Building A Student Admissions CRM

[juniew]

Ok here is the story. We have a 3 man team to deal with admissions to a non profit university. I have just installed SugarCRM in the hopes that it will make our lives much easier.I know it can handle what we want. The only problem is this is my first time setting up and using SugarCRM. I just read the user-guide but im still not certain how to proceed.

The situation:

1. students applies to the university through a portal
2. Information is passed to SugarCRM ( name, address, date of birth, nonofficial transcript, photo picture etc...)

Steps1 and 2 will be taken care of. I need help with step 3 to 6)


3. User of sugar CRM looks at the data and make sure that everything is in order.
If everything is not in order the user sends an email asking the student to submit missing information via email

4. If everything is fine User Schedules a Telephone interview for the student

5. If students fails the telephone interview their application is rejected or goes into a rejected bucket

6. If student passes the telephone interview then they are accepted in the university or placed in an accepted bucket.


My question is before I start what is the best way to proceed? should the student information come in as a lead? or account? , or contact?

How do I make the system as easy to follow for my very very non technical colleges to go through the process of check application -> schedule interview -> reject or accept students ? I want to eliminate all unnecessary buttons for them

Any help would be greatly appreciated. and thanks all in advance

SugarCRM community edition
Version 6.0.0beta2 (Build 3619)
Ubuntu (Lamp)

[dtokeefe]

Hi,

It seems like Potential Students are Leads and Accepted Students are Contacts. That is, you convert when the student is accepted.

You can simplify the system by hiding the tabs you don't need. Admin > Configure Tabs.

Best regards,

David

[juniew]

wow thank you for the quick reply

I have done the following :

1) hide all modules except leads and contacts module
2) Renamed leads to prospect students and contacts to accepted students

I have created a lead(prospect student) and filled in all the necessary details. when I click convert lead it does not go over to contacts( accepted students)

The name field under create account or select account highlights in red. What does this mean? what am i doing wrong? how do i convert lead to contact? (prospect student to accepted student)

[dtokeefe]

Hi,

For B2C with Sugar, you need to create at least one dummy Account for your Contacts. You might call it Global or University. Then, when you convert Leads, add them to this Account.

Down the road, you might think of another use for Accounts (e.g. Colleges or Departments at your University) and distribute Students that way.

The system is very flexible. Note that it is generally better to create new modules in Admin > Module Builder than to rename existing modules, although the above use of Leads and Contacts for Students seems unlikely to be a problem down the road.

Good luck!

I'm on Skype (dtokeefe) if you are interested in outsourcing this to SugarCRM experts. We are a Gold Partner, working with Sugar since 2005.

Best regards,

David

[juniew]

thank you I have added you to my Skype

[dixon1e]

I wonder how this is turning out? Are there other University functions that Sugar helps with?