Provision of a CRM Solution for Recruitment, Marketing and Admissions

The University of Southampton is undertaking a major transformation programme centred on Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The focus is on delivering an end-to-end CRM solution covering Undergraduate (UG), Postgraduate Taught (PGT) and Postgraduate Research (PGR) Recruitment, Marketing and Admissions. This procurement seeks a modern, scalable CRM platform that supports the University's strategic aims for organisational excellence, student number growth and enhanced digital capability.

Student recruitment is a core driver of University sustainability, providing a significant proportion of institutional funding. The University must grow UG, PGT and PGR enrolments across multiple geographies in an increasingly competitive and volatile market. Recruitment and conversion journeys are complex, long, multi-stage and personalised, involving prospective students and key influencers such as parents, teachers and agents. A robust CRM is required to manage this complexity and optimise conversion.

The current CRM and admissions landscape is fragmented across multiple systems (e.g., UCAS, Banner ARC, Web-for-Admissions, Dynamics, Reach, Gecko, WPM, Business World, Room Service, IDM, PowerBI, QlikView). These systems lack integration, create inconsistent user experiences, limit personalisation, hinder reporting, and rely heavily on manual workarounds. Several systems are unstable, end-of-life or unable to evolve to meet future needs.

The University therefore requires a single CRM solution that provides an end-to-end view of the student journey, supports seamless data flows, enables personalisation at scale, incorporates international compliance processes (CAS, Visa), improves operational efficiency, and delivers advanced reporting and analytics. The system must support process redesign, business change, integration with core platforms, and future scalability across the CRM programme. This procurement will deliver the technical platform and supporting implementation services required to realise these aims.

PLEASE NOTE: The University of Southampton is not a 'body governed by public law' and is therefore not considered a contracting authority for the purposes of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015), the Procurement Act 2023 (PA 2023) or the Procurement Regulations 2024 and/or any replacement legislation. This procurement process is not regulated by UK (or EU) public procurement law.

For the purposes of this advertisement;

"Regulations": means the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015), the Procurement Act 2023 (PA 2023) or the Procurement Regulations 2024.

Where the University advertises contracts, through any public sector tender portal, it does so on a voluntary basis by way of transparency and to encourage open competition, but it is not required to comply with the procurement legislation and this does not bind the University to publish additional notices in the future. For the purpose of procuring this Project, the University is acting in accordance with its internal financial regulations and the procedure detailed in the tender documents.

Nothing which is done during the procurement process (including the publication of the contract notice, use of the SQ and use of terminology which may be defined by the Regulations) should be taken to imply that the University is voluntarily complying with the Regulations or intends to do so. Some of the stages, documentation and terminology adopted in the University's procurement process may have similarities to ones regulated by and defined under the Regulations, but they will not be regulated by the Regulations during this process and should not be taken as references to those things as defined by the Regulations. Interested parties are invited to express their interest and submit their proposals in accordance with the instructions provided in the tender documentation. The University aims to ensure a fair, transparent, and competitive procurement process to select the most suitable partner for this significant project.