StudentRelate for Empowered Team Working

Staff who are motivated, responsible and skilled in their service work need a special kind of student database system to support their empowered way of working. Carrying out their work with a 'light touch' amount of process support leaves them scope to deal quickly and efficiently with exceptions  as they occur. In a StudentRelate process part of the 'correct' action is in the hands of the staff member dealing with the student's need. Because the student's service needs are continuously evolving, departmental administration processes need to do the same. To avoid time-wasting delays, maintaining processes and screen views in the system needs to be under departmental control.

• StudentRelate support processes are designed to be amended by departmental staff as situations change
• The team will have at least one Application Administrator capable of making the necessary changes as required
• Departmental self-sufficiency in process maintenance is unique to StudentRelate
• Other systems require software programming to create processes. A dependency on scarce IT resource creates delays.

 
Staff may also enter data as needed and not be forced to strictly follow a screen process that constrains them to carry out each piece of data entry before moving on to the next. This type of 'data-entry' CRM is common in 'corporate-style' CRM implementations which are highly procedural, as in private sector work.This culture is difficult to implement in Student Services where unpredictable student situations occur and staff are working under extreme pressure.

• StudentRelate is designed for the empowered staff worker
• Success with a team of empowered workers implies a higher degree of responsibility and flexibility to exercise discretion
• The StudentRelate 'light touch' processes provide scope and flexibility for empowered working

For this empowered working regime to be effective there is a need for a departmental procedures and standards protocol document written by the team and for the team. Staff need to be working to achieve team goals and need to support one another to deliver on their departmental remit. Such a team will achieve productivity and service excellence standards that a process-constrained group never can.