by Lisa Proulx
PORTSMOUTH – Great Bay Community College introduces a new, 16-week Business Relationship Management class in January. The new three-credit course (MKGT201) will focus on understanding the importance of developing, managing and retaining quality business relationships. Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management tools and software, a popular contact management system (CRM) used in the business and marketing sector, will be introduced and utilized. According to Ray Pasquale, an adjunct professor in Business Administration at GBCC, it is one of several similar systems available in real-world applications. Enrollment is now open for the course offered at the College’s Portsmouth campus.
“Great Bay is now a member of the Microsoft Dynamics® Academic Alliance” said Monique Jordan, Business Department Chair at Great Bay Community College. “We are excited about this new partnership.” Microsoft Dynamics® Academic Alliance enables educators and researchers to incorporate any of the Microsoft Dynamics solutions into the classroom or into research projects including a suite of services available from Microsoft. Connecting Academic Alliance members with Dynamics partners brings the entire ecosystem into perspective for the partners, educators and students.
The three- credit course begins Jan. 17 and is part of Great Bay’s Business Administration associate degree program. The course is also available as a stand-alone for anyone who wants to learn about organizational relationship development and technology tools available to manage these relationships; such as, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM program, Pasquale said.
“We’re hoping this will allow us to expand out into our community, by attracting prospective students who are already in the business world but want to learn more about this exciting aspect of every business and how technology can enhance these relationships,” he said.
The course replaces a previous class, Consumer Behavior, which Pasquale taught for several years. “We wanted to transform it into something that combined consumer behavior with consumer processes, and add into that applicable technology. This is a class in marketing and management, which is a more real-world approach. It emphasizes the role of communication in the marketing process, and the importance of real-time communication within organizations. The Microsoft program improves communications between a sales force and office and support staff because it takes advantage of shared information and instant communication,” Pasquale said.
He hopes the alliance leads to other partnership opportunities for Great Bay. The college is currently working toward setting up a Microsoft user group, as well. “Anybody who is in any sales or marketing organization will be using some type of technology to manage interactions with other people in the business world. With this understanding students are more prepared for a future career in business,” he said.
