Blog
May 29, 2026
Executive and continuing education programs continue expanding their role across higher education as institutions respond to workforce shifts, evolving learner expectations, and growing demand for lifelong learning.
During a recent discussion hosted by Attain Partners, leaders from Yale School of Management (SOM) shared perspectives on Yale SOM’s move to Salesforce Education Cloud and the broader institutional considerations shaping executive education technology strategy. The conversation explored architecture modernization, learner engagement, governance, operational alignment, and the growing importance of connected data environments as institutions evaluate future AI and automation initiatives.
Interested in hearing how Yale School of Management approached its move to Salesforce Education Cloud?
Watch our May 2026 discussion with Yale SOM leaders on architecture modernization, learner engagement, governance, and AI readiness.
What stood out throughout the discussion was that the conversation extended well beyond technology implementation. Yale SOM’s experience reflected many of the strategic and operational questions institutions across higher education are actively navigating.
Education Cloud Initiatives Are Increasingly Connected to Long-Term Strategy
One theme that emerged repeatedly throughout the discussion was that Education Cloud initiatives are rarely viewed as standalone platform migrations.
Institutions are increasingly evaluating how their underlying architecture supports long-term growth, operational flexibility, learner engagement, reporting, governance, and future innovation across the institution.
Yale SOM shared perspectives from its transition away from Education Data Architecture (EDA), including considerations around technical debt, integration complexity, and modernization planning. The conversation reflected broader interest across higher education in building technology environments capable of supporting evolving executive education, professional education, and lifelong learning models.
Many institutions have spent years building sophisticated Salesforce environments around legitimate operational needs. Those systems helped executive and continuing education teams move beyond spreadsheets, manage admissions and enrollment processes, support employer relationships, and create structure around programs that often operate differently from traditional academic units.
As executive education becomes more closely connected to broader institutional strategy, institutions are beginning to reassess whether their current systems and operating models can support a more connected and continuous view of learner engagement over time.
Executive Education Requires Technology That Supports Complex Learner Relationships
Executive education environments often involve a wide range of interconnected relationships across learners, employers, faculty, alumni, applications, payments, cohorts, and future learning opportunities.
The discussion explored how institutions are evaluating technology strategies that support this operational complexity while strengthening connections across the broader learner lifecycle.
Executive and continuing education programs are also becoming more closely connected to institutional engagement strategies spanning alumni relations, professional development, workforce partnerships, Advancement, and lifelong learning.
Institutions are increasingly thinking about learner relationships across a much longer horizon. A learner may engage with the same institution as a student, alum, executive education participant, certificate learner, employer-sponsored learner, or lifelong learning participant over many years.
This shift carries significant implications for technology and data strategy. Institutions need systems that support the operational demands of executive education while enabling a more connected learner experience across the institution.
The discussion also reinforced how learner expectations continue evolving toward experiences that are more connected, flexible, and personalized.
Modernization Depends on Governance and Shared Ownership
Yale SOM’s journey also reinforced the importance of governance, stakeholder alignment, and shared ownership between business and IT teams.
Executive and continuing education teams often need to move quickly as programs evolve, reporting requirements shift, and learner expectations change. At the same time, institutions must maintain governance, security, integration strategy, and long-term architectural discipline.
Participants discussed the importance of balancing architectural consistency with the agility needed by business teams as institutions continue modernizing systems and processes.
The conversation highlighted how modernization efforts are often most effective when institutions treat transformation as a shared responsibility between business and IT teams, rather than a sequential handoff between the two.
The session also emphasized that modernization initiatives frequently require coordination across technology, operations, institutional leadership, and functional stakeholders to support long-term success.
AI Readiness Starts with Connected and Governed Data
As institutions continue exploring enterprise AI and automation, connected and governed learner data is becoming increasingly important.
The discussion explored how fragmented data environments create operational and analytical challenges as AI capabilities continue expanding across higher education.
One observation from the session captured this challenge clearly: AI will not resolve fragmented data environments. It will surface and amplify the fragmentation that already exists.
For executive and continuing education teams, this challenge is especially important because these units often sit at the intersection of learners, employers, alumni, Advancement, faculty, and career services.
Participants also discussed the growing importance of data quality, integration, governance, and visibility across the learner lifecycle as institutions evaluate future AI use cases.
Continuing the Conversation
The themes discussed during the session reflect broader conversations taking place across continuing education, executive education, learner engagement, and higher education technology strategy. Questions surrounding learner engagement, modernization, governance, operational agility, and long-term adaptability continue shaping institutional planning across higher education.
As part of Attain Partners’ continued commitment to lifelong learning, continuing education, and executive education, Attain Partners and the Harvard University Division of Continuing Education are convening leaders for the Lifelong Learning Symposium on Thursday, June 25, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The one-day event will bring together technical and functional leaders to discuss Salesforce Education Cloud, AI use cases, EDA migration, learner experience design, operational strategy across the learner lifecycle, and approaches to modernization in budget-conscious environments.
Attain Partners – Specialists in Continuing Education and Learner Engagement Strategy
Attain Partners works with higher education institutions to support continuing education modernization, learner engagement strategy, Education Cloud planning, governance alignment, and operational transformation across the learner lifecycle. Our team works alongside institutional leaders to help align systems, processes, and data strategies with long-term institutional goals.
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.
