Universities move to Salesforce from three kinds of system: continuing education registration platforms, Salesforce managed packages that predate Education Cloud, and advancement CRMs. The method is the same for all three: discovery, mapping to standard objects, delta loads without a data freeze, a parallel period, and a production hot test. ElevateActual publishes a guide for each platform below.
What Are the Three Kinds of Move?
The word migration covers three different projects. The first job in discovery is deciding which one you are in.
Continuing Education Registration Systems to a Salesforce Storefront
Destiny One, CampusCE, Lumens, XenDirect, Ellucian Elevate, CourseStorm, and Canvas Catalog are registration systems. The move replaces them with Commerce on Core, ElevateActual's term for B2B and D2C Commerce built on the Salesforce Platform with an LWR Experience Cloud storefront, connected to Education Cloud learner records. Salesforce Commerce for higher education explains the storefront; continuing education on Salesforce explains the unit it serves. These moves carry the most data transformation, because the registration hierarchy maps to LearningProgram, CourseOffering, and CourseOfferingParticipant, and the processor, LMS, and SIS must be reconnected. The 2023 Modern Campus and UPCEA report across 140 institutions found 46 percent of continuing education units struggle to get real-time enrollment data.
Salesforce Managed Packages to Education Cloud
Enrollment Rx, TargetX, Admissions Connect, Student Success Hub, and EDA all run on the Salesforce platform, so the data already lives in Salesforce. The move is from a managed package's objects to Education Cloud's standard ones: Person Accounts, IndividualApplication, LearningProgram, AcademicTerm. Salesforce publishes a Data Migration Kit for EDA, Admissions Connect, and Student Success Hub data. EDA is the free managed package; Education Cloud is the paid product; as of October 2026 Salesforce has not announced a retirement of EDA. UNE Online replaced a Salesforce EDA plus Enrollment Rx storefront with Education Cloud and Commerce on Core; the UNE Online case study covers the storefront. Our EDA to Education Cloud article covers the no-freeze method.
Advancement Systems to Education Cloud Fundraising
Raiser's Edge NXT and its peers are advancement CRMs. Education Cloud now includes native Fundraising: gift entry, RFM scoring, and household naming on the same Person Account the student and the learner already use. The move covers constituents, gifts, pledges, soft credits, funds, appeals, and the giving storefront. Our Nonprofit Cloud versus Education Cloud article covers the landing-model decision.
Two pages in the list are not replacements. Slate is an admissions CRM an institution may keep while other functions go to Salesforce. Canvas Catalog sits in front of Canvas, and Canvas stays as the LMS.
Which Platform Guides Do We Publish?
Each guide follows the same outline and has a candid section on staying put.
| Platform | Kind of product | What changes most | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modern Campus Destiny One | Noncredit registration and student lifecycle system | Waitlists, CEU transcripts, instructor pay, and state reporting are rebuilt or left behind | Destiny One to Salesforce |
| CampusCE | Continuing education SIS and e-commerce platform | Registration plus surrounding CRM point tools become one platform | CampusCE to Salesforce |
| Modern Campus Lumens (Augusoft) | Noncredit class registration system | Employer and contract training moves onto Accounts | Lumens to Salesforce |
| Xenegrade XenDirect | Noncredit registration and event system | Classes and events share one cart and one learner record | XenDirect to Salesforce |
| Ellucian Elevate | Noncredit registration beside Banner or Colleague | The Ethos sync is replaced by a Salesforce-to-SIS integration | Ellucian Elevate to Salesforce |
| CourseStorm | Community and adult education registration | Most programs should stay; the rest gain a CRM-backed storefront | CourseStorm to Salesforce |
| Canvas Catalog | Storefront layer on the Canvas LMS | The storefront moves; Canvas stays and receives the enrollment | Canvas Catalog and Salesforce |
| Enrollment Rx | Admissions managed package on Salesforce | Package objects become IndividualApplication and standard Education Cloud | Enrollment Rx to Education Cloud |
| TargetX (Liaison) | Recruitment CRM managed package on Salesforce | Same org, standard data model; data continuity is the point | TargetX to Education Cloud |
| Admissions Connect and Student Success Hub | Salesforce.org managed packages | Salesforce's Data Migration Kit moves the data to Education Cloud objects | Admissions Connect and Student Success Hub to Education Cloud |
| Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT | Advancement CRM | Constituents, gifts, and pledges move to native Fundraising on one Person Account | Raiser's Edge to Salesforce |
| Slate (Technolutions) | Admissions CRM | Coexistence: Slate may stay while other functions move | Slate and Salesforce Education Cloud |
What Is the Shared Method?
The method does not change with the platform.
- Discovery. Structured sessions with the staff who use the system, finance, marketing, IT, and the registrar when the SIS is involved.
- Mapping to standard objects. A workshop that maps the old system's hierarchy to Education Cloud standard objects and, for storefronts, the Commerce product and price book. Custom objects need a written reason.
- Build on your own data. Storefronts are built on your programs, portals on your applications. Sample data hides the exceptions.
- Delta loads. History loads in waves while the old system keeps running. Each load picks up what changed since the last one, so there is no data freeze. Our data migration checklist covers the mechanics.
- Parallel period. The old system finishes its current cycle while Salesforce opens the next one. Staff work both for a defined window of weeks.
- Cutover. URLs redirect, the old system closes for new business, and a final delta runs.
- The production hot test. Your staff complete a real transaction in production, a purchase with a real card, an application, or a gift, confirm every downstream record, then reverse it. Nothing is live until that passes.
Timelines follow scope. Our fixed-scope accelerators go live in about two months when there is no history to load. A migration adds history and integrations and runs in months. The timeline by scope article gives the ranges, and the UAT and go-live article covers the hot test.
What Never Moves?
Three systems stay in every one of these projects.
- The campus payment processor. TouchNet and Transact CashNet stay. Salesforce integrates with them through a hosted checkout handoff with a signed request and a write-back to the order. It does not replace them. Salesforce Payments with Stripe is the other pattern where there is no processor requirement. The payments article covers both.
- The LMS. Canvas, Blackboard, D2L, and the rest keep teaching. Salesforce creates the enrollment and hands it to the LMS through the vendor's API.
- The SIS. Banner, Colleague, PeopleSoft, Workday, and Jenzabar remain the system of record. Salesforce integrates through supported APIs, never direct database writes. The SIS integration patterns article describes how.
None of the platforms in the table has an announced end date as of October 2026, and we do not say otherwise; the only retired product in this set is Salesforce's own Salesforce.org Elevate, a giving and payments product unrelated to ElevateActual and to Ellucian Elevate. The case for moving rests on where the institution wants the learner, the applicant, and the donor to live. Terms are defined in the glossary.
Questions We Hear
Do we have to stop registrations or applications during the migration?
No. History loads in waves while the old system keeps running, and each delta picks up what changed. The old system finishes its current cycle while Salesforce opens the next one, so the public never sees a gap. The one fixed moment is cutover, when the old system closes for new business and the final delta runs, scheduled for a quiet week.
Does Salesforce replace TouchNet or Transact CashNet?
No. The campus payment processor stays, and the storefront hands checkout to its hosted page with a signed request, then writes the result back to the order in Salesforce. The bursar's reconciliation does not change. Salesforce Payments with Stripe is the alternative where an institution has no processor requirement.
Is a managed package migration easier than a platform migration?
Usually. Enrollment Rx, TargetX, Admissions Connect, Student Success Hub, and EDA data already lives in Salesforce, so there is no new org, no new logins, and no new SIS connection. The work is mapping package objects to Education Cloud standard objects, rebuilding automation in Flow, and retiring the package. The hard part is deciding what custom work to leave behind.
How long does a migration take?
Longer than a fresh build. Our fixed-scope accelerators go live in about two months with no history. A migration adds history loads and the integrations you keep, so plan in months. The parallel period is a few weeks, and the production hot test happens the week before opening. Each platform guide says where its timeline tends to stretch.
What if the honest answer is to stay on our current platform?
Then we say so, and each guide has a section that does. A small program on CourseStorm, a campus standardizing on one Ellucian student record through Ethos, or a unit mid-contract with no Salesforce footprint should often stay. The move is right when the institution wants one record for the learner, the applicant, and the donor.
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