Blog
December 12, 2023
Education Cloud: What We’ve Learned to Date Session Highlights
Technology is pivotal in streamlining operations and enhancing constituent engagement in the ever-evolving education landscape. As a Salesforce Summit Partner and the 2022 Salesforce Consulting Partner of the Year – Education, Attain Partners brings extensive experience in harnessing Salesforce and its innovative solutions, such as Salesforce Education Cloud, to drive lasting positive impact.
Since its launch, Attain Partners has been at the forefront of harnessing Education Cloud. Collaborating closely with Salesforce, we have successfully implemented the new Cloud across numerous leading education institutions—most notably at NOLA Public Schools, where we spearheaded the first-ever K-12 implementation of Education Cloud.
If you missed our recent webinar, Education Cloud: What We’ve Learned to Date, hosted by Attain Partners’ Sean Speer, Higher Education Solution Engineer; Doug Barrow, Higher Education Market Lead, Salesforce Practice; and Jason Cook, Principal Salesforce Consultant, this blog post will break down the key topics and discoveries discussed.
Transition to Education Cloud: A Paradigm Shift
Transition to Education Cloud: The Evolution and Implications
One of the key aspects of our journey with Education Cloud is understanding the significance of this solution within the broader Salesforce ecosystem. Salesforce Education Cloud is no longer just a managed package, like EDA before it—it’s now a core Salesforce product. This transition is significant because it allows organizations to harness the full power of the innovation and development Salesforce is investing in its full suite of Industry Clouds.
Transition to Education Cloud: Features and Functionalities
No longer are the solutions for the social sector siloed; solutions are now built using Common Components—features and functionality that are used across multiple industries. This allows the social sector to take advantage of all the innovation happening in both the commercial sector and the social sector.
Transition to Education Cloud: Industry Cloud Alignment
Person Accounts: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The adoption of Person Accounts is a monumental change that brings Education Cloud in line with the other industry clouds. This allows Education Cloud to take advantage of all the Common Components available to every vertical. It also means better support for B to B (“Organization Management”) and B to C models (“Contact Management”).
Representing Constituents with Person Accounts
This shift aligns Education Cloud with the rest of the Salesforce platform, offering organizations the opportunity to capitalize on the ongoing innovation across different Salesforce Clouds, allowing for greater flexibility in what users represent in Salesforce.
Taking Advantage of Person Accounts
Person Accounts: The Good
Person Accounts: Alignment with Salesforce Industry Clouds
Aside from aligning Education Cloud with the rest of the Salesforce platform and other Industry Clouds, person accounts offer various additional benefits. For users who deal with a lot of relationships, there’s a new feature called Party Role, which essentially serves as a more customizable, enhanced version of the Relationship feature.
Person Accounts: New Feature – Party Role
Other improvements include:
- Enhanced address management with Contract Point Address
- Ad-hoc tagging of and defining data about constituents, and the ability to report on that with the introduction of Person Attributes
The Attain Partners team has been pleased by the learning curve—or its lack thereof. Overall, these features and improvements collectively contribute to smoother user experience.
Person Accounts: The Bad-ish and the Ugly
However, there are some complexities to consider. Be aware that potential user confusion can arise, particularly for frontline staff. The challenge of distinguishing between an Account field and a Contact field can also cause confusion, both for users and administrators.
Person Accounts: User Confusion – ‘Contact’ vs. ‘Account’
One notable challenge that can arise when disentangling the two lies in data migration. For IT and technical teams responsible for migrating data into Salesforce, the transition to Person Accounts will necessitate a thorough understanding of which fields are being accessed and modified.
Person Accounts: Complexities with Data Migration
Additionally, it’s important to note that Affiliations in Education Cloud are not yet reciprocal, and new nomenclature might require a bit of adjustment.
Workaround solutions may be required to tackle challenges and/or bugs not yet addressed by Salesforce. For example, to capture edge cases in cases of user error, we’ve found that building custom Flows is an effective workaround solution.
Person Accounts: Building Custom Flows to Capture Edge Cases
General Learnings and Salesforce’s Responsiveness
Our experience implementing Education Cloud has revealed some general learnings. As to be expected in a v.1 model, we have encountered occasional bugs, though these have not created any roadblocks.
Despite these challenges, we have been impressed by Salesforce’s responsiveness. They have actively addressed issues, listened to our feedback, and worked collaboratively to resolve them. While there have been a few rough edges to smooth out, the overall experience has been extremely positive.
General Learnings: Salesforce Responsiveness
The common component model has been especially impactful, as the built-out components being leveraged from other Industries are powerful and mature since they have already gone through their respective iterations.
General Learnings: Common Component Model
Q&A
Q: Should we migrate?
A: It depends!
Q: Are OmniStudio components available on Experience Cloud?
A: Absolutely.
Q: Can you have a Contact record and a Person Account for the same individual?
A: By default, a Person Account is both a Contact and a Person Account—they are kept in sync. You cannot have both and treat them as separate things; it is simultaneously a Contact and an Account. You can search for a Contact, and if that Contact happens to be a Person Account, when you click on them it will take you to the Person Account page for that Contact. There is effectively no difference.
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Paving the Way Forward: Driving Positive Change with Education Cloud
Our journey with Salesforce Education Cloud has been marked by significant changes and valuable insights. The transition to Person Accounts aligns Education Cloud with the broader Salesforce ecosystem, offering a myriad of benefits. While there are challenges, they are manageable, and Salesforce’s continued responsiveness to feedback ensures that Education Cloud continues to evolve and improve.
Attain Partners remains committed to driving positive change in education and nonprofits, and Education Cloud will continue to play a crucial role in that mission. We look forward to what the future holds!
Attain Partners – Salesforce Experts
No matter if your organization is beginning its Salesforce journey or 10+ years into development, Attain Partners is here to help you achieve your digital transformation goals.
To learn more, check out our Salesforce Innovation services, read case studies about our work, and explore blog posts from Attain Partners’ Salesforce team.
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