5. Where are you now?

This HEI is increasingly focusing on BCE but there is no enterprise-wide CRM system to support this strategy. Whilst there is a dedicated website, email addresses and telephone number for businesses, community and organisations to contact the HEI for research and business engagement, the majority of activities are done pro-actively by the Research Development Office and Schools / Academics with their existing contacts. Moreover, whilst there are some contact management systems in operation within the Alumni Office (Razors Edge) and some centralising of information via existing finance systems (Agresso), different schools, individual academics and staff appear to be holding their own contact databases, either in their own notebooks, simple Excel spreadsheets or in other database systems. Hence, there are duplicated contact details being held by different departments, schools or academics.
At the moment, the interoperability and sharing of data between these systems in this HEI is limited and in most cases, data collection and analysis are done manually among these independent databases. In addition to this, certain staff are also accessing external databases - such as the UK Research Councils, local authorities and companies. It would be impossible to have a general view of the past and on-going projects unless data are pulled and gathered from different systems manually. There is no central control system, which could enable different departments, schools and academics to share information at different stages of BCE.
This HEI recognised that more was needed to be done to provide an enterprise-wide approach to CRM. They considered that the following would help move them towards a more tactical focus:

• Working towards more centralised CRM systems by sharing contact information between at least 2 or 3 departments units

• Well communicated policies regarding information sharing across departments with the aim of ensuring clarity and institutional ‘buy in’

• Harnessing existing contacts (within existing databases) rather than trying to foster new contacts (and databases)

• Clear processes in terms of updating and sharing contact information

This HEI has a well worked up CRM supported process for dealing with BCE enquiries. This institution has a well documented vision for engaging with businesses and is moving towards an enterprise-wide approach to CRM usage. 
The Business Partnership Office (BPO) usually acts as the first contact for business enquiries to the University, which can come from a variety of sources. Enquiries fall into six types corresponding to the main business propositions on the University’s 'Services to Business' web pages and brochures: person, expertise, training, facilities, specific programmes and others. The clients are required to mention the type of enquiry when making their request.
Next, the BPO will assess the company or person who made the request, looking to see if there are any records of previous business or issues relating to this client; in case of previous records of a client not paying for previous services - or any other problems - the request may be refused. Otherwise, a new record is made for the new request or, for a client who has made previous enquiries, the record is updated. The current CRM system cannot, however, track multiple concurrent enquiries from the same client. The contacts are recorded using a customised CRM system built around Microsoft Outlook and Exchange. The CRM system is used within the BPO, by ‘Sector Partnership Champions’ (SPCs) and by Business Development Coordinators in other units. The graduate employability unit also uses the system.
Next, the BPO will identify the relevant academic/department who can deal with the enquiry. If such expertise does not exist within the University the request is usually referred either to Exemplas or to the region’s other HEIs via Ask i10. The enquirer’s permission is asked first. The request is also routed to Sector Partnership Champions (SPCs) and/or faculty Business Development Coordinators. The BPO has agreed with the Heads of School to create a ‘tree’ of representatives and champions who have knowledge of the expertise of the people and research within academic departments and will record, manage and store the clients and tasks. They communicate periodically with the BPO.
There are other ways in which this University is contacted for business purposes either via KT or Graduates Services or directly to the faculties or relevant academics. The faculties have Faculty Client Service teams which include Business Development Coordinators, marketing executives, employability advisors, finance advisors and HR specialists.
The SPC will contact the relevant person concerning the task. If the person can deal with the problem alone then the process is completed and the task accomplished. If there are agreements or contracts to be made, the Intellectual Property Rights and Contracts department is contacted which will draft the agreement or contract and agree with the client.
There are several ways in which this HEI might move towards a more strategic phase.

• Using a single CRM system adopted by all departments / schools and integrated with other corporate information systems such as finance, business development offices, graduate services and marketing and communications;

• Ensuring that institutional policies and senior management instructions around BCE and information sharing were actually put into practice;

• That the right amount of money is invested into the people, process and technology areas needed to ensure successful CRM development.