Blog
September 26, 2014
The Salesforce Foundation just introduced Salesforce1 for Higher Ed and Advancement Connect today. This is big news and I”ll tell you why.
Salesforce1 for Higher Ed sets out the Salesforce Foundation’s strategy to create a 21st century connected campus. It clearly identifies the areas where Salesforce can support increased engagement of key constituencies — all through a mobile-enabled cloud platform. Fabulous!
Advancement Connect is equally if not more exciting to me. With the introduction of Advancement Connect, the Salesforce Foundation is truly providing an enterprise solution that will serve Higher Ed institutions. Advancement Connect is a higher education-enhanced version of the currently released NGO Connect. Both are based on roundCause, a product designed and delivered by roundCorner.
What do I mean by that? Advancement Connect combines the right software in Salesforce to support your constituents and the many ways they interact with your institution (e.g., students, alumni, staff, corporate contacts, faculty). No longer are you locked into one way of looking at a single contact. Instead, you can build a relationship model that tells you the many stories of a particular constituent — as an alumni, a prospective student, a staff member — all in one place. It’s brilliant! And it doesn’t prevent other units, e.g., Admissions, from using Salesforce to meet their specific needs, leveraging a single instance of Salesforce.
And, Advancement Connect will truly transform the way you manage your advancement activities. Instead of thinking of an Advancement solution as simply a place to record advancement data, Advancement Connect allows you to unlock the power of your data, enable staff efficiencies, and, ultimately, increase your donations.
How does it do this? Because Advancement Connect is built natively on the Salesforce platform, you get a gift processing solution, innovative communication and marketing tools with the Salesforce Exact Target Marketing Cloud and AppExchange applications — all in a securely managed cloud solution which is, mobile accessible. And the best part, upgrades just happen. Say goodbye to the agony and expense of upgrades. Plus if we customize or configure your Advancement Connect solution, future Salesforce upgrades will not break it. Can you imagine? Awesome.
As you can tell, I’m very excited about both Salesforce1 for Higher Ed and Advancement Connect. Come talk to me about it at Educause. I’ll be in the Salesforce Booth #149 demo-ing an early version of Salesforce1 for Higher Ed and Advancement Connect on Tuesday, September 30 and Wednesday, October 1, from 1 – 3 EDT. Or come by our booth (#8) at Dreamforce (October 13-16) and I’ll bend your ear a bit then (and you know I can!)
