Salesforce, a leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software, has recently announced the launch of the new Education Cloud with the Spring ’23 release. This cloud is designed to meet the evolving needs of universities and their constituents, providing access to foundational Salesforce technology that enables institutions to develop new solutions to better support broader use cases without needing specific managed packages. This shift from a solution-driven approach to a capability-driven approach creates more flexibility and scalability for universities in the long run.
Why the new education Cloud?
Uniformity through the clouds – The new Education Cloud, incorporates core Salesforce functionality.
This move positions the Education Cloud as a part of Salesforce industries, allowing for the same level of access to products that healthcare or financial services industries have had for years. As a result, educational institutions can now benefit from new products such as EinsteinGPT, Data Cloud, and Genie, which will be made available to them more expeditiously.
One biggest example encompassing this change is -> It does not leverage the Education Data Architecture (EDA), It leverages person accounts (like other industry clouds) with use cases for future persona support.
Data Model Change - Integration of learner-related objects, such as relationships and course connections, into the core of Salesforce.
This eliminates the need for a separate trigger model or package installation that differs from the standard Salesforce setup. Both Recruitment + Admissions and Student Success will no longer be product-based solutions, and their functionality will be integrated into the new Education Cloud. With this integration, users will have access to various Salesforce features (eg: Activity Timelines, Interest Tags etc.) that were previously un-available.
OmniStudio
OmniStudio is a digital automation tool that offers flexibility and doesn’t require coding. It enables users to create custom guided experiences in a declarative way, much like Flow. The tool also allows users to integrate data from both internal and external sources via REST API, all without writing any code. Its purpose is to facilitate digital transformation by providing institutions with the necessary tools to create a single source of truth for their data, enhance user experiences, and maintain agility and innovation.
The new Education Cloud, makes use of Omnistudio, a tool that allows for the creation of user interfaces with precise alignment of pixels. This results in a cohesive interface that combines both CRM and non-CRM data
Actionable Lists
Salesforce Actionable Lists are a feature within the Salesforce platform that allows users to create custom lists of records that require specific actions. With these, users can quickly identify and prioritize items that require attention. In addition to prioritizing tasks, Actionable Lists also allow users to take action directly from the list. Additionally, it includes Care Plans that support the creation of tasks for students, which can be shared in their portal.
In summary, The new Education Cloud marks a new era of relationship management in higher education. It provides institutions with the tools to enable
- improved collaboration,
- enhanced data management,
- personalized learning,
- greater accessibility and
- streamlined administrative process.
Whether you are an existing Salesforce customer or just starting to look at Salesforce, the new Education Cloud is placed to provide a capability-driven approach that creates more flexibility and scalability for the higher education industries in the long run.
