Blog
March 17, 2025
Attain Partners’ Takeaways from Education Summit
In the opening keynote for this year’s Salesforce Education Summit, Education Cloud GM Kelly Kitchen referred to this as the “lucky 13th” installment of the annual event, and if fortune does indeed favor the bold, the Salesforce higher ed community has a bright future ahead.
Higher Education Executive in Residence Jason Belland shares key takeaways from Education Summit 2025
With innovation in SIS, AI, and Data Strategy, and across the student experience—Salesforce trailblazers are making the kinds of paradigm shifts that are needed to support learners who are looking to higher ed as their pathway toward social mobility and a more equitable future.
Here are five key takeaways from Education Summit 2025.
Salesforce SIS redefines and reenergizes the category
Margo Martinez and the Salesforce Education Cloud product team have done incredible work building out SIS components on the platform and there is a palpable energy in the Salesforce higher ed community about leveraging this new technology to not just create the next monolithic Student Information System, but to completely reimagine the category.
This innovative, modular approach further blurs the lines between traditional SIS and CRM definitions to create a unified information system that is agile and real-time adaptive to the dynamic higher ed marketplace. This has real applications today for non-degree and continuing education programs, as well as for smaller institutions looking to accelerate growth through a differentiated approach to engagement and learning matched with technology that supports their vision.
The Education Cloud team also provided guidance as institutions evaluate how to integrate their existing SIS, CRM, and ERP platforms into a unified cloud-driven ecosystem.
It’s OK to play with AI
In the opening keynote, Dr. Melik Peter Khoury, president of Unity Environmental University, shared his institution’s inspirational vision for Agentforce, helping his team focus on impactful work while agents do everything else.
This project is doubling down on the human aspects of the university experience and the power of human connection in keeping students engaged and feeling like they belong. Dr. Khoury also encouraged play and experimentation with AI, a very popular theme present throughout many sessions at this year’s Education Summit.
It is clear that conversational AI agents are gaining significant traction with support from Data Cloud to pull in various data sources from across the university. This was demonstrated in sessions with institutions actively exploring the use of AI to automate student summaries across systems including SIS, LMS, CRM, and others to streamline advising and equip staff with clear, data-driven, and actionable insights.
None of us have the final answer in this emerging technology but thoughtful and structured “play” will help all of us continue advancing the conversation and learning from one another as we all seek to drive efficiencies on campus and unlock the power of faculty, staff, and learners.
Institutions are working to improve data governance and advisory
The growing emphasis on data governance and advisory in higher education was evident in sessions and discussions at this year’s Education Summit. Institutions recognize the critical need to establish clear data ownership, quality, and compliance frameworks to ensure reliable and actionable insights. As a result, demand for data advisory services is rising, with universities seeking guidance on defining data ownership roles and determining who can update and maintain data across various systems.
Another major discussion at Summit centered on the challenge of modernizing data strategies while balancing legacy systems with cloud centralization—a shift that many institutions are navigating with platforms like Salesforce, Workday, and Snowflake. Universities are increasingly strategizing around data publishing and accessibility, asking important questions about when and how to share data with internal departments and external organizations while maintaining transparency and compliance.
Quality student experience requires a more thoughtful approach
Institutions are actively taking a step back before they jump into transformation projects to approach it more thoughtfully and avoid the past tendency to “lift and shift.” This represents real maturity in the market and it’s encouraging to hear staff from all corners of the university recognizing that a different approach is needed and requires shift in how they think about the student lifecycle.
Whereas in years past we may have seen stories of excellence in one-stop, admissions, or advising, we are not increasingly seeing universities take a broader view that starts with strategic planning and design thinking before any scoping is done or code is written. This is how real change will happen—unburdened by technologies and structures of the past but inspired by our institutional core values that have and will continue to persist through challenging times toward a brighter future.
This end-to-end approach to the student lifecycle is strengthened by Salesforce advancements in Education Cloud for recruiting and admissions to streamline enrollment processes, enhance recruitment strategies, and achieve rapid ROI with a tightly integrated application experience guided by the autonomous Recruitment Agent. Additionally, the new Campus/Program Finder also looks to improve student experience with a streamlined preview, submission process, and eSignatures.
Big improvements are ahead for institutions using Salesforce for Student Experience
Education Summit always serves as a gathering of the brightest minds and best technology in higher education and this year was no different. Conversations around AI, data, and CRM continue to refine institution systems and create an even better student experience.
The Attain Partners team had the opportunity to showcase two incredible case studies in sessions with our clients at Boston University and University of Texas Dallas, host a party celebrating our 20 years of partnership with Salesforce, and put on an engaging breakfast panel with several clients, including Marshall University. It was inspiring to hear these institutions of various sizes and with differing resources share how they are all finding ways to create digital transformation within their schools.
Jodie Pendrod, CIO of Marshall University, candidly shared that digital transformation often falls to the bottom of her list given other pressing issues, but she makes key investments of time and resources to continuously move change forward.
Courtney Brecheen, Interim Dean and Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education at UT Dallas shared that by championing the project across her institution, they were able to hire 10 FTEs to support their Salesforce transformation and accelerate progress. It illustrated the point that no matter where you are in your change journey, taking one step at a time can yield powerful results.
And, in another reference to “play” as heard in the keynote, Tim Cerato, Assistant Vice President, CRM, ERP, CRM & Integration at Boston University recommended that all the attendees of our breakfast panel start using AI in their daily lives to inspire ideas that could become enterprise-grade Agentforce deployments. This is a simple yet powerful idea to test AI in everyday life to become better acquainted with the technology and imagine possibilities for the future of business and student engagement.
Continue the conversation with us on April 2 during a live virtual discussion with UT Dallas
We return to our important work with renewed vigor and excitement for what’s ahead for our clients and the communities they serve. Want to continue the conversation? Join us for a live, virtual discussion with UT Dallas on April 2, at 1p ET. UT Dallas will share how they are transforming the student experience with Education Cloud, including their thoughtful strategic planning process and approach to their enterprise-wide digital transformation journey.
About the Author
Jason Belland serves as Higher Education Executive in Residence at Attain Partners, committed to serving the industry with a focus on envisioning outcome-driven solutions that care for the student journey over a lifetime of learning. Jason has spent over two decades working at public and private higher education institutions in roles ranging from online learning and instructional design to marketing and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), bringing together innovative ideas with new technologies to support student success.
In addition to his roles in higher education, Jason served an eight-year tenure at Salesforce, ascending to Vice President of Go-To-Market for Education Cloud, leading teams to create solutions that would empower colleges and universities to engage, retain, and support every learner over the course of a lifetime of learning. The products and solutions created under Jason’s tenure at Salesforce have been implemented by thousands of colleges and universities globally and set the foundation for today’s Salesforce Education Cloud. Jason received his bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature/Letters from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and holds an Executive Education Certificate in Business Excellence from Columbia Business School.
