From Students to Alumni: Implementing CRM to Build Lifelong Relationships at HEC Montréal

Description

From Students to Alumni: Implementing CRM to Build Lifelong Relationships at HEC Montréal: Abstract

This case recounts the implementation of a customer relationship management (CRM) system in what is considered a non-traditional use case for this category of enterprise system. In the early 2010s, HEC Montréal, a leading Canadian business school in Montreal, Quebec, had to devise new strategies to respond to profound changes taking place in the labour market as well as within the higher education sector. To that end, the school embarked on a project to implement a CRM system to build and maintain strong bonds with its prospective, current, and past students.

This three-part case study covers:

• The inception of the CRM project as one of strategic relevance to HEC Montréal
• The decisions that had to be made with regard to the implementation strategy – namely whether to adopt a plan-driven or an agile approach and whether to deploy the CRM on-premises or through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider
• The unfolding of the first phases of the implementation.

Multi-part case

• Part A
• Part B (for teachers only)
• Part C (for teachers only)

Teaching objectives

• Part A: Understand how CRM can help an organization achieve its strategic objectives. Identify contextual elements that drive IT implementation to execute a management strategy in the context of higher education. Understand how CRM, a type of digital technology, can help organizations improve their customer relationships.
• Part B (for teachers only): Identify risk factors in a CRM implementation. Analyze project management approaches and deployment models as tactics to mitigate risk factors in a CRM implementation. Develop an awareness of the implications of project management approaches (plan-driven and agile) and deployment models (on-premises and SaaS) to IT projects.
• Part C (for teachers only): Understand that IT implementations for strategic purposes are complex projects in which technology may not be the most challenging factor.

Main themes covered

• Strategic relevance of IT
• Dimensions of IT implementation planning
• IT implementation

Concepts & theories related to the case

• Strategic relevance of IT
• Dimensions of IT implementation planning
• IT implementation

Additional information

Teaching notes are available for teachers only. Contact the HEC Montréal Case Centre for more information.