OREANDA-NEWS. November 08, 2011. Fujitsu has provided Manchester Business School (MBS), part of the University of Manchester, with implementation, training and migration to the Salesforce Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution. This has enabled the School’s Executive Education team to improve its management of existing relationships with its UK and global clients, as well as driving new connections.

Through Executive Education, MBS runs a series of management and leadership programmes for individuals and organisations such as global oil and gas company BP. In addition to managing a portfolio of over 60 clients, it receives a number of new enquiries each week.

In order to grow the business to handle further demand, the school identified a need to manage its existing relationships more effectively. Setting itself a target of 10% income growth year-on-year, it looked into Cloud CRM solutions that would offer its staff a better view of its current customers and their requirements, along with an intuitive, simple way to input and update client information. The programme trialled two CRM solutions - however, neither of these offered the functionality and ease of use required for the MBS to meet its business objectives or strategy.

Fujitsu was approached as a system integrator due to its excellent track record in swift and successful migrations and expertise in new application training, enabling companies to move both their workforce and infrastructure to more efficient systems without ceasing operations in the process. Fujitsu recommended the Salesforce CRM solution based on Manchester Business School’s requirements.

Jane Crombleholme, head of Executive Education at the Manchester Business School said: “There are significant financial pressures in the UK university sector at the moment – UK business schools need to diversify and at MBS, the executive education programme is a core component of that diversification. We needed the tools to support business development in this area.

“The right solution was important, but equally so was the right partnership – and this is where Fujitsu has really been outstanding. Fujitsu’s highly knowledgeable consultants came on board very quickly, and quickly understood what we required. Phase one included the training of the early adopters at MBS, which went very well.”

Mark Peplow, senior consultant at Fujitsu UK and Ireland, said: “Manchester Business School needed to grow its revenue and work more effectively with its customers. Once we had identified and recommended a solution – Salesforce CRM – we provided a ‘hot’ migration with zero downtime, simultaneously training the School’s staff to ensure continued working. This has been a resounding success, and Salesforce CRM is already helping the MBS achieve its aims.”

Fujitsu offers a range of services for business-critical applications including CRM. Fujitsu also offers information management and application outsourcing services and works with other providers such as Microsoft,Oracle and SAP.