Let's learn how Utah
State University is
using Agent Force
Education to create a
truly connected digital
campus that directly
addresses today's
higher education
challenges. Carrie
Chow, joined by Rini
Eborn, Associate Vice
President of Digital
Transformation at
Utah State University.
Thanks so much for
joining us, Rini. Yeah,
thanks for having
me. I'd love to just
dive right into it
because I'd love to
know what are some of
the higher education
challenges that led
you to Salesforce?
Yes, absolutely. I
think from a business
perspective, I think
everyone realizes
that higher education
is very traditional.
You know, you see it
in the news and things
like that about how
higher education is not
meeting some of the
needs of the workforce.
And you think about
it from a traditional
perspective, we
celebrate our milestones
in medieval clothing.
Like we dress up in
like we're games of
throning it, right?
And so for higher
ed to actually
make this
transformation, it's
usually really hard
for them to do.
And at Utah State,
we had those same
challenges. We
had three or four
different challenges.
One is we wanted
to personalize the
learning experience,
and we weren't
able to do that.
We also had
challenges around, we
had inefficiencies.
We were riddled
with inefficiencies
around processes.
And additionally, third,
I think the biggest
challenge is our data,
right? Because we
want to move into
this AI world, and we
want to be able to do
those things. And in
order to do that, we
had some challenges.
And so we are looking
and partnering with
Salesforce and able
to help us meet those
challenges and meet
those needs that we're
trying to accomplish.
I love your example.
I don't think I've
ever heard of Game of
Thrones in it when it
came to the graduation
wardrobe. So I'm
keeping that for good.
There you go. But to
your point about these
institutions, I mean,
Utah State founded
in 1888. So how did
Salesforce enable you
to modernize those
services you're talking
about and meet those
student expectations?
And we're working on
it currently. Like as
we speak, I'm like,
we're really doing it
right now. So we are
higher education. There's
a lot of endpoint
solutions, right? We
have a lot of them, but
a lot of our technology,
our tech stack is
very old. It's like,
you know, we have, we
have old technology
stacks. And so we
realized it was time for
us to move to like a
modern, more platform
environment. And so
we started looking for
partners that are
doing it well. And, and
we looked at, you know,
the different business
verticals and we
realized we wanted to
be more like the Netflix
and the Amazons and
provide that experience
for our digital
learners because that's
what they're coming
to the institution with
those expectations.
started researching
different ways of doing
that. And Salesforce
was our choice just
because there's so much
flexibility in meeting
our needs. I love that
because the students
are expecting that. You
have to accommodate.
Was there an aha moment
when you realized
this investment will
pay off in the future
yes absolutely especially
being here at the
conference right we're
seeing all the things
that are happening in
the business vertical
and so we're trying to
like learn from that
so we can adopt that in
the education vertical
and i think the the
admission process the
marketing and the
admission process for
students often you apply
to a institution and
it takes a long time
to find out if you get
accepted right it's very
competitive sometimes
And so what we're our
aha moment is we're
trying to early on
from like marketing
communication to personalize
that experience and
to create an automated
experience where that
is much faster. Right.
So that they from
the moment they, you
know, hear they reach out
to us or we hear from
them, we can personalize
that experience and
we can get information
about them so we
can make that more
personalized. centralized
so we're seeing it right
now like we're already
like we've already
gone live with the
marketing piece and the
event management and
we are capturing data
that we've never
captured before and it's
fabulous and that's and
it's so relatable too
to your point about
because we've all been
there in that point of
when you're waiting to
hear back and and so to
get that and feedback
faster what a great
experience and truly
change game changing
uh speaking of changing
how How has it changed
the day-to-day experience
for your team and
Utah State students?
What we're hoping for
and what it's changing
is like, for example,
our admissions
counselors, right? We
like they usually it
takes them a long time
to get the information
from the student and
to evaluate it. And
by using Salesforce
platform, we're able
to speed up that
process faster. We were
able to redesign it
and think about it
differently so that
the students see like
progress bars of where
they are. like what they
need to do in order
to keep going to the
next step, to have
responses to them that
are immediate feedback
based on what they've
done. And we were
able to do that with
Salesforce. So that's
exciting because
we've never been able
to do that before in
this space. I love
that. That's incredible.
Thank you so much,
Rini, for all
your insights about
how Utah State
is using
Salesforce to truly
create their digital
transformation.
It's fascinating.
To learn more
about Agent Force
Education, scan
the QR code on your
screen or check
out sforce.co
slash education.
