This document discusses Contact North/elearnnetwork.ca's experience developing in-house customer relationship management (CRM) software to track student progress, as an alternative to outsourcing this function. It describes the organization's transition from an outsourced CRM in Phase I to building their own customized CRM in Phase II in order to maintain greater control over critical tools. While insourcing required programmers, quality control and project management, it allowed for customization and saved money compared to outsourcing. Lessons learned include managing scope creep and prioritizing features through user testing.

1. ARE THEY STUDENTS?
OR CUSTOMERS?
DOES IT MATTER?
Luc Comeau - WCET – November 2010

2. Objective
 To share our experience
 To challenge you to consider taking control
over the tools you need to succeed

3. Who We Are
 Contact North/elearnnetwork.ca is Canada’s
largest distance education and training
network
 112 local centres span the more than one
million square kilometres that make up Ontario
 The network collaborates closely with the 43
public Ontario colleges and universities, over
100 literacy organizations, and training
providers

4. What is elearnnetwork.ca?

5. Supporting students in their
community
How?

6. How to track progress?
Phase 1 (2008-09): Outsourced Lead-Tracking
CRM
Frustration is a common emotional response.
Related to anger and disappointment, it arises
from challenges in fulfilling goals. Wikipedia

7. How to track progress?
Phase II (2010): Building Internal Custom-Made
CRM
A challenge is a term referring to things that are
imbued with a sense of difficulty and victory.
Wikipedia

8. Why?
 ‘You get what you inspect, not what you
expect’
Dan Akerson, new CEO of General Motors.
 Insourcing: to maintain control of critical
production or competencies Wikipedia

9. Key Required Tools
 Searchable online course and program portal
to allow potential students to view their options
 Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
software to allow our support teams to
effectively track and report on recruitment
activities

10. Ontario Online Learning Portal
www.click4onlinelearning.ca

11. Advanced Search Filters

12. Portal Statistics
Sector # of Programs # of Courses
College 858 8,135
University 155 2,199
Secondary 2 1,724
Literacy 12 137
Other/Informal
Learning
17 784
Total 1,044 12,979

13. In-House CRM – Client Profile

14. In-House CRM – Study Options

15. In-House CRM – Reporting
Results

16. Lessons Learned
 Insourcing
 = greater control,
 = ability to customize but...

17. Lessons Learned
 You need:
 Programmers
 Quality control
 Great project management

18. Lessons Learned
 Scope creep is inevitable
 Don’t let the weeds grow
 Ditch the nice-to-have features requests
 User testing allows you to stay on track…
 …and to say no when you need to.

19. Lessons Learned
 Belief in what you are doing in terms of
supporting customers/students/real people can
help you get by when the going gets tough

20. The Upside?
 Even with a full-time project manager and a 3
person programming team…
We still saved $$$ when
compared with outsourcing

21. Contact Us
Luc Comeau
Contact North/elearnnetwork.ca
luc@elearnnetwork.ca
www.contactnorth.ca
www.elearnnetwork.ca
www.click4onlinelearning.ca