Rework · Customer Case Study · Malaysia

From Salesforce
to a CRM that
actually works.

Nilai University Higher Education Student Admissions CRM Malaysia

700Current Students

~22kLeads Migrated

10 daysContract → Go-live

Rework SalesScope

Team

Esther Van

Business Consultant

Tracy Nguyen

Solution Engineer

Laurel Nguyen

LDR

01 / 12

— Agenda

01

Overview

Company & Industry Context

Who is Nilai — transformation story and why higher-ed needs CRM.

02

The Moment

Why Now — Turning Point

Expiring Salesforce, new ownership, ~22k leads, aggressive growth target.

03

Solution · 3 Parts

Lead Capture, Pipelines & Deals

Leads, two pipelines + SLA, deal management — the full student journey.

04

Adoption

End-User Adoption Practice

Checklist, training manual, how the team was onboarded in 10 days.

05

BD Toolkit

Terms & Insights for This Industry

Key vocabulary and selling insights for higher-ed admissions CRM.

02 / 12

01 — Company Overview

Nilai University

Founded 1997 · Putra Nilai, Negeri Sembilan · Recently acquired by a Chinese entity — transitioning from 50% government-backed to fully independent with a mandate to nearly double enrolments by year end.

700Current Students

~22kLeads (Migrated)

50+Countries

Private UniversityInternational Students Founded 1997Newly Private Jun 2024 10 yrs no profit → x2 target

🎯 Why Higher Ed Needs CRM — Industry Insights

📅 2 recruitment peaks/year (Feb–Mar & Sep). During peak: 30–40 Facebook leads/day — impossible to manage fairly across 15 counsellors without a system.

🔀 Multi-channel, multi-team complexity. Leads from Ads, WhatsApp, agents, website, education fairs. Two teams (Local + International) with different processes — must feed one system.

📊 Management needs specific reports: seats reserved, students enrolled per counsellor, per programme, per campaign. Basic in CRM — advanced via BI export.

💬 Notes dominate early stages; email picks up at document/payment stages. SLA enforces response time throughout. Activity visibility = accountability.

🏅 QS 5 Stars in 6 Categories — Teaching, Academic Development, Employability, Facilities, Inclusiveness, MBA
⭐ SETARA Berdaya Saing (Competitive)

🌏 Two Sales Teams

Separate Local and International counsellor teams — each with their own pipeline, routing, and SLA rules under one Rework system.

🏗️ New Management

COO + Sales Manager (Nestlé / university transformation background) + Head of Digitals. Aggressive, fast-moving new leadership.

03 / 12

The perfect storm of change.

Three forces aligned at once — a rare window where adopting Rework was not just smart, but urgent.

⏱️

天時 — Right Timing

Salesforce just expired. $3,000+/year for 3 admin seats. ~22k leads still in Google Sheets. Window was open.

📍

地利 — Right Place

Rework local presence in Malaysia. Esther on the ground in KL. Fast trust, no timezone friction.

🤝

人和 — Right People

Strong champion (Goh) + aggressive new management. Saw the same spirit. Decision in 2 days.

Team

Esther Van

Business Consultant

Tracy Nguyen

Solution Engineer

Laurel Nguyen

LDR

Decision → Go-live journey

D0

Decision in 2 Days

Signed without a lengthy procurement cycle.

D1

Onboarding Begins

Tracy joined. Data collection & Meta Ads kick-off (Mar 3).

D4

Milestone #1: Kick-off & Plan Alignment

Sales process designed, WhatsApp connected, pipelines scoped (Mar 5).

D11

Milestone #3: Sales Team Workshop

Local + International teams trained on real leads (Mar 12).

🚀

GO-LIVE — Mar 17

~22k leads migrated from Salesforce. Both pipelines live.

04 / 12

01b — Implementation Timeline

10 working days: contract to go-live.

March 2 → March 17, 2026 · ~22,000 Salesforce leads migrated · Education Fair week 4

Mar 3

Data Migration & Meta Ads

~22k leads from Salesforce

Mar 5

🎯 #1 Kick-off

Plan alignment, WhatsApp

Mar 9

Initial Setups

Pipelines, fields, SLA

Mar 10

🎯 #2 Review & Finetune

Validate, test automations

Mar 12

🎯 #3 Workshop

Local + Intl team training

Mar 17

🚀 GO-LIVE

All staff trained & live

Mar 28

📚 Education Fair

System live 11 days prior

05 / 12

02 — Needs & Goals

What the business actually needed.

BeforeSalesforce + Google Sheets

💸

$3,000+/year — 3 seats only

12+ counsellors locked out. CRM used as a static contact database — Reps never touched it.

📋

Leads in Google Sheets, keyed by Admin

Meta Ads, agents, walk-ins all routed to spreadsheets. Admin manually keyed into Salesforce — Reps never updated the CRM themselves.

🌀

Pipeline existed but wasn't live

Stages existed in Salesforce but only updated by admins, not by counsellors in real-time. No SLAs, no escalation rules.

📉

New management flew blind

No real-time funnel data. Reports compiled manually from multiple sources at month-end.

AfterRework CRM — Live

✅

20 users — everyone in one system

15 CRM users + 5 Prospectors. Every counsellor, admin, and manager in the platform from day one.

🔗

Leads auto-captured, Reps own their deals

Meta Ads, WhatsApp, FB & IG Messenger auto-connected. Source tracked. Counsellors update their own deals in real-time — no admin bottleneck.

🏗️

Two live pipelines with SLA enforcement

Local and International pipelines — counsellors move deals stage by stage. 24/48/72hr SLA timers auto-escalate at 72hrs.

📊

Real-time dashboards + BI export

Live funnel, counsellor performance, source attribution. Export to Excel for advanced reporting.

06 / 12

03 — CRM Solution · Part 1 / 3

#1. Lead Capturing — All Sources, One Place.

No more Google Sheets. No manual entry. Every lead from every channel flows into Rework — tracked, attributed, and assigned automatically.

📘 Meta Ads (FB + IG)

Auto-connected · Peak: 30–40 leads/day

Leads from every active campaign (Pathway Discovery, UECv3, MBA, Nursing, Aviation…) flow in directly. No admin needed. Lead source, ad set, and spend tracked per deal — enables true campaign ROI measurement.

💬 WhatsApp / FB / Instagram

Auto-connected · 291 active inbox messages

All inbound chat messages captured in one shared inbox. Counsellors respond from within Rework — no more leads lost in personal WhatsApp or DMs. Auto-reply configured to collect Name, Contact, Nationality, Programme.

🗂️ Centralized in Leads

22,693 leads · Malaysian & International

All leads — migrated from Salesforce + new — unified in one Lead Marketing service. Structured fields: Lead Type, Source, Programme, School, Intake Month/Year. Basis for all reporting and routing decisions.

🔀 Lead Router — auto-assign

6 routing rules · Set up by customer

Rules branch by nationality/language: Chinese Local → Local → BM Local → International → Middle East → China/Japan/SEA. Each rule uses Equal Round Robin so no counsellor is overloaded. Customer configured this themselves.

07 / 12

03 — CRM Solution · Part 2 / 3

#2. Two Pipelines & SLA Enforcement.

Local and International admissions follow different processes — both standardized, SLA-enforced, and owned by the counsellors themselves (not admins).

🇲🇾 Local Sales Pipeline — 11 stages

01New Lead

02Qualifying

03🟡 Warm

04🔥 Hot

05App Fee

06App Docs

07Payment

08Offer Letter

091st Day

WON

LOST

💡 Warm/Hot labels help counsellors prioritise: Warm = responded but not ready; Hot = actively considering. Counsellors self-update — management sees real-time heat map of pipeline.

🌏 International Sales Pipeline — 12 stages

01New Lead

02Qualifying

03🟡 Warm

04🔥 Hot

05App Docs

06Payment

07Offer Letter

08Inter Office

09VISA

101st Day

WON

LOST

💡 International has 2 extra stages (Inter Office + VISA) not needed for local. Same CRM system, separate pipeline design — each team sees only their own workflow.

⏱ SLA Rules — Lead Response Policy

24 hrs

1st Reminder

Still New Lead → notification to counsellor. "Please contact the student and provide consultation ASAP."

48 hrs

2nd Reminder

Still no contact → 2nd escalation to counsellor. Same message, higher urgency. Custom message title in Rework.

72 hrs

Auto-Reassign

Deal auto-assigned to Jeff Tan (admin). Both counsellor and Jeff notified. Lead not lost — rescued.

08 / 12

03 — CRM Solution · Part 3 / 3

#3. Deal & Activities — Full Student Record.

The deal = single source of truth. Structured fields, logged communications, auto-tracked documents from first contact to enrollment day.

01

Student Information Fields (Custom)

Lead Type (Malaysian/International), Lead Source, Programme, Level, Qualification, IC/Passport, School, Intake Month/Year, Inbox URL — all structured and reportable for management dashboards.

02

Activity Stream — All Communications Logged

Every call, email, note, and meeting auto-recorded. Notes dominate early stages (qualifying conversations); email picks up at document/payment stages. Managers see full student interaction history without asking counsellors.

03

Document To-do Checklist (International)

Auto-generated at "Collect App Docs": Application Form, Passport copies (all pages, colour PDF), Academic Certs + Transcripts, Payment proof, English proficiency, NOC/LOE (Iran/Libya/Sudan), Accommodation Form, 35×45mm passport photo, transfer letter.

04

Call & Email Integration

Call via "Send to Mobile" — phone dials automatically, call logged with status + notes. Email from the Mail tab — all activity auto-linked to deal, contact, and account. Nothing lost in personal devices.

09 / 12

04 — End-User Adoption

Onboarding the team — in 10 days.

Two structured practices ensured all 20 Nilai users — across Local and International — adopted the system quickly and completely.

Practice 01

CRM Adoption Checklist

Each user tracked against structured tasks across 4 categories: Basic Setup → Create Deal & Update Stage → Deal Activity (calls, emails, notes, todos) → Advanced. Progress visible per person — Goh, Luqman, Prakash, Andy, Vernice, Vanishaa, Izzat, Mala, Kent and more.

Practice 02

End-User Training Manual

Full step-by-step training deck (by Linsie) covering: Login (web + mobile app), Key Terms, Lead Router Flow, Sales Pipeline stages, Connect Call & Email, Track deals with Notes & Todos. Shared with all users before the workshop.

Open Full Training Manual (Google Slides)

10 / 12

Summary — Value After Transition

Before & After

	❌ Salesforce + Google Sheets	✅ Rework CRM
Cost & Access	$3,000+/yr3 admin seats. 12+ counsellors locked out. Tool used as static database only.	20 users15 CRM + 5 Prospectors. Everyone in one affordable system from day one.
Lead Capture & Pipeline	Admin-onlyLeads in Google Sheets → manually keyed by Admin. Pipeline existed but only Admin updated stages — Reps never touched the CRM.	Rep-ownedMeta Ads, WhatsApp, FB & IG auto-connected. Counsellors update their own deals in real-time. ~22k migrated. No admin bottleneck.
SLA & Process	NoneNo SLA. No escalation. No follow-up accountability. Leads went cold silently.	24/48/72h2 pipelines (Local 11 stages, International 12 stages). SLA auto-notifies at 24h, 48h, reassigns at 72h.
Reporting	Month-endManual compilation from spreadsheets. New management had no funnel visibility.	Real-timeLive dashboards. Counsellor performance, source ROI, funnel conversion. Export to BI.

11 / 12

05 — BD Toolkit · Higher Education

Selling CRM to university admissions teams.

Key terms, objections, and insights for the BD team when approaching higher-ed prospects.

🔑 Key Terms to Know

Intake Cycle

Admissions happen in cycles (Feb–Mar, Sep). Peak season = high lead volume. Off-peak = fewer but higher quality. CRM must handle both — and reporting must be filterable by intake.

Counsellor / Admission Officer

The frontline "sales rep" in higher-ed. They follow up on leads, qualify, collect documents, close. CRM = their main work tool. Adoption is the difference between success and shelfware.

Education Agent

Third-party agent referring international students. Key source for international pipeline. Tracked in CRM as lead source — essential for agent ROI measurement.

Offer Letter

Formal acceptance document issued to qualified students. Moving "Offer Letter → Wait for 1st Day → WON" is the final conversion milestone in the pipeline.

SETARA / QS Rating

Malaysian higher-ed quality rankings. Important social proof — but also signals that the institution is serious about performance. These schools need data to prove their results.

Inter Office / VISA Stage

International students require extra steps: submission to international office + VISA processing. These become additional pipeline stages unique to the international track.

💡 BD Insights — What Resonates

🎯 "Your counsellors are your sales reps." In universities, admissions counsellors ARE the sales team. Anything that makes them faster and more accountable = ROI. The SLA demo is your strongest moment.

📊 Leadership pain = visibility. New or growth-focused management desperately need live data — who's following up, conversion by programme, campaign ROI. This is your executive hook.

🔀 Multi-team routing = "aha" moment. When prospects see leads auto-routed by nationality to the right team with SLA auto-escalation — they immediately understand the ROI.

💸 Cost comparison closes deals. Currently paying $3,000/year for Salesforce with 3 seats? Show them 20 Rework seats at a fraction of the cost. The math is instant.

📅 Time the pitch to intake season. Best entry 1–2 months before peak (Jan or Aug). They feel the pain of unmanaged lead volume and are most receptive to change.

🌏 International track sells itself. Two separate processes, document checklists, VISA stages — the complexity is obvious. CRM is the only way to manage it without chaos.

12 / 12

— Conclusion

A CRM built for
ambition,
not administration.

Nilai University is in the most significant transformation of its 27-year history. Rework became the operational backbone — unifying lead sources, standardising both admissions pipelines, enforcing SLA accountability, and giving management live visibility to move fast.

When both sides share the same spirit, great things happen quickly.