Stockholm School of Economics: 20% Growth Through Smarter Recruitment

The Challenge: Flying Blind on Recruitment

Before Full Fabric, SSE's admissions team had virtually no insight into their prospective student pipeline. Lead information lived in Excel spreadsheets. There was no centralised view of candidate interactions, no way to track which markets were generating interest, and no data to inform recruitment strategy.

For an institution with ambitions to grow its international student base, this lack of visibility created real problems:

• No market intelligence: The team couldn't identify which geographies were generating the strongest interest or highest-quality applications.
• Fragmented candidate records: Interactions with prospective students (emails, event conversations, questions answered by current students and alumni) weren't captured in any unified system.
• Manual, paper-based evaluation: Reviewer notes were handwritten and disconnected from applicant files.
• Reactive rather than strategic: Without data, recruitment decisions were based on intuition rather than evidence.

SSE needed more than a CRM. They needed a system built specifically for the complexities of higher education recruitment, one that could support the kind of high-touch, relationship-driven admissions process that a one-in-a-lifetime educational experience demands.

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The Solution: A Platform Built for Higher Education

SSE selected Full Fabric precisely because it was designed with business schools and universities in focus, not adapted from a generic sales CRM.

The implementation gave SSE's team capabilities they'd never had before:

Centralised candidate intelligence: Every interaction with a prospective student, from brochure downloads to event attendance to email exchanges, is now captured in a single record. The admissions team finally has a complete view of each candidate's journey.

Automated lead nurturing: When a prospective student downloads a brochure or engages with SSE's content, automated workflows trigger relevant follow-up communications. This ensures consistent engagement without adding manual workload.

Market-level visibility: SSE can now analyse where interest and applications are coming from, enabling data-driven decisions about which markets to prioritise and where to focus recruitment travel and investment.

Digital evaluation workflows: The entire admissions evaluation process moved from handwritten notes to a fully digital system, with each evaluator's assessment linked directly to the applicant's file.

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The Results: 20% Growth in Leads and Applications

Since implementing Full Fabric, SSE has achieved:

20% increase in leads and applications: The combination of better lead capture, automated nurturing, and improved conversion workflows has driven measurable growth in the recruitment pipeline.

100% paperless admissions process: Evaluations, documentation, and candidate communications are now fully digital, with complete audit trails and centralised records.

Data-driven recruitment strategy: For the first time, SSE can make informed decisions about market focus based on actual application data and engagement patterns, rather than assumptions.

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A Collaborative Partnership

SSE joined Full Fabric relatively early and has experienced the platform evolving alongside their needs. Rather than a traditional vendor relationship, the partnership has been genuinely collaborative, with SSE's requirements helping to shape product development.

The customer success team's responsiveness has reinforced this sense of partnership, with SSE's team describing the support as "always super responsive" and "amazing."

Beyond the software itself, SSE values being part of a community of similar institutions. Full Fabric's investment in industry research and peer dialogue gives SSE access to shared insights and best practices from business schools facing similar challenges.

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About Stockholm School of Economics

Stockholm School of Economics is one of Europe's leading business schools, known for academic excellence and a highly competitive admissions process. With a growing international profile, SSE is committed to delivering exceptional experiences from first enquiry through graduation.

Like many institutions operating within national application systems, SSE needed a complementary platform that could provide the flexibility, personalisation, and data visibility that centralised systems can't offer.