Business Unit: Information Technology Services
UPDATED: Nov. 28, 2022
Northeastern’s Salesforce platform is transitioning to the Educational Data Architecture (EDA) account model, an out-of-the-box solution that will present fewer limitations and provide an enhanced user experience. Concurrently, the university is upgrading to the Lightning user experience, a modern interface that enables data access and task completion in a single view.
Because of its magnitude and complexity, digital transformation requires more-sophisticated and deliberate governance and change management structures to be successful both during the transformation itself and in the emerging post-project steady state.
To prepare for the implementation of a customer relationship management (CRM) platform and toolkit based on the Salesforce ecosystem, Northeastern has created an institutional strategy, steering committee, and road map for Salesforce EDA. Once deployed, the EDA environment will encourage, administer, and maintain engaging relationships that inform personalized, high-value constituent experiences.
As a result of these efforts, which will help lay the foundation for future work, projects, and enhancements, Northeastern will possess a more unified vision for its CRM and a framework for analysis and discussion. In turn, the university will be able to focus its resources on projects with the greatest value to the institution, its stakeholders, and its customers.
Status Updates—Digital Transformation
- User evaluation sessions have been completed, and requirements have been successfully captured for the Disability Resource Center (DRC), College of Professional Studies (CPS) faculty hiring, Global Experience Office (GEO), and PreMed/PreHealth.
- Data migration is underway and nearing completion.
- Development, testing, and integration support are underway.
Status Updates—Governance
- Ongoing work is closely aligned with the project’s implementation partner, Salesforce.
- Northeastern staff members continue to submit Salesforce business cases, which are then reviewed and forwarded for approval by the EDA steering committee.
- Business case scoring and change management processes have been presented and agreed upon for current and future projects.
Timeline
PHASE 1: Salesforce Governance Playbooks
- Delivery date: May 31, 2021
PHASE 2:
Building CRM Digital Transformation for the following user groups:
- Group 1: Disability Resource Center (DRC), PreMed/PreHealth, Global Experience Office (GEO).
- Group 2: Corporate Partnership Networks (CPN), We Care, Student-Athlete Support Services (SASS).
Tracks
- Progressive transition of user groups from current Salesforce installation to EDA platform.
- Transparent governance to develop a standard, rules-based method to request, review, prioritize, and implement new functionalities per submitted business cases.
- Organizational change management to ensure that users receive consistent communications, knowledge, and training during migration and implementation.
Salesforce HEDA: Higher Education Data Architecture
From Salesforce.org
Introduction to Salesforce Lightning
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