Designed a CX-driven opportunity management solution within Dynamics CRM to streamline the entire international student journey—from enquiry to enrolment—resulting in faster follow-up, improved offer turnaround, and better conversion visibility.
The Client
A leading South Australian university with a strong focus on international education. The institution needed a smarter, more integrated way to manage its global student recruitment pipeline.
Industry Category
Higher Education | International Recruitment | CX Journey Design
The Challenge
The university lacked a consistent, centralised process to manage prospective international student enquiries and applications. Regional recruitment teams were working in silos, using spreadsheets or disconnected tools, which led to poor visibility, delayed follow-ups, and a slow offer process. There was no ability to track performance or optimise the student experience.
With increasing competition in international markets, leadership needed a solution that aligned with both business goals and modern CX expectations.
The Solution
I led the design and implementation of a CRM-based Opportunity Management Framework using Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online—combined with end-to-end CX journey mapping to improve engagement, speed, and conversion.
Key achievements included:
- CX Journey Design: Mapped the entire international student lifecycle, from enquiry and lead qualification to offer, acceptance, and enrolment—identifying pain points and automation opportunities.
- Opportunity Lifecycle Architecture: Developed structured CRM stages to manage each opportunity (lead) across regions, including custom engagement workflows and automated stage progression.
- Enquiry & Web Form Integration: Connected CRM with web capture forms and events to ensure all leads flowed into one central system—improving lead quality and response time.
- Regional Team Visibility: Enabled international recruitment staff to collaborate globally within the CRM, with dashboards showing intake trends, country performance, and team workloads.
- Offer Automation Readiness: Supported the SATAC transformation effort by designing preconditions for faster offer generation—reducing turnaround time from 5 to 10 days to as little as 24 hours.
- Data Quality & Conversion Analytics: Implemented reporting dashboards with Power BI to track lead progression, conversion bottlenecks, and response performance.
Technologies Used
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
- Custom XRM Components
- Web Enquiry Integration
- Power BI (Recruitment Funnel Dashboards)
- Email & Calendar Integration
- CX Journey Mapping Frameworks
The Result
This project introduced a customer experience–focused approach to international recruitment—bringing structure, speed, and visibility into what was once a fragmented and manual process.
Recruitment teams are now able to track every lead in real time, automate key touchpoints, and measure the performance of their campaigns and follow-ups. Time to offer has significantly improved, and the university is now better positioned to convert interest into enrolments in a competitive global market.
The CX-led design thinking embedded in this solution also helped shift the institution’s culture—placing the student experience at the centre of future service and technology investments.