1. CRM, Student Communication
and Student Relationship
Management in the Cloud
Case Study

2. 2

3. 3
Case Study
Key Drivers
■ Supporting learners in new
responsive and innovative
ways.
■ Communicating effectively
and efficiently with learners.
■ Improving individualised
marketing and applicant
tracking.
■ New ways of working and
tracking learners.
Intended Beneficiaries
Learners, employers, prospective
learners, partners and staff
Colleges and Projects
Brockenhurst College, Cloud Student Relationship Management
City College Coventry HTML 5 Cloud Technology to deliver Mobile App
Gloucestershire College Cloud Computing in FE (Implementing Software as a Service)
Summary
Brockenhurst College’s project is a collaborative project run by the Wessex Shared Services (an AoC
supported, shared service initiative). A home-grown system ‘Emily’ has played a critical role for nearly
a decade now in driving forward the effectiveness of the College to recruit, support and retain their
learners. Brockenhurst are now re-platforming in the Cloud, using Microsoft Azure, to continue to
support their learners in new, responsive and innovative ways.
City College Coventry’s project aims to support students and communicate critical information to them.
This uses Cloud Mobile technology to deliver an HTML5 mobile app.
Gloucestershire College’s project has been driven by the need for a single system to track and support
learners on their journey onwards from first engaging with the college. It is based on the development of
a new college website which is integrated with Microsoft Dynamics CRM in the Cloud.

4. 4
Case Study
Impact to date and anticipated
Brockenhurst’s project is at the stage of completing technical development. Impact at this stage has been
the experience gained by the project team and using the development to inform the development of a
systems strategy for Wessex Share Services that launches in June 13.
Gloucestershire’s project is going through the digital planning exercise and tender process to select the
appropriate partner, with a planned implementation date in October 13.
City College Coventry’s project has been engaged in development and testing. The App is published on
the Google App store and is awaiting approval of the App by Apple.
Brockenhurst College:” As we move forward in the collaborative world of Wessex Education Shared
Services initiative) we expect our adoption of cloud-based services to increase significantly and rapidly.
Our learning from this project will be invaluable in ensuring that the options are well-understood”.
City College Coventry:” We have been developing HTML 5 mobile app to give access to all the critical
Information systems to the current students. The key outcome of the project is the genuine enagement
with Student community and developing a system which supports their need
Requirement document for the App produced, based on the student feedback”.
Gloucestershire College: “ Projected benefits include considerable impact on the service that we can
provide to our applicants and efficiencies at each stage of the sales funnel (customer journey)”.
Supplier engagement experiences
Brockenhurst College: “An effective relationship was established with the Microsoft UK Azure team”.
Technical and Security Challenges
Brockenhurst College: “There is a risk that there is no redundancy on the internet connectivity available
to the college in Brockenhurst and that this will lead to service inaccessibility once in the cloud (off
campus). Discussions have been started with telecoms providers to identify alternatives so as to support
greater resiliency”.

5. 5
Case Study
Brockenhurst College: “Due diligence was undertaken to test data transfer security and hosting, in
compliance with data protection legislation”.
City College Coventry: “The new technology used to create the App created a sharp learning curve
for the team. Cloud technology has some limitations, and as it stands will not achieve a full native
application functionality .More features can be created on web Apps and then integrated into Mobile
cloud App”.
Change Management experience
Critical to Brockenhurst and Wessex Shared Services’ successful change management, has been detailed project
planning and monitoring - including well considered risk analysis. In forming the partnership, time has to be
allowed for the TUEPing of staff from colleges to the partnership.
Brockenhurst College: There has been rapid learning by the project team about relevant technologies. The project is
already informing wider Wessex Shared Services options and choices”.
Brockenhurst College: “We have been using team foundation service to manage the project using Scrum
techniques. All work and code is hosted using the service, which integrates simply with Azure”.
Return on Investment
Brockenhurst College: “The services are not yet deployed in a live environment. This will be completed
during June 2013, at which time initial data about on-going sustainable cost savings will be gathered.
During the project to date, no new server infrastructure (physical or virtual) has been deployed on college
premises. Traditionally at least one new server would have been purchased for an implementation of
this sort, more likely two (data and applications delivered separately). We can therefore estimate a cost
avoidance to date of c£10k on hardware”.
City College Coventry:” To create a native Mobile App on each platform would cost the college at least 50
development days per platform , so for 3 platforms at least - £75K
Access to college information portals for students is also available on the Mobile platform which should
keep them up to data with college information, and thereby increasing the college retention figures”.

6. 6
Case Study
Lessons Learned
Brockenhurst College: “Project progress is much easier where existing staff skills can be adapted and built upon
(rather than cast out because an entirely new technology is introduced). Skills in Microsoft technologies are
widely available and the Azure platform provides highly relevant learning opportunities for the team”.
Gloucestershire College: “We advise spending significant time on the design of the site and its’ proposed
functionality concurrently with the selection of the web site platform (rather than consecutively). This saves
significant time in the overall process. We also advise ensuroing that all stakeholders are involved in the both
these processes”.

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8. © Association of Colleges 2013
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Tel: 020 7034 9900 Fax: 020 7034 9950
Email: sharedservices@aoc.co.uk Website: www.aoc.co.uk
@info_AoC
With thanks to all project partners who contributed to the development
of this case study and consultant Chris West