12 weeks to pivot new integrated university experience

Integrating institutions

When STADIO Holdings set out to consolidate four of the higher education institutions within the group, it was challenged by the fact that each institution had its own systems and each was at a different stage of the digitization process, with certain processes still run manually. In just three months, Microsoft Dynamics 365 partner Enterprisecloud enabled these institutions to integrate their disparate systems and launch a comprehensive new digital platform to future-proof their operations.

The new private university, STADIO Higher Education, brings together four prestigious institutions—Southern Business School, Embury Institute for Higher Education, LISOF, and Prestige Academy—with a collective experience of more than 100 years in providing quality, affordable higher education. In the world of academia, digitalization encompasses both solutions to facilitate teaching and learning, and solutions for administration and student management. STADIO initially aimed to implement a system to manage student queries and applications, since this was a particularly support-intensive process.

Optimizing the Dynamics 365 opportunity

Enterprisecloud, a Microsoft Dynamics 365 partner specializing in business applications, was referred to STADIO through its sister company, Curro, to implement a consolidated leads management system using Microsoft Dynamics 365.

However, once STADIO discovered the capabilities of Dynamics 365, the project evolved to include managing enrolment as well as the full student journey. The changing scope and ambitious deadlines saw Enterprisecloud adopting a fully agile approach—virtually “building the airplane in the air.”

The solution integrates the four brands’ applications processes, reporting, student advisors, and brand ambassadors, allowing applicants to understand and engage on everything from fashion to business to law.

Enterprisecloud implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing for lead management, social integration, and student communications, and it implemented Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise for the full student onboarding process, from leads to application to enrolment. Then came Omnichannel for Customer Service for the management of WhatsApp, Facebook Chat, and USSD chat channels; Power Virtual Agents for initial interaction with prospective students into Omnichannel for Customer Service; and full integration into a custom Blazor-based responsive web portal. A simple, appealing design and user-friendly interface were seamlessly optimized to maintain a cohesive corporate image.

From initial project scope agreement to deployment, the project took only 12 weeks.

The solution was planned and implemented during the COVID-19 lockdown, with stakeholders relying on Microsoft Teams for all their meetings, and STADIO depending on Enterprisecloud to understand the requirements of each institution and ‘translate it into technology’.

Future-proofing education

STADIO Holdings achieved one of its main strategic goals and consolidated the various programs offered by Embury, SBS, LISOF, and Prestige Academy into a single comprehensive registered higher education institution, STADIO Higher Education, allowing stakeholders to benefit from the marketing, operational, and regulatory advantages of being “one.”

STADIO now offers more than 50 accredited qualifications via contact and distance learning, across 10 campuses, to more than 20,000 students, and aims to increase enrollment to up to 100,000 students across the group in time.

The solution has simplified operations and optimized costs across the group, removing the manual, time-consuming, and paper-based tasks, and given all employees a central place to work from and a common way of working across the organization following the rebrand to STADIO.

This supports the group’s goals of offering quality education at an affordable price. The real-time customer relationship management (CRM) system allows management to track leads and responses, to improve the student journey, and assess the success of marketing campaigns.

The system also supports STADIO’s ability to scale, enabling more students to visit a central webpage, engage directly with advisors, and enjoy a world-class application and enrollment experience. By consolidating the expertise and opportunities available across the 10 campuses within the group into a single portal, applicants are able to easily choose subjects, qualifications, and models such as contact learning or distance learning.

By providing students with a world-class application and enrollment experience, STADIO reports that the system went live during the traditionally quiet October/November period when prospective students are writing exams and typically do not submit queries about tertiary education. However, this year students submitted queries in record numbers during the same period, delighting the STADIO executive team and serving as an indication that the portal is as user-friendly as the group had hoped.

According to Atelisha Harilal, National Student Recruitment Manager at STADIO Higher Education, “In terms of scalability and sheer volume, I don’t see that it would have been possible with any other system.”

The platform also gives STADIO an end-to-end solution for student success, and the ability to track market sentiment and differentiate itself from competitors. The capability of the platform to take on new requirements—while growing and changing—positions STADIO to add features to further enhance operations, student engagement, and student experience in the future.