POLIMI Graduate School of Management (POLIMI GSoM), a leader in the landscape of management training both in Italy and abroad, is dedicated to fostering the growth of managers and innovators capable of picking up the challenge of shaping a better future for all. The organization already understands the importance of integrating digital into its business and teaching operations, using a range of technologies to optimize time and resources. This seamlessly incorporates learning into everyday workflows and ensures unique experiences for its audiences.

For the next step of its digital transformation, POLIMI GSoM wanted to create more individualized services and automated processes for its students. So it looked to Avanade, Microsoft and Sitecore for support in pivoting towards a centralized Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and Digital Experience Platform.

Education plays a key role in preparing business leaders to address the most pressing challenges our society faces, and POLIMI GSoM wanted to continue to be at the forefront of advancing this mission. To do so, it needed to initiate a new phase of digital transformation.

POLIMI GSoM has been on this journey since 2014, first launching a master’s degree with an agile approach to teaching. This was followed by additional modular training plans and an AI-based life-long learning solution that offers a personalized profile and training content based on individual student skills.

To progress with its transformation, leaders at the school wanted to standardize the user experience during the course purchasing phase. However, POLIMI GSoM’s existing commerce platform prevented integration with its Content Management System (CMS), and the result was a poor experience for customers. The school also wanted to pivot the entire process towards its CRM to improve and streamline how administrators could manage and oversee courses. This would include providing them with a single access point for this capability.

“We believe that training and a human-centric approach are essential to prepare the business leaders of tomorrow and, by integrating innovation and digital, we want to drive change towards increasingly flexible and agile teaching,” says Luigi Gangitano, Chief of Digital Innovation at POLIMI GSoM.

To progress with this next stage of digitalization, POLIMI GSoM collaborated with Avanade, Microsoft and Sitecore to create "Journey Digital by Design" – a digital-first design that aimed to draw on and enhance student, pupil and employee experiences.

“This was indeed a complex project, requiring the most advanced technologies in CRM, digital experience platform and data platform,” says Gangitano. “It also called for a highly qualified partner with a delivery-focused mindset and the flexibility essential in a rapidly changing environment.”

With the aim of building services that are directly designed for digital and responding in an agile way to the growth needs of the school, the project started by centralizing Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM as a collection point for all user information.

Sitecore’s Digital Experience Platform took this a step further. POLIMI GSoM can now consolidate the provision of its services and all interactions with the public into a single user interface. This is a departure from the conventional, multiple-portal approach used in the educational sector that adds time and inconvenience to a student’s day. Through the technology’s automation capabilities, POLIMI GSoM can deploy personalized communication services to all, delivering individualized interactions to engage its user base with relevant content.

This level of personalization is now one of the key features that sets the school apart from other institutions. “The evolution of our digital architecture leads to the improvement of student engagement among a network of 3,000 students, 15,000 alumni and 10,000 prospects every year,” says Gangitano. “This is thanks to the personalization of services and the optimization of the user experience.”

To complete the digital transformation and drive improved experiences for students and employees, POLIMI GSoM:

• Re-platformed and migrated content from the existing CMS to Sitecore XM Cloud, with course information sourced from the CRM
• Developed an up-to-date, personalized student portal, giving students one streamlined area on the new website to view and update their personal information, access payment details and view active courses
• Transformed its website, e-commerce and student services into a single front-end solution
• Upgraded its commerce platform to Sitecore OrderCloud, enabling the management of carts, discounts, price variants and the entire purchase flow
• Integrated Sitecore Search to speed up the process of finding relevant content

Through the combined advantages of Sitecore XM Cloud and Sitecore OrderCloud, POLIMI GSoM has increased efficiencies and engagement, enhancing how its employees and students interact with its services.

Administrative staff now have a future-proof commerce platform that frees their time through flexible fulfillment and streamlined sales management. An intuitive authoring system has made it easier and quicker for content authors to create modular assets, which can be mixed to build new pages and services, for a large audience and deliver them at scale. The integration with CRM API also avoids double entry of program information.

POLIMI GSoM has increased the efficiency of its operations, with a reduction in costs and time to market for the entire structure. “We’ve also seen greater engagement from our 160 employees, who no longer have to invest their time in manual and repetitive processes,” says Gangitano. “They can now dedicate themselves to strategic and value-added activities.”

Additional benefits include:

•       300% faster page loading speed
•       Longer time spent on website
•       Increase in new site visits
•       Higher conversion rate

Discover how Avanade X creates relevant and enduring experiences to accelerate growth by connecting your workplace and your customers through products that adapt, scale and grow with you.