UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Over time, many people will have a variety of relationships with Penn State: from a prospective to accepted to matriculating student to an alum, and then perhaps employee, employer or even donor. The order may vary, and a person may have multiple relationships at once. A new Enterprise Constituent Relationship Management (ECRM) approach is being implemented to help manage these evolving relationships so the University can quickly identify stakeholders and respond to their unique needs. ECRM is a constituent-centered strategy with supporting technology that optimizes the value of stakeholder relationships over their full life cycle and across all their University connections.
Currently, many Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) systems exist across Penn State. They are instrumental in managing key relationships but are not integrated, which can slow down or prevent collaboration between areas and miss new constituent engagement opportunities. Penn State’s ECRM systems, powered by Salesforce, will facilitate quick connections, deep analytics and lifelong constituent relationships.
Rich Bundy, vice president for Development and Alumni Relations, is enthusiastic about the new capabilities. Development and Alumni Relations, along with Corporate Engagement, will be the first groups at the University to transition into this new ECRM ecosystem.
“Quite simply, this Enterprise CRM project will significantly enhance Penn State’s ability to engage our important external stakeholders in the life of the institution in a more holistic, customized manner by facilitating collaboration and information-sharing across multiple units,” said Bundy. “Various units across the institution know bits and pieces of how our stakeholders connect to Penn State; when we bring all those bits and pieces together, we will have a more complete picture of how best to engage our stakeholders in a deeper, more fulfilling and rewarding way — for them and for us.”
Implementing the ECRM approach is a significant change effort for the University. This week, the project’s executive and functional sponsors and core project team will meet to kick off the strategy for understanding and engaging Penn State’s constituents.
"We're excited to have a talented internal project team driving this work for us, alongside our experienced external partners assisting with planning and implementation," said Jen Stedelin, vice president for Information Technology and chief information officer. "Although we are in the early stages of development, I am excited by the future possibilities ECRM will bring to life for Penn State."
Questions and interest in ECRM can be submitted to the project team, and updates will be added regularly to the website.