The University of Westminster's CRM success story continues.
Azorus CRM is the backbone for prospective students and applicants with critical integrations to the university's student record system - SITS, as well as Unibuddy.
Client Spotlight - the University of Westminster
In 2014 the University of Westminster recognized that the very nature of recruiting and then enrolling new students was changing, and changing fast. Student expectations were on the rise and without an advanced CRM system, there was simply no way to deliver the personalised experience students expected or the university wanted to deliver.
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Enter Azorus CRM and the manager of the project, Andy Ball. Andy has been instrumental in shaping the vision and execution of CRM at Westminster and both he and the university could not be happier.
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We asked Andy some questions about his experience using Azorus and here is what he had to say.
Azorus is a true CRM ecosystem and this ensures I can work with speed, consistency, and accuracy.
It's the people at Azorus that
make the difference.
From the top down, we know we have a trusted partner at our side. Always there to listen, offer expertise, and help us when we need it most. And importantly, because the system is built exclusively for universities, we also have a say in the future developement of the product, which is brilliant.
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We really couldn't have achieved what we have at Westminster without the support of Azorus.
Q&A with Andy Ball CRM Manager
1) What are your favourite features of Azorus and how does it help your team/the university achieve your goals?
My favourite feature of Azorus is its accessibility and flexibility for the user. Due to the native nature of Azorus, I can move between all the different tools easily. But the most impressive aspect is the flexibility of the system. There are so many features that can be used to help us, and in ways we didn't even know were possible. It's an unbelievably powerful CRM system.
I can build forms, communication streams, events, filters, and reports with ease by utilizing a UI that is mirrored throughout the platform.
It’s a true CRM ecosystem and this ensures I can work with speed, consistency, and accuracy.
2) What is a problem that you have solved creatively using Azorus, that perhaps you did not know you could?
Our Education Abroad students can change modules within the first few weeks, this involves setting up 1-2-1 meetings during a limited timeframe.
The team asked whether Azorus could help and I realized that the Events module could be adapted to meet the requirement.
By setting up ‘call days’ as Events and setting up the individual calls as Event Sessions, we have been able to create a robust call booking system that has been running for several years.
It’s not something I initially thought the Events module could do, but due to its flexibility - and many optional features - it could be tailored to create the best solution for the job.
3) What has been your most successful project using the CRM system?
Definitely, the ability for Azorus to integrate with SITS, our student information system. This has been the biggest milestone during my time at Westminster and has paved the way for Azorus to spread across the entire student lifecycle here.
Azorus was fantastic at helping to get the integration set up and were always there to make the necessary technical calls with our SITS vendor, Tribal.
We are now able to monitor ROI on recruitment activity as well as target offer-holders for conversion by hosting Applicant Days and sending 'nurture communications' from within Azorus.
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An example of the impact of the integration is the course leader Welcome Communications we sent at the beginning of September 2022. These were course-specific UG and PG Welcomes containing vital information from course leaders about the upcoming start of their course. There were reminders, links, and orientation information specific to the course which took many hours of collecting and building.
Those types of communications had never been done before at Westminster due to the limit of SITS and the scale of the task, but Azorus handles it with ease.
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We saw a significant leap in offer-holder conversion last year, and we know that Azorus had a big part to play in it.
These are some of the CRM components that the University of Westminster uses to gain a competitive advantage.
Prospective Student Lead Scoring
Targeted Personalised Communications
Integration with SITS from Tribal
Advanced Dashboards
Lead Capture Management
Event Management System