E-Mail Enhances Education
Open University, the United Kingdom’s largest academic institution, will improve communication with its 150,000 online students through KANA Response by Silicon Valley-based CRM provider KANA.
“The Open University needed a highly-scalable, external-facing eCRM solution to manage student inquiries that would keep the university ahead of the curve with regard to its adoption of Web-based service,” said Bud Michael, executive vice president of products and marketing for KANA. “With KANA’s Web-architected eCRM solutions, Open University can provide a large number of students with the best possible service, while offering the flexibility to incorporate further CRM technologies in the future.”
KANA Response is an enterprise-class system that ensures scalability and extensibility while intelligently managing and automating interactions that originate through e-mail, Web, and real-time channels. The system delivers robust automated response capabilities; extensive analysis and reporting tools; and tight integration with KANA’s complementary marketing, commerce, customer service solutions, and legacy systems.
With 200,000 students enrolled (including 26,000 students overseas), effective and prompt e-service is crucial to the Open University’s reputation as the UK’s top distance-learning provider. Implementation of KANA Response will ensure that student queries are answered quickly and accurately. KANA Response automatically prioritizes the e-mails and directs them to the appropriate department, as well as offering users a real-time overview of the status of the various message queues.
The Open University admitted its first students in 1971 and has since provided higher education to more than 2 million people. Currently, Open University educates students in more than 40 countries using a combination of traditional teaching methods and the latest communications technologies, allowing a range of degrees and vocational qualifications.
KANA provides customer-focused services to more than 1,200 global companies including ADP, Chase, E*Trade, GAP, GM, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Sony, United Airlines, Verizon, and Williams Sonoma.
Robyn Greenspan, an independent researcher and speaker, is interested in innovation, market trends and information technology. She was a participant in the AI Summit and also took part in the IEEE International Conference on Edge Computing, International SOA Symposium series and the International Cloud Symposium series. She graduated from Temple University. She was previously the communications and research manager for the AMS, an internationally recognized professional association that advances knowledge in the IT and business management areas.
