At the Salesforce Higher Ed Summit last month, buzzworthy conversations revolved around implementation best practices, workshops focused on Salesforce roadmapping and data model design, while new functionality by Salesforce-based product companies basked in the limelight.

Blatantly missing, however, were conversations around post-implementation activities: “I’ve gone live with Salesforce — now what?”

In my experience, Higher Ed customers spend a large amount of their time, energy and budget on critical implementation activities, as many institutions deploy Salesforce to solve an immediate and critical gap in their constituent lifecycle operations. Yet less attention is spent on what they need to achieve long-term success with Salesforce. How can institutions derive ongoing value from their Salesforce investment? 

To ensure long term success, Higher Ed institutions need to focus and align core strategy around three critical areas:

1. Commit to training and driving adoption.
   If end users don’t ultimately use the platform, then all of the time, energy, and money spent implementing Salesforce is futile. Many institutions focus on training their end users on the functionality of the newly implemented Salesforce org, but in reality, training is only half the story. User adoption is integral to the success of any Salesforce investment, so it’s essential to put in place a strategic plan to drive adoption.
2. Make continuous innovation a priority in your institution.
   Salesforce is a powerful tool. Satisfy cravings for additional tools, applications, and feature sets to keep your Salesforce platform current, relevant, and robust. A plan for innovation must be in place — otherwise, your Salesforce instance will become stagnant and one-dimensional, becoming a discrete application rather than an enterprise solution.
3. Build release management cadence.
   Like any other technology application, Salesforce innovation requires a release management protocol to effectively deploy short-term and long-term updates to end users. This can get increasingly more complex as the number of users grows across multiple stakeholder groups. Building and communicating a release cadence to all stakeholders is critical to the long term success of your Salesforce investment.

If colleges and universities approach their post-go-live environment with the same fervor and attention they spend on pre-implementation activities, they will derive ongoing value over the long run. Looking to get long-term value from your Salesforce investment? Get in touch with our managed services experts to establish an innovation cadence in your institution.