Improved Contact Management for the University: RightNow
20 May 2008
ICT is currently assisting the Faculty of Health Sciences with the implementation of a unified Information and Contact Management system, which will support the provision of vital information to faculty contacts which include students, donors and parents.
The project will establish the configuration and implementation of the RightNow solution, a 'Software as a Solution' (SaaS) web service provider, to deliver consistent information across different delivery channels including web, phone, email and direct contact.
One of the anticipated major benefits of the new project includes the progressive development of Frequently Asked Questions about the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) which will provide accurate responses specific to particular groups of customers. This is made possible through RightNow, which utilises a relational database system to accumulate information. The system has an intelligent search engine to categorise how popular, useful and relevant information is to the requestor. The information can be anything that is deemed to be useful - queries about courses, location of facilities, transport options, support services and so on.
The system can be used to address general as well as specific needs for information. Generic on answers may be addressed such as information about courses, buildings, etc, Genetically specific answers for individual customers types can also be generated - e.g. prospective students, disabled students, honours students, alumni and donors.
Thus RightNow enables ICT and the Faculty of Health Sciences to understand, anticipate, and respond to customers' needs in a consistent way, across all channels of communication, be it interpersonal, through the internet, or on the phone. The information can also be used for outbound email and newsletters, which can refer questions and queries back to the site.
Geoff Gordon, ICT Relationship Manager, and Geoffrey Brown, Director of Shared Services, have been working closely with FHS over the past year to clarify requirements, determine an appropriate solution, acquire funding, negotiate pricing and develop an implementation plan.
The project is now being assisted by Project Management services.
Geoffrey asserts that if all goes well, the system will to go live within 6 months. He adds that they are working with the Community group to consider University-wide implementation to provide consistent information to University of Sydney potential customers such as year 12 high school students.
"One of the key benefits of using SaaS type solutions is that we do not need to apply resources to building/managing software, infrastructure and support. We can concentrate our efforts on more strategic aspects to enable a more rapid implementation with agile operational capability," he says.
