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CASE STUDY
BABSON EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
Apteans Pivotal CRM Helps Babson Executive Education Streamline its Operations
CASE STUDY BABSON EXECUTUVE EDUCATION 2
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Founded in 1919 by successful investment banker and entrepreneur Roger
Babson, Babson College has become one of the worlds leading business schools,
consistently ranked among the likes of Harvard and Wharton.
Located in Babson Park, MA, Babson College has three major educational
divisions and several departments within each division. Founded in 1919 by
successful investment banker and entrepreneur Roger Babson, Babson College
has become one of the worlds leading business schools, consistently ranked
among the likes of Harvard and Wharton.
Located in Babson Park, MA, Babson College has three major educational
divisions and several departments within each division.
CUSTOMER DETAILS
Babson is the educator, convener and thought
leader for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds. An
independent, not-for-profit institution, Babson
is accredited by the Association to Advance
Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB),
the New England Association of Schools
and Colleges, and the European Quality
Improvement System (EQUIS).
INDUSTRY
Education
APTEAN SOLUTION
Pivotal CRM
CHALLENGES
Data fragmentation and redundacy
Administrative backlog and lack of confidence in
data accuracy
BENEFITS
Amalgamated disparate data, reducing redundancy
Reduced time to generate reports by 90%
Reduced time to ship course packages by more than 90%
EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
CASE STUDY BABSON EXECUTUVE EDUCATION 3
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DISPARATE DATA
HIGHLIGHTS NEED FOR
OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY
The majority of Babson Executive Educations revenue comes
from corporate clients seeking custom educational solutions for
their senior management, designed to address specific problems
the company is facing; these customers include the US Navy
and several Fortune 100 companies. The remaining revenue is
made up by open enrollment in standard executive education
course offerings, research memberships, and the Consortium,
a collaboration of non-competing global companies that
partner with Babson Executive Education to design and deliver
an executive development program that meets the unique
management development needs of their organizations.
To build relationships with its large customer base and continue
to add new customers, Babson Executive Education markets to
existing customers and new prospects, targeting senior HR and
Learning and Development staff and senior executives. With its
large contact base and individually targeted custom courses,
Babsons sales cycles tend to be long, typically requiring substantial
interaction over five to ten months. Therefore, the reliability
of contact and customer informationincluding details about
enrollment, course evaluation, and where prospects are in the
sales cycle is paramount.
With enrollment steadily increasing, Babson Executive Education
recognized that the disparate customer databases in use would
increasingly hinder its ability to grow without adding more and
more staff to manage data and operations. The same contact and
customer information was often being entered manually into five
separate systemsthe registration (enrollment) system, the sales
database, a financial database, and two e-learning systems
creating time delays and increasing the chance of error and
inconsistency. Most challenging for Babson Executive Education
was the fact that the registration system was separate from
the database used by sales and marketing staff for opportunity
management. Important contact or profile information would
be updated in one system but not the other, creating data gaps.
Reporting was also arduous because of the disparity between the
systems. Babson Executive Education realized it needed
a central system and database that could provide one unified view
of customers and prospects to serve those clients more effectively
and reduce redundancies.
FINDING THE RIGHT
CRM SOLUTION
Once Babson Executive Education had pinpointed its core
needsa system that would provide a centralized customer
and prospect database and more streamlined administrative
processesthe organization commenced its search and evaluation
process for a customer relationship management (CRM) system.
Having had experience with the complexities and pitfalls of
in-house development, Michael Budd, IT Technology Specialist at
Babson Executive Education, wanted a packaged CRM solution
from a proven vendor. But Budd also wanted a system that would
closely fit the needs of Babsons custom solutions.
After researching 29 vendors, including a CRM system tailored
specifically for the education market, Budd came to the conclusion
that a systems flexibility and ease of customization were more
In order to reach the growth weve
had so far, we would have needed
a lot more employees than we have
now if we did not have Pivotal CRM.

Michael Budd
IT Technology Specialist

I cant imagine another product out

there that would allow me to do the
types of customizations we need in
order to make our business work.

Michael Budd
IT Technology Specialist

CASE STUDY BABSON EXECUTUVE EDUCATION 4

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important than education-specific features.
I looked at a CRM system tailored for executive education
centers, but decided against it, says Budd. Any time we needed
to change anything with that system, we would have to bring that
vendor in and spend all kinds of money having them customize
it. Of the 29 systems evaluated, Budd found that only a few of
them were truly customizable. Pivotal CRMs flexibility and ease of
customization made it the programs choice; Budd recognized that
it was scalable and flexible enough to provide an effective solution
for other departments in the College in the future, despite varied
data and system needs. This school is really striving to integrate
its data, says Budd, and I cant imagine another product out
there that would allow me to do the types of customizations we
need in order to make our business work.
CENTRALIZING AND
STREAMLINING BRINGS
MANY BENEFITS
Implementing Pivotal CRM brought all of Babson Executive
Educations customer and prospect information into a single
centralized system, creating a common and consistent view.
This information is now accessible to the many different users
who need it: the sales and marketing groups, operations and
administration staff, IT personnel, and management. Even with
customizations, Babson Executive Education deployed the system
in a very short period of time, quickly achieving
a significant increase in operational efficiency and a clearer view of
prospect and sales data that improved the planning
of their educational calendar. Reports that used to take several
days to pull together now take only a few hours.
Corporate clients now provide Babson Executive Education
with a list of course participants in soft copy, which can be
easily imported into Pivotal CRM. In a single step, Pivotal CRM
automatically registers all participants to the program they
are taking, marvels Budd. Operations staff can easily export
registrants to Microsoft Excel for importing into the organizations
e-learning system, and invoices for open enrollment are now
generated seamlessly in Pivotal CRM, allowing just one group
transaction record per course to be entered in the financial system.
And with the integration of their shipping system with Pivotal
CRM, Babson Executive Education operations staff can simply
push a couple of buttons and shipment records are generated
directly in the FedEx or UPS system; for sending course information
packages, what used to take half a day now takes ten minutes,
remarks Budd.
With the integration of customer, prospect, sales, and enrollment
data, Babson Executive Education is able to manage their calendar
of program offerings more effectively. Management has easy
access to a comprehensive view of where opportunities are in
the sales pipeline, and efficient reporting assists the center with
resource planning, such as booking classrooms and equipment.
Improved data and data access has greatly increased productivity:
The data is a lot more accurate, and the ability to customize and
create business logic has been a huge driver of improvements in
productivity, affirms Budd.
Prior to the implementation of Pivotal CRM, Babson Executive
Education spent valuable time, money, and resources marketing to
a broad audience. We used to spend a lot of time trying to get
in touch with people we werent sure would need our solutions.
Now were vastly more targeted in terms of those we reach out
to, remarks Budd.
Pivotal CRMs comprehensive data also helps Babson Executive
Education management understand which course topics are
garnering the most interest, resulting in enhanced communication
with customers and prospects, improved service to participants,
and more targeted program design. For all the programs we
offer, we have daily evaluations and an overall program evaluation.
Participant satisfaction has increased since we implemented Pivotal
CRM, notes Budd.
Budd is pleased with the many improvements the implementation
of Pivotal CRM has brought to Babson Executive Education,
and he maintains that the ability to easily customize the system
is its most important feature. Just like for-profit businesses,
Participant satisfaction has increased
since we implemented Pivotal CRM.
Michael Budd
IT Technology Specialist

5
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CASE STUDY BABSON EXECUTUVE EDUCATION
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educational organizations each have their own unique way of
running their businessas evidenced within the different divisions
and departments at Babson. Having a system for education
is less important than being able to customize it to your exact
requirements, Budd emphasizes.
EFFICIENCY ENCOURAGES
USER ADOPTION AND
ALLOWS FOR SCALABILITY
Babson Executive Education implemented Pivotal CRM faster
than expected, launching in May of 2003. Working with Pivotal
CRM implementation partner Porter Hill, they were able to roll
out the system in a single deployment, building it out with a fully
customized registration system right out of the gate. It only took
us a couple of months, confirms Budd. Users in operations, sales,
and marketing began using the system right away, and Finance
started using it within a year, finding value in it as well. I have
a program-based benchmark report the Director of Finance uses
constantly, notes Budd.
With Babson Executive Educations client base and the number of
solutions it offers continuing to grow, the scalability and reliability
of Pivotal CRM have also proven of benefit. Were up to 30
users now. I dont think we would have been able to grow on the
systems we were using before, and the operations group loves it,
states Budd.
The cost savings are also significant: In order to reach the growth
weve had so far, we would have needed a lot more employees
than we have now if we did not have Pivotal CRM, notes Budd.
Babson Executive Education believes the operational efficiencies
it has realized with the implementation of Pivotal CRM gives it
an advantage over other institutions offering executive education
programs.
Looking ahead, Babson Executive Educations plans include
additional customizations to further improve business processes,
access for mobile users, and upgrading to Pivotal CRMs next-
generation 6.0 platform to provide an easy-to-use .NET-based
smart client and tighter integration with Outlookthe latter a
particularly important feature for the organizations sales users.
Budd has also customized Pivotal CRM for Babsons Center for
Womens Leadership. And with Pivotal CRMs flexibility and
ease of customization, the entire college could now have the
opportunity to benefit from all the system has to offer. It makes
sense for us to continue to roll it out to other departments,
opines Budd. Pivotal CRMs customizability makes it appealing for
testing with other departments
on campus.
Pivotal implementation, contracts were written and signed
in the field, then brought to a central office where staff
keyed data into the ERP system. Now, all information is
fed automatically through the system, enabling costing
staff to complete a budget in 15 to 30 minutes, rather
than 1-4 hours.