SWPS University

SWPS University Swaps Home-Grown Tech for Advanced Salesforce Platform

As the #1 institution for psychology in Poland, SWPS University (SWPS) knows a thing or two about the human mind. And the university is harnessing this knowledge to put people at the heart of everything it does.

Think of it as student-centricity plus. A world where a deeper understanding of the people it serves has a real impact on the student experience and their career prospects.

What began as a project to transform the admissions process, sparked an enterprise-wide effort to streamline and personalise the student experience from applicant to alumni.

Offering More Value to Students and Helping Them Find The Right Path

Getting closer to 15,000 students is no easy task, but the university wanted to take things one step further and create a deeper connection with prospects from the moment they apply. This process was managed by a home-grown system that was complex and struggled to scale as student applications surged from 8,000 to 25,000 per year.

“Applications are complicated. Course requirements vary, so we need to be able to capture accurate information on grades and extra-curricular activities in one system,” explained Łukasz Skorupski, Art Director at SWPS University.

But applications weren’t the only department ripe for transformation. Student and careers services needed to align systems and data to unlock 360-degree visibility.

Today’s students don’t just expect the university to help them get a diploma; they expect a careers team who can actively help them land their first role and advise them on career development.

That meant replacing static job boards with a dynamic service connecting candidates to job roles and internships, while helping them to gain the right skills for the future.

Centralising On Salesforce and Optimising by Department

To understand student wishes, SWPS went straight to the source to find out what their ideal experience looked like. Respondents revealed they want fast, simple services with a personal touch. That means guided self-service, user-friendly communities, and responsive support.

Transforming The Human Experience

The university partnered with Think Beyond to rebuild the admissions platform on Service Cloud, supplemented by the candidate portal embedded in Experience Cloud. The team then worked with Devoteam to design and implement Knowledge Base and Student Success Hub, which acts as a central integrated platform for multiple services. Career services was the first department to go live on the solution.

Candidate and student journeys are also being developed with Marketing Cloud, and the university integrated Service Cloud with the telephony system to provide better visibility of cases and seamless support. These were the first steps towards achieving 360-degree visibility from application to alumni.

For applicants, the journey starts in a dedicated admissions portal that guides them through every step of the process. The experience is personalised based on the age, language, location, and interests, and automated workflows free the team to focus on manual touchpoints, such as checking exam results.

Meanwhile, student services optimised onboarding and launched custom journeys – created in Journey Builder – to give students instant access to the right information. They can also self-serve Knowledge articles in their student portal, with Einstein supporting AI-powered searches.

The team created student profiles to track everything they need to know – from social clubs to interests – and shared this information with the careers service to help students find the right opportunities.

Replacing the static job boards, employers can now post opportunities or internships directly in the student portal, connecting the employers directly with the students. The careers team also uses Marketing Cloud to share relevant listings with segmented audiences rather than manually emailing potential candidates.

“Salesforce helps us understand students’ skills and interests so we can have better conversations around their long-term career goals and help them take the right steps to get there,” commented Olga Kożuchowska, Head of Career Services at SWPS.

A Game-Changing Digital Transformation

While the university’s Salesforce journey is ongoing, automation has been a game changer. From keeping students informed if a lecture is cancelled to greeting them by name on the phone, Salesforce helps the team stay connected with students and prospects without increasing headcount.

“Dashboards also support more data-driven decisions, such as identifying when volumes of applications and cases peak so the university can scale up resources, and setting SLAs. Currently, the service team answers calls in 10-30 seconds, and 60% of cases are handled in 24 hours, which the team aims to take to 80%.

The university captures feedback to keep people at the centre of the project. Initial results have been positive, with students highlighting the admissions process and friendliness of staff as the most impressive features of the university.

“I had no idea how much impact centralising on Salesforce would have. Students gave us 10/10 for onboarding, and love that they’re involved in shaping processes,” revealed Marta Komor, Director of Communications and Student Services.

Next, the team plans to roll out a feature to help students schedule appointments from the portal, and student societies are about to go digital.

“I’m really proud of our Salesforce transformation – everyone’s talking about it and new departments can’t wait to start using the platform,” concluded Gędziorowski.

More About SWPS University

SWPS University is the #1 institution for psychology in Poland. The university specialises in social sciences and humanities and caters to 15,500 students across five campuses.