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Temple University, Japan Campus, Goes Live On NetSuite, Managing Its Student Prospect Pipeline Online

Oldest and Largest Foreign University in Japan Manages 20 Percent Annual Growth with NetSuite

TOKYO and SAN MATEO, Calif.—November 17, 2006—NetSuite, Inc., the leader in on-demand business software suites, today announced that Temple University, Japan Campus (TUJ), is successfully running NetSuite to automate management aspects of its student prospect lifecycle, from first contact to final registration. This greatly improves both the university's administrative processes and the experience of prospective students. NetSuite helps TUJ manage its 20 percent annual growth in new undergraduate students. The number of TUJ's prospective students worldwide — from about 40 countries — has accelerated rapidly following the Japanese Ministry of Education's recognition of TUJ as the nation's first "Foreign University, Japan Campus" in February 2005, which in turn gave it the ability to sponsor student visas. TUJ receives an average of 10 to 30 inquiries a day, and the NetSuite system handles approximately 20,000 prospects at any one time. For more information about NetSuite's customers in Japan, visit www.netsuite.co.jp

With a wide variety of undergraduate, graduate, adult, and corporate education programs and with a 2,830-strong — and growing — student body, managing student applications is a huge administrative task for TUJ. Developing an effective customer relationship management (CRM) capability was therefore a very high priority for the school. Previously, initial application data was manually entered into a Microsoft Access database or Excel spreadsheet by staff in the TUJ Information Center, and then each member of the TUJ recruiting team kept and used their own files. However, this led to a lack of consistency and an inability to have an overall, accurate perspective on the prospect pipeline and on TUJ's responsiveness and service. This became a much more serious issue after TUJ's ability to sponsor visas led to a rapid increase in the number of inquiries and applications.

TUJ looked at many solutions, including Salesforce.com, SAP, and other non-hosted applications. Although they offered good CRM capabilities, they lacked either the required ERP or the hosting functionality. Other choices focused more on education and, specifically, on managing student prospects, but none of them were as flexible, platform-oriented, extendable, and customizable as NetSuite. With NetSuite, TUJ got the full package and customised it for their specific needs. Now, the full prospect lifecycle, from first contact with the student to final registration, is automated through the one system, significantly improving both the administrative processes, the ability to predict future enrolments, and the interaction with prospective students. TUJ is so satisfied with NetSuite that it is now also considering using the platform for other aspects of its operations, including expense reporting and budgeting.

"The NetSuite system represents a huge improvement in the way we do things now," said Paul Raudkepp, TUJ's CIO. "It allows us to provide the high quality and consistent service that prospects deserve, with prompt responses and timely follow-up. In the past, no part of this process was properly monitored or tracked. Now the team can easily share data. The reliability of the data and time savings are much improved because we can readily enforce rules."

End users at TUJ greatly appreciate the benefits of using NetSuite: "Searches are a snap and allow you to find any and all information you need," said Nicole Despres, senior counselor in TUJ's Admissions Counseling Department. "It's awesome to finally have one system that every department can use to accomplish their individual tasks and that, when put together, can manage the entire admissions process."

About Temple University, Japan Campus
Temple University, Japan Campus (TUJ), is the oldest and largest American and foreign university in Japan. Founded in 1982, TUJ has developed into a nationally recognised institution offering an extensive range of educational programs. In addition to its core undergraduate program, TUJ offers graduate programs in law, business, and education; an English-language preparation program; continuing education courses; and corporate education classes. TUJ is located in Tokyo. For more information, visit www.tuj.ac.jp.

 

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