Fireworks CRM:
The Essentials

Fireworks CRM includes the essential features and functionality you need to recruit, enroll, and retain students.

Unlike other CRMs that include lots of clutter and complexity, and take a team to manage, Fireworks can be easily implemented, administered, and supported without adding staff. This makes Fireworks an especially great fit for small admissions offices.

By design, Fireworks: The Essentials does not include any of the bells and whistles that sound great, but let’s face it, you’ll never use.

Even better, Fireworks is priced to fit your budget and includes our legendary client support. (See testimonials!)

No wonder Fireworks has become the CRM of choice for a wide range of institutions, including community colleges, two-year colleges, four-year colleges, graduate schools, law schools, medical schools, nursing schools, and seminary schools.

Features & Functionality

user-experience

User Experience

security

Security

relationships

Relationships

duplicate-management

Duplicate Management

broadcast-email

Email

chat

Live Chat

applications

Applications

reporting-analytics

Reporting & Analytics

technology

Technology

user-permissions

User Permissions

search

Search

workflow

Workflow

broadcast-email

Pre-built Campaigns

print

Print

events

Events

integrations

Integrations

records

Records

import-export

Import & Export

lead-generation

New Student Leads

texts

Texts

forms

Forms

email-response

Email Response

Implementation

Start when you’re ready
Begin the implementation process on your timeline.

Consulting on admissions recruitment
We’ll share CRM best practices and help you implement them.

Reports & analytics
We’ll create actionable, custom reports for you that will help you make better, data-driven decisions.

Communications strategy
We’ll evaluate your communications plan and help you build a communications strategy to maximize your results.

Fully managed process
You’ll be assigned a dedicated implementation specialist who previously worked in admissions. They’ll guide you through the process — from beginning to end — and do the “heavy lifting” for you.

Implementation Includes
Setting up your permissions
Importing your historical data
Creating your data imports and exports
Implementing your communication flows
Setting up your live chat functionality
Creating staff tasks
Creating your custom reports and dashboards
Building your web forms
Building your events
Building your admissions application (if applicable)
We Do The Heavy Lifting

Training & Support

Customized training
We’ll provide you with unlimited, live online training customized to your needs.

Unlimited, live support
Our legendary Client Care team is available to you, your entire staff, and the students you serve 365 days a year.

Videos

Reports

Fireworks includes more than 50 pre-built reports that enable you to analyze and visualize your data. We can also create as many custom reports as you need at no additional cost.

Emails

Fireworks includes an easy-to-use email tool that enables you to design, edit, and test HTML emails without having to know code or use third party tools.

Smart Search

Take a look at how easy it is to identify, target, report, and communicate with your students using Fireworks CRM’s Smart Search. No technical expertise required!

Testimonials

What our clients are saying …

What challenges were you trying to solve by implementing Fireworks?

(1:54)

What’s it like to work with Fire Engine RED Client Care?

(1:55)

What changed for you after you started using Fireworks?

(2:09)

What is your favorite feature in Fireworks?

(1:17)

Kate Illian

Recruiter

Blue Ridge Community College

“Our Client Care team has provided outstanding service in the implementation process. We have been very pleased with their work as they guided our office through the transition of a manual tracking process to the Fire Engine RED database. The team tirelessly helps to adapt the CRM to the needs of our Admissions office and identify ways to improve our processes. Thank you!”

Nick Staffileno

Assistant Director of Recruiting

Dawson Community College

“I cannot recommend Fireworks CRM enough. It’s a comprehensive recruitment and admissions CRM that is intuitive and effective. Best of all, though, the team at Fire Engine RED works alongside you to guarantee your success. They’re not salespeople, they’re teachers who genuinely want to help. They communicate clearly and effectively and make their clients feel like a priority.”

Nikasha N. Dicks

Director of Marketing and Communications

Aiken Technical College

“The support and guidance we have received throughout each phase have made the process easy and not overwhelming. The team asks insightful questions to help you think through what you’re putting into place, why, and the expected outcomes. They are indeed a great partner!”

Brandon Griffin

Coordinator, Admissions Operations

MassBay Community College

“Although the Fire Engine RED team is a vendor, when we all meet, I feel as though we’re all on the same team working toward the same goal together. I respect them as colleagues and value their close partnership and extensive knowledge.”

Rick Garcia, Ed.D.

“When I was in higher ed, I brought Fire Engine RED onboard to solve problems and close gaps that were long overdue for resolution. The platform delivered the goods, the team was responsive, and we were out of the box and in production on time. I’d recommend Fire Engine RED to any team that needs a data solution [CRM] to wrangle the complex data streams of admissions and enrollment into a coherent plan of action.”

Teri Clawson

Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management

Snow College

“As a small, rural, community college, our funds for technology are limited. We needed a solution that could help us be successful without spending our entire admissions and recruiting budget on a CRM. We get the functionality that we need (and some we didn’t realize we could have) and have found it to be extremely beneficial to our processes and enrollment funnel management.”

Sarah Hall

Associate Director of Operations for Graduate Recruitment and Admissions

Clark Atlanta University

“Fire Engine RED has transitioned Clark Atlanta University Admissions process to the 21st Century! The automation has streamlined our application processes. Thank you, Fire Engine RED Team!”

Nick Staffileno

Assistant Director of Recruiting

Dawson Community College

“Since implementing Fireworks, the Fire Engine RED team has continued to help me develop a holistic, streamlined recruiting process, including building an admissions application and setting up automatic email scheduling. They’ve helped me not just learn how to use Fireworks, but have made me a better recruiter for my community college by teaching me best practices in the field.”

Susan Stephenson

Admissions Director

Western Nebraska Community College

“I have to say that my absolute favorite part of Fire Engine RED is the people. When they say unlimited customer support, they really mean it. There were weeks I had to have training or contact them three and four times a week, and it was never a problem to schedule something or get an issue fixed quickly.”

Danielle Dinges

Director of Financial Aid & Admissions

Miles Community College

“Fireworks has given us the ability to reach out to students in a timely manner without creating additional work for our Admissions Counselor. We’re able to engage with prospective students in a way that just wasn’t possible prior to working with Fire Engine RED.”

Brandon Griffin

Coordinator, Admissions Operations

MassBay Community College

“Fireworks allows us to have more control over our digital and print communications, gives us the ability to communicate more effectively to our prospective students, and allows us to better track and engage our various prospective student populations. Fireworks also automates our prospect data loads, which was a mostly manual process for our Admissions team. It is an overall game-changer for our department and our college as a whole.”

Nick Staffileno

Assistant Director of Recruiting

Dawson Community College

“Prior to working with Fireworks, I had no idea how to use a CRM, but the Fire Engine RED team worked alongside me and gave me the tools I needed to successfully gather contacts, develop meaningful content, and send messages to countless prospective students. Best of all, they continue to meet with me weekly to ensure that I have the resources needed to develop a successful email campaign.”

Rachel Wade

CRM/Admissions Processing Manager

Snow College

“We originally chose Fireworks for the cost point that fit a budget for a 2-year institution that has to compete against 4-year institutions and budgets, and for the features that were included. That being said, we have come to love Fireworks CRM for other reasons as well.”

Maynard Schmidt

Director of Admissions & Recruitment

SUNY Orange

“SUNY Orange recently purchased Fireworks CRM and could not be happier with the product. From the very beginning of our implementation, the team at Fireworks were supportive and always available to assist with proper set-up and to answer questions we had about the functionality.”

Susan Stephenson

Admissions Director

Western Nebraska Community College

“I have worked in higher ed for more than 17 years and with a variety of different software products and third-party software, and I have never had such a level of customer service that I’ve received with Fire Engine RED … plus, they are all very friendly and just FUN. I highly and unreservedly recommend all of FER’s products and guarantee you will fall in love with their team.”

Gretchen Foster

Admissions Director

Western Nebraska Community College

“The best decision we made implementing a CRM and new application for admission was partnering with Fire Engine RED. It really is a partnership. To me, our project manager and her team have become an extension of my admissions staff and have been with us every step of the way. They understand admissions and recruitment and I can’t imagine not working with them.”

Melanie Casciato

Director of Student Recruitment

Columbia Basin College

“After a comprehensive vetting process including well-known CRM vendors, we selected Fireworks because of its ability to customize to the needs of a community college. Thanks to Fireworks we’ve been able to automate our communication flow, which historically has not been possible.”

Teri Clawson

Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management

Snow College

“By far, Fire Engine RED has been the most responsive team I’ve ever worked with. Even after our implementation they are willing to work with us to find solutions to our needs and help us through the process.”

Maynard Schmidt

Director of Admissions & Recruitment

SUNY Orange

“The event management system is very easy to use and extremely student friendly. Our ability to automate our messaging and utilizing the text messaging feature has allowed our institution to engage with our students in a more meaningful way. The reporting tools are easy to use and will really allow the institution to make data related decisions.”

Rachel Wade

CRM/Admissions Processing Manager

Snow College

“The implementation process was by far easier than other CRM implementation processes. The implementation team was truly great. We had the same implementation team throughout the process and the team was very knowledgeable and responsive.”

Jeremy Gibbons

Director of Admissions

Cape Fear Community College

“During our CRM search, we focused on three key items: communication tools, reporting features, and finding a CRM that was intuitive. Fireworks delivered on all three.”

Jessie Bradley

Director of Marketing & Student Recruitment

The Medical University of South Carolina

“Having a CRM for our recruitment efforts has been a real gamechanger! Not only are we able to automate processes so our recruiters can be out recruiting, but we now have reporting capabilities to help us focus our efforts where they have the most impact. The Fire Engine RED team has been great to work with – always responsive, open to suggestions, and they’re also just nice people!”

Rachel Wade

CRM/Admissions Processing Manager

Snow College

“Fire Engine RED’s customer service during and after the implementation of Fireworks has been outstanding! We couldn’t ask for a better team to work with through the whole process.”

Melissa Rodriguez

Director of Outreach

Walla Walla Community College

“We chose Fireworks CRM because it was informed by the needs of the higher ed environment and because of the company’s reputation for offering the most responsive customer service. We have not been disappointed! Our implementation team is accessible, friendly, knowledgeable and beyond supportive. With so much going on, it is awesome to be able to count on the Fire Engine RED team!”

Brandon Dewease

Director of Student Engagement

Meridian Community College

“Fireworks CRM was recommended to us and has a lot of the tools we were looking for to help with recruitment. Each of the features were individually powerful and the fact that they were all in one platform sealed the deal for us. The staff has also been beyond gracious, often going the extra mile to ensure that the platform is implemented in a way that allows us to meet our institutional goals.”

Jordan Holladay, Ph.D.

Director of Enrollment Management and Recruiting

Southern Union State Community College

“Fire Engine RED provided tremendous customer service before, during, and after the implementation process. I know that I can reach out to them and expect to hear back quickly with an answer! As a client, I could not have asked for better people to work with throughout this process.”

Joe Beaty

Senior Enrollment Specialist

Coastal Alabama Community College

“We chose Fireworks because of its affordability and the many features that came with it. Implementation was quick and painless. The team was really helpful and actually had us up and running in about 2 ½ months.”

Chris Beiswanger

Director of Admissions

University of Colorado – Colorado Springs

“There were many reasons we chose Fireworks … initially it was that Fireworks was built from the ground up for admissions and not retro-fitted from another tech arena … it ‘spoke our language.’ From there, it came to the ease of use. [And] cost – it was and is a tremendous value. We see a long future with this product and company.”

Clients

Resources

If you’re about to dive into the CRM selection process, these invaluable resources will save you countless hours.

Fireworks CRM: Features & Functionality Fact Sheet

A list of the features and functionality included in Fireworks.

List of Community College CRM Requirements

The critical questions to ask.

21 Crucial Questions to Include in Your CRM RFP

The 21 questions you simply should ask, and the reasons why it’s imperative that you ask them.