Blackpool & The Fylde College

The Challenge

B&FC provides over 100 apprenticeships across 18 career areas and collaborates with more than 1800 employers. Initially, the college relied on a legacy system, paper, and spreadsheets, which became increasingly difficult to manage as their apprenticeship programs expanded. They needed a flexible and robust online solution to manage apprenticeships and employer engagement activities, with the potential to extend to other college functions.

The Solution

Paul Dewhurst, CIO, and his team evaluated several Microsoft partners, including large international consultancies. They chose Active Informatics for their sector expertise and cultural fit. The project began with customising the base CRM functionality to fit the apprenticeship recruitment process, including agreements, apprentice information, and integration with an online recruitment portal.

The project quickly expanded to include student support, such as referrals, support needs assessment, and support provision planning. Paul Dewhurst noted, “The wider student recruitment piece is next, involving all curriculum areas and support teams like careers and progress coaches. We plan to incorporate more functionality to complement our existing student records system, particularly in pastoral support, and for the system to grow and adapt with our business needs.”

The Dynamics 365 Education solution built for B&FC showcases the range of functionality Active Informatics can provide. Each system is tailored to the specific needs of the college, ensuring immediate impact.

The Results

For Paul and his team, the main benefit of Dynamics 365 Education has been the ability to design a process-driven system that meets their needs. This has enabled staff to work more effectively, taking the right actions at the right time. Paul highlighted, “We’ve built a customer-centric system that helps people do their jobs rather than just collecting data. This streamlines inter-departmental communications and provides shared visibility of our recruitment pipeline, allowing us to focus on driving growth rather than collecting and analysing data from different sources.”

Paul also praised the user-friendliness of the system, stating, “It’s a quick tool to get used to. Navigation is natural, and Dynamics 365 integrates seamlessly with Office 365, allowing users to work with familiar tools like Outlook and Excel while storing data in Dynamics.”

Paul Dewhurst concluded, “I feel that Active Informatics has a shared goal with us, almost as if they are one of the team.”

By implementing Dynamics 365 Education, B&FC has significantly improved their apprenticeship management and overall operational efficiency, demonstrating the transformative power of tailored CRM solutions.