Data Management and Education Tech

At Bitwise Industries, part of our mission is to extend accessible technology training to students of all ages to expose more populations of people to opportunities in technology. Today, over 5,000 students have passed through our halls and taken our classes to garner meaningful employment in the technology workforce. 

Five thousand students is not a small number; imagine the online platforms and data processing tools that have to be in place to properly manage, secure, register, contact, and analyze our student data to continue improving our Workforce program. For this Herculean effort of managing the data in our Workforce Training division, we turned to Salesforce as our chosen CRM, as many educational institutions have before us.

Before Salesforce

Prior to implementing Salesforce, our Workforce Training organization was developed using a technology stack that wasn’t as streamlined, intuitive, or automated—but was ideal for us when we began back in 2013. As our classes and enrollment increased over time, our former tools were not as scalable or customizable as our current org within Salesforce. 

Additionally, any marketing tools used to communicate with our existing or prospective students about upcoming courses or registration timelines were compiled and completed on platforms outside of our tech stack, so the two disparate systems didn’t communicate or reconcile without manual data input. 

And of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the importance of having the appropriate digital tools in place to process, track, and secure registration payments from our students. Our previous system strictly used a point-of-sale platform that didn’t connect or communicate with our other systems. This has all changed with the implementation of Salesforce into our org.

The Salesforce Clouds Parted

Integrating Salesforce within our organization created an entirely new, cloud-based digital experience for our Workforce Training division. When students register for courses through our website, they’re registering via a custom-built VisualForce page, which securely processes their transaction through a Stripe integration. The information captured during registration gets securely processed and stored in the secure Salesforce CRM that gives our leadership and our instructors visibility into enrollment numbers, advising, course progress, attendance, and of course, potential matriculation into our apprenticeship program. 

Through integrations with Pardot, communicating with our current and prospective students with custom-built drip campaigns has become automated, simplified, and manageable. Additionally, our instructors are able to generate and circulate digital surveys for our students who have completed courses, so we can garner feedback to help us keep improving our curriculum and the student experience. 

Reporting has also never been easier. This capability has allowed us to garner greater visibility into total enrollment, attendance, engagement, apprenticeships and feedback—all of which helps us manage our organization better, improve our curriculum, help our students succeed, and allow us to keep furthering our mission of providing accessible and affordable technology courses. Truly, Salesforce allows us to meet the evolving needs of our entire Workforce Training community. 

The Education Cloud

For various schools and departments, Salesforce provides an intuitive, easy-to-use tool that can help campuses go from siloed data to actionable insights with dedicated solutions across the entire educational journey. 

With education technology solutions for recruitment and admissions, student experience, advancement, alumni engagement, and institution operations, your campus can come together to create personalized experiences at scale using one integrated CRM for higher education.

By integrating Salesforce into your org, there’s no need to purchase hardware, perform routine maintenance and upgrades, or manage hosting. While some universities may be intimidated by the effort required to switch from existing systems to a cloud-based CRM software application, in reality it’s often not as hard as it looks. After committing to a CRM solution, the key is working to make the transition as seamless as possible.

Get in the Clouds

At Bitwise Technology Consulting, we use a consultative approach to help you determine the best strategy to identify your Salesforce challenges, implement appropriate solutions, and enhance your systems. If you’re a business owner or CTO looking to create a connected learner experience with a cloud-based solution, we’d love to help. Schedule a chat with us using this link: Let’s Talk.

This post was written by Celeste A. Barron, Content Development Manager for Bitwise Industries. You’ll find her trying to use the word ‘yeet’ in a sentence daily.

If you’re interested in uncovering the tech possibilities available to your organization or want to find more ways to increase your ROI with technology, click this link to schedule some time with one of our experts.