Launch New Learner Experiences in Weeks, Not Months, on the Salesforce Platform

Transform higher education with unified, extensible platforms that power every interaction from first click to lifelong engagement.

Higher education is shifting from one-time enrollment to lifelong learner relationships. To keep up, institutions need more than a student system and a website: they need a unified, extensible platform that can power every interaction, from first click to lifelong engagement.

That’s exactly what the Salesforce platform delivers.

Education Cloud is Salesforce’s industry cloud for education, a deeply unified CRM and next-gen SIS capability set built natively on the Salesforce platform. It brings prospects, applicants, students, faculty, staff, and alumni onto a single data foundation so institutions can deliver personalized experiences at scale while lowering total cost of ownership.

Commerce Cloud Growth and Advanced editions extend that same platform with modern, AI-powered commerce capabilities with catalogs, storefronts, carts, orders, and payments, all designed to launch quickly and scale with new revenue streams. These editions are optimized for B2C-style commerce journeys and come connected right out of the box, making it easy to plug into the broader Salesforce ecosystem.

Layer in Marketing Cloud to orchestrate individualized journeys across email, SMS, and web, and you have a single engagement layer for recruitment, yield, retention, and alumni giving, all powered by unified data and AI-driven next best actions.

Finally, Tableau Next, built on the Salesforce platform, represents the next generation of analytics, combining Tableau’s visual exploration with native Salesforce trust, governance, and performance. Institutions can move from fragmented reporting to proactive, deeper insight across the learner lifecycle, financial health, and program performance.

All of this lives on the core Salesforce platform. That means one security model, one upgrade path, one metadata-driven architecture, and an innovation roadmap that continues to accelerate with AI, automation, and Data 360 at the center.

Leveraging Commerce Cloud to Quickly Offer Non-Credit, Non-Degree, and Online For-Credit Offerings

Institutions are under pressure to stand up new offerings, fast:

Non-credit and professional education
Certificates and micro-credentials
Bootcamps and short courses
Fully online, for-credit programs
Employer-sponsored or B2B cohort offerings

ElevateActual uses Commerce Cloud Growth or Advanced as the digital “front door” for these programs, tightly integrated with Education Cloud and Marketing Cloud, all on Salesforce.

A Modern Catalog for Modern Learners

With Commerce Cloud on the Salesforce platform, your offerings are treated like products in a modern storefront:

Flexible product models – Represent courses, certificates, bundles, memberships, and subscriptions as configurable products in a catalog tailored for learners.
Dynamic pricing and discounts – Support promotional codes, employer pricing, partner discounts, and tiered pricing models without custom code.
Multiple storefronts – Growth and Advanced editions support multiple storefronts (e.g., continuing education, executive education, alumni learning) from a single platform, letting you serve different audiences with distinct branding and catalogs.

End-to-End, Connected Enrollment Journeys

Because Commerce Cloud, Education Cloud, and Marketing Cloud are all on the Salesforce platform, you get a truly connected enrollment journey:

Discover

Prospects find a course or program via a targeted campaign.
Marketing Cloud personalizes landing pages and messaging based on interests, prior engagement, and segment.

Decide & Enroll

Learners browse rich product pages (course descriptions, faculty bios, outcomes, schedule, prerequisites).
Commerce Cloud handles cart, checkout, payment, and order confirmation using a consumer-grade, modern experience.

Provision & Learn

Enrollment data flows into Education Cloud, linking the order to the learner’s CRM record, program of study, and success team.
Downstream integrations can trigger LMS provisioning and identity creation.

Engage & Retain

Marketing Cloud journeys send pre-course reminders, in-course nudges, and post-course surveys.
Advisors and program teams see real-time engagement and support history inside Education Cloud.

Analyze & Expand

Tableau Next brings together learner, commerce, and engagement data to surface which programs are growing, which cohorts are at risk, and where there is demand for new offerings.

A “Six-Week to Live” Approach

ElevateActual has refined an implementation playbook that gets institutions to a live, production storefront in as little as six weeks for non-credit, non-degree, or pilot online offerings. While timelines may vary by institution, our standard pattern looks like:

Weeks 1–2: Blueprint & Foundations

Confirm business objectives, target programs, and KPIs.
Stand up core Salesforce environments and provision Education Cloud and Commerce Cloud Growth/Advanced.
Define the data model and mapping between learner records, programs, orders, and payments.

Weeks 3–4: Configure & Integrate

Configure the initial storefront (branding, categories, product models, pricing).
Connect Education Cloud for learner profiles and program structures.
Set up key Marketing Cloud journeys for confirmation, reminders, and re-engagement.

Week 5: Test & Refine

Run end-to-end enrollment scenarios across target programs.
Optimize page flows, messaging, and checkout friction points.
Validate analytics pipelines into Tableau Next dashboards.

Week 6: Go-Live & Optimize

Launch an initial set of offerings to external audiences.
Monitor adoption and performance in Tableau Next, iterating content and journeys based on real-time insight.

This rapid-launch approach lets you validate demand, generate revenue, and prove value quickly while building on a foundation that can support full degree programs, lifelong learning initiatives, and enterprise-scale transformation.

How ElevateActual Is Uniquely Positioned

ElevateActual focuses exclusively on higher education and the Salesforce platform. That specialization matters when you’re working with emerging capabilities like the new Education Cloud, Commerce Cloud Growth/Advanced, and Tableau Next.

Proven, Live Implementations Today

ElevateActual already has:

Successful Salesforce-based storefronts live for non-credit and alternative credential offerings, transacting real enrollments and revenue on Commerce Cloud Growth/Advanced.
In-flight projects that combine Education Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Tableau into unified learner experience platforms—demonstrating that this is not just a roadmap vision, but a present-day reality for institutions.

Because our implementations are on the core Salesforce platform, institutions benefit immediately from Salesforce’s ongoing investments in AI, automation, and Data 360—without re-platforming down the road.

Cross-Cloud Architecture Built for Education

Our team designs for the full Salesforce stack from day one:

Education Cloud as the system of engagement for prospects, students, faculty, and alumni.
Commerce Cloud Growth/Advanced as the engine for course, program, and offering monetization—supporting individual learners, corporate partners, and alumni.
Marketing Cloud as the orchestrator of journeys—recruitment, onboarding, progression, and re-engagement—using rich segmentation, personalization, and automation.
Tableau Next and Tableau Cloud for analytics—turning Salesforce and external data into visual, actionable insights that institutional leaders can trust.

This architecture avoids the “bolt-on” trap. Instead of standing up a separate commerce site and gluing it to your CRM later, ElevateActual builds a single, coherent platform—ready for the next decade of innovation.

Aligned With the Future of the Salesforce Platform

Salesforce is continuously investing in:

Industry-specific capabilities through Education Cloud’s common capability model and extensible data foundation
Agentic AI and Einstein-driven capabilities across Education, Commerce, Marketing, and Analytics
Deeper integration between Data 360, Tableau, and the rest of the platform for real-time insight and action

Because ElevateActual builds on the core Salesforce platform, our clients are positioned to adopt these innovations as they arrive—rather than starting over with each new release. You get:

A roadmap that keeps pace with learner and market expectations
A foundation ready for AI-driven advising, predictive enrollment, and real-time intervention
A flexible platform that supports new programs, modalities, and partnership models as your strategy evolves

Implementation Expertise Tailored to Higher Education

Beyond technology, ElevateActual brings:

Higher-ed process expertise – We understand admissions, continuing education, online program management, advancement, and institutional governance.
Pre-built accelerators – Configurations, data models, and templates specifically tuned to non-credit and alternative credential storefronts, shortening time to value.
Change-management and enablement – Training and coaching for functional teams—enrollment, marketing, academic program owners—so your institution can own and extend the solution.

Ready to See What’s Possible in Six Weeks?

ElevateActual helps higher-education institutions harness the combined power of Education Cloud, Commerce Cloud Growth or Advanced, Marketing Cloud, and Tableau Next—all on the core Salesforce platform.

The result:

New non-credit, non-degree, and online offerings live in roughly six weeks
Unified learner journeys from first click through lifelong engagement
Data-driven decision-making with modern, AI-powered analytics
A platform architecture aligned with the future growth of Salesforce and of your institution

If you’re ready to launch new programs quickly, and build on a foundation that will carry your institution into the next era of digital learning, ElevateActual is ready to partner with you.

Published Nov 18, 2025