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Public sector Microsoft CRM Cloud solutions

Case Salpaus

A modern CRM solution helps to modernise the operations of the Further Education organisation and diversifies customer cooperation 

With Digia's support, Salpaus Further Education switched to a cloud-based CRM solution and made the system a common tool for the entire educational institution. The Microsoft Dynamics 365-based solution with customised integrations makes it easier to keep customer information up-to-date and close contracts and enables viewing customer relationships as a whole. 

 

With 13,000 students, 665 teachers, and other staff, Salpaus Further Education is one of Finland's largest multidisciplinary providers of vocational education. The Further Education's clients include companies that purchase training services and offer apprenticeships or internships to students.  

"Salpaus cooperates with approximately 4,000 companies every year, so it is very important that customer information is up-to-date and available to everyone," says Henna Erkamo, Director of Business and Working Life Services at Salpaus. 

For customer relationship management, Salpaus has long been using a Microsoft-based CRM solution delivered by Digia. However, the system's use was limited, and there was no clear common operating model. Upgrading the CRM to a cloud-based solution created an opportunity to define new goals and operating models for its utilisation, making customer relationship management now part of the entire organization's everyday life.  

What we did

  • CRM for educational institution needs 

What we used

  • Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales
  • Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing
  • Microsfot Power Apps
  • Microsoft Azure
We can look at the customer relationship as a whole instead of each teacher looking at the customer only through the lens of their own field of study. In the future, multidisciplinary cooperation will hopefully be more visible in our operations.

Henna Erkamo, Director, Business and Working Life Services, Salpaus Further Education

Information about customer relationships behind one clear system

The goal of Salpaus was to create a single common system for the entire organisation through which customer relationships are managed and from which all Salpaus employees can see what kind of cooperation has been carried out with the customer relationship in question.  

Since the system serves Salpaus' teaching staff in particular, its integration with other Salpaus information systems was of primary importance. For example, customer relationship information must be included in workplace learning agreements. 

"Compatibility is needed so that customer data is not in several places and behind different systems, making it difficult to update. Our system users are mainly teachers, and the use is strongly linked to students' learning at the workplace. In other words, the need is completely different from what is usually done with CRM, even though there is also traditional sales-related work," Erkamo says. 

Another important criterion for the new system was ease of use. To make CRM meaningful and efficient for all personnel, a unified, clear operating model was created. 

"In companies, a CRM system may be used by a few dozen active users. We have hundreds of users, and usage varies from daily to occasional. The system must serve the needs of different users," Erkamo describes. 

Tailored integrations meet the specific needs of the training center

Integrations were created with the system for both Visma Inschool, which serves as a student management tool, and the business information service Vainu, through which the information of customer companies can be kept up-to-date.  
 
Thanks to the integrations, up-to-date information about companies and their contact persons can be found in the student management system. This allows teaching staff to negotiate training and apprenticeship contracts smoothly. Information about the training and cooperation offered to customers is displayed directly in the system, smoothing invoicing assignments. 

New tools for customer communication and knowledge management

In the renewal, Salpaus' CRM solution also introduced a marketing entity that enables efficient targeting of customer communications. The new system handles, for example, the sending of newsletters and the necessary automation of customer communications.  
 
"The opportunities offered by communication will certainly be utilised in a more versatile way in the future," says Eila Ollilainen, working life specialist at Salpaus. 
 
Digia maintains and develops Salpaus' CRM package. Development work is still ongoing, especially with usability and reporting functionalities. 
 
"The system will benefit our knowledge-based management. In the future, the reports will provide us with information on, for example, sales volumes," says Henna Erkamo.  

The overall picture of customer relationships opens up new opportunities

At its best, a modern CRM system enables training operators to cooperate extensively with customers and offers versatile tools to facilitate daily work. 

"With CRM, cooperation with the customer can be diversified. We have consistent information about customer relationships, which is openly available to the organisation," Erkamo says. 

"We can look at the customer relationship as a whole instead of each teacher looking at the customer only through the lens of their own field of study. In the future, multidisciplinary cooperation will hopefully be more visible in our operations," Ollilainen adds.  

The CRM system also meets the data protection needs. 

"Storing customer data in one register is a clear improvement," Erkamo says. 

With Digia's support, we become a CRM pioneer in education

Both Erkamo and Ollilainen are satisfied with Digia's cooperation. 

"The project has been handled by the same project manager from the beginning, so help is available smoothly," Ollilainen praises. "Digia also provided us with ideas on using artificial intelligence and related further development ideas from outside the actual project." 
 
The project has provided learning opportunities for both Salpaus and Digia's teams. 

"Utilizing a CRM system is still a somewhat foreign world in an educational environment. This requires the educational institution to define its own target state and work to involve the personnel. We have thousands of customer companies, hundreds of users and many systems, so it's an interesting equation, but I'm really happy that we started this development work. The project has been a good opportunity for us to learn what a CRM system can be," Erkamo says.