The student lifecycle at HEC Montréal
To support its operations as a teaching institution, HEC Montréal relied on a variety of functions, or “services.” Each service handled a specific aspect of a student’s lifecycle at HEC Montréal, whether they were contemplating studying at HEC Montréal, currently studying there, or had studied there in the past.2 Figure 1 illustrates the growing complexity of the student lifecycle as a result of ongoing changes in the higher education sector.
Note: solid arrows represent the traditional lifecycle of a student at HEC Montréal following a standard program (e.g., undergraduate, MBA). Dashed arrows indicate additional programs that a student may follow throughout their entire career.
Figure 1. Student lifecycle at HEC Montréal
The Office of the Registrar
One of the most important points of contact for prospective and current students was the Office of the Registrar, the main service managing the creation and maintenance of student records. All student information regarding grades, course registration, graduation, personal information, course sections, and other relevant information was managed by the Office of the Registrar and stored in PeopleSoft, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Over the years, PeopleSoft had been tailored to work with the school’s business processes. While core processes (e.g., payroll, human resources) were the same across all services and departments, a number of other processes were more loosely defined and could be adapted as necessary. Interactions with the Office of the Registrar took place in one of three ways: email, phone, or in person.
• When prospective students contacted the Office of the Registrar, an employee took notes about their inquiry (e.g., type of question, program[s] asked about, and follow-up email address) and saved them in an Excel spreadsheet. Every week, those notes were forwarded to Recruiting services. They couldn’t be saved in PeopleSoft because that system couldn’t
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Quebec_student_protests 2 There are ten student-facing services at HEC Montréal staffed by about 220 employees. In this case study, we focus on seven
services that are key to CRM implementation.
For the exclusive use of m. yildiz, 2022.
This document is authorized for use only by mesut yildiz in APM Fall 2022 taught by SUSAN STEVENS, Endicott College from Sep 2022 to Dec 2022.
From Students to Alumni: Implementing CRM to Build Lifelong Relationships at HEC Montréal – Part A
© HEC Montréal 4
store data about students who didn’t yet have an HEC Montréal student ID. After searching the school’s website, prospective students often contacted the Office of the Registrar to request information they could not find online. Students interested in graduate studies sometimes contacted professors directly to inquire about research interests, available funding, and other specific issues. Following those interactions, professors might advise prospective students to apply to a program, but the Office of the Registrar was not informed of those discussions.
• Unlike prospective students, current and returning students already had an HEC Montréal student ID. Upon request (e.g., a student wished to register for a restricted class, change a billing address, or credit a course), staff at the Office of the Registrar could log into PeopleSoft to perform the required actions on the student’s behalf. In such instances, however, there would be no record of the student’s request once it had been handled.
Although this process worked fine for students, it could create challenges for Recruiting services. The Excel spreadsheet might contain errors (e.g., mistyped email addresses). The spreadsheets didn’t always follow a standard format, making it difficult to import information in bulk for analysis purposes. Finally, not everyone at the Office of the Registrar had the skills to use Excel effectively. The usefulness of the notes could thus vary.