Leveraging Dynamics 365 and Azure to Elevate Education Lending for a Leading Credit Union

Overview

A leading U.S. credit union aimed to modernize its Education Lending vertical to improve how Business Development Officers (BDOs) engage with Financial Aid Officers (FAOs) across colleges and universities. These relationships directly influence inclusion in preferred lender lists, which impacts student loan disbursement volume.

To empower BDOs, the credit union partnered with TechWish to implement a cloud-based Education Lending ECRM built on Microsoft Dynamics 365. The solution enhanced lead visibility, automated touchpoints, and improved accountability for follow-ups and reporting, giving BDOs the digital tools they needed to build and maintain strategic campus partnerships.

The Challenge

The legacy approach was fragmented and inefficient:

• Lack of integration with tools like Outlook and Excel created duplicate work.
• Manual record-keeping across disparate systems limited transparency and productivity.
• Inability to centrally manage FAO relationships and track engagement activities.
• No clear insight into university lender list placements or interaction history.

The Solution

TechWish delivered a highly tailored CRM system using Microsoft Dynamics 365, aligned to Navy Federal’s education lending strategy. Key solution features included:

• FAO-Centric Account Design: Modeled FAOs as key relationship entities, separate from traditional account structures to avoid schema conflicts.
• Lead & Opportunity Management: Enabled tracking of lender list conversations, campus events, and pipeline progression.
• Activity Timeline Views: Provided BDOs with a historical view of all FAO communications and meetings.
• Excel & Outlook Integration: Automated bidirectional syncing of meetings, notes, and exports for seamless reporting and follow-up.
• Governance-Compliant Design: Aligned to NFCU’s secure delivery standards with RBAC, encryption, and structured sprints.

Results

BDOs now have a powerful digital workspace to manage FAO outreach, measure influence on university lender lists, and optimize their campus strategy. TechWish’s solution delivered transparency, traceability, and strategic alignment.