- Institution
- University of New England, UNE Online (College of Professional Studies)
- Programs
- Graduate public health and health professions
- Replaced
- Salesforce EDA with an Enrollment Rx storefront
- Built on
- Education Cloud and Commerce on Core
- System of record
- Banner, through supported Banner APIs
- Live
- August 2026, for fall enrollment
UNE Online, the College of Professional Studies at the University of New England, replaced a Salesforce EDA and Enrollment Rx storefront that had become the source of most of its support tickets. ElevateActual rebuilt the enrollment experience on standard Education Cloud and a Commerce on Core storefront, live for fall 2026 graduate health enrollment, with Banner kept as the system of record.
Who UNE Online Is
The University of New England is a private university in Maine. UNE Online is its College of Professional Studies, which runs online graduate programs in public health and the health professions. Those programs enroll working adults year-round, which means the storefront and the application experience are the front door, not a side channel.
UNE Online already ran Salesforce. The problem was the shape of it: a legacy org built on the Education Data Architecture (EDA) with Enrollment Rx providing the application and storefront layer. The university spoke about the project publicly at the Education Trailblazers Summit in June 2026, which is why we can name it here. Everything on this page comes from that public talk and the scope of the storefront work.
What They Had
By the university's own account, the enrollment platform had aged out from under the team. The storefront was fragile and needed constant intervention. Most of the support tickets the college handled came from the storefront not working. Applicants to graduate health programs were hitting friction at exactly the moment the college needed them to commit.
"It's bad for the college and worse for me."
UNE Online, Education Trailblazers Summit, June 2026, describing the old platform.
Two constraints shaped the project. First, Banner is the system of record and stays that way, so anything the storefront did had to land in Banner through supported Banner APIs rather than direct database writes. Second, the legacy org carried other contracts with hard end dates, so the storefront had to go live for fall enrollment while the broader migration continued behind it.
What We Built
We started with the data model rather than the screens. Legacy EDA objects were mapped to standard Education Cloud objects, and the storefront was built on Commerce on Core in the same org, so a purchase and an enrollment are the same event.
| Layer | What UNE Online runs now | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Learner record | Education Cloud Person Accounts, Learning Programs, Course Offerings | Standard objects, so the college's administrators can maintain it |
| Storefront | Commerce on Core on an LWR Experience Cloud site | Program catalog, product variations, cart, and checkout with two-factor sign-in |
| Checkout rules | Custom checkout for deposits and program-specific requirements | Built as storefront components; the order itself stays standard |
| Post-purchase automation | Flow creates enrollment records and rolls products forward by term | No Apex in the enrollment path |
| System of record | Banner, through supported Banner APIs | Never direct database writes |
| Delivery | Discovery, design review, UAT scripts and office hours, training, documentation | Design sign-off took one day once the plan was on the table |
"We got sign-off in 1 day."
UNE Online, Education Trailblazers Summit, June 2026.
The Design Decisions That Mattered
- Education Cloud first, storefront second. The storefront reads from the same Course Offering and pricing records the college maintains for everything else, so there is one catalog to keep current.
- Standard objects wherever one existed. Legacy custom objects were retired in favor of the Education Cloud learning model. This is the stance we take on every project, and it is why the college's own staff can run the system after we leave. See what we refuse to customize.
- The SIS stays the SIS. Salesforce holds the relationship, the application, and the purchase. Banner holds the official enrollment. The handoff uses supported APIs only, the pattern described in our SIS integration guide.
- Automation in Flow. Enrollment creation, product rollover, and notifications run in Flow so administrators can see and adjust them.
What Went Sideways
The hardest part was sequencing, not software. The legacy org carried other contracts with fixed end dates, which set a cutover calendar the project had to respect. The storefront had to open for fall enrollment while later phases continued in parallel, and the first weeks after launch included manual steps that the team retired one at a time as each automated handoff was confirmed. We plan for that now on every storefront: a short, explicit list of interim manual steps with an owner and a retirement date, rather than a promise that launch day is the end of the work.
What Changed for the College
The storefront went live in August 2026 for fall enrollment, with programs opened in phases so the team could watch each one. The college's enrollment experience now runs on current Salesforce products that receive three releases a year, instead of a managed package layered on an architecture Salesforce no longer develops.
"It's great for the college and even better for me."
UNE Online, Education Trailblazers Summit, June 2026, on the new platform.
We do not publish order counts or revenue for any client, and we do not attach outcome metrics to a named institution unless the institution has published them. If you want to hear how it is going, ask us for a reference call.
Questions We Hear
Was this a migration or a rebuild?
Both. The data moved from EDA objects to Education Cloud objects, which is a migration. The storefront and enrollment automation were rebuilt on Commerce on Core and Flow rather than ported, because the old storefront was the problem. Our guide to moving from Enrollment Rx to Education Cloud describes the general pattern.
Did UNE Online keep Banner?
Yes. Banner remains the system of record for enrollment. Salesforce integrates with it through supported Banner APIs. We do not write to SIS databases directly on any project.
How long did the storefront take?
Kickoff to go-live ran about six months, longer than our two-month Commerce Accelerator because the scope included the migration from EDA, custom checkout rules for deposits, and a fixed cutover calendar set by other contracts.
Can we talk to UNE Online?
Ask us. We arrange reference calls with clients whose projects resemble yours, and UNE Online has told its own story publicly at the Education Trailblazers Summit.
What would you do differently?
Publish the interim manual steps on day one. Every launch has a few, and naming them with an owner and a retirement date removes the anxiety around them.