If you were present for Dean Stam’s State of the School, then you’ll remember his remarks about Batten’s IT department heading to San Francisco this month to discuss the cutting-edge technology that we all know here at Batten as Salesforce. And if you’re a student here, then you’re probably familiar with Salesforce—the dreamy technology that helps you bypass countless emails, curates clean organized student bios for your faculty while keeping things moving without the usual communication kinks one occasionally encounters. Yesterday, Salesforce.org, the philanthropic arm of Salesforce, announced advancements to the Salesforce.org Education Cloud platform. Specifically, Salesforce Advisor Link 2.0, innovations with alumni and donor relationships, new Higher Education Data Architecture (HEDA) capabilities and expanding Education Cloud for K-12 will transform the student journey and connect the entire education lifecycle. This is huge. Today, higher education institutions aren’t only serving students who are on traditional pathways. Student demographics are shifting, with three-quarters of students classified as “non-traditional”1, such as adult learners, part-time students, primary caregivers and those lacking a traditional high school diploma. Higher education institutions are also preparing students for the future workforce – 65% of students entering primary school today will ultimately work in jobs that don’t yet exist2. Salesforce.org’s Education Cloud is reimagining the student experience by providing innovative tools for educational institutions to focus on student success and giving every student the foundation to drive their own success and prepare for the jobs of tomorrow. “Since its founding, Salesforce.org has been dedicated to listening to customers and understanding the greatest challenges of the education space,” said Rob Acker, CEO, Salesforce.org. “With the newest innovations under Education Cloud, institutions can have a complete view of each student and improve their outcomes across the entire educational journey.” Last year, Salesforce.org introduced Salesforce Advisor Link (SAL), focusing on streamlining advising operations and providing a unified record of every student. With SAL, advisors can easily engage with students individually or in groups and identify and address their specific needs. Announced today, Salesforce Advisor Link 2.0 adds new tools for personalized engagement and proactive outreach. Now, advisors can put every student on a pathway to success, and with Einstein, Salesforce’s AI, advisors can glean the insights they need to make more informed decisions.  On Advisor link, our very own Director of IT, Scott Adams said, “Salesforce Advisor Link has been a trusted tool for our advisors and we’re looking forward to implementing the new features of SAL 2.0,” He went on to put out the perks of the technology. “Before, we were drowning in small tasks and chores like sending spreadsheets back and forth, and now we have a unified record for the student that shows all of their information and all of our past interactions. Now it’s really easy for any advisor to understand who the student is and what the next steps are.” Today, higher education institutions are finding that they must evolve the way they engage with alumni to meet evolving constituent expectations and connect with a new generation of donors. Creating and maintaining high-value relationships are challenged by disconnected business processes, data silos and missing or inaccurate data. New Education Cloud advancement features enable institutions to connect with their global network of constituents intelligently and effectively to build lifelong, trusted relationships and donations that will provide the resources needed to help students succeed. Everyone who wants to change the world should have the tools and technology to do so. Technology is the most powerful equalizer of our time, providing access to data, knowledge, and–above all–connections. Salesforce.org gets technology in the hands of nonprofits, education institutions, and philanthropic organizations so they can connect with others and do more good. As a social enterprise, the more missions the technology supports, the more the company invests back into technology and communities, creating an endless circle of good.

A segment of this article originally appeared in PR Newswire. For the full article see here.