ElevateActual

Insights

What We Learn Delivering Salesforce in Higher Education

Guides, articles, and migration playbooks written by the people doing the work. Dated, bylined, and updated when the platform changes.

Guides

Start With the Long Reads

The pages we send to a committee before a first call.

Agentforce

Agentforce for Higher Education: What Is Available, What It Needs, and Where to Start

What Salesforce Help lists for Agentforce for Education as of October 2026, what the add-on license requires, what each agent needs first, and where to start.

Education Cloud

Implementing Salesforce Education Cloud: 15 Questions, Answered

Education Cloud implementation timelines by scope, what replaced EDA, the Data Migration Kit, SIS integration, FERPA, staffing, UAT, and what to decide first.

Commerce

Salesforce Commerce for Higher Education: 20 Questions, Answered

Direct answers on selling courses, certificates, and gifts on a Salesforce storefront: payments, TouchNet and CashNet, tax, refunds, cost drivers, timelines.

Education Cloud

Salesforce Higher Education Glossary

Plain definitions of 61 Salesforce higher education terms: EDA, Education Cloud, Course Offering Participant, Commerce on Core, subagents, and Workforce Pell.

Commerce

Salesforce Commerce for Higher Education: How Universities Sell Courses Online

How universities sell courses, certificates, and gifts on Salesforce Commerce: Commerce on Core vs B2C, the Education Cloud record chain, and payments.

Education Cloud

Salesforce for Higher Education: Clouds, Modules, Data Model, and Buying Well

What Salesforce Education Cloud is, its five modules, where Commerce fits, EDA vs Education Cloud, timelines by scope, Agentforce, and what to ask a partner.

Colorado

A Salesforce Partner in Denver for Colorado Higher Education and Public Sector

A Denver-based Salesforce Select Partner with Education Cloud accreditation for Colorado colleges and public agencies, available through Carahsoft and SIPA.

Articles

Written by the People Doing the Work

Dated, bylined, and updated when the platform changes.

Agentforce

Agentforce Subagents a Continuing Education Unit Can Actually Use

Which Agentforce for Education agents fit a continuing education storefront: course search, balances, advising, aid, and staff, with the data each needs.

Commerce

Can Salesforce Commerce Sell University Courses and Certificates? Yes.

Yes. A Course Offering becomes a product, term and modality become variation attributes, and checkout creates the Course Offering Participant enrollment.

Career Services

Career Services on Education Cloud: Where Salesforce Fits Next to Handshake

Salesforce does not run the student job board. On Education Cloud it holds coaching, employer relations, internships, outcomes, and mentoring, beside Handshake.

Education Cloud

Data Migration Into Education Cloud: A Checklist From Our Cutovers

A step-by-step checklist for moving admissions and enrollment data into Salesforce Education Cloud, with the mistake each step prevents and who signs off on it.

Education Cloud

Education Cloud Data Model for Continuing Education, Program to Participant

How Education Cloud models continuing education, from Learning Program to Course Offering Participant, and how a Salesforce storefront maps onto those objects.

Flow

Flow First: How We Automate Enrollment From Checkout Without Writing Apex

How a storefront order becomes an Education Cloud enrollment through a record-triggered Flow and Platform Events, where Apex is required, and go-live traps.

Timelines

How Long Does an Education Cloud Implementation Take? Timelines by Scope

How long an Education Cloud implementation takes by scope: about two months for an accelerator, three to four for a storefront, nine to ten for admissions.

Education Cloud

Moving From EDA to Education Cloud Without a Data Freeze

How to move from Salesforce EDA to Education Cloud with delta loads instead of a long freeze: object mapping, the Data Migration Kit, usernames, and cutover.

Advancement

Nonprofit Cloud vs Education Cloud for University Advancement

Both carry the same Fundraising objects. The choice turns on whether advancement shares an org with admissions and students or runs as a separate foundation.

Advancement

Online Giving on Salesforce Commerce: Any-Amount Gifts and Giving Day Load

How a university giving storefront on Salesforce Commerce models designations, any-amount gifts, pledges, and receipts, and how we tested giving-day load.

Community Colleges

Salesforce for Community Colleges: Noncredit, Workforce, and Procurement

How a community college runs noncredit and workforce programs on a Salesforce storefront with Education Cloud, phased to stay below the procurement threshold.

SIS Integration

Salesforce SIS Integration Patterns: Banner, Colleague, Jenzabar, PeopleSoft

How Salesforce integrates with Banner, Colleague, Jenzabar, PeopleSoft, and Canvas: the SIS stays system of record, supported APIs only, what flows each way.

Architecture

Standard Objects First: What We Refuse to Customize in Education Cloud

Why ElevateActual builds on standard Education Cloud objects and allows custom ones only with a written reason: upgrades, Agentforce, admins, and migration.

Student Success

Student Success on Education Cloud: Care Plans, Alerts, and Who Acts on Them

Student success on standard Education Cloud: care plans, action plans, record alerts, success teams, watchlists, and pulse checks, and who acts on each signal.

Commerce

Taking Payments on a Salesforce Storefront: Stripe, CashNet, and TouchNet

The campus processor stays; the storefront, order, and receipt move to Salesforce. Salesforce Payments with Stripe, CashNet eMarket, and TouchNet uPay compared.

Commerce

Tax, Refunds, and Receipts: The Unglamorous Parts of a University Storefront

Exempt courses still need a tax setup, refunds must update the order, and receipts count against a daily email cap. Where each setting lives and who decides it.

Commerce

UAT and Go-Live for a University Storefront: The Checklist We Run

UAT and launch checklist for a Salesforce university storefront: persona scripts, signed acceptance, production rebuild, real-card hot test, and launch roster.

Accessibility

WCAG 2.2 AA for a University Storefront on Salesforce LWR: A Working Checklist

What Salesforce covers and what the institution configures for WCAG 2.2 AA on an LWR storefront: contrast, alt text, heading order, focus, keyboard checkout.

RFP

What a University RFP Committee Should Ask a Salesforce Partner

Ten questions a university RFP committee should ask any Salesforce partner, what a good answer sounds like, and the warning signs of a troubled project.

Admissions

What an Applicant Portal Looks Like on Standard Education Cloud

The objects, screens, and rules behind an applicant portal on standard Education Cloud: Individual Application, timelines, decisions, action plans, and cases.

Commerce

What Drives the Cost of a Salesforce Storefront for Continuing Education

Four things set the cost of a Salesforce storefront for continuing education: licenses, payment processing, the build, and running it. What makes each larger.

Migration guides

Moving From a Legacy Platform

Platform by platform: what moves, what stays, and when not to move.

All Migration Guides

Coming spring 2027

State of Noncredit Commerce

The first public benchmark of how continuing education is sold online: registration platforms, catalog sizes, checkout features, and pricing across hundreds of institutions.

Ask for the Report

ElevateActual Research

State of Noncredit Commerce 2027

Have a Question We Have Not Written Up?

Send it to partners@elevateactual.com. If it comes up twice, it becomes an article.