CRM for Higher Ed's Intelliworks Matriculates Orion Platform

By David Sims

TMCnet Contributing Editor

Intelliworks, Inc., a customer relationship management (CRM) vendor working the higher education market, has announced what company officials are calling its "next generation CRM platform called Orion."

Built from the ground up as a pure Web-based on-demand product, Orion CRM is, Intelliworks officials claim, "the first multi-tenant Software as a Service (SaaS) product designed specifically for higher education."

Company officials say Orion is "a balanced constellation" of "a rich user experience, the most user-friendly and elegant user interface in higher education."

The product requires nothing to be installed on campus or on any user's computer. It can be implemented in hours as opposed to months and years.

"Orion answers the cries of higher education institutions for simplification and provides a more fluid way to accomplish marketing and recruiting activities," said Dev Ganesan, President and CEO of Intelliworks.

"It is easy and quick to try; you can load your data and send your campaigns out very quickly. All this can be done at an incredibly low cost, low risk, and frankly, low commitment."

As a vertically-focused Enterprise 2.0 product, Orion "embodies the principles of Salesforce.com and Facebook offerings by incorporating simplicity, collaboration, and a rich user experience into the DNA of its architecture," said Anirban Chakrabarti, vice president of Product Marketing for Intelliworks.

"SaaS products have gained great exposure within the larger business community over the last year," said Catherine Burdt, senior analyst at Eduventures, Inc. "Higher education institutions of all sizes can also benefit from the low cost of ownership, rich user experience and less system downtime that comes from this software model. As companies target the higher education space, products that are tailored to meet the CRM, marketing and communication needs of this space will thrive."

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMC Net.