HIGHER EDUCATION CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM): FOCUS ON STUDENTSUDC

Milovic BorisFaculty of Sports, Union Nikola Tesla University Abstract.In the work of higher education institutions there is a need for Customer Relationship Management CRM which will help to create and maintain relationships with existing and potential students. The goal is to find, attract and create a positive image of higher education institution in order to become respected in wide circles and ultimately attract potential donors. Academic institutions increasingly perceive students as users of their services. Implementation of CRM solutions in these institutions enables them to create a strong relationships with students and other interested parties (alumni, parents, staff, donors, etc.). The possibility of distance learning, web development, electronic commerce, the emergence of a large number of different faculties have contributed to the development and implementation of CRM project in higher education. Perception of the students as customer provides a competitive advantage for higher education and increases the capacity for educational institutions to attract, retain and serve its customers.

Key words:customer relationship management; CRM; e-CRM; higher education; high education institutions; online learning.IntroductionEvents in today's economy, scientific and technological revolution and information era create a complex environment that impose a constant necessity to maintain adjustment and innovation in all areas of life. Education as the main driving force and the base of every society requires special attention when it comes to adapting the concept of the educational system, as well as continuous review of its efficiency and competitiveness.CRM strategy of non-profit institutions at its core in the higher education sector includes colleges, high schools and universities. The term CRM is implemented in the operations of every institution in the higher education sector, but it is not recognized as CRM strategy. Its role in this segment is to offer and to customize the behavior of the institution on education market, since they affect the lives of people from local communities, on the way of life, and particularly the status in society. Higher education institutions are organizations focused on providing services and certain factors that are part of the marketing activities are found. All institutions have: Product offered courses of study, schooling, multimedia classrooms, lessons in nature, sports associations; Service teaching, finding the company where they will perform professional practice (such as additional services), library and information services, personal development programs; customers (targeted group) potential students;Cost tuition, fees, etc..; distribution the place to transfer knowledge from teachers to students (can be physically in the classroom, but today there is more and more online use of personal computer through various portals for e-learning); competition other colleges and universities that offer the same or similar programs of study. In this case, higher education institutions could carry out targeted marketing, which means that the institution has chosen one or more market segments and developed a specific offer to meet the needs.

Higher education has expanded remarkably in recent decades. Growth is, by all measures, fasterthan anticipated. Projections gave 120 million students worldwide by 2020, but that number hasalready been achieved (Daniel, Kanwar, & Uvalic-Trumbic, 2006).Over the past decade, growth in student enrollment in some European countries is presented in the following table, showing a significant rate of increase in the number of students:Table 1: Student enrollment trends (Unesco Institute for Statistics, 2012)Student enrollment trends in public and private universities in European countries

Country19992009%

Austria252,893.00308,150.0082,07

Belgium351,788.00425,219.0082,73

Cyprus10,842.0030,986.0034,99

Denmark189,970.00234,574.0080,99

Finland262,890.00296,691.0088,61

France2,012,193.002,172,855.0092,61

Iceland8,462.0016,919.0050,01

Ireland151,137.00182,609.0082,77

Israel246,806.00342,707.0072,02

Italy1,797,241.002,011,713.0089,34

Malta5,768.0010,352.0055,72

Netherlands469,885.00618,502.0075,97

Norway187,482.00219,282.0085,50

Portugal356,790.00373,002.0095,65

Spain1,786,778.001,800,834.0099,22

Sweden335,124.00422,580.0079,30

Switzerland156,390.00233,488.0066,98

United Kingdom2,080,960.002,415,222.0086,16

Understanding the factors and circumstances that create a market environment is a primary goal of modern-oriented higher education institutions in order to align the offer with current demands and define the appropriate CRM strategy. CRM strategy formulation process of higher education institutions, in addition to consideration of existing services, represents identifying new opportunities, analyzing and positioning with regard on the relevant competition. The need for change in marketing strategy and market restructuring of higher education institutions appears as a natural consequence of the economic system pulsing based on the dynamics of market needs and competition.Effective marketing strategy should be built onmission, vision and values purpose and goals of the higher education institution need to be defined; financial analysis it needs to be determined what services and markets make money and which consume it; portfolio analysis; reputation and image assessment; a relative SWOT analysis; competitor evaluation; an appreciation of the regulatory and policy framework; market needs/demand analysis and forecasting; understanding consumer behavior how choices are made; marketing evaluation (resources, competencies, integration, etc.); feedback from current and recent users, members, students, clients, parents (ec.europa.eu, 2008).Through the promotion of addressing the targeted segment with adopted CRM strategy higher education institution convey messages about its programs, the possibility of additional education, the acquisition of specific knowledge and it is transmitted by the messengers of the institution,teaching staff, governing body (deans), and nothing less of a role has other staff of the institution that can greatly affect the positive or negative image.Higher education are faced nowadays with many challenges when it comes to CRM implementation. Users of higher education have much higher expectations than they did several years ago. Increased competition drives educational institutions that are leaders in providing higher education to examine existing business practices in order to differentiate themselves from others. The use of CRM is widespread in the corporate sector, although higher education is far behind with CRM implementation.CRM is an initiative that focuses on developing and coordinating a detailed review of clients across business applications and business units of the organization (Nair, Chan, & Fang, 2007). CRM provides easy integration of multiple business areas that are in contact with the client marketing, sales, customer service and support in the field by integrating people, processes and technology. Higher education sector is a large market for CRM implementation. Providers of CRM solutions realize this fact and therefore develop CRM solutions that can fit in all processes that work with the constituents in higher education institutions.Benefits of CRM have been at first applied by production companies (consumer goods, durable consumer goods, industrial equipment, etc..) and at the end, the service companies and organizations. It is important to note that in recent decades in developed countries marketing has been applied in areas for which it was considered that its use was not ethical (accounting, health care, law, education, architecture ...).Successful CRM solution necessarily involves defining the strategy, identifying process and executing the plan. The aim of such solution in the case of higher education institutions is the maximization of established relationships with students through rigorous monitoring and management of comprehensive interactions during the entire duration of the student life cycle from timid requests for information about faculty, to alumni donor status.Strength of CRM lies in its necessary foundation: strong database, network speed, ERP (Enterprise resource planning) automation of back-office functions, acceptance of the Internet, and communications technologies. CRM is a business strategy that encompasses the entire organization and it is designed to optimize revenue and customer satisfaction by organizing institution based on customer segments. Developing a CRM system in higher education institutions is not always as easy transition as it is in the business sphere. Therefore, CRM technologies, applications and processes require adaptation to the distinct characteristics of the institution. This strategy can bring a serious change in the existing organizational culture and behavior (Fayerman, 2002).CRM infrastructure is consisted of four components, information, processes, technology and people. Each of these four components is critical in delivering successful CRM program (Virgiyanti, Bakar, & Tufail, 2010).One of the biggest challenges for vendors of CRM solutions for the education sector is the ability to develop solutions specific to the department level, where processes are unique to individual departments, and also the ability to deliver solutions at the corporate level so that information can be stored, resources shared and cooperation increased.The necessity of developing CRM in the relationships of educational institutions and studentsConcept of CRM in higher education sector needs to be understood as a fundamental strategic orientation of the entire university aiming at the increase of student satisfaction and the creation of additional value for the students as well as for the university. The goal is to bind students to the academy not only during their years of study but also after they graduate (Hilbert, Schonbrunn, & Schmode, 2007). The main difference between profit and nonprofit organizations and thus higher education institutions is that non-profit are directed at various audiences which is less able to influence the fate of theirorganizations compared to the profit ones. Attention of the non-profit organizations is focused on service users and the ultimate goal is their satisfaction. Higher satisfaction scores explain positive changes in referral behavior of students (Persson & Ryals, 2010).Process of defining the targeted market and reviewing the factors that influence the customer behavior is complex, and all this makesmarket segmentation and defining appropriate strategy more difficult.In essence, the idea of many CRM initiatives is that value-based segmentation is deployed with the customer base so as to identify and split out groups of customers according to how much they are worth to the organization(Tapp, Hicks, & Stone, 2004).Nowadays relationship between institutions and students is more complex than ever.Expectations regarding student services, communication and technology, combined with increased competition in the market of higher education sector brings many challenges and opportunities for today's higher education institutions.Maintaining this unique relationship with students, from the initial registration, enrollment and graduation through alumni donations and financial status, is crucial to the success of these institutions.High education institutions can no longer see their operations as separate and independent.Today's constituents of higher education expect services across all academic, administrative, social and alumni activities (oracle.com, 2008).Obsolete higher education systems do not have much to offer students, especially new students who, with the help of technology, want to be more in control of their environment for education.On the other hand, in the new learning environment, faculty and student services are closely linked, dynamically sharing resources and strategies to enable student learning (Lvanya, 2011).Prerequisite of the satisfaction is that higher educational institution creates and provides students with a greater value than the competition. This value is what makes students choose to purchase and use products/services of particular higher education institution. Every higher education institution seeks to provide customers with a product/service that will bring them additionalvalue. In this way it differs from competitors, and throughout the meeting of the needs of customer it can influence their satisfaction and thus retain them. By understanding the elements that constitutes, i.e. give satisfaction to the students, management of the higher education institution can "manage" customer satisfaction.

ReliabilityResponsivenessAssuranceEmpathyTangiblesPro4duct QualityService QualityPricesSituational FactorsCustomerSatisfactionPersonal FactorsFigure 1: Customer perception of service quality and customer satisfaction (Rostamy, 2009)Of particular importance in higher education institutions is the use of social networks on the Internet, that is to create high-quality profiles and communicate with potential and existing students.In recent years social networks have evolved from those that provide insight into several images to the real business platforms and a very powerful marketing tool.They offer lots of content, allowing users to achieve communication with each other in a far more efficient and fun way.The fact that makes them powerful is the number of users that is increasing indefinitely from day to day.Different profiles of users of social networks with different interests will create their own groups within the network and thus it will make it easier to find targeted group.Through a profile on social networks, higher education institutions can look for potential students, invite interested parties to organized events and carry out a complete marketing campaign.Higher education institution can daily add new contents, video clips and articles about the school on its profile and thus control the image of the school where theres always something happening, that cooperate, organize, monitor and take care of its students.The advantage of this method of communication with the targeted group and the general public is also measurable, since within a social network, it can be found out who is our "friend", how many we have, what age they are, education level, their interests and similar information. Any educational institution can afford its profile on social networks regardless of their budget.Students require a high level of access to information about their options, performance and their future. They also require that technological resources are an integral part of their educational experience. Standards for access to High education institutions and student services have changed as students want virtual access to resources of university and student services. The old ways of interacting with students are becoming unsustainable as the expectation that students stand in line for hours while instead they can choose an institution that can respond to their needs, with the appropriate layout, using virtual support system (Grant & Anderson, 2002).All institutions of higher education have a variety of stakeholders, and while each institution must work to satisfy them, the stakeholder with the most influence is the customer the student (Seeman & OHara, 2006). Students are categorized as primary beneficiaries of education and should therefore be viewed as customers (Yeo, 2008). The most common understanding of service quality is its connection with the participation of professors and students in relation with the certain level of professionalism/intimacy, which directly affects the immediate and lifetime learning. In managing the student participation in the education process, the quality of the experience as perceived by them will depend on their values and expectations (Telford & Masson, 2005). The emphasis on continuous improvement is the key for sustainability of quality services.Seen from the perspective of CRM, the concept of student life cycle can be divided into phases that students go through when considering and using the services of educational institutions. Phases through which the student passes during its life cycle are as follows (Nair, Chan, & Fang, 2007): Prospect a student who could be a potential candidate for the school Candidate a potential student who is in the process of gathering information and forming an opinion on school Applicant a student who decided to enroll in the institution Accepted student a student whom the school has decided to accept Enrolled student a stage where student becomes part of an institution Alumni at this stage, students are satisfied with their academic experience creating long-term loyalty to their school.Higher education institutions appear to be extremely concerned about their standing and image in the marketplace. To this end, their name or reputation often underpins their existence (Beneke, BusSc, & BusSc, January 2011). School reputation is very important when choosing a faculty in which student wishes to enroll. Higher education brand image is visibility and reputation of colleges and universities formed in the long-term development. Higher education brand image is an important indicator in student recruitment, teacher recruitment and obtaining employment for students (Liu, Duan, & Li, 2010). CRM solutions for higher education need to create an awareness among potential faculty candidates through segmentation and tailored personalized messaging. High education institutions must step into the lives of potential students in the early stages of their planning for higher education. With this personalized content, higher education institutions can enable the creation of relationships with students even before the student enters school. They must share the elements that prospective students can use in order to identify an appropriate program and institution that offers it. The importance of using authentic resources and benefits of gathering information from current students, alumni, and advisors available at the facility must be emphasized. Prospective students must be informed of how and why personal ability, interest and resources should be evaluated before selecting a program, regardless of its popularity and the prospectus. Details of how the program is accepted in the industry, government and other institutions must be divided. Students must be informed in order to analyze the prospectus of the program in terms of business opportunities, further study, and also their entrepreneurial and professional content. Such analysis should be a factor in the time for which the student expects to complete the program. Above all, the strength of the program to support alternative routes, if unexpected situations close all opportunities when a student graduates, must be examined. It may also be useful to share the details of similar programs provided by other institutions. High education institutions must provide to students all the tools necessary to investigate, analyze and make informed decisions. Whenevernecessary, marketing departments can include academic staff, students, alumni, and members from the industry and the career counselors and academic advisors (Ramachandran, 2010). All these efforts will minimize the problems that managers of higher education institutions and students are facingbased on the lack of information, deferred counseling, and career counseling. Students who participate in student organizations and leadership development events tend to believe or realize that leadership skills may help them secure a job in the future, more so than those who do not participate. That might be an incentive strong enough for them to participate(Clark, Backhaus, Tsai, & Erdinc, 2010).Once the student enters college, the challenge is to be kept there. Retention activity is normally directed to the traditional comprehensive programs, counseling and activities aimed at students. The number of programs for managing enrollment that advertise the institution are growing and their efforts are paying off(Seeman & OHara, 2006). By analogy, academic institutions are increasingly perceiving students as the users of their services. Implementation of CRM solutions in these institutions enables them to create strong relationships with students and other stakeholders (alumni, parents, staff, donors, etc.) (Miloevi, 2006).There are potential three types of student users in the context of higher education, right, wrong and risky right users (Virgiyanti, Bakar, & Tufail, 2010). The right users provide long-term returns for the organization in the form of alumni donations, which can persist for years after graduation. Wrong users are those who do not offer this type of long-term revenue but also they are inadequate because of the critical features of academic preparation and benefits they are seeking from higher education. Wrong users have the ability to drive away high-risk right users. Right users must be retained, wrong users must be allowed to drop out and risky right users must be recovered. Strategies must be set to their proper placeso that institution can achieve its competitive goals and long-term profitability. Institutions need to timely detect high-risk students to prevent them to transfer to another institution or to prevent them to drop out. CRM has to identify risk factors so that teachers can intervene in time to encourage students to continue their education at the institution.Withdrawals from the university can take place at any stage in the institution-student relationship. Once the relationship has broken down, the likelihood of de-registration and formal withdrawal is high. Universities and colleges need to manage each of the stages in the relationship life cycle, even though the service staff at each stage may be different. A whole college and coherent strategy of retention is necessary. In addition, retention strategies need to embrace all stages in the life cycle of student(Rowley, 2003).Student loyalty after graduation is different from a simple customer loyalty to the product. It includes activities such as providing students with information regarding employment, providing practices for current students, holding a reception for prospective students to talk about the institution, maintaining contact with other students who completed their education, helping in fundraising for the school, attending alumni meetings, and other related activities (Ehigie, 2009). It is important that school stays in touch with former students because they can engage in activities that will help promote the image of the school. Student loyalty after graduation depends on the efficiency of managing the expectations of student performance, service and satisfaction with the services they received as students. Based on student satisfaction for the time spent at university their future loyalty to the university can be predicted. The school must provide appropriate services to students so the loyalty may remain even after graduation. Consideration of the school needs to go in the direction of academic and social services, because both areas are very important for student loyalty after graduation.CRM business strategy is intended to provide support to students during the recruitment and enrollment. Marketing and management processes and applications can provide support and recruitment for enrollment and fundraising. The institution may target specific groups, using data analysis to determine which potential candidate would be likely to sign up. Personalized mails campaigns are run using e-mail and traditional mail. With each e-mail, the potential candidate would receive a personal identification code to access the university. To all candidates who do not respond in any way (Internet, e-mail, phone, fax, etc.) would again have been accompanying e-mail message (Grant & Anderson, 2002).CRM for administrative systems of High education institutions also provide true self-maintaining system that encourages an administrative team to review the investment of administrative resources in institutional services.Transferringresponsibility for the information to students and faculty members, and encouraging them to complete the relevant processes and secure access to vital information, administrators can focus on more productive, rewarding, and satisfying activities such as making personal connections with students and helping them make plans for the future(Grant & Anderson, 2002).Approach of the staff in managing relationships with students is a key factor for the success of CRM. During the implementation of CRM and innovation strategy of institutions must be reviewed and adapted in such a way that is really user friendly. However, this change may result in changes in the role of many employees. Business processes and organizational structures are setting the behavior of employees, but all the rules cannot be set. To be successful in changing staff roles, management of the institution must develop and clarify the vision of that change to employeesalong with clear rules, which employees can accept and identify with. They need to collect financial and personal resources, to make appropriate action plans and in the end, which is very important, to provide the knowledge necessary for these changes and to build motivation and evaluation systems. Managers will always play a key role in managing of the change in CRM (Vlkova & Bednarikova, 2007). Administrative staff whose job is to perform contacts with students must be composed of employees who are oriented towards relationships, who must seek to assist and care with the ability to observe the situation from the students point of view. Their work is dependent on the flexible support of computer technology, with which they are able to do their job effectively. The institution must provide the new staff supplementary courses, retraining, or to adapt them based on specialty and organizational mechanisms. Taking into account the constantly changing demands for knowledge and capabilities of man in modern society, the current staff also needs to upgrade their knowledge and skills to be able to respond tothe new challenges that their job is bringing. Competitive advantage is based on creating and maintaining relationships with valuable customers by providing high quality services, whose quality is associated with the work of staff, which has a strong correlation with their educational level, knowledge, skills and motivation. Trained staff creates value for both the company and users.The conditions for the development of CRM in Higher EducationHigh education institutions should take into account all, including current, former, prospective students, parents, faculty staff, government organizations, vendors, corporate sponsors and the entire community. These users can be grouped into three categories: consumers, business users and internal users. Each user group has to interact with different functional areas of a college or university. Knowing the user's interest, identified through historical records, can enhance all interactions and overall relationships that higher education institutions has with its customers. Conversion of historical information into the user's knowledge can be useful for customers as well as higher education institutions. A set of processes and technologies that can together convert customer information into user knowledge is in fact customer relationship management CRM. Technical innovations have made CRM a reliable, affordable and implementable technology (Fayerman, 2002).The rapid development of CRM system, as pointed out is related to the development of information communication technology and the Internet.In order to support the goals of student-centered education, student information systems must have the improved application process that allows anytime, anywhere registration with date based settings in order to support both traditional and distributed learning opportunities. Access to student services should be provided so that students can access and update their information without assistance or services of the staff unless a problem arises. In addition, comprehensive monitoring of date keeps all the historic and status changes of student records accessible over the Internet. All interactions are immediately stored in the database and in the appropriate process. Information about students and employees should be accessible to all CRM functions with appropriate protection (Seeman & OHara, 2006). With the elimination of multiple databases and the resulting double records, overview of students is no longer distributed throughout the organization. Instead, the student data are put into one place in a single system. This data integration increases coordination among functional areas and synchronizes processes, and therefore improves customer service. Information about all colleges can be collected and stored in one central data warehouse. This central repository enables retrieval of data and reporting for analytical purposes such as data mining and for operational tasks such as planning and registration. All systems use electronic forms instead of paperwork that must be carried or sent between departments.Departments and offices operate as separate entities in many High education institutions today. Faced with the limitations in this distribution, it is very difficult for these different institutional functions to focus on their customers in a coordinated manner. By providing a common platform for customer communication and interaction, CRM solutions are designed to eliminate organizational barriers that hinder proactive customer interaction. CRM applications are also designed to increase efficiency of staff members who interact with students and potential candidates. The use of CRM applications can lead to improved responsiveness to customer requirements and a comprehensive overview of the entire student lifecycle. CRM solutions that are tied directly into the ERP system are especially powerful because the institution can meet the needs of users through a closed series of well-defined steps and processes. Given that CRM applications provide a framework for creating, promoting and executing best practices in customer-oriented activities, ERP provides support, resources and operational applications in order to make the organization more effective in achieving these goals (Grant & Anderson, 2002).Satisfaction with faculty programs and services is a critical measure of performance. CRM can play a significant role here. Many students perceive the administrative activities as a "necessary evil", and therefore information system, with improved CRM initiative that provides a personalized approach for rapid completion of these activities, can be a strong incentive to choose a particular institution (Seeman & OHara, 2006). Adoption of CRM systems is coherent in those organizations that practiceuser-focused approach. The ultimate goal that is pursued by organizations that use such systems is to provide customers with additional value based on personalized understanding of their preferences (Daradoumis, Rodrguez-Ardura, Faulin, Juan, Xhafa, & Martnez-Lpez, 2010). A successful CRM strategy must include the effective use of technology, data integration, such as knowledge management, data warehousing, sophisticated channel systems for the delivery and analytics. A key element of CRM strategy involves the architecture of customer information that enables accurate and integrated customer information. The best approach is to develop a customer data warehouse, and delivery channels such as tools for campaign management and customer service applications. Collaborative architecture provides a single point contacts through the organizational portals and analytical systems that allow decision makers to analyze customer information (Fayerman, 2002).The benefits of using CRM in contemporary higher educationAcademic institutions have far less problems in terms of computer literacy of their customers than companies that work with the public, so therefore it doesnt surprise quick adopting of CRM concept and endeavor to make a concept of preparation and conducting the teachings more appropriate to the moment and state of the facts. In this sense there is the recommendation to definitely consider implementing the following activities: Working to create opportunities to hear the voice of students and respond to it appropriately throughout the lifetime of the student. This includes the concept of continuing education, which automatically extends the life of a student/alumni in the life of a person; The creation of the overall "look" to the student regardless of the access channels to collect customer information. The information provided would then have to be available to the relevant departments; Proliferation of access channels is necessary primarily based on the Internet, it has to promote awareness towards the implementation of individualized portals; Collecting mentioned information must be used to create reports and conducting the analysis for the timely spotting of trendsand taking appropriate steps.The management of higher education institutions should view the managing relationships with students (CRM) as a key business process. CRM differs from traditional customer service because it represents a systematic approach to developing organizational structures and inter-unit processes, while customer service is typically based on transactional approaches and approaches related to specific events. CRM directs the functional areas of support, customer service, planning, marketing and strategic management of accounts. It involves effective coordination and communication between these functional areas, with the clarity of purpose focused on customer needs (Conant, 2003). While customer service focuses on delivery and support of specific products and services, customer relationship management is trying to understand how users actually use the products and services and how to measure the resulting outcomes. Customer relationship management is associated with the satisfying, measuring and improving business processes (Milovi, 2013).On the one hand, CRM provides the High education institutions a clear and complete picture of each individual student and all the activities the student performs within the institution, on the other hand, CRM allows students to carry out interactions with the university as a separate entity by providing a clear understanding of its status within the organization. For students this includes information on enrollment, registration, financial aid, student accounts and accommodation. Another application of CRM in the High education institutions is in the educational advancement. CRM enhances the interaction with alumni and donors at all stages and fund-raising activities, and improves relationships with alumni with application of customized and targeted information towards users through the appropriate contact mechanisms (Fayerman, 2002). Benefits of CRM application in the educational progress are increased campaign efficiency and intermediation, increased average amount of donations, increased user satisfaction, reduced costs of campaigns, and increased alumni participation.CRM technological tools available in the field of education make possible to exploit the potential of databases, data mining systems and interaction technologies with the aim to collect and store large amounts of information about the characteristics and behaviors of students, and to create knowledge about them that would be made available to teachers so that they can more effectively contribute to the educational process of students. However, conventional technologies are limited to collecting and analyzing information about student behavior and virtual environment; especially when students work together in carrying out educational activities (Daradoumis, Rodrguez-Ardura, Faulin, Juan, Xhafa, & Martnez-Lpez, 2010).CRM brings the following advantages to higher education institutions (Miloevi, 2006): Faster access to information; The existence of quality data; Better attraction of potential students; Better informed students; A higher level of student retention; Improved management of resources.CRM system for higher education institutions allows users to consolidate the list of students and alumni in a central database. This includes e-mail marketing tools that monitor responses and calculate return on investment. Students questions can be monitored and can immediately respond to them. Tools for event management can manage invitations and reminders. Options of retention and improvement facilitate a long-term relationship with students through integrated student information systems and systems management courses. The control panel will allow users to view reports and analysis ofenrolment and campaign results and other data (5 Best CRM for Higher Education, 2011).Management of the relationship may be a key strategy for coping with the challenges unique to higher education institutions, like usually politicized environment, a strong emphasis on building consensus, problems with funding and budget and individual or faculty power of veto. Significant changes in the expectations of incoming students also contribute to the importance of relationship management strategies. Customer relationship management is a holistic, integrated approach which is applied across the organization to manage customer relationships in relation to time. Often, it requires a dramatic change in IT management. Nature of relationship management in IT today and its significance for higher educational environment provides a framework for understanding how its successful execution can dramatically improve the way the user sees IT. Relationship management strategy helps to match IT resources to the requirements of the organization, and it can help to mitigate the usual criticisms of IT such as (Conant, 2003): Lack of responses to academic and business needs; Inefficient usage of IT resources; Inability to effectively and quickly develop a new technology; System silos organized around business units and technology; Poor communication between IT and institutional constituents faculty, administration and students.Whether the management of relationships is managed by dedicated account managers or it is integrated into the role and responsibility of existing staff, a number of key performance indicators predict the likelihood of successful execution. Relationship management strategy should have characteristics such as executive management commitment, a commitment to building relationships with customers and business partners, responsibilities, agreement on the definition of success, the process performance indicators (which include financial performance, process performance, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction), relationship managers with expertise in business processes and knowledge of the systems that support their clients, a clear understanding of technology, the credibility of managers who manage with relationships and the IT of the organization, relationship management objectives should be included in the overall strategic plan.Student directed marketing units in higher education generally focus more on responding to the needs of students rather than on identifying strategies to sell their own products. Considering their great commitment to the community, marketing managers also involve themselves in a developing of the market that is strong and accept or reject the higher education services available to them. Interestingly, beside group of interested academic staff, the marketing unit is the only team that has an easy and early access to internal and external information about the various developments in the higher education sector, particularly with regard towards new products and anticipated changes in the various higher education institutions. Marketing teams also carry out the necessary checks to ensure that the higher education products have appropriate quality. They communicate with academic staff to understand the structure of the various programs, their main goals, and job opportunities, and analyze how they are ranked in comparison with similar programs offered by other institutions. Likewise, the academic staff also joins the marketing team to provide details that may be useful for potential students (Ramachandran, 2010).The most frequently met type of marketing activity that universities conduct is strong promotion and communication towards potential applicants related to increasing recruitment and admission. However, marketing specific actions should not stop here, the essence of satisfying the consumer (the student as primary consumer) is to offer him quality services (educational and support services). Therefore providing good student experience plays a major role in ensuring student satisfaction (Nicolescu, 2009).CRM provides a new conceptual and structural framework for the management of institutional activities in order to win over and retain customers. The following are ways in which all users of institutions can benefit from increased access to information and services (Grant & Anderson, 2002): Students, alumni, faculty members and staff can access and update information from any device with Internet anywhere in the world; The evolution of "point-to-point" integration between applications and databases which includes a facility with an integrated library of business rules and workflow processes will blur the differences between students, finance, alumni, and human resource systems; The need for the customer base becomes the focus rather than strict procedural structure that is the focus of the present systems; Administrative systems are seamlessly integrated with instructional computing and communication systems.CRM solution enables higher education organizationsitmanage the complete lifecycle of the student, from winning over candidate to the alumni management through learning centers. Better understanding of the needs of candidates and a significant increase in the rates of winning over the students is another of the benefits of CRM system, as well as the automated management of marketing campaigns, allowing optimization and increased efficiency in communication and less time for attracting students. Allowing enhanced process efficiency and substantial savings, CRM solution for higher education enables to academic institutions to achieve enrollment quota, retention and advancement goals by building a strong relationship with the student community and stakeholders throughout the institution.One of the key questions that need to be addressed in any CRM process that aims to obtain successful results is the question of monitoring and evaluation of customer performance in order to know the proper way to address and, if necessary, specific actions to improve.ConclusionCustomer relationship management creates the perfect relationship between the seller and the buyers - between the school and its students.In a dynamic and competitive environment, the future success of educational institutions is based on the ability to differentiate themselves from competitors and build up a significant relationship not only with current students, but also with potential. To achieve this, one must use the full potential of the internal systems through the integration and use of CRM that provides easy access to the disseminated information from all types of databases and resources, while maintaining the necessary high quality of services provided to students (Virgiyanti, Bakar, & Tufail, 2010). Improving the reputation of the faculty with potential students, increasing the rate of registration and enrollment, and increasing student satisfaction, are only one part of a comprehensive CRM solution. This solution must also provide reduced costs while also maximizing revenue. CRM for higher education sector should be possible to achieve these goals and also to develop valuable relationships with students throughout their life cycle.Higher education products are highly intangible and have characteristics that limit the application of marketing framework (Ramachandran, 2010). Emerging CRM processes and technology will manage the growth of new types of resources and services. Within higher education organizations, the majority of these new features will be on focused in CRM. This new level of student-related features and performance will have an impact on students and the administrative staff and management, faculty, and institutions as a whole (Grant & Anderson, 2002). For the High education institutions, this means increased revenue through improved recruitment and retention, reduced recruitment costs, improved customer service, fasterstudents winning over, increased student satisfaction. Business of higher education should be focused on the people it serves, and not on administrative systems. While CRM efforts are often very demanding, the benefitsthat are eventually obtained are impressive.References5 Best CRM for Higher Education. (2011). 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