IT Management Issues Assessment: World University Case Study

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes IT management in a global online university.

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IT MANAGEMENT ISSUES ASSESSMENT ITEM 4

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Executive summary
This report is based on the World University which is formed by the some
private educational institution which offer education to the students. They
provide education to the students anywhere in the world. The business of the
educational institutions offers variety of schemes and systems to help the
students. The loyalty schemes, Customer relationship management systems
and business intelligence software are some of the business decisions that
are taken to help the students. These institutions offer variety of courses in
which students can enroll anytime and from anywhere. The students can also
choose their university from which they need to graduate from. The World
University try to attract the students through different business strategies to
increase their revenues. This report mainly focuses on the business aspect of
the university than the educational aspect.

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Introduction
This report deals with the main features of the management systems of the
World University. The World University provides different courses to all the
students in the world. The students can choose any course and can get enroll
anytime. There are many lecturers which teach the students from their
respective campuses. The students and teachers interact through online
portals only. The World University has this education system to provide the
students easy access to the world-class education from their place. They also
offer loyalty schemes which benefit them and other students. The process of
getting enrolled is very easy and smooth. This report also gives the
recommendations for the World University to attract new and potential
students and improve their future through quality education and faculty.

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Loyalty schemes
The management of the World University has started a customer loyalty
scheme known as Study-Together Loyalty which helps the students to get the
fee credit on referring another student to the university. The management
started this scheme to increase the number of students through the existing
students. The students will get the reward if any of their referred students gets
admission in the university. The procedure for the application in the university
is also very easy and takes only 5 minutes to complete. The university also
offers different ways for the payment. The university has to promote their
university to encourage the students to enroll to maintain their business. The
different courses offer different rewards to the students which enroll through
some existing student. This scheme can increase their revenue and
admissions in the university. This also requires less involvement of the
university faculty into the application process. The students can also save
their money through these loyalty schemes. The loyalty schemes are a better
way to communicate and promote their World University to different students
in the world. The students which are satisfied and happy with the university
can help attract new students for admission into the World University. The
management also introduced this scheme to increase the customer interest in
the university
The Study-Together loyalty schemes have pros and cons for both the
students and university (Hashim, et. al., 2015). The university also has the fee
system as non-refundable which even can be the beneficial for the university
but issue for the students. The university only focuses on the enrollment of the
student in the university rather than focusing on the education factor. The
business factor is high in these kind of loyalty schemes. The reward for the
students is also based on the course in which the student enrolls in. They also
not provide any fixed criteria for the calculation of the fee credit. The terms
and conditions of loyalty scheme of the World University is also not clear for
the students to decide the fee credit. The university also uses some agents to
get the students enroll in the university but these agents just work for the

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income sources rather than motivating the educational system of the
university. The university should focus on providing quality education to the
students through effective learning and teaching. The lecturers should also
encourage them to take the education effectively. The loyalty schemes should
be fair and provide the right benefit to the students.

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E-book and laptops
The World University offers different courses for the students completely
online with their material and lecture notes. The online websites will have
unique credentials for each and every student. The management wants to
increase their revenue through the laptops and e-book purchases. Each
course of the university involves the purchase of a E-book and laptop for the
students. The purchase of the E-book and laptop is compulsory as these will
be configured according to the course, the student is enrolled it. These are
also available on the online portal and students cannot opt out of the
purchase. These are sent to the students with pre-installed software which will
help the students in their courses (Seethamraju, 2012). This will also help the
students to have access to their study material and notes from anywhere they
want. The e-books can be downloaded instantaneously within minutes. They
are easily portable and can be taken to anyplace without any problem. These
facilities help the students to perform better and prepare for the future exams.
The E-books and laptops which are delivered to every student also create
problems as the students live in different places of the world.
The e-books and laptops also create a financial burden on the students. The
university should not make the purchase of laptops and e-books compulsory
as many of the students may find it difficult to manage all the expenses. The
students which already have laptops may find it useless to purchase extra
materials. The management of the World University only focuses on
increasing their revenue and profits through different strategies and
techniques. The purchase of e-books and laptops by students only show the
monetary benefits to the management. This shifts the focus of the faculty from
the education to their income. The management should take better steps and
provide the students more opportunities to grow towards success. This also
discourages the main purpose of the educational institution of providing
education with the monetary benefits of the business (Keegan, 2013).

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Customer relationship management software
The management maintains a customer relationship management software to
maintain the relationship between the university and it customers. This
software allow to maintain the data, feedback and suggestion of the past,
current and potential students of the university. This also allows in maintaining
the contacts with the employees, clients and customers. This software also
affects the revenue of the business and the implementation of the customer
relationship management software will help in increasing the customer loyalty.
This also allows the way to communicate with the customers. This also
reduces the burden on the maintenance and handling of the data and
provides more time to focus on attracting the customers. It allow the university
to maintain the records of the student at one place and allow the employees
have less manual function. It also helps in maintaining the students history
and set reminders for their fees and records (Payne and Frow, 2013). The
increased number of students also increases the database which requires
more management so the CRM software allow to maintain the growth. The
customer relationship management software will also allow to send emails for
any kind of activity and study notes. It also builds long-lasting relationships
with the students. It also allow the business to take the strategies and tactics
for business growth. These software also allow to exchange the data between
the students and lecturers for the problems and confusions. The students also
have access to the university information for their purpose. The customer
relationship management software also builds the rapport of the university in
the education market.
The customer relationship management software come with problems also as
they make the whole process and data online. The software can also he
hacked and misused by the people. The installation of the customer
relationship management software is the main problem as it involves many
obstacles. The customer relationship management software also have the
security question for the data of the students and employees (Khodakarami &
Chan, 2014). The university should encourage the use of the customer
relationship management system to take the efficient decisions in the
education industry. The customer relationships is equally important in the

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education sector as in any other business as it will help in building the
relationships with the past students and potential students.

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Business intelligence
The university uses the business intelligence software to analyses the data of
the education system and students feedback. The business intelligence
software will help the university take the decisions on the basis of data
available in the social media, online platforms and other digital market. The
business intelligence software allow the university to analyse the data on
different aspects of the education system and implement better systems. It
also allow to provide better information and data to the employees and faculty
about the students and courses. The social media and online platforms have
huge data and information that can be used to get the current trends on the
education market. These data can provide the current educational market
trends that can be used to provide better facilities to the students. The
business intelligence tools can also help the university to take the
unstructured data from different sources and have the relevant data from it.
This will also help in taking efficient business decisions and operational
efficiency. This also helps the university to drive new revenues and incomes
from the education industry. The university can also study the education
market trends in the world. The university provides education to worldwide
students which require high diversity in the data and student records which is
easily handled by the business intelligence (Popovič, et, al., 2012).
The business intelligence tools can be tricky for the university as they can
require experts and highly qualified employees to operate. The business
intelligence tools use different sources to take the data which can be
unreliable sources and can produce irrelevant data. The business problems of
the university are also easily handled with the information available from the
business intelligence tools. The social media feeds that are used by the
university can be misleading and irrelevant for the employees of the
university. The management can also use the business intelligence tools to
evaluate the education system market through social media. The social media
can also have great source of fake information that can be harmful for the
system. The data can also be at risk of the hackers. The World University may
also be involve in unrealistic data usage and maintenance which can harm the
revenue of the university.

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Conclusion
This report concluded that the management decisions of the World University
include loyalty schemes, customer relationship management systems,
business intelligence tools and e-books help it to improve the students’
interaction and involvement. The university also uses these systems to
improve the customer relationship through the systems. The university
handles their data and information through business intelligence tools to take
the decision about the education system. These help the business to improve
their revenue and profits. The university also provides e-books and laptops to
the students for the preparation of the study materials and notes. The
university also offers different courses which require data from different
sources on the online education market. The university also uses the data
from the social media to take the decisions for the business improvement.

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Recommendations
Some of the main recommendations for the management of the World
University are:
 The World University should provide clear details about the terms and
conditions for the Study Together Loyalty schemes. The students should
know the criteria for the evaluation of the rewards for the students in every
course.
 The E-books and laptop facility should not be bounding over the students
as this discourages the educational policies of any education institution.
The study notes and resources should be of high quality and easily
understandable.
 The customer relationship management software should be handled with
expertise and protected from misuse and hacking. The security of the
students and others data are at risk when are operated online or through
internet.
 The business intelligence tools used by the management should use data
from the social media and online platforms effectively and ignore the
unrealistic data for the management decisions. The social media have
loads of fake information which is harmful for the education system.

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References
 Payne, A. and Frow, P., (2013). Strategic customer management:
Integrating relationship marketing and CRM. Cambridge University Press.
 Popovič, A., Hackney, R., Coelho, P. S., & Jaklič, J. (2012). Towards
business intelligence systems success: Effects of maturity and culture on
analytical decision making. Decision Support Systems, 54(1), 729-739.
 Seethamraju, R., (2012). Business process management: a missing link in
business education. Business Process Management Journal, 18(3),
pp.532-547.
 Jomah, O., Masoud, A. K., Kishore, X. P., & Aurelia, S. (2016). Micro
learning: A modernized education system. BRAIN. Broad Research in
Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience, 7(1), 103-110.
 Keegan, D. (2013). Foundations of distance education. Routledge.
 Khodakarami, F., & Chan, Y. E. (2014). Exploring the role of customer
relationship management (CRM) systems in customer knowledge
creation. Information & Management, 51(1), 27-42.
 Hashim, N. A. B., Abdullateef, A. O., & Sarkindaji, B. D. (2015). The
Moderating Infl uence of Trust on the Relationship between Institutional
Image/Reputation, Perceived Value on Student Loyalty in Higher
Education Institution. International Review of Management and
Marketing, 5(3), 122-128.