
Dave Foley |
| Head of Enterprise Application Services |
Mark Hargaden |
| Chief Information Officer, IT Services |
Phillip Fischer |
| Organisational Change Manager |
Helen Doyle |
| Head of Marketing, Communications Office |
Lisa Flannery |
| Head of Student Recruitment and Admissions, School of Business |
Elaine Aherne |
| Head of Business Development, School of Business |
Alison Monaghan |
| Director of Executive Development | Timothy Wray |
| Senior Marketing Manager, College of Engineering & Architecture Office | Katie O’Neill |
| Science Outreach Manager, College of Science Administration Office | Orla Donoghue |
| Director of Major Strategic Partnerships, Strategic Planning & Partnerships | John Barry |
| Public Affairs Manager, Strategic Planning & Partnerships | Ciara Leonard |
| Senior Manager Research Impact and Analytics, UCD Research | Liam Cleere |
| Senior Manager, Strategic Innovation Partnerships, NovaUCD |
Michelle Doyle |
| CEO UCD Foundation | Jordan Campbell |
Training
Applications: In August 2024 we commenced the rollout of our training for the University CRM Applications System. We have created two separate training programmes based on your existing role in the admissions process and on how often you will be using the new system. The relevant training programme must be completed before logging into and using the new system. Click on the icons below to learn more about each training programme.
Recruitment and Marketing: Training for Enquiry Handlers and Event Managers will take place throughout the month of November in the lead up to go-live and after go-live in December 2025. These sessions will be in-person and hands-on sessions to provide users with the knowledge and experience required to feel confident in using the new CRM. Training sessions will be supported by user guides, training materials and SOP documents.
Training resources referred to in all eLearning offerings and in-person/online workshops are available via the (opens in a new window)CRM Intranet.
Drop-In Clinics
Admissions: The Admissions Team in UCD Registry will be hosting several drop-in clinics to support system users. Use the links below to book your place at the clinic that best suits you.
- Thursday 23rd October, 2-3pm
- Thursday 6th November, 2-3pm
- Thursday 20th November, 2-3pm
- Thursday 4th December, 2-3pm
Recruitment and Marketing: The Recruitment and Marketing team will be hosting a number of drop-in clinics throughout November and December. Dates to be confirmed.
Single Course Catalogue
2024 has seen a unified approach to the structure of the single UCD Course Catalogue being taken, in support of the ongoing development of the University CRM. The benefits of this approach are:
- Delivering a consistent experience for all prospective students and a suitable entry point into the new University CRM
- Ensuring that accurate information is published consistently in one place - including courses on offer, application opening and closing dates etc.
- Maximising Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) by ensuring that traffic is not diluted by being directed to multiple competing versions of the same content.
- Ensuring that marketing information is captured only once from relevant marketing professionals at university, college or school level as appropriate.
A working group comprising key internal stakeholders reviewed the content, functionality, and design of existing UCD course catalogues and proposed the optimum content, functionality and design of a new catalogue. This catalogue was developed by EAG and, following user testing, went live in July 2024.
Please contact Susan McAlinden, UCD Registry - Student Recruitment, if you have any queries.
Improved Functionality within the Applications system
The new applications system in Salesforce has provided increased functionality to users Examples include the following:
- The facility to change an applicant’s fee status following individual fees assessment.
- The facility to display different deposit amounts to EU and non-EU applicants.
- The application review facility allows collaboration with colleagues during the assessment process without the need to transfer ownership of the actual application record.
- Conditional formatting is available on the application form itself
- The decision entry process captures the reason for the offer/no offer decision to improve application auditing.
- Offers are now automatically lapsed once the acceptance deadline passes which considerably reduces the need for manual input.
- Applicants can request a deferral on the system, as well as cancel an acceptance that they had previously recorded.
- There is specific functionality to facilitate both internal and external communication.
- Option to exclude deposit from conditional offers per course.
- Increase in the file size of documents that can be uploaded by the applicants.
- If an incorrect document has been supplied, an automatic email can be triggered to the applicant by marking the item as rejected.
- If additional documents are required, an automatic email to the applicant can be triggered using the document request option. This will also revert the application status to incomplete.
- All changes to an application are recorded in a history section which includes time and date stamps as well as recording who made the change.
- As well as enhanced reporting capabilities, Salesforce offers a 'list view' functionality where all data in an object (e.g the individual application) can be displayed and filtered as required.