Australian Technical College

CRM system helps vocational students

Established in February 2007, the Australian Technical College – Perth South (ATC – Perth South) is one of a national network of new independent secondary schools that provide vocational training for Year 11 and 12 apprentices. Designed to assist young people into employment, the colleges organise regular apprenticeships that match local skills shortages with talented students. The college found it difficult to keep track of its 150 first-year apprentices as they rotated every five weeks between the college’s campus and job placements. In particular, it could not collate contact and performance data in a way that enabled it to produce timely and comprehensive reports. By deploying Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 4.0 as a relationship management system, the college centralized all placement-related data, enabling it to track individual- and company-level placement performance, analyze apprenticeship outcomes and trends, monitor local industry needs, and ensure that students gained apprenticeships that offer the best chance of future prosperity.

 

Situation

In 2005, the Australian federal government started to establish a network of 25 technical colleges that could combine high school education with vocational skills training. The objective is to encourage students to stay in school to complete a certificate, and at the same time help them to develop skills in locally needed trades through apprenticeships and placements.

We had too many documents, we couldn’t do any cross-referencing because it was too messy, and managing the information took up too much time. Victor John, Business Relationship Coordinator, ATC – Perth South

The first college to be established in Western Australia opened in February 2007. The Australian Technical College – Perth South (ATC – Perth South) admitted 120 year 11 and 12 apprentices, having identified a number of key trades for which there was local demand. The college organizes placements or apprenticeships for students who work and study in a five-week rotation pattern.

Although the college was set up with new information systems, staff quickly discovered that they had difficulty managing the apprenticeships, specifically in collecting and collating the reports and correspondence than enabled them to track the success of each placement.

“We have five people in the student services department who manage the placements,” says Victor John, Business Relationship Co-ordinator, ATC – Perth South. “But we used spreadsheets to keep track of companies, placement opportunities, students, and performance. The result was that we had too many documents, we couldn’t do any cross-referencing because it was too messy, and managing the information took up too much time.”

By trying to manage placement data manually on spreadsheets, ATC – Perth South encountered a number of administrative problems that inhibited its capacity to help students into optimal placements.

First, the college found it difficult to manage its interactions with local industry and identify the skills shortages on which it should concentrate its placement efforts.

“We needed to manage the corporate relationships better,” says John. “That included doing industry studies and collating the findings with the outcomes of the placements that we made. It’s no good putting students into jobs and then finding there is no demand for the skills.”

Second, the college needed to maintain a system to enable ready contact with students while they were on placement. The college already used a standard education application called Maze, but this was designed to document student grades and could not easily be used to maintain regularly changing contact details.

“Parents who wanted to contact their children would frequently phone us,” says John. “But we couldn’t give them a quick answer as to where they were or what number to reach them on.”

Third, the college found that it could not keep adequate track of the progress of each student placement, with the result that it was difficult for them to assess student performance and the suitability of the company for further placements.

“There was no way for us to collate information on incidents, progress, or results,” says John. “Communications from sponsoring companies were passed on by email or pieces of paper. But we couldn’t automatically tag them to a student – which would give a comprehensive view of how they were getting on. Nor did we have any way of seeing how recently a student had been visited by one of our assessors.”

The take-up of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 was likely to be quicker because of existing skills sets among the Student Services department. Jason Ferguson, General Manager, Aaromba

As a consequence, the college felt that it was not able to provide its industry partners with the level of information they deserved in view of the investments they made in apprenticeships. Neither did the college have the data to determine the most effective placement companies.

“Over 50 percent of our placements are effectively scholarships provided by independent contributors,” explains John. “They wanted data on the numbers who had applied for the apprenticeships, the numbers who had been accepted, the numbers who failed, and statistics on how successful these placements were. And we wanted that data too.”

Solution

Towards the end of 2007, ATC – Perth South began looking for a customer relationship management (CRM) system that could help it keep track of its student placements, believing that these systems could most easily be adapted to its own immediate needs.

‘We had three main criteria,” says John. “We needed a sophisticated reporting function, because we needed to track the placements and record the results in such a way that communications could be logged, results collated, and data analyzed to produce statistics.”

ATC – Perth South also thought that it would need a system that could be easily customized. In particular, it wanted staff to be able to customize specific fields to accommodate curriculum numbers and apprenticeship numbers for each placement.

“From an administrative point of view, it was very important that we were able to change the database on our own,” says John. “In addition, it had to be easy to implement and easy for our staff to use.”

Aaromba, a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner of the Year 2007, contacted ATC – Perth South to assess whether the Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 4.0 package could be quickly and efficiently adapted to fulfill the role of a relationship database.

“We see an increasing demand for CRM systems to become xRM, ie, extendable relationship management,” says Anna Chu, Dynamics Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft Australia. “This means broadening the product function, so that it doesn’t just manage customers, but can manage other stakeholders too, such as students or a mobile workforce.”

In November 2007, the college held a competition to establish the viability of the xRM approach. The Microsoft solution was presented by Aaromba.

“We pitched Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 against rival systems,” says Jason Ferguson, General Manager, Aaromba.

Having emphasized the need to get the system implemented quickly, and for staff to be able to use it proficiently with the minimum of training, Aaromba won the tender.

“The Microsoft product was assessed to be the best suited to the technology environment,” says Ferguson. “The college already used Microsoft Outlook, Exchange, and Word. The other products would have required quite a degree of integration. In addition, the take-up of Microsoft® Dynamics® CRM 4.0 was likely to be quicker because of existing skill sets among the Student Services department.”

This is really important because when we report to parents, we need to have the evidence to back up what we are saying…… because it is hard evidence, it helps parents understand what they need to do to resolve key problems. Victor John, Business Relationship Coordinator, ATC – Perth South

“As CRM specialists, Aaromba were well placed to judge the suitability of the CRM product,” says John. “They gave us a clear project plan and methodology so we always knew exactly what the outcome was going to be and how we were progressing at any time. Aaromba could also provide the training and ongoing support we required.”

After a two-day implementation, Microsoft® Dynamics® CRM 4.0 went live on 10 desktops in April 2008. Administrative staff, as well as staff in the Student Services department received one day of training.

Benefits

By deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 as a relational database and using it to store all apprenticeship data, ATC – Perth South has improved the quality of its skills-training programs. It can comprehensively track the performance of each apprentice placement, identify the most promising placement opportunities, and improve its ability to place apprentices in industries where they have the most promising future.

Performance tracking

Because all of the information connected with an individual placement can be appended to a single student record, the college can maintain accurate contact details, amass all performance data, and ensure that it can provide an accurate account of performance to all placement stakeholders.

Besides being able to connect parents and apprentices quickly whenever they are on placement, ATC– Perth South can also aggregate all information concerning a particular apprenticeship.

“Before we had the systems, the information we got back from companies – how the apprentices got on, if there were any incidents or issues, and whether they were work-ready – were located on any number of spreadsheets. Now, our staff just click on one button and all the information is there in chronological order,” says John.

“This is really important because when we report to parents, we need to have the evidence to back up what we are saying. Especially if an apprentice is performing poorly, we can collect this information and print it in one report. We have used these so many times to address problems, and because it is hard evidence, it helps parents understand what they need to do to resolve key problems.”

Managing private sector relationships

More sophisticated reporting also helps ATC– Perth South better manage its relationships with the employers with whom the success of the college is built. In particular, it can more easily analyze which are the most successful commercial partners.

“Someone used to spend a day every month collecting the data on each of the placements, because it was all kept in different places,” says John. “Then it used to take us three days to put the reports together. Now it is organized, and each month we get the status data at the click of a button.”

These reports help ATC– Perth South to analyze its placements, and to identify trends and potential problems. This is particularly important for scholarships. If companies provide money to support vocational training, they want to know the outcomes – if they fail, they want to know why.

‘We can assess failure rates, but also start to work out the causes,” says John. “For example, we can generate a report highlighting students who have failed in their first three months, and see if there is a trend. If there is, we can work with the employer to see what needs to be done to improve the outcomes of each placement.”

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 also assists the college in attracting commercial partners to its training programs. ATC – Perth South staff market the college to private enterprise to encourage companies to take on apprentices. The system has enabled them to devise a simple media reporting mechanism.

“We can see how many enquiries we receive from a particular campaign, and how many of these eventually enrol apprentices,” says Marissa Crouch, Marketing Coordinator and Scholarships, ATC – Perth South. “By entering all enquiry data onto the CRM system, we can see whether different marketing media actually work. It’s fantastic to be able to map the statistics.”

Pursuing optimal opportunities

According to John, probably the greatest benefit of deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is that it helps the college to direct its apprentices towards industries that will give them the greatest chance of early success.

“Every day, we enter the number of jobs that are open in companies contacting us and we can see if the number of jobs in a particular industry is increasing. In addition, we have hard data on the success rates of getting students into work in a particular industry,” he says.

“The upshot is that we can learn and adapt. We get to know quickly where there is prosperity in the local economy, and we increase the apprenticeships we organize in those areas.”

The college recently noticed a dip in jobs available in construction work, so it quickly curtailed construction industry placements. Conversely, the college observed an increase in the demand for boilermaking skills, so it increased the number of scholarships it offered to local boilermaking firms.

“Ultimately, the CRM system helps us concentrate on teaching students the industry skills that are in demand,” says John. “That is exactly what we were set up to do, and that gives our apprentices the best start to their working life.”

Microsoft® Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics® is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solutions that helps businesses work more effectively. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialized services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.

For more information about Microsoft Dynamics®, go to: www.microsoft.com/australia/dynamics

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call 1800 197 960. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/australia/ dynamics/

For more information about Aaromba products and services, call 1 300 558 101 visit the Web site at: www.aaromba.com

For more information about The Australian Technical College – Perth South products and services, call 1 300 303 677 or visit the Web site at: http://www.atcperth.edu.au/