Temple University, Japan Campus is successfully running software from NetSuite to automate the management of its student prospect lifecycle, from first contact to final registration.
San Mateo, CA-based NetSuite Inc. provides on-demand business software suites. Its flagship NetSuite product is an online business application that combines everything from customer relationship management to enterprise resource planning to Web capabilities.
TUJ, Tokyo, is the oldest and largest American and foreign university in Japan. In addition to its core undergraduate program, TUJ offers graduate programs in law, business and education; an English-language preparation program; continuing education courses; and corporate education classes.
NetSuite helps TUJ manage its 20 percent annual growth in new undergraduate students.
The number of TUJ’s prospective students worldwide – from about 40 countries – has accelerated rapidly following the Japanese Ministry of Education’s recognition of TUJ as the nation’s first “Foreign University, Japan Campus” in February 2005, which in turn gave it the ability to sponsor student visas. TUJ receives an average of 10 to 30 inquiries a day, and the NetSuite system handles approximately 20,000 prospects at any one time.
The university said developing an effective customer relationship management capability was a very high priority for the school. Previously, initial application data was manually entered into a Microsoft Access database or Excel spreadsheet by staff in the TUJ Information Center. Then each member of the TUJ recruiting team kept and used their own set of files. This led to a lack of consistency and an inability to have an overall, accurate perspective on the prospect pipeline and on TUJ’s responsiveness and service. This became a much more serious issue after TUJ’s ability to sponsor visas led to a rapid increase in the number of inquiries and applications.
NetSuite also recently announced a partnership with Miroku Jyoho Service Co. Ltd., an accounting software provider in Tokyo. The new partnership expands NetSuite’s reach in Japan to an extensive network of accounting service companies as well as small and medium-sized businesses.
